Things we love about Piper

Here are some the top things we love about Piper in no particular order.

• Almost on a daily basis Piper cracks us up with the things she says.
• Piper is friendly and sociable.
• Piper loves reading books.
• Piper definitely takes after us and our respective families. She acts just like I did as a kid, and her Grandma Vicki and Great-Grandma Dody too.
• She loves to sing but if you try to sing with her, she usually says, "shh Daddy," or "shh Mommy," because she wants to sing, not us.
• Piper is very polite. You hardly have to remind her to say please and thank you. Even when she's upset, she'll still say "no, thank you" even though she's got a grumpy face.
• Piper wakes up quickly and pretty happy, unlike her mother.
• Piper loves to help. She sets the table by putting the silverware and napkins on the table. She likes to clean too but mostly dusting and vacuuming. Cleaning up her toys or books is another issue altogether.
• Following in her mother's footsteps, Piper likes to cook. Whenever I'm in the kitchen, she runs and tells me, "I help you," and proceeds to get a chair to push up to the counter.
• Piper is mostly a good sleeper, though while traveling she gets very clingy and isn't as good of a sleeper.

I'm a bit behind...

We've been out of the touch recently but there's a good reason. After a few final whirlwind days in Sydney, we went to Tahiti and Moorea for a little vacation. We had a fabulous time. We're still adjusting to not wearing our swimsuits all day.

Our trip in a nutshell:

Beach, food, snorkel, beach, swimming, playing cards, beach, snorkel, crepes, beach...repeat as desired. (You get the idea.)

Happy Birthday to you...

Piper's birthday was last Saturday. We threw a little luau for her and some of her friends. It was fun. We blew bubbles, did the hokey pokey and the hula hoop, ate cake, and opened gifts. We had five kids over and their parents. Piper answered the door with an "Aloha. Thank you for coming." We worked on that all week but it usually sounded like, "loha, you coming."

Piper got books and puzzles from most of her friends. But her friend Tyler got her this riding inchworm that Piper loves. She's named it Sydney (yeah, do you think she's going to have a hard time leaving).

The only unfortunate part of the day was the fact that Zoey couldn't come to the party. She had had a slip in the tub earlier in the day and had to go to the hospital to have surgery. They ended up removing her bottom four baby teeth so she'll be missing them until the adult ones come in...in four years. So sad. But she's coping well and you can hardly tell that they're missing unless you look hard.

It could take me forever to write the "things we love about Piper" post since there are so many but I'll write it soon.

Good dinner...

Last week we went out to dinner with our friends Mindy and Dave. Rick picked this great Chinese restaurant that specializes in seafood. Upon entering you see rows of fish tanks for you to pick from. We decided to get the salt and pepper lobster which was a three pound lobster deep-fried, shell and all, in a heavily seasoned batter. It was a sight to see.

Piper keeps up with her funny phrases:

• Piper sometimes asks why but she answers herself with “’cause, um…”
• When we were walking back to the train station from visiting Rick at work one day it was during rush hour. Piper would wave and smile at people passing by and say “hi people.” Where did she get that from?!

Cheeky monkey

I will get to the run-down and pics of Piper's birthday soon enough but in the meantime I thought I'd share a few recent gems from Piper.

• Rick told Piper that she and he were going to go out together to run errands and go for a walk. He was trying to get her going, get her to put on her shoes, etc. He told her “c’mon” and her response was “I busy.”
  
• One day Piper and I came home and almost first thing Piper saw one of her bears on the chair and for some reason called it a “cheeky monkey,” giggling to herself. She repeated it a few times. Where does she come up with this stuff?! She's definitely our little cheeky monkey.
  
• Piper had had two bowls of cereal and part of banana for breakfast one morning. While I was getting ready Rick was eating his breakfast. He was giving Piper some cereal. I told him that he shouldn’t give her anymore and I told her that she'd had enough. Then I hear Rick busting a gut because of something Piper had said. Apparently Piper had whispered to Rick, “Daddy, please, more, shh.” And she put her finger to her lips while whispering. What a sneak!
  
• Last Wednesday we went for Piper’s 2-year old check-up. The doctor told us that she should only have two cups of milk a day as Piper has a tendency to ask for milk a lot. The next time Piper asked for milk I told her that the doctor said that she can only have two cups. So now when Piper asks for more milk she tells me, “doctor, two cups,” as if to say, “Mom, the doctor said I can have two cups.”