Good day to be outside

School days

Immediately following her birthday, Piper graduated from the Dolphin room at school to the Sharks.  She was excited to move up, and has been doing an awesome job.  We love her new teacher.  In the Sharks, they get colors on a stoplight for behavior - one for morning report and one for afternoon report.  Blue is the best - a one-time listener, awesome learner and great friend. Green is very good, maybe needing one or two gentle reminders through the day to pay attention or be nice.  Yellow and red, well, we haven't had to deal with that end of the spectrum yet.  So far Piper is green almost every day and has had several blues as well!

One fun thing that happens at the girls' daycare in the summer is that the older classes get to go on field trips!  Piper had her first field trip last week and another one this week.  Last week they went to a place called Kelly's Farm.  It's a historic farm in Anoka, and they saw an old farm house, lots of animals, and even helped with some farm chores.  They took the "school" bus, so you can imagine how big and proud Piper felt :)

Today is a Water Day at TenderTime.  So Piper got to go to school with her bathing suit on under her clothes.  The Sharks will go outside and play with water toys and games during outside time.  Piper woke up this morning with her typical "Hey guuuuuuuuuuuuys!  I see sunshine coming through my wiiiinddddddow." Immediately followed by "It's Water Day!  It's Water Day!"  At first I thought she was saying "It's Saturday! It's Saturday!" and I was worried she was about to be hugely disappointed.  But nope, Water Day.  No disappointment at all, just sheer joy.

 

 

The Mona Teagan is 9 months!

Teagan is doing well at 9 months!  And was a part of one of Dan's art projects for his class last semester.  These things are not related, but I wanted to post her 9 month stats and also wanted to post this picture, so I figured why not combine?

Height:  26.75 inches, 15.31%
Weight:  15 lbs 13 oz, 11.73%
Head circumference: 17.25 inches, 47.61% GIANT BRAINS!

"Could you read me that?"

The ladies

Bathtime fun

Most of the time, Teagan doesn't particularly care for her bath. But every once in a while...

Piper is FOUR!

Piper had an amazing fourth birthday - it was a great day for all of us.

We filled Piper's room with balloons (including a giant Olaf balloon) while she slept so she woke up to a festive ceiling.  Her birthday party for friends was at the community center, and we had a party in our rented room for her and then the kids all got wrist bands to go play in the play maze (and burn off all the energy from the cake).  That evening, we had a family dinner at home.  Piper got loads of presents and was thrilled to be turning four.  In fact, all day she referred to herself as 'the four year old'.  "The four year old is going potty."  "Maybe the four year old should have that snack?"

She's a wonderful kid and we're thrilled to be a part of her continued growth (in inches, in personality, in ability, and of course in age)!  Cheers to you, four year old! 

Dear Piper, take four

Dear Piper,

You're four.  You're FOUR!!!  I can't believe that you're already four.  I can't believe that you're only four.

What can I say about year three?  It was a year of explosive growth and development, and you grew and developed in your usual fun, spunky and quirky way.

You started off three with quite a storm of changes.  Shortly before your third birthday you potty trained!  In just one long weekend.  You were a natural (and very ready).  It was a painless process.  Then, on your third birthday Dad was in Europe for ten days - the longest you'd ever been apart from either of us.  When he got back, we remodeled the house, you moved rooms, moved into a big girl bed, and then... just hours (literally) after the settled dust had been vacuumed up, you got a little sister!  And left your daycare.  That's a lot of change in a short amount of time.

First let's talk about you as a big sister.  From the moment Teagan was born you were crazy about her.  You came to see her in the hospital when she was just a few hours old.  It's been so fun to watch you interact with her.  No one can make Teagan smile and laugh the way that you can.  And you're sweet and patient with her (most of the time!).  You like to say "TeeeeeGAN!" in a funny way. 

After Teagan was born, you finished daycare at Connie's house and stayed home with us while I was on maternity leave.  That was a big and fun adjustment for us all.  The first month Dad was home with us all, and after that it was "just the ladies" as I like to say.  We filled those days telling lots of stories (train stories, most often) and jokes (train jokes, most often) while we were in the car or I was feeding Teagan.  We had a bunch of play dates.  We frequented the library. And you started a few classes - an ECFE class in the evenings once a week that the whole family went to together and ice skating lessons!  You hated to ice skate at first, but then you started to like it better once Dad or I went on the ice with you.  You also started Sunday school, and loved either 1) Sunday school or 2) the donuts at social hour afterward so much that you'd cry if we didn't make it to church.  You did love your teachers, though, Mrs. Rachel and Miss Katrina.  You did a lot of fun things in Sunday school, and even put on a Christmas program.

