Piper, Little Mother Extraordinaire

I mistakenly think of Piper as my little imp, an angelic-looking trouble maker who is so happy-go-lucky that is she is nearly impervious to correction.

Well, she is all that, but she is a tender care-taker as well. She likes to wear footie jammies, so she can zip her doll up and carry her around in her own Baby Bjorn.

Like me, she carries her baby while doing chores. (Please ignore the naked bottom in the back. Those familiar with this blog have seen this before. She is wearing shoes so she can go ride her bike again once she helps me water the tomatoes.)

Pooh Bear was the lucky recipient of a backpack ride after dinner. (You can see his foot by Piper’s hip.)

She likes to give her charges a bit of fun, too. Here, Pooh gets an underdog push in the jumperoo.

And here are one of those things that just melts my heart. Among the pictures I downloaded, I found a few Piper took on her own. She likes taking pictures of her kids, too.

Daddy’s Girl

Kyla knows her job is to help. When she was helping Daddy fix our shower, again, she realized she could see best if she sat on top of him. Good thinking, Kyla!

A good assistant knows that the right tools and gear is essential to doing a job. She dons her goggles to help Daddy go to the hardware store.

Rest is also essential to be at your best.

It’s Raining Babies!

Okay, that’s not true, but there was a baby shower for my sister-in-law for my nephew (soon to be known as Keith and Julie’s son) a few weeks ago. I didn’t get many pictures, but here is one of mom-to-be opening up the sweater from Grandma K. She knitted a blanket from the same yarn that was just as darling.

But here is what I am proud of and want to blog about. I had wanted to make Baby K a quilt. Julie sent me her vision of the quilt, so I had something to work with. The bike is a reasonable facsimile of Keith’s current bike.

I’m proud to say not a single hand-stitch went into this quilt.  However, that bike was just about the end of my quilting career. But I loved how it all turned out—the colors go great in their nursery, and the front is a cozy flannel while the back is an indescribably soft, textured solid blue.

NOTE: I haven’t made Piper or Wesley a special blanket yet. Sorry, kids.

The diaper cake was something I decided to do at 10pm the night before the shower. Fortunately, I wisely married a man of amazing intellect and problem solving skills. I had heard of making these by rolling up each diaper individually and fastening each one a rubber band. That is a clear violation of Rule #1: Don’t make more work for Mama. So Dwayne came up with the idea of using these old tupperware cake carriers to get the diapers layers right.  I used one big rubber band to keep them together and then covered it with scraps of ribbon I happened to have. It didn’t take long after that. The core is a bottle of sparkling cider. And then (don’t tell Julie), it’s decorated with a bunch of duplicate or extra toys/equipment I’ve happened to accumulate after three kids. I’ve seen much, much better designed diaper cakes. But not by me. :)

I Found the Camera!

I finally found the camera and can publish the pictures of our time with family last week. Unfortunately, I had only one day of pictures before I lost the camera and I had taken pictures mostly of my kids at the zoo.

Piper and the siamang examine one another.

Piper is interested in all types of wildlife.

Kyla sometimes is just interested in Daddy.

Beloved cousin Esther rode the carousel with the girls.

I’m hoping Dan and Deborah send us a few more photos of our time together! Dan’s camera has pictures of the 6 cousins together that I can’t wait to see.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

If you think that sounds like it would be a good title to a book, you would be mostly right.

In fact, it is a title to a good book. It’s a mystery, has a wonderful 9 year old macabre female protagonist, and is full of arcane information. Admittedly, basic chemical compounds and British history fall under “arcane knowledge” for me.

Enjoy!

PS I would blog about all our wonderful recent happenings, including a week visit from some CA family, but I can’t find our camera. More later. When I find it.

Trampoline!

We’re a trampoline family as of last week.  (That and the World Cup has kept blogging, well, nonexistent for a week or s0.)

The girls love it, of course. 

 

There will be no good trampoline shots, but we’re glad of the enclosure anyway.

 

We never bothered lying to ourselves that this was just going to be for the kids.  We love it too!  Dwayne can get some serious air. 

 

What is better than playing on the trampoline WITH Daddy?  Well, I don’t think even ice cream will get these kids off now!

 

As usual, Wesley just gnaws on something while watching the rest of the world go by.

Proposal Postscript

This last week, Daddy has been singing a new ditty:

(to the tune of Michael Finnigan)

What to do with a Kyla Paige?

What to do with a Kyla Paige?

What to do with a Kyla Paige?

Keep her away from boys her age!

In a few years, you can send all our mail to

321 Private Island

The Tropics, Somewhere