My nightly test of mental acuity

I’m a math nerd.

I admit it.

I spent four years in college studying it. 

To turn around and do nothing with it.

But it doesn’t prevent me from still enjoying number-related activities.  I’m the kind of person that roles their eyes at those who question (out loud) what an item costs when it’s a certain percentage off and then leave satisfied because at least they know that it’ll be less than the sticker.

When I’m bored, my activity of choice is Sudoku.  I even have a pocketbook-sized book of them I keep in my purse for those annoying lines you inevitably find yourself in from time-to-time.  And every night before bed, I do at least one. 

The problem I’ve noticed, however, is that my ability to do a puzzle is inversely proportional to my level of stress, lack of sanity, amount of sleep, etc., etc., etc.  It’s definitely become my yardstick (sometimes just a ruler…) for my daily mental acuity.

Piper has picked up on my anxiety that comes from my decline in Sudoku ability.  She decided that if she finished all my puzzles for me, I couldn’t fret over my cognitive decline.

While doing my hair this morning, I found her talking her way through the puzzles. 

I tried to convince her that it might be easier if she turned the book upside-right.  She apparently disagreed because she started yelling at the book (or me?) after I turned it around for her. 

Either that, or she simply enjoyed the added level of difficulty from having to do them upside down.

Little Drummer Girl

Check out Piper’s new found drumming abilities!

She started out watching Nana hit it with her hands.  Now THAT was entertaining.  How does she do that???  And it felt funny, too! 

They then graduated to the actual hammer.  The faster Mom drummed, the bigger Piper’s eyes got.  And the less she blinked. 

Piper couldn’t handle it any more- she HAD to drum for herself!  And what better to drum with than her maracas?

She surprised us by keeping a very even beat.  And she thought her music was bea-uuuu-ti-ful!

She’s getting to the stage now where she wants whatever you have.  Kind of like the dogs- the other dog’s bone is obviously better.  So she asked Nana if she could have the BIG stick!

I’m glad she enjoys making music.  And I don’t think she could possibly be any cuter doing so.  However, I hafta say…

…I’m not thrilled with drums as her instrument of choice.  How ‘bout something more mellow?  PLEASE???

I’m horrified. HORRIFIED.

There are few things in this life that I simply CANNOT stand.  Tags in shirts, itchy sweaters, that little bump caused by the seam on the toe of your sock…

Most things, though, are food related.  Luke is NOT allowed (literally- I considered forcing a prenup on the subject, but he assured me he would obey) to come near me after he has eaten any fish or pickles.  Seriously.  It was one of the sacrifices he made.  Which means a lot, because he loves both.

We ate a very fancy meal of sandwiches last night for dinner (envious, aren’t you???).  I sat down to THIS.

That’s right, folks- THAT is a pickle.  In my daughter’s hand.  A PICKLE.

I’d pretend that the pursed lips is an indication of her dislike.  However, I’d be lying, and Luke would call me on it.  Truth be told, she held, squeezed, licked…  She even bit down as hard as she could to get the <<<shiver>>> pickle juice out. 

I’d also like to say that this is Piper scolding her father.  Unfortunately, I’m sure that wasn’t the case.  I am so, SO sad.

((notice, however, her pointed finger in this picture- we’ve been working on saying “one” with her fingers for her birthday.  We were trying last night to get her to “say” it, but I didn’t realize we got a picture!))

The boring stuff…

Just because a few people were wondering about Piper’s junk- feel free to jump forward if you want!  :)

So…

When we left the ER on Saturday, I was under strict directions to go back if Piper was having any trouble breathing, including if she was turning blue (gee, ya think???), and to call her pediatrician on Monday.

So, following orders, I called.  I was a little concerned, because her stridor was still there, which they said should have been gone Saturday with the steroids, and if not, for sure by Monday.  BUT, she had gotten a little better, and I figured they’d say it was just “hanging on” a little while longer.  I wasn’t in the mood to wait on hold forever, since I wasn’t concerned, so I left a message on the nurse line.

