Herring Family Happenings

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Chattanooga--Part 2

After running around all day like a crazy girl and taking only a 45 minute nap in the stroller, Piper crashed HARD Saturday night (as did Josh!). I should have known what I was in for when she fell asleep so easily at night at the hotel, something she has never done before--she was up at 5:00 Sunday morning and would not go back to sleep. That put a kink in our plans for a visit to the aquarium, which didn't open until 10:00. By that time in the morning, Piper could probably have taken a nap. But we couldn't stay in Chattanooga all day, so we forged on to the aquarium. Let me pause to say that the Tennessee Aquarium is awesome. Because we had a cranky kid on our hands (and one tired momma!), we practically ran through the exhibits without reading much of the educational materials, something I was sorry about. Oh, well--that just means we need to go back!

Piper was properly impressed with all the "shishes" but was scared of some of the really big ones and one fiesty turtle that surprised her in the koi pond. All of the ponds were very accessible to Piper, most with thick plate glass from floor to ceiling. She didn't mind being in Daddy's arms for the ones where she couldn't see.

Checking out rays in the very first pond

That pointer finger got quite a workout today!

Lots of stingrays!

Josh touched one while Piper watched.

She would not have ANYTHING to do with this giant moth.

Patting the fake penguin on the way to meet the real ones. She was a little scared of them because they moved very quickly and were a pretty good size.

Shark cage!

There were some huge rays in this tank...

...along with several sharks.

She really liked the small, colorful fish.

Diver talk in the shark tank--Piper is not in this picture because she was pushing the stroller around instead of standing still.

Under the sea!

Look closely--Piper and Josh are inside the tank!

She's definitely braver than her mother.

Tiny turtles!

Climbing the glass

You can't really see the baby alligator in the picture, but you can tell that Piper is in the middle of roaring at it. So cute!

This was seriously the largest catfish I have ever seen. I might not ever swim in the lake again.

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Chattanooga--Part 1

Saturday morning the three of us got up very early to travel to Chattanooga to attend Josh's regatta. As soon as we arrived, we camped out on the lawn right on the river and watched the rowers in their boats as they came and went. Piper thought that every boat was Daddy's, and she couldn't stop talking about the ball-shaped buoys. Josh rowed in two 5000-meter races--that's a total of about 12 miles since they put in their boats at the finish line and have to row the approximately 3 miles to the start line and back again. Needless to say, he was pretty tired by the end of the day!

Standing on the water steps that are a part of the River Exhibit at the Tennessee Aquarium

The best part of the day was when Tam-Tam arrived! Josh's mom made the long drive just to spend the day with us. She and Piper had such a good time together, and I was more than thankful to have someone else to chase her around all day!

Tam-Tam treated us to ice cream on what turned out to be a very warm day.

This little girl would not let me share my ice cream with her--she claimed it all as her own. I had to get my own spoon.

Walking to dinner, Piper saw her first real horse! She "neigh"ed at it.

Thanks, Tam-Tam for joining us on a fun day!

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Preview

We are heading back from a quick trip to Chattanooga. I have lots of pictures to share, but they will have to wait until I get home. Here's one to show you one way we spent our time!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Nana came to visit!

My mom came to visit this past week. We all had a great time together!

As her usual, she went right to work when she got here. The first order of business was to paint Graham's room and rearrange the furniture. I felt bad that I couldn't help with either of these endeavours--but she did a great job on her own!

I'll post final pictures of the room once we get Graham's crib and bedding set up.

We spent Monday working in the yard. Piper even helped!

One of Piper's favorite things lately is trains, or "choo choos". Mom and I took her to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens where they have a special exhibit right now called Tennessee Trains in G. They have about eight big model trains set up around various historical houses from the state. Other than the trains and the tracks, everything else in the display, including the houses, was made of wood, trees, and dirt. I hate that I didn't get any pictures of the little buildings--I was too busy watching Piper! She LOVED the exhibit and couldn't stop pointing at all the trains. It was so much fun to watch her little face light up every time a new one came by! And of course, she wanted to climb in the display to play with the trains.

We hated for Nana to leave on Tuesday, but we know she'll be back soon. We love you, Nana!

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Little Boy Blue!

Last weekend my girlfriends from school threw me a sweet little baby shower. I know it's not tradition to have a shower for babies after the first one, but we have celebrated the birth of several second babies in this group. Graham will actually be the 10th baby to join our group! One of my favorite things about my friends' showers is all the personalized goodies we get for each other. Graham will be well-outfitted, for sure!

Our amazing (and beautiful) cake

Digging in!

Mom and Anna (who came from Knoxville)

Susanna, Trisha (our hostess), and Jenny

Beautiful flowers

with Heather

There's something about monogrammed bibs and burp cloths that makes the messes a little more bearable.

I love all my sweet little gifts!

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19 and counting

I know, I know...this is waaaaaaay late. But as I hope to someday have this blog made into a book, I didn't want to skip a 19 month post. I've known exactly what I wanted to write up for a while but didn't have the time to type it up. But here it is...finally!

Piper now has a new favorite word......."NO!". It's actually nice to know what she's thinking some of the time. My favorite, though, is when she tells on herself. She'll be in another room and I'll hear, "No, no, no, noooooooo." When I go to see what she's talking about, she always happens to be doing something I've asked her NOT to do.

But more pervasive this month has been her affection. She will give us hugs and kisses all. the. time now without being asked. It's amazing!

She loves to talk, talk, talk. Josh frequently calls her a chatterbox because she's always jabbering about something, most of which we can't understand except for the last word of her very long paragraphs. I am getting very good at translating "Piper-ese."

Mother's Day Out is going well. After the first couple of weeks, she goes into her classroom without being pried off of me. She LOVES her nap mat (she calls it her "night night") and insists on laying it out and pretending to nap on it when we bring it home to wash it. And she's taking naps on it at school! I can't believe she adjusted so quickly.