A little bit of this, a little bit of that....

Yesterday, my cousin/BFF participated in a craft fair. She is SUPER talented and makes various handmade items. The turnout was a bit disappointing which left her with a lot of items. So, hop on over to so-simply-stephanie.blogspot.com to check out the items she made. In particular, there are lots of baby items that are perfect for gifts, etc. If you see something you like, let me know and I'll pass it on or feel free to leave a comment on her blog. Trust me, the items are even cuter in person than in the pics. Below is a picture of Sadie and I at her booth.

In my last post, I said I was going to start sharing some "Parkerisms", and I have since come up with some more:

-- He insists on using one of Daddy's real guitar picks to play his toy guitar, but he calls it a 'pick-i-nic'.

-- He loves to boss Molly (our dog) around, and will even stand at the back door yelling "Molly, get in here right now".

-- A couple of days ago, he was playing with some toy cars in the kitchen and talking. Once I started listening to what he was saying, I realized it was this...."It's not a race, it's the Piston Cup" - a line from the movie Cars.

-- He says "First of all....."followed by something else.

-- He got the movie Pinocchio for his birthday, but he calls it 'Pick-i-no'.

-- He loves to pray and will say a string of unintelligible things followed by "amen".

I'm sure I will come up with more again because he is seems to be at the age where he is doing or saying something completely new every day that I've never seen from him before. Hmmm....I wish being completely potty-trained would be one of those things. Below is a picture from yesterday when he put on a pair of my boots. I thought he might seriously hurt himself, but he was having so much fun I couldn't stop him.

Little Miss Sadie Lady is also doing many new things:

-- After a while when it was a bit of a struggle, she now LOVES to eat solids. So far she's only had rice and oatmeal cereal, bananas, and applesauce....all of which she seems to very much enjoy. She even makes a "mmm" sound as the spoon is going into her mouth.

-- She smiles a lot. For a long time she just didn't smile much, and I was starting to think that she might be one of "those" babies. Thankfully, she's not.

-- She is extremely ticklish, and really laughs when tickled. And when she laughs, she gets the hiccups.....every single time.

-- Her cry would make you want to cut off your ears. Honestly. Don't just take my word for it. Ask anyone else was has ever had the *pleasure* of hearing her not-so-sweet baby cry.

-- If she was an Indian, her name would be No Hair Little Nose. I'm guessing there is no more explanation needed.

-- She is perfecting her death grip which she uses on everything now, especially my hair, my clothes, anything I'm holding, and anything going into my mouth.

-- She is very interpersonal and let you know quickly if she would like some more interaction.

-- She is sleeping at least 10 straight hours at night. Hallelujah.

-- I am told (a lot and often) that she looks like me.

Overall, she's a really good baby. I can't believe that she is almost 6 months already, and I'm trying to prepare myself for the next step of her becoming mobile. Below is a picture taken tonight after she finished with some cereal.

Parkerisms

I haven't really done this before, but I thought I would start putting some "Parkerisms" on here 1) for you to get a laugh out of and 2) for me so I will one day remember them. Here are some of the funny things he says:

"Are you kidding me?"

"You're a silly goober"

"Hi, baby gu-wa" (that's how Andrew and I occasionally say it....he probably doesn't even properly know how to say 'girl')

Last night, he kept calling Andrew "sweetheart".

It's been snowing all day today, but Parker calls it "smowing".

And a funny story from today: Parker is constantly referring to things as "a BIG ONE"....cars, planes, anything really. Well, today I was changing his diaper and he was poopy. We've been potty-training for a while now, and although we definitely have a ways to go, he's doing OK with No. 1, not so much with No. 2. So as I opened his diaper, he leans up to see what he *made* as he always does and says "it's a big one?" and I said "yes, it's a big one". He responds by saying "it's amazing"! I bet his dad taught him that.....

Parker watching it "smow"
Sadie is growing up in front on our eyes, and it won't be long until she's sitting up all alone. Here's a picture of her doing just that....before she fell over.

Here is a picture AS she was falling over....

