I've been a mother long enough to know that when your child is missing and being quiet, it means that messy mischief is most certainly going on. (Last week, it was large bottles of baby powder emptied on the floor and two guilty children.)
But sometimes, as I go running looking frantically for the child that is suspiciously quiet, I find them with a book. And then my mommy heart is happy. And then I obviously go find my camera to capture the moment in as many possible angles as I can.
When I was pregnant with J, I was an Early Childhood Education major with big dreams of how to best raise a child. Our impending parenthood paired with my coursework in child development and pedagogical strategies assured me that we would know what would be best for our child and we would implement it every time.
(Insert mild eye-rolling and laughter here.) Needless to say, our visions of parenthood quickly changed when we became parents.
One of our main priorities as new parents (that actually lasted) was to make intentional decisions in the lives of our children. We wanted to have valid reasons for at least most of the things we included in our children's lives. So when we moved a few months after J was born, we sold our television and haven't owned one since.
All this is to say, we filled our home with books instead which has made these quiet moments of reading and enjoying books a daily occurrence at our house. I have LOVED exploring the world of children's literature with my kids and I love that we quote books instead of movies at our house. I feel a great bond as a family because we have many friends in common, like Trixie, Mercy Watson, Benny Alden, and Wolfie.
I should say that I do not feel that television is evil or parents who watch television with their children are careless. I feel like all parents have those one or two things that they are passionate about (organic snacks, stylish clothes, cloth diapers, and on and on....), and my thing just happens to be reading and limiting screen time.
There are times, like every day at 5 pm when I am trying to make dinner, that I wish I had a television and Daniel Tiger to get me through! But I know myself and feel I would use the television too often to entertain my children and so I have to just abstain all together. Thanks to Gretchen Rubin, I understand this tendency about myself.
And if my kids grow up thinking that only hotels have the luxury of a television, that is just fine by me.
I've
never been one to put much effort into holidays (besides Christmas and birthdays), but after seeing J's
eyes light up when we hung paper bats from the light fixture, I decided
to change my ways. He exclaimed, "We have a Halloween house!" with so
much joy that it melted my heart.
We
went to the library and scoured the shelves for Halloween books with a
pumpkin sticker on the spine. (Our favorites being Creepy Carrots, Click Clack Boo, and I am a Witch's Cat.) We painted pumpkins and snacked on the
roasted seeds.
The Pieper family enjoyed a week of Halloween festivities, which was just fine with me considering the time we put into the costume development process. (When J finally settled on doctor and not euphlosephalus or elephant, my time at the sewing machine was thankfully reduced.)
Ellie
girl had her share of the fun as well with several costume changes for
each activity throughout the week. She was a Super Girl turned puppy and
was quite adorable as both. What can I say, this girl loves to wear anything and everything (and sometimes at the same time).
We enjoyed a play date at the park in costumes, a church Halloween Carnival, and of course the night of trick or treating itself.
After the first house and a HUGE handful of candy, J was ready to call it quits and start eating. When we told him he could go to more houses for more candy, he couldn't believe it. For the rest of the night we could hardly make him stop! If he witnessed even the smallest glimmer of light in a house, you had better believe that he was marching up to the door for his share of the sweets.
I don't know a doctor could have such a sweet tooth.
Although we only trick or treated a few houses, we all had SO much fun! And as a sort of Halloween Scrooge myself, I can't believe that I am actually excited for this spooky time of year to roll around again.
Dearest Ellie Dear,
Ten words to describe you at ten months:
Toothless
Here we are at ten months and still waiting for those two front teeth to arrive. But you don't let that stop your sampling of just about anything the family is eating.
Predator
Your brother is obsessed with learning about animals right now. The food chain and the concept of 'prey' and 'predator' is especially appealing to him. On good days, he lets you be a predator too, crawling and growling around the house looking for prey (usually Mommy or invisible gazelles).
Independent
Now that you are crawling and mobile, obviously you are old enough to go outside by yourself, right? You seem to believe so, but I'm not buying it. You find it especially offensive lately when the back door is closed and you are not allowed to roam freely, grazing from the garden and your favorite rock pile.
