Shrinky My Dinky

Posted on January 19, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

If you’re a fan of piperism, you probably already know how much I loathe arts and crafts. Glitter gives me a panic attack. I was forbidden from puffy painting in my sorority. I just can’t make things. But Sissy and Piper love to. They’re both crafty. Sissy has her own sewing machine. She loves embroidery, whatever that means. Being a more is more kind of girl, Piper, too, loves to embellish everything in sight with color, beads, and sparkly stuff. My heart is beating faster just writing this.

I may be the only mother in North America who has never done shrinky dinks. I didn’t even know what they were. A dear friend gave Piper a kit for the holidays. I tried to hide it before she saw it, but she had a playdate the next day and added it to their fun agenda. “Mom, Alex and I can do Shrinky my Dinky tomorrow! She’ll love it!” Giggle. Snort. I was too busy laughing inappropriately to defend myself.

Creativity for Kids Shrinky Dink Deluxe

So, shrinky my dink they did. It turned out that I didn’t have to do much which is probably why the shrinky dinks turned out at all. Piper even hunted down colored pencils in our house. Sissy had them, of course. After the coloring, Piper and Alex watched the magic in the oven. I may have peeked. It was kind of cool.

Best part? No mess. Happy kids. Whew.

Fresh. Really Fresh.

Posted on January 18, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Piper is once again on a stand off with the leftovers. She would prefer every meal made from scratch and hot out of the pan just for her. Who wouldn’t? I get it. But who has time for that? I cook homemade meals 3-4 times per week. My partner cooks dinner twice a week on my teaching days because I get home late. We try to double the recipes so that there are leftovers and plenty for packed lunches. We do what we can.

Piper appreciates her food. She LOVES to eat. Sissy couldn’t care less about food. She HATES to eat. This is how I know that when it comes to meal time, it’s nature and not nurture. They’ve both been raised on a mostly healthy eat at home vegetarian diet, and they both turned out with completely different tastes and habits. Sissy would prefer seaweed and oranges as an after school snack. Piper wants a fried piece of cheese, please. I’m sure there are plenty of things I’ve screwed up for both of them, but I can’t take any credit or blame for their food intake preferences.

Still, Piper peruses our offerings with a close eye. “Is that kalamata olive bread fresh?” Piper asked this week when I offered it to her with homemade soup. I’d even slathered on some butter to moisten it a bit. “I will eat today’s bread or yesterday’s bread but nothing older than that.” Food snob, right? I was immediately transformed into my own mother and gave Piper the starving kids in Africa lecture. It wasn’t pretty.

Last night dinner was running late so I offered guacamole as an appetizer. Piper loves guacamole. She peered into the bowl. “Hmm. That looks a few hours old, Mom. Is it fresh? I mean, really fresh?”

I’ll take that as my cue that Ms. Fresh is indeed ready to join me in the kitchen. Here’s to hoping Chef Piper will soon be at my service.

It’s Me. Your Pipey.

Posted on January 16, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Sleep seems to take so long for the Piper. It’s like almost ten whole hours that we are apart. Piper doesn’t know how we stand the moments without her. She knows it’s hard on us. So she wakes us every morning the same. Gently.

First, she scurries to the door to check for sunlight. She’s not allowed to get out of bed until the sun does. It’s also supposed to be after a number that starts with 7.

Once Piper gets the go ahead from the sun, she starts whispering. From the hallway.

She uses her best breathless Kathleen Turner voice. “Good morning,” she whispers, “the sun is awake. Good morning, family.”

Then she pounces and announces. “It’s me, people. It’s me. The Piper. Your Pipey. I’m here for the morning snuggle. Did you miss me?”

Of course we did.

I’d Like to Thank the Little People

Posted on January 15, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Piper is busy preparing for her first Power Point presentation. You read that right. In kindergarten. This week she’ll stand before her class and an assembly of parents and present her findings on the origin of pasta fagioli, or as we call it, Piper Soup (recipe included). She did the research and created the presentation at school, but we’ve been practicing her five slides at home. It may send the cute factors into the stratosphere.

“Will you be there for the presentation, Mom?” Piper asked following one of her many practice runs.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it,” I said.

“Can Sissy come too?”

“Sure. I’ll email her teacher to make sure it’s okay.”

“What about Sissy’s friends? Can they come too?”

“Probably not, but I’ll certainly ask,” I promised.

Piper looked down at the printed copy of her slides. She sighed. “We’re going to need more chairs in the audience. You know, for my fan club.”

The Grumpy Doctor Will See You Now

Posted on January 14, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Maybe I was grumpy Sunday morning. Maybe I didn’t like waking up at 7 a.m. with a demand for Orange Spice Tea and reruns of Austin and Alley on the Disney Channel. Maybe even all the cuddling didn’t distract me from my grumpiness. Maybe my grumpiness was a bit contagious when other people started rolling out of bed in the 9 o’clock range. Or maybe by then grumpiness had turned into rage. Whatever.

I made blueberry muffins for our Sunday family meeting and the four of us sat down together to share our grumpiness. Maybe I whined a little about the unfairness of the day so far. I’d had hours to stew. Sissy and Daddy looked refreshed and ready to start their day. Piper bounced. She’s a bit like Tigger and Dennis the Menace rolled into one. Most of the time it’s ~~enduring~~ endearing. Sunday mornings at 7 a.m. it’s not.

At breakfast, Piper decided she wasn’t having any more of my grumpiness. “Maybe we should talk about our goals for the day,” she began, sounding a lot like me when I’m not so grumpy. “Let’s all say what we need and then we’ll all help each other. Sound good?”

