David, Michele and … Piper

After 11 or 12 months of house arrest, David and I began making weekly Date Nights a priority again. They should’ve been a priority THE WHOLE TIME, I know. We know. We’re sorry. We aren’t going to let it happen again. Part of the problem was coming up with reliable nighttime care for Pip while we were out and I couldn’t quite get my brain and heart around calling and interviewing a bunch of people. The perfect solution was right under our noses, however, and the above picture represents our Date Night “Help”. My Aunt Linda (Mom’s baby sister) is on the right and her bestie, Darlene, is on the left. You-Know-Who is front and center, hamming it up, as usual.

Speaking of hams. These two are really funny together. REALLY funny. And it does my heart good to see them together. They have been friends for 20+ years, which means they have weathered some good times and some really hard times, as BFF neighbors and as long-distance besties who wished they lived closer. They have cried together, prayed together and–OH MY!–as you can see, have they laughed together! Darlene has been a reliable presence for as long as I can remember. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times that I have walked in the room and seen the two of them wiping their eyes and holding their stomachs, dying of laughter. And I won’t go into the details of their trip to Kohl’s to buy Pip the two new outfits you see her wearing below. Some stories are just entirely too much to repeat and this is one of those. Their friendship is made of gold, however, and I love being around them. And I love knowing that Pip is in good hands while we’re gone. Even if she’s just sleeping.

We had a quick pre-bath fashion show after they arrived with the new Pip Gear. The picture quality is horrible because I was unsuccessfully trying out a new setting on the camera while in bad lighting, but the subject matter is perfect.

Free at last!

Do I HAVE to keep this thing on??

I can TRY to pull it off of myself…

Learning how to read tags:

Get me outta here! These ladies are crazy!

Okay, fine! I think they’re funny, too.

What sound does a lion make?  Rrrrroar~

Thanks, Lindy and Dar! We love you guys!

Today was such a sweet day! We weren’t able to go to church this morning because there’s only one service that works well with Piper’s nap schedule and I’ve been battling another cold, so I just couldn’t force myself out of bed in time to make it all happen. So David took care of Piper for a lot of the morning while I read and relaxed. He also made my coffee, breakfast and lunch, and catered to my every whim. I can be somewhat whimmy, so he is a brave man to offer! Then we went to Starbucks on the way to She-She and Papa PJ’s house for dinner (yum!) and David grilled some awesome lemon chicken to go with our baked potatoes and mimosas. Piper had SUCH a fun time with the relatives and was a joy to watch through their eyes.

She has mastered “clapping” and likes to do it all the time–especially for herself–and she has a lot of new words and faces that tend to crack up everyone around her. When asked to say “Please” in order to obtain something she wants (usually a food item, but often to get down from one’s lap, etc.), she smiles really big and says in an angelic voice, “Pweeeee!” A crowd pleaser for sure. She also likes to tuck her head into me when something frightens her or when Daddy comes after her with tickles and “the claw”. Their sweet relationship touches the deepest places of my heart. I know that I am very blessed to have a husband so willing to participate in his daughter’s life.

We spend a lot of time on the bed these days, playing and rolling around and giggling–all three of us when Daddy is home. If she could articulate how she feels about it, I think Piper would say that it is a highlight of each day. She is also getting really snuggly and likes to sit in my lap to read or investigate something, which has been so sweet for me because that’s not always been the case. Another new trick is running and hiding from me and then giggling with delight when I yell “Boooo!” This has been a fun new addition to her repertoire. Actually, the past two months have been exceptionally fun and I feel like I’m finally getting my “sea legs” with this new and wonderful job. I had a lot of anxiety when she first arrived but the Lord has been faithfully guiding me out of that, little by little.

