The Pierses & Their Peas

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Saturday, March 16, 2013

today...i was rocking my one-day-shy of 4 month old baby when clay popped his head in and said, 'we got it' (it being a spot in the new denver base) with an adrenaline rush type of face & a thumbs up. i'm not sure what my response to him was, but i do remember that as soon as he closed hugh's door i burst into tears. overwhelmed & sad doesn't even begin to describe how i felt. and while my head was filled with dread, i knew in my heart that my husband's prayers had been answered. and so in a way, even though it didn't 'feel good', mine had too.

here we are a year later. in the last month or so i finally feel like i've caught my breath. our 'fixer' house has come together. i randomly saw someone i knew at chick fil a two weeks ago (a nice feeling). the kids have adjusted super well (although they still talk about texas all.the.time.) & the weather is amazing. i can't wait to take advantage of the colorado outdoors more & more as our kids get older. and the view...seriously.never.gets.old. there is a spiritual awesomeness that is impossible to ignore when even simple tasks like grocery shopping are surrounded by such majesty.

that said, i do not feel the same sense of community here that we had built over 6 years in texas, but i am working on it. it'll take awhile. and while i miss that community, and my head likes to be stubborn now & then still, my heart does know we are in the place where we want to raise our family.

i find that sometimes a song captures a life phase so poignantly that it sort of becomes a theme song for that phase of life. the theme song of my last year of college was 'closing time' by semisonic. the last year has been "home" by phillip phillips. tears flow every time i hear it, to this day. 'cept i don't hear phillip phillips singing to me...i hear the hearts of the three men who have taken care of me over the years through this song. Him, my dad (if i had a nickel for every time he told me to settle down in a reassuring way when my type a anxiety got the best of me... ;), and clay. it's been an unexpected gift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE

Hold on, to me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Thursday, March 07, 2013

my huey

i saw this & grabbed my camera...nice and safe!

oh, my littlest man. he's feisty like luci, but snuggly/physically loving like gus. so if he's mad...mama's gotta watch out! think head butting...to my legs, head, chest, the floor... whatever he can smash his little head into, he will. he also hits.

he's still a screamer. he yells..pretty much all.the.time.

he's just aggressive...be it lovingly so, or angrily so.

he's got lots of words, but doesn't use them very often. he prefers to scream.

he likes books. he likes to be read to, and he likes to just look at them.

he's starting to get some animal sounds down. he can tweet, bark, moo, meow & roar.

he can say Jesus, in reference to the nativity scene on his shelf.

he loves to climb, and will make it all of the way up the stairs if they aren't blocked off. he loves the cats.

he loves to play outside.

when he sees a doll & i say, 'can huey love the baby?' he hugs it & says, "bebe".

he's not such a great eater. he will eat broccoli & kale. he will not any meat unless it is a chicken nugget or turkey sausage. occasionally he'll eat some string cheese. he will not eat cheddar cheese. he loves grandpa bread with lots of butter.

he likes triscuits & cereal.

he loves yogurt smoothies & any kind of homemade coconut ice cream.

he drinks water & flax milk.

he knows which cupboard the treat box lives in, and often shakes his fist at the cupboard screaming "teeet". he loves him some chocolate.

he's little. 25th percentile for height (30.25 inches), and 10th percentile for weight (21 lbs, 14 oz). he does have a big head though...75th percentile at 19 inches.

he's a great sleeper...or i just don't hear him with my white noise ;) he usually is down by 7p, and then gets up around 7a. some days he takes 2 naps a day, and some days just one - dictated mostly by the big kids' schedule. poor lil guy.

he prefers his big nap to be in the AM. he cannot stay awake until noon.

when his dad is gone & my phone rings he screams, "daddy!"

he's like a bonkers mix of lu & gus and i'm excited to see his little personality come out more & more. i have a feeling he might be the biggest handful yet...feel free to prove me wrong sweet baby.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

a tender moment...

they are fewer & far between these days, so i gotta document them while i can...

he's brushing her hair ;)

the littlest big man ever

tough guy FIGHT face

kick!

where to start with my gusgus. hmmm.

more than anything he just really, really wants to be a 'big dad'. anything his dad is doing, or has done, or plans to do, gus wants to do.

the latest? 'runner man'. gus always has to 'be' something. example? 'i'm being a runner man, mom. i got a race.' this one started after clay ran a 5k race a month or so ago. so gus is wearing mesh shorts & preferably (his preference) a matching shirt, pretty much every day. he prefers to wear all nike or all addidas (clothes courtesy of cousin asher). he also likes to wear a medal when he's 'runner man'.

he loves books about bikes, motocross, atvs, drift cars, tractors, garbage trucks, earth movers, bulldozers, etc. guessing you get the picture. he loves tools, building things, throwing balls (throwing anything, really).