Adorable
But really I've always said this. As you've gotten older, the adorableness of your personality shines through more each day. You seem to have this funny sense of humor which always makes others smile.
Determined
You. just. never. stop.
Sassy
We use to get away with taking things from your hands, or pulling the old bait and switch, but not anymore. Suddenly you know what you want and if we try to take the toy, cell phone, or keys from your tiny grasp, we hear about it. You know that you have a voice and you make sure it is heard.
Destructor
Just ask your brother.
Dramatic
Yes you can crawl, but if you decide you are done crawling and want to be held, you lay your head on the ground and sob. Then, you look up with the saddest little face to be sure your parents are watching. This is repeated until you are picked up or distracted.
Upside down
Funny way to describe you but it is true.You like when your Dad holds you upside down and when he isn't, you try to replicate it by throwing your head off my lap or the couch.
Heaven
Cuddled up with your warm chubby body as we begin or end the day. Yes my dear, you are heaven.
Dear Miss Ellie,
I remember keeping track of and always waiting for the next milestone with your brother. I was so excited for him to begin rolling, crawling, walking! It was all so new and so exciting.
But with you, my darling dear, I find myself wanting to slow down time and keep you my baby forever. Those chunky cheeks, pudgy hands, and sweet baby babblings bring me so much joy.
These last two months I feel like you have quickly grown from the "I'm an angelic cooing baby" stage to the "Hide your shoes and vacuum this floor because I'm mobile and putting everything in my mouth" stage. Sigh.
You continue to be the first thing J is thankful for in his prayers.
You have quickly mastered the Cheerio to mouth milestone, usually you have one hand in your mouth and the other already reaching for another Cheerio.
Your usually cheery self became very frustrated for about a week while you struggled to crawl, spinning in circles or getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. But then you got it, and now you are crawling and getting into just about everything, with a HUGE smile on your face (and sometimes your tongue sticking out in concentration).
J is having the most difficult time with this adjustment. "She was right there..." with a look of disbelief on his face. He is on constant high alert, moving his books, train tracks, and legos to higher ground.
Still no teeth yet, but you have two little bumps on your lower gums that I look promising. (Promising teething, miserable nights.)
Just today you pulled yourself up to the couch, the dishwasher, and the toy box. And when I put out my hands for you to steady yourself, you kindly push them away. Why crawl when you can walk, right?
Friday was laundry day at the Pieper house. As I was putting the clean sheets back on our bed, two littles were caught under the covers.
I love these photographs.
I love that starting another daily photography project encouraged me to get under the sheets and photograph their laughs and giggles.
Capturing these small details of our everyday lives has been so good for me. These are the moments I don't want to forget.
Dear Ellie,
If the biggest news that happened last time was you losing your hair, the biggest news this time is that your hair is growing back! Now we still don't have the long, dark, wavy goodness you had a few months ago, but I'll take it.
So what has happened in your miniature pieper life these last two months?
YOU:
- celebrated your first Thanksgiving with your first spoonful of oatmeal. And have since tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and bananas from mommy. And chocolate pudding from daddy.
- flew on your first airplane to Las Vegas.
- celebrated your first Christmas morning with lots and lots of crunchy wrapping paper and bows.
- started talking! I'll ask, "Ellie, are you the most adorable baby in the world?" And you say, "yayayayaya...."
- are starting to go places. While still on the cusp of crawling, you are a master of rolling and spinning around to get most things (edible and not) into your mouth.
- visited Idahome for the first time where you learned about dogs, snow, and doting grandparents.
- learned how to give kisses by grabbing the sides of my face and pulling it towards your own. Your mouth is open and exceptionally slobbery of course.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but you and J are just about the cutest together. Sure sometimes it becomes a screaming scratching battle, but more often than not you guys are laughing uncontrollably.
"I love you sweetie," he says. "You are a porcine wonder," he says.
6:15am- I'm woken up by Ellie shrieking happily in bed. She is instantly forgiven when I see her smiling face in the dark. While I feed her I say my morning prayers and notice the light coming through the window. I grab my camera and decide to photograph our day.
