Radio Silence

I am sorry for the long silence on the blog, but in short we were busy, tired, and the Pip was sick. What started as few dots, turned into a a full blown hand foot and mouth diagnosis. We made three trips to the doctor, one trip to Nemours Children's Hospital, and one week later the spots are almost gone.

I am 5 days out from Spring Break and I think mentally I started spring break last Friday. I am on the countdown this week. It's been in the 80's for 10 days straight and as a family we have been enjoying outside time. We all have new bathing suits and Miss Pip just scored a beach hat last weekend. I am ready to hit the pool and the beaches.

Better run before I am late for the 1st morning bell!
Happy Monday!

Connect the dots?

Miss Pip has a rash. A big ugly red dot causing, looks like chicken pox rash.

She has been teething.

She has been fussy.

She is not sleeping.

And as of last night her little face was covered in red bumps.

We thought it was chicken pox, then a virus (think herpes), and then I started googling.

Yes, I am one of those mother's who self-diagnoisis according to WEBMD and BabyCenter.com.

Using the information I found on those sights and my pretend medical degree I decided Pip could have had the mumps, impetigo, or hand foot and mouth.

Luckily, we went to the real doctor this morning,

And luckily he knows me all too well and took time to rule out all of my diagnosis.

Turns out Miss Pip has a bacterial infection. Most likely from all the drool and the teething.

She is taking antibiotics and we are hoping to see a 24 hour turn around.

 In other news Pip can READ! Well, if you count reading upside down and wildly turning the pages while babbling gibberish. She is seriously the most awesome kid ever. Yes, I am biased and proud of it.

Cooper

 Mr. R.'s grandparents gave Piper an interactive book and bear for Christmas.

The teddybear, Cooper, responds to certain phrases as you read the story.

Piper is a big fan. I think it also helps that he is soft and cuddly.

Last night Cooper made an appearance after bath-time. 

He was hugged, squeezed, and drooled on right until her 7:00 PM bedtime.

Amazing Monday!

Miss Pip is still in teething mode. According to Mr. R., she spent most of today crying, whining, refusing food, and chewing on various toys and tupperware. By the time I made it home, Mr. R. was exhausted and looking for an outlet. 

A quick walk around the block with the pups. 

A trip to the bike shop. Miss Pip is now the proud owner of an infant sized bike helmet :)

We stopped in the meet the owners of a new ice cream shop, Coneheads, on the island. They are really sweet and the ice cream is divine. Try the thin mint, you will NOT be disappointed!

On the way home we detoured to Barnes and Noble to check out the picture books. Miss Pip is a HUGE fan of the Olivia series. She will sit and look at the black and white sketches for 15 minutes straight. (That is almost an eon in Piper time!) She also made friends with Curious George before we headed home.

It would have been easy to stay in this afternoon.

We were all tired. Piper was in a rotten mood.

But fresh air, a trip to the island, ice cream tasting, and a few picture books can cure almost anything around here. Piper has been asleep for almost an hour now, dinner dishes are already washed and put away, and I am feeling pretty high on life. 

Exhaustion, you are not a face I wear well.

Piper is getting her I-teeth. I hear from other Mom's out there that these are the most painful, if you don't count the 2 year old molars. She has been fussy since Thursday, but Mr. R. and I can deal with fussy.

We have spent lots of time outside, taking walks, playing on the porch, and visiting a few of our favorite local shops. On Saturday afternoon she started to feel warm. 99 degrees Fahrenheit. By Saturday night she was irritable, refusing to sleep, refusing to eat, and 101 degrees. We started the children's tylenol, but 2 AM she was willing to lay in her crib. By 3AM she was finally sleeping. 

She is back to her non-feverish, smiley self this morning. And Mr. R. and I are very caffeinated. I have been sleep deprived since Friday at 4:30 AM. Here's hoping she is willing to nap soon. If not I might be choosing a 7:00 PM bedtime for the entire Republican household.

This girl needs a play kitchen STAT!

Piper is getting more and more mobile by the day. She is an incredibly fast crawler and can pull herself up into a standing position on almost anything. She can even take a few baby steps from one piece of furniture to another if she holds on to the furniture or us with a white knuckle death grip.

That being said, her new found mobility often leads her into the kitchen. She loves to play inside the refrigerator, she rearranges shelves, pulls out containers, and opens drawers. The dogs are in heaven as most of the time a scrap or two of food escapes the fridge and takes up residence on our kitchen floor.

