Wordless Wednesday: Do I have to take a nap?!

Piper is 10 Months Old!

I can't believe how time has flown! Look at how big our girl is! Here's the best shots I could get in between the crawling, rolling, playing with sister, almost-fall-off-the-couch-moments...

Sweet smiles

I've fallen down and I can't get up (check out those thighs too!)

I just learned how to wave this week too!

Morgan made sure the bear was in the picture

Am I really 10 months old?!

This month Piper has mastered crawling, pulling up to her knees and waves Hi and Bye! The waving was a surprise. I had her in the bathroom the other day and she looked at herself in the mirror and started waving! I thought it was a fluke so I had David try it. She waved again! Then we just waved at her and said "Hi Piper!" and she waved right back! Good girl! We also painted her bedroom this weekend. It looks SO good! I'll post pictures soon.

Sleepy Baby

Piper was a busy girl on Thursday! She got up early with Daddy (about 6:30 am) and played and played. By the time breakfast was over she nodded off in her high chair!

I'm one of those Moms who wakes a sleeping baby (uh oh!). If she sleeps longer than an hour in the morning she doesn't sleep well in the afternoon. I did let her go an extra half hour this time since she seemed so tired. Here's our sweet pea waking up...

All snuggled up with her tush in the air

What was that noise?

Mama, what are you doing with that camera?

OK, maybe I'll try to give you a smile

Silly girl!

Look out, here she comes!

Almost there!

Ready to go!

Daddy's Special Day

A bit late in posting, but not forgotten. We had a really nice day on Sunday for Father's Day. David got to sleep in and woke up to his little girls bringing him breakfast in bed (with Mama's help, of course). Here are a few pictures of our leisurely morning (via iPhone). We call this series of photos "attack Daddy!" BTW - David is doing some ice and heat therapy for his back. That's a whole other story.

David got lots of rest that day, watched a little golf and hung out with his girls. He really deserved a day like this. David really is the best Dad to these girls. So many times I hear other Moms complain about how their husbands are not as involved with the kids as they would like. If he doesn't have work obligations, David likes to get up with them in the morning, he plays, tickles and even changes the messiest of diapers...and Piper is a challenge with this!! He comes to their doctor appointments and meets with therapists. We wants to be a part of all of it, good and difficult. They miss him when he is out of town for work and are so excited when he gets home.

I'm the luckiest wife too...who's husband cleans bathrooms?! Mine!! I'd say our responsibilities around the house are pretty even as well. David is also so dedicated to his work. He really challenges himself to succeed so he can take care of his family. All of his girls (including me) love him SO much!

A funny story from Father's Day...we went out to dinner that night to one of our favorite local spots, Max. We enjoyed some wonderful Huckleberry BBQ ribs and the girls behaved really well. Morgan got a special treat of a bowl of ice cream for desert and she ate the whole bowl all by herself!

Yum!

As I was putting Morgan in her car seat after we had left the restaurant, I glanced up at her. I saw a flash of something green in her nose...no, not a booger, it was BRIGHT green and round. She had shoved a pea up her nose!! Now, that would be funny...but the more incredible thing was that she did not have peas for dinner, she had them at lunch! She had napped and played earlier in the day with a pea stuck up her nose! I guess it didn't bother her. We tried to get a picture... Morgan was not cooperating...

First try. Whoops!

Second try, you can kind of see a shadow in the right nostril

After the extraction, here is the offending vegetable...

A fun day, including expected adventures with a toddler and a baby. Thanks David/Daddy for being the best Daddy/Husband ever!!

Testing Testing

By several people's request, Morgan has been in the process of some "re-testing" with her Early Intervention therapists the last few weeks. She has been in the program a little over six months, so she is due for a progress report. Here are a few of the details we have so far:

Receptive Language
Morgan tested appropriate for her age on this part of the language evaluation! The therapist also said the score can be used also in figuring IQ (which she has not been tested for) and it put her right in the average range. That great news! Next week she'll test her for "expressive language." I'll admit I'm a little nervous about this. Morgan knows a lot of words, but will she say them when put on the spot? We'll see...

