sweet Sweet

We love nicknames. Piper has had about 100 since her birth, and Zoe is quickly catching up. We string together any combination of compliment and the child's name that pops into our head at the time and viola, a nickname. Around our house its constantly "boogie, boogie doo, boogie bear, baby boogie, Piper boe, Zoe boey, bunny, sweet baby, pretty baby, Piper baby, angels, sweet Sweet, Zoe zos..." Anyway, that's not the point of this. The point is that being a people of nicknames, we are raising little people of nicknames and our newly two year old daughter has begun inventing sweet tiny nicknames for her family. What a beautiful sound they are to us! It makes me wonder how pleased the Father is with us when we call him by our own term of endearment. Anyway, one day after naps I heard Piper calling to me through her monitor. "Mommy-nay! Come here!" And she kept calling me Mommy-nay that afternoon. Soon she added Daddy-day for Brandon and Zoe-nay for Zoe. It is really very very extremely sweet to me. And now she knows I like it, so when we are having lots of fun, or dancing, or she wants something I'm Mommy-nay. (satisfied sigh).

Photos: once I saw these, poor little Zoe got a haircut too. My babies are born with gorgeous heads of hair and between five and seven months it all falls out in very disappointing patterns. Poor Piper suffered my uncertainty about cutting her long lock. Seriously, LOCK. Tiny Zoe is benefiting from a more relaxed and decisive mother. And yet, those pictures will have to show up another post. They are still on my camera.

We bought this doorway jumper on EBay from a grandmother who bought it from an Amish family. It is Zoe's favorite toy and it fits on the framing on our porch. Now that is living.

That last one is called "To Infinity and Beyond." Piper loves Buzz Lightyear. Autumn and her family sent Piper a Buzz doll for her birthday. Once he entered our home (in the fuzz,) he was immediately plopped in the middle of the room and presented all of Piper's best toys. I don't have a picture, dang it, but there was Buzz with a half circle around him of cars with faces, My Little Ponies, and various dishes from her kitchen. She was all three wise men for about three minutes. As far as nicknames go, he is sometimes Buzz, sometimes Buzz Lightyear - nothing fancy. Although, as far as art goes, he has become an inspiration. I guess art direction though, because art right now is scribbling and asking me to "draw a cat Mommy, draw elephant Mommy, draw monkey Mommy," and today (ba ba ba bah!) "draw To Infinity and Beyond, Mommy." To satisfy your curiosity I drew Buzz, or an angel, sadly I can't tell. I guess they are one in the same to a two year old.

Our documentation of little Brynn visiting with the Jones girls (Notice row 2, columns 1 and 2 where it looks like Piper is giving Brynn a helpful little whack.