Painting

Firsts

 

Cecily took her first step last night.  It was only one step, it was small, and it was really more of a controlled fall, but it was a step and it counts.  If she follows her pattern, she now won't take another step for another month, at which point she will take across the room.

 

Last weekend, at some point between Thursday night and Sunday morning, Cecily's first tooth broke through.  She's not such a fan of fingers in her mouth (she'll put anything else in her mouth, but fingers not so much), so it's hard to pin-down the exact date of arrival.

I'm taking a picture

I go mow the lawn, Mama.

This is his lawn-mowing outfit.

 

 

Keep in-mind that it was 75 degrees out, but this was his outfit.

Nap time, why have you abandoned me when I need you most?

Parker still has not napped since we got rid of the binky 2+ weeks ago.  I've pretty much given up on hoping he'll sleep and now I'm just trying to get him to stay quietly in his room for a while in the afternoons.

 

Yesterday, I thought he might like having a count-down clock in his room so he could see how time was progressing.  I downloaded a count-down clock for the tablet & put it up high on a shelf in his bedroom.  After telling him not to touch the computer, I left the screaming boy in his room.  As always, he screamed for about 10 minutes and then eventually quieted down.  So quiet that I thought he might have actually fallen asleep.  No such luck, when I came to let him out, I found him (naked) on the floor playing with the computer.  I wasn't too surprised, but if I'd wanted him to spend an hour staring at the computer, I could have just turned a movie on.

 

Today, after protesting quiet time for a while, Parker said he wanted to play with stamps.  Fully aware that I was trading a huge mess for an hour of peace, I gave Parker some stamps and paper & left him in his room.  Twenty minutes later, this little guy came downstairs to find me:

 

 

He had jammies on when I left him.  Why he insists on wearing jammies when he's planning to take them off immediately, I don't know.

 

Amazingly, most of the ink landed on the paper or Parker.  Fortunately, both the ink and the boy are washable.

Shoreline Fire Safety Center

 

Kelly organized a trip to the Shoreline Fire Safety Center for our Zeta group.  She didn't get a huge response, so we and Cousin Sarah got to join.

 

Parker LOVES this fire truck, he spent most of the visit driving the fire truck.

 

Cecily loved the stairs.  She spent most of the visit climbing up the stairs & then trying to launch herself off the landing.

Three Years

My boy turned three today.  I can't believe it.
When I have a few more minutes to myself (like when he goes off to college), I'll put up a longer post with photos and updates on why he's such an awesome little guy.  But, in the meantime, here are a few more Parker-isms and funny sayings I've been collecting:


"We go to See My Kids" - Kid's Museum - Keith took Parker to the Kid's museum several months ago, he still talks about going to se-muh-kids.

"Stay awake little gir-ril" - This is what he says to Cecily whenever she starts to doze off in the car.

 

Uncle Donald "had a farm..."

 

A, B, C, D, E, Q, R, KH (pronounced kay-tch), I, J, Z, Y, P

"Is kind of itchy" -  This is used to describe things that are actually itchy (clothes, fabrics, etc), but also other random items like foods and ideas.

"I need music cause I working. "

"Mama, can you talk to me?" - What do you think I'm doing all day little boy?

Mama: Would you like it in your tea cup?

Parker: No just in my coffee cup.

"I love you, I love me"

"I need a chainsaw and a ladder, I-na chop the tree down." - ever since our neighbor chopped down the tree in our back yard, he's obsessed with chopping down trees.

"Why"

I realize that this is a normal thing for his age.  But what cracks me up/drives me crazy is the compound-why: "Mama, why we go to the Doctor so Cecily can have her appointment?"  "Why I take off my jammies so you can cut my toenails?"  Seriously child?

 

"Mama, watch this" - Generally followed with something as earth-shattering as eating a grape or taking a sip of milk.

Parker's Birthday Cake

As we learned from Cecily's birthday, birthdays don't count unless there's cake.  So, Parker helped me make a cake for his birthday.

 

 

He actually did help with making the cake part.  His "helping" with the frosting involved a lot of licking; the bowl, the beaters, the spatula, etc.

 

It's amazing how quickly Parker picks stuff up.  At his party a few weeks ago, he couldn't figure out the whole blowing-out-candles thing, he just looked at the candles & exhaled on them.  Today, he attacked them as soon as the singing stopped and blew them out right away.

A (very) few photos of our camping trip

 

Friday afternoon we headed up to Whidbey Island for our church's Family Camp at Camp Casey.  The camp-out came on the heels of an extremely difficult week of parenting, so I was exhausted & spent for most of the weekend.  But, that said, we had a great time.

 

Our church had the entire campground, so we could let the kids roam free and know that someone was watching them and they wouldn't roam far.  Parker had a BLAST playing in the woods with his cousins & friends.

 

We were camping, so I just embraced the dirt & let Cecily go crazy getting as dirty as she could...she did her very best.

 

It was a great trip all around, now I just need another weekend to recover.

We love our swimming pool.

 

We don't often get wet, but we do love the pool.

Working

Parker loves "working" (he got that from his Daddy), ever since our neighbor fixed the fence, Parker's been over there fixing the fence as well.

 

 

Notice Lion at Parker's feet?  Earlier, he had been standing on Lion so he could reach his nails higher.

 

Parker also sometimes is actually helpful with his working.  He loves to wipe off the table & chairs outside.

Goodbye Binky, I'll always love you

 

We've been working for months with Parker, warning him that when his birthday comes "no more binkies".  He's been talking about it forever, without too much drama attached, so I had hopes that maybe it wouldn't be too horribly painful.

 

We were planning to do it on Parker's actual birthday, but after everyone left the party last weekend, Parker took a nap, and when he got up, he said "It's my birthday, no more binky!" then calmly took his binky out & threw it in the trash.  No prompting, no drama.

 

We had a few days of "I want my binky" at bedtime, but for the most part it's gone okay.

Except that he hasn't taken a single nap since he threw away the binky.  And don't tell me "well, most kids drop their naps around this age anyway"; he was taking 2-3 hour naps every day before we got rid of binky, and he hasn't taken a single nap since then.  And he has been SUPER cranky the whole week, so I know he needs the sleep.

 

 

So far, I'm holding strong, but I think I'm about two more nap-free days before I cave and pull the last binky out of my safe-hiding spot.  ...that or start drinking in the early afternoon.

 

So, we'll see how it goes.  He's sort of flirting with thumb sucking now, so I'm not super excited about trading one problem for another. 

 

 

 

 

 

So long binky!  You've been a good friend, hopefully we'll all learn to live without you.