"Back..."

Piper's separation anxiety has definitely improved since last we posted. She was great for Kara on Monday for the missionary luncheon. I was gone for five hours and they played and even had a nap. Even better news was that on Sunday Piper stayed in nursery by herself for the last hour. I stayed with her during Sunday School but left her for Relief Society. She has started to understand the concept of "back" and will repeat it to you if you tell her that you'll be right back.

Now our only real problem is Piper's eczema. She started getting a rash on the inside of her elbows around Christmas. She's been itching like crazy lately despite my attempts to keep her arms covered with gauze. She has drawn blood on several occasions. It's almost completely healed which will be wonderful. I'm just grateful that she doesn't have chickenpox at this age because she would have so many scars since it's next to impossible to keep her from itching.

Piper has started the dreaded "why" phase of toddlerhood. Some days she asks me why repeatedly but she has no real understanding of what she's saying. She is just fascinated with the sound and the responses she gets. She has started recognizing letters though. She knows M, P, D, E, O, C, Z and I. She loves M, P, and D because P is for Piper, M is for Mommy, and D is for Daddy. The other letters have loved ones attached to them as well. Z is for Zoey, of course.

Rick's ankle is healing well; he can even walk on it short distances without a crutch. This week he started taking the train to work again. We still pick him up in the evening though. I'll be glad when he can do the roundtrip by himself again - I hate Sydney traffic and Piper's dinner usually consists of eating crackers and raisins with a cup of milk in the car.

With Rick's convalescence our attention is turned to our upcoming Easter trip to the Great Barrier Reef. My lovely cousin Natalee is coming down to visit and is going to the reef with us too. We should have an awesome time together.

Our stake at church is participating in no TV week this week. So no TV, DVD or music for us. I thought that it would be traumatic for Piper. I knew that Rick would get by without TV so long as he can check up on the Jayhawks on the internet. I thought I'd have the hardest time because I'd have to entertain Piper. So far, so good. Good thing we've had fairly good weather, except for the freak downpour we had last night. Piper has had long naps too so that kills a good portion of the day too. We've been to the library and the playground. We've run errands. We've done puzzles, had tea parties, read books, colored, done stickers, and played with blocks. We watched the boats in the harbor. (By the way, the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth 2 were in Sydney Harbor this week with all the news coverage that that entails.) I've cleaned out our nightstands, vacuumed, baked muffins, made homemade pizza, studied my scriptures, and done neglected chores. I'm going to have to come up with some other activities for the rest of the week.

Oh, and Piper can't say pizza, she calls it "teeta."

Here is a photo for those of you who need your Piper fix.