11 Months

How can this little baby be 11 months?!  I cannot believe it!

-You have learned to clap your hands and say "Yea."
-You also like to raise your hands up in the air after clapping.  We are not sure what this means but Gammy (my mom) likes to say, it means "Hallelujah!"
-You have started dancing and you will dance to anything- even while reading books and while rocking to sleep.
-You say "uh-oh" about 100 times a day.
-You are taking steps!  Your first step was July 8th (one day after 10 months) then you took about 3 steps on July 16th in front of the whole family in TX.  You only take steps when you don't realize what you are doing.  Once you build up your confidence you'll be off but I am guessing that's a ways down the road.
-You are in to everything.  You open up all cabinets and drawers and pull out anything you can find.  This makes for lots of messes for us to clean up but it keeps you occupied!
-You still love to swim!
-You love all babies and stuffed animals and these past few days, you carry a baby with you everywhere!
-Your favorite game is "I'm gonna get you".  You will squeal if we say that and try to get away as fast as possible.
-You can go up and down the two steps in our living room.  Yay!
-You crawled all the way up Mimi and Papa's stairs without hesitation.  We didn't let you try to go down them.

What a joy you are to us!  It is so fun to watch you explore this world.

-

Piper's Baby Dedication

On Mothers Day our church (Trinity Grace Church) had a baby dedication for all the babies born in the last year.  We went up front for a blessing from the church and they showed a slide show of each child's pictures.  They gave the moms bouquets of flowers (it being Mother's Day and all) and each baby received a Jesus Storybook Bible and a certificate.  This is one of the many ways our church has showered blessings on us and others and we were so proud to be able to dedicate Piper!

10 months

Piper turned 10 months old on July 7th.  She is so much fun and keeps us busy and entertained.

-You love dogs and like to say "Wuff" when you see them.
-You still love to read books and you are into playing with them by yourself and turning the pages.
-You love it when we sing songs to you, it always produces a smile.
-You are cruising more and more and love to push your walker toy.
-You are staring to say uh-oh.
-You say "mmmm" after you eat something very tasty.
-You now have 8 teeth.
-You sometimes say "yea" when you clap.
-You are becoming a little more picky with what you like to eat.  You will not eat avocados but you love guacamole.
-You are expressing yourself very notably these days when we take you away from something you shouldn't be playing with or make you do something you don't want to.

 

You are growing and learning so fast we just can't believe it!  Where did our baby go?? 

Erica and Jack come to visit

We have been so blessed by people coming to visit and in April one of my favorite people, Erica came to stay with us.  She brought along her sweet 10 month old, Jack.  We had a great time!

They flew in on a Tuesday and were supposed to arrive in the afternoon but their plane was delayed for so long that they didn't arrive until 8:00 that night!  They walked in exhausted and hungry but we were ready for them with dinner and a bed for Jack!  After we put the kids to bed Erica and I stayed up talking, of course!  Jack and Piper got along great!  They are both so easy going and had fun playing together but I think Jack was a little confused at why Piper was always laughing at him.  She just loves other kids!  We were able to borrow a stroller from my friend Sara for Jack and on Wednesday we walked around the Upper West Side and previewed places to eat.  Then we went to Central Park and sat in Strawberry Fields (Beatles anyone?) and gave the kids some snacks.  We then met up my friend Katie (from Ft. Worth) for lunch.  She was here shortly on a business trip and wanted to meet see us.  We ate at a great Asian/Sushi restaurant called Tenzan.  The weather was a little cool but we still ate outside.  We said goodbye to Katie and went back to the apartment so the babies could take their naps.  We talked some more, our favorite pastime, and figured out what to make for dinner and what to do the next day. Then we took a long walk in Central Park with the kiddos in tow.  On Thursday we hiked down to Chelsea market to shop around and find a cool place for lunch.  It was not at all what we were expecting.  We thought it was a big open market with tons of food options and people selling food all over the place.  Turns out it's a big warehouse with a few individual restaurants (expensive restaurants) and stores.  We still had fun but I probably won't go back unless someone requests it.  A place I did love was the restaurant we ate lunch at in Chelsea.  It was called The Park because they had built the restaurant around trees so you felt like you were eating outside.  We shared a delicious pizza that had a meat called sopressata.  It was a cross between pepperoni and canadian bacon and it was glorious!  We then went back home for naps and playtime.  After dinner that night and bedtime for the kids, we left Brett at home and went to look in a few shops and grab dessert.  We looked around for a yummy treat and ended up at Magnolia Bakery where we ordered their mini cheesecakes.  It was a good decision!  The next morning Erica and Jack had to leave around 11 but we went to a store to buy her kids at home some souvenirs and return the stroller to Sara.  We had so much fun with Erica and Jack and hope it's not the last of their visits!  Here are some pics of our fun times!

