Our Kids

Howdy!

Happy 7-month birthday to the girls… it’s hard to believe that it’s been seven months since they surprised us and popped into our lives. It’s certainly been an adventure. It seems like every other day there’s something new.

Piper’s been chowing down on the bananas that Mystique fixes for her… it’s fun to watch. Her digestive system seems to be handling it well, too, so we’ll keep her on the bananas for a while. Yesterday when I got home Mystique showed me Piper’s new trick: sitting all by herself. She’s still a bit wobbly at times, but it was great seeing her sitting on her blanket steadying herself and sometimes even using her little arms to make a tripod.

When Piper was sitting, Lela was watching intently, learning like she normally does. I expect her to be sitting by herself pretty soon now that she sees what’s required. Lately, though, Lela’s been experimenting with rolling onto her tummy all by herself and hanging out. She actually seems to like it… for a little bit. Then she’ll let you know (and apparently try and let our neighbors know by her volume) that she’s done and she’d rather you flip her back over than her do it herself. Actually, I think she’d rather you pick her up for a while which I’m always a sucker for.

A week or so ago it seemed like Piper was trying to shift her sleeping schedule to match ours… that meant staying up late and refusing to sleep or take a nap. Luckily Lela missed that memo so at least we weren’t dealing with two grumpy girls who wouldn’t go to sleep. And of course when I say “we” I really mean “me for five seconds and Mystique the rest of the time.”

Piper has quickly found out that Mystique is way more stubborn than she is… after a couple of late nights, Piper’s back to her regular schedule thanks to her persistent mom. She’s the best.

We’ve noticed lately that Lela just loves to be outside. Luckily the Montana weather has been great so during the day Mystique’s been sitting outside with the girls. She’ll put Lela into our awesome exer-saucer (where she can sit and stand depending on her mood) and she’ll just soak it all up outside. I’m not sure that Piper’s too interested in being out there, she’s just indifferent to it all. As long as someone’s out there to talk with her, she’s fine.

This morning Piper woke up around 6am… Mystique had left for work already (after feeding Lela at 5am), so Rupert and I were left in charge. We played rock-paper-scissors and, oddly enough, I lost, so Rupert stayed in bed and I got up to feed the Pipes. She was happy to see me (or the bottle, I’m not sure which), and we ate together, and I tried putting her back into her crib so she (read: I) could sleep some more.

That was apparently unacceptable to the Peeps, so after squeeking at me for a bit, I went and got her and decided that it was time for a little bit of cuddling with Poppy. So she and I tucked ourselves into bed, being sure not to disturb the sleeping beast, Rupert. After a bit of fidgeting she decided that she was comfortable enough and closed her eyes for a nice little nap.

All of this, of course, I did for purely selfish reasons. The girls seem to be growing so fast I just know I’ll miss these times. After about a half hour Lela decided she had had enough with napping, so slid out of bed leaving Piper tucked in and had some nice Lela time. We walked around, fed the dogs, cleaned up Rupert’s vomit, and played in the exer-saucer. Overall, an awesome morning (except for the vomit). Happy birthday girls!

jason