First Haircut con't

Before

After

Flashback Friday

Walking tall on the playground at 16 months.

Cuts with Scissors

Somewhere along the way, Parker has learned to use scissors. I think at the Baptist Mother's day out perhaps. She prefers to hold them upside down but can do the other way too. She holds her pencil wrong too. I'm hoping they'll straighten all that out when school starts.
She can use the heck out of a glue stick too. I'm sure scrapbooking isn't far off. She can start by making her own baby book.


Toothbrushing is another thing she's started doing herself. I still follow up behind her. Prior to this I'd just hold her in a headlock and do it all myself. She has started doing more and more things on her own, and consequently, it's taking us longer and longer to get things done.

Doll Diapers

Look what we got! Doll cloth diapers! I ordered them from Etsy - it's like Ebay but for handmade crafty type stuff. The normal doll diapers bug me - they never fit right (see picture) and if she takes them off, then it looks like we have diapers laying around the house. These are flannel w/ velcro closures.

Before - disposable doll diapers

After - cloth diapers ....much better!

The only trouble is that they are too small for Big Baby. She is still in the disposable kind, but I'm hoping to find some cloth for her also.

Chives

And in landscaping news, my chives are blooming. I hardly ever even use chives for cooking, but I keep them around because I love their blooms. They bloom late in the year after everything else has started to dry up.

More Ballet pics

We went to ballet again on Friday. Parker did great again. She was the leader of the line the whole time. She did a much better job of watching the teacher for instruction instead of just copying what the other kids do. These photos are a bit grainy because I have to take them w/out a flash on a high shutter speed so they're not blurry.


Doing leaps over a shoe

Pointing her toe

Volunteering


admiring her skirt

Walking on tiptoes with swooping butterfly arms.

Visit from family

We've had a wonderful day today! Parker's Aunt Paula and Cousin Emily came to visit! Parker is showing off one of the many goodies that they brought - a bracelet made of beads that spells out Parker's name. Paula made it while she was here, and left the big box of beads for Parker to keep. After they left, before they were even out of the driveway, Parker was working on a bracelet for me.

favorite authors

When we read books, I always tell Parker the book and author's name, mainly so I can remember what I like when we go to the library. She's memorized some of the names, and for a while she was stuck on Jane Cabrera, then Matt Novak. Every book title I'd read, she'd say "by Matt Novak". I guess she's got a new favorite now.

Riding back from the library today, Parker told me
"My favorite (author) is Matt Novak. No, wait, my favorite is.... (pauses to think of the name).... Nancy Carlstrom. Is that right?! " She was very pleased with herself for remembering the name.

I don't even think she understand the concept of what "by" means, but I just think it's funny that she remembers the names.

Quick ballet class pics

Here are some quick pics I took at ballet today. I'll have commentary later.

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So today was the first ballet lesson. As you can probably tell, I didn't take her to a big fancy dance studio. We starting off at the rec center. A month of lessons there costs the same as the enrollment fee at the fancy places. I didn't want to take the chance on her not liking it, so we're starting here.
She did really well. She watches the other kids a little more than watching the teacher for examples, but that's ok. She performed just as well as the other girls at all the tasks, and at some things she was better. She had no trouble being first in line or running/hopping/skipping alone when it was her turn.

Creeping slowly like a cat

Walking on tiptoes with swoopy arms.



Leading the pack in being distracted by the pool outside.

Letter recognition

"Those sticks make and "E' "

clarification: When we were riding back from the pool, she saw some sticks on the ground that looked like the letter E. This is the first time she's mentioned something looked like a certain letter shape.

Ballet - Before

Tomorrow we're hoping again to make it to ballet lessons. She can point her toes and put her feet in 'first position'. I will never understand what the big deal is with the ballet feet positions, but whatever.
I haven't mentioned tomorrow's lessons to her yet, but I know she'll ask tonight. Every time she goes down for nap or bedtime, she asks "after I sleep, where do we get to go after I sleep?" , except she runs it all together, "after I sleep, wheredowegettogo after I sleep?". I guess I could just tell her "I don't know". It's nice to prep her for things, plus it's nice to have something to threaten to not do if she doesn't go to bed.

