Daredevil

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Boy does this child like to climb. So much that she scares me to death at times. Like tonight, she was using her book basket to climb into the chair. And, she was rocking the chair by herself. Then she figures out that she can climb from the chair over the table to the couch. Yes, I was right there, you can see the camera jerk when I thought she was going to fall out of the chair once. You seriously have to watch her every second!

Body Parts

Here is a sample of some of the body parts Piper knows. She has to really be in the mood to show off for me and let me videotape it at the same time.

Friday Flashback

Here's a photo from last spring. She was probably 5-6 months old. Erick made her this swing/bouncer. I promise it was safer than it looks!

Happy Thanksgiving

The Ball Problem

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Here is my funky munky figuring out how to get the ball out of the water bottle. I had to help her a little with the lid since she had trouble unscrewing such a large lid. She's good with smaller ones, but this was too much. I thought it was interesting to watch how she learned she couldn't just pull the ball out with her hand. It was too big to fit through the hole.

Bye Bye Bottle

We officially got rid of Piper's final bottle last week. She was still taking one at bedtime a lot of nights even though we are still nursing. So now she gets a sippy cup if she needs it at night. She has also been doing a lot better about sleeping all night. I can't even remember the last time she woke up at night. The one time she did cry recently, I just brought her to bed with me without nursing her, and she fell back asleep right away. I'm hoping this new trend continues, since I'm getting much more sleep lately.

Ball Drop Explanation

I posted this again because the first video I posted is not working for me. It's taking forever to load. That video is a combination of three clips mixed together. The video labeled Ball Drop is just one of the clips. Basically it shows how she figured out where to put the balls and how she knows to track them as they roll down the different ramps. She also knows to get the ball from the exit at the bottom. However this particular clip doesn't show everything obviously. I didn't want to import all three videos separately.

FYI: I hate that Photobucket will nto let me add comments when I import my video to Blogger.

Ball Drop

I Thought I Taw a Putty Tat

We went bowling last night. I wasn't too sure I wanted to go since I wasn't sure about how loud it would be. Turns out it was fairly quiet until the very end. We bowled a couple of games. My first games sucked, I think I bowled a 100 even. Second game was better at 164. Candice took Piper to the arcade during our second game and won her a Tweety Bird stuffed animal. Just what she needs...more stuffed animals! :) This thing is bigger than she is too!

Halfway through our game the family across from us asked me what my name was because I looked familiar. It turned out to be a former student from five years ago. She had a friend with her from the same class. I had thought the parents seemed vaguely familiar, but didn't even think about it. The girls, Beth and Olivia, were so grown up. I can't believe it has been that long since they were in first grade.

Piggy Bank

I showed Piper how to put pennies in her piggy bank last night. She had fun putting them all in there, and even figured out that there was a plug on the bottom to get them back out. Maybe she'll be a better saver than Mommy and Daddy are.

New Painting

This was the first time we tried painting with a paintbrush. She definitely prefers using her fingers still. I had a hard time convincing her not to taste the paint too, since we used tempera this time instead of finger paint. The picture was painted on canvas and turned out really well. Afterwards her hands were stained even though the paint was washable. She soaked and played in the tub and soon was squeaky clean.

Helping with Laundry

Usually she's a much better helper. Today she thought she'd inspect the dryer for Daddy. He says she climbed in there all by herself. Now I'm really going to have to watch her!

Shape Puzzle

I got her a shape puzzle because the other ones she had were too hard with too many corners to fit in the spot. She can do the circle, square, and triangle pretty well now. Sometimes she'll do the rectangle. Everything else is still kinda hard to figure out where they go. If she takes out one piece at a time though, she always knows how to fit it back in the board. I don't think it will be too long before she can do it all. This video is really short. I had to film it on a different camera and I didn't have much memory left.

Reading

Here is my sweetie reading her number book. I found these cute tights for Piper at Macy's. They are from LittleMissMatched.

Art Collection Video

I've been working on collecting Piper's artwork to make a photobook. Here is a sample of what I am including. (Just for you Amy)

In Loving Memory of Katie

Sadly, one of my students lost her little sister to a drowning last Friday. Death is always hard for me to deal with no matter the circumstances. But this one is especially hard knowing she was just four years old. So in honor of Katie and her parents, here are some poems that touched me. And, they are in pink because that was Katie's favorite color.

