Say Thank You Piper

Happy happy birthday Nana!

We are so glad that you visited us so close to your birthday,

so that we could have cake (and eat it too)!

Piper is still obsessed with birthday parties!

So, we decided to celebrate Nana's birthday a week early 

in order to have her here with us.

And to have an excuse to have cake, party hats and candles.

Piper was over the moon excited

 to help Nana blow out her candles

After she had done just that,

with the biggest smile ever on her face,

she exclaimed, "Say thank you Piper" to her Nana. 

Mom had to look at Piper and thank her for her help. 

Apparently it's all about her!

For some reason,

I have a feeling that if Elliotte ever "helps" Piper blow out her candles,

Piper will NOT be thanking her!

xo

xo

We're having a party!

The littlest party-pooper is in the background in her swing.
Once again she preferred to sleep rather than party!

Helping Nana blow out the candles.

That is her entire piece of cake on one fork!
She tried to jam the entire thing into her mouth.

Easter Poppy

We've all heard of Easter Lilies,

but in this house,

we have Easter Poppies instead!

Well,

just one Poppy really,

but we stretched him thin between the two girls. 

He had a really bad back while he was here,

so we gave him jobs that he could do 

without too much strain.

It doesn't look like he's complaining too much!

xo

xo

Poppy made Piper's day by painting her fingernails!!

Yes, she really does think she's a princess.

Piper wasn't too impressed with Poppy here.
She has some ownership issues at the moment,
and wasn't quite okay with the fact that
Poppy was wearing Elliotte's hat.
I'm pretty sure Elliotte was okay with sharing it!

This was a rough job indeed.
Since Elliotte was a little less excited about the Easter egg hunt than Piper,
Poppy keep her entertained while her big sister hunted.

Short funny story:

Last night we baked a chicken pot pie for supper. Piper helped. She helped put it in the over, helped us check to be sure it was cooked and helped take it out of the oven. The whole time talking about the chicken PIE for supper. 

When it was ready and we sat down together at the table, we were impressed with how excited she was to eat. She's not a picky eater, but just doesn't show a whole lot of interest in the whole idea and therefore mealtime often takes a LONG time. 

With the chicken pie in front of me, Mark cut out a piece and put it on my plate. I proceeded to cut it up and put it on Piper's plate. This is when Piper started to whimper and say "no no no"! I look at her, obviously confused, and ask her what's wrong.

She says no to "that" and asks for her PIE for supper. I explained that this WAS her pie and that it was the same one that she helped us cook. 

She then started to cry. Real tears. Sobbing with tears rolling down her cheeks, it took me a moment to calm her down and ask her what was wrong. In between sobs she managed to tell me that HER pie was CHOCOLATE pie!!

Ooooh dear. We had no idea that she actually thought that we were cooking chocolate pie for supper. She was devastated. It took a while before she gave into the fact that no matter how much she cried, she was not getting chocolate pie for supper and finally ate. I was torn between laughing at her and feeling sorry for her, but all seemed to be fine in the end.

Until I asked her if she would like to have something for dessert.

Of course, she asked for her CHOCOLATE PIE!!!

Yabbit Cookies

I still have some Easter photos to use up!

And more photos of Nana and Poppy's visit.

I must take advantage of all of the photos 

that they took with my girls!

They all had so much fun!

Mostly the grandparents,

but Piper and Elliotte had fun too!

xo

xo

Don't judge.
I know I should have made homemade cookies with Piper,
but I'm using my newborn as an excuse.
No one needs to know that Elliotte is such a good baby
that I really did have time to bake real cookies.
Shhhh!

If you get the cookie with the hole in it,
it's because Piper insisted in sticking her finger through it!
(Notice how weirdly double jointed her fingers are!
It's a little freaky!)

Poppy, Nana and Elliotte heard that we were "making" cookies
and decided to get in on the action. 

Oh dear.
Elliotte just discovered that she's too small to have one.
She wasn't impressed!

Happy 40th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to two wonderful grandparents!!

Yikes.

40 years!!

You should get some sort of medal for that.

Or a letter from the queen or something!!

