Just cute.

I thought the girls looked very cute this day.

Play time with Dad

New Game

Miranda and Elizabeth play a new game now. One of them stands inside an cabinet and the other one smashes the cabinet closed. Good times.

Unpaid labor.

I spent the day at Ebba's today as we continue to have work done on our house. I got there at 9:30ish and stayed all day. In between naps we went to a local park. It was lovely. There were only two other people there. It was enclosed and had a track around it for Lincoln to ride his bike. Perfect!

The one person (a guy with what most have been his grandson) there asked me at one point, "Are you a day care?" I laughed and said, "Nope...these are all our kids." He looked slightly stunned. I don't think he believed me.

Running

Sometimes the kids like to run from one side of the house to the other. Paker usually starts it, but then everyone follows. They had been doing it while before I got the camera out, so it isn't a long session. But you get the point.

Ted's Wet

Ted took a bath with Parker tonight. He asked nicely and I thought, Why not? I'm always looking for reasons to say Yes. Of course, Ted needed a blow dry in the dryer afterwards.

His Crib

Although some parents keep their kids in their cribs past Parker's age...he's been in a bed since he was 17 months old. Now...of course, he wants to go back to one! Lucky for me, he can climb in and out on his own.

Yuck, tar stinks.

When the kids are sleeping, we don't tip toe around the house, but we are generally pretty quiet, trying not to slam doors, yell or jump around. (Ok, maybe sometimes I jump around, but not often.) Sometimes it seems like the smallest creak or crack wakes them up.

So when our roof started dripping a couple weeks ago, and then an inspection identified several more leaks causing loads of damage, we knew we had to get a new roof. Sure, we could patch it (again), but a new roof was going to need to happen before we moved anyway, so best do it now before spending too much on patches.

I was happy to get the new roof, but not so happy to think about what I was going to do with the kids all day while they were here banging and stomping and crashing around above us.

So, the roofers came today (after we decided that when we wanted to "move up" we would buy in a better school district rather than remodel this house), I was worried and got out of the house most of the morning. But at noon, I bit the bullet and came home to the smell of tar, the loud noises of machinery, and the thumping above us.

Amazingly, the kids didn't care at all and all three are sleeping right now. And have been for the last hour. A teeny, tiny door opening noise wakes them up, but complete chaos all around them apparently is fine. Damn those kids.

Progress?

Twice today, Parker said "I need to go Pee!" while running toward bathroom. Both times, he actually went poop. He must feel the pressure and think it's pee.

One of these times I said "Nope, you went Poo."

He said, "I think it's actually Poop."

Snack Times

The backyard

We haven't been able to spend much time outside lately. Mostly because it has been so wet and gross, I've avoided it. But today, when I wasn't in the mood for an outing, we had an outing in our backyard. Elizabeth enjoyed exploring while Miranda stayed close to me. Parker's hobby du jour is the hula hoops, which aren't the safest toy around babies. There were several head bonks today already.

Miranda and Elizabeth get the camera.

I'm always surprised how many of the resulting shots aren't horrible.

According to Parker

When it's light out, it's sunny.

When it's dark out, it's moony.

Duh.

A promise of ice cream.

In one of the books my mom checked out of the library when she was here has a little boy eating an ice cream sundae. Every time we read it, Parker says, "Maybe tomorrow, we can have an ice cream with a spoon." I say, "Maybe. Maybe not" every time. But today, I gave him. I was going to take him to McDonalds because the sundaes are cheap and small, but decided we had had enough of he playplace for a while. So we went to the Emeryville Public Market. I remembered they had a gelato/soft serve place AND a ball pit area.

The soft serve was broken, so the nice lady made Parker a tiny gelato sundae with sprinkles and sauce. He was in heaven.



Then we went to the ball pit. It's a good ball bit. Wide. With a ledge for jumping. Not too deep, so he can still walk around. But with tons of balls. I thought the girls might like it. I was kinda wrong.




Then they saw Parker enjoying himself.



So they gave it another try. They mostly liked jumping off the ledge into it. And when I say 'Jumping', I mean carefully lowering themselves down very slowly.





Then they were off to the quarter rides. Daddy, who met up with us there, since it is 5 minutes from his work, was a sucker and let them both ride it.

Elizabeth

She drives me up a wall. She is so stubborn. And so demanding. And so bossy. And just down right mean sometimes. She's been in a bad mood for weeks it feels like. But then...

Every now and then, she'll do something ridiculously sweet or cute. Today, she did 3.