Not long after, I get a call back from the nurse.  She was not thrilled with the persistent stridor, and wanted us to go in that afternoon.  However, since I procrastinated calling until after lunch, they had no more appointments for the day.  So, they really wanted me to take her back to urgent care…  Joy.  Fantastic.  Not only would that require a significant wait in the waiting room, but it would require waiting in the waiting room with a bunch of other sick kiddos- us exposing ourselves to them, and them exposing us to their crud.  NOT what I wanted to do, since her immune system is already a little supressed just being sick in the first place.  BUT, because Piper got a dose of steroids in the ER on Saturday, instead of out of the prescription we had gotten for her, I had another dose of steroids left.  They let me give that to her (I figured that’d be all they would do in the ER, anyway), and make an appointment with them yesterday morning instead. 

First thing yesterday we head down there.  Piper was nursing when the NP (whom we NEVER have to see- we ALWAYS see a doc, but they were completely booked) came in.  She sounds absolute worst when she was eating, so I was glad that she was actually making her noises for someone, instead of it all being hearsay.  She immediately got a pulse ox (she sounds so bad that they all worry about that first- which I’m all for) to monitor her.  She was sat-ing at 98%.  They decided to do a nasal aspirate test to see if there was a virus; the ENT said that if there still was a virus, to just let it run it’s course.  If a virus was not present, they’d want to do some more looking. 

The NP then went on to say that it was probably because a lot of kids with Ds have a weak airway, and whatever “sick” she got just made it bad enough for us to finally see it.  Even though she’s a year old.  Even though she’s been intubated on three separate occasions.  Even though she’s never had an issue maintaining her O2 levels, and was only on oxygen for about 2 weeks when she weighed less than 4 pounds.  Even though floppy airways are usually diagnosed by 6 weeks, not 11 months.  I wasn’t terribly thrilled with her response; it kind of felt like it was her way to write us off without having to investigate any further.  (And, of course, by me writing this pretty much ensures that this actually is our problem…)

Anyway, the grumpiest old man respiratory guy came in to do the aspirate test.  And, I know, that sucking snot out of infants can’t be the most enjoyable part of one’s day, but COME ON.  I think he had the people skills of a beet.  But I digress.

We got word this afternoon that there was no virus in the sample.  I was freaking out for a little while, but then decided that nothing in the “weakened airway” really made sense.  I mean, Piper got sick about 3 days after I did, she’s really starting to get better, it was a fast onset of symptoms, etc., etc., etc.

The ENT nor the NP called today, so I’m guessing that means that ENT isn’t too super worried.  I’ll call tomorrow to check if I don’t hear; it’d be nice just to have an idea what our plan of attack will be.  We’ll see!

Goin', Goin', Goin' (or tryin', tryin', tryin'?)

This afternoon, my Mom and I were working on some of the favors for Piper’s party. I took apart a few of the pieces to make them easier to make, and Piper thought that my extra pieces looked like GREAT fun.

Last week during PT, Amy said that she might, just might, be crawling by her birthday, based on her improvement from last month and what she’s doing now. So, we have orders to do the stairs as much as she’ll tolerate (which she pretty much loves to do, even though it’s tough), to do squats in reps of 10 (I’m pretty sure I know some adults who couldn’t do 10 full squats), and play in squat as much as she’ll allow. Unfortunately, since she’s gotten sick, we’ve lost a few days of work.

But, you should see the level of excitement in her face when she really wants to GO. She knows that she should be able to move. And sometimes it looks like she thinks she’s actually moving. She stretches with every ounce of her being trying to reach the silly springs- including her lips!

Crawl, baby, crawl!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Piper does not LIKE steroids, thank you.

24 hours free from the hospital!  Woohoo!  Hopefully we can just give a quick call to the pediatrician tomorrow, and we’ll be home free!  What. a. weekend.