Love from our little family of four!

xo

xo

A test shot to see if Piper would actually sit still
with Elliotte in the chair.
Don't worry.
We were standing close by with reflexes ready!!!

Sisterly cuddles.
Oh how I love these girls!

Postponed-Postponed Colourful Fun

As I have said in previous posts,

Piper is taking the terrible twos very seriously.

The hitting is still continuing,

as is some screaming when she knows we want her to be quiet

and now comes the head-butting.

It's not really head-butting,

but more like head-pushing.

She will put her head down next to me or Elliotte

and begins pushing.

She will continue to do this,

pushing harder the madder I get.

Ugh. 

WHAT am I going to do with her?

We tried time outs,

but after just a few days,

Piper would do something unacceptable 

and then give HERSELF a timeout.

Same thing happened with sending her to her room.

She will hit Blue or Elliotte,

then look at me and say,

"Go Piper's room?"

Seriously!

She's punishing herself!!

At least I know that she understands that what she as done is not nice

and that there are consequences. 

Lately I can see when the hitting or pushing is about to start

and will ask her if she needs some time for herself in her room.

She will usually say okay

and then walk to her room.

More often than not,

she will get distracted by a toy on her way

and the problem is solved.

Not always,

but for now it's seems to be semi-working.

As for the eggs featured in this post,

well let's just say that we've been trying to do this project

for about two weeks.

EVERY time we started to get ready to colour these eggs,

Piper would have some sort of outburst 

and I would have to stop what we were doing to 'punish' her.

She would then ask to colour her eggs.

I would explain that I would not reward her hitting by doing a special Easter activity,

hoping that she would think twice before repeating the behaviour the next day.

Well,

seeing as how we didn't get to colour the eggs until two weeks after I boiled them,

you can see how well my parenting technique was working.

Sigh.

Be consistent and persevere right?

She's a smart kid,

so she will eventually catch on...

right?!?!?

In the mean time,

Elliotte will have no choice but to grow up being one tough little kid.

Just wait until she's old enough to defend herself.

Watch out Piper!

Karma is a.... not nice thing!

xo

xo

Piper, Elliotte and Nana getting ready to dye the eggs. 

After lecturing Piper on being careful not to spill any of the dye,
I knocked one of the cups over spilling its contents all over her tray.
Piper hasn't let me forget it since,
as she talks about it every day. 

I can't remember what the issue was here,
but for some reason I think she was pointing at Elliotte
and was a little disappointed that she wasn't showing more excitement
about our Easter project!

We decided to speed up the drying process.

Poppy Pope begrudgingly agreed to cuddle Elliotte for a little while,
so that Nana could get in on the decorating action! ;-)

Sticker Time!!!

The finished product.
Each egg was sitting on a little stand,
but this is Piper we're talking about.
Heaven forbid they sit there looking neat and tidy!!
This kid prefers chaos!

A Post Office Easter Surprise

You may recall that back on Valentine's Day,

Piper found a heart-shaped lollipop in our mailbox at the post office.

She was tickled pink

and the ladies at the post office were so pleased

that their little act of kindness was so appreciated.

Well those kind ladies struck again!

Or was it the Easter Bunny??

Either way,

Piper is one happy and lucky little girl!

xo

xo

The Easter Bunny knows our PO Box number! 

A certain little girl was very excited to have 'mail'!

"Chocolate Mommy!!!"

Little Miss Elliotte is very happy to know
 what surprises her future holds at the post office!!

FYI

Elliotte is now eight weeks old (which I cannot believe) and is acting more like an eight YEAR old!! LOL. Last week, she rolled over from her belly to her back! Already!!! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes, and wouldn't expect anyone to believe me, except that my mother was there to witness it! We were both speechless when it happened. Holy smokes baby girl. Don't grow up too fast please. 

Also, I went to a breast-feeding clinic last Wednesday, April 16th and had Elliotte weighed. She was just under TWELVE pounds!!! I think Piper was six months old before she weighed that. Haha. What a little porker she is! 

And they're right. Good things do come in threes. 

