Crabby

I was sooooo crabby this morning for some silly reason. I look back on this morning on such a waste of energy.

Look at this face - what was I thinking being crabby?!?

J had a horrible night. I got up at 4:30 to make Daddy's lunch for the day. Then I was set to hit the hay for another hour or two and S woke up crying. So that set the wheels in motion for L to wake up too. I made them stay in their beds until 7 though. I took advantage of the time awake to practice my decorating skills from last night. So at 6 this morning, I was decorating cupcakes and cakes :- )

We spent some time painting rocks per L's suggestion. This was fun!!After the morning was a wash, we took off to get a couple of things from Target and then visit Chik-Fil-A with a good friend and her 2 boys. This turned into a refreshing time. The kids had fun playing and I had some nice conversation as well!


L was reading J a book before I took off for the cake class last night. She is an amazing big sister to both S and J.
Tonight I had wanted to have a relaxing (read:ALONE) bath time and that was interrupted and I decided to relax and enjoy the time with S while he drove his cars along the bath. He is such a fun, thoughtful little boy. Today he made it through his nap without wearing a pull-up and woke up dry!!!

So the day ended in a much more happier mommy than it started out with : -)

p.s. In the bath tonight, we were talking about Grandma Piper having surgey next week. She is having her kidney removed due to a tumor. Here's the conversation:

Mom: "Grandma Piper is having surgery next week to remove her kidney"
L: "Why?"
M: "Because it doesn't work"
L: "What are they going to with it?"
Mom: "They are going to put it in the trash."
S: "Then the trash truck will take it away?
M: "Yep"
L: "Maybe they could recycle it?
M: "Uh-no, I don't think so!"

Recyling and reusing is a daily lesson around here. Guess it's sinking in!!

Productive Day

We were scheduled to attend a "toddler" hike today. Went outside and the battery was dead again on my van! So that nixed the idea of going anywhere. I was able to turn it into an extremely productive day. My house looks wonderful! Or at least the front part of the house looks good - the back didn't get touched : -) We are having our homeschool group over on Friday for a Thanksgiving lesson and craft so the front was super important to get cleaned. The kids played outside for like 3 hours this morning and they were FILTHY when they came in. I made them strip outside so they wouldn't track any dirt into my clean house. Tonight, after Daddy Piper got home, we went and got a new battery so there shouldn't be anymore battery trouble. I am just very thankful that it was dead before we left so we weren't stuck up at the mountain without a way home. Daddy Piper did throw battery cables in the van for future needs.

Baby J seems to be eating and sleeping good so the thrush must be on its way out. I still think he sleeps too much. We see the dr on 12/4 for his 2 month appt. I can't believe in 2 weeks, he'll be 2 months old. I am so thankful that I didn't tie my tubes... Baby J might not be our last :-)

This afternoon we loaded up the wagon with the dishes our neighbor had brought dinner over in awhile back and took them back to her. It was nice to chat with her for awhile and the walk was very enjoyable with the kids. I really love being home with my babies. I hope I can do this forever. In this economy, who knows though. As long as Daddy Piper's work stays steady, I can stay home. I joined a coupon thing so hopefully I can start saving more of his hard earned money. I looked at Baby J today and the thought of leaving him put a real fear in my heart, like none I had ever felt before. I guess I just gotta have faith that all will be okay.

Lazy Day

My MIL flew in late last night. We let the kids stay up to go get her. It was waaaaayyyy past their bedtime. She got in about 10 and it was 11 or so before the kids got in bed. Everyone was happy to see Grandma and Grandma was pleasantly surprised to see 2 of her 3 AZ grandkids at the airport.

Today I felt horrible when I woke up so I went back to bed and Baby J and I slept until 11:30. We were up for a couple of hours and then back down for naps from 2-5. It was rest I desperately needed!!