Though it is exhausting and difficult at times–and an entirely different kind of challenge than the working world was for me–I have been filled with gratitude this week that I am able to stay home and “grow up” our baby girl. I am humbled by my husband’s commitment to this, and don’t take lightly his sacrifice for our family or the burden he carries as a result. Our lives are not perfect and we still struggle in a thousand areas, but we are currently in a sweet season of life–which is a nice break from the chaos and madness that we so often tend toward! It has been fun to have our Anniversary and Mother’s Day so close together because it has forced me to reflect on the two most important earthly relationships in my life.

Thank you, Lord, for this day. My heart runs over.

For Piper’s first birthday, we had our family and community group over for a little shindig. It still ended up being about 30 people strong, including the kids. I stress out easily in such situations and wish I were a better hostess, but it was good to see everyone and Piper had a blast. My brother-in-law, Charlie, had the genius idea to show up with bubbles and half the party (most of the little people) moved outside for some bubble fun. We were SO grateful to have all the cousins in town, as well as my mom. We served cupcakes, cheese and crackers and fruit. My mom both decorated/set up and cleaned up. She was a machine! And the only reason the party went off without a hitch. It was a great day!

Here’s the birthday girl:

Underwhelmed by the cupcake (I was, too, Pip):

Piper sat on my lap for probably a half hour, opening presents. I was amazed at her stamina. She had lots of “help” from the cousins.

This is a yodeling goat that Piper received from our good friends, Herb and Lulie. Piper was afraid of it at first but now loves the thing and plays it over and over again. Daddy does not love it. But he will endure all kinds of things for his baby girl. Heh heh. Thanks, Herb and Lulie!

This is my cousin, Courtney (left), and my brother’s girl, Keri (right). This is the only shot I have of them and we are missing mug shots of almost all the attendees, unfortunately. We failed to take more than a couple of pictures that day so I’m relying heavily on my brother’s stash of photos for this post.

Speaking of my brother…

Now, here’s a girl who can enjoy a cupcake, no matter how dry it might be! This is Sloan and her mommy, Berit.

And the birthday Daddy, doling out gifts…

And some more cute shots of the birthday princess…

I grow weary of the strangers who pass by and say, “Enjoy every minute! It goes by fast!” But it’s true. The past 14 months have flown and we are LOVING every minute with this little girl that the Lord has entrusted to our care.

This is my perfectly imperfect gift from the Lord.  He’s pretty darn handsome.  The handsomest, really.

He is also very curious and intelligent, and I love this look:

Although he’s really good at using his head, he is also good at using his heart.  He’s very tender.

And very, very funny. Very. And sometimes smirky.

Over the years he has had to learn to wait on me a lot.

But he doesn’t double-knot, so I’ve had to learn to wait on him a lot, too.

Four years ago, he committed his life to me. For better or worse. And we’ve had our fair share of “worse”, but a whole lotta “better”.

The Lord gets the props for all the “better” that’s happened. He’s been the glue at Casa Peters, sending all kinds of people our way to help us out when there was “worse” going on.

While sending help, the Lord has also used our differences to refine us. I’m not bragging on US when I say that we are a lot better people four years later; I’m bragging on Him. Left to our own devices, we would prolly be divorced. And although we are polar opposites in about every way possible, we are also like peas and carrots. We just go together.

This is some of Our best work (the “O” is capitalized out of reverence for the Lord, who had more to do with this than we did):

Although she looks more like her daddy, she resembles me in a lot of ways. Look closely, you’ll see the resemblance:

And they lived happily ever after.