Elliotte is a wonderful eater, a wonderful pooper... and hence, the best of all... a wonderful sleeper!! Since she was only a couple of weeks old, she has been going to bed at around 9:30pm and sleeping until between 3-5am. She is awake for a feeding and a diaper change and then back to sleep until around 7-8am. She is seriously the best baby ever. 

I'm ashamed to say it, but she's so good that sometimes I forget that I have her! I actually check my rearview mirror to make sure that I actually put her in the car and sometimes panic in my house because I will realize all of a sudden that I haven't heard a peep out of her for hours. It's the same thing for nighttime. I should be getting long stretches of sleep, but I'm not. Instead I wake up every hour or so wondering why my baby is so quiet. Ummm... because she's SLEEPING! Something that Piper didn't do until she was ONE! (With the exception of a couple of months when she was 3-4 months old.)

Elliotte is just wonderful. She only cries when she's hungry or has a dirty diaper. What more could I ask for?? Now we just need to get her little rash under control. Thankfully it's not so bad on her face anymore, but she still has a little rash on her cheeks, chest and arms. I cut dairy, citrus and eggs out of my diet to see if she had some sort of intolerance to those foods. The rash improved, but didn't disappear. I've since reintroduced dairy and will watch to see what happens. Fingers crossed that it is just her little body's way of learning new foods and the environment and will adjust and clear up soon!

Thank you for being such a little dream baby Elliotte Paige! Piper, you were a dream come true... but goodness, you didn't let your mama dream for a very long time. :-) Either way, either baby girl, I wouldn't trade either of you for anything in this world. xoxoxox

Pink Yabbit and White Yabbit

Listening to a child learn to talk is 

both fascinating and confusing.

It always amazes me when Piper 

will speak using words that I can't remember teaching her,

but it's the pronunciation and grammar that

bring me the most amusement.

I laugh at her every day

as she interchanges the use of I, me and my 

to describe herself. 

She will point to an object and tell me that

"that's MY'S toy",

or she'll tell me to "look at ME hair Mommy"!

She sings,

"Mary GOT a little lamb"

and 

when giving Nana her birthday present last night

she asked, "What be in it, Nana?"

What really gets me though,

is how I know she can pronounce some sounds,

but refuses to on certain words where they belong.

For example,

she won't say Yellow,

but instead says "Lellow".

Then can say RED,

but calls a rabbit a YABBIT.

If you can pronounce the "R" in red,

why not in Rabbit??

And if you can pronounce the "Y" in yabbit,

why not in Yellow??

Oh the funny things that kids say and do!

xo

xo

The mommy and her little "yabbit". 

My two little bunny yabbits!

Easter Bonnets

Piper and Elliotte received new

Easter bonnets from the Easter bunny.

I was excited to take a photo of the girls

wearing them together.

It didn't work out so well.

When will I learn?

xo

xo

Jeepers... you think they could have at least pretended to be happy!
Apparently modeling Easter hats is very serious business!

I ask them to say "cheese" and this is what I get.
Elliotte looks like she's about to get up and run
and Piper looks like she just ate a lemon!
Sigh!

I thought that perhaps modeling their bunny ears may be more interesting.
I guess not.
xo

Happy Easter 2014

The Easter Bunny came to visit

Miss Piper Cee and Miss Elliotte P.

Boy were they ever excited!!

Piper kept thanking the Easter Bunny

as she ran around finding chocolate eggs...

and Elliotte...

well,

you'll see!

There are lots of Easter pics,

so I'll spread them over a few days of posts,

rather than use them all at once.

Happy Easter to all my followers!

And Happy Birthday to Uncle Harold.

Love from Piper and Elliotte.

xo

xo

The Easter Bunny sure made a good drop at our house!!

Piper wanted to wear all of her new Easter things at once,
while still in the middle of her Easter egg hunt!

And the Littlest Lynch just wanted to sleep...
as usual!

Bottoms Up

Piper and Sylvie enjoying a beverage together

during our latest play date. 

I love these two little friends together.

As you can tell though,

baby Caitlin gets left in the background by these two. 

