Chairwoman Piper

Piper’s PT and OT agreed that she needed a really pretty and fancy supportive high chair, so they worked to find us one that would work for her teeniness.  They really wanted something that she could rest her feet flat, and not be smothered in a giant seat.

Their solution?  The Tripp-Trapp chair by Stokke (incase anyone else is interested).  We love it (and, admittedly, it’s the chair they use for all their kiddos because it’s so cool).  We even got to pick out the baby insert (we just don’t call it “baby” in front of Piper, ‘cause, you know, she’s not a baby anymore…) and the cloth cover.  The cool thing about this chair is that both the seat and the foot rest move up and down so that the kids can use it forever, until they’re an adult.  And always have the right foot rest and support for eating. 

 

Amy, our PT, came and adjusted it up so that she’s nice and snug.  She’s got a lot of wiggle room in the seat still, so there was a lot of adjusting in the straps to make sure she’s good and tight. 

Our only problem is that the chair doesn’t come with a tray, as it’s meant to be used on the table (which I think is really cool).  The issue is that we have a countertop-height table, and the chair is standard height.  SO, my dad and Luke have the task of creating a platform onto which the chair can be put, safely, without sliding/slipping off, before we can really use it.  She does get her breakfast in it, though, because it’s the only meal of the day she’s not feeding herself. 

Piper wishes that we just buy a new table.  She had no idea the fun that was involved in feeding the dogs (not that the excitement is evident in the following picture).  The dogs wholeheartedly agree. 

Running through the Sprinkler

Okay, so “running” may be a rather…  generous term…  But she was happily sitting in the spray from the sprinkler.

It’s been way too hot here lately; I’m not sure if last summer was actually this hot and we just had no idea because we were confined to the NICU and the air conditioned house for the season, or if it is really just that hot lately.  I’m not a fan of anything over 90. 

But, as an upside, if it’s warm outside, that means we can play in the sprinkler some.  Luke mowed the lawn, and turned on the test cycle of the sprinklers to wet it down before it got too hot.  Piper and I went outside to watch the dogs play (Maggie, particularly, loves the sprinkler, and will even bite the industrial-strength sprays that can cover a 150 foot spread- OW).  She kept leaning forward and trying to get out of my lap.  So I let her.  She went and sat in the spray, without a peep.  She had so much fun!  I was really surprised that she didn’t cry when her face was getting wet.  By the time I decided she was done, she was soaked.  SOAKED. 

 

Here’s to much more water-provoking happiness in the future.  Although, I would gladly forgo sprinkler soirees for slightly cooler weather.  Gladly.

I’ll take a Break for $500, Alex

You ever feel like you’ve about got your feet on the ground, only to have it split open and swallow you whole?

Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that bad, but, ya know, I really thought that after Piper’s round of doctor’s visits around her birthday, we were in the clear.

Eeeeenk- wrong answer.

So Piper had croup the end of April.  By her birthday appointment with the pediatrician, she was almost completely better.  But a week or so after that, she started getting a little cough; we just assumed that it was leftover from the croup, so we haven’t been too worried about it.  However, it’s still around, so I took her back to the doctor this week (holy cow- we made it a whole six weeks…).

We’re going to treat her as if she had allergies for a few days, and see if it helps.  We’re also going to start her on Prevacid, to see if it helps.  If those don’t help, we’ll start inhaled steroids (not what I want to do) to see if those help.  If not, we’ll go to ENT to find out if it’s her malformed epiglottis that’s causing all this, or something more.  My biggest fear is that it’s some kind of aspiration (although she had a swallow study done last August, when she was about three-and-a-half months old, which didn’t show anything), but it’s not at the top of anyone’s concern list, so I guess that’s a good thing.  She doesn’t seem to show any other symptoms of it, and never has, so hopefully we’re in the clear for that. 

I’m kind of bummed that we really don’t have a clue, so we’re just praying that it’s the problem with the easiest solution (probably the Prevacid- at least she’ll outgrow it, as opposed to the allergies…). 