She actually (!!!) slept well last night.  I almost cried tears of joy this morning when she finally woke up.  And then ate, and went BACK to sleep… 

She got her last dose of steroids this afternoon.  We waited to give it to her until AFTER a second nap (which she DESPERATELY needed) because we assumed she’d still get a decent dose of insomnia after taking it.

THAT was true.  And you know what else is true?  A third dose of steroids makes my child VERY grumpy.  Insatiable.  Uncomfortable.  S-A-D.

We had a good three hours of hostility.  Okay, not really “hostile”, but Piper was not herself.  Period.

It finally started to wear off (which means that it also finally started to work) after a few hours, and she was willing to sit down and eat her dinner.  She acted like she was starving.  I’m not sure if it was the drugs, or just an after effect from not eating as much yesterday as she usually does.  Whatever it was, she was a lot happier when she was done, and was back to her old self.  Whew.  She still has a stridor, and it’s fairly consistent, which worries me some, but it isn’t as severe has it had been the last couple days.  Still no cough, which is really odd; her only symptom the whole time has been breathing issues. 

Luke, being the good daddy he is, was pulling out all the stops to try and make her feel better today.

If you had asked me 5 years ago if I could see him playing with a tutu…..

Tutus, cow pajamas, doggies, and Daddy- what more could a little girl ask for? (except for, of course, easy breathing…)

ER- Round 2. Piper won this time. Hopefully.

Oh MAN are we exhausted.

Spent the rest of today BACK at the ER down at the main campus today- apparently there was some “funniness” around her epiglottis that showed up on her x-rays that they took last night.  They wanted to make sure that it wasn’t infected (which can be horrendously serious), so we were told to take her back immediately.  Joy.

I’ll save you all the details- it wasn’t really exciting.  At all.  But I thought some of you might benefit from knowing that, apparently, kids with Ds are at an increased risk for having a malformed epiglottis- it’s not serious, and they usually outgrow it as they get older, but it may explain why Piper had a difficult time with her intubation for her gallbladder surgery back in February.  And no, it wasn’t a mass, as the person told me it could have been on the phone earlier that morning that sent me into a panic…

Thanks Thanks Thanks to my parents for dealing with my bouts of unwarranted worry.  And THANKS, too, to all the notes from you guys today!  It really brightened up our day!

We also found out, thanks to our respiratory therapist cousin (thanks, Amber!), that the steroids they’re giving her for the swelling may be giving her insomnia.  THAT explains why she slept for a couple hours last night, but has yet to take any kind of decent nap today. 

Miraculously, she IS asleep, in her own bed, right now.  PLEASE be for the night!!!  I think she is really starting to feel better tonight. She gets one more dose of steroids tomorrow, and with each dose, she seems to get a lot better than she had been.  Hopefully a good night’s sleep will help even more!

Although she had random bouts of happiness today, she was less than amenable to another day at the hospital.

She refused to be put down.  Period.  At all.  Not once.  Luke told her than cuddle time was fine, but that we REALLY didn’t need to get oober sick to do it next time.

Think she’ll listen???

Good news, Bad news

The good news is that we now know that the emergency department at our local Children’s Hospital branch is awesome.

The bad news is that, well, we know that the emergency department at our local Children’s Hospital branch is awesome.

Remember me saying, like, two weeks ago that Piper’s yet to get sick?  Apparently I should have added a “knock on wood” statement to that.  She decided to get croup.  On a Friday night.  Late.  Oye.

So, when she started retracting, and acting like she wasn’t able to breath, we took her in.  Thankfully  her O2 levels remained high (higher than the average here in Denver even), but she has one nasty strider.  And a wheeze.  Poor kid. 

Thankfully they had a somewhat permanent room for us to stay in last night (including a couch and a rocking chair, along with a “real” crib for Piper) without us having to be admitted to the hospital. 

The treatment for the breathing problems?  Steroids (which were given orally, which I was thankful for, but I think they tasted bad enough she may have wished for an injection instead) and breathing treatments.  No biggie, right?

