Fall Foliage

 

Aren't the trees pretty this year?  Ours are some of the first to begin to turn.  I think the stress of the dry summer helps their color. 

No interesting news around here.  We made it through the busy Halloween weekend and now we're gearing up for the rest of the holidays.

Parker funny:  she was at a friends house yesterday and when she came home, she mentioned that the neighbor had given them some M&M's.  I know the neighbor, so it's no big deal, but I took the opportunity for a 'teachable moment' and told Parker if we're not with her, she should not take candy from anyone, even neighbors, blah blah blah.

Without missing a beat Parker said "ok.  I need to go write myself a note that says "no trick or treating next year."  When Bob and I closed our jaws, we reminded her that technically, we go with her to trick or treat, so that doesn't count.  Little smarty pants.

Library tip

Parker:  "I'd like to get a book about dogs from the school library."

Me:  "Really?!  I was there today for volunteer orientation!  Did you know that to find a book about dogs, you look for the shelf that has a stuffed dog above it?"

Parker:  "oh.  I usually just look in Non-Fiction."

Wednesday update

Here's a random picture of Parker hanging out in the office with me one day when I was working. This was a great day....I got a ton of work done, and Parker amused herself all afternoon with coloring and computer, etc. Normally, this is all I hear:

"Can we call Sarah over?"
"Can we call Sarah over?"

"Can we call Sarah over?"
"Can we call Sarah over?"

"Can we call Sarah over?"
"Can we call Sarah over?"

Sarah is a constant fixture at our house this summer.

A funny conversation yesterday:

Parker: "Mom, did I have my vitamin today already?"

Sarah: "I don't take vitamins anymore. We used to, but we don't have to anymore."

Parker: "I used to take Hannah Montana vitamins, but now I take Flintstones because they have vitamin D, and the doctor said I need to take the kind with vitamin D."

I guess she remembers all the vitamin D talk from her doctor's appointment/well check back on July 1.

Her 5 year well visit went just fine.
Her stats:
Height: 40 3/4" (10-25th percentile)
Weight: 34 lbs (20th percentile)
Vision: 20/25 in both eyes.
I can't find last year's report, so I'm not sure how much she's grown, but most of last year's clothes are too small, so she's getting taller at least. She seems pretty petite when compared to other kids her age.

We went to the dentist today too, and she got a good report. Apparently she's very sweet and cooperative there. At our last visit when they did xrays, he estimated that it would be a couple years before she starts losing teeth, and that's fine with me.

I"m nearly done with my July project, and Parker is done with 'summer school', so we're filling the days the best we can. So far we've been running errands in the morning and then playing with friends in the afternoon. We are enjoying the cooler weather and the rain, but I'm ready to have the option of burning the afternoon hours at the pool back.

7 more hours until bedtime......

Weather report

Ugh, it is cooooooold and nasty here. Sunday evening it was in the 70's and people were dining on restaurant patios. We woke up Monday morning, expecting maybe 4o's, and it was 24F! Then yesterday evening the freezing rain and sleet started and has continued off and on. The roads are a mess and many schools were canceled today. But not Parker's! Since I had some very pressing errands to run, I took her to school about an hour late. There were some slick spots, but everyone was driving like turtles, so there were no troubles. It's the hares you have to worry about. Or the combo: hare most of the time, and then deciding all of a sudden to be a turtle when they get on an bridge.

Anyway, when it was time to get out of the car, I told her,

"It's so cold outside!! We should have worn hats."
And she said,
"Why? We look just fine."

drapery pictures

At loooooong last, the new draperies were installed today. This portion of the room is nearly complete. We still need a table and lamp for inbetween the chairs, throw pillows, and some rippled glass for the door, but this part is mainly done.

BEFORE

AFTER

Close up swatch of drapery fabric


And here's a cute picture of Parker dressed up in a Hannah Montanna wig and makeup at a recent birthday party. She wants more than anything in the world to have long straight hair.

Her confusing questions of the day was, "Does only God know what is inside your shoes?"

Questions from this morning

When Parker isn't singing or complaining on the way to school, she's asking non-stop questions. Two from this morning:

"Where do daddies live before they need mommies?" (she meant wives)

Followed by

"Where do the clouds go when they're not in the sky?" (there were clear skies this morning)

Placing her order

The second thing that Parker said to me this morning after she woke up was,

"Mom, while I'm at school today, make sure to go to the store and get some more Life cereal. Oh, but first check in the cabinet and see if you buyed some already."

Fun full family weekend

We had a nice full weekend at home. Parker is detoxing from being the center of attention last week at her grandparents house, so we've endured a lot of whining and fits, but I think maybe she's past it.
We planted a TON of annuals in the front flower beds...the usual zinnias and some verbena. I got Parker some sidewalk paint, and she painted and experimented with mixing colors. It's pretty cool stuff, and it kept her amused for several minutes.

Throwing a fit in the yard.....isn't she pitiful?