I'm sure she is anxious for baby Elliotte

to grow a little more,

so that she can have a sidekick of her very own!

xo

xo

There were fabulous milk mustaches after this moment!!!

Happy Birthday Poppy C

Today is Piper and Elliotte's great-grandfather's birthday.

Since we couldn't be with him to celebrate,

a phone call with Piper singing Happy Birthday 

was the best that we could do.

We hope he enjoyed her song

and had a wonderful day.

We love you Poppy C!!

xo

xo

Elliotte didn't sing Happy Birthday,
but she did squawk a little bit!
(Notice her greasy hair??
I covered her head in coconut oil
to try to help with the cradle cap!)

Piper Cee...
sitting up with Poppy P...
preparing to sing to Poppy C!

A follow-up to the CinderBrella story:

Piper is still losing her glass slipper multiple times a day! For some reason, there is nothing about this game that gets tiring to her. She just loves to be the princess and wants me to give her all of the attention that a princess deserves.

Well, a couple of nights ago, she came to me and told me that she was Princess Piper. She then asked if I was the prince. My reply: "Oh no sweet girl. Mommy is not the prince. Your mommy is the QUEEN!"

Haha. Now I often have my little princess come up to me during the day and say "Hello Queen Mommy"! I love it! Now if only I could convince her father to address me the same way...

Not Well Nana Cuddles

Piper wasn't feeling very well yesterday,

so was in a particularly cuddly mood.

Nana soaked up every last moment of it!

And Elliotte...

well Elliotte is always cuddly.

It's so lovely!

xo

xo

Nana love!

Quite the Handful

It's a good thing that grandparents 

love their grandkids unconditionally!

xo

xo

There is a reason that Nana has that look on her face.
She had her hand tucked underneath Elliotte for a cuddle...
and then Elliotte filled it.
Literally.
I've said before that this baby can poop!!
And she often does straight out of her diaper,
just like in this photo!
Out of her diaper and into Nana's hand! 

Poppy chose much a less messy activity to share with Piper!!
Easter stickers - Thank you Frances!!

Nana and Poppy's Girls

Nana and Poppy Pope arrived for a visit yesterday.

Nana, of course, met Elliotte the very night that she was born,

but this was Poppy's first time meeting her.

I think he was smitten!

Piper was excited at first to show off her baby,

but that was short lived. 

Not surprised!

Either way,

we're all enjoying their visit so far!

xo

xo

Poppy's very first time holding Elliotte.

Piper wasn't long stealing his attention! 

It wasn't too too long ago that these two were holding Krista and I in their arms.
Oh who am I kidding?
It WAS a long time ago.
A long LONG time!
lol

Same Stripped Shirt Sisters

I made an honest effort to get a good photo

of Piper and Elliotte wearing matching shirts today.

It was a fail.

I will try again another day.

Here are a few of my attempts.

xo

xo

Sit still and smile girls....
Piper thought it would be more fun to show off Elliotte's bellybutton.
Elliotte didn't think it was funny!

Then she thought it would be more fun to hug Elliotte. 

And then Piper thought she should show off her own bellybutton.
Elliotte was exasperated!!!
So was Mommy!

Piper has become quite fascinated with Cinderella lately. We've read a few books about her and then she semi-watched part of the movie while visiting Sylvie one day. Now, Cinder-brella as Piper calls her, has become a pretty standard part of our day. 

Sometimes Mommy is CinderBrella. In one case, I had just gotten out of the shower and my hair was left down. Piper came into my room and said, "oh CinderBrella!". I looked around to see what she might be seeing to make her think of Cinderella, but couldn't see anything. Then she repeated it and asked me "what CinderBrella doing?" It was then that I realized that she was looking straight at ME! So sweet. At that moment, with my hair down, I was a princess to my daughter.

But it was short lived. The next day, PIPER was CinderBrella. She would do something and then turn to me and ask, "what's CinderBrella doing, Mommy?" I would then have to respond that CinderBrella was eating her breakfast, or playing with blocks, or taking a bath... etc. From there this whole fascination has just escalated. I'm asked at least 50 times a day what CinderBrella is doing. 

