Hear me, cousins. Heed my advice.

I've heard a lot of people say that they don't see the point of taking a child under a certain age to Disney because they won't remember it.  They seem to think this makes it a complete waste of time and money.

Have you made this foolish statement before?   Well, sir...   I'm hear to tell you, you've said at least one foolish thing in your life.   Oh you heard me.   I've gone and gotten all confrontational on you but I don't apologize.  This cause is worth the momentary awkwardness.

Let me explain to you why it's totally worth taking a baby of, let's just say 7 months.

...just throwin' a random age out there...   

1. It's true -  maybe they won't remember the trip.  But they'll have a lot fun in that moment.  They'll ride in that stroller and laugh and smile and talk to every person and ever tree and every Mickey topiary they pass.  And you, my friend. You will have a monumentally good time watching this.  Seriously.

2.  After a full day of riding around in all that activity, they'll sleep like... well, a baby.  

On a side note, why is that a saying?  Babies don't exactly sleep great a lot of the time. I'm just curious.

So anyway, if yours is one of those babies, this alone should make you want to run to Disney World.  But that's just my humble opinion.

3. Maybe they won't remember it but they'll always have those pictures and all those wonderful videos and all the stories you tell them.   And frankly, it just sets a good precedent because if you go when they're that little then you obviously mean business about it and will probably go back a lot throughout their childhood.   Which makes for a super happy childhood.  

Trust me, I know this.   

In fact, there was a brief period of time when I was a little girl that we didn't go to Disney for a while.  I refer to this as the dark ages.  But that's a sad story for another day.

So, you all can just stop judging me when you hear that I've dragged us on another Disney trip because this is only the first of many for Piper.   

And it's not for me. ..No sir.   It's for Piper. 

For Piper, I tell you.
__________________________________________


...You hear that?   That's the sound of Carey weeping.

"I may not be the biggest or the brightest in the sky"

Today Lindsay and Chace celebrated their 9th anniversary.  

In conversation she reminded me that she got married at 21, which makes her 30.  ..Which makes me 27.   ...I usually can't remember exactly how old I am...

Now I'm not so foolish to think we're old.  30 and 27 is not old.  But sometimes I realize where we are in life and it shocks me a little bit.

Lindsay has been married nearly a decade now.  Me, half a decade.

We have a toddler and two babies between us who basically depend on us for their very existence. 

I know this isn't really that big a deal.  Please understand, I know some of you have many... many... MANY... (too many's..?) years on us and you know being married just 5 years is nothing really.  But in my mind -for the most part- I have to remind myself that I'm not still an awkward 14 year old.  

In my mind, we're still in highschool and I'm jealous of Lindsay because she's getting ready to gain her freedom from the prison sentence that is Calvary Day School (I did. I said it.) while I still have 3 years of misery to go.

That was yesterday.  And now today, I'm standing in the parking lot of a hardware store changing what is essentially the biggest explosion of poop ever to come from a human weighing only 16 pounds and having to walk in to get paint supplies hoping the nice man isn't looking at me funny because I have poop smeared on my face... er something.
But I digress..

And I keep wondering... How did I get here so quickly?

Yesterday I was graduating.   Today I'm changing a stinky diaper.  Tomorrow I'll be pooping my own pants while teaching her to drive.  And then the next, she has her own children with her own poop stories.

"What are our lives except a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes and passes away?"





So Lindsay and Chace - Happy day ....and thanks for having an anniversary that makes me get all thoughtful and melodramatic about life.

FALSE. I do not appreciate it.  

Look it up... that's what it means.

Piper Rose,

If I were like women of the Bible, I would have waited and given you a name with meaning. I would have given birth to you, held you and talked to you. I would have counted and recounted your toes, felt of your perfectly round ears and kissed the insane softness of the fluffy part of your head until it was almost bald. I would have smelled your hair and watched you sleep and gotten to know every one of your cries... And THEN, after having time to know you and to pray about it, I would have named you something that describes who you are; who God ordained you to be before I even knew you.  I'll tell you now, in case your wondering, it would have been a name meaning happy one, or happiness, or one who is glad, who is content, who is a little ray of sunshine.   

You'll hear lots of mama's call their babies their little sunshines and I know now why they do.  Our babies are our sunshines.  Everything can be wrong but when we look at you it all suddenly seems ok.   But when I say I'd give you a name meaning happy one, I don't just mean you're occasionally or even mostly in a happy mood.   I think your joy is one of your gifts.  Maybe it's just because I'm your mama and I'm blinded by my love but I decided the other night that I believe God gave you the gift of joy. And Pipes, unfortunately you'll soon find that the world needs joy.  A lot of it.

So Piper Rose, "don't hide it under a bushel, NO! .. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine" and know that if I were like the wise women of the Bible you're name could have been Harshit.

You're welcome.

5 easy and painless ways to lose 5 pounds in a day..

1. Eat a suspicious salad at Cheddar's.

2. Get food poisoning

3. Puke your guts up for 5 hours.

4. Dry heave for the next 4 hours.

5. Have no desire to look at food for the next 12 hours.



Did I say easy? I meant phyisically exhausting.

Did I say painless? I meant painless if you're comparing it to giving birth without pain med's.

Not that I'd know anything about that...

Cause you know... c-section and all.

It's just how we roll..

I'd like to share a song with you. It was created for Piper's entertainment by Aunt Ducky, Me, and Carey.


Here it goes.

Oh and it's to the tune of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys.


Here it goes..



Piper Rose.. Don't pick your nose..

Piper Rose

You got me wipin' and blowin', wipin' and a sneezin', Piper Rose

Pi, Pi, Pi, Piper's nose.



The end.



P.S. Aunt Ducky is Lindsay. FYI.

Yeah... we're conservatives.

We were reading The Three Little Pigs to Piper at bedtime tonight. It was fun. We sang the parts that each little pig says because we have a Disney album with that song on it.

When it was finished Carey closed the book and said, "And the moral of the story, Piper, is... be lazy. For every 2 lazy people, there's always one hard worker who'll save you when things go horribly wrong."


...Well... I thought it was funny.

Sometimes it does hurt to ask

"Does that come in blue?" --- Doesn't hurt



"When's the baby due?" --- Hurts


Not that this has happened to me... I'm just sayin, is all.