In December Oma took care of you for a month while I went back to work.  You and Oma and Teagan had a great time together.  But... Oma couldn't stay forever (sadly!) and so you started preschool at TenderTime right after New Year's.  And that's where some of the real explosions have happened.  You have become such a bold, friendly, confident and social kiddo!  You talk to everyone now, at and outside of TenderTime.  When we have repair men at the house, you can't wait for them to arrive and usually come downstairs armed with a few toys you want to show them.  You're definitely not shy anymore!  At TenderTime, you bound through the doors and into the building, excited to start your day.  First we drop off Teagan, and you hug her over the gate, and then we drop off you, and you hug us over the gate.  Your three year old room was the Dolphin room.  Miss Mindy was your favorite teacher, and Miss Sheila is pretty good too :)  At the end of your time in the Dolphin room you got Miss Gina as your teacher - she came over from Teagan's room after Miss Mindy left.

You adjusted to your new daycare very quickly and made lots of friends in the Dolphin room.  And your teachers loved you and often told us what a sweet little smartie pants you are.  This past year you learned to count to 100 and write your name!!!, you learned the days of the week and months of the year and started to learn about things like weather, animals, gardens, bugs, sea creatures, etc.  Each week at school has a theme.  Each day you get a 'report', and each night we read about your day at the dinner table.  You read most of it, because toward the end of your time in the Dolphin room you also started to do some reading - sounding out words and recognizing sight words!  You love to be read to, and you're very curious about language and words.  You can read quite a bit now.  It's honestly like talking to an adult sometimes - you speak so well!  And you're very analytical and observant - it shocks me all the time - you get that from Dad.  You're also wildly creative.

Some of the things you said as a three year old that we loved:

• "I'm one hundred hungry." 
• Then, not long after, "I'm one thousand hungry."
• "I never mind."
• "Nothing.  Never."  (When you're mad about something.) E.g, "Piper, we're not having mini pizzas tonight - do you want chicken nuggets or fish sticks?"  "Nothing," dramatically, collapsing onto the couch in a heap.  "Never."
• "Lellow" for yellow.  I sometimes ask you questions just so you'll have to answer with that word.  You pronounce so many things so well, and make very few grammatical mistakes, so I kind of treasure the "lellow". 
• "Let's play train names."  
• Then, when you're mad about something, "We're not playing train names anymore." 
• "I see sunlight coming through my wiiiiiinnnnndooooooow..." (when you wake up in the morning) (Also when we have the audacity to try to put you down for a nap in broad daylight.)
• "Hey you guys?  Youuuuu guuuuuuyyys!" (From your crib.  At max volume.)

Some other firsts - you saw your first movie on the movietron downstairs - Frozen.  You thought it was a little scary but liked it overall and have been singing the songs for months. After Christmas this year the Overends came to visit and it's the first time you really bonded with your cousins!  You ladies had such a great time together!  The whole time they were here, you would say "We three cousins are going to play in the basement.  We three cousins are going to eat cereal.  We three cousins...."  You had your first 'sleepover' with your friend Eva.  I can't remember all the other firsts you had, but three was such a big year for you!

Most of all,  at three you were adept telling us what you were thinking and feeling.  You further developed your sense of humor and it became more sophisticated.  You became more independent and went off and had your own adventures, which you reported back on every night over dinner.  You are your own little person, and you're FULL of your own big personality.  We love you, and we're so proud of who you're becoming. We can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

Happy fourth birthday Piper - keep up the amazing work of growing up AWESOME.

Love,
Mom and Dad

We're almost back in business!

If you've noticed it's been quiet around here lately, it's because our Mac has been down for repairs for the past month or so and we lost all of our data (it's been recovered now) in the process. 

So, we just picked up the Mac from the Apple store - fully repaired - and will be back to posting pics and stories of those sweet little ladies in no time! Stay tuned!