Molly Piper

The other night, Cadence was really struggling with some gas issues. She was all red in the face and it seemed as though her tummy was bothering her. So I thought to myself, “I should look up some infant massage techniques. I’ll You Tube it.”

So I searched infant massage and got tons of results for relieving gas. Perfect!

I clicked on the first one and began watching it. It was a woman with her maybe three-month-old daughter and it seemed pretty easy to follow along with, so I backed it up and started it again, this time doing it along with Cadence.

I got two and half minutes into the video when this happened:

WHAT?!?!

Abraham and I were in shock! Our heads snapped over at each other with mouths gaping open. What are the chances of that?

We went back and played it again to make sure we heard it correctly. Talk about weird!

So somewhere out there, another little Cadence’s former gas issues have helped our little Cadence with her gas issues. The internet is so freaky.

This week I finished up the twins’ room! Now we just need two babies to come live in it!

Thanks to my small army of volunteers, here’s how it looks!

This is the girl crib:

This is the boy crib:

This is the boy dresser: (see, Jenny, I need your expert dot-placing help!!!)

Here’s the breakdown:

Jenna helped me sew the bumpers. She was the most patient person while I went from learning how to thread my sewing machine, to making my own bias tape, to finishing the final seam. We finished these bumpers a couple nights ago at 12:30am!

My friend Carol (who doesn’t have a blog) sewed the sheets with/for me. She’s a long-time friend of my husband’s family, and I’ve loved getting to know her through the years. Our times together are always special and really fun!

Abraham gave new life to two old dressers with his awesome paint job! I love how they turned out!

Jenny helped me with the vinyl transfer on the wall (“He gives”). Neither of us had ever done one before and it was kinda funny. She also did the dots over the red (girl) dresser. Everything she touches turns beautiful.

Danielle designed and ordered the “He gives” vinyl for me. She’s amazing.

If you look on the red dresser, you’ll see 3 little canvases. They were painted by my friend Andie. She made a second set for the other twin, but after we found out that Twin B was actually a boy, she offered to take them back and repaint them to look a little more boyish. She’s still working on the second set, and I’m so excited to see them (no pressure, Andie! I mean it!).

And also on the red dresser is a figure of a woman carrying two babies. That came from the amazing women at the Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center, Licia and Lori! When my parents-in-law visited them a couple months ago, they gave this to them for me and told them that this type of figurine is very popular in the Haiti markets, but it was the first time they’d seen one with a woman holding 2 babies! Thank you, Licia & Lori and the whole Zachary clan. You all amaze me with your work and your hearts for people and God!

Now the countdown is ON! 3 more days!!!

When I was pregnant with my first, a good friend told me a funny way to know how close your due date is:

Look at the date on the milk carton.

When she was having her first baby, it was what officially freaked her out. She looked at the date on the milk and it was dated for after her due date!

I have since marked the coming of all my babies by noting the dates on the perishables. Thank you, Liz.

Today it was the milk. It’s dated for August 2nd (my official induction date). Here’s hoping we make the 2 gallons I bought stretch until then, because I’m not feeling the whole grocery shopping thing right about now!

The sour cream doesn’t turn until after August 12th. Hopefully our babies will be 10 days old by then!

Okay, I’m officially freaked out.

A couple months ago I was at my job as a Speech Pathologist at a local children’s hospital. One of my co-workers there has twins who are now in high school. We were talking about twins (of course), and her advice to me was:

Keep your toes pointing forward.

I laughed at the time, but realized today just how important that piece of advice has been for me! Any of us who have been pregnant, or any of us who’ve seen a woman who’s getting “close to her time” know this phenomenon. I’m talking about the tendency to waddle.

And, dang, it feels good to waddle when you’ve got a huge bowling ball on the front of you. Just point those toes right out to the 10 & 2 positions and get it over with!

I became aware of my waddling today as I made my way through the hospital for my 32-week non-stress test. I go for them every week, and every week the trek into the testing unit feels longer and longer. I realized as I walked down another looong hallway, “I’m totally waddling.”

So I pulled those toes inward, pointed them straight ahead and did my best to keep them that way the whole way out. It must’ve worked, because I was leaving, some man said aloud, “Wow!”

I know he was commenting on how poised and controlled I looked, not on my huge bowling ball of an abdomen. I just know that’s what he was marveling at.

Wow, that lady’s so purposeful in her movements. She’s so graceful. What? She’s pregnant??? But her toes were pointing straight ahead! Are you sure she was pregnant? I didn’t even notice.

So when it’s waaay to hot to be pregnant, and you feel the need to waddle, remember this:

Keep your toes pointing forward.

You’re welcome.

A couple weeks ago, Abraham got the idea that he wanted to make a little brick pad underneath the hose on the side of the house. There were a few busted-up old bricks there from God-only-knows-when (there have been lots of owners since this house was built in 1900), and so he decided he would try to use them somehow.

Then the idea kinda blossomed. He decided he wanted to do the whole pad with “found brick.” Very artsy, huh?

But where were we going to find enough bricks? I’d like to tell you that this was a very well-thought-out process, but…it wasn’t. But here’s what we did:

1. Choose a fearless leader.

Ours was the unstoppable Abraham Piper, Urban Scavenger. Behind the wheel of a Swagger Wagon, he is a force to be reckoned with.

