My little reader

This is how cute Piper is: we're driving back from Saratoga today, and when we're stopped at a stop sign, I happen to look back to see what she's doing in her car seat that's keeping her happy. Well, she has her Water Water Everywhere book (great for the car because she can eat it all she wants and she can't hurt it) and she is babbling and flipping the pages of the book as if she was reading it. And you could see the pride on her face (in the mirror since she's still rear facing). I wish I could have captured the moment with video, but instead I'm going to have to burn it into my brain forever because it was absolutely priceless.

In more disturbing reading news, look at the book Piper pulled off the shelf at my parents' house last week. Seriously, out of all the books on there (99% children's books), that's what she pulls? Yikes.

Mom brain

When I was pregnant, I read a study that showed that expecting moms' brains can shrink up to 7 percent, so yes, you are in fact less intelligent while pregnant. Now what it didn't cover was what happens after pregnancy ... I will admit that I'm pretty sure I lost all 7 percent - at least! - and it has yet to come back.

I've locked Piper and I out of the house. Not once, but twice.

I've lost the keys to our truck. Not once, but twice.

And that's really just the beginning of a long list of stupid actions. At first, I blamed my lack of cognition on sleep deprivation, which seemed completely reasonable. Well, since Piper sleeps about 12 hours a night and has for a long time, that excuse not longer works. I guess I'm left with the reality of being a mom, which I guess means that Piper now takes up almost all of my free gray matter! And looking at her, all naked and happy with her Daddy, how can she not?

Four weeks later ...

In the words of our nephew, holy moly! In the last four weeks, Piper's cut two teeth, been on her first plane ride, met her cousin Ravel, started going to story time at Crandall Library, has had baby play dates, and loves to be propped up standing on anything and everything. She's been busy! Let's back up to the teeth ...

Her first tooth (bottom left front), popped through the surface the day before we left for Colorado. Perfect timing, since I really didn't want her to be fussy the entire plane ride. And said plane ride was intimidating ... I was so nervous about how she was going to be, but she was absolutely wonderful. The baby that hasn't taken a pacifier in months sucked it on both flights out, and in general, traveled like a dream. She did have one meltdown, on the second flight out, but I couldn't blame her. We boarded the plane and it was SO hot. They had the heat cranked to full blast and I was sweating. It was so hot that I literally stripped her down to her diaper and she still got a heat rash. So the poor little thing wailed for a few minutes, probably scaring all the passengers around us, but once we were up and the plane got cooled down, she was just fine. So after a super early morning wake up and lots of hours of traveling, we arrived in Colorado, where Piper got to meet Ravel for the first time and play with someone her own size.

So the travel day was great - and then the next day, tooth number two began to rear its ugly head. Basically she teethed the entire trip and then the second tooth popped out the day before we left (thankfully!) so we had another smooth trip back. And now the two teeth are super cute, about a third of the way in. I love how she sticks her tongue out all the time and moves it around, trying to feel the two new objects in front. It's absolutely adorable :-)

Colorado was a busy and fun trip! Piper made her first visit to an aquarium, went to a pretty spectacular aquatics center where the pools were warm and there was a family hot tub with lots of fun bubbles to watch. Let's see ... she also participated in Copland's musical lesson birthday party (well, she slept through most of that), played with lots of new and different toys, went for numerous walks in the sunshine, and sat through many a photo session. And as for taking pics, we discovered how difficult it was to take a perfect picture of two infants and a toddler. If only they would all smile together!

And now we've been back for almost three weeks and I'm still trying to figure out how I haven't been able to sit down and blog for all this time. In some ways, I feel lazy once I realize how much time has passed, but then again, I think I'm just plain tired. Piper is still taking her 30 minute morning nap, and then maybe a 20 minute midday and/or 20 minute afternoon nap, but those are typically when we're out and about, waking up as soon as we hit the driveway. So we play and play and play while we're home, which is a lot of fun, but when she goes to bed between 7:30 and 8, I am wiped. And still struggling with staying on top of our house and keeping it neat (which it never is ...). And then there's the fact that it's been nice to sit on the couch and hang out with Reid in front of the winter Olympics. If someone had told me how behind I would be in terms of communication, even at this point (7.5 months later), I wouldn't have believed them! But looking back through my pics, I do realize just how much fun we've had and it definitely makes me smile. And Piper totally poses for pictures now, which I find hilarious. Here are a couple of good examples ...


I also realized that I never blogged about deciding to be a stay at home mom and not return to the crazy world of PR, which I've been meaning to do since the fall. Needless to say, I look at those previous two pics and feel like Piper's smile explains it all. Maybe I'll pontificate a bit more about that another time, but for now I'm signing off and turning on the Olympics. Peace out.

Let the teething begin! (and please let it end very quickly)

So our big news is Piper's cutting her first tooth! If you can't tell by the verb used to describe the process, it sucks. I didn't get the significance of "cutting" before we had Piper, but just thinking about the little sharp tooth literally cutting its way through her gum to the surface definitely gives me the shivers ... the poor thing must hurt! Which explains her recent fussiness. And the fact that she hasn't slept through the last three nights. Ugh. Teething = a tired, fussy baby and a tired, trying-not-to-be-fussy mama.

I will say though, her teething on my wooden spoons is pretty freaking adorable :-)
(And I know you're not supposed to put Bumbos on the counter, but come on. I'm right there and she's happy as a clam to be up in the action when I'm working on dinner.)