Piper also loves the tupperware cabinet. She pulls out containers of various shapes and sizes and proceeds to crawl with them and carry our containers to various locations in the house. Last night I found two containers under the dining room table!

Looks like Mr. R. and I better start working on that kitchen set sooner rather than later.

Little Miss Giggles

Little Miss Giggles is the giggliest girl in the world. To hear our very own little Miss Giggles, play the video below.

Solar Smore's

As part of our IB unit on weather my students learned how heat is transferred from solid to liquid to gas. 

 Usually I teach this standard with notes and a worksheet, but thanks to pinterest and Disney's Family Fun Go magazine, I found something a little more interesting and a little more tasty. 

What do you need? one pizza box, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, black paper, and smore's ingredients.

Nothing like solar cooked smore's at 9:00 AM right?

In case you are wondering about the science behind this lab there are three types of heat transfer; convection, conduction, and radiation.

Radiation: The black paper absorbs sunlight 

Conduction:The black paper also heats the graham crackers which heat the marshmallows and chocolate 

Convection: And lastly the foil reflects the sunlight to keep the heat moving in the oven creating a current of air

Sippy Cups are the new black.

Piper has been OBSESSED with getting her hands on our drinks lately. She lunges for coffee cups in the morning, grabs for Jeff's water glass during the day, and at dinner we use Mason jars, which Piper thinks are there just for her. Our dinner table is now in a constant state of round robin. We decided it was time to break out the sippy cup.

We told her ALL the cool kids use sippy cups. 

I am not sure she is actually drinking from it, but right now she loves to hold it on her own and carry it around. 

Egg on her face

Literally.

Piper had her 1st taste of hard boiled egg today. After doing much research and reading on the subject of introducing a baby to new foods we decided to just dive right in. Piper is now the proud owner of SIX chompers (teeth) and she is using them to chew on anything and everything. At her 9 month appointment our doctor suggested we move to feeding her stage 3 foods and bits of our food. I was beyond excited for those words because it means less prep work for me. The more of our food Pip eats the less of a short-order cook I become. 

We started with cheerios, chunks of apple and pear, green beans, black beans, and Ritz crackers. Piper loves to pick up the food and feed herself so we try to do that most of the time. We also try to make sure she gets a fruit, vegetable, protein and diary with each meal. 

To help make meal time less complicated I chop-up, wash, and prep all her food for the week. Then we store it in tupperware, this one is from the baby bullet. This container will feed Pip for two days and it's portable! Today's container holds sliced strawberries, string cheese chunks, goldfish, hardboiled egg, black and pinto beans, and mandarin orange sections.

BEST DAY EVER!

 This morning we headed to the Farmer's Market to check out the goodies the bread lady and coffee guru had to offer. On a whim we stopped by the splash park to see if Pip would be interested in the water. She loved it so much she didn't want to leave!

  Seeing if we could keep the good water feeling going we headed down the block to the beach. It's official, my girl is a beach baby, she crawled right toward the waves. She loved getting splashed, splashing us, and crawling as fast as she could into the ocean.

  Best Day EVER!

Newton Racers

This one is for the teacher files. 

Two weeks ago, one of my brilliant co-workers decided my students needed a hands-on project to learn about the three laws of motion. It should be known that I am one of those teachers who loves projects. I think projects are the meat of education. Homework, tests, quizzes, those are the potatoes. If you want to test your students knowledge, if you want to see their creativity, if you want to see if they can take what you have taught them and apply it to a higher level... ASSIGN A PROJECT. My students LOVED this project. 

I asked them to design a race car that must be powered by balloons and has wheels made out of something that was not originally meant to be a wheel. The only other rule was that it had to travel at least 5 meters if you wanted full credit. 

Today was race day! And I think there was more anticipation than the Daytona 500. My little 6th graders were so excited and the 7th and 8th graders who passed by cheered them on and high-fved them. My kids thought they were rock stars. 

The winning car traveled 22 meters! It was made from styrofoam, CDs for wheels, and powered by a single balloon with a straw filling the role of an exhaust pipe. It was awesome!

Happy March from Piper Jayne!

I cannot believe today is March 1st.

In just 18 days I will be 30! Yikes!

I have always had a love for March, it being my birth month and all, but now that we live in Florida March is even better. March means the start of beach season and it's time to break out the shorts and capris. March means daffodils, Lent, Easter, and more hours of daylight. March means baseballs season, BBQs, windows open and spring break! The daffodils, Pippa is holding, are a gift from my mom, gift #5 in my birthday box actually. 

I am s SO loving this birthday box!