Volunteer tomato

Ignore the child, look at the tomato plant. This is a volunteer plant that has popped up from our hydrangea bed. It's huge! Bob reminds me daily that it's the best looking tomato I've got (the rest are in pots and not doing so well). We have a couple more coming up in the daylily bed too.

Trampoline Leapfrog

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Here's a still photo so the dial-up folks don't feel left out:

Friday events

Today was supposed to be Parker's first day of ballet lessons, but early this morning, the rec center called and said the teacher called in sick (or something), so her first class will be NEXT friday. She was a little disappointed, but we made the best of things by putting on her outfit (not pictured) and jumping on the trampoline and doing a ballet DVD. She's learned to point her toes and is very proud. Later this evening, we revisited ballet fun by putting on a flouncy skirt, ballet shoes and she prowled around in the closet and found some sunglasses. She has a great time twirling and leaping and saying "plie' ".

And then just a little while ago, I walked out into the garage and nearly had a heart attack. RACOONS! Inside the closed garage. They were after Sierra's food. Photograph courtesy of our house guest Mark - I was looooong gone. Although I still was able to keep my cool enough to holler for Mark and Bob to take a picture for the blog, and get me adiet coke out of the outdoor fridge. Since I'm never going out there again!

Trampoline fun

Big fun these days is having the exercise ball on the trampoline. I'll post some video soon of her 'new trick'. She always has a new trick, by the way. Todays new trick was running around the ball in circles while singing "cowboy! cowboy!". I have no idea what that means.


Here's the outfit she put together this morning. Very pink, "pink is my favorite". I was thrilled to see her wear that headband, she's never worn it before. Also notice she's found a new ponytail holder-turned-bracelet. This one has a pink heart and a rhinestone on it. And of course she slipped on her heels and grabbed her purse so she could take Big Baby for a stroll. Sometimes I feel like I'm living with a little tiny Jackie Kennedy.

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."

Weekend fun

We had another busy weekend. Bob decided to redo some of our sprinkler piping. It had a leak and had been patched numerous times, so he dug it all up and repiped it. I played the role of "clean person" and indoor support. Every now and then the door would pop open and he'd yell "can ya bring me a...." ...coat hanger, hack saw, piece of bread, paper towel, another piece of bread, more paper towels, sack of hamburger buns, gatoraide, telephone, etc etc. (the bread is used to plug the pipes) At one point I guess Parker helped fill in the hole. The doorbell rang and this is what I found when I answered it:

View from above

This was taken in San Diego, which is why she's wearing a jacket. It's my view from the balcony of the condo to the Parker on the patio down below.

continued flower bed talk

I probably should have combined all these posts into one, but it's easier to do them this way.
My mom had the following comment about the flower bed:
"Looks good. One question -- what happened to the rose bush?"

The rose bush was unceremoniously hacked up and stuffed into the trampoline boxes and hauled to the curb. I'm just the messenger, remember.
We were done with that bush, it was too big for that spot and our new plan for those beds, so it needed to go. If you're scoring at home, we've removed 2 old roses, but put in 3, so we're +1 for roses.

We keep all the little info spikes that come with the plant and write the date on them. I stuck them in a little album to make it easier to sort through:

Beautiful ballerina mommy

Have I posted this picture already? This is how we start our day most days. Putting on our heels, our dress up stuff, and caring for the babies. On this day, she informed me, "I'm a beautiful ballerina mommy". This is a buggy she got for her birthday. She can fit all the baby dolls in it at once, and has solved the stroller overcrowding problem:

(There are 5 or 6 dolls packed on this stroller and in the 3 purses hanging off. I just didn't feel right about making Big Baby ride around in a purse)

Singing

Parker has been attending a Mother's Day Out at the Baptist church this summer. I think their influence is starting to show:


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(the word she says at the end is "bible")

New flower bed pictures

Before

During

Bob, during

After

I forgot to mention that there's a "Gold Dust Aucuba" (varagated japonica) in the back corner that will get about 4'x6' hopefully.