Ha. 

The breathing treatments were epinephrine.  At 1:00 in the morning.

My child didn’t go to sleep until 3:30.

She played with her pulse ox.

…and once she was able to breath again, she was ready to play (I assure you that neither Luke or I had this big a smile on OUR face…)

They took some x-rays of her windpipe to confirm croup and make sure we weren’t missing something else (you’d have thought we were asking her to sit in hot oil or something- yeah, it was that fun).  Then they put us in a nicer room.  That way Piper could play with her cords some more (notice the clock…)

I was trying to change her diaper when she realized that her toe was glowing.  So she played.

 

…and played…

…and played.

I finally ended up sleeping in the crib WITH her and she fell asleep for all of about an hour and a half at 3:30.

They let us go home a little bit ago.  They would have let us stay, but I figured if we stayed everything would be fine (of course, that same line of logic infers that if we went home, we’d have to go back…) 

So, we’re hoping that the strider starts getting better as the day goes on, and that she keeps being able to breath better than she was last night. 

…and that I can get a nap.  Please???

New Tricks

It’s been a little while, okay a looooong while, since I’ve updated on Piper’s signing skills.  Truth be told, until about 6 or 8 weeks ago, we kind of stalled.  Both us learning new signs to teach her, and her being willing to do the ones we did.  Frankly, I’m fairly convinced that it was due to her focusing her efforts on oral motor and gross motor skills instead, and didn’t have the desire (or time) to focus on it.

Starting when she was about 6 months old (four months adjusted), she was signing Mom, dog, hungry, milk, and the occasional Dad.

She has recently added eat, more, silly, pretty, and does Dad consistently. 

“Eat” she did for the first time at lunch today.  She was very impressed with herself.  “Silly” she did for the first time the other night when Luke was trying to get her settled down enough to go to bed.  I was watching a video from someone else’s blog on my laptop, and Luke had Piper in the rocker a few feet away.  Apparently me watching the video was hilarious.  We couldn’t figure out what she was doing (since she hadn’t done that one before), but realized that she was signing “Mommy silly!” over and over and over again.  Once I finally said out loud “Mommy silly?” she stopped, and started clapping and doing her excited dance.  And then she went to sleep.   “Pretty” she usually reserves for blankets and the like at the store, usually when she likes the feel.  She doesn’t do it often, but I think that it’s almost a substitute for “like”, but only for textile-ish items.  Fashionista?  Maybe. 

Almost the funniest one, though, was when she started signing for the audiologists at our visit a couple weeks ago.  She started signing “More Doggy” to the ladies because she wanted to see the little jumping, barking dog jump and bark again.  The lady looked at her, asked if she was asking for more, and Piper got all excited.  They ended up playing the dumb dog about a half dozen more times because she kept asking for it.  Silly kid.  I was pretty impressed that they were able to decode Piper’s approximations; if you know what you’re looking at, it’s fairly easy to see.  But especially when she’s saying two words together, the signs kind of meld into each other.  And if they’re anywhere near her mouth, her hand usually ends up in her mouth. 

So what are we working on next?  “Drink”, I think, is coming now that she has the honey bear.  She seems really close, and she definitely knows the word when we say it.  It’d be a nice one to have down before the hot weather gets here this summer.  I’d really like her to do “grandma” and “grandpa”, just because, well, I’m pretty sure that no one could tell her no if she did it.  We’re learning “go” and “car”, too; “go” is easier to conceive, though, and I think it’ll come sooner than “car”.  Although now that the weather is brightening up, we occasionally see cars on the street and talk about them.  We’ll see.  “Diaper” and “bath” we’ve been working on for a little while. 

The one I want her to learn the most, though, is “1” for her birthday.  Her little short-and-stubby fingers would be so cute!  She’s getting pretty close, but that finger isolation business is a hard skill to learn!