Tonight was the first dinner I cooked since having Baby J. It has been very nice to have to meals brought to us for the last 2 weeks. Everyone (mainly Daddy Piper) was happy to have Mom back in the kitchen though :- )

Friday Update

We got Baby J's blood work done today. I don't know who was more upset about this: Baby J, L or me. We were all crying with S looking at us like we were nuts :- ) Then a trip to Target, where they forgot to load a bag into my cart and I didn't notice until we got home and we had to go back and get it - ARGH!

After the initial shopping trip at Target, we hit Starbucks and headed to the van. We got back in the van and I nursed Baby J while the older 2 had a snack. Just as we were all finishing up, S had to go potty so we had to traipse back in to Target to use the facilities. Well I didn't have Baby J in his car seat or a sling so L had to sit on the floor and hold him while I helped S use the potty. Things get more interesting (and mom gets more creative) with each additional child!

Tonight I went to a local breastfeeding store that is going out of business to get a sling. They had a baby scale and I weighed Baby J - he weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces. This nursing is going so well with Baby #3!!!! He gained 10 ounces in 8 days, so wonderful!!!!

Another Monday

This was such a nice day!

I packed our week last week extremely full of activity so we wouldn't notice Daddy Piper being gone as much (yea right!) so it was nice to hang out at home today. We got some wonderful breakfast cookies made, the kids had a hay day playing in the kitchen sink full of water while I did the actually baking of cookies and then we went out in the pool for like 3 hours - fun times!! L did a great job swimming today - not even the least bit scared after Saturday's incident. S is really becoming braver and braver around the water - almost too brave if you ask me. He made the funniest comment while swimming. He had a train and his green diving stick sitting on the step and L was getting close to it and he looked at her and said "Hey - don't touch my stuff". Where did he hear that? We are not a possessive family with things. If it's here, then it's here to be shared by everyone.

I got some laundry done and quality time playing in the floor with L while S was napping. Daddy Piper had some quality time with the kids while I showered and cooked dinner. He got to play GeoTrax with them, in the floor and on the website. We had a yummy steak dinner and bathtime/bedtime finished off the night.

Another typical day for Piper Paradise. So nice to have Daddy Piper home. It will be even nicer when this weather starts cooling off. And it's only like 2 months until we greet the new one. That scares me and more than just a little bit. I know after the first few weeks things will settle down and all will be fine but those first few weeks are tough. AWWW - just something else to worry about :-)

Some pics

Nothing special today - just another ordinary family day with soccer, lunch out and naps. I say ordinary because nothing extra-ordinary happened but you know what? Ordinary works for me!

Here are a couple pics Daddy Piper took today. I couldn't resist sharing them!!

I love how L put her hands on my belly without being prompted.

And this one - S wanted to kiss the baby :-)

Is it really August?

I can't believe how fast the year has gone! We only have 10 1/2 weeks until the new baby comes. I feel so behind getting ready. The kids are doing wonderful, as always. We had a pretty uneventful day running a few errands this morning. Had to get the pool water tested and drop some film at Target. I will NEVER get one hour photo done again at Target. This is the 2nd time I have had film developed there and it has taken more than 2 hours - for 2 rolls of film!!! One roll happened to be of my friend's bachelorette party 5 years ago. What memories those pictures brought back :- ) We finally got that done and came home. Daddy Piper came home early due to an accident on the jobsite (thankfully not HIS accident). The water truck driver hit another vehicle and killed both people in the vehicle. Oh how horrible for everyone involved. It was a pure accident but still - what a tragedy.

L has been hitting S quite a bit lately. Of course this upsets me. Daddy Piper says not to read into it but I am wondering if there is something else going on and this is how she is reacting to it. AWWW - parenting is hard sometimes!! I will try to get more one on one time with her, quality vs. quantity time. Maybe that will help. S's butt seems better. Now he has a crappy cough though - always something with him!!

Another thought - I read this blog frequently. She is pregnant with her 4th and they are having some problems. It makes me grateful how uneventful things have been this time for me. She is posting the most wonderfully written stuff though - very eye opening and such faith!

