"Sweet" Dreams

Tonite after falling asleep, I heard Parker stirring around in his bed so I peeked in on him to make sure he was ok. Just as I opened the door, he sits up in bed and yells, "Trick or Treat" and then lays his head back down and goes to sleep.

Not exactly sure if that's what is meant by "Sweet Dreams, Sleep Tight" but it sure is fun and quite fitting for our fun-loving 4 year old.

Thinking ahead

I decided to tell Parker that my best friend Lela is pregnant. I figured he will hear us talk about them a lot over the next few months so I might as well just come out and tell him. When I announced to him that Lela was going to have a baby and Jovey was going to be a big sister but it wouldn't be for awhile, he VERY excitedly goes, "Oh WOW! Okay, I can marry that baby!" I told him we didn't know if it was a boy or girl yet, to which he replied, "Oh, well that's ok. I'll marry Jovey and if the baby comes out a girl, I can marry the baby too."

Applying the life lessons we learn...sort of

My best friend Lela has been really sick with a stomach bug. Because she is pregnant there was some heightened concern for her and the baby and so today she went to the ER for some much needed fluids and rest. When I prayed for her I made mention of it and Parker, always listening intently picked up on it and when it was his turn to pray said, "Dear Jesus, I pray that Lela didn't swallow a poisonous frog. I pray that her little baby in her tummy doesn't get sick and that the poisonous frog didn't get the baby and Jovey doesn't eat one too.. AMEN."

Why does everything always come down to poisonous frogs? Toddlers are so one-track minded (see Life lessons from a 4 year old post if none of this made sense).

Digestion information

Tonite at dinner, Parker about scarfed down his meal in order to get some desert. When I looked over at him and saw his empty plate, I playfully exclaimed, "Parker! Where did ALL that food go?" To which he said, "Oh, well my teeth are chompers and chewed my food and my intestines are the mixers and they took all my food down somewhere, but I don't know where exactly."

Play on numbers...

Trev has been teaching Parker rather advanced math for a 4 year old (somebody's gotta do it so it might as well be the guy with the math degree). They started with counting by two's which Parker mastered in an impressive 5 minutes. They then started with counting by 10's which Parker almost instinctively knew without any help. He easily did "fifty", "sixty", "seventy", "eighty", "ninety" and then he goes... "tendy" for 100...which even though, incorrect, we both thought was pretty ingenious for a 4 year old.

Life Lessons from a 4 year old

Conversation with Parker before bed tonite

Parker: "Mom, I don't want you to ever, never, ever die."
Me: " Hmm... I'm not planning on it anytime soon. Don't worry"
Parker: "Well, you could if you eat the poisonous frog like on the animal show." (we have a slight obsession with Animal Planet these days)
Me: " I'm not planning on eating any poisonous frogs either."
Parker: "Well if you do eat the poisonous frog, if you cook it in the oven first that might be ok. Then you wouldn't die. Just probably get really sick and have a bad stomach ache and maybe throw up a little bit and get really sick."

*Alrighty then... note to all of you auditioning for Survivor... COOK YOUR POISONOUS FROGS BEFORE EATING THEM!

Exasperation Station!

Lillie is at it again...In an attempt to exert her inconsistent, and needy independence, she has succeeded in bewildering and exasperating me to no end!