I was flipping through my pictures trying to find some of her signing, and low-and-behold, the only sign I could find was “doggy”.  Over and over and over again.  Not “Mommy”, nope no way-- “doggy”…  <<sigh>>…

70¢

…is the grand total of Piper’s new favorite toys.

That’s right.  Quality musical instruments for less than a buck.  Including tax.  Now that’s what I call aheckuva deal.

Amazingly, they fit properly in Piper’s very tiny fingers.  Almost as satisfying?  They aren’t the noise that makes you want to cry in annoyance- they’re actually fairly calm. 

But best of all?  They keep my kid occupied for long periods of time.  They’re glorious.

We did find out, however, that they are far from infallible.

They are not, NOT, appropriate toys for the car.  Apparently they work very well to distract my already testy daughter.  Unfortunately, if she shakes with too much gusto, it can lead to damage to the forehead, which exponentially raises the anger bar. 

While you’re driving and can do nothing about it. 

Poor kid.

Visions of things to come

Okay, so I admit to being a slacker this weekend.  But I have a good excuse.  We’re trying to get the planning finalized and details started for Piper’s birthday party, and I’ve been busy playing working very hard on the fun tedious parts. 

I can’t wait to show you all the fun that we have planned!  I have to say, this is going to be one CUTE party.  But you’ll have to wait!  :)

Piper couldn’t believe that, when we went to good ol’ Chick-fil-a, they had something that looked vaguely familiar to her.  And no, she wasn’t quite sure what to think about it…

These boots are made for walkin’

I have a theory.

(This is where most of my family roles their eyes and groans.  Feel free to participate, but hang with me here…  :))

Kids with Ds have notoriously small feet.  One little girl I know is 3 1/2, and still wears a size 1.  A size 1 infant shoe.  When I say small, I mean s-m-a-l-l. 

Kids with Ds are also notoriously late walkers.  It’s usually chalked up to low muscle tone, which, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure plays a large role. 

However, donchya think that having those teeny tiny little toes makes being vertical significantly more difficult?  Have you ever looked at feet on most kids?  After looking at Piper for so long, they look huge.  Of course they’ll have an easier time standing and walking with those flippers to balance on, right?  It has to be easier than trying to figure it out on little nubbins with the surface area of a peg-leg. 

My brother decided he could help Piper out.

This is not what I had in mind…

Piper may have been game. 

But the military doesn’t make boots in pink to match her wardrobe.

I’m SO excited!

Look what Piper got to try this week!

Those of you in the Ds world undoubtedly know about these little wonders, but for those of you who don’t—it’s your typical honey bear that you buy at the store, but it has a flexible straw (made of the stuff you buy at the hardware store—yeah, this is very fancy stuff) that fits exactly into the hole.  The genius behind it lies  in your ability to squeeze a little out for them when they get their lips in the right shape.  It encourages them to get the “o” shape going, and start trying to suck.

So we had our first lesson last week during OT.  She got to try a few times when she was eating this past week, but we didn’t, honestly, do it as much as we maybe should have.  I thought I’d give her a little time to get used to it before we pushed too hard.

Yesterday during breakfast, she totally sucked by herself!  She took a couple good gulps, one after another.  I was so excited that I think I scared her from doing it again, so she kinda slacked off for Becky a few hours later.  But she was getting her mouth in the right shape, and that, in and of itself, is huge.

Tonight for dinner?  She drank a whole 2 ounces of juice, by herself.  I didn’t squeeze once!  I didn’t have to help her lower jaw or anything.  All. By. Herself. 

I was really hoping that maybe by the time we see the pediatrician for her 12 month checkup, I could say that she was getting the hang of the honey bear.  Looks like Piper’s blown my expectations out of the water, once again. 

I am so excited!

All tied up

Imagine my surprise when this is was the source of some very odd sounds coming from the floor.  She somehow got her feet untangled in the time it took me to get out the camera, so it was  a lot more comical just a few seconds before this, but you get the idea.

