The Green Monster

Piper's newest addition to her portfolio of foods is avocados. I read that avocados are a great food to give babies (and adults) because of all of the nutrients and good fatty acids that they contain. So we decided to try some and Piper LOVES them. She ate more than I have ever seen her eat before on the first day she tried them. These pictures aren't that great, but she gets avocado all over her face and hands (and her bib, it used to be white! Just kidding). Today she grabbed the bowl and stuck her hand entirely in the avocado mash! Then she sucked it off of her fingers. It was fabulous, so I thought I would share. :)

To all the mothers, wives, and caregivers

I haven't been a mother very long, but I read part of this story on a friend's page and broke out in tears. For anyone who has felt under appreciated, this story is for you. I hope that it brightens your day and lightens your load as it did for me...

The Invisible Woman by Nicole Johnson

It started to happen gradually. One day I was walking my son Jake to school. I was holding his hand and we were about to cross the street when the crossing guard said to him, "Who is that with you, young fella?"

"Nobody", he shrugged. "Nobody?" The crossing guard and I laughed. My son is only 5, but as we crossed the street, I thought, "Oh my goodness, nobody?"

I would walk into a room and no one would notice. I would say something to my family - like "Turn the TV down, please" - and nothing would happen. Nobody would get up, or even make a move for the remote. I would stand there for a minute, and then I would say again, a little louder, "Would someone turn the TV down?" Nothing.

Just the other night my husband and I were out at a party. We'd been there for about three hours and I was ready to leave. I noticed he was talking to a friend from work. So I walked over, and when there was a break in the conversation, I whispered, "I'm ready to go when you are." He just kept right on talking.

That's when I started to put all the pieces together. I don't think he can see me. I don't think anyone can see me. I'm invisible. It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?"

Obviously not! No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this?

Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again.

She's going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean.

My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought this for you."

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:

1. No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
2. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
3. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
4. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table". That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Baby Friends

Piper has made some new friends as of late. Sunday we stopped by Salem on our way home from Corvallis (Piper attended her first Beaver football game and did very well!) to visit my friend Kristy and her daughter Kaitlyn, home fresh from the hospital. They came home on Friday I believe and they looked very well. It was amazing to hold Kaitlyn, I swear she didn't even weigh a pound! Well that is in comparison to my tank of a baby who just keeps growing and growing!! But honestly I can't remember Piper ever being that small, and I actually don't think she ever was because Kaitlyn was 7lb 10oz at birth, and Piper was 8lb 3oz... so she started out breaking my back! :) It was great to see the two of them, Kristy looked fabulous for just having a cesarean delivery... she was up and around like nothing happened. Here are some pics of the girls... the fatty pale one is my kid! :)

Then on Monday Piper met another new little friend. My friend Becca is a nanny for a young girl named Claudia who is 3 months old. With her mother's permission Becca and Claudia came up to the house for a little play date. It was great for Piper because she so rarely sees babies that are younger than she is. Claudia is a little cutie and we hope that the girls can have more play dates!Here are some pictures of these two little ones sitting on the sofa together (Claudia does have a neck, but has not mastered sitting up yet, and so she was slouching down most of the time) :)

JC Penney Pictures!

Last Saturday, September 8th, Jason and I took Piper in for her 6 month pictures at JC Penney. She was so adorable! We also got some great family portraits as well. I purchased the smilesbywire.com service so I am able to view the pictures online, download them, and reorder online if I choose to get some more pictures. Here are a few that I downloaded.



So I hope that you enjoy these. If you would like the website and access code to see more, please email me (or post a comment - and you don't have to have a blog or be a member to post a comment on my site) and I can send you the information to get on to smilesbywire.com to see all of the pictures that were taken. She was such a good girl at the studio, and it shows in these photos because she is just a cutie!

Success

After three days of trying (and failing) to feed Piper rice cereal I finally took the advice of some friends. (Thank you Amber and Danielle, and anyone else who suggested this!) Today Piper got rice cereal with a little bit of mashed up banana mixed in and "tada!" she is an eater. She didn't take much, but she was eating it and even looking like she enjoyed it a little bit. She showed interest which was the most important thing. A lot of food still ended up on her bib and on her chin and on the tray, but she wasn't resisting the food or the spoon. So thanks again for the advice, apparently I didn't know how magical bananas were!!

P.S. Congratulations to Kristy and Brandon on their adorable little girl. Kaitlyn May was born Sept 11, 2007 at 3:33pm, weighing in at 7lb 10oz and was 19.5 inches long. Congrats girl, your wait is finally over. Enjoy that baby!!