2. Assemble your crew.

3. Start scavenging.

This might mean that you drive (what will feel like) aimlessly through old industrial areas of town, through abandoned train yards, etc. We also drove along residential alleys to pick up any extra bricks people might have had from ripping out an existing patio, or any they had leftover from building a new one.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask.

After awhile, we started getting bolder. We pulled up into a couple landscaping businesses and just asked them, “Hey, do you have any old bricks left from a job that you’re not going to use?” We didn’t care if they matched, or if some were a little broken.

I was amazed at how generous those folks were! If they order too much brick for a bigger job that they can’t use for another one immediately, they probably don’t want it sitting around taking up space. So they gave some to us!

5. Celebrate success.

Make sure your crew feels like part of the process or they’re gonna start grumbling from the back seat.

6. Play Tetris.

Abraham did all the digging, sand pouring, etc. to prep the area for the bricks. It was a little trickier since many of them were different thicknesses, but since it was a patio area that wasn’t going to be walked on very much, it didn’t really matter if it was absolutely perfect. I think he did a great job keeping it level, though. And then you just have to fit them all together into the space you have.

7. Voila!

I really like the randomness of it. And the best part was, we only paid for some sand!

My next urban scavenging project is to find some old spools and do this with the hose:

[Photo via Design Sponge]

What do-it-yourself projects are you doing this summer?

A week or so ago, my husband posted this hilarious (and very cute) video of a baby gorilla practicing his chest thumping:

Ever since, Morrow’s been practicing his baby gorilla:

A few weeks ago Orison and Morrow were playing so well together, I just had to get it on video. Morrow loves to copy the things Orison does (for better or for worse).

So if your weekend promises little entertainment, enjoy the Piper Family Circus! (I’m sure Orison would have come up with a much cleverer name, but you’ve got me on a Friday afternoon.)

I know it’s kinda late in the week to be posting about Mother’s Day, but I just wanted to share about the weekend. I had a lot of FUN this Mother’s Day!

It started on Friday when Abraham told me he’d been given 2 tickets to the new Target Field (home of the Minnesota Twins) for the Saturday afternoon game. It was supposed to be rainy and cold but we decided to be true Minnesotans and go out to the game anyway! I took my 24-week picture, of course…the twins at the Twins!

By the way, those weren’t our seats. Ours were up in the top deck, but we decided to explore a bit after the game. It was fun to just get to sit together for a couple hours, even if we could see our breath and had to wear winter hats!

Then on Sunday, we had a lovely time at church, went out to lunch with Abraham’s parents and sister, and then went home to lay down!

After naps we went out to Dairy Queen, where I got my favorite Butterfinger Blizzard. Here’s an attempt at a good picture:

After DQ, we went to the cemetery. The kids just run and have fun there, which is kinda cool. I had to bribe them to sit for this one.

I was able to snap a quick one of Morrow while he was on the run:

The only sad part was when we were driving away, Morrow said, completely unprompted, “Bye-bye, dee-dee-dee.” Translation: Bye-bye, Felicity.

Here’s a couple more pictures from recent days, just because I’m crazy about these guys:

I’m so deeply thankful that I get to mother these two characters. And I’m happy to report that this Mother’s Day brought more smiles than tears. That’s a blessed change.

I’ve written a little bit since finding out about the twins about how I’m afraid to hope.

One thing I’ve relied on a lot since losing Felicity is letting others hope for me. Seeing their faith and hope helps. It really does.

I think I’ve heard my friend Barbie say over a hundred times during our friendship, “I have great hope for you, Molly.” She’s said it so many times and in so many instances that the tone of her voice, the look on her face are burned into my memory. I need that mental tape to play for me often.

One of the ways I’m exercising hope during this pregnancy is allowing my dear friends to throw a baby shower for me. I was super hesitant about it for a number of reasons:

• I’ve only been to one baby shower since Felicity died. I don’t really do the baby shower circuit anymore.
• This is my 4th pregnancy–who has a shower for their 4th pregnancy? I thought people would think it was weird.
• I didn’t want to get excited (or get a bunch of gifts) and then have them die.

But…I’m moving forward in it. My best friend Danielle designed invitations for the event, and I love them. Even just seeing evidence that this is really happening helped me get excited. Plus, Danielle will be in town for the shower, so I’m thrilled about that!

Here’s the invite that made me so happy:

This design just oozes hope to me, for some reason. Maybe because the person who designed it designed it with deep knowledge of what I was/am opening myself up to in going ahead with a baby shower.

I have no idea how I will fare as the guest of honor. It feels very foreign and scary.

But I’m thankful that there are people willing to come around me and rally my heart in hope and faith and love for my children, no matter how this pregnancy turns out. I need their strength when I feel like I have none. I need their excitement when all I have is fear. I need their joy when sorrow is pressing in.

I need their hope, because hope is a beautiful thing.

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Also, if there was any way to transport all of my supportive, amazing readers into this baby shower, I would do it. So many of you have shared your hope and excitement with me through these years. I would love to see your faces around the circle in that room. Consider yourselves all invited, at least in my heart.

My husband’s uber-talented cousin Sunny has a very informative step-by-step post about how to make this homemade tent.

I think this is so adorable, and totally want to make one. I was thinking it might have to wait until Christmas, but it’s somewhere on my radar, at least.

I just LOVE this thing!

What crafty projects are on your wish-I-could-do list?