Three!!!

THREE! Can it really be? It is hard to imagine our life before this little monkey entered our world. I am so thankful to be experiencing this love a mother has for her child, it is beautiful. I love this turkey from head to toe, inside and out. She is at a very challenging age right now, trying to push limits over and over again every day, but it doesn't even matter because she will turn around and be the sweetest thing in the world and melt my heart all over again.

Piper Vida has really blossomed this past year. I thought she spoke well at two, but now she is light years beyond that, her capabilities with conversation and understanding blows me away. She is charming and endearing, confident and silly, sensitive and thoughtful. It is so fun to see the world through her eyes and be in the midst of this life's adventure together. I wanted to think through a handful of little pieces of Piper to share, to just give a glimpse of what an incredible little girl we are lucky enough to spend our days with...

Piper LOVES candy, she has her daddy's sweet tooth, and we have used this to our advantage as motivation many times. Two skittles go a long way to encourage good behavior or to get at least a few bites of good nutrition in for dinner. Piper's generosity melts my heart. Knowing how much she loves candy, the fact that she will share her prized morsels is so sweet. The other day she was given one piece of candy corn that she had earned. Before she popped it in her mouth, she looked at David and said, “Daddy do you want a bite?” Piper is still very passionate about deciding who gets what between the twins. Whether it is shoes, diapers, the color of bottle, bibs, highchair, and the list goes on. She especially loves to pick out what they will wear for the day. I hate to admit, but she does seem to have a favorite brother (Calvin for now, but we will see how the tides will turn in time) Calvin tends to get the better of the two options in her mind. If something is Pink (Pipers favorite color) Calvin gets it! Speaking of Calvin, he went through a short phase where he loved the binky. Piper became the “holder of the binky” and she took her role very seriously. She was always putting clean binky's in Ziploc bags to bring where ever we went, “Just in case Calvin needs it!”

Like most kids Pipers age, she is really into asking questions. Dave and I have prided ourselves on really trying to answer her questions as best as we can instead of saying “Just because!” Especially recently she has put our abilities to explain to the test. The other day she was on a roll with this series of questions: What is behind my forehead? What is in my eyes? What is in my ankle? What is the door made of? What is the window made of? What is plastic? What is glass? What is the toilet made of? What is Mango made of? She makes us laugh every day. While we were in Hawaii, Piper invented Baby Mae, a pretend baby that traveled everywhere with us. (Baby Mae, is a real friend back home). She would cross her arms across her chest and pretend to carry Baby Mae everywhere we went and loved to introduce her pretend baby to random people. Mae would go swimming with us, ride in the stroller, even got buckled in to a pretend car seat. Pretend Mae is still going strong now that we are home. The other day Piper got super upset at Dave for standing on the stairs of the playground structure. Almost panicky she said, “Daddy step off the stairs...MAE IS STANDING THERE!” Piper still really loves the color pink! Yellow and purple are tied for her second favorite color. We are starting actual swimming lessons this month; Piper loves swimming and especially diving underwater for her sinking toys. She can hold her breath almost as long as I can underwater, which was a handy skill for checking out the fish and turtles in Hawaii.

Piper loves baths and playing in the water. But she hates having her hair brushed and the only time I seem to put her though this torture is after she has had a bath and her hair is conditioned. I am as gentile as possible, but it usually always leads to tears. She seems to sit a little more still when I tell her that her hair is a rat’s nest and I have to get the tangles out so no bugs try to live in there. Of course I now understand why my mom gave me a bowl cut as a kid, but I love Pipers long blond locks, so if she will keep suffering through these comb outs, so will I. I think Piper is beyond her years in her awareness of how other people are doing. Quite often she will come up to us when we walk in the door and so sincerely ask, “Daddy how was your run?” Or “Mommy, did you have a nice swim?” Asking these kinds of questions are one example, but she also seems to get vibes from other people. One time we were in a sub shop waiting for our sandwiches to be made. She looked at a woman sitting at another table, and said “That woman seems sad.” Piper LOVES being told stories. She will get on a kick of one story and want it told over and over and over again. Some stories we tell are our best recollection of old fairy tales like, “The 3 pigs and the Big Bad Wolf”, “Cinderella”, “The boy who cried Wolf”, and she also likes to hear about our travel adventures from the past and recent fun trips we have done as a family.

