Pi-Pi Day 2010!

**Well, Pi-Pi Day 2010 has come and gone. It was last Saturday, but we've had lots of activities (work, Ashlyn's wedding, more work, basement organizing/cleaning because it looked like a clown threw up down there, laundry, work, etc, etc, etc) going on since then. Billy had the post written, but the pics and commentary just didn't get done by me. My bad, homes......I apologize to the future Pius James that will be reading this in about 14 years. I know he'll forgive me because by that time, he'll have realized that his mama is ALWAYS late, even with the best of intentions! To read last year’s Pius Day post, click HERE.**

Pius Day 2010 is here! Little Pius James was born at 4:38 on Nov. 19, 2007. He was consistently the biggest in-utero AND out-utero (not really a word, I know....but just go with it) for the first year of his life. He weighed 3 pounds, 14 ounces when he made his debut appearance. Pius was our first-born child and was dubbed early on by Moni and me as the "lazy giant". Since then, we have learned that he was just getting his bearings about himself and is by no means lazy today!

Remember back in those early NICU days? Pius loved to just kick back and sleep all sprawled out.

Case in point.

Today, Pius normally sleeps all balled up on his belly with his arms and hands tucked underneath him and his butt in the air. So when I saw him sleeping like this again, it brought back the NICU memories and I had to snap a pic for comparison’s sake.

Pi-Pi came home with us on January 9, 2008, and it has been an entertaining two years at home with all his antics. To put it mildly, Pius is a CRACK-UP and never fails to make people smile! He’s also the “Accessory King” and loves to wear anything he sees as a possible bling thing. Ever seen the movie Office Space? Think the Flannigan waiter guy with all the flair…..that’s Pius!

Pius with his “flair”

…..and yet MORE flair! Bucket or hat? It matters not.

Pius's Strengths:

Pius is an extremely social little boy. He absolutely LOVES all attention. Pius does quite a few little tricks, and will do all of them on demand. He really likes to be in the center of all the action. Pius has learned that in order to get "fun" attention, he needs to be well behaved. Like I said, he always wants attention, so I think that drives him to be a pretty good boy most of the time. Actually, he is the best behaved boy at least 90% of the time, and I can only remember once or twice that Pius was the worst of the four.

Happy-Go-Lucky should’ve been his middle name!

Gotta love those dimples from daddy-o!

Pius is very good-hearted. Just like his Aunt Lainie, he has a heart of gold. He plays with all three of his siblings, or with anyone who is over at our house. He especially likes to feed his siblings bites of whatever they’re snacking on (and Lord knows, they are ALWAYS snacking).

They’ve recently acquired the skill of pushing a chair up to wherever they want to climb. Not so fun for us.

Pius has gotten caught with his hand in the cookie pretzel jar more than once.

Did we mention they’re all big cake fans?! Funny story…..a couple weeks ago I asked Pi-Pi what he wanted to eat for dinner. Hey replied, “CAKE” so quickly and matter-of-factly that I had to laugh!

He likes to give hugs and slobbery kisses to his brothers and sister and any of our visitors that he knows. He also really likes to give "high-fives" and "pounds." Pius gets his sensitive little heart broken very easily. If he thinks that you are upset with him or mad at him, he just puckers up and starts crying so hard. It is very endearing and it is hard to stay upset with him when he drops those squishy lips and cheeks. They really are irresistible and everyone always wants to give ‘em a little squeeze.

The boy definitely acquired his mama’s cleft chin! Which must be why he’s the biggest mama’s boy on the planet. Look at that mushy face!

Pius likes to show everyone how much he knows. If we are watching the Sprout channel, he will repeat the title of each show a million times. E.g. "Weegles, weegles, weegles," or "Thomas, Thomas, Thomas." He also is constantly dancing…..to show tunes, commercials, the radio, the beat to his own drum…… He is very smart and seems to be pretty proud of himself for knowing so much. If Forrest, Danna, or Laine do something that we notice or acknowledge, you can bet your bottom dollar that Pius is right behind them learning it so that he can do it too and show off (there’s that attention obsession again).

