Christmas Day 2009

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Piper had a very Merry Christmas and received lots of toys and presents from her family. She loved her Princess dress up shoes and her new dolls. Santa brought her some new books and I must have read at least ten Dora stories tonight before she went to bed. No nap + a long day = an early bedtime of 7pm. Let's hope she stays there all night now. :)

Mommy and Daddy still have many more gifts to give her next week after we are unpacked. She has more than enough to play with now anyway. We still have to have Christmas with my family too. I think she is drowning in toys.

A Shy Visit with Santa

After waiting in line for at least 30 minutes, we finally got to see Santa Claus. Piper was so excited...until she actually was face to face with the man himself. Then she suddenly was very shy and wouldn't even look at him or smile. We had already done pictures today, so I figured she was tired of smiling and posing. At least she didn't cry.

Snow!

Well, we haven't got much snow yet here, but it was enough to go play outside. Piper had fun on her sled, but Daddy was tired of pulling her around.

A Visit with Grandpa

We went to visit Grandpa in Winchester. Piper remembered who he was and was excited to see him. By the end of the night she was showing off and ordering him around. It was like playing Simon Says: "Stand up Papaw!" "Sit Down!" "Lift your leg up Papaw!" "Now put it down!"

She also loved Jazzer Dog. I was very happy that Jasmine was being really nice and tolerant. I wasn't sure how she would react because she doesn't really like kids a whole lot. She put up with Piper petting her, covering her up with the blanket and getting her a pillow. Piper kept bringing her toys to play with, and snacks to eat too. But at the end, the dog got mad at me because I took her picture and she went and hid in the bedroom. Piper was so sad that the dog left and she cried. It was time to go anyway, so we said our goodbyes and came back home.

General Update December

Age(in months, or years and months): 26.5 months

Physical abilities: I've not really noticed anything new this month. We are in the process of moving, so there are a lot of boxes ready to go now. The other day I packed up all of her toys and books in her bedroom. I was not paying attention and she climbed up on top of three boxes (about 6 feet in the air) and yells "Look at me!" I about had a heart attack.

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: Longer complex sentences, but still sounds like a baby. She's a little bossy this month and very opinionated. Using words such as "I'd rather"

Reading/pre-reading: A little less reading time with me this month, but still very interested. Requesting other areas on Starfall besides the ABC area.

Number stuff: She is very confident about her counting ability even though she still skips numbers. I gave her a popsicle the other day, actually half of one, and then she asked for another so I gave her the other half. She still wanted more, and I said that she had already had 2 while holding up 2 fingers. She holds up 5 fingers and says that she wants 5 popsicles. I guess I'm not too worried about the rote counting since she seems to have a good understanding of quantity and 1:1 correspondance (even if she says the wrong number at times)

Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: She wanted donuts the other day for breakfast but we didn't have any. She told me I needed to go to the store to buy some for her, and that she'd also like some chocolate milk. I didn't expect her to have made the connection that food doesn't just magically appear in the kitchen, you actually have to buy it. When told we needed to go home and take a nap, she said she'd just be able to sleep in the car and we didn't need to go home just yet.

Creativity: nothing new to report except as linked to imagination

Imagination: Huge month for pretend play. She is very interested in preparing food for us and pretending other toys are food. Blocks are cakes, anything can be a glass of milk or water, she makes candy out of legos. Frequently feeds the dog, although the poor animal is so confused as to why Piper keeps giving her "food" that she can't eat. She even puts it on plates to serve it. She is also turning objects into paintbrushes and pretending to paint in the bathtub, on boxes, etc.

Social: I was very happy with her interactions at Thanksgiving with her younger cousins. She has never shown any interest in playing with them before. They are 19 months old. When they would get upset about a toy she had that they wanted, she was so very sweet and would give it to them all on her own and share. She still won't really play with them, but I was glad she was kind for once. Of course she idolizes her 7 year old cousin and really only wants to hang out with him.

Character/personality: Sweet, silly, manipulative Has started understanding time out, and will sit for a moment but runs to me saying "sorry mommy" over and over to get out of trouble.

School Updates: n/a

Baby Bed

Here is my "baby" in her doll's baby bed. Silly girl!

Fresh Fall Leaves

We had beautiful weather here over the weekend. Piper had a lot of fun playing outside in the leaves and on the playground. On Sunday she played in her sandbox, for what was probably the last time this season.

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Trick or Treating

Piper loved trick or treating this year. She was amazed that people would just give her candy when she went to the door. She did pretty well and said thank you a lot, but wasn't into actually saying "trick or treat" even though she says it at home when reading her Halloween books.