Piper is becoming quite a hiker, which is super fun for us because that is a favorite family activity. Telling the stories I mentioned above go a long way in stretching out how far Piper will really walk before Daddy has to carry her on his shoulders. But she has been working on walking more. So the other day Piper and I walked to the farmers market which is not quite a mile away. She pushed pretend Baby Mae in her baby stroller and walked the whole way there. There was lots of stopping and adjusting and stalling, and I surely should have received “Most Patient Mommy Award”. But it was so cute because when we got home she told Dave, “I walked all the way to the farmers market, I am proud of myself!” A few of Piper’s other skills: -Totally potty trained and has been since she was almost two years old. We even made the transition to all the way through the night since about 6 months ago. -Helping to unload the dishwasher. -Feeding Mango. -Learning the Months of the year. -Can spell R E S P E C T and M A N G O. -Super good at finding and hiding hidden lizards or Easter eggs. -Communicating.

-Cracking eggs into a bowl by herself.

Happy Birthday Piper Vida, we love you so much. Thanks for being an AMAZING little girl and making us laugh everyday.

Fall Fun

Fall is officially here! Fortunately we have been eased into the new season with super nice Fall weather. We were dreading the cold after being in Hawaii, but this has not been bad at all. And we seemed to have made a smooth transition back to our routine here in Bend. Piper started a new school called River Song Montessori school where she goes 3 days a week from 8:15am to 3:15pm. She loves it! After school we have been hitting up the parks around town. With the boys officially crawling now, even they are having fun swinging and climbing on the structures. Piper loves catching the boys on the slide.

Calvin and Jett are loving their new found freedom of crawling, Jett has quickly caught on now too and loves his independence. It was funny how they went about crawling so differently. Calvin threw himself into crawling, by squirming, scooting, slithering, really anything he could do to move himself across the room. Then he moved onto army crawling and eventually after not liking the prickly grass on his bare belly in Hawaii, he got up on all fours and crawled. Then he moved on quickly to pulling himself up on furniture and now can walk along the couch by holding on.

At first Jett was perfectly happy to sit and watch his brother roam. He just sat and sat and occasionally would reach as far as he could to get a toy, but if he couldn't reach he would wait until someone gave it to him. After a while I think it was getting to him that his brother was on the move and he wasn't. Sometimes I would see him just sitting there, not playing with any toys, just sitting and looking a little sad. Then once we got home from Hawaii, Jett decided to try his luck and crawling. I only saw him scoot once to reach a toy, other than that he just got up on all fours and rocked and rocked until finally he got it, and he was off. Now he crawls quite fast and just might be faster than Calvin now.

I wonder if this will be a pattern in their personalities..Calvin throwing himself into something, maybe not be any good at it, but doing it anyway just to be doing it. And Jett, waiting and watching closely until he knows he can do something right and do it well. This pattern was also true with them learning how to feed themselves. Calvin is a mess and just goes for it. Jett is still messy, but not as messy and seems to get more food in his mouth to be chewed and swallowed.

We have had visitors over this past month, first being David's long time friend, Dan Shaw. Dan came solo this time leaving behind his pregnant wife Alissa and son Payson. Piper was quite taken by Dan, it was so cute to see their immediate connection. She wanted Dan to sit by her, push her stroller, read her books, and even put her to bed. Dan was a good sport and a big help as Dave was recovering from a spout of Shingles. Dave had been in a lot of pain the week before Dan came, but still couldn't resist running the half marathon with Dan while he was in town. We had a fun filled weekend showing Dan a good time with yummy meals, walks to town and parks, a try at our paddle board, mountain biking, and of course that half marathon which Dan came in 2nd after 2 wrong turns and actually running about 2 miles longer than the race course.