Thank you God for such a peaceful pregnancy.

More Rain

We had more rain this evening. Here are the kids out playing in it again:




This picture is taken just as a huge crack of thunder scared the kids:


It was a nice day. We had a weird morning though. I had some pregnancy complications (more of the same old, same old - just needed to rest some and it got better) and then S got super crabby for some reason. I held him for awhile after his daddy had a turn holding him and he fell asleep on me. It was uber weird for him to fall asleep @ 9:45 AM!!! He slept until 11:30. We got to thinking this afternoon that maybe it was the multiple ant bites he got yesterday that made him so sleepy this morning. We still don't quite understand it but he has been fine all afternoon. L and I went grocery shopping together this morning. It was so much fun to shop with her. She helped read off the list and marked things off as we added them to our cart. It was great mommy/daughter time for us! Then after lunch, her and I napped while the boys hung out outside and enjoyed the nice weather. We do have one thing we need to nip in the bud and that's her attitude. I didn't realize that the crabby, snotty attitude would start at age 4. Any tips? With all the rain, Daddy Piper's work is canceled for tomorrow. With the steady work over the past 12 weeks, it's been so nice not to have that worry on my mind but now with it dwindling a bit, that worry has creeped up on me again. Nothing that worrying is going to help - that's for sure. But still, I worry just the same...

Typical Day

We had a pretty ordinary day around here. Started out with L going to swim lessons and then we met some friends at this indoor play land thing, which totally sucked. Parents really need to watch their kids. It is not my job to watch your kid while you sit around gossiping with your friends. We came home and had lunch, watched a movie and napped. It was nice to get some much needed paperwork done this afternoon with Daddy Piper. The only downside to the day was L deciding she would rather go to daycare than stay home with Mommy since it looks like they have fun at that daycare place. It really hurt my feelings but she's 4 and of course daycare looks fun. They were playing with a parachute for goodness's sakes :-) Oh and the other downside was S pooped in the shower - GROSS!! It must have been an accident but still - not real fun to clean up. It reminded of the time when L was about 1 or 2 months old and pooped in the tub with me while I was bathing her. Totally grossed me out then too!

Wonderful Wednesday

Today was another ordinary day here at Piper Paradise. Don't you love those - I sure do!! We played outside FOREVER! It has been so nice here the last couple of days. Not that we are expecting that to last for very long. Yesterday before L had preschool, the kids were pretending to row the boat on their drum using their drumsticks and then last night the little sneaks stole my cookies and milk - if they weren't so cute, who knows what would have happened to them :-). Today though we hung around the house except for a quick trip to Target to buy Mama the preggo whale a swimsuit for our upcoming vacation. I also scored a couple cute shirts - a rarity among maternity clothes right now. This afternoon I got 1 bathroom cleaned with super helper L and we also squeezed in some reading lesson time. I think she'll be reading in no time. Now off to cook my steak dinner - YUMMY!!

Typical Tuesday

L went on her first field trip with her preschool class! Daddy stayed home with S while Mommy and L trekked up to Petco for a (amazingly) fun time at the "Furs to Feathers" demonstration. L got to touch a bearded dragon, a couple of turtles, see some fish, check out a Pongo twin, get passed over to touch a guinea pig (later got to feel the guinea all by herself!) and then play with a ferret. Petco does a great job tailoring the program to the age group so this was about a half hour of hands-on entertainment. I think we are going to try this with our mom's group!

We came home to a potty training S and Daddy, both ready for some lunch. I got S's birthday booked while Daddy handled lunch duty. Then it was naptime for the curmudgeons while Mommy spent time cleaning - yep, cleaning! I am trying to get better about the daily cleaning... trying for 1-2 rooms a day. Also another New Year's resolution is to spend more time physically playing with the kids. So L & I spent about an hour doing playdoh while S napped. She enjoyed it and you know what? So did I!