Random Acts

I am so behind on blogging (stay tuned for a lot of new posts) but I wanted to share this story that happened two Sundays ago.

Brett and I were on our way to church Sunday morning and when we finally made our way down to the subway, the screen read 20 minutes until the next train.  Ugh.  We could not wait 20 minutes because we would be really late!  So we decided to take our chances with the bus, even though the one we needed had just left as we were walking to the subway.  I started to complain about public transportation and how much easier it would be to be on time if the city ran more smoothly or if we were back in Texas with our car.  My sweet husband was quick to point out that it was beyond our control and we should not worry about these little details.  We waited at the bus stop where a little old lady happened to be sitting.  She was probably in her 80s.  Piper, of course, started smiling at her and entertaining her and the lady engaged us in some small talk.  I told her about the 20 minute wait and she was waiting on the same bus as us.  She had been waiting a while and asked us where we were going.  All of the sudden she walked out in the street and hailed a cab and said "Come on get in.  I'll get us to 82nd street and then you can take the cab to 97th."  We were so surprised and decided to take her up on it because we were so late. ( Cabs are a bit of luxury for us and usually only used for airport trips when we bring along half of our belongings!)  On the cab ride I was thinking how nice it was for her to pay for us till 82nd street.  I figured that meant we still have to pay for 15 blocks which was going to be around $10.  She even told the cab driver to stay on the street we would need to be let out on and she would just walk one avenue over.  When we started to protest she insisted saying her doctor told her she needed to walk more.  Then when the cab driver stopped to let her out she reached back and handed Brett a 20 dollar bill saying, "This is for the baby."  Then she got out of the cab and started walking down the street.  We of course thanked her quickly but she has no idea how she made us feel.  Random acts of kindness are rare in this city and she showed love so simply to two lonely Texans and it meant so much.  It immediately made me repent of my complaining about the city and humbled my attitude.  If the subway had not been delayed we would never have met such a kind old woman that blessed our whole day and filled our hearts with the knowledge that their are nice people in NYC.

Because I was told that every post needs some pictures......

8 Months and 9 months

Piper turned 8 months on May 7th.  It is getting harder to keep her still for a picture! 

-You are officially on the move!  One night you saw a toy across the room and went after it. 

-You are pulling up on anything you can find and cruising on the furniture.  You prefer to be standing or cruising over crawling.  Usually the crawling is used to get somewhere where you can pull up.

-Your favorite activity is to hold our hands and walk around the apartment.  You prefer to do this with your Daddy.

-You are starting to babble more and your favorite word is Dada.  Although, we are pretty sure you don't know what you are saying.

-Anytime I have my glasses on you think it's a fun game for you.  You love to pull them off of my head and play with them.

-You love to play with my hair, especially when you are being held or rocked.  I think this is so sweet.

-Speaking of playing with hair, you like to grab other people's hair as well.  The other day on the bus you grabbed the hair of the lady in front of us!  It was a little awkward!

-We started you in swimming lessons and you have done great!  You love to splash and kick in the water and don't protest when we put you under.

-You are such a great eater!  Anytime we have food of our own you want some of it.  You have been eating more food off of our plates than anything else.  You love to eat meat and you have not spit anything out up to this point.

We are loving every minute with our Piper Girl and it is such a joy to watch you discover new things!

9 Months

9 Month Stats

Weight: 19pounds 7 ounces (70th Percentile)

Length: 27 inches (50th Percentile)

Head: 18 inches (90th Percentile- Yikes!)

-You LOVE to give kisses.  You give them to us, some people at church, your stuffed animals and to the characters in your books.  It's so sweet!

-You are trying to learn how to give zerberts.  Right now you just open your mouth and make a sound instead of blowing.  You think this is really funny.  We end up with a lot of wet faces/arms/legs around here!

-You went on your first family vacation this month to Chicago and Indiana and you did great!

-You are little miss social.  You love to be out around people and especially other kids.

-You like to sit and entertain people- especially on the subway.  The other day you had everyone (and I mean everyone) staring at you and trying to get you to smile or laugh.  It cracks us up when the big tough guy sitting across from us starts playing peek-a-boo and making funny noises to get you to smile. Sometimes you will stare at people and smile until the look at you.  This can be a little awkward.  

-You love to crawl up the 2 steps in our living room and are perfecting this skill quite well.

-You are still a very good eater and you eat whatever we are eating.  In fact, we can't eat in front of you without giving you a bite of what we are having.

-You were sick for the first time the last day of our Chicago trip.  You either had a stomach bug or food poisoning.

-You are starting to clap, especially when you get excited.

-You will wave bye-bye sometimes.  Still have not mastered this yet.

