Santa comes to daycare, take 3

"On second thought, I'm good with what I've already got... no list here..."

Giddyup

Whatcha doin', pumpkin?

Halloween arts and crafts

After we brought our pumpkins home from the farm, we took them to the basement and Piper painted them.

 They came out great!

 

Then Piper finger painted for a while...

 Until she started finger painting herself.  Then, we called it a night :)

Pumpkin patch

 Today we went to a farm to pick out our Halloween pumpkin. 

 The  biggest attraction by far was the castle bouncy house.

 Mommy ended up hanging out with the horses by herself.

 And the bunnies and chickens were a success from afar.

 Surprisingly, another big ticket item was the pumpkin orange VW Beetle filled with hay...?

Piper picked out all her own pumpkins, and even transported the pumpkins of lesser poundage by herself while Daddy pulled the prize-winner in the wagon.

All in all, a successful day at the farm!

The best part

Piper received a package this week!

The funny thing is, the present (so thoughtful - a horse on a stick for Piper for her Halloween costume, sent from Auntie Chris!) scared the bejesus out of Piper and even sent her running to another room.  But the box...

The present also scared the you-know-what out of Hero, which was also pretty comical.  In his defense, it is a horse head without a body that makes strange noises.  It's just common sense for a dog to be skeptical of that kind of nonsense... :)

Bubble

 This is how Piper likes to relax after a hard day at work.

 Sometimes it helps to get a little silly too, to get the stress out.

They won't let me have wine, so I just drink straight from the tub...

Visit to the Sculpture Garden

Piper had her first visit to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden a couple weeks ago (we're behind on posting).

 For a kid, it's a giant playground with strange things to climb on.

Her favorite thing was running the length of the Conservatory.  And back.

 She found a piece of lint near the giant glass fish.

 Riding the big swing with Mommy was a blast.

Reading the messages on the stone benches was very interesting.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a fall morning.

A sunny rainy day

Just like her mommy did, Piper insists on making her own wardrobe choices.  While not always weather appropriate, she's always stylish and chic.

The Great Mouse Hunt, 2012

 He didn't want to come out.

 He really didn't want to come out.

 He came out!

Free, my pet! Free!

Daddy-Daughter Day

To make up for lost time working through the month of August, I took today off and kept Piper home with me.  We took an adventure to visit Mommy at work, followed by a trip to the Mall of America.  

Piper was so excited to see Mommy in the middle of the day!  Piper was a little bashful, but, in her defense, she did meet a lot of people.  She got to see what a cubicle is and sit in Mommy's chair.  Everyone loved Piper's new sunglasses (which she wore the whole time).  

Piper thought the Mall was quite exciting.  She was fascinated by the gigantic Dora, and wanted to touch her foot.

For rides, I had only planned to bring her to the bouncy house, because I know she loves that.  But the bouncy house was only open for 20 minutes every hour and we always seemed to miss it.  Piper saw the Balloon Race ride and said she wanted to go on it.  So we watched how the ride worked and saw other people go on it first.  She said she still wanted to give it a try, so we went for it.  It was Piper's first amusement park ride and she loved it!!  It was so much fun to see her light up as we went up into the air.

We followed that success with a ride on Swiper's Sweeper, in which several little cars go around a short track and go very, very fast around the corners.  Again, Piper's delighted screams could be heard over the noises of the ride.

After lunch, we finished our visit with a ride on the carousel.  Of all the animals, Piper wanted to ride the zebra-horse.  She was a bit less vocal about her enjoyment of this ride, but she still had fun.

It was simply a fantastic day together and I was constantly reminded how lucky we are to be the parents of this delightful kid.  

"That's a pretty top knot, Daddy"

Piper has two new favorite fashions: pink sunglasses on her face and a top knot in her hair.

Laura got her two new pairs of pink Dora sunglasses.  She wears them all over.  She especially likes to wear them inside Target.  After all, the sun never sets on cool.  Her hair's not long enough to wear a ponytail, but we pull it up into a top knot.  As soon as we put her top knot in, she goes to her favorite mirror (the kitchen garbage can) to admire it.

In this photo, we were about to pull out from the parking lot when I snapped a cell phone photo of her in her sunglasses and top knot.  Piper wanted to see the picture and, when she did, she exclaimed: "That's a pretty top knot, Daddy!"

Indeed it is, Piper.  Indeed it is.

2 Year Stats

Piper had her 2 year check up today.  Yes, yes, we know: she turned 2 a couple months ago.  But there weren't any vaccinations so there really wasn't a neeeed to do her checkup right when she turned 2.  As we already knew, Piper is doing just fine.  She is "very articulate" and is way ahead of the two-word sentences that are appropriate for her age.  In fact, she currently bosses us around with sentences up to seven words in length!

She weighs 28 pounds (59th percentile) and is 35 inches tall (73rd percentile).

On the negative side, it's time to give up the pacifier.  This will be a sad, sad day.  Whenever we get up the guts to do it, that is.  

Summer Jersey Style

 Long overdue, some photos from our trip to the Jersey shore and time with my family.  It was a fantastic part of our summer.