She was pretty tangled, and only got mad when she tried rolling back on to her back.  Apparently Slinkies make very poor pillows.  As a snack, however, it passed with flying colors!

Cheap Entertainment

Every once in a while, I think of things that Piper hasn’t had the opportunity to try.  You know, those little developmental milestones that she may be able to do, but she hasn’t been given the chance to try it out yet.

Yesterday, we tried hiding her veggie sticks in a bowl, and covered it with a towel.  Voila- no problemo!  She took the towel off without a thought.  And then proceeded to stuff her face feed herself.

Today, our activity of choice was inspired by the dogs.  Apparently they are good for something, on occasion.  They were sunbathing in the warm light, and I decided maybe Piper would have fun there, too.  Low and behold, she found her shadow!

…and she thought she was hilarious.

There’s a shocker.

 

Getting an earful!

As Piper gets closer and closer to her birthday, I fee like we’re finally starting to get a grip on all of the checks she’s supposed to get.  Thyroid screens?  Check (and will, forever, every 6 months, but that’s doable).  Ophthalmology?  Check.  Physical Therapists?  Check.  Swallow study?  Check.  All of these lovely things that most near one-year-olds never have to bother with.

Today we had, I think, about the last one.  We went to the audiology clinic at Children’s this morning. 

I let her play with some of the toys in the lobby for the first time today (she’s usually on the touch nothing routine), but it was kinda quiet, I know they clean their stuff, and, well, I thought she’d have fun, sooo… 

…she got to drive the “boat”.  Although I’m fairly certain that the driving is meant to take place in a seated position, but we’ll just ignore that little tidbit.  She also got to meet another little girl with Ds, too, who was four and had the prettiest hair you’ve ever seen.  She sure was a cutie!!!

Anywho, Piper has yet to get an ear infection, and she always responds to us, and seems to hear fine, so we weren’t asked to check on it until closer to her birthday, hoping that she’d be a little older and more willing to “play the game”.  She actually did really well!  I loved the ladies we met with.  When they’re under two, they schedule with two audiologists at the same time to try and keep the baby’s attention long enough to complete the assessment.  Brilliant.  We needed it, too. 

They sat us in the sound booth with speakers in opposite corners from where we were sitting.  One of the therapists sat in front of Piper trying to keep her attention forward so that she had to cognizantly turn her head when she heard the sounds.  Above each speaker they had a clear, shadowed box with a teddy bear that had banging cymbals in their hands.  When Piper turned her head, they turned a light on inside the box and turned on the bear so that she got positive reinforcement for “playing”.  

It mostly worked.  Piper was definitely better at acknowledging voices, and had no problems at any decibel level there.  Then they went to lower toned whooshes, which sounded more like just blowing air (and drove me n-u-t-s).  She really could have cared less.  One problem (I say “problem”, although I guess it’s more just a “thing”) with Piper is that she’s really hard to distract sometimes.  If she’s “in” to something, she can focus very intensely on it.  I think that was part of our problem today- she was more interesting in the toys the lady was showing her than trying to figure out where the “whoosh”, the whoosh she didn’t care about, was coming from.  She’d acknowledge a softer version several times, and the completely ignore the louder one a few minutes later…

And then the “fun” (I say fun, what I really mean is horridly wretched, abysmal treachery) started.  Apparently it’s torture to place something that can’t possibly hurt on my child’s ears.  When it came time to do the test for eardrum movement, Piper flipped out.  She was going to have nothing to do with the apparatus that was obviously going to suck out her sole through her ears. 

We tried.

And failed.

And tried again.

And failed.

They got a decent reading on one ear (which she passed), but we were never able to get the other one.  They kept getting readings that showed she was “flat” (meaning that the eardrum isn’t moving as much as it should, and therefore she’s not hearing as well as she should), which could mean that a) she’s flat,  or b) that she was screaming and moving so much the test wasn’t accurate.

