Celebrate!

To celebrate Fenn's 6-month birthday, we really didn't do a lot. Dan made sure he got home before 6:19 p.m. (the time of Fenn's birth) so we could sing to him. Fenn ate dinner, played with his new Penguin Bowling toys, got a bath, got his bottle, and went to bed a little after 8:00 p.m. These are a few cute photos from the evening. You can see how well he is sitting up. Dan is behind him, but that's just in case he falls backward. You can also see him reaching for his toys and "palming" the bowling ball. Future basketball player??? Maybe his cousins, Tucker and Griffin, can give him some tips. Or maybe that's a baseball grip??? Cousin Jesse can help with that.

Fenn at Six Months Old

This is Fenn at Six Months. This is the sixth installment in the "12-month onesie" series. That onesie is getting tighter and tighter. We may be breaking out the crotch extenders in the next couple of months. Thank goodness it is made of stretchy fabric. Over the coming months, don't worry if he looks a little uncomfortable in it. I only put this onesie on him when it's time to take his monthly photo. He doesn't have to wear it for long. As you can see from all the recent posts, Fenn's 6th month of life has been extremely busy. And he has changed so much. He's sitting up by himself, he lunges forward to reach his toys when sitting up, he changes objects from hand to hand, he has two teeth, and he "talks" all the time. His favorite phrase these days is "Day Day DAY Day Day". But he hasn't started associating the "da da" sound with his daddy. A couple of times recently, I think we've even heard the "mmm" sound coming out of his mouth.

To sum up the last month, Fenn has rolled over several times; celebrated Mother's Day, Mommy's 40th birthday, Daddy's 44th birthday, and Mommy & Daddy's 3rd anniversary; had out-of-town visitors; been to 2 neighborhood parties; had 8 hot women in his room at one time; had his first swim; gone on his first hike; tried lots of new foods; started sitting up without assistance; and gotten his first two teeth.

Change is Good

It was another busy week at the Piper household. Early in the week, we decided to check out another daycare for Fenn. We have been very happy with his current daycare, Miss Taphne, with the exception of one thing. During the school year, she has to load up the kids in the afternoons and pick up her daughter at the bus stop. We knew about this when we started, but thought we could possibly become okay with it because she is SO great with the kids. Well, school is over and Fenn has been there since February, and Mommy and Daddy are still not okay with it. Thus, he still has not been in the car with Miss Taphne. Now it is Summer and we find out Miss Taphne likes to go even more during the Summer. She has to take her teenage kids places (like the pool, VBS, etc.) and she likes to take the little kids for ice cream, to the park, etc. So, in an effort to make Mommy's life easier (i.e., to no longer have to pick up Fenn at 2:00 each day and then try to continue to work until 4:00), we have decided it is best to move him. Am I an overprotective, paranoid, new Mom? Would you feel the same way as me? Give me some feedback ~ I would love to hear what other Moms have to say. I just want to know he's in one place all day long. I realize one day there will be class field trips. But I'll know about those in advance and will have the opportunity to give my permission. He won't be coming and going to different places at different times of the day. And there will be more than one adult trying to take care of 4 or 5 small children. I just can't see how one woman can adequately handle and supervise 3 infants in car seats AND 2 active toddlers. Taphne says she loves kids and just does it. But I couldn't do it. How does she get all of them in and out of the car? How does she carry THREE car seats and hold the hands of 2 toddlers?

Now to another topic. Fenn has 2 teeth now! On Wednesday morning, we could feel the bottom left front tooth. And on Thursday morning, we could feel the bottom right front tooth. Sorry Greg (my orthodontist brother), I don't know the names of those teeth. I'm sure I'll learn soon enough. Anyway, you can barely see them, but you can definitely feel them. Ouch! Those little things are sharp! And true to Fenn's sweet nature, he was never fussy. In hindsight, the only indication we had that he might be cutting a tooth (other than the normal drooling and everything going straight in the mouth) was that he kept wanting to eat early on Monday and was maybe a tad bit clingy that afternoon. That's it. Speaking of teeth, it's a good thing he's getting them, because this boy loves to eat. Since starting on something other than formula and rice cereal, he has tried (and liked) squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, pears, green beans, applesauce, and green peas. The picture at the top is of his first taste of green beans.

