Conversations with (2.5 years old now!) Parker

July 25
We were visiting Jake's parents. Grandpa Dan had accidentally killed a large patch of grass. Parker looked at it and said, "That's a bummer."

July 28
Parker was sitting on the potty pulling on one of those little advertisement cards in a magazine and was getting rather frustrated. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I'm trying to get this thingamajigger out!"

August 11
(Playing by himself with his cars)
Car #1: "Why, hello! Nice to meet you!"
Car #2: "You're not nice!"
Car #1: "I'm a teacher. I'm nice. Did you know that?"

(He matched them up like this by himself. Silly kid.)

Later...

Me: "Parker, buddy, guess what?"
P: "Chicken butt."

August 12
Me: "Parker, please don't drum on the table with your fork. You can use your hands to drum though."
P: "I don't want to drum with my hands! It's boring!"

Later...
Me: "Parker, do you want a vitamin and some milk now?"
P: "That's OK."
Me: "Does that mean you do want them or no?"
P: "That's OK."
Me: "Please say, 'yes I do want them' or 'no, I don't.'"
P: "Yes, I don't."


August 16
I handed Parker his electric toothbrush.
P: "Now I'm going to start it on, OK? OK."
Wait, was he talking to me? He either was talking to a voice in his head or decided to answer for me.

Later...
P: "I'm swinging like Christopher Robin?"
Me: "Which way does Christopher Robin swing?" (then laugh realizing what I just asked)

August 17
P singing: "This old man, he played three. He played knick-knack on my knee with a knick-knack paddy whack, talk about a bone, this old man came rolling home."


August 20
(swinging on the swing)
P: "I want to try the other one. This one's boring!"

Later...

Me: "Do you want to color?"
P: "Yes! For two hours!"



August 22
Me: "Did I make good eggs and pancakes, little man?"
P: "Yes!"
Me: "Whose do you like better, Mama's or Grandma's?"
P: "Mama's AND Grandma's!"
(such a smart boy) ;)

Later...

Me: "Parker, do you want to go to Guitar Center with Dada?"
P: "Yes."
Me: "And maybe somewhere else to get a new box for his latest amp project?"
P: "And we should get a guitar for his amp, too!"
(A boy after Dada's own heart)

August 26
P: "Oh no, Mama made a mess!"
Me: "I made a mess?"
P: "A different mama made a mess."
Me: "Oh."
P: "A different mama made a mess. She's at work and she spilled on the floor. Needs to wipe it up. And I'm not going to Dada's work today."
Me: "Um, OK then."

August 27
P whined and put his fingers in his mouth.

Me: "What's wrong? Do you have ouchie teeth?"
(shakes his head no)
Me: "Did you bite your tongue?"
(shakes his head no)
Me: "Are you just being whiney?"
P: (nods head) "Yes."

Later that day...

Parker was taking a shower and he started to pee. He grabbed his penis and pointed it up.

Me: "Don't point your penis up, the pee might get in your eyes or mouth!"
P: "I want to pee in my mouth!"
Me: "No, that's yucky!"
P: "I want to put my penis in my mouth!"

August 28
Parker was looking at a guitar magazine and noticed a "distressed" looking guitar.

P: "What happened to the paint?"
Me: "Oh, they did that on purpose. It's a design."
P: "Are you kidding me?"

I laugh. He turns the page and points to a man with longish hair.

P: "Does this look like Josh Brogan?"
Me: "I don't know, let me see. Oh, it does look a little like Josh Groban."
P: "Look at his hair!"
Me: "Yeah, is it kind of long and curly looking?"
P: "No, it's funny looking."

He should talk.

September 6
Parker was pretending to go to work and his little cousin Lily was following him. P turned and said, "NO, Lily! Don't go to work! It's MY work!"

October 1
We were on a walk and we stopped for a while to watch the cars on a main street.

P: "Look, Mama! A Smart car!" He paused to watch it drive by. "Who drives Smart cars?"
Me: "Smart people."
P: "I don't know any smart people."

October 2 (today)
Parker helped me sweep and clean the bathroom without me even asking him to, so after we were done I gave him high 5's, pound-it's and told him he could pick out as many stickers as he wanted. I left the room to let him pick them out and a few minutes later he came and found me and said, "I picked out two stickers for being too, too good!"

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"Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Philippians 3:8

Keeping the Magic Alive... Through Texting.

Jake:

:O*

Me:

"Ahhh! R those ur lips?? When did u get lip augmentation?!"

Jake:
:OP

(Thank goodness he didn't send a pic of this)


Me:

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"So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband." - Ephesians 5:33

(Um, was this respectful to my husband? Probably not. Thank goodness he still loves me... right, hunny?) :O*

Thankful Thursday... in Pictures

It's been awhile since I've done a Thankful Thursday blog, so I thought it was about time!

I'm thankful for my sister and her hubby's generosity and for giving us a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory!


I'm thankful Parker partook of the squaw bread at the restaurant. He called it chocolate bread (and we didn't correct him).


I'm thankful for my silly husband


I'm thankful for Parker's grandparents always doing fun things with him that he doesn't get to do with us very often....

Like riding in a cool wagon.

And getting to eat Mickey Mouse pancakes in preparation for a day at Disneyland!

I'm thankful Parker enjoys playing pretend now....

Here he is pretending to be Grandpa with his new
Hawaiian shirt from Auntie Leann and Uncle Greg.

Giving himself a bubble goatee so he can be Dada

I'm thankful for "baseball" in the house!


I'm thankful for the day Parker kept asking for more raisins. Hey, it's fruit, right?


I'm thankful for Parker's art work...


And for him inspiring me to do my own...

