The day that Piper wasn't grounded anymore

Piper Pilar came into the world at 10:47 at night on September 13, 2011, and changed our lives.  As soon as she emerged, she curled up her tiny legs and stretched out her arms as far as they could go, extending each little finger into the chilly air. It's an incredibly vivid image, and a wash of emotion, that I don't think I'll ever forget.  Hours after, when Adrian, Baby Piper and I were nestled into our recovery room together as a new family, that's when Adrian reminded me: "she's still grounded".

Piper was grounded even before she had actual limbs. One day last May, her dad was brainstorming the many reasons why we'll inevitably have to lay down the law in years to come (taking into consideration the combination of our personalities and experiences), and he joked that she may as well just be grounded in the womb.  And with that, plus the relentless kung-fu'ing of my insides for months, it was decided: Piper was grounded...

...until she was 5 weeks old, and she smiled her first legitimate reactionary smile. The catalyst? Her Daddy. Needless to say, the sentence was revoked.  See below:

Awwww. Piper and Daddy have a special relationship. She grabs his face and smiles at him, and he flies her around and sings Phil Collins songs to her. And they give each other secret looks when I'm doing a crazy dance. I KNOW YOU'RE MAKING FUN OF ME, PIPER.

It was funny- today in the grocery store, a complete stranger with his daughter saw me talking to Piper in her carrier, and he said to me, "don't even BLINK. they grow up so fast." And we both smiled. Looking at this video reinforces it- she can't fit into these purple jammies anymore. Plus, she looks so different.  We plan to cherish every day, every sound, every look, every smell (aggghh I love her smells), and of course, every sweet touch. And because "cherishing" may challenge our memories as we age, we plan to take lots of photos and videos of regular, natural moments in time. And we plan to take disciplinary action very seriously. Don't believe me? You're grounded.

Piper, the super pooper

You may be wondering why I am choosing to begin the (hopefully) entertaining and (certainly) informative blog-tastic Chronicles of Piper with a poop post. The thing is: Piper is amazing. Every parent thinks this about their newborn baby, and I'm clearly no exception, but she literally takes my breath away. And when it isn't because I'm laughing so hard, or I'm overcome with complete and utter adoration, it's because her butt pyrotechnics have left me totally stunned. Impressed, even. Seriously, the tiny girl can poop. I wouldn't be bragging about it on the opening post if it weren't so fresh in my mind. Last night, over the course of maybe 6 hours, Adrian and I woke to attack 4 different explosive poops. We changed her into 4 different sets of jammies. We cleaned poop from places other than her butt. 4 times. One night. Zero sleep. Today we bought diapers one size larger.

Aside from my daughter being a master of her bowels, she has been working on her vocabulary lately.  It's fascinating to watch her be fascinated with language. I constantly speak to her, about absolutely anything. Each day I repeat certain words in the same way, and do the same accompanying gestures. My thought process is that linking an action with a word is helpful.  I'm a visual person, so it makes sense to me. It's not sign language in the technical sense, just Piper language. Anywho, TODAY is the day that she said "mum-mum".  Mum-mum! She was mimicking different vowel sounds and inflections pretty early on, so when her new favorite sound became "mmmmmmm", I decided to work on Mama. It evolved into to "mum", and finally today, a full-fledged double mum. AND I had the camera rolling.. (how often does that happen?)

What a funny little nugget.  Now we need to conquer "dada".  You know, so somebody doesn't feel left out.