The saddest word, goodbye
When God calls our children
to dwell with Him above,
We mortals sometimes question
the wisdon of His love.
For no heartache compares with,
the death of one small child.
Who does so much to make our world,
seem so wonderful and mild.
Perhaps God tires of calling
the aged to His fold.
So He picks a rosebud
before it can grow old.
God knows how much we need them,
and so He takes but few.
To make the land of heaven
more beautiful to view.
Believing this is difficult
still somehow we must try.
The saddest word mankind knows
will always be Good-bye.
So when a little child departs,
we who are left behind,
Must realize God loves children.
Angels Are Hard To Find!!
-Author unknown

Grief Is Like A Jigsaw Puzzle
by Victoria Guthrie, Tampa, FL, Brief Encounters, 6-98

Grief is a smorgasbord where you do down the line picking a little of this and a little of that.

Grief is like a jigsaw puzzle, some people get all the edge pieces together first and work from the outside in. Others dump everything out on the table at once and dive right into the middle. Some never open the box at all, they just look at the picture on the lid and wonder why what's inside doesn't match or make sense.

You meet a lot of people when you start a jigsaw puzzle. Some are full of advice, or they may try to make the puzzle look the way it ought to be instead of the way it is.

But, once in a while, you meet someone who shares their own finished puzzle and helps you make sense of yours. Then you find it is not as hard as before. Some of the pieces fit together more easily, and you sigh with relief....and remember.

Just For Today - For Bereaved Parents
Just for today I will try to live through the next 24 hoursand not expect to get over my child's death,but instead learn to live with it, just one day at a time.

Just for today I will remember my child's life, not just her death,and bask in the comfort of all those treasured daysand moments we shared.

Just for today I will forgive all the family and friendswho didn't help or comfort me the way I needed them to.They truly did not know how.

Just for today I will smile no matter how much I hurt on the inside,for maybe if I smile a little,my heart will soften and I will begin to heal.

Just for today I will reach out to comfort a relative or friend of my child,for they are hurting too,and perhaps we can help each other.

Just for today I will free myself from my self-inflicted burden of guilt,for deep in my heart I know if there was anything in this world I could of done to save my child from death, I would of done it.

Just for today I will honor my child's memoryby doing something with another child because I know that would make my own child proud.

Just for today I will offer my hand in friendshipto another bereaved parentfor I do know how they feel.

Just for today when my heart feels like breaking,I will stop and remember that grief is the price we pay for loving and the only reason I hurt is becauseI had the privilege of loving so much.

Just for today I will not compare myself with others.I am fortunate to be who I am and have had my child for as long as I did.

Just for today I will allow myself to be happy,for I know that I am not deserting her by living on.

Just for today I will accept that I did not die when my child did,my life did go on,and I am the only one who can make that life worthwhile once more.
-Vicki Tushingham

Bunny Hat

Aren't I cute in my new bunny hat?

First Play Doh Experience

As you can see, she is still interested in putting things in her mouth, and I had to tell her that she could not eat it.

My First Trip to the Library

Someone fell asleep in the car and wouldn't even wake up when we went inside the library. I picked out a couple of books for me, and she finally woke up. She was in awe of the kids section and the stuffed animals that were all over the place. I gave her a Bambi animal and she carried it for the rest of the trip until we checked out. There weren't too many other kids there, but as usual Piper was very interested in them. We picked out a couple books and read two more books while we were there. She was a semi-interested in a dinosaur puzzle, but was being a little loud so I put it back.

The library was having a read aloud program featuring Eric Carle for the month of November, and we got a free tote bag, sidewalk chalk, stickers, and poster to chart our reading progress. We also checked out a baby bunny bag while we were there that has about a dozen books just for babies and toddlers.

Breaking News

Did You Vote Today?

Well after dragging myself out of bed this morning at 4:30, (thankfully DSL started this week!) we made it to the polls right at 6:00 am. I stood in line for about 20 minutes before getting inside. Piper did not want to be set down and I was forced to hold her for almost the whole time. She was being good as usual, and didn't complain about the wait as long as she didn't have to stand by herself. She probably weighs about 23 pounds now, and my back is definitely feeling the impact of this morning.