6:40am- Change Ellie's diaper and get her dressed. Take down diapers that were hung to dry and fold and put away. I hear J make noises in his room but he must be staying put until his alarm beeps.
6:55am- J's alarm beeps and I go into his room to say good morning and open his window. "The sun is waking up!" Then it is time for breakfast. J gets out a bowl and spoon and asks for cereal. I start water boiling on the stove for my (and J's eventual) oatmeal. I unload the dishwasher while I wait for the oatmeal. Joseph leaves unusually early for work to drive to a client site.
7:15am- Oatmeal is finished and J wants some too (moms always know). His goes in the freezer to cool off. He puts his dishes away in his cupboard while he waits. After eating I load the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.
7:35am- Ellie goes down for a nap. J helps me make the bed. He plays Legos while I get ready for the day.
7:50am- I join J playing Legos. We build a train and a huge tower.
8:30am- Ellie wakes up and joins us in J's room to play. We listen and sing along to primary songs. We clean up the Legos and play cars instead.
9:00am- I feed Ellie and discuss the day with J.
9:30am- We decide that it is too cold to play outside so he settles for fingerpainting. We check on his pet snail and caterpillar.
9:45am- Trucks! (I love how he lines them up because they are all friends.)
10:00am- Ellie goes down for her second nap.
10:05am- Bananas for snack time. I clean the kitchen while J goes to play. I'm called in for an emergency intervention between McQueen and the ambulance. Someone was pushing and would not say sorry. We talked through things and all parties were satisfied with the results.
10:45am- I finished cleaning and join J to play. He asks for the marching song. We march around his room to "The Saints Go Marching In" on repeat about 100 times. Workout for the day, check! J gets tired out too and asks to wrestle(rest) and read in bed. We read Mercy Watson to the Rescue.
11:45am- Ellie wakes up and I feed her.
12:30pm- Lunchtime. J makes his own peanut butter sandwich, and even put the jars back in the fridge when he was done. And I only saw him lick the knife once!
12:45pm- We take our lunch and a blanket outside and have a picnic in the backyard.
1:00pm- I load the lunch dishes in the dishwasher while J hangs upside down on a chair. (He's eating second lunch inside. This boy is always hungry). I vacuum the living room while the kids sit at the table. Over the hum of the vacuum, I hear screaming and look over. Sure enough, they are just seeing who is louder.
1:20pm- Ellie goes down for her afternoon nap.
1:30pm- Start nap time routine. We clean up toys. Read 2 books on the couch. J picks 1 scripture story. J asks to say a prayer. "Thank you for Mercy Watson..." (the pig from his book).
2:00pm- J is finally in bed.
2:01pm- Both kids are sleeping and the countdown begins. I run to my room and start scripture study. Today I'm listening to and studying Elder Holland's talk, "Are We Not All Beggars?"
3:00pm- I start to outline my paper for my Marriage and Family class.
3:15pm- Ellie wakes up. I feed her while checking my email and doing Pinecone surveys. I make $6 answering survey questions about coffee. I open Lightroom and work on editing pictures.
4:00pm- J wakes up. We get suited up and in the stroller for a quick walk to the library.
5:00pm- We get home from the library. I kick J's cup of Cheerios from the stroller ride all over the living room I just vacuumed earlier. I laugh and help J clean them up. I try to put Ellie down for a nap but she is not interested.
She goes in the high chair to watch J and I make dinner. Tonight it is scrambled eggs and hash browns (quick and easy because Joseph is still at work). J helps by opening up the egg carton and mixing the raw eggs with the few that were hard boiled and set aside. I play egg roulette to make scrambled eggs. We eat and I clean up dinner and start the dishwasher.
6:00pm- I feed Ellie and read J from the stack of new library books.
6:45pm- Joseph gets home. Ellie is over-tired and so I go to her room to sing and cuddle her to sleep. The boys play with the train set and then chase each other around the house. Ellie is so tired, she falls right to sleep amid the loud fun.
7:00pm- Bedtime routine for J.
7:30pm- J is asleep in bed.
THE END