After nap, she finally came around and was in a pretty pleasant mood.
This evening after all the work was done, Bob turned the sprinklers on for Parker to run through while I assembled dinner.

She was pretty cold afterward.....here she is all bundled up eating dinner. She's eating a ciabatta roll in this picture. She got a kick out of the name.

As part our quest for a pleasant dinner time, we've started taking turns talking about the favorite part of our day. Tonight Parker said her favorite thing of the whole day was,
"Right now, eating this nice dinner". I'd believe her had ~I~not said the exact same thing last night. She realized that was a nice thing to say, and so she's using it now because she knows we'll say "awww, how sweet". Prior to this, her favorite canned phrase was to say:
"....and I put a heart on it....because I love you"
- a line she stole from her aunt Paula, and has gotten a lot of mileage out of.

Our lovely dinner - bbq chicken sandwiches (mine w/ mustard too) and quinoa/cucumber/tomato/chickpea salad and a tasty chardonnay (the brown thing is a rock).
A nice end to a nice weekend. Awwww, how sweet!

Observations

Some things that Parker has mentioned to me lately:

"A school bus doesn't need a caboose."

"No one else can touch your private parts. They might get germs."

And this one shocked me - I told her about a trip I was planning to Austin, and she asked:

"Austin, where Emily lives, or a different Austin?"

I have no idea how she knew or remembered that.

Like the glasses? She picked them out to go with her outfit and wore them to school.

Right handed writing

There was a comment from my mother about the previous writing picture, asking about Parker holding her pencil left-handed. I looked back at the outtakes, and of 6 pictures, 3 were right handed, and 3 were left handed. Yesterday at school she did a drawing and put arms on it, and the teacher said she drew the right arm with her right hand, and then switched hands to do the left. I've seen her do this before, especially when eating, but not recently. She is primarily right handed though.

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Spanish confusion:

"Is b'asagna (lasagna) Spanish for spaghetti?"

"Is coupon Spanish for credit card?"

Hopefully that last one isn't some sort of racial slur. I'd hate for her to ruin her chances for public office because she was misquoted on a blog at age 3.

Playing with toys

Now that Parker is feeling better, she's been having fun rediscovering her toys. She's big into grouping things and lining them up. For some reason, she and her friends like to fill her Rose Petal Cottage with shoes:

And an animal parade around the bathtub. If you look closely you'll see that she's grouped all the animals into families....all the pics together, all the sheep together, etc. The 'leader' is a penguin, followed by 2 frogs and a lion.

As I'm typing this, she's eating her dinner. I think she just put 2 and 2 together and realized that her fish sticks were once actual fish.

"Is there fish in my fishsticks?"
me: "yes"
"Real fish, like strips?"
me: "yes"
"But no eyes, right?"
me: "right"
(under her breath) "good"

It's fine if she wants to go vegetarian on me, she just better learn to like vegetables or she's going to have a very limited diet. Her side dish with her fishsticks was strawberries, that she dipped in ketchup.

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Some Public service announcements:

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This is a really neat website for editing photos, cropping, color correcting, adding text, borders, etc. Unlike most photo software, you don't have to download anything, you upload your pictures instead. And it's free.
http://www.picnik.com

And in office supply news......here's a link to a Sharpie coupon at Office Max, and a link to their newest product, a retractable fine point pen!!!

Office Max retractable Sharpie coupon

FINE POINT retractable pen

(There are about 4 blog readers that are jumping up and down with excitement right now. )

How a humidifier works

Parker got a new humidifier for her bedroom. She and Bob got it all set up before bed. When I went up to kiss her goodnight, she explained to me how it works:

"You put water in it, and turn it on, and stink comes out the top".

Fun with Parker

A fun Parker trick is to tell her something at bedtime, and she will remember it in the morning....she takes up right where she left off. The night before my birthday, Bob instructed her to tell me "Happy Birthday" in the morning. About 5am on my birthday, Parker woke up and called me up there, as is her normal routine (then we sleep until 7), and the first thing she said was "Happy Birthday Mommy" and went back to sleep. (!)

Another day, she was having trouble sleeping and kept calling us upstairs. Bob told her "if you us up here again, Daddy is going to be very upset." Luckily for both of them, after that she went to sleep. The next morning, she called me up there when she woke up. I crawled in her bed and she looked up and said "Good thing you're not daddy!".

PS, for my birthday, Bob surprised me with a nice fancy shiny laptop computer! I've been trying to get the hang of what I do on which computer, but I'm loving it so far!

Candy Magazine

All doll house play stopped the other day when Parker discovered the Oriental Trading Company catalog, the Halloween edition. She can't believe there is something as wonderful as a catalog full of candy and toys! When it was bedtime, I was walking her upstairs to go read her books for night night, and she came running back down yelling
" Wait! I have a magazine I want you to read! A magazine about CANDY!!"
and she ran and got the catalog, which I 'read' to her. I'm surprised all the scary halloween stuff in there didn't give her bad dreams.