General Update: November

Age(in months, or years and months): almost 26 months


Physical abilities: jumping off higher objects to the ground, helping with chores such as putting silverware away, making her bed, more laundry help, spontaneous cleaning, etc


Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: still talking non-stop in 5+ word sentences. Adds words to the end of her sentences correctly such as: again, too, now. Finally saying “thanks” correctly instead of “your welcome” Is very polite and says “please” all the time without prompting now.


Reading/pre-reading: continues to love her books and can be rather demanding in the car when she wants to read. I have a bag of books tied around the back of my seat, but she still can’t reach them from her car seat. I used to just give her a couple books when I strapped her in, but she is reading through them so fast that she needs more to sustain her. Now she yells at us to give her more books while I’m driving. “Mommy, three more books please, NOW!” She is starting to recognize the humor in stories better. She loves the David Shannon books like “No David!” and also the Bad Kitty ABC booksNumber stuff: no change


Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc not sure if this goes here…but has started responding to the t.v. as she has become more exposed to it recently. She is infatuated with Dora now, so not only am I watching Dora, but reading tons of Dora books. We watch mostly Nick Jr (used to be Noggin) because there are no commercials. She loves the little puzzles and songs in between the cartoons. and is going up to touch the screen on the right answer or talking to the t.v. about what just happened.


Creativity: this was the month all about play-doh, although she still loves to paint. We do play-doh at least twice a day, and boy am I tired of it.


Imagination: big increase in pretend play with cooking food and serving us things to eat. Is very attached to her dolls and stuffed animals.


Social: did great trick or treating and did not bother the other kids. Was polite and said thank you (usually) when she got candy.


Character/personality: very loving this month and has been initiating hugs and kisses with us. Kisses the baby in my belly, although I think she is clueless about what it means. She is also very empathetic towards the characters in her books and has been giving them kisses when they get in trouble or look sad.


School Updates: n/a

Trunk or Treat

Last night we took Piper to the Trunk or Treat event at church. This has to be the best way to get free candy. :) We walked through a lot of cars that had been decorated for the holiday. At each car Piper went up and got a piece of candy, sometimes more since she thought each person was supposed to give her a piece. Everyone thought she was just adorable with her Dorothy costume on, and she loved telling them about her new red shoes. She even was asked to have her picture taken with another Dorothy who was passing out candy.

The only problem was that we didn't bring her basket for the candy, and we used the bag they were handing out instead. So, at every stop she would get the candy and then set it down on the ground to open it back up and put the candy inside. She didn't like people putting the candy in the bag for her. Then she was also not very happy that Daddy kept stealing her candy and eating it.

I know she will be so excited to go again this Saturday.

Pumpkin Time

We currently have seven pumpkins at our house, two itty bitty ones from the pumpkin patch, and five from Walmart. It was cheaper to buy them at Walmart than the pumpkin patch actually. Erick and Piper carved one of the big ones last week, but I was indulging in a much needed nap, so I didn't capture anything on film. Then after a few days he gave it away to some of the neighbor kids.

So yesterday I decided to let Piper decorate a pumpkin by herself, no carving needed. I had some puffy Halloween stickers that she loved. She was even able to get them off the paper herself this time. Yay! Lately she has been infatuated with ghosts, and talks about them all the time. Fortunately there were plenty of ghost stickers.

I will warn you that although she was occupied with this activity for quite a while, after she finished, she dragged that darn pumpkin around and the stickers started falling off all over the house. I'll probably still be finding Halloween stickers at Christmas.

Pumpkin Patch

Piper visited the pumpkin patch and farm for the very first time this weekend. She loved picking up nearly every single pumpkin in the patch before choosing a couple to take home. They had several activities for the kids to do. There were some inflatable bounce units, and true to form, she managed to make another kid twice her size cry, as she does every time we go to Monkey Joe's. I swear she picks on the weak, as she really barely touched him, but I don't know how to break her of this bullying. She also got to ride a pony and get her face painted.

They also had two corn mazes and a hay tunnel maze that I refused to go in. :) The maze was way too easy though, and I was hoping for more of a challenge. Piper loved the hayride and climbing the hay mountain. I think she liked kicking and throwing the hay into the air mostly.

There was a mechanical dinosaur that chomped on pumpkins. She was bored with it after a minute, but I was happy that the sound effects did not scare her. She still has a hard time with loud noises like thunder or firecrackers.

She loved the animals of course and thought it was great fun to feed the goats. They had an exhibit there for rescue dogs also, and she kept running back to it to pet all the doggies. Imagine that!

