A Sweetheart Birthday I: Morning

Piper was born four years ago today. 

 

She woke up to presents on the table, one of them wrapped her  Special Wrapping Paper.  (Dwayne and I shot ourselves in the foot by making it a tradition to stay up late the night before a birthday, drawing [Dwayne] and coloring [me] a poster that doubles as wrapping paper.)  Here she 0pens her hooded kitty towel/blanket.

 

Then we hang it on the wall until we tear down that wall, sometime in April.

I had wanted to find her a ceramic tea set, but I could only find her this tin one, which turned out to be brilliant fortune.  Why would I deliberately purchase a set with nine tiny breakable items?

 

All the kids loved it enough to eat miniscule pancakes off the miniscule plates, washed down with multiple miniscule cups of tea, flavored to taste just like water.

Piper carefully pours tea for her guests.

May I Brag?

Piper read this story –quite fluently– to me the day before she turned 4.

 

[Lesson 60 from Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons]

Haven’t Yet Found a Month We Don’t Bike

For his birthday, Wesley got a little mini balance bike that I found on Craigslist  for $25.  It’s a homemade one, which I love, partly because it is well-crafted and partly because its smaller than the other store-bought Skuut bikes.

 

Piper has a regular pedal bike with training wheels.  She has ridden it less and less, and I’m not quite ready—in winter—to teach her to ride without the training wheels.  So when I came across a flat-tired Skuut bike for $10 at Value Village, I grabbed it,  knowing that used, these usually go for $50.  I doubled the original cost when I fixed the wheels, but Piper loves it and uses it whenever she has the chance. 

 

When we were at my parents’ house last weekend, Piper and Wes both figured out how to glide downhill with their feet up in the  air.  I think there is an implicit daring between the two.

 

Kyla just loves to ride her bike.  She’s great at it now.  Running along side her in the neighborhood I grew up in, I remembered learning to ride my own bike without training wheels.  I was much older.  But like her, I was certain I was the fastest thing on two wheels in the world!

Piper’s Super-Duper Someone-Loves-Her Cake

When Kyla turned five, she wanted to go fishing and have a fish (um, shaped) cake.  This burned into Piper's psyche the image of the perfect birthday cake.  My good friend, Elizabeth, who made Kyla’s cake in September, volunteered to make one for Piper as well.  So at playgroup today, we ate cake. 

Kyla’s cake in September:

 

The problem with this cake is the kids couldn’t decide which to eat first, the frosting, the cake, or the 7 pounds of M&M’s.  I couldn’t decide either. 

 

Piper was thrilled with her cake.

 

She still considers herself 3 1/2 since her 4th birthday is still 4 days away.

Susanne has been my kids’ mother-in-waiting, if you will, and they adore her.

Bionacles

Bionicles, I have learned, are Legos that build “robots”.  A boy in our playgroup is really into Bionicles, but so far, I’ve only seen him and his friends play with the ovoid packages the parts come in.

That’s what is on Kyla’s hands.  The 5 year olds ran around playing what I think they entitled Fight.  [Maybe this is the preschool version of Fight Club?]  Doesn’t look like it hurts too much. 

 

I have a strong desire to enroll Kyla in kickboxing.  And then get out of her way.

Laundry Baskets—Not just for unfolded clothes

I love Wesley’s Thinkasaurus Shirt and the fierce expression on his face.  Am I disturbing  a dino nest?

 

Piper and Wesley crack me up with their seriousness. 

The Reality

 

 

If the second one was actually a picture of me, I would be

1)  sleeping on my back so Piper could sleep on top of me, her favorite position  (I hate sleeping on my back);

2) my head turned to the side with Kyla’s hair tickling my nose and getting into my mouth, because Kyla likes the top of her head to be under my chin; and

3) trying to tilt my body to one side because Wesley likes to nurse while cuddling next to my side.