But what I’m really bummed out about is that we now have another referral to the GI clinic.  Piper’s weight gain has really dropped off (weighed in at 13 pounds even, right before she pooed and right after she ate), so her doctor just wants to make sure that we’re not missing something that’s preventing her from absorbing her nutrients as well as she should.

Truth be told, I’ve always had this wonder in the back of my mind as to why my kid, my teeny-tiny kid, has to eat so many  more  calories than kids that are so much bigger than she is.  When she was in the NICU, she was eating about 50% more calories per day than she should have needed for her size.  And really, looking at what she eats, and what other kids her age eat, she still has a very high caloric need.  She very well could have a very efficient system, which could be a blessing in the future, I guess, as a very high number of individuals with Ds have tendencies toward obesity.  But, we do want to make sure that there’s nothing else going on.

So, I guess it’s a good thing that we went in- if I had waited until her 15 month check up and she was even farther behind…  well, ya know. 

And, to top it off, we have an audiology appointment next week, which I’m a little nervous about (but the nerves for THAT day are being squelched with a promised day of shopping with my mom), and we’re supposed to go back to the ophthalmologist next month (although they were supposed to call us when they started scheduling for that period, and I just realized this week that we’ve never been called, so who knows when we’ll get in….).

Yup, guess I’m just complaining.

On a cuter note, Piper got a stuffed Lion from the clinic (one of the benefits to being at Children’s- we get toys and books a lot when we go in), which she looooves.  She picked him out out of three choices- there was no doubt which one she looooooved! 

And then I sat her down on the floor, and she looked up at a new painting on the wall.  She just sat and stared, signing “pretty” over and over and over again.  Of course by the time I got the camera out, I didn’t catch the actual sign.  Surprise.

Meet our new babies!!!

Did you think I meant real babies?  Ha ha…

So we have hanging baskets on our front porch.  A few weeks ago, I’d go out to water them, and a little bird would sprint out about a million miles an hour.  They must have liked the seeds, I thought.  It scared the pants off me every time. 

I’m not quite sure why I was so slow to put two-and-two together and realize they were building a nest in there.  We eventually saw four little (TINY) eggs in there!

Day before last, two of them hatched (I actually poked my head up there and saw the first when he was still wet).  Yesterday we got another one.  I had to share!  They’re little house finches, so they’re teeny little babies.  The eggs in the pictures are about the size of the smaller Robin Eggs candies they sell at Easter time. 

The internet says that they’ll be ready to leave the nest in about three weeks.  I thought it’d be fun to watch them grow, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with Piper…

Day 1

Day 2 (can’t you see how much they’ve grown already???)

Exhibiting her skills

Piper and Cadence, our date for the museum

So our Children’s Museum has, essentially, the whole first floor devoted to infants and toddlers.  It has sections for each developmental level- from newborn to exploring toddlers.  It was so so so much fun! 

To make it even better, everyone (including all parents, surprise surprise) is required to take off their own shoes and socks and put on little hospital-like socks (although I knew there was no conceivable way for those socks to stay on Piper’s feet, so I just put them over her sandals, which worked out well).  It was SO nice because you didn’t mind your kids crawling and scooching on the floor this way!  AND we even saw the workers replacing all the stuffed toys that were washed the night before.  This is my kind of activity center.

This is the crawling section of the place.  It had tunnels to crawl through:

…and bumpy bridges to crawl over (Piper did spectacular with this!  A lot better than I anticipated!  It’s a lot of work when your belly drags…):

Although, Piper did think that Cadence’s mode of transportation looked much more efficient; she just couldn’t quite figure out how to do it.

This little bridge had pressure sensors, so anytime you walked over it, it laughed at you.  Piper thought it was very funny, and just sat on it for a good period of time.

Then we went over to the little village.  It had a garden with vegetables that you could pull, so Piper practiced her in-and-out skills.  

I think the best part of the entire exhibit, though, was the abundance of puppets.  We have apparently been neglecting Piper of the fun-ness of these wonders.  She was mesmerized.  And very much in love with the little lamb when it kissed her cheek.  Seriously.  