he has started to take more of an interest in his brother. i suspect it's because hugh gets such a kick out of gus playing rough with him. last week they were playing & i literally saw how wrestling was invented...by brothers. hugh was crawling & gus came up behind him & put hugh in that hold that wrestlers start each match with. cracked me up, and they totally cracked each other up. and if hugh wants to play & gus doesn't, gus better watch out.

lately he hasn't wanted to go to school, but then has fun once he's there. i'm not really sure what the deal is, but we make it without tears & he has good days so i'm not giving it all too much thought (just a lil ;)

he constantly has dry, irritated skin around his lips & on his chin. his mouth area has lots of nooks & crannies...we'll think his face is clean, and then before we know it food has reappeared. so then i think he licks around his lips, and his skin hates it. it hurts so he hates letting us put lotion on it. we've been using acquafor lately and it seems to be working, so maybe we've found a solution.

he has no interest in learning his letters. he can identify numbers up to 10 (thanks to grandma pierse), but does not want to anything to do with letters. he has started this new thing where he'll tell us the name of some toy (today he named his new dinosaur 'Neiman'...which happens to be the name of luci's first bf's cat), but then tell us what letter it starts with. and it never starts with the right letter. "mom, my dinosaur's name is neiman. it starts with a p). i'm trying to figure out a way to make it fun...

it is hard for him to have 'gentle hands' and 'gentle feet'. he likes to kick, and he likes to punch. he likes to turn any long anything into a sword. we've tried firm voice discipline & time outs, but if anything it seems to feed his little man desire to punch & kick. fight or flight seems to kick in, and his first response is to fight. so today every time he tried to punch or kick i said, 'where's my little lovebug? where are his gentle hands?'...and it worked (for today at least ;)...he melted into that sweet lil smile & hugged me.

sort of out of character for him, he doesn't enjoy sledding or riding his bike or scooter down hills. i think it stems from his crash in November that happened when he went too fast down the hill on his bike. 'i don't like to sled, it's too fast & scary'. bums his dad out, that is for sure. i'm hoping he's ready to move past it by next ski season!

he's still my sweet, sweet lil man, but he too is growing up. *sigh*

the girl

so...the latest on my girl. she's growing up so quickly. it's inevitable, i am told, but i'm still shocked each time she takes some new big step. i think part of the shock is that i remember experiencing the same things, albeit at an older age.

a new girl started in her class after holiday break. clay & i both encouraged her to be extra kind to the new girl. and she was. so kind, in fact, that they are now 'best friends'. the problem? luci already had a 'best friend'. and the whole 'best friend' concept has been complicated by those stinkin 'best friend' necklaces...the kind where one friend keeps half & the other friend has the other half. so luci now has 2 halves from 2 different 'best friend' necklaces. there is always an odd girl out with a trio of lil girls. her first bf is very confused and hurt. her second bf is pretty good about being inclusive, but really prefers to just lead lu around. lu doesn't understand why anyone is hurt, and really just wants to play. second bf is already six and might be a bit more 'worldly' than lu, whereas first bf was nearly on par with lu. it's all been very complicated, dramatic, and many tears have been shed over the whole thing.
UPDATE: the tide has shifted since i started this post & her first bf is back in, second bf is out. wondering how long it will be before the next shift?!

i too remember stuff like this happening. in like 5th grade.

she also has started watching the disney shows that have real people actors. jessie is her new favorite. it's pretty harmless, but there is a lot of sarcasm & some sassing. gus may have said, 'duh' to his dad the other day. it started without us really knowing what was happening. she was looking for something to watch on the dvr, and meanwhile an episode of jessie was playing up in the little thumbnail corner of the screen. apparently she liked it, because before we knew what was going on it was on the full screen. it was one of those parenting moments where clay & i kind of looked at each other & said, 'huh? is this okay? when did this happen? what do we do now?'

we had parent teacher conferences last week, and in proud mama speak, she's rockin kindergarten & then some. her teacher summarized our 20 minute talk with 'she's a very, very strong student'. she's moving on to the second grade word list, although her teacher assures me that at this point she doesn't really need any more sight words, reading is just coming to her naturally at this point. she's supposed to be reading at a level 3, and has mastered a level 6. she would have been at an 8 but her 're-telling' needed a bit more mastery before officially reaching a level 8. i helped out in her class a few weeks ago by doing part of the math assessment (aka reading directions to the kiddos while they completed a work sheet.) she finished the worksheet very quickly & accurately. she can count by 1s and 10s to 100. she wrote all of her numbers to 110, even though only asked to write to 100 ("and I could have gone to 120 mom!"). she's close to having mastered counting by 5s, and next we work on 2s. she's kind, follows directions, and is respectful. yep, i'm bragging...but if i can't do it on my own family blog, where can i!?! bottom line? we are super proud of her. we feel blessed that she had such a strong pre-k experience and that she's been able to thrive despite moving here just 2 weeks before school started this year. and we feel blessed to be her parents!!