Magna Doodle Fun

P-man is learning to recognize some words now. We were playing with his Magna Doodle recently and before I took this video he was impressing me by saying the names I was writing without hesitation. I grabbed the camera and tried to catch it on video for family's sake. Like usual, as soon as the camera came out, P decided not to cooperate. At least, not at first...



The next video is just P-man doodling and a fun conversation we had about his picture.

Water Colors Again

P-man is really getting the hang of painting with water colors now. He's quite the little artist. Our walls are rather full and cluttered with his pictures, so I've been saving his most recent ones and decided I'd make a scrap book instead... let's see if I ever get around to that! Watch his technique in the video below!

Counting Puzzles

Coloring and Tattoos

Parker woke up cranky after his nap one day and I hoped that he would be happy coloring while I worked on dinner. He whined a lot wanting me to color with him, and when I told him that I couldn't color with him at the time, he was rather resentful. Coloring himself was his way of getting back at me for not spending time with him. I laughed when I saw him and he seemed rather offended.

Totally Talented Tuesday: Parker's Photography

Parker loves to take pictures with our camera. Buttons! *drool* Amongst the dozens I've deleted, here are some I found pretty cool.

Our carpet isn't pink... how'd he do that?

So, this is what the world looks like to Parker!

For a super Totally Talented Tuesday kid, check out Mommy-Momo's blog!

Finally, Some New Songs!

Jake and I are downright tired of Jingle Bells. When Parker wants us to sing it, we are literally slumping our shoulders, singing in monotone. OK, that's exaggerating, but I can't wait until he finds a new favorite song. So, I've been on a mission to introduce some new songs to Parker's repertoire. Here are a couple of the latest songs he's been learning (this was from the first day he sang the ABC's... I'm so happy to have caught it on video!):

ABC's

Happy "Poop" Day
(well, it sounds like it, doesn't it?)

Fun Video Friday - Singing!

Parker has been obsessed with singing lately. His two favorites at the moment are:

Jingle Bells

and

On Top of Spaghetti

Fun Video Friday

Baby Cakes, Baby Cakes, I Love You!

Water Colors

So we've moved on to yet another art medium, thanks to my big Sis, Leann, who asked us to have Parker paint his cousin Lily a picture for her room for Christmas. He's been practicing with his new watercolors for about a week now. All his paintings so far have ended up with holes from getting rubbed too hard with water, but that just let me know that I'm going to need to get some thicker paper! I just had to take pictures of his first time water coloring. Our neighbor Carly helped show him how to do it.

Changing, Growing and Other Fun Stuff

Parker is growing more and more into a little boy and is less and less like a baby every day. He is becoming more independent and is so proud of his accomplishments. He has been letting us know more often when he has to use the potty and has had five poo-poos on the potty so far. We haven't done anything special to coerce him into wanting to use it - he just thinks it's awesome because Mama and Dada do it and now he can too! He gets lots of praise when he tinkles or poops and we think that's another incentive because almost more than anything else he loves to please us. The only bummer about this whole potty thing is that it is a huge time-buster because I have to sit in the bathroom with him while he goes and he will sit there reading or drawing for a half hour sometimes if he has to poop. It's nice when it happens to coincide with me getting ready for the day because I can brush my teeth and do my hair and make-up while he's otherwise occupied.

Parker has developed another security blanket (or sheet, actually). Parker always wants to sleep with something covering him, but it's been too warm for a blanket and since they don't sell crib sized top sheets anywhere that we've been able to find, I took an old twin-sized top sheet, cut it in half, sewed the cut area and now he has two identical sheets. Thank goodness he has two because now he has decided that he doesn't just want to carry his blanket around, but he also wants to carry around his sheet too, so it needs to be washed often, just like his blanket.


Parker has also been finding new ways to entertain himself and has been so much better about playing by himself so I can get things done. He loves to make ramps for his cars to go down, or just push them off an upside down box. He found my hot rollers and has fun taking them out and putting them back in the container. It's like a puzzle for him since there are different sized rollers and he has to figure out which holes they go into.


Just this week he has decided to talk a lot and has been trying to repeat a ton of words we say. I've mentioned in a Myspace and Facebook blog that he is learning his colors and his favorite one is blue (he says brew). He has also been using all the following words in addition to his usuals (not very clearly, but he tries): Drew (this is the name for his uncle Andy whose full name is Andrew) sorry, down, red, yellow, brown, green, peas, please (yeah, these words sound exactly the same) juice, beans, truck, pee-pee, poo-poo (those he just used today for the first time), and probably more that I'm not thinking of.

Parker also loves to help me with everything (this only becomes a problem when I'm washing dishes or cooking) so it's been a lot easier to clean when he's awake now and not have to wait for everything for the weekend when Jake is home to help watch him and/or help clean. Today Parker helped me clean the bathroom, sweep and clean the floors, do a ton of laundry, and vacuum. He loves to push the vacuum cleaner so we each take turns and I count backwards from 10 to 1 so he knows when it is his turn or my turn (we do this with his toothbrush, too). We have found a timer to be a very useful tool, not just for time-outs but also for giving him a specific time frame to finish what he's doing before he has to move on to something he doesn't really want to do. It really helps to curb tantrums.

I'll finish this up with a couple of fun videos. Yes, the Helen Keller dance is completely non-PC, but here is a good analysis that my Dad wrote of the song from which the Helen Keller reference originates.

Shoe Fetish

Parker loves to put on shoes - especially Mama's. He has mastered putting on his Crocs, but for the most part, he'd rather wear Mama's and Dada's shoes.

He likes sandals 'cause they're easy to put on.

But the high heels are his favorite and he thinks he looks very pretty in them.

Watch him walk the runway!