“Mom, you really aren’t going to believe this!” Piper said, busting through the door at the dressing room at Kohl’s.
“Really?” I asked.
“Really. I just never thought it could happen.”
“What?”
“All my dreams just came true.”
“Wow. Show me!”
“Okay. You should prepare yourself. Even I was amazed. Look!”
Sissy ordered caramel french toast for her annual birthday breakfast in bed. Piper had to eat cold cereal on the floor of Sissy’s bedroom. Piper opted out of the french toast when she saw me making “stuff you dip in eggs that’s gross.” She did dig two chocolates from her own Easter basket to add to Sissy’s vitamins. She’s got a generous heart, that one.
Piper was pleased just to step into the sacred preteen space. We, too, were allowed into Sissy’s bedroom to deliver the breakfast and wish her a happy birthday. It was quite a treat.
“What’s the best gift you ever received?” I asked Sissy, stopping myself short of cutting the french toast. Back off, Mom. Got it.
Sissy thought for a minute. “Probably my bike,” she said.
“I think Piper’s the best gift we ever gave you,” Dad said. Sissy and Piper exchanged incredulous glances. Me? Her?
“Boy I hope you don’t still have the receipt for me,” Piper said. “I do not want to be returned. I’m ‘as is,’ Sissy.”
From Piper’s morning monologue…
“Dad, nobody wants to sit next to D in my class. He’s one of the booger boys.”
“The what?”
“The booger boys are a gang of boys who pick their boogers and wipe them places. Do not sit near them.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Also, D sucked on a crayon once. That does not help his cause.”
I tell Piper every day that she is special. If you’re a fan of the Piper, you probably agree. She has many talents. Like making us laugh and not taking ourselves so seriously. Oh, and don’t forget her dance moves.
Apparently, I have skills, too.
“Mom, your special talent is holding things in your armpit. Whenever we go to the bathroom and I bring all my stuffed animals, you always hold them for me under your arm. You’ve got pit skills.”
Piper likes to decorate for everything. Easter, Passover, Spring, Lent. You name it, Piper has a decor scheme in mind. She plots and plans. She eyes bunny cut outs and spring flowers. She tries to convince me that it will be fun; decorating will make our lives better. She brings home “projects” from school and scatters her designs on every surface.
In the same way that Piper likes to decor herself, she thinks more is more in our home, too. I try to keep up. I really do. I even put up this on our front door:
Come on. That’s cheerful, right? Nest and eggs and fake flowers. Come on.
It’s not enough for the Piper. Not even when I let them do stuff like this:
I’m still a decorating disappointment. We need a craft fairy. Truth.
Piper did her first 5K this morning. She was a champ.
It was our annual MS Walk and we raised over $1000 for Team Forever Young because we have the best friends and family EVER. You know who you are. We’re grateful!
First, there were donuts.
You can tell from our winter coats that it was a balmy 37 degrees. The sun was bright, though, and the donuts and hot chocolate helped. We pinned on our numbers:
We signed the MS Wall of Fame.
Then we walked. And because there was a Piper we also skipped and jumped and watched fish and visited with ducks. They gave out Oreos at the halfway mark. Typical 5 K stuff. Maybe our time wasn’t stellar but our fun was.
Just as the finish line came into view, Piper asked “If we finish the walk, does that mean it’s over?”
“The walk?” I said. “Yep. We’re almost done.”
“No. I mean MS. Is it over?”
“Nope,” I said, “but we’ll keep walking until there is a cure, okay?”
“Okay,” Piper agreed, “especially if there are Oreos.”
Click Here to Donate to Our Team. Piper Will Send You Oreos.
Today was the last day of Spring Break. We decided to go big and invite friends over to play. A lot of them. Half the neighborhood or so. Our dining room table had so many kids at lunch we had to drag over the piano bench. There was a lot of giggling, multiple scavenger hunts, and plenty of screaming girls. It was perfect.
Piper and her friend, M, dragged out the toys we still haven’t unpacked in the basement. They found this:
The Little People’s Dream Mansion used to be Sissy and Piper’s favorite. It’s one of the many things I know they’ve outgrown but I can’t bring myself to part with. I got a little sentimental watching Piper and her friends play with it. Until I overheard them.
The sweet Little People had a bad case of diarrhea it seems. I’ll spare you the details. But Piper made her friend laugh so hard she gave her the hiccups. Piper has that effect on people. At one point I heard M beg for mercy. “Stop, Piper! My belly hurts from laughing so hard.”
“Oh, that’s nothing,” Piper said. “Have you ever laughed so hard you peed your pants?”
M’s eyes got big. She shook her head no.
“Don’t worry,” Piper said. “We have all afternoon.”
Yesterday Piper and Sissy went to a theater arts camp. The day’s theme was Dr. Seuss. They wrote their own scenes, designed their costumes, and memorized their lines.
After the play, they read all of Dr. Seuss’ books and did related art projects. One of the activities was based on “Green Eggs and Ham” and the girls made lists of “like” and “do not like.”
Here’s Piper’s:
She likes dogs, raspberries, goldfish, dogs, unicorns, chocolate, Iphones, books, gold necklaces, and dogs.
“I couldn’t think of anything I didn’t like, Mom,” Piper said. “I kind of like everything. It’s a beautiful world.”
When you send a Piper upstairs to get dressed in the morning, you have to be specific. “Go get dressed!” could mean anything. Piper gets distracted along the way. Pirates coerce her to join their marauding ways. Visiting aliens might attack. There may be kittens involved, even though we don’t have pets. But she will put on actual clothes. The task will be done. Just probably not to your expectation. Again, we may have a management problem.
Here is Piper’s idea of “getting dressed” yesterday morning.
“I’m ready to go, Mom! Today, I’m a cowgirl. And I’m saucy!”
piperism 