The busy week took us right into a busy weekend. I hosted Bunko at our house on Thursday night. Big turnout, great food and drink, and lots of fun... and we never got around to actually playing Bunko (or "Drunko" as Dan calls it). When Dan came home with Fenn later, he found me and 7 other women in Fenn's room. Janna (mother of 2 yr. old Morgan, who also lives down the street) commented "One day, Fenn will be bragging about the fact that he had 8 women in his room." On Friday, Grammy and Poppy were coming for a visit. Shortly after they arrived, the 3 of us had to head out for the 2nd Front Yard Friday of the summer. It was hosted by Broderick and Heather down the street. That's Heather and Nicole (our next door neighbor) in the picture. Fenn got to hang out with his "friends", Audrey, Ann Claire, and Kiley. And he also met 4-week old Sam, who lives down the street. We joked about how Fenn and Audrey will be signaling each other with flashlights from their rooms, which are right across from each other. Notice how Fenn is already checking out pretty little Audrey!

The rest of the weekend was lots of fun. Dan put his Dad to work helping him put up trim around our new windows. It's okay... he likes to have a project when he's here. Otherwise, he gets bored. Fenn got to spend lots of time with Grammy. And Mommy got to work on a couple of small projects. (No pictures from Fenn's visit with Grammy & Poppy yet. We took some cute ones with their camera, so I'm waiting to get them.) Next up on our agenda: Fenn's 6-month pictures are tomorrow (Monday), Fenn's 6-month Birthday is Tuesday, and Fenn's 6-month checkup is on Wednesday. Another busy week ahead. I can't believe we have a 6-month old!

More Squash Please!

The time has come for Fenn to venture into the world of "variety". He is no longer limited to just formula and rice cereal. He's been eating rice cereal in the evenings since April 19th.... so for a little over a month now. It's Monday night (Memorial Day). First on the menu: Squash! We chose squash because our pediatrician recommended starting with a "yellow" vegetable first... something not too sweet and something that doesn't have a really strong "green" taste like green beans. He took the first bite... pause.... serious look... hmmm... smack, smack... what's that taste?...okay... swallow... next. It continued to go about like that. He would take the bite, think about it, have a brief moment of "serious face", and then swallow. The funniest part was after about 5 or 6 bites, he took a bite... paused... grimaced... and did the upper body "heebie jeebie" quiver. It was very subtle, but it was definitely there. I wish now I had gotten it on video, but we chose to only take pictures this time ~ not wanting to be labeled one of "those" parents who videos every single moment. (Instead, I choose to blog about every single moment... but I digress). We repeated this on Tuesday night with similar results. He seems to like squash so far. We'll wait a little while to make sure he doesn't have any reactions, then we'll try something else. Also, it's about time to start feeding him cereal and such in the mornings, too.

Little Hiker

On Memorial Day, we decided it was time for Fenn to go on his first hike. We're thinking of going out to Colorado later this summer and needed to make sure he likes hiking. As usual, he loved it. He seems to love anything that has to do with being outdoors. We went to Cades Cove, almost an hour away, and hiked part of the Abram's Falls trail. Fenn was getting a little fussy in his car seat (a very rare occurrence) as we were arriving at Cades Cove. But once we put him in the backpack carrier, he was all smiles! We didn't make it to the falls since this was Fenn's first hike. We didn't want to push our luck and hike in 2.5 miles then have a miserable baby on our hands. We kept it short and only hiked in about 30 minutes and then 30 minutes back. We heard lots of "AWWWWs" and "What a cutie" on the hike. Fellow hikers are a very friendly bunch, always saying Hi to the people they pass. A couple of times, it even sounded like Fenn was saying "Hi" back to them. It was a really pretty hike, and hopefully we'll make it to the falls next time. Our plan is to start hiking every weekend.... key word being "plan". As suspected, by the end of the hike Fenn was worn out. That photo was taken back at our car. He had passed out with his face down and a pacifier in his mouth.