Social and Emotional
She also tested age appropriate in this area as well! This is exactly what the therapist said, but then she said she tested a little behind in the social area, but not as far behind as she was before. I figure she tested ahead in some areas (letters, numbers, etc.) and that helped her average out. As far as the social area is concerned the therapist suggested we get her in a preschool setting at least three days a week. We won't know for a while whether Morgan qualifies for the School District developmental preschool, but if not we may need to find another "regular" school that will allow her to attend more often. The current school we have her registered for is only one day per week. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Children First Developmental Preschool (ages o-3)
Currently there is not any space in the Children First program we visited a few weeks ago. Their regular school year just ended so they will see if spaces open up during the summer and will let us know.

More on the School District preschool (to start at age three)...her therapists agree that she'll probably be the "model" student, possibly more advanced than many of the kids. If that is the case David and I may decide to forgo this school and put her in a "regular" school. We feel that we want Morgan to be challenged and she may not get that at the developmental school. We've also been advised of this by our friend/neighbor who is a pediatric nurse practitioner. We greatly value her opinion in this area. I'm sure there will be much more discussion on this moving forward.

Gross and Fine Motor Skills
Morgan will be re-tested in this area this week.

Nursing Update

I suddenly realized I have not updated on the "nursing" situation for a while. I hope this doesn't make anyone uncomfortable, but for me it's a nice way to document this as Piper gets older. It will be nice for both Piper and Morgan to be able to look back on posts from their early days and see just what was going on.

Amazingly, I'm still nursing!! Piper is a week away from ten months and I'm still nursing her about four times a day. It's become SO much easier now that she's eating solid food. That has helped supplement her calories, so she also no longer needs as much formula supplement. She's been averaging about 10 ounces a day, but mostly less than that. So...I'm guessing that she's getting maybe the same amount from me. I know it's not a lot, but apparently it's really still so beneficial for her to get all the healthy antibodies she can get from me. I may try to reduce the feedings gradually to two or three a day. I tried dropping the one before her nap a few weeks ago and encountered quite a bit of protest. I think I'll try again soon though.

She still really seems to enjoy nursing, but she's getting really "pinchy" lately, especially on my arms. While nursing, she reaches right over and grabs a piece of skin in the inside of my upper arm with her index finger and thumb! I know it's great for her to build her strength in that "pincer grasp," but OUCH! I'd rather it be on her finger foods and not me. Oh ,and one of her upper front teeth finally busted through the gums today. That was a long time coming! We'll see that affects things, but so far so good.

The plan is still to nurse through a year (as long as there is no major biting or other issues that mess with things), and then see how I feel. As I am still taking domperidone four times a day, so I am now looking forward to the day that I don't have to wake up at 1:00 AM to take pills. For now I am enjoying the (non pinching) cuddle time I get with my girl and see what happens.

"Great" Aunts and Uncles

Well, it turns out my Blogger problem is only under my account on our computer. I have to log in under David's account to make pictures upload (and currently do anything online). So, that's what I will do for now until I can figure out what is going on with my account. Annoying.

So...last week we had a nice visit with a few of the Great Aunts and Uncles. David's Aunt Trudy and Uncle Dan live near us in Coeur d'Alene. Uncle Jim and Aunt Sandy came for a visit from California and dropped by to see us...or of course, Morgan and Piper. We know they are the REAL draw. Here's a few pics, not great, but what I could get without making everyone pose.

Piper charmed Uncle Dan and Uncle Jim

Aunt Trudy built Morgan a lego house!

Here's Aunt Sandy too! For some reason David called her "lady" at one point and from then on Morgan called her "Lady" instead of "Sandy." Silly!