And finally, a picture of my little children

Speaking from experience

Ok, so this is going to be a different post than I normally write, but bear with me. Being a parent is one of the most wonderful and most difficult things I have ever experienced in my life. Before having kids, I never understood the excitement over the tiniest of accomplishments or the emotional lows of wondering if you'll simply make it through being a parent for the rest of your life. Today as Parker threw the mother of all fits as we were going quickly (trust me, I NEVER linger with the kids) through a store, a couple of thoughts went simultaneously through my mind. The first was "Supernanny, where are you when I need you?" and the other was "I can't believe I ever used to think poorly of people when I would see their kids acting this way". And I guess that's really my point of writing this. The next time you see a parent (dads aren't immune, either, although they do have an infuriating way of being more effective *scary* than moms are) struggling with a child, don't assume that they aren't as horrified as you are at the behavior of their kid. Don't assume that the child is undisciplined, and don't imagine how you would handle the situation differently. For all you know, that mom is going to cry her eyes out on the way home out of frustration and desperation, feeling helpless and overwhelmed, but knowing that she has no choice but to persevere because her child (whether he knows it or not) is counting on her to do just that. Chances are pretty good that she's not trying to garner the attention and evil eye of every adult within a 1/2 mile radius. She's probably just trying to run an errand, or buy groceries, or look for a birthday present for someone, and now she's going to have to figure out when she can find the time to come back because right now she's got to go home and deal with her child. Whew....didn't just reading that sentence wear you out?!?! So the moral of the story is next time you're somewhere and you see or hear a kid acting up, remember what it was like for you or imagine how you will feel when it IS you, and give a little grace. I know I will.

Crafts and cousins

For his birthday, Parker got some painting supplies. I have to admit, doing crafts really isn't my "thing" but I know how much he enjoys it so I'm trying to change my attitude. Plus, they actually have some really cool things now like super washable paints and Color Wonder products. If you don't know what Color Wonder is, it is markers/paints/etc that are clear and only turn to color on specific Color Wonder paper. In other words, if your little angel takes off with a marker and draws all over your house/walls/floors/furniture/belongings, it will never show up. Whoever came up with that idea is my idol. Seriously.

Painting with Color Wonder finger paints

Painting with what Parker called a "toothbrush"

He had a lot of fun

In other news, Sadie turned 5 months a few days ago and it seems like she is changing and learning new things every day. She has started grabbing just about everything and tries frantically to stuff it in her mouth. Here is a picture of her demonstrating the 'grab-and-stuff' technique.

And finally, Andrew was out of town on business for a couple of days and Stephanie was kind enough to watch the kiddos while I went to work. She and Cousin A also decided to spend the night, and after all the kids were in bed we had a good old-fashioned slumber party complete with chick flicks, brownies, staying up until 3 a.m, and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Maybe not the smartest decision we ever made since we can no longer recover by sleeping until noon, but we made some great memories and proved that we aren't old ladies just yet. Below are a few pictures she snapped while I was at work. Thanks again, Steph!

Sweet Sadie Lady

Cousin A LOVES to kiss Sadie

Second generation BFF

Between aspens....gotta love Colorado!

It's party time!

Tonight we had a small party to celebrate Parker's birthday. He had lots of presents to open (thanks, everyone!), and, of course, birthday cake to eat. This was the first birthday that he really seemed to understand the process, and that was fun to see.

Nemo pez dispenser

Opening presents with daddy's help

Two of the four airplanes he got....DEFINITELY a hit

Me and Sadie girl

Playing with his new baseball set....also a VERY big hit

Finally eating cake after he finished playing

And finally, a video that I just couldn't resist putting on here....the boy is funny!

A very happy meal

Parker is THREE today!! Without meaning to sound like my mom, as I remember when he was born it truly doesn't seem possible that it's been three years. We've sure had fun with the little goober! We are having a small party with friends on Friday but we wanted to do something special for Parker today, and nothing says special to a three-year-old like a happy meal. So we went and picked up Andrew from work and headed straight to McDonald's. We had a fun time, and I have to give them props for their fries. Delish!

Dipping his fries in ketchup

Having fun with Daddy

Sadie and I on our side of the table

Climbing through the playplace

Me and my growing boy

And last but not least, Sadie is 5 months old today....isn't she pretty?

Here fishy, fishy.....

Parker's third birthday is in a couple of days, so yesterday we went to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver for part of his gift from us. I thought it would be cool, but I have to say it exceeded my expectations. We had such a fun day, and I thought I'd share a few pics with you.

Daddy and Parker under the sea

Under a bubble

Me and Sadie....she was such a good girl while we were there

Perhaps the highlight of the trip....Parker with NEMO! Seriously, the clown fish looked SO cool - their colors were so sharp they looked like cartoons in real life.

Parker and I

Touching a starfish

Posing with Daddy and the fishes

You can't see them real well, but a couple of these are sharks

All of us

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.....

Today as I was checking my email, I looked down at Sadie on the floor and saw this:

Now she's made it this far in her efforts to roll over before, but has never quite been able to make it all with way with her arm in the way and all. So I got down and played with her for a while, trying to get her to make it the rest of the way over. She was all smiles....

....but no rolling. I figured she was just not going to do it, and I went back to my email only to look down a VERY short time later to see this:

She was even acting like she was proud of herself! As fun as it is to watch her learn new things, I have to admit that I'm not sure that I'm really ready for her to be mobile yet. However, it appears that I don't have a choice, so for now I will enjoy her accomplishments.