When we had explored our way out of the little kid area, we went upstairs to find what else there was to do.  The only other place that was little-kid friendly was the train room.  Piper liked to make the trains go on the track a lot more than she liked to wear the hat.  The only way I could get the hat on her was to distract her with a train.  It worked.  For a minute.   

The pretend school was fun, but too big for Piper to do much (literally, she was too short to see much of anything, lol). 

About this time, Piper, who refused her morning nap, was beginning to get tired.  We played in the foam shape room for a few minutes, but it didn’t last too long.

This, my friends, is the nose-dive that ended our day.  After this, there was too much sadness in the world to continue the day.

…and after 2.3 seconds in the car, this was my child.  Glorious.  Simply glorious. 

So, if anyone wants a playdate-mate at the museum, make sure to let us know!  And if you’re planning on going, I highly recommend the 9-11 am period- after that it got busy, and most of the kids moved a lot faster than Piper, so once more kids came around, she didn’t get to utilize it all as much. 

A Little Culture

That’s why you go to museums, right?  For culture?

So I’m giving us credit for our fine arts quota for the month for our trip on Monday.  I’m just not sure that the Children’s Museum counts as a fine art, but we’ll just ignore the “children’s” part.

We had  a lot of fun.  Although I will admit that I was most excited about seeing the bubble exhibit.  We even learned the signs for bubble and pop (although I ended making one up for pop because I couldn’t find a good one in any of the online dictionaries).  I was disappointed in that exhibit- there wasn’t anything for the little kids.  So, we pretty much kept downstairs in the infant/toddler zone, and had fun anyway.

Before we went in, we were waiting for our friend Cadence to join us.  So Piper played in the park outside.  She was really tired (a great day to choose to go to the museum, I know), so I couldn’t get a smile out of her for anything.  

She wouldn’t smile for the car…

 

The slide only warranted a pattycake…

The pirate ship got a kiss, but still no smile…

…and, I do believe her look here was “what the heck is up with dumb Colorado parks and rock things”.  At least they weren’t rock birds this time, just rock chairs.  And no, she wasn’t particularly amused.

More pictures to come.  You know, from the inside of the museum.

Check out Piper’s new exercise!

…and she LOVES it!

She wasn’t too sure at first, and it kind of scared her, but now, she really has fun! 

This way, she’s having to work her side-to-side balance, and is working on being straight up and down, instead of leaning forward, which just happens when they’re cruising and that sort of thing.

By the way, have I told you that she’s “cruising” now (yes, the quotes are purposeful- not sure I can really classify it as true cruising, but she is moving her feet while using the cushionless couch to get from point A to point B)?  Not much, and it’s not particularly pretty, or efficient, but she can get from one place to another given sufficient motivation.  And time. 

Our hope with the wall standing is that she’ll start taking a few steps away from the wall soon!

…and what’s a Piper Post without some funny faces?  She can crack me up every. time.

Go, Piper, Go!

Water Bug

Now that summer is in full swing, which we celebrate with the lovely (sense the sarcasm???) 90 degree days, Piper has gotten to start enjoying the various water features and pools around town.

We got to go swimming last week with Alison and her little guys.  Piper L-O-V-E-D it.  She had so much fun splashing, whirling, and twirling in the water.  The best part of the whole day, though, was eating a picnic lunch (insert rolling eyes here).

 

She also got to explore the little fountains at the shopping center.  They have big fountains (you know the kind that spontaneously shoot up from the ground?), but it outsmarted (oops- did I say that???) her and Nana, so we ventured to the less unpredictable types.  

 

Piper kept getting closer and closer to the water.  She really liked it.  Until she got so close, the whole top of her head got soaked.

Whoops.  So much for Adult Supervision Required.

Let’s Hear it for the Boys!

From first holds…

 

To first baths…

…first Father’s Days…

…first tummy times…

…first naps…

Thank you for rejoicing in the little things, supporting through the big things, and, most of all, loving our little girl as immeasurably as you have.

I’ve had so much fun watching Piper wrap each of you around her teeny little fingers one “first” at a time.   I have a feeling that over the next few years, you all are going to be progressively tighter wound.  She does have awfully thin fingers, after all. 

To Piper’s Daddy and all her grandpas—Happy Father’s Day!