“Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once” ~Anonymous

My annual birthday surprise at Kyle’s daycare. This year was cupcakes for everyone!

First and foremost, I’d like to wish Kyle a big Happy 10^th Birthday! 

We celebrated his birthday last weekend at my parent’s house.  We were going to go to D.C. to visit my sister and begin the birthday celebration but, unfortunately, I hurt my back  (moving a keg of beer for the 64^th Annual Piper Reunion, the weekend prior) and I couldn’t make the drive.  So Nicole came up for the weekend.

The Friday started out by me picking Kyle up from daycare and I was immediately instructed by him to stop by the Dairy Queen to get his Lego themed birthday cake.  He said he wanted to eat the cake tomorrow at 8:30.  I asked him, “Do you want to wait that late tomorrow to eat your cake?” and his reply was, “No Aunt Heather, 8:30 in the morning. Actually, make it 8:00 I want to eat my ice-cream cake early.”  LOL, he had it all planned out.  Then we went to the Planinsek’s, family friends, where their entire family was eating and hanging out in the in-ground pool.  It was such a nice time, not to mention a great distraction for Kyle, since my sister was on her way from Virginia with his gifts.

Well the weekend was fun!  Ice-cream cake around 10:00, only cause my dad had to work in the morning and we wanted to make sure he was home before singing happy birthday.  Nicole took Kyle shopping, I took him to the pool with Nick, my friend Holly’s nephew, and we went to see the last Harry Potter movie, which was really good.

Kyle with his Aunt Nikki for his 3rd Birthday

On a side note, while Nicole and Kyle were shopping at Game Stop, they ran into Heather, a mutual friend of ours, with her kids.  Unfortunately, the night before, there was a house fire and their house burned to the ground.  Everyone was ok, but Heather wanted to buy her kids a game to help them cope with the tragedy.  I was told that Kyle stepped up to the plate and helped the kids pick out a game. Also kudos to Heather’s oldest daughter, Rachele, who actually rescued the two little munchkins! http://www.wtae.com/r/28676762/detail.html

I can’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Kyle and be a part of his life for a decade now.  I know it’s cliché to say this but… it seems like it was just yesterday that I was in the hospital with my mom and my brother waiting for this little bundle of boy.  There are so many things I can reflect on but I would like to say that I am very proud of the little man Kyle has become.  His dad would have been equally proud.

Now, indulge me with a little reminiscing.  Over the years, I’ve always told Kyle that I will only get him unconventional gifts.  Not that I don’t believe in traditional gifts but, the truth is, he has way too many.  It would be one thing if he never received toys, but he has way too much for any one child.  I think it’s silly and a waste.  I will admit that I used to buy him toys up until the age of two or three.  At that point I used to put money in his education fund. I’ve always been straight up and honest with Kyle so, when he got older, I explained that he will only receive unconventional gifts from me.  I wanted to get him gifts that can impact and benefit him in the long term.

Kyle Piper’s 3rd Birthday celebration! Trucks was the theme.

For example, for his fifth birthday I got him swimming lessons.  I have been taking Kyle to swimming lessons one day a week since he was five, we’re going on five years now and still going strong.  He loves to swim, especially swimming to the “depths of the pool”.  His diving has really improved over the years and now he is being taught different strokes like the butterfly.  I’m so glad he enjoys swimming and I cherish our time together!

For his sixth birthday I got him piano lessons.  My mom had the honor of taking him to his first lesson and she said he was so excited, he was jumping out of his skin!  When I told him that I got him the lessons he didn’t give it much thought, that is, until he had his first lesson.  He walked into the teacher’s house and went straight over to the piano.  He started to hit the keys until he honed in on the guitar sitting in the corner.  I know Miss Debbie, his teacher, had a hard time trying to get him to focus, but she said she was so happy to see a child wanting to learn and not being forced.  I bet he brought a smile to her face cause I know mom and I were laughing on the phone during his lesson when she was giving me the play-by-play.

Kyle’s 8th birthday party. It was a cooking party with Chef Dato, all the kids made pizza.

Then of course everyone remembers his famous ninth birthday when I took him to Westmoreland Aviation and he got to fly a small plane for an hour.  After the flight, that little stinker was interviewed by the Latrobe Bulletin and appeared on the front page with a picture of him in the plane and he appeared in two different press releases.  He was also featured on the Westmoreland Aviation’s website with a ton of pictures of him.  I got to go up in the plane with him…what a fun day!

Of course I could go on and on.  But this year, as like other years, he never really seems to care about asking me for his gift.  He likes them, but they are not toys or games so I guess they are not interesting enough at the moment. I’m ok with that because my intention for his gifts is to have as much staying power as possible, and I think they do.

Kyle Piper with his dad Ryan Piper the day he was born. July 30, 2001

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”  ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Before the summer began, I decided that Kyle needed to go outside and get exercise on a regular basis.  It seems like every weekend there is a lot going on, either picnics, yard work, cleaning, visiting family, so on and so on.  However, this weekend didn’t have much activity except for the usual church, Kyle’s workbooks, and piano and guitar.  I decided on Friday that we would get our exercise this weekend, everyday doing something else to get our heart rate up. Kyle knew I planned on having us walk or run or hike every day this weekend.  This was not a surprise by no stretch of the imagination.