(OK, so I was just using up the paint he didn't use and it took

me only a few minutes to do both of these, but it was still fun!)

I'm thankful Parker has been interested in spelling (especially if it's related to cars).

(Parker: "Mama! Come see! I spelled GMC!") =)

I'm thankful for hot days in the shade with a kiddie pool!


I'm thankful for play dates and silly boys!


I'm thankful Parker can make a car out of just about anything!


And lastly, I'm thankful my husband just sent me a text message saying he was taking a surprise vacation day tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

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"Let love be your guide." Ephesians 5:2

Recipe Blog Shout-Out

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to Jenny, a fellow blogger, for her meal planning blog, "In My Mouse." She unwittingly helped me out in a huge way today! While I was dealing with P's tantrum and racking my brain trying to decide what to make this week, I thought of her blog and went there for some inspiration.

She recommended the Oregano Lemon Chicken that we had tonight. I served it with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli steamed in chicken broth. Jake prefers chicken breast, but he ate it AND said yes when I asked him if he wanted to bring the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow. Whew! Parker even tried one bite of everything before asking for something else. I was more than happy to serve him something else knowing he at least tried everything! Miracle of miracles. Maybe the episode this morning was worth it?

After the day I had, I was more than ready for a cup of tea to help relax me tonight. As I started filling the water in my teapot, I remembered this treat Jenny had posted on her blog and decided to give it a shot. YUM! I used vanilla rice milk instead of regular milk, but it was still delicious. As a former barista, though, I would call it a Lattea rather than a Capputeano (laugh). Whatever you call it, it's GOOD!

Tomorrow night we're trying these chicken enchiladas. I have two different enchilada recipes I make already, but this one looked pretty tasty and (hopefully) less time-consuming than my staple one.

Thanks, Jenny!

Monday, Monday. Can't Trust That Day.

I had no intention of blogging today. I was supposed to be grocery shopping a long time ago. But I can't even finish my meal planning/grocery list because Parker has been crying all morning. I can't believe I've managed to stay calm this whole time. I've had to say quite a few silent prayers for patience, and God, fortunately, answered them. I am now attempting some sanity and distraction by writing while he's throwing a tantrum in his room. I decided to put him in there instead of letting him pull on my pants and scream while I try to think about what we need for meals this week. I tried again to finish my list after putting him in his room, but it's futile. I can't concentrate when he's screaming like this. Ironically enough, food seems unimportant at the moment.

I bet you wonder why that's ironic and also why he's crying. It's because he's hungry, but refuses to feed himself. That's right. Over the past few months our "I do it all by myself" toddler has turned into a "I can't do it!" terror. He "can't" feed himself. He "can't" climb the stairs by himself. He "can't" put his toys away. I feel like a failure every time he uses those words. I want him to be proud of his accomplishments and want him to know we're proud of him when he does something all by himself. Lately, though, he has turned a regression corner away from which I have been unable to steer him. I wonder what I've done (or not done) to cause this. I've tried reminding him of the Little Engine That Could and the Bob the Builder slogan, "Can we do it? Yes we can!" He doesn't buy it.

While Lily was visiting, we had to help feed her with some items like yogurt and oatmeal, etc. When Parker saw that, you'd better believe he wanted us to feed him, too. To avoid a fight, I admit I probably made a huge mistake. I fed him. All the while I was doing it I was thinking about that terrible day a while back when I had to let him cry for an hour before he decided he would feed himself a muffin. Yup, see? I knew what I was getting into, but I did it anyway.

So, now, today, we're having the same struggle as that one day. He is so hungry and feels so yucky, but he refuses to feed himself his oatmeal. He wants it. He asked me for it. He asked me to feed it to him. I told him if he tried to do it by himself but couldn't that I would help him. He said no deal to that. He didn't even want to try. So I decided to just let him get down from the table and play until he was ready to feed himself. But that didn't work, either. I'm trying hard to stand my ground and not feed him. I feel so torn about it. I don't want to create a power struggle over food. Since he turned two we've had enough eating problems from him as it is. It's like his taste buds changed overnight. My self-feeding broccoli/spinach/chicken/fish eater just disappeared.

I just don't know if I should be spoon feeding him when I know he's perfectly capable of doing it himself. I question whether I'm doing the right thing, believe me. Am I being too hard on him? He's not even three years old, for goodness sake. But his self confidence lately has been so low. I can't figure it out!

After checking on him and having a talk with him, I was able to calm him down and he's finally playing at least. Do I dare bring him to the grocery store hungry? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe now I can at least finish my grocery list in peace and then we'll see how things go...

And by the way, I would appreciate any life experience advice in this matter! Even if you think I'm going about this all the wrong way, give it to me; I can handle criticism. Sometimes it's the only way I learn.
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From my quiet time reading today:
"... a sensible person learns by being instructed." - Proverbs 21:11

Cousin Lily's Visit

It's been a long time since I last blogged, I know. We've been pretty busy. I barely looked at my computer while Parker's 15 1/2 month old cousin Lily stayed with us for 11 days. Her folks got a much needed vacation in Hawaii while we had an adventure at home. It was rough with everyone sick and Lily trying to adjust without her favorite people in the whole wide world, but we made the best of it and tried to have as much fun as possible while she was here. I took lots of pics on my phone (way too many to put on here). Here are some of my favorites from those 11 days.

"Bean-er"
(Her nickname is Lily Bean, or Bean, or Beaner)

Kissing bye-bye in the car

One last pic before I woke her up to see her family

We love you, Beaner!

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"If you respect the Lord, you and your children have a strong fortress and a life-giving fountain that keeps you safe from deadly traps." - Proverbs 14:26-27