New Nanny

After being spoiled all summer by my mother, (having the best daycare for free!) she sadly went back to teaching and Jason and I were left to decide what we were going to do for daycare. For a few weeks we were lucky because a good friend of his was able to watch her for us before her new job started, but then what? After many sleepless nights and even some crying we knew we had to make a decision. There was commercial daycare, in home daycare and a personal nanny. The commercial daycare was out immediately and so we were left with two options. Both were nice options and each had their pros and cons. In home daycare was not as expensive, but Piper would be exposed to more germs and have less personal attention, plus we would have to transport her. A personal nanny would come to us and Piper would be her only focus, but it can get pretty spendy. I was talking with my father-in-law Ken and his girlfriend Kim about this situation and they said that Kim's daughter Sarah, who just had a little baby boy herself, was considering starting an in home daycare after her baby's birth so that she would not have to go back to work. Ken mentioned that the company, Pacific Belt where Jason works, may be able to pay for daycare if we were to use Sarah's daycare. Jason and I are seriously considering taking him up on the offer, and need to have a meeting with Sarah to discuss all of the logistics, but this would not start until the little boy is a few months old, so we are thinking beginning of next year. So Jason and I still had to find a daycare solution for the rest of this year. After looking at all of the options again, and having 3 different ideas fall through, we decided to hire a nanny through a company called Northwest Nannies. NW Nannies screens all of their nannies and does extensive background check, basically the works, to ensure that they hire only the most qualified people. My friend Becca worked for a company like them, and has worked with NW Nannies before and she strongly recommended them. (Thanks again Bec!) The young woman that we hired will work 7:30 - 11:30 here at our house the four days a week that I work. Her name is Caitlin (Caitie) and she is very sweet. She lives up here in Vancouver, so it isn't much of a commute for her to get here. I met her last Friday, and today was her first day with Piper. Piper seems to enjoy her company and everything went great. We are very happy to have her with us!

First Feeding & First Birthday Party

Well today was a big day for little Piper. Today was her first solid food. Although a baby's first solid food is anything but solid, it was still exciting to try and get her to eat like a person, spoon and all. We had some delicious and runny rice cereal, and she didn't really like it. Well who can blame her really! I wouldn't want to eat that stuff. I think that most of the food ended up on her chin or on her bib, but I do believe that some went down the hatch and into the belly! We think her biggest issue with the food is not the taste (althought that isn't helping anything) but the texture. Even though the rice cereal is so runny it still has some chunks in it that she isn't used to and you can see her playing around with the chunks with her tounge. All in all I think it went pretty well, we only had one fling of food which went pretty much all over her face, but missed Jason and I completely. It was a small victory for mom and dad. So we will keep trying and see if she can't get the hang of this swallowing thing!!

We also went to Isaiah's first birthday party today. My friend Kasey's son Isaiah turned 1 year old on Sept 3rd, so they waited until after Labor Day to have his birthday party. There are five of us girls that went to high school together who have children within about one year of each other and all five babies were there today, so we got some cute pictures! From left to right is Jaylen, Gracie, Levi, Piper and Isaiah (the birthday boy). Jaylen is 10 months, Gracie is 5 months, Levi is 9 months, Piper is 6 months, and Isaiah is one year! So many babies! It was so cute because there were also quite a few other small children at the party and Piper was just so content to watch all the other people in the room. I tried to give her a toy to play with and she just ignored it to watch everyone, especially the babies. My little people watcher. We all had a great time. Happy Birthday Isaiah!!!

Weight Gain

Okay so this is NOT a depressing story about me and my growing behind! It is a good story about Piper. At her 4 month appointment she had not gained much weight, about 6oz in 2 months to be exact. Needless to say Dr. Rivas suggested that we supplement with formula because my milk supply was most likely dropping, and that was probably due to my returning to work. So we did start supplementing and she started packing on the pounds! :) Now her diet consists mostly of formula but I still breastfeed her at night before bed. My milk supply has continually dropped since my return to work, but we have accepted that and are just happy that she is healthy and that she is still able to get some breast milk in her diet. So today was her 6 month appointment and she weighed 16lb 13oz, which is a 3lb 10oz jump from her last appointment. Praise God! My baby is getting to be quite the tank! All her measurements, head size-height-weight, were all in the 75% for her age, and her height/weight ratio was approximately 50%. Dr. Rivas said that she is a VERY healthy little girl, and that we are doing a great job! :)


In addition to the health assessment we also had to get some shots! :( Very sad. Piper did not approve of getting poked with sharp objects. She did alright for the first two shots, but she did not enjoy the second two. Poor little girl, I was impressed that she didn't fuss too much with the first one, I would have raised some hell. But being a baby about 2 minutes later she was smiling at the nurse who gave her the shots, and intently looking at the puppy pictures on the wall. By the time we left the office you wouldn't even think she had gotten shots! She had to get four today, but that was so she won't have to get any at her next two appointments! Yeah! Lucky for daddy he was at work so he didn't have to go through the crying and screaming and feeling like the worst person in the world for letting someone poke your baby in the leg 4 times! I think I will live though, and I think he actually felt bad that he wasn't able to be there to help soothe her. But we got some Tylenol as soon as we got home and had lunch, and all was better again. Happy 6 months baby girl, I promise you won't get shots for your first birthday! :)

Finally gave in!

So I have finally given in to the blogging community. I have decided to be a geek and create a blog so that I can update people about our family. Piper is going to start doing a lot of new little things and it takes too many emails and too many phone calls to tell everyone. Plus then I don't know who I have told, or what I told them... and I can never remember to send out pictures to people, especially to my grandparents who, because I am so lame, have to ASK me for pictures. So to everyone who wants to know... here is where you will find out, and here is where you can see my little girl grow up! Being that this is long overdue, I thought I would add some pictures to this virgin blog. They are of Piper of course who is almost 6 months old now. She is sitting up all on her own, and she has rolled over from tummy to back twice! She will be starting to eat solids this weekend, so stay tuned for those photos!