Comments and Questions

Here's Parker's latest trick to try to prolong bedtime (aside from picking out clothing, undies, hairbows and bracelets for the next day, and arranging them on her dresser).

She and Bob had struck a deal that he would read her 2 books.
He read book #1, then book #2 and said, "ok, night-night".

Parker, holding up book #2: "Will you read this book?"

Bob, "No, remember we agreed to just read two books. Not three".

Parker: "I don't want three books! I just want you to read this book again!"

So in other words, she thought she could get around the 2 book rule by having him read one of the 2 books twice!
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She is forever peppering us with questions.
Questions from this morning:
1. "Where was I before I was born?"
2. "What is this (kneecap) for?"
3. " Who built our house?"

She's really hung up on 'who built our house', she's asked me that several times.
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Blah blah blah, here's the picture:

"Lipchaps"

Here's Parker applying 5 types of lipgloss. She's doing a move called "fishlips" that Bob taught her so she could learn to drink out of a bottled-water bottle. Turns out, it works for lipgloss too. Parker calls all lip stuff "lipchaps", and I can't bring myself to correct her because it's too cute. If you're wondering why a 3 year old has amassed such a large collection of lipchaps, it's because I though I was buying nail polish and got these by mistake. 5 kinds of nail polish would have been ok.

Funny things she's said lately:

(lifting the seat on the commode)
"This potty has a tee-tee mustache"
(I guess that's like a milk mustache, but with teetee, and on a potty)

Tonight, telling Bob excitedly:
"Daddy, Daddy, we washed my blankie and now it doesn't smell like food or bug spray anymore!!"

Other funny phrases she's mixing in are, "while you're up, will you get me...." and "I've changed my mind".

And the best thing happened today: Parker leaned how to use the computer mouse!!!!!! We've tried here and there w/out success, but today, it just clicked (haha). Of course I'm not thrilled about her using my fancy 5 button wireless mouse w/ the buttons I've programmed and I use for work, but it was very thrilling to watch her drag and drop (!) dressup clothes onto dolls and to click and color pictures. I have video of it, but I need to cut it down. It's cool to watch how proud of herself she is, but not for 5 minutes.

Teeth brushing ritual

While I'm thinking about it, I'll share the little game we play to get Parker to hold still to get her teeth brushed. I'd forget, but she reminds me every time. I start to brush her teeth and she says:

Parker: "wowwa ooo hee in hair?"

translated (minus toothbrush): "What do you see in there?"

And then we list off the things that we are brushing off of her teeth....all the stuff she's eaten that day. Usually a short list.

Me: "I see waffles and milk and noodles and bear crackers and carrots and yogurt...."

Sometimes I try to slip in something that she didn't eat to see if she's listening and she always corrects me. And if I forget one, she corrects that too.

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Another funny thing she's doing now is saying "me three". But she says it when "me too" would make more sense. Her reasoning is that she's three years old, so she tells me every time.

Me: "I want something to drink"

Parker: "Me three! Haha I said 'me three' because I'm three."

Be careful what Bob and Parker wish for.....

Well they got their trampoline. I showed just the slightest crack in my no-trampoline armour and it was like trying to stop wild horses. Saturday morning, after Bob mowed but before we had guests over for dinner, Bob purchased and assembled Parker's new trampoline. It was on sale, which was nice.
On the way to the store, we were waiting to turn left, and lots of cars were zipping past us. Parker's observation was

" Looks like a lot of people are going to get a trampoline! We better hurry before they're all out!"

Parker LOVES it and she just laughs and laughs and jumps and jumps. It is a bit of an eyesore for our neighbors though. Hopefully Parker's squeals and giggles will cheer them up.

Hi from San Diego

No pictures yet, sorry. I'm borrowing a laptop to post this. We having a great time! The flight was fairly easy....Parker slept most of the way. Before getting on the plane, when we drove up at Park and Fly, Parker said:

"Where's the California?"

Today we are going to Sea World, which should be interesting...Bob injured his toes last night falling off a skateboard. We are probably going to have to push him around in a wheelchair. Seriously.
Parker is having a wonderful time playing with her cousins. It's like having free child care because she's constantly entertained and the center of someone's attention.

Friday, no flashback

We've had a fun week. Parker has been in a pretty happy mood lately, aside from the normal fit-throwing and drama of the almost 3 year old. Yesterday she had a terrible meltdown because I wouldn't let her wear a dress AND a skirt at the same time. She is obsessed with wearing dresses lately. That's all I can get her to wear. I suggest other skirts and pants that I know she likes, but she only wants to wear them WITH a dress. Could she be Penecostal?
Tonight I picked out PJs for bed, and I showed them to her, hoping it would help motivate her to get out of the tub. She looked at my selection and said

"Probably that doesn't match."

(in my defense, the top and bottom were the same color and they DID SO match, they just weren't a set that was purchased together)
Bob said she did the same thing to him last night...shook off his PJ pick as non-matching, and chose her own.

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Singing in the tub tonight:

"Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?
Bless you, bless you three hands full."

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