David, Michele and … Piper

We like to see what’s on the horizon for Pip, so we follow this really interesting child development book by Burton L. White, called The First Three Years of Life. It’s full of charts and diagrams; stuff that David loves. In a chart that shows the activity of a child much older than Pip over the course of a small window of time, there is a single, straight line from the door to the table to the bookshelves (I’m too tired to go get the book, so I’m going from memory here). However, the chart for Pip’s age group shows multiple and frenzied zigzags between four or five different play stations upon entrance to the same room. These little punkins are like ping-pong balls, hopping from one thing to the next to the next, getting distracted by one discovery after another. It is exhausting to even watch them!

In an effort to capture some shots of her new shoes the other day, I took these shots of Busy Bee in the front yard, covering a lot of ground in a little bit of time. I’m not that great with the camera, but I want to be able to look back on this and remember this stage with all the joy and laughter that it deserves.

Leaf in the left hand:

Switch leaf to the right hand:

Retrieve empty diaper wipes bag and sippy cup:

Get distracted by something to my right:

Still tracking said object:

Gettin’ my swagger on before ditching the diaper wipes bag:

Drop sippy cup and pick up leaf while pondering new course of action:

Hmmm… interesting:

Not so sure:

What IS that??

Put on the breaks for further inspection or until distraction overcomes me in the opposite direction:

My in-laws live in a cool townhouse close to downtown Dallas. Although we don’t always make it, we try to head over there every weekend. There is a long, quiet strip of pebbled concrete and nice landscaping in front of the townhouses that keeps them a little bit off the main drag and offers parking for visitors. Going for a walk down the strip is pretty standard procedure at their house, and we make a point to do it when we visit. Everyone loves it. Especially Pip. Back in March (yes, I’m just now posting March pictures), we took the camera and got some really great shots of Piper in one of my favorite (possibly my MOST favorite) outfit that she has since outgrown. I’m posting a whole slew of them because we caught so many expressions on film, and I love every single one of them. Even if her mother is the only one who can tell the difference between frames.

With her daddy:

Playing with toys before the walk:

At our house before we left for the in-laws’…  same adorable blue dress (check out the matching tights), more great expressions:

Man, she’s cute!

I’ve been working for awhile on a poster of our families to help Pip put the names with the faces. It took awhile to gather all of the photos (sadly, I didn’t end up getting ALL of the great aunts and uncles and cousins) and arrange them, printing all of the names beneath the photos with a Sharpie. And then I drove across town in rush hour traffic one day to get the whole thing laminated for a whopping $8 (the lamination was David’s awesome idea). Then I used painter’s tape to put it on the wall in Pip’s play area–no drilling, no holes in the wall, no sticky residue.

Pip loves it. And likes to point and say the names she knows. She is particularly fond of the top right corner where Nana is and the top left corner where her other grandma, She-She, resides. She also likes to point to David’s dad and my Gramma Huff a lot. And she says “Loooooooook” for her cousin Luke. And she likes to lick Uncle Chris, who is smack dab in the center of the poster from where she’s standing. She goes to it several times a day.

Yes, that’s her first big boo-boo on the left side of her head above her eyebrow. Rather than sitting down and swinging her legs around (like Nana taught her to do), she chose to simply step off of the step that goes out to the back patio, kissing her forehead on the cement slab. She had a good cry but brushed it off quickly. She is amazingly resilient.

And she likes her new poster.

The other day I threw on the floor all of the empty plastic bags from the grocery store while I cleaned up the kitchen after Pip’s dinner (notice she’s wearing some of it on the shirt; the pants might have been too messy to keep on). I know all about the dangers of plastic bags and she was supervised closely THE ENTIRE TIME. And boy! Did that girl have fun tossing them, sliding around on them, trying to pull them apart, carrying them… You can see the satisfaction on her face. That’s just good, cheap fun.

Thanks to the generosity of Pip’s Aunt Lizzie, we haven’t had to buy much of anything in the way of clothes and shoes up to this point. A few sleep sacks here and there and a couple of pairs of shorts, but that’s about it. Since Pip started walking, she has worn only one pair of Wee Squeaks shoes that came from either Cousin Stella or Cece (and a cheap pair that I bought her at Babies R Us that never really fit):

I love these shoes. They represent first steps, growth and freedom for our little girl. They are sweet and girly and precious, just like their current (and previous) owner. They came to us without the squeaker, but we didn’t need it because the owner did plenty of her own squeaking. During naptime last week, I saw them sitting out and thought “I want to remember these little treasures”, so I took the shot above. These shoes have seen some ACTION. My mom wanted to put a pedometer on Pip while she was here to see how far she actually walks in a day. I know we’re talking miles rather than feet, but I’m just not sure how many.

Which is why it was no surprise to us last Saturday when we discovered that the stitching that holds the velcro in place was coming out. Which indirectly led to Piper’s first official shoe shopping extravaganza the following day. It didn’t start out as an extravaganza but that’s how it ended up.

We had some family post-afternoon-nap plans that canceled at the last minute, so we decided to hit the Galleria play area for a little bit to blow off some steam. When we got there, one of the dad’s in the play area was holding onto a Nordstrom’s balloon while his child played. Piper went right up to him and pointed at it with her best “I want that, thank you” look, to which he kindly smiled and waved. It took some real coaxing to remind Piper that we were actually there to PLAY rather than just stand there demanding something that wasn’t in our power to give her in the first place. But she didn’t understand that and continued to return to him from time to time.

The play area was cra-zay that afternoon because everyone else had the same idea for their Sunday after-nap so, after a good while of playing, Daddy decided we should take a break and try to score a balloon of our own. The balloons are given out by the children’s shoe salesmen who are very good at what they do. Our particular soon-to-be-salesman approached us and asked about Piper’s shoe size, which I didn’t really know because the Wee Squeaks are getting a wee bit tight. So somewhere in the mayhem of getting her foot measured and asking for balloons, Piper ended up with a super-sparkly pink Mary Jane in her vice-like 13-month-old grip. The next thing I know, David’s asking the salesman to bring us this shoe in Pip’s newly-discovered size.

The rest is history.

Followed by a picture taken by the salesman of Pip in her new shoes in a little paper frame that says “Look at me in my new first shoes”. I don’t have a scanner or I would’ve posted that shot, too. We also received a little white stuffed something-or-other… and the highly-coveted balloon that was well worth the trip. They really know what they’re doing in that store!

So here are the new foot covers:

By the way, I have caught a lot of heat from the Play Group moms for my anti-monster-sized-bow campaign, but I’m thinking we will score some girly points for these little gems. Click your heels, Dorothy!