The first was this morning when after hearing me tell Parker it was time to go Potty, she started pulling down her pants. So we all went into the bathroom where Elizabeth got up on the toilet and sat there quite contently for a long while. She didn't go, but when she was "all done", she took some toilet paper, actually wiped in the correct spot and put it in the toilet. It was hilarious. (Of course then Miranda wanted a turn.)

The second was at the doctor's office. (I took them in for potential ear infections and sure enough, Miranda had one.) Upon finishing the exams, I was getting her dressed. She took one shoe and brought it to the doctor to put on her. The doctor was even impressed considering this was just the woman poking and proding at her.

The final time was just before naps. Naps were a bit late and the girls were antsy. They've been getting into these glow worm dolls they got a long while ago from Grammy so I put one in each bed. When I had to return the second time to put them back in the crib, I warned them as I was leaving, "The next time I have to come in here, no more glow worms." Then I said, "Night, night." Just then, Elizabeth looked up and waved bye bye to me. Minutes later, they were both asleep...dolls in hand.

Feeling better, not so much

Miranda was feeling better enough yeterday to try on Parker's boots and tromp around the house in them. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was downright surly any time she wasn't on my lap, and would run screaming to me any time I was more about two feet from her.

Clothes Management

I've never been very good managing my clothes. I don't tend to put them away. I certainly don't fold them or keep them neat in my drawers. I just kinda ball things up and throw them where they go. This has unfortunately transferred to the management of my children's clothes. This method results in lots of clothes staying at the bottom of the drawer, clothes that don't fit being in the mix and a general feeling of anxiety about the whole thing.

So...I fixed it today. With a little help from Ikea. Each drawer is labeled and not overstuffed. The clothes still aren't folded, but I know what is where. For me, that's improvement.

Parker Clothes

The girls enjoyed wearing some of Parker's old and new clothes this weekend.

Still unclear on the concept.

Parker Updates

Soccer

In Parker's fourth soccer class, he seems like just a regular kid. I never once had to go down on the field to tell him what to do or where to go. Sure, he was a bit spacey at time...like when he had to run to the other side of the field and saw a big sign that he tried to read. But mostly, he seemed like a "normal" little soccer dude. I, impressively, did not buy the package of professional photos of him in his soccer outfit today. I figure there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for me to give away large sums of money to see Parker look cute.

Potty Training

Night two where he slept in underwear and not diapers. No accidents either night. Thank god that kid has a bladder like his father and not his mother.

His Likes

Parker is back to liking Mommy, Elizabeth and Ted. He also announced that he likes Math and Songs. As if we didn't know that.

Penmanship

Parker's ability to write numbers and letters is still improving. He is now writing them in interesting patterns and shapes. Embedding letters into other letters. Stacking numbers on top of other numbers. At the park yesterday, he drew numbers in the sand with his finger all stacked on top of each other, like hopscotch.

Jenna

I think Parker misses Jenna. Everyday, he says, When I wake up from my nap, Jenna will be here. I have to tell him that Jenna went back to school, but that I will be here and we can play games. He always looks so disappointed.

Baby Tantrums

Well...both babies are now throwing tantrums. My mother even saw them this week when visiting and laughed out loud when Elizabeth threw one in the kitchen. They are pretty funny to watch. They both do them pretty much the same.

Step one: Don't get something you want. (A seat on mommy's lap, a toy, a pick up by daddy.)

Step two: Hurl yourself to the ground face first.

Step three: Kick your legs out behind you while arching your back.

Step four: Look back to see if anyone is watching. If yes, continue to Step five. If not, stop tantrum.

Step five: Roll around the ground crying and screaming.

Step six: Continue, looking generally pitiful until someone picks you up or you get bored.

The dreaded yellow slide.

Parker and I went to Playplace today. He hadn't been out too much with my back out, so just he and I went there for a bit today. He ran up and down the structure, played with another girl (Hi! I'm Parker!), and had a great time...as always.

At this particular McDonalds, there are 2 slides. A red one. And a yellow one. As soon as I mention that we are going there, he launches into a speech about how he isn't going to go on the yellow slide. When we get there, he repeats it again and again. And today when the girl wanted him to go down it, he was adamant that he would not.

It's very strange since both slides are the same. He enjoys watching other kids going down it, clapping with glee as they come out. And today I, with my bad back, even offerred to go down with him, thinking he just needed to do it once safely with me and then he could do it on his own. He said nooooo thankssssss.

I wish I could figure out what was wrong with the yellow slide. Until I do, I'll just enjoy my fries.