Interesting note: Morgan started one of her "stranger tantrums" as soon as everyone arrived. This is an odd thing she does lately when any adults she doesn't see daily show up in her house...unfortunately this also means Grandma and Grandpa B whom she sees every few months. Last time they came in with their suitcases she immediately threw herself on the floor and wailed. Nice welcome!

Well, Aunt Trudy figured out the "trick" to calming her down. Just show up with a present!!! She brought Morgan a pretty doll and Piper got a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Morgan calmed right down and checked everything out. Morgan might be "working it" to her advantage here more than we think.

EIEIO

Some of you may remember that we used to sing "Old MacDonald" to/with Morgan a lot when she was smaller. She especially liked to say "duck" and "quack quack" at the appropriate times. Duck was her very first word.

For whatever reason we had not sung this song in a long time. The other day we had both girls in the bathtub and I decided to sing it. Morgan surprised us by going through every farm animal she knew, including the matching animal sound for each one! She also threw in the "EIEIO" a few times. David and I kept saying "wow!" to each other as she went on and on. She loves "singing" songs...mostly talking in rhythm. She sings Jesus Loves Me, the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a few commercial jingles. I think its the most words we hear from her at once! She is very proud of herself each time and really likes it when we cheer and clap for her! Piper also joins in with the clapping!

No Wordless Wednesday

Every time I click on the "add image" button Blogger freezes up. I know it's not my internet connection because I can click another tab and log on to other pages. Ugh!

Stay tuned...for now will have to make due with posts without pictures.

Our Dear Friends

As mentioned in the previous post, we had some dear friends, the Chen's, come for a visit this last weekend. They were in town for a wedding and we jumped at the chance to have them stay with us for the weekend. Their 18 month-old little girl, Leilani, is so precious and sweet. We loved seeing her interact with our girls.

I have known Kathy since Jr. High School. Can you believe we were cheerleaders together in the 8th grade? She is such a wonderful friend and I have loved keeping in touch with her over the years. It hasn't been easy, but we've managed somehow. Kathy and I also went to church together in San Francisco in our twenties and early thirties. David and I were introduced by mutual friends who were involved with Golden Gate Community Church and Kathy and Pete met while attending there too. Great memories.

We had a lovely time catching up and were even able to visit with the Tait's, another old "Golden Gate" family who now live in Spokane too. Here's a few pictures from our wonderful brunch at the Tait home.

Loving catching up, Danell, David, Pete and Time (Piper too, of course)

Leilani and Morgan hanging out

The Tait Family
Danell, Jeremy, Colin, Clive and Tim

The Chen Family
Pete, Leilani and Kathy

The Allendorf Family
Piper, Meg, David and Morgan

Catch up

Aack! It's been over a week since I blogged. Sometimes the days just get away from me. Here's a list of some things that have been going on since I last checked in:

- Piper started crawling on her hands and knees! "Real" crawling I call it. It's still about 25% of the time, but good progress! She even likes to pull up to her knees on the fireplace hearth and bathtub... thus we are making some adjustments to counteract little miss "grabby hands." She's pulled over the diaper basket on her head a few too many times.

- Aunt Ali came for a visit over Memorial Day. Morgan was much more interactive with her this time. She let Ali read her LOTS of books and made visits to the guest room to try on her Aunt's pretty jewelry.

- We had our dear friends Pete and Kathy come to visit Spokane for a wedding this weekend. They stayed with us and we had a great time catching up as well as meeting their 18 month-old precious daughter, Leilani. With baby #2 on the way for them we had LOTS to talk about. I have some pictures I'll post soon.

- We're venturing into more "finger foods" for Piper. She really likes to hold them in her pincer grasp, but not eat them. She has munched on a few peas and carrots...but much of it comes back out as she is still getting the hang of chewing them and swallowing.

- We are still waiting for Piper's upper two front teeth. Two weeks ago at her 9 month appointment the Dr. said they looked like they were coming soon, but they are nowhere in sight. she's even drooling a ton and got a runny nose... but still no teeth.