Our next visitor was Grandma Alice. She came for a early celebration of Piper's 3rd Birthday. We have already had fun with her new hiking backpack, complete with a first aid kit, magnifying bug box, snacks, binoculars and the prized whistle!! Piper loves pretending she is lost and going into the bushes to whistle as loud as she can so we can find her.

Here are a few bath time pictures just for fun...

Aloha

We were sad to say goodbye to the warm humid weather, but thankful for the time we had to enjoy Hawaii. What a fun trip, we feel lucky to have had 3 weeks of swimming and exploring Kauai. The Napali Coast boat trip was definitely a highlight. Seeing the dramatic cliffs and hearing the historic legends of the area were interesting. Getting up close views of dolphins, turtles, sea caves and waterfalls were super cool too.

We were happy to find out that the kids have my stomach and sea legs, they all did great on this tour. With a little help from Dramamine, Dave was just fine too.

A few other favorite memories over the last few days were:

Finding and hiking down to Secret Beach - another beautiful white sand beach. We nestled the kiddos under a big tree for nap time and Dave and I had the chance to play in the waves while they slept.

More snorkeling at Poi'pu Beach where we found 4 or 5 huge sea turtles eating algae on the rocks right off the shore. It was such a cool experience to be just 2 feet away from the turtles, getting swished around in the current right along side them.

Loving up all the pool time with the kids. Piper gained even more confidence swimming throughout the trip. She can hold her breath an amazingly long time. Piper loved diving deep for her sinking toy squids. She went down as far as 6 feet to retrieve them.

The boys also are fans of the water. They would get excited and splash and kick and smile away. When we put them underwater they came up sputtering and with a look of surprise, but didn't cry. Even when Jett accidentally dove head first off the edge and Dave caught him by the feet with the rest of his body in the pool - he was cool with it. Didn't seem to phase him.

Overall the trip was a success. Another confidence builder that life with three kiddos can't slow us down! Even the flight home went by fast, and pretty uneventful. It felt great to get home to a sparkling clean home, the family we exchanged with left our place immaculate. I love the trust and openness of doing a home exchange - what a cool thing!

Great Day at the Beach

It seems like every time we explore a new beach, I am like, "Wow...this is awesome, THIS is the best beach we've seen!" But really each beach is so different and has different things to offer.It has been fun seeking out new beaches and spending the day enjoying them. Yesterday was all about snorkeling. We actually went back to the first beach we went to at the beginning of our trip (The last beach at the end of the road where hikers start the Napali Coast trail). Only the first experience wasn't very good because I was all stressed out because we forgot the baby formula and it was time for the boys to eat. I just nursed them and it turned out okay, but I was worried they would still be hungry because they have been eating way more milk than I can produce so we were possibly in for lots of screaming for the hour drive back to our condo.

Anyway, I didn't even get in the water the first time, so yesterday when I put on the snorkel gear and headed out to the coral reef - I was so excited about all the fish and beautiful coral. One draw back of the kiddos being so small is having to take turns doing non-kid friendly activities, instead of experiencing them together. So when I found this super beautiful red fingery coral thingy, I couldn't help myself from tapping on the shoulder of a random person to show them what I found.

Then I headed back to shore so David could have a turn. Before handing over the"googles" (The term that Piper has coined for goggles), I took Piper out to find some fish. She loved it and even more than the fish, she loved going under water and looking at each other and diving down deep to grab a handful of sand. Back on shore the boys were having a blast too. Splashing in the waves, eating more sand, and loving up all the attention from the other people hanging out on the beach.