By the end of the day she was so tired and a little grumpy, having missed her nap. She was determined she was going to ride the tricycles even though they were too big for her. Mommy was way to tired to push her around too, so she reverted to pushing herself with her feet which barely touched the ground.

To see all the pictures, please watch the slideshow at the top of my blog.

October General Update

Age(in months, or years and months): almost 25 months

Physical abilities: perfected her frisbee throw, moves in all sorts of ways to get where she’s going i.e. galloping, jumping, spinning, etc., buckles herself into her carseat (just the top part)

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc Sentence length increasing to regularly 3-4 words. I hear longer sentences at times. This isn’t new, but I keep forgetting to document it: uses lots of descriptive words when talking (big, high, heavy, colors, numbers, etc.)

Reading/pre-reading: She got the Tag Jr. Leapfrog system for her birthday and loves using it. It gives me a break at times, but she is still demanding to be read up to 100 different books per day.

Number stuff: Recognizes most numerals now, but rote counting is usually not in the right order although she hits all the different numbers.

Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc has discovered YouTube on the iPhone and looks for favorite videos. Is really good at the puzzles on it even though she struggles with regular ones without help. She gives up too easily when frustrated because a piece won’t fit perfectly even when she knows where it goes.

Creativity: still loves to paint and do art, enjoys picking out her own colors and applying them to the paper or canvas. She is in a stage where she wants me to draw things for her to color.

Imagination: lots of pretend play with little people and these Animal Planet dogs she got for her birthday. Still enjoys cooking food and serving us

Social: still a bit of a bully, has trouble sharing

Character/Personality: testing boundaries this month to gauge our reactions, I’ve noticed that when she is in trouble or sad she refers to herself by her name, but most other times still calls herself “baby”. She doesn’t want to sleep in her bed and wants to be with us in our bed. We switched over to a day bed for her, and she’ll sleep in it, but has to be really tired to go directly there without a fight. Potty training is progressing. She goes on the potty about once a day, but we aren’t consistent enough with it yet. I’m hoping to make it a priority over my fall break in a couple weeks.

New Artwork

This is Piper's latest painting. She is getting to be quite the pro at adding and choosing colors for her canvas. Her favorite tool is the whisk. :)

Birthday Bash

We celebrated Piper's 2nd birthday at the park. She had a lot of fun playing with her cousins. We made hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch, and had chips, potato salad, and cole slaw to eat as well. Her birthday cake had Barney on it since she picked out a plush Barney at the store on her birthday. We opened presents again, since she had already done this at home with mom and dad. I was surprised that she blew out her birthday candles all by herself. It's hard to believe that she is already 2!

General Update

Age(in months, or years and months): She will be two this Friday (sniff)

Physical abilities: Not much she isn’t doing these days. Can do everything at the playground and freaks out grandma who doesn’t think it’s safe. Loves sliding down the fireman pole and swinging on the bars. Is learning to pump her legs on a regular swing. I’m sad to see the end of summer. She was making so much progress in swimming with a kickboard or floaties.

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: Tons of vocab learned this month including shapes, colors, and emotions. Previously she could identify pictures but could not say the word. She is using more and more adjectives and abstract words in her speech. Most sentences still about 3 words, but some more or less. She’s very interested in possessives and talks about items that belong to certain people. She refers to herself still as “baby” but occasionally will use her own name. When looking at pictures of herself, it’s about 50/50 between saying “baby” and “Piper”.

Reading/pre-reading: Her favorite phrase seems to be “no mommy you read” She’d rather I read her stacks and stacks of books, than for her to look at them independently, although she still does read to herself in the car and occasionally at home. Knows about half her letters. We haven’t been on Starfall much this month since the computer is out at home.

Number stuff: I noticed that she is counting on whenever we are counting together. For example if we are counting steps and stop at the number 8, she will tell me the next number. She still doesn’t have a complete grasp of rote counting although she is very close to having all the numbers in order to 10. Appears to be able to tell me how many of something if there are 3 or less. Apparently her daddy asked her yesterday how many cookies she wanted and she told him she wanted 5, he said how about 2, and she countered with 4. Perhaps a fluke though.

Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: can independently use my iPhone better than a lot of adults.

Creativity: Coloring is a little more developed and purposeful. Wants to (and thinks she can) write her name, but it is still not quite there. Drawing consists of mostly circles, lines, and dots with scribbling mixed in.

Imagination: Very into playing with her dolls right now. Insists I put diapers on them as well as Moo her stuffed cow.

Social: Shy around adults but warms up after a while, we are still working on the hitting and pushing with other kids. She’s a bully even to kids who are bigger than she is.