“I need to play my guitar and read a little today. And we should do something fun,” Daddy began. I bit my lip. Nothing I was going to say would be positive or welcome.

“I have swim lessons at noon,” Sissy said, “and I need to play piano. Oh, and let’s go to the park for fun.”

“Mommy?” Piper asked. She was enjoying her role as moderator.

“I need to go for a run. A long run. Soon. And I need to finish planning for my classes tomorrow. Oh, and I want to be outside today.” Piper was right. I felt better just saying what I needed. I needed to stop being grumpy. I needed someone to listen. And they did. Darn it.

We mapped out a plan for the day. Time together. Time alone. Fun time. Music time. Me time. I even squeezed out a trip to DSW. It’s really hard to be grumpy there.

Happy Blogiversary to Us!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Here we are, dear readers. One year. 365+ posts. 50,000 plus hits. New friends. Old friends. Faithful readers. A lot of memories. More to come.

Just like one year ago when we began, I’m not sure where Piperism is going next. If parenting has taught me anything, it’s not to assume I have anything figured out. The minute you do, change happens. It’s inevitable. This moment matters. This one. I’ll keep blogging. One post at a time. I’m grateful to have you along for the ride.

And since it’s our one year blogging anniversary, let’s take a little trip down Piper lane.

Here are your favorite posts (based on number of hits) from the last blogging year:

Hold On. We’re Going Gaga

Soulmates

Drunk Dialing or Something Like It

Grumpy Naked Guy

Dear Katy Perry

And here is mine:

I’ll Stop the World and Melt With You

Hummingbirds

Snow Falling From Sissy

Courage Comes in Small Packages

Burning Our Regrets

And you? What’s your favorite post? What piperism made you laugh out loud? Share!

Collages Rock

Posted on January 12, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Sissy made a little collage for the Piper. They’re sweet like that. Sisters.

You want one, too, don’t you? I do. Sissy should be taking orders.

Burning Our Regrets

Posted on January 10, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Last week at church Piper burned her regrets from 2012. It was part of the Children’s Worship Service, which is one of my favorite things that our congregation does. One Sunday a month, in a space that’s all their own, the children come together to practice spirituality. The children light the candles. The children collect and give the offering. The children decide their own service projects. The children join hands and pray. The children recite their pledge to our community:

May we have eyes that see,

hearts that love and

hands that are willing to serve

Children squirm during the short service and it’s okay. Sometimes they switch seats and it’s okay. Sometimes they have urgent questions and it’s okay. They’re children. This is their service. I get to attend with Piper, but I’m only a visitor.

Because it’s the new year, the children decided that the service would center around new beginnings. And to begin anew sometimes you have to let go of the past. These kids are geniuses, aren’t they? We should stay out of their way and listen a little harder.

Each kid wrote a regret from 2012 on a piece of flash paper. It could be something they’d done or something that had happened to them that made them sad or something in our world that was regretful. I’m sure you can think of a few. Piper had no problem coming up with hers. On her tissue paper thin paper she wrote:

TEASING

It’s happened to her. She’s done it a few times too. We all have. And sometimes it hurts. Whether we mean for it to or not. Piper regrets teasing and she doesn’t like when she’s teased.

Piper clutched her paper tight as she got in line with the rest of the children. One by one they burned their regrets in a large urn. The flash paper gave it a dramatic effect. When you toss your paper into the small flame, a momentarily flash of fire bursts. Piper thought it had PIZAZZ, her new favorite word.

Then they talked about forgiveness and letting go of injuries. Piper had one moment of teasing that particularly hurt that she’s been holding onto. She’s talked about it daily since it happened. But after burning TEASING, I haven’t heard her mention it. She’ve moved on. Kids can do that. They live in this moment. This one. Sure, there’s a birthday party at some bounce house this weekend, but when you don’t know the days of the week, the weekend means nothing. It’s so far away. It could be tomorrow. It could be never. It’s recess. Let’s go play. Let’s try not to tease while we’re out there. And forgive a lot more in 2013. I’m following Piper’s lead.

Grading

Posted on January 9, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Piper is worried about first grade. She just started reading. She just began really writing. And she’s already anxious about an event that is 9 months away. Her eyes fill up when she talks about it. Poor baby.

“What are you worried about, P?” I asked, wiping away her tears.

“It looks so hard,” she said, “they do all this big kid stuff.”

“You do big kid stuff, already. This morning you dressed yourself and packed your snack and set the breakfast table. That’s big kid stuff.”

“That’s easy stuff, Mom. In first grade you get REAL grades. It’s not just about trying anymore.”

I thought about that. Piper already understands that effort goes a long way but eventually this world is about performance and evaluation. At five, she gets that. Sigh.

“Actually, Piper, they don’t give grades in first grade. I don’t think report cards have grades on them until third. Instead, they give you little check marks about your progress.”

Piper’s eyes got big at that news. “Well, geez, then, why do they call it first GRADE?”

A Tale of Two (or Three) Giraffes Part 2

Posted on January 7, 2013 by melissa.scholes.young

Have you read A Tale of Two (or Three) Giraffes Part 1?

Here’s part 2:

This afternoon I cleaned out Piper’s backpack. We were searching for her homework, which she likes to stuff really far down in various pockets in hopes that I won’t find it and make her do it. Nice try.

Buried deep down in there were the giraffes magnets that were recently confiscated by Piper’s teacher from the thieving, evil first grader who stole them from Piper’s locker.

Except. Piper had two giraffe magnets. And now we have…