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.

--------------------------------

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.

Worms

We had another busy weekend. On Sunday morning, I woke up to find that Landscaping Obsessed Guy had posessed Bob overnight. While I snoozed, Bob had decided that his project for the day, other than mowing the entire yard (!), would be to finally redo one of the back flower beds. In the before picture (coming soon!), you can see that there's a gigantic rose bush blob, our new Japanese Yew, and not much else. Bob elected to removed the rose bush and replace it w/ Encore azaleas. I had thought we'd leave the rose bush, but I wasn't really in a position to argue with someone motivated to dig in the dirt in the hot sun all day, so out it went. We had a couple family outings to select plants, soil and mulch and came up with 3 azaleas, some perienniel blue salvia stuff, coriopsis and lambs ear. It looks a million times better and will really look nice once it all gets established in a couple more seasons.
And Parker had a nice time digging up worms.

Cold Water

Another beach picture. The water in the bay is FREEZING cold. This is the first year I've been in it past my ankles.
Parker spent most of her time running from the sand into the water. Then turning around and running all the way back. Over and over again, until she was exhausted and then we'd take her back to the condo for an afternoon nap. It's rare these days that she consistently takes a nap, but in San Diego, she konked out every day, and then again at night.

Cousin pics con't

Cousin Closeups

More San Diego pics of Parker and her cousins.

New 'Bracelet'

For the past 4 days Parker has been wearing her "special bracelet". If you look closely, you'll notice that it's actually a ponytail holder. She got it with some hair bows and things for her birthday. We were putting all of the bows and clips into a box and she saw the ponytail holders. Pink with sparkles. She had me put it on her...it fits with out stretching....and she's had it on ever since. Anytime we go somewhere new...swimming, bday party, school, etc she checks to make sure she can wear her special bracelet. If we have to leave it at home (it doesn't go swimming), then she puts it back on as soon as she's home!

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.

Skipping

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Carnival pics

Here are the carnival pics I promised. At the beach, there is a permanent carnival set up. We usually go once when we're there and ride the rides. The big question is whether or not to get a wrist band or buy individual tickets. You have to ride x amout of rides to get your money's worth, and it's not recommended for kids Parker's height because the amount of rides is limited. Turned out, we had no trouble getting our money's worth! All of her cousins were so great about riding with her too.

Merry Go Round

submarine thing that wen up in the air and back down

driving a boat

Tilt-A-whirl....she rode this 4 times! It flings you around in circles. I couldn't believe she rode it so many times!

July 4th

We had a long fun day yesterday. Our neighborhood has a full day of activities. In the morning, we took Parker up for games and the bounce house. She LOVES to bounce! I'm starting to conceed on getting a trampoline I think. I don't have pictures of the morning, but maybe I'll have some forwarded to me that I can post.

In the evening, there is a live band around the pool area and at the lake behind the pool, there are fireworks, and people bring their own and shoot those off too. Parker loved dancing to the music and watching the fireworks. When she got sick of that, she played tag and other games with some of the neighbor kids. We were there until 11pm! We had a sleepy child to deal with.


Watching with dad. Parker's observation about the noise:
"This is gonna bother my sleep."

Dancing with friends