My mom is the type of person who tends to leave a place in better working condition than it was when she arrived. Such was the case last month when she went home after spending three weeks with us. Words can’t describe how much she helped out ALL of us! I made a list of some of the many ways that she served us in the time that she was here, and this is what I came up with (in no particular order):

• Took Piper for an entire day so that I could take some time to myself and then attend the wedding of our dear friend, Brooke Rollins (it was the first day I’ve had almost all to myself since Pip was born!)
• Babysat for several date nights
• Made EVERYthing fun for Piper
• Did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen EVERY DAY FOR THREE WEEKS!
• Brainstormed decorating ideas with me
• Changed about 30 stinky diaper and countless wet ones
• Wiped a very sick, drippy nose at least 100 times–each day!
• Gave at least ten baths
• Fed Piper nearly every meal
• Put together some shelves that have been sitting in the extra bedroom since October when the “new” floors were installed
• Took Pip on many, many walks in the stroller–including lots of jaunts to the park–pointing out things along the way and creating milestones that Pip remembers and loves (mailboxes, lawn ornaments, etc.)
• Held a sick and/or cranky little girl in her lap for hours and hours and hours while rocking, cuddling, talking and/or singing to her
• Organized Piper’s toys into two separate boxes that can be easily rotated out every other week (like all of us, she bores quickly of the same gear all the time)
• Decorated and set up for Pip’s Big One Party, as well as running errands and shopping/paying for some of it
• Trimmed up our crepe myrtle in the backyard
• Strapped Piper in and took her out of her car seat countless times
• Taught me how to better teach our baby girl

I’m sure I’m missing a lot of things, but that’s what comes to mind. It was SUCH a help and SO nice to have her here! The simple, daily, routine-type tasks were actually the ones that I appreciated the most. It is just SO nice to have an extra set of hands all day long–hands that are attached to a heart that loves our baby girl like we do!

Piper was a little unsure of/timid around Nana for about the first day and a half, but they became fast friends–to the point where Piper almost preferred my mom over me at the end of the three weeks! It was magical to watch them together. David and I have since asked my mom to take the Myers-Briggs Test because I think her personality type will end up being The Teacher or something along those lines. I never really noticed that about her before, but she was amazing to watch in action. I tend to struggle daily to find a balance between getting stuff done and playing with Pip, but my mom was able to do both at the same time by including Piper in the process and talking her through it; teaching the whole time. It takes a lot longer to do things that way but it’s much better for everyone. It just doesn’t come naturally to me, so this has been a challenge for me this past year. Being a witness to my mom’s good example for three weeks was a real gift.

I kept a list of the things that my mom taught Piper while here (this is surely not everything!):

• How to push her new grocery shopping cart around the room, taking things in and out of it
• How to ride on her Little Tykes trike (a push trike, no peddles)
• How to drink from a straw
• How to wrinkle up her nose and inhale–along with the word associated with the action: smell (see example below)

• Almost how to blow her nose
• How to slide down the slide at the park
• How to blow on something with her mouth (like blowing bubbles)
• How to work/use many of her toys, including stacking the colorful rings on their post
• The word for/location of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, fingers and many more
• The word “boo boo” for a mark on her hand–she now thinks that that part of her hand is called a boo boo!!!
• How to screw on a lid
• The letters “T” and “S” which she can now identify in a line-up
• How to “stir” something in a bowl
• Perfected getting up and down a step and getting on and off the bed/sofa

The other thing that was really interesting was the way she sometimes read to Pip. Some days she read the actual words on the pages, but often she would just turn the pages, describing all the things on the page. Pip was enraptured. I’ve tried a couple of times, but I cannot cast the enchanted spell that Nana did!

While Mom was here, we went to the Arboretum twice and enjoyed the amazing flowers. Again, lots of teaching took place, as evidenced by some of the photos below.

Nana also bought Pip a new bucket hat to protect that sweet little head (the old one is too small), which she is wearing in some of the next shots:

This is the second trip to the Arboretum, right before she left:

Three generations:

We were all really sad to part ways. Piper didn’t take it very well. I actually took her to the doctor the day after my mom left because I thought her earache had returned. She was irritable and inconsolable. Her ears looked great, so the doc asked “When did Nana leave?” After learning that she left the day before, the doc said, “I think that’s your problem!” So sad we don’t live closer.

Bye, Nana!

We love and miss you, Mom! Happy early Mother’s Day!