Pius is a great athlete and entertainer. He is able to catch a ball from up to 10-15 feet away, swing a bat and hit a tossed ball, and throw a ball across the room. He even makes sure he has a football gripped the right way before throwing it! What a stud. I also think he is going to be daddy’s number one bowling buddy in a couple years. He definitely has taken a liking to the lanes.

Not only is Pius a great athlete, he LOVES to "play guitar." Moni bought them a toy guitar that makes music, and I am not kidding you guys, it is the CUTEST FREAKING THING he does. He will close his eyes, start strumming, bobbing his head, and bouncing up and down. It is so adorable. He doesn’t even need a guitar to do it….that’s right, folks…..he’s a master “air guitarist”! He’s also recently began to TRY to sing. We’re working on his tune-carrying abilities, because they’re pretty rough right now.

Look at that finger form! We’ll have to get him into guitar lessons as soon as he develops an attention span that is longer than a goldfish’s.

Other cute things he does: Whenever I’m looking for one of his siblings and yell out their name, Pius automatically follows it with “Arrrrrrre Youuuuuuuu?” As in, Danna?! Where are you? It has been extended to when he’s lying awake in his crib and ready to get up and play. We’ll hear him on the baby monitor saying, “Da-ddyyyyyyy, Momm-yyyyyyy……Arrrrrrre Youuuuuuuuuuu?” It makes us smile every time.

He’s really starting to understand pretend play right now and LOVES acting like “mama’s sleeping baby”. I’ll cradle him in my arms and say something along the lines of, “Oh look at my sweet baby Pius…..is he sleeping?” After which he’ll immediately close his eyes and pretend to sleep. Then he’ll open his eyes wide, smile and say, “baby Pi-Pi wake” followed by a few fake baby waaaah cries.

He also likes to say the word, “Okay” and will use it every chance he gets. For example, if he wants a cracker, he’ll tell us and point to them. When we repeat back to him, “Pi-Pi…..you want a cracker?” He says, “Okay” like it was our idea to give him a cracker in the first place and he’s just trying to give us our way by accepting the food. Manipulative? Quite possibly. Funny to witness? Absolutely.

Pius's Areas for Improvement:

How could anyone really get angry with this child?! Look at that face!

Pius can be a little bit weak psychologically. He starts crying if we correct him or if one of his toys gets stolen. We are trying to get him to stand up for himself a little bit when one of his brothers take something from him. I really think it goes back to his soft heart. If we say, "No" and are even a little bit stern with our voice he acts like we just shot his dog. He definitely needs to toughen up a little. If we catch him doing something he knows he isn't supposed to be doing, he will get startled and jump about a foot and a half when we say his name……the jump is a tell-tale sign that he’s in to something he shouldn’t be in to! I love when they have guilt written all over their face!





Sometimes Pius can be a little klutzy. When he gets going too fast he will inevitably bite the dust. He is very tough physically and he will get up and laugh with all of us, but it looks like he falls so hard sometimes. Some of you may remember that Pius had to wear "magic shoes" for awhile and they helped a ton, but he still reverts to his in-turned ways sometimes.



One of the most disgusting things he does is store chewed up food in his mouth for HOURS! If he thinks a bite of food or a drink will be his last for awhile, he saves it in his chipmunk cheeks. I’ll notice that he has something in his mouth about 2 hours after our last meal. When I ask him what he has, a steady stream of liquidy brown crap comes out of his lip when he opens his mouth to tell me “All gone!” It really is one of the nastiest things any of them do. He’s learned to swallow the food remnants quickly if I catch him doing this because the only way I can seem to stop it is by threatening to hold his nose until all the food is swallowed. That was a hard lesson for him to learn….and even harder for me to follow through with! Usually because it meant that mama would get a face full of saliva and partially digested food after Pius just couldn’t hold his breath any longer and has to open his mouth to breathe. GROSS (but effective)!

Pius James, you are the most charming little boy in the world (minus the food-storing thingy…but even that is pretty funny). We all love you so much and are so proud of you. You bring smiles to the faces of all who know you and have the most sensitive soul! It’ll serve you well throughout your life and we don’t ever want you to lose that caring spirit. It’s part of what makes you……YOU!


Love,


Daddy, Mommy, Fo-Fo, DAN-nawww, and Waine