THEN Piper found a little pair of crocs that are a hand-me-down for her, but are still too big. Either way, she still continuously puts them on, walks around our house, intentionally kicks one off and then exclaims, "oh no Mommy. I lost my glass slipper!" SO ADORABLE... the first 10 times. But for the past two days we do this over and over and over and over... sometimes for an hour straight!!!!!!!!

I feel like gluing the 'glass slipper' onto her foot at times! lol

Ohhhh, we have raised such a little princess!!

Barb and Wes Visit

We are very fortunate to have surrogate grandparents

here on the sandbar for Piper and Elliotte.

My wonderful friend, Jessica,

who I met in Yellowknife,

is from PEI

and her mom and stepdad still live here.

They have been so welcoming to us,

but especially to Piper

(and now Elliotte)!

Last night they came to our home,

brought dinner with them

and then showered our girls with lovely presents.

Though Piper loved her new alphabet game,

crayons, colouring books and spiral doodle,

she loved all the attention she received most of all.

She was literally in knots of laughter 

for most of the evening!

Elliotte,

on the other hand,

didn't have quite so much fun.

She had her first bad gassy fit

and cried really hard for most of the visit.

Barb and Wes were wonderful help

as we all took turns walking the floor 

trying to help Elliotte pass the gas.

At one point she finally did an

"ass-blaster"

(Wes's description, not mine)

and immediately went back to being our 

sweet calm little baby.

After a quick top-up of milk,

she settled in for the night

and slept from 10:30 until 4:30. 

Poor little thing.

She must have beat herself out with all of the crying!

It would have been a lovely long sleep for Mommy,

except that Piper had a nightmare at 2:30

and woke up crying.

Either way,

our visit with Wes and Barb was super enjoyable.

To top it off,

today they showed up on our doorstep

with a GIANT box of diapers and wipes.

They said that after experiencing Elliotte's

"ass-blaster" 

(once again, Wes's words, not mine)

that they couldn't pass up the chance to bring us

something to help out with her.

They figured that the box of 215 diapers 

should last us about 2 weeks. 

Hahahaa!

Such great people!!

Piper and Elliotte are so fortunate 

to have them in their lives!

Mark and I too!!

xo

xo

Piper playing her new alphabet game with Barb!
Piper would stay and play with her for days
and not even know if I was there or not!

Wes enjoying some new baby cuddles with Elliotte.
She was crying when he first picked her up,
but then immediately calmed down.
I wasn't going to let him go home!!!

Swimmer-Spectator-Sisters

Yesterday's excitement was another trip to the pool.

Once again,

Piper and her daddy had all the real run,

while Elliotte and her mommy sat on the sidelines and waved.

I'm sure the day when all four of us can swim together

will arrive all too soon.

For now,

I'll be content on the sidelines enjoying cuddles from my smallest princess,

while loving watching my biggest princess squeal in delight in the pool. 

There is a tiny blue slide for toddlers at the pool,

which Piper loves,

but it doesn't give her enough of a thrill.

There is a giant green waterslide there too,

and Piper never fails to ask me to take her on it,

which I have not done. 

In my defense, 

it has never been open when we've been there. 

I just recently found out that it's only open during the daytime on weekends,

otherwise you have to go for an evening swim to go on it.

Lucky for Piper,

her Nana and Poppy Pope are coming to visit her this weekend

and Poppy has promised to not only take her swimming,

but to also take her down the giant green waterslide!!!

She's going to lose her mind with excitement!

Eeek!

I honestly get more excited about things that will make my girls happy

than anything that would make me happy. 

Fun!

See you on Monday Nana and Poppy!!

xo

xo

Swimming away from Daddy with her floaties on.

Being silly and laying on one of the steps leading into the pool!  

She has no fear whatsoever!
She doesn't move very quickly in the water,
but you should see those arms and legs going!

Time to go home.
She's usually so tired by this point that she's yet to protest!

Piper's tiniest cheerleader from the sidelines!

Elliotte watching her princess sister get dried off in the chance rooms!