And once that pearly white does pop all the way through, there will definitely be lots of pictures taken. Don't even worry about that ...

The other big accomplishment that we're pretty proud of is that she's mastered the sippy cup! She's definitely proud too. She went through a phase of being super frustrated, trying to figure out how the silly thing worked, but now she loves it. And I love that we can now have the valve in the top so that we don't have a swimming pool all around her high chair after lunch or dinner!

She's currently bouncing in her Graco door jumper. She still LOVES that thing. And I love the exercise it gives her. You'd think with all the jumping her thighs and cankles wouldn't be the same size, but that's ok. As I look outside at a blustery snowy day, I'm glad that she's got some fat on her to keep her nice and cozy.

6 month stats!

While Piper's bouncing in her jumper, I wanted to quickly make note of her latest stats from today's 6 month dr's appointment. So here we go ...

Height: 27 inches - 89 percentile
Weight: 19 pounds - 95 percentile
Head circumference - 17 inches - 75 percentile

So she's tall, chunky, with a bit of a petite head. Don't worry, that thing is chock full of brains.

Oh, and apparently she has stranger anxiety. Or that's how our super nice, baby-loving doctor explained it when Piper went from a smiling baby to SCREAMING and CRYING at the top of her lungs when the pediatrician took her from Reid. Yikes. Should make for an interesting babysitting session tomorrow so that I can interview a Dartmouth candidate ... hope she's good for Kelci!

No longer a little peanut

Just in case there's any question about how much Piper has changed over the last six months, here's the shocking proof ...

3 weeks old:
And now six months old:
Same monkey, same baby, but SOOO many changes!!

Since one of Piper's favorite activities seems to be the bath, we decided to go to the Y today for open swim and introduce her to the huge tub, with lots of screaming children and a lot cooler water. I don't think she really knew what to think at first. She looked very unsure of the situation and chewed on her bottom lip for the first five minutes or so - the lower lip chewing is new by the way. It started a few days ago and used to be just when she was eating, but now it happens at random times. The whole bottom lip disappears and she sucks sucks sucks. It's hilarious, but anyway, back to the pool, after she got used to the new surroundings and volume level, she really seemed to enjoy herself. She splashed and kicked and liked "swimming" with her daddy and me. She definitely got a lot more comfortable and even put her head back when she was swimming on her back with me. Reid's still thinking her sport is going to be tennis, but based on what I saw today, I'm thinking we should have named her Micheala Phelps Hutchins. Those frog legs were insane!

Publish Post

Many more firsts ...

We need to catch up a bit here since somehow, three weeks have once again passed since I've been on here. Simply put, I blame the holidays. Between Piper's baptism (December 20) and Christmas, we hosted 33 people for dinner, and then there was everything else that went with the holidays. The candy making (so worth it), traveling to Middlebury, spending time with friends and family. It was all great, but definitely left me exhausted.

Backing up to the baptism ... Piper was baptized at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Queensbury, and clearly she found the entire process to be quite exhausting. She wore the same gown as my sister and I, which was very special. I was worried that it wouldn't fit her, but as long as we didn't button the top button, she was good to go.

And then Piper's first Christmas!! She was a rock star. We hosted the Hutchins' family Christmas dinner and she was passed around all day and loved by all. With a few intermittent naps, including in her cousin Ellen's arms, she made it through the day with mostly smiles. She did start to melt down late afternoon, but I don't blame her for that ... and then she slept for 13 hours straight that night to recuperate. So adorable. And even though this picture is blurry, I love it because you can see how happy she is that Santa came :-)

And here she is at Nana and Papa's house in her new chair with the stocking Santa brought her there. She's spoiled, for sure.


Also around Christmas, she started being less verbal. Before, she used to "talk" up a storm, but she's definitely chilled out on that and is working on physical stuff - mainly sitting up. It's crazy because she went from needing to be propped up by one of us or pillows, to all of a sudden she's her own little person, sitting up and playing with toys. Um, seriously?! It kind of freaks me out because she looks like a little kid when she does that. She does still topple over every once in a while, but she must have some core muscles under her Buddha belly because for the most part, she can hold her own. This was yesterday up in her room (and she's playing with the pants that had just come off instead of her toys, but close enough) ...

And I almost forgot! She also went for her first cross-country ski on New Year's Eve with Reid and I, Aunt Kendra and Aunt Sara. She rocked her backpack for the first time and appeared to enjoy every minute - that is, until she fell asleep, but that took a while.


So what's Piper up to these days when she's not sitting up or skiing? Well, she's still loving food (if you can't tell by her cheeks). She's added lots of additional fruits and a few veggies to her repertoire and has even tried to feed herself (huge mess). She's still sleeping like a champ, packing it in for about 12 straight hours a night, and then not doing much napping during the day. I can usually count on a 30-45 minute nap about two hours after she wakes up in the morning. Then after that, there isn't usually much ... maybe a 15 or 20 minute cat nap or two. So we play a bunch! She LOVES her bouncer and bounces for 30 minutes at a time. She's still into her exersaucer and has figured out how to turn around in it. And then of course there's sitting up and playing. Probably her favorite toy right now is the Baby See and Say that my parents got her for Christmas, but she has fun playing with just about anything - including the Wall Street Journal or an empty card board box. She's SIX MONTHS tomorrow. Insane. In some ways, I can't believe so much time has passed since she's joined our family, and then in others, I can't believe it's only been that short of a time because it feels like we've been loving her forever. She's our little peanut butter and we love her like crazy.