As of last week, we have a four-year-old living at the Pieper residence.
But this is not just any four-year-old, as he informed me during his annual birthday interview (see age 3), he is a biker now. And I should have believed him, all the signs were plainly pointing to the fact.
After waking up and seeing his new balance bike tied with a red ribbon, he was on it and scooting to the table for breakfast. Then he was on it to scoot to his room to get dressed. he scooted back to the living room. And I even witnessed some scooting into the bathroom.
The first day it was so adorable to see this boy so very much in love with his bike that had so quickly become part of his identity. That first night, it was parked tenderly at the side of his bed. When he woke up the day after his birthday and scooted to the table for breakfast again, I wondered how long I would let this go on.
It was comical to me that we had been listening to Charlotte's Web on audio book because suddenly I felt that J was Fern and the bike was his new little Wilbur that would soon become too rowdy and too much of a hassle to keep in the house. When I mentioned that the bike should stay the night in the garage, I was quick to add that it would be a warm, safe place for the bike to sleep.
As of now, he is content with the bike staying outside all the time and loves to ride it whenever he can. I am a proud and content mama and I cannot help but think that this bike has given me a few more years before I need to get him a dog (or a pig).
Birthday Interview
How old are you? four-years-old
What is your favorite thing to do? ride my balance bike (keep in mind these was a matter of hours after receiving it)
What do you want to be when you grow up? a bike rider and ride to work like Daddy
What is your favorite food? birthday cake and birthday pie
Who do you like to spend time with? Mommy and Daddy
What do you do really well? take care of breakable Christmas ornaments, and ride my bike
What makes you laugh? Ellie saying, "Me-mouse!"
What is the best time of day? sleeping so I can grow
What are you afraid of? lightning and thunder
What do you like to do with your family? go somewhere
Where do you like to go? to see Super Grandma and Grandpa
If you had one wish, what would it be? a balance bike with pedals
If you could have any animal for a pet, what would you choose? a turtle named Wilpert
We take our weekends pretty seriously around here. With Joseph's busy season in its full tumultuous swing, our one day of pure bliss and Pieper family do-whatever-we-want-day is Saturday.
Last Saturday we filled to the rim with library, Target, Krispy Kreme, and grocery store runs. After a crazy fun morning and afternoon naps, we decided (after some prompting from Ellie) to take a family field trip to the temple grounds.
Visiting the temple here in Sacramento really is the whole package.
Large grassy places to play, check.
Fountains, check.
Wild turkeys and geese to chase, check.
On this particular Saturday it was very overcast with a determination to rain. We wandered. We explored. I relished the beautiful moody clouds.
I ended up with J by my side as I was photographing the temple. I loved hearing his thought process as he quietly snuck around looking for traces of turkeys. Every sound he heard MUST have been a turkey hiding around the next turn.
Much to our dismay, the turkeys managed to evade us. Do the sounds of small children scare wildlife?
We returned home with pockets full of acorns and a sincere, indescribable appreciation for the knowledge that because of temples, our family can be together forever.
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.
This interview was administered at the kitchen table during snack time. J was in an especially silly mood and so every answer was sprinkled with giggles. I did not transcribe the giggles because "ha ha" would not have done them justice.
These photographs were taken on our bed when I asked him to jump for me. Turns out three-year-olds do not like to cooperate without bribery. Enjoy!
Birthday Interview
How old are you today? three years old
What is your favorite thing to do? nice things, go outside and play
What do you want to be when you grow up? get a movie and be a doctor
What are your favorite foods? strawberries, graham crackers, butter, and apples
What do you do really well? hold alligators, build with legos and eat
What makes you laugh? throwing Ellie away
What is the best time of the day? snack time and lunch time
What are you afraid of? just the spirits
What do you like to do with your family? open presents
What do you like to learn about? tents and dinosaurs
Where do you like to go? Florida and the library
What is your favorite book? the Magellan penguin one and Mercy Watson
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.
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
When looking for a place to live in Sacramento, one of the things we really wanted for our family was a grassy, fenced yard. After living the last year in Las Vegas, we realized J did not understand grass when he assumed everything green was a cactus.
"A little boy needs a yard." We repeated over and over again.
And boy were we right! Oh the adventures and the fun we've had in this yard. Lucky for me, he lets me share and photograph what he affectionately calls, "my backyard."
Best part of the new yard? J made friends with the boys next door and has adorable conversations that I have the joy of listening to.
