How is it mid-November?!

Is it possible that so much time has gone by that I didn't even post after Piper's 15 month checkup?! ARGH. Well, the good news is, my available free time is once again back to sparse instead of nonexistent so I'm putting blogging back onto my to-do list.

Looking back over a MONTH, Piper had her 15 month checkup. Her stats were as follows ...

Height: 32.5 inches - 95 percentile

Weight: 25 pounds - 90 percentile

Head circumference: 18.5 inches - 75 percentile

I can report that she's up to 26 pounds, 12 ounces from her appointment last week, when she went in with conjunctivitis in both eyes and a sinus infection that had come back after one round of antibiotics. Antibiotic eye drops (torture for everyone involved) and another heavier duty antibiotic later, she's doing much better!

At this point, the election was almost two weeks ago ... and while it didn't end favorably (the electorate in our district chose a soldier instead of a businessman to solve economic issues - go figure), it was a unique experience and I'm glad I gave it a shot. After four and a half weeks, Piper finally adjusted to daycare - in fact, she began to love it! She went back to being a solid sleeper and returned to her usual chipper self. It was amazing to have her back! And so much less of a burden on me - I had way less guilt once she began really enjoying herself. And now, even though work is done, she continues to go to "school" one day a week. Sometimes I feel guilty about this, but honestly, I think it's great for both of us. She loves it, gets a full day of socialization with her friends, and I have some time also. I've had two of her school days so far and both have been spent primarily cleaning, but I did spend a bit of time reading on Friday and it felt so nice. And I knew she was having a good time too so I didn't feel badly about it.

So how was working? Well ... I'm not rushing back into it. There were times when it was rewarding, times when it was frustrating, and times when I just couldn't figure out why the heck I was doing it other than I wanted to give it a try and I believed in the project. Overall, it just isn't worth it to me at this point. Even though I enjoyed the work, my life wasn't any more full, any more complete, with me going to work three days a week. It was cool to see Bill Clinton speak in Saratoga, and I felt privilidged to meet two Cabinet members (secretaries of agriculture and commerce), but I would rather be home with Piper most of the time. I'm not going to say that I won't go back to work - and if a unique project presents itself again, I will certainly take a good look at it before I decide how to proceed, but I'm not going to be sending out any resumes anytime soon.

Piper's just a blast. She toddles all over the place, and probably her favorite type of activity is an art project. She loves to color (especially with markers), finger paint even more, and sidewalk chalk on beautiful days is a must. She makes me laugh (like her daddy) so many times every day and I'm simply just crazy about her still. She's super vocal, although most of what she says is still incomprehensible, but every once in a while she totally surprises me and will come out with a complete sentence. The other day, she walked to the coat closet, stood in front of it, pointed at it and said: "This is a closet." Why yes it is, Piper! So cute.

Oh, and today, she peed on the potty. When I went to the bathroom this morning, she showed interest in getting on the toilet too, so I went and got out the frog potty we had from the basement. She sat on it, but nothing happened. Then after breakfast out at Papa's diner, and Church, we came back home and she again showed interest when Reid had to use the bathroom. So I put her back on the potty, and low and behold, she peed! And peed a ton. She was greatly rewarded with several chocolate chips, and has since sat on the potty multiple other times without any activity. I know she's too young to be potty trained, but hey, if she's into it, we'll give it a shot.

I'm sure I'm running out of time as Piper has been sleeping now for an hour, but one of my favorite things that we did this fall was to go to Ellms Family Farm in October. It was a bit chilly, but it was SO fun. I'll end this blog with some of my favorite pics from that day ...

She kept pointing at the cow's head and saying "mooo."

At the bottom of the 70' slide:

Giant bouncing pillow!

Riding bikes with Daddy...

Going down the 15' slide all by herself! Daddy watching over ...

As much as we tried to get her to stand still, this was the best we could do ...

It was so much fun and I can see it getting even better when she's bigger. We'll be returning next year!