Today we headed out with a vague idea of a beach that a local told us about. We had spotty directions and thought the beach name started with an "M". As we were driving and looking for something to grab for lunch along the way, I mentioned to Dave that one thing I love about traveling is just going along and coming across a great thing. For example, lunch spot or park or what ever. Unfortunately lunch wasn't the gem we had hoped for...Costco chicken bakes and pizza, but you can't win them all. =-) Fortunately though the beach we found today was just the kind of place I was talking about. At the end of this long dirt road we came to a parking area with a trail through some thick vegetation. The charriot wasn't going to work for this place so instead of piling all our "necessities" that we usually bring to set up camp on the beach - umbrella, grass weave mats, toys, diapers, bottles, towels, googles, diving squids, food, drink...yadda, yadda - Yes we do not travel as light as we used to!

We just put the babies in Ergos and decided to do a walk on the beach instead of hanging out in one area. This was the perfect beach for a hike. It was beautiful, the sand was so soft and fine, surfers were out and there was a curve down the way that just beckoned us to find out what was around the corner. So we walked and played in the waves. Piper got her skirt soaked and loved every minute of it. We went along one corner, then another, then we came to a trail that went along the ocean with awesome overhanging cliffs from the years of waves crashing on the old lava rocks. We even found a hole in the ground that spouted air so strong it blew David's hat off. The snorting of the air from the waves crashing and pushing the air up from underground was super loud. We told Piper that it must be a dragon sleeping and snoring down in that cave. She was nervous about that, but I could just see her imagination running. I love this age!

By the way, though we didn't find a great lunch spot today, we did come across a great local fish market that we hit on the way home. This place had super fresh Poke and we also got ahi tuna that we seared just a smidge tonight for dinner. This is becoming one of David's specialties. Soooo good and a great night to put the exhausted kids to bed early and eat a nice dinner together on the lanai.

Tomorrow is our big splurge of a tour...sailing the Napali Coast!

Kauai and Kid update

We have been in Kauai almost 2 of our 3 week stay! I feel so lucky to have arranged this home exchange, we are having "too much fun" (as Piper would say) living in paradise and soaking up all the sun, sweat and salt.

Right out our door, we have a sandy bottom rock enclosed beach pool. This area is super fun for Piper to dive for her squids (thanks Emily) and for the boys to chill in their frog rings.

We have been exploring other beaches in the area, hiked to waterfalls, and drove up to Waimea Canyon - which is known as the Grand Canyon of Hawai'i. The kids have been doing great and rolling with the fluid schedule we are on. Even Piper will lay down on a towel on the beach and take a 2 hour nap in the shade. Sometimes we get everyone to nap at the same time (which is heavenly), but many times just as one falls asleep someone else is waking up!

Piper is really at a fun age to be here and enjoying Hawai'i. We went to a small little hula dance performance and Piper was picked out of the crowd to go up on stage and learn to hula dance. She was so cute, really trying to follow directions and step side to side with the group. She has been so engaged, talking to anyone and everyone. Loving to ask what their name is, and telling them her name and her brothers names. She is a great conversationalist, making friends with anyone. And of course everyone loves her, it is fun.

Piper loves to help with the boys, most of the time she is very gentle and loving - bringing them toys, feeding them Cheerios, playing tickles. But we have also been having a hard time with a ornery streak that comes out of no where. We are working though this with time outs, and it seems to be getting better (no time outs today!) This was after yesterday, we were out all day, in and out of the car looking at all the scenic overlooks of Waimea Canyon, she had a great nap in the car, yummy dinner, and an hour of fun playing at a beach watching the sunset. We were having a great time in the sand. All the kids were riding on Dave's back playing horse. Piper was loving having Jett tackle her and playing super gentle with him. Then all of a sudden she threw a big handful of sand in Jett's face! So sad.

I am encouraged though because she did great today. I have to remember, this is a stage and hopefully by being consistent we will get though it quickly, but man, she can be a challenge sometimes. But how can I not LOVE this sweet face!