Character/personality: strong-willed and independent, concerned about hurting others (after the fact)

School Updates: n/a

iPhone

Piper is able to navigate my iPhone better than some adults at this point. She knows all about scrolling from page to page, and loves to look at the pictures on it. One whole page is full of aps just for her. This is a video of her playing one of her favorite games. She has to touch a shape on the screen when it is said. It starts off with 3 shapes per page and then adds more after you pass each level. She also really likes I Hear You, Balloon Animals, and The Wheels on the Bus. I will have to get her on video doing Balloon Animals soon. It is so funny to watch.

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Puzzle

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This video was taken a while back, but I haven't got around to adding until now. I have a difficult time taping Piper doing anything. I had to bribe her with a cookie to get her to do this puzzle. Hence you can hear her in the middle and at the end talking about her cookie.

Holding a Butterfly

Piper got to hold a Monarch Butterfly at the State Fair today. She thought it was pretty. We were just afraid she would smash it, but she was really gentle. We looked at a lot of the animals and walked around the whole circle. Amazingly enough, we didn't buy any fair food. Nothing sounded good, and I guess we were too hot to really have an appetite.

Incredible Pizza

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They are always coming up with something new in terms of entertainment. Incredible Pizza was like a giant Chuck E. Cheese, but better. I was happy with how many little kid rides and activities they had available. Piper loved all of the rides and even went on a go-kart with grandma. They played putt putt and Colin played a few games.

The food wasn't bad, and since it was buffet style we ate, then played. then ate some more. :) Their theme was a 50's style, with a diner, a drive-in, and more areas to eat. We watched a movier in the "drive in" eating room starring Lucille Ball. Cheryl and I enjoyed the music too. If I lived closer I would probably join their Mommy and Me group that meets in the toddler area each week. Cheryl and I decided we would have to go back and just hang out all day next time.

County Fair

We went to the County Fair today for a couple of hours. Mostly we went to show Piper the animals. She loved seeing them all, and thought the pigs were gross. I'm not sure why, but she was sure they were yucky too. I was surprised when she climbed up the chain link fence all by herself. We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay and ride the rides because it was so expensive, so finally we left to go eat and played at the pizza place. I am really looking forward to the State Fair in a couple of weeks and think she will enjoy it more since there will be more to do.

Mini Fashion Show

Here are a couple of outfits I bought with my gymbucks at Gymboree. I wanted so much more, but the money isn't there right now, so I gave my extra gymbucks to my sister who was able to use them. Giving up 50% off is really hard though. I have white tights we'll use with the dress, just need shoes still, and I already had pink leggings that matched so I didn't have to buy those new. I'd like to get hair curlies, but we'll see if we can wait until they get marked down and I can use a coupon too. Another new line comes out today, but there aren't very many BG items I love. I might get a couple of KG but it depends on how small they run.

Please Touch Museum

Yet another installment of our vacation in Pennsylvania. This time we visited the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. I thought it was a pretty nice children's museum that was definitely geared towards the younger kids. There were plenty of exhibits that were hands-on and practical for our young children. Piper was not in a very good mood that day, and was not wanting to share, but I think she still had a fun time.

We started out in Wonderland which had a fairy tale garden, the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, a maze and hall of mirrors. They liked the cooking area and the tea party.

Next we went to City Capers which was Piper's favorite place. Jaxin loved the construction area but she was melting down there and wouldn't play nice and share.

She absolutely had a ball in the supermarket and got to push a little shopping cart around a big store to shop for groceries. She filled her cart with all kinds of veggies, fruit, cereal, bread, and of course, chocolate syrup. I think she would have stayed in there all day. They also had a medical center that she played in for a little while and took care of a baby. Very sweet.
Another area in the museum was Roadside Attractions. There were cars to work on and build, a bus to drive and a city park. One of the exhibits was closed and was filled with balls. Guess who still managed to climb inside the plexiglass because she wanted to play with those balls? Not once, but twice did I have to drag her out of there. I can't believe she squeezed through that tiny space.

Flight Fantasy was a section where kids used their bodies to make things go. I thought it was a pretty interesting section. Some of the activities were a little big for our kids, like the hamster wheel, but they still found things to do. Piper loved this wheel that made the ball go up and then down a series of tracks.

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The carousel was fun.

We saved the River Adventures until the very end, so that if the kids got wet, they wouldn't have to walk around all day like that. There was a water play area and a Woodland park. The lily pads were neat and made sounds when you stepped on them. Next to the park area was the giant floor piano like the one they had on the movie Big. They loved running back and forth on it making "music". Unfotunately, Piper didn't weigh enough to set off the sensors most of the time.

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All in all it was a fun day. It inspired me to take her to our local Children's Museum more often.