Lillie LOVES to be held and to sit on our laps. This is a new thing to Trev and myself since Parker never sat still for even a second. Lillie on the other hand will take every opportunity to wiggle herself into our laps so she can suck her thumb and hold her blankie. Usually, while she is sitting in my lap I use the time to put her hair up in a ponytail or this week's latest craze, pigtails! So, this morning while I am making breakfast, she begs me to put in pigtails. She brings me 2 hairbands and a brush and even though I was in the middle of making eggs, which have the potential to burn fast, I sat down to put her hair in pigtails. After having them in for about 1 minute she decides to pull the right side out. Assuming she wanted them out (and the fact that she looked like a wild child with one ponytail in and her blond fly away hair sticking out of her head on the other side), I went to remove the left band to which I received a very loud shriek proceeded by her running and diving behind the couch and burying her face in the carpet ( see a theme developing here when she gets frustrated??) I decided not to fight this war since I had to bring Parker to school and run some errands. I let her eat breakfast with her one ponytail and crazy hair, I even let her in the car with the one ponytail. Figuring she forgot about the whole hair incident, when we arrived at school, I reached over to remove the left hairband and once again I was greeted by shrieks and protests (no couch present so she couldn't run). Okay, fine... we dropped Parker off with her one pigtail and I just smiled cheerfully as the other moms looked at me sympathetically understanding the dilemma I had on my hands. I draw the line at Walmart though. We already live in a town where it is acceptable for grown men to wear camouflage overalls to shop and women wear rollers in public and chew tobacco...my daughter is not going to wear one ponytail and have crazy wacked out hair. I put her in the shopping cart and while handing her some animal crackers, I sneakily go to take the left ponytail out.... She must have bionic toddler super hand/eye coordination or something b/c out of nowhere she flings her crackers and swats at my hand!!! In my stunned and surprised state, I tell her "No Lillie, we need to take your hair out." If you can believe it, this is where the exasperating part comes in. She then grabs my arm and wants me to take my ponytail holder off my wrist. I hand it to her and she shoves it back at me and starts frantically pulling at the side of her head that no longer has a ponytail. She calmly let me put in a ponytail to match her cute other one and we pleasantly went on our way to grocery shop. No protests. No complaints. No pulling at her hair. Nothing. We had several people even comment saying, "What a cutie" and "You must be a very very good girl." I wanted to correct them but instead just tugged on her pigtails and nodded and agreed, "Yup, she is a very good girl... most of the time."

Again, a handbook would be nice. Although, I am thinking a support group for Moms of little girls would suffice for the moment.

A prayer for my sister

Parker's prayer at breakfast this morning while Lillie is sulking on the floor behind the couch ( see Exasperation Station post)

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for this food and please help us to have a nice day at school and please let Daddy be at work safe and please make Lillie quiet and please keep her hair nice and thank you for this food and help it make us big and strong... AMEN!"

Haha... even Parker knows that the girl is quirky and that pigtails look better in pairs!

Grandma's "Mistake"

Since the weather has turned chilly, Lillie has been sleeping with a cute flannel quilt that my mother in law made for Trevis when he was a baby. When I told Parker that Grandma made that blanket for Daddy, Parker goes, "Oh, I think Grandma from MI made a mistake. Daddy is A LOT bigger than the blankie Mom."

Seek and Treat cont'd...

The first thing Parker said to me when he woke up this morning,

"Mom, did you lose any more things while I sleeped?" When I told him I didn't think so he said disappointingly, " I want you to lose more stuff so I can have a treat."

Yup, I definitely started a new game and just hired my first Private Investigator.

Seek and treat

After almost a week of searching all over the house for a missing earring I hear Parker call out this afternoon, "Mommmm!!! I found your earring!" Lo and behold there he was holding my little diamond stud. I told him he won a prize for being such a good detective and gave him a Hershey Kiss as his reward. He then asks me, "Hey Mom? Do you have more things for me to find?"

I think I may have inadvertently started a new game...

Dangerous signs....

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

This is the cry from Lillie after she made a request for her favorite night night song, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus." I asked her what she wanted me to sing and in her excited and exuberant state she poked herself right in the eye and let out a loud and painful shriek! Guess we need to learn a safer sign for that song:)

Special is as special does

This afternoon I was flipping through the channels and stopped at a 14 year old contortionist. Parker was hooked from the start. The girl was able to do all sorts of crazy things with her body and Parker was just in awe. He sat there with his mouth wide open and just stared at the TV. At one point the girl bent over backwards, shot an arrow with her feet and preceeded to pop a balloon with it. Parker still intently looking at the TV goes, "WOW! Mom, God made her REALLY REALLY special!"