Fortunately, my precinct number was fast inside, and we got in and out fairly quickly. I was at school by 7:45 and faced a parking lot full of cars since we are a polling site as well. This has been such a long day already, and I still have Spanish lessons after school and I have to go get Piper at Grandma's house. I might get to see Erick tonight for a couple minutes before he goes to work.

Pictures from the Park

We had lots of fun at the park yesterday.

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time means nothing when you are 13 months old apparently. Right on cue she was awake this morning at her regular time, which of course meant with the time change it was 7:00 in the morning. So much for me gaining an extra hour of sleep. Then tonight she was ready to go to bed at 9pm, which to her was 10 at night. Yay! This is great since I could never get her to go to sleep early before. I am thrilled with the 9:oo bedtime.

Here is a picture of her with a cup of goldfish. She is very particular and precise about filling and emptying her cups and moving the goldfish in and out of containrs.

General Update-November

Child's name: Piper

Age (in months, or years and months): 13 months & 3 weeks

Physical abilities: climbing on and off everything, goes up and down stairs easily (crawling, not walking), brushes own hair and teeth, uses spoon well and working on fork, running, loves dancing with multiple “moves”, tries to stand on her head/somersault, walking backwards, spinning in circles, throws and kicks balls, throws balls into basket, helps clean up toys, put laundry in dryer and take out of dryer. She has been able to give hi-5’s forever, but now will come up to me and pull my hand up in the air so that she can hi-5 me

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: very few words still-about 10 including animal sounds, 5 signs, will ask to watch the Cookie Monster video clip on the computer
Reading/pre-reading: loves to read her books and can turn pages by herself, intense concentration and focus, recognizes pictures. Ex: I was talking to my sister on the phone and was telling her how Piper tries to moo like a cow. She went over and found her cow book in her book basket and brought it to me.

Number stuff: understands bigger and smaller, very precise about putting objects into her nesting cups one by one and then taking them out.

Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: stacking blocks up to 8 before they fall down or she knocks them over, has made patterns using blocks and nesting cups. I’ve only seen this 3 times though. I’m going to get her the mega blocks for X-mas to see what else she can do. Anything she gets her hands on she tries to stack- food, books, boxes, etc. Everything has a specific place, and she is very particular about where she places items. She has an amazing memory-remembers where toys are when you ask her to go get them. We were watching a video about colors the other day online and there was a yellow elephant. She noticed right away that it was an elephant and seemed puzzled that it wasn’t gray like the ones she normally sees. She threw a ball under the bed the other day and bent down to retrieve it. It was closer to the other side of the bed and she realized she should go around and get it rather than crawling under the whole bed. She can point to three body parts hair, ears, and nose. Loves to take things apart and put them back together. Some interest in peg puzzles, can match pieces but can’t fit pieces back in yet. I think I need to get a basic shape puzzle instead of the ones we have now of animals.

Creativity: loves to color, paint, scribble.

Imagination: plays with her doll, feeds her, brushes her hair, hugs and kisses, pushes her on her car, pretends to sleep, talking on phones and giving them to me to talk on and hand back to her, is fascinated with brushing her teeth and pretends to put toothpaste on markers, crayons, my eyebrow brush and “brush” her teeth.

Social: loves older kids, especially preschoolers, tends to scare kids her age because she is not shy and just runs up to them and hugs them, adores our new dog and showers her with affection. She is going through a shy stage with adults that she does not know, but warms up eventually.

Character/personality: happy, extremely independent, can be very intense and sober when studying something new, frustrated and mad when she can’t have her own way, curious and exploring everything pulling open drawers and cabinets, turning lights on and off. When she walks, she is on a mission and looks very determined to get where she is going like she has a plan. Never cries unless she is really hurt, but will whine when she doesn’t get her way or when she’s sleepy. She is one tough kid and also a daredevil!

Anything else/other: Her attention span is remarkable. She will look at her books for 30 minutes at a time. We found some ladybugs outside the other day and I had to make her come in after she sat studying them for 45 minutes. She is happy entertaining herself and does not need someone to find things for her to do.