-You will sometimes say the "woof" sound when we ask you what a dog says or when you hear a dog bark.  It comes out more like "uffff".

-Your absolute most favorite thing to do is read books.  We could read to you for an hour straight I am certain and you would still want more.  You sit in our lap and actually look at the book and pay attention.  We are getting a little tired of the current books.......

I am not sure how you came to be 9 months already but this is such a fun age and we can't get enough of you Sweet P!

Sally and Laura come to visit

 In April, some of my very best girlfriends from Texas came to visit!  They found a work conference in NYC and used that as an excuse to come and see us.  They were only here for 4 days (including travel and the conference), but we packed in tons of activities!  Here is the play by play.

They arrived on Monday, April 15th in the afternoon and we took off almost as soon as they arrived.  Sally really wanted to eat a hot dog off the street so we walked down one block and fulfilled her wish.  Then we decided to go to Times Square but we hopped on the uptown subway instead of downtown, because we were talking, so we toured 72nd street instead.  It was a good mistake because Sally and Laura got to try Waffles and Dinges as a great ending to their street vendor meal.  We then got on the correct subway and made our way to Times Square.  We walked around a little bit and decided we needed to make a gameplan for the rest of our time.  Neither Sally or Laura had ever been to NYC before.  We went back to the apartment and talked through the rest of their trip, and perhaps got side tracked by other conversations along the way.  We ate dinner at home and then left Piper with Brett and went to Macy's to shop.  We then went to Cafe Lalo (the restaurant in You've Got Mail) and had dessert and coffee.  Our original plan was to get up early the next day and go to the Today Show.  However, we stayed up way too late talking so an early morning outing was quickly marked off the list!  It was a good thing we didn't make the trip out there because the normal set up was closed due to the Boston bombing coverage.  We went down to the Broadway show area and purchased tickets to see the musical Once for that night.  We were able to get tickets for around $47.  After that, we walked from 45th street to Rockefeller Center, and spent some time looking around.  We tried to get tickets to an NBC tour but Piper was not allowed.  We then walked down Fifth Avenue and stopped to tour St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It was under construction but was still beautiful!  The pictures do not do it justice.  Along Fifth Avenue we just had to go into Tiffany's!  We confirmed with a sales associate that it was the same Tiffany's featured in the movie Sweet Home Alabama.  We took pictures to send to our husbands of our favorite jewelry and decided most of it didn't quite fit our tastes.  Ha! Yea right.  Then we headed to FAO Schwartz where Sally bought a present for Preston.  We of course played on the big piano.  We had lunch at Ray's Pizza, which is supposed to be a famous and delicious chain.  I didn't think it was that great, but maybe I ordered the wrong thing?  Even though I ordered pizza!   We walked back through Central Park and took a break to people watch.  This is one of Sally and Piper's favorite pasttimes!!  Then we went home, cleaned up, ate dinner and left to see Once.  It was an interesting musical.  All of the actors stay on stage the whole time and each one played at least one instrument.  It won 8 Tony awards and the singing was great!  The next day Sally and Laura got up early and went to their nursing conference.  Brett, Piper and I met them for lunch in Times Square and then they were done about 3pm.  So Piper and I met them again and we headed down to Chinatown to look for knock-off purses for Sally's sister.  As soon as we arrived people were whispering name brands to us as we walked by.  Don't worry, we didn't take Piper down any dark ally ways but we might have bought some better knock-offs if we had.  We then made our way down to see The World Trade Center Memorial.  This made Piper and I's third visit there.  We were close to the water so we walked out to the shore and could see the Statue of Liberty.  It was a beautiful day!  We then made our way back home, picked up Brett and headed out to eat on the Upper West Side for dinner.  We chose Harry's Burritos and ate outside.  We had delicious burritos and enjoyed the fun atmosphere!  After we ate, we passed by Magnolia Bakery and of course, had to stop in and bring home some dessert.  By this time we were so worn out but that didn't stop us from staying up late and talking, again!  Sally and Laura had to wake up the next morning bright and early to catch their flight.  Come back anytime!  Here are some pics of our adventures.

Eating Waffles and Dinges at 72nd Street

 Fun in Times Square

 Empire State Building

 Outside of Macy's

 Cafe Lalo

 The Today Show

 St. Patrick's Cathedral

 The Big Piano- FAO Schwartz

 Central Park

 A bracelet at Tiffany's on 5th Avenue

 Ready to go and see Once!

 By the river (see the statue?)

 Piper Girl enjoying the weather!

 She loves her Sally!

 Sally and Laura both carried Piper in the wrap.  Laura's experience caused a wardrobe malfunction, however!

 Harry's Burritos

 Magnolia Bakery (they look a little worn out!)

I had so much fun with these wonderful friends.  Thanks for leaving your boys to come visit us!