The other side is, Piper continues to amaze me with her understanding of the world around her. She is so thoughtful and caring and interested in learning. The funny things she says just crack me up and she can be so sweet and melt my heart. She likes to say, "Mommy, I have an idea..." and goes on to tell us something she would like to do. She is super into story telling. Mostly she likes having us tell her stories all day long, but she also like to get involved and help the story along.

Piper is very opinionated when it comes to what the boys wear, who gets what color bottle, which bib, and especially right now the diapers we have come in two designs. She has mandated that Calvin gets the one with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Jett gets the one with Mickey and Pluto. Thankfully it is not a total power struggle if we don't do something her way, she just says for example..."Okay, well next time can Calvin sit in the blue high chair?"

Calvin has been making great strides in his physical development. A couple weeks before we left for Hawai'i he had been doing lots of scooting, kind of army style and since arriving here, he has moved on to actual crawling. I think this process was sped up because he didn't like the prickly grass on his belly, so he got up on all fours and hasn't really looked back. I was surprised how quickly he gained the skill of pulling himself up to standing while holding onto a table or chair. It is fun to watch Calvin cruise around. Jett is spending more and more time on his tummy, and has scooted backwards a few times and gotten the rocking motion down while on all fours, but hasn't made the plunge to crawl yet. He is not far behind, but for now he still seems content to sit and watch the action around him.

For sure one of the fun things of having twins is seeing these differences in development and personality. Already we can see that they are such different little guys. Though they have changed and switched roles over time too. When they were first born we thought that Jett was going to be the high needs, demanding, first to crawl boy because he screamed the loudest and seemed to demand more attention. He also felt stronger in his stature. Calvin as a newborn was pretty chill, he didn't cry much, was such a cuddler - he just felt like mush and would melt into your arms.

Now Calvin definitely spends more time whining, he is super bouncy and can be hard to hold. He is always on the move. Where as Jett will hang out in my lap, loves reading books, or will just sit and play with toys all by himself. Jett still has the scream or shriek that stops our brain and we can't do anything until he stops crying. But when his issue is solved he is back to being quiet and happy.

Well that is the update for now. Sending our love from Kauai!

We made it to Kauai

Yay for Team Staley to have successfully crossed the Pacific to the beautiful Hawaiian islands! Kauai is amazing and we are so happy to be here for a full 3 weeks. The one bedroom condo is great and the view of the ocean is way better than we expected. One of the best parts is we are on the bottom floor, so our lanai opens up onto a nice grassy lawn which is super fun for the kids to play on. This makes the tight quarters of a one bedroom, a little more tolerable.

The flight was long and we narrowly missed making the journey even longer by waiting out our 3 hour lay over in Seattle at the wrong gate. So at the last minute when it seemed weird that they hadn't called our flight, Dave went up and found out that they switched our gate number and we needed to take the train to the new gate which had already started boarding. So we grabbed all our stuff, put the babies in Ergos, took Piper by the hand and made a mad dash down escalators, on the train to N gates,up escalators, and as we are running down the terminal, we hear "Last call for flight Alaska 2222 to Kauai." We were literally the last to board the plane, and as we were walking down the aisle, we laugh that it is only funny because actually did make the flight!

If you are curious...here is a picture of all the STUFF needed to make this trip happen!

We have spent the last few days exploring the island with our rental car. We went in search of Puff the Magic Dragon in a town called Hanalei. We saw the caves he might have lived in, but forgot our headlamps to really search him out. =-) Today we saw a blow hole that hissed and groaned like a dragon, but all we saw was water spouting out and some big turtles surfacing in water near by. Then we spent the rest of the day hanging at a beach where we could snorkel and see beautiful brightly colored fish super close to shore. Not surprisingly Piper LOVES using her "googles" and could swim all day if we let her. The babies are all about the beach too. The challenge with them is trying to limit the sand intake. Jett is better about it, but man, Calvin has taken in fist fulls of sand. His diaper at the end of the day is proof that what goes in must come out.