Welcome to Fantasy Island

Well, over the weekend Dan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We thought we would get a sitter and take a quick weekend trip to paradise. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Peter Island. We sunned on the beach, napped in hammocks under the palm trees, sailed the little Hobie Wave Sailboats, ate fantastic meals on the beach, enjoyed the amenities at the Spa, took the ferry over to Tortola to shop, spent sunsets at The Loop, and slept in each morning. Wait a minute.... that's not our life now. That's where we were three years ago for our wedding and honeymoon. This is our life now... hanging out in a blow-up kiddie pool in our weed-infested backyard! Really, we wouldn't change a thing about our life now because we love being Fenn's parents. We did get a sitter on Saturday night and went out to a great new restaurant here in Knoxville called RouXbarb. I highly recommend the Pimiento Cheese Beignets! We loved the restaurant; it was very lively and it seemed like a lot of people knew each other. It kind of reminded us of a couple of restaurants we loved in Georgia. And we love that their policy is BYOB. It's kind of nice to be able to take your own bottle of wine... cheaper, too!

Roll Over Alert! When we got home from dinner, we were playing on the floor with Fenn. All of a sudden, he rolled over from his back to his tummy! Daddy saw it this time, but Mommy didn't. He hasn't done it since. So now he has rolled over both ways. I hope I don't freak out the first time I find him on his tummy in his crib.

On Sunday morning (our actual anniversary), we skipped Church and went to another favorite place, Gourmet's Market, to have a late breakfast at Cosmo's Caffe. You can sit outside on the patio and we love that they allow people to bring their dogs. Afterward, we went home and opened presents. I gave Dan the traditional 3rd year gift of leather: a new wallet and a belt. Not really exciting, but he needed them. Dan gave me a place setting of our china... which I really love! Afterward, we decided to go to Toys 'R Us and buy a pool for Fenn. We were eager to see how he would react to the water because he loves his bath. With that first dip of his feet into the water, we were thinking "Oh no, there's $30 wasted." But his reaction was only because the water was a little cold. After that, Dan eased him in more gradually and he ended up LOVING it! He started off slow with some basic patting the water and watching Daddy squirt water with the little plastic fish we bought. Then he discovered he could jump up and down in the water (with Daddy's assistance, of course). Now THAT was fun! Before we knew it, Dan had him on his tummy and he was kicking his feet like he was really swimming. He even dunked his face in the water a couple of times and sucked in a little. It didn't scare him, though. He would go right back for more. We could hardly get our little bean out of the water. I think we might have a swimmer on our hands!

Future Member of KISS?

Gene Simmons' love child??? No..... it's just Fenn. He has totally discovered his tongue over the last week or so. His favorite sound to make right now is "Sssppplllhhhuu BA". You know the sound.... if you're standing too close, you'll get a spit bath!







Fun Fact for the Day: My parents, Bobby and Connie, were married on May 22, 1959. Dan's parents, Bruce and Peaches, were married on May 22, 1960. Cool, huh? Also, both of our dads' mother's were named Ruth.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to our parents!!!!

Double Four Daddy

Daddy turned 44 today! We started off the day by treating Daddy to a cinnamon crunch bagel with hazelnut cream cheese from Panera. Since it was a work day, he had to eat and run. I let him take the "good" car and I drove my old '96 Explorer. After I dropped Fenn at daycare, I stopped off to see about having the Explorer detailed. And when I say detailed, I mean DETAILED.... the car was naaaasty! With 180,000 miles on it, let's just say it has been through a lot. It's the dog hauling, furniture moving, taking construction debris to the dump vehicle. And poor Daddy drives it to work everyday. Not the most professional look! The car wash is only a mile or so from the house, so I walked home. I had to be a pretty strange sight... woman walking in "workout" attire, carrying a purse and a car seat base. I couldn't leave the base in the car while at the car wash, so I had to take it with me. When I walked back a couple of hours later, at least I was able to leave it at home. Later, I met Dan and his business partner, Betty Kay, for a birthday lunch. That evening, Daddy decided he wanted to go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. Great burgers and fries! Then we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some dessert. The rest of the evening was spent opening presents and watching the finale of American Idol. HOORAY!!!!! David Cook won! Daddy got some running socks, a hat for working in the yard, a shirt, and a cordless drill. (Mommy kind of wanted the drill, too!) I think Fenn's favorite part of the night was the tissue paper!