Kyle and his Aunt Heather taking a walk to Karen's... book bag on... bucket hat on... socks and tennis shoes on...

Well, Kyle’s attitude did not exactly agree with mine.  To him, taking a walk is pure torture, which I don’t understand because, as a young boy, Kyle enjoyed walking down through the pasture, up through the woods and around the neighborhood.  I remember him strapping his blue book bag to his back, the blue one that had a polar bear on it, which I got him from one of my trips to Alaska.  He would have me put his socks and shoes on, he usually grabbed a hat of some sort, and down the road hand-in-hand we went to visit my cousin, Karen.  But, somewhere from the age of six or so till now, his attitude toward physical activity declined to a slow and painful whine and argument.

Yesterday tried my patience and my attitude about helping his physical well-being.  Kyle and I walked up and down the ridge totaling about two-and-a-half miles.  This was after I ran three miles earlier in the day.  Granted, going up the hill was difficult but the downward journey was easy.  We took breaks along the way… it wasn’t exactly boot camp.   I had to hear Kyle groan and complain the entire way…

“My feet hurt, I’m tired, I’m hot, Why do I have to do this? Aunt Heather, who said I have to do this? Aunt Heather, wait up. Aunt Heather I’m thirsty.”   Yep, it was painful and I don’t mean physically.  I tried to keep him positive, encouraging him the whole way saying, “You’re doing good buddy. Keep up bud, we only have a little bit longer. This isn’t bad walking in the shade,” and so on.

I must say, I had to leave him about 20 paces behind me for several reasons.  One, he was walking so slow it felt like I was standing still and two, I couldn’t listen to him whine any more.  When the walk was finished, he was really proud of himself, especially when my parents commented on how well he did.  His attitude changed from difficult to pretty positive.

Kyle took a picture with his Nintendo 3DS of a tree that fell on a power line.

Today was no exception.   Kyle and I went hiking through the woods.  It was a bit of a struggle since he didn’t want to go. He threw a little bit of a temper tantrum and was a bit whiny and difficult before the trip began.  He wanted to wear his flip-flops, which I objected to since the ground was pretty uneven, wet and we had to go through the woods.  I wanted to make sure his feet and ankles were secure and protected.  Then I had to hear about his socks.  You see, Kyle has this theory that the people who make the socks are out to make him miserable.  He doesn’t like the seam in the toe,  or if the heel goes up past his ankle, or if they are longer than his ankles or if they don’t come up to meet his anklebone just perfect.  He doesn’t like thick socks but doesn’t like them too thin either.  Needless to say, this is an entire entry in itself.

I must say, I lost my patience and left for our three mile round trip voyage up through the ridge without him by my side.  I was about a good tenth to a quarter-of-a-mile ahead of him.  I heard him crying and whimpering almost the entire three quarters-of-a-mile up the ridge.  He made great timing, considering he closed the distance between us pretty good and he was crying the entire time.   I was pretty impressed even though I knew he was moving quickly because he was afraid to walk by himself.

Kyle took a picture of Scooby on our way through the orchard for our hike into the woods. Picture taken with his Nintendo 3DS.

When we got to the top of the road where it levels off, for another three quarters-of-a-mile he stopped crying and just kept pouting and made sure he walked really slow to prove a point.  That was until he heard a dog barking at him and he took off running toward me.  He was scared, which started to humble him and change his attitude.

He was still a bit on edge until we hit the turnaround point, then his attitude did a complete 180.  Without me saying anything except, “Good job buddy, we hit the half-way mark.”  He was more pleasant and back to being my sidekick again.  He was making small talk and telling me that the first thing he wants to do when we get home is get a big glass of water.  On the way down through the woods Kyle kept reminiscing about other trips up the hill saying, “Aunt Heather, remember when we took Scooby and you jumped off the side of the bank and took him with you?” and “Wouldn’t this be fun to snowboard down, like when we walked up here and the snow was past our knees?”

Kyle took a picture of a tree on one of our hikes with his Nintendo 3DS.

You know, it was easier making Kyle do things when he was smaller and it would be easier now to give in to him, but then again I would not be doing my job correctly.  And helping him reach that feeling of a sense of accomplishment makes it all worthwhile.  You know, I think he was happy we took the trip and, even with all the complaining, so was I.  He also changed my attitude and allowed me to realize why we take our walks, not just for the exercise, but also for the bonding experience and getting back to nature.  I’m glad I kept my attitude positive because it would have been easy to just start yelling, but then he might not have enjoyed the trip back like we did.

I know I should try to do some other activities that he would enjoy, which I do, but I don’t play any sports and I don’t think it’s bad to have Kyle realize he needs to get exercise.  Or should I disguise the exercise in another activity and not point out the health benefits?