So, long story short, we know she hears.  And we go back in 4-6 weeks to attempt to check the other ear.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Drama in Dining

Piper has really picked up the whole eating bit lately.  She takes her regular food like a pro, and she’s getting really very good at feeding herself and handling new textures and tastes.  She still doesn’t particularly like any kind of chunks in her purees, but she’ll take chunks by themselves with no problem.  She loves to eat chunks of pears (and who can blame her?), and will bite off a piece from a larger chunk, move it to the back of her mouth, chew and swallow like it’s nothin’. 

Those little Gerber puffs are definitely a favorite (particularly the blueberry ones), and she’s refining her pincher grasp and getting better at remembering to let go of the puff once it’s in her mouth (for the record, I’m not sure if she forgets she has to let go, or if she doesn’t want to let go for fear that it may fall out of her mouth.  It really does lead to a significant amount of consternation at meal time).

She gets to chew on anything she’d like, including bell peppers, celery, broccoli, lettuce stalks, carrot strips, dried apricots, tortillas, slices of bread.

Her favorite thing, though?  These silly Veggie Sticks that we got in a giant bag at Costco.  And talk about a deal!  They’re less than $5 for a HUGE sack, and she gets about 3 a day.  They should last until she’s in Kindergarten, at least.  Undoubtedly  not the most nutritious snack, but she l-o-v-e-s them. 

They’ve proven to be a perfect prop for her fine motor practice (although she’s only done it a couple times that I’ve paid attention to, she’s figured out how to pick up one with each hand, pass one to the other so that she has two in one hand, and then pick up a third with her free hand) and oral strengthening exercises.

And most importantly?

She’s discovered that is capable of double fisting them.  Literally.  One in each hand, alternating bites from each. 

And, oh, the wrath you will face if you try to take one away from her.

Okay, so this isn’t the best picture in the world, but we couldn’t stop laughing.  Luke and I were cooking dinner the other day, and turned around to see this:

Double-fisting the sticks, plus one sticking out of her mouth.  I’m not sure what she was doing (or if she knew what she was doing), but she certainly couldn’t figure out why we were laughing so hard. 

Never a dull moment.  Ever.

Piper’s first music lesson

Luke gave Piper her first woodwind lesson this afternoon.  He’s played his saxophone for her before, but it’s been a while, and it’s really loud, so I’m not really sure how much she enjoyed it.

The clarinet?  A whole other story.  He started playing and she was mesmerized.  She kept looking at his mouthpiece, the bell, and back to the mouthpiece trying to figure out why he was doing something to the top, but the bottom was where the sound was.

She particularly liked songs that were higher pitched and bouncy.

I’m sure that, if she were able, she would have given him a standing ovation.  Instead, he got a hardy round of applause.

Luke put the bell on her belly so that she could feel the vibration.  After that, she couldn’t keep her hands off.

Daddy let her hold it, too, and try pressing the keys.  She was more interested in the prettiness of them.

She even got to try blowing!

That made Luke think that she may have more luck trying to make a sound out of the flute instead.

It was wildly unsuccessful, but it didn’t keep her from feeling proud of herself.     

I do believe, however, that it would be most beneficial for her to be able to hold the horns first, before she learns to play.  And that would require her to be a tad taller. 

Just a tad.

In Pursuit

Last week, I was trying to find Piper an outfit to wear for pictures to put on her birthday invitation.  We had several ideas, so off we went in pursuit of the perfect suit.

She explained to us what she was looking for.  And she was very adamant and persuasive about her desires.

She then suggested that she needed a birthday throne.  I’m not sure this is what she had in mind.

…I liked this idea.  Unfortunately, we saw very little of her, and very much of the hat.  She looks a little Speedy Gonzales-esque.  Not exactly the look we were going for.

After a few hours of fashion failure, Piper needed a pep talk…

…and a break from all the walking (because we all know how arduous that is for her…)

So, after a whole day of hunting, searching…

…we decided on a birthday suit.

Go figure.