Front Yard Fridays

On Friday night, Dan and I kicked off the summer by hosting what has been dubbed "Front Yard Fridays". Along with some other neighbors, we had been talking about wanting to start something like this. Basically, we're hoping different people will host a lawn social every two to three weeks throughout the summer and even into the fall (as long as it is warm enough). The host provides some basic supplies (a couple of appetizers, ice, mixers, soft drinks, water, and drink boxes for the kids) and neighbors bring an appetizer and their drink of choice. The nice thing is that we had it from 5:30 to 7:00, sort of like happy hour, and people can still grab dinner afterward and get kids to bed early. And as suspected, a few people even hung around later than 7:00, so that was fun. The night turned out fantastic, despite the unseasonable cool temperature, and we had about 19 or 20 "households" to show up. We had babies as young as 11 weeks old all the way up to some of our original residents in their eighties. Believe it or not, we had 3 sets of twins there at one time ~ one set which will make great babysitters in the next couple of years. Check out the dads with the Baby Bjorn carriers. The trend seemed to be that the dads were the ones carrying around the little ones. It was really cute. So all in all, the night seemed to be a huge success. We met some new neighbors down the street and also around the corner. Some of the guys are talking about starting a poker group. That's great for Dan since I already have my Bunko group. The neighborhood seems to be getting younger, as more and more families like ours are moving in. I think I have mentioned this in an earlier post, but there have now been 8 babies born since August, one more is due in June, and there's another one due sometime soon. All of these babies live on either our street or a street that intersects our's. In that group, there are 5 girls, 3 boys, one I believe is a girl, and one unknown (because I haven't met them yet). Who knows... there may even be more?!?! [Actually, I just remembered another girl who is due very soon who lives a few blocks away!] And the great thing is that 1 lives right next door. Audrey is not quite 3 months younger than Fenn. Her very cool mom and dad are Wayne and Nicole, and they also have a 2 1/2 yr. old named Miles. (That's them in the first group picture). I just had to include those cute pictures of Miles and Audrey. Miles is so cute... whenever he sees me, he asks me "Where's Dan?" and when he sees Dan, he asks him, "Where's Beth?" When Cole was living, one of his favorite things to do was go in his backyard and wake up Cole. Look at Audrey's pretty blue eyes and fabulous red hair! She was born with a head full! And then there will be a boy (due in June) who will live across the street. His parents are Ryan and Heather. They weren't able to make it, but we're hoping to get to know them better soon, especially since they'll have a boy just 6 months younger than Fenn.

Thelma and Louise Ride Again!

What fun! Dan and I just had a glimpse of what our lives will be like in a couple of years. My longtime friend, Beth, along with her husband, Mark, and their 3 adorable boys: Zachry (7), Collin (5), and Will (16 mos.) paid us a long overdue visit. They live in Milwaukee and were passing through Knoxville on their way to a cousin's wedding in North Carolina. So.... after several other attempts over the last year or so to make a visit happen, it finally did. They were only able to stay for a night, but it was really great to see them again. Now we need to get up to Milwaukee one summer during Summerfest. OK... you might be wondering about the Thelma and Louise reference. To make a long story short... about 9 years ago we stopped at our local CVS Pharmacy in West Point, GA right before their 9:00 p.m. closing time after working out one night. When we finished our shopping and were ready to check out, we discovered we were locked in and all the employees were gone. We had to call 911 and the police came to get us out because all the doors were locked. While sitting in the police cruiser telling the officer what had happened, I made the statement that I felt like Thelma and Louise. So from that point on, I've been known as Thelma (or Thel-baby) and Beth has been known as Louise (or LouLou). And no, we were not arrested or anything like that. Heck, we were upset that we spent all that time picking out some great stuff and then weren't able to purchase it. Anyway, that's the short version... there's really not much more to it. But if you want to know more, just ask! Oh, I will say that we asked an employee if they were about to close, and she told us to "take our time."

Beth and Mark, thanks so much for stopping by. And, HAPPY 9TH ANNIVERSARY to y'all! It was great to see you!

Lordy, Lordy...

Mommy's 40! Enough said. Well, I will say that I got some more great presents: the pajamas that match my gown and robe (from Boden), six gallery frames from Exposures Catalog, and some sweet gifts from family (thanks, y'all!). Before the gifts, the three of us went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Bravo! Cucina Italiana. The restaurant has a great patio outside with views of the Smoky Mountains. We thought about getting a babysitter, but then I decided I wanted to spend my birthday with both of my guys. We can get a babysitter and have a romantic dinner for our 3rd anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks. Fenn was a perfect angel... once again flirting with our waitress and everyone sitting around us. We're taking advantage of being able to take him pretty much anywhere without any embarrassing hissy fits as long as we can.

Mommy's First Mother's Day

Well, finally I'm a mommy and get to participate in this member's only club. This was my first Mother's Day... and I'm turning 40 tomorrow. (I was actually born on Mother's Day.) Boy, what a day! Daddy let mommy sleep in ~ which he usually does on the weekends anyway because he's an early riser and mommy is not. I awoke to Daddy and Fenn bringing apple cinnamon muffins and coffee to me in bed. Before I could even get out of bed to pee, brush my teeth, wash my face, or even comb my hair, they were giving me presents and taking pictures! I can't believe I'm putting this picture on here, but once I looked at it I decided it wasn't really that bad. At least I didn't have a big crease across my face from sleeping on my pillow. Oh, but notice the strategic placement of Fenn and the present! I got some great presents... a new gown and matching robe from Boden catalog (one of my favorite clothing catalogs), and a 'pink delight' Butterfly Bush for our front landscape. Pretty good for a first Mother's Day. Of course the best gift of all is Fenn. Can I just say again how blessed we are to have such a beautiful child? He is always so happy and easy. We keep wondering what we ever did to deserve such a wonderful child. After opening presents and finishing breakfast, we got ready for Church. And after that, we went out for a Mother's Day brunch. Fenn slept through most of the sermon and, of course, charmed the staff at the restaurant. Once we got home, we took photos beside the Sugar Maple I received last year for Mother's Day (since I was pregnant with Fenn at the time). We decided we would start a traditon of taking photos of the kids beside this tree every year so we can see how much the kids and the tree grow each year. Check out that close up of Fenn drooling... I thought it was kind of cute. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house (I know... I shouldn't have been working since it was Mother's Day) because some friends were coming into town on Wednesday night and we are hosting a neighborhood lawn social (Front Yard Fridays) on Friday night. We finished off the evening watching Desperate Housewives. The last photo is kind of funny. We had the camera on a tripod; Dan set the timer and quickly got in place for the photo. It was really windy that day, so the camera fell over and the photo snapped at about the time that Dan was getting there to pick up the camera.

We interrupt this Broadcast...

...for a Roll Over Alert! Fenn rolled over from his tummy to his back on his 5-month birthday. He did it twice in a row, and I just happened to catch the 2nd time with my camera. Of course, Daddy was in the shower after a long day of working in the yard and missed it. Afterward, Fenn wouldn't do it again. He was tired from being in the yard with us all day.

Fenn at Five Months Old

This is Fenn at Five Months. This is the fifth installment in the "12-month onesie" series. I can hardly believe he is 5-months old now. Still no big events or milestones to tell about. He seems to enjoy his "tummy time" a lot more now because he's so much stronger. When his pediatrician put him on his tummy, he arched his back and held his head up high. She said he was right on schedule with where he should be. When he's on his tummy, he talks a lot and he moves his feet like he's climbing. He needs to work on his upper body strength before he's ready to get in the crawling position. He is SO close to sitting up all by himself. We know it is just a matter of time until he does. Also, we think he must be teething... at least it is beginning. He drools a lot, puts everything in his mouth, gnaws on our fingers, sometimes runs a low-grade fever, and has even started having some loose poopy diapers. (Sorry if that's too much information! Seems like we talk about poopy a lot now that we're parents.) One thing we're loving is that he doesn't seem to spit up as much now. Some days he spits up a lot, and some days he spits up just a little. Fenn eats rice cereal in the early evening now and is getting better and better at eating from a spoon. A lot of it ends up on his chin, but I just scrape it off and put it back in his mouth. I think it's time to buy one of those mats you put under their highchair! And he LOVES his bathtime. We now have his bathtub in the guest bath and bathe him in there (instead of at the kitchen sink). He sits up and kicks his feet in the water. We just dump the water over his head and he never complains. Maybe he'll be a swimmer.... he has the perfect name, Fenn.