Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day! We had a great day spending time with my family. We did a lot of swimming, playing, and way too much eating! The kids had a great time together and they all did really well in the pool. It was Eden, Addison, and Aubrey's first time to be in the water this year and they all took to it like ducks in a pond.

Eden is already wanting to jump in to the water like her brother, but it is actually more like falling into her daddy's arms. Parker tried jumping in to Cory without his floaties and did pretty well. I am so thankful they are already so comfortable in the water. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

I am so thankful for the men and women (present, past, and future) who have served and sacrificed their lives so that we can have the freedoms that we have. A special thanks to my Aunt Karen who is currently serving overseas. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

Look Who Learned...

how to write his name!!!

Parker became interested in learning how to write the letters in his name several months ago and quickly mastered the "P". We were able to use that to teach him the "R". Up until last week, the only letter he could not figure out was the "K", but with a little help from Granna, he finally got it.

Now, he wants to write his name with chalk every time we go outside. As a teacher who worked with a kindergartner until Christmas on writing his name, it makes me so proud to see Parker already mastering this skill.

Stats

Last week we took Parker and Eden for their 3 year/18 month checkups with our pediatrician. Here are their current stats:

Parker

Weight: 38 lbs 3 oz (90th percentile)

Height: 40 inches (95th percentile)

Parker is bigger than most kids his age!! He is currently wearing 4T/5T clothes and size 10 shoes.

If he continues at this rate, I'm going to have to get a second job to pay for our grocery bill when he becomes a teenager!!

Eden

Weight: 23 lbs 10 oz (50th percentile)

Height: 32 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

Eden is tall and skinny! She is currently wearing 18 month clothes, but because of her height, all of the cute summer dresses that I've bought are way too short on her! If you see us out and about, Eden will be the one wearing the mini skirt!!! We will hopefully figure out a solution to this problem before she becomes a teenager.

We also found out at her appointment that although the infection is gone, there is still fluid on Eden's ears. Since Eden has now had 4-5 ear infections and is still not talking, our pediatrician recommended that we go ahead and see an ENT to investigate the problem and see if she needs tubes in her ears. We go for her initial visit tomorrow and are anxious to see what he has to say.

Despite the small ear issue, I feel so lucky to have two healthy kids that are growing like weeds! What a blessing they are in my life!

Signs of Summer

With only one day of school left, it is starting to look and feel a lot like summer. Last week, we bought a little pool for the kids to use in the backyard. Addison and Aubrey came over the next day, so we decided to try it out. It was a huge hit and they had a lot of fun splashing each other. By the end of the evening, they had splashed so much, there was hardly any water left in the pool.



Tonight, we tried out the big pool for the first time this season. The water was still too cold for me, but it didn't seem to bother Parker and his daddy. Parker was very timid at first and we weren't sure for a while if he was even going to get in at all.

But after a few minutes, he was jumping off the side like a pro. I can already tell we are going to be spending many evenings swimming at Granna and Granstan's this summer.

Shake Your Sillies Out

Here is the video from Parker's preschool program. Please forgive the poor videoing. I was trying to watch him perform and video at the same time so there are a few moments where his head is kind of cut off.

I also included a picture of Parker with his incredible teacher, Miss Marcy. She was absolutely wonderful and I am so grateful for all she did for Parker this year. I couldn't have picked a better teacher for him!

Parker and Miss Marcy

Parker's End of School Program

Last Thursday was Parker's last day of preschool for this year. On Sunday, they had a program for family and friends where the students got up on stage and performed several songs that they had learned throughout the year. Parker practiced his songs all week long at home and he knew them perfectly.

When we dropped Parker off at his classroom, he got very clingy and didn't want us to leave him. Cory and I were worried that he would get up on stage and just stand there crying. We decided that we didn't care if he participated in the singing as long as he didn't throw a fit on stage.

Each class performed one song on stage and then all 5 classes sang 4 more songs together as a group. When it was time for his class to perform, he marched up on stage and did such a great job singing and dancing to "Shake Your Sillies Out." We were both so proud of him!

On his way back to his seat, he finally spotted us in the audience and things went downhill from there. When it was time for all of the classes to perform, he refused to go back up on stage. Thankfully, his preschool director just picked him up and put him on stage with his friends. Unfortunately, Parker stood the rest of the program with his finger in his mouth and did not sing one single word. While I was glad that he did not start crying hysterically on stage, I was so sad that he didn't get to sing his favorite songs with his classmates.

Overall, Cory and I thought Parker's first program was a huge success. I just don't know if there is anything sweeter than a bunch of preschoolers singing songs together. I am glad to have his first school program under our belt and look forward to many more to come.

Waiting with his class to perform

Parker and his classmates "shaking their sillies out"

The second half of the program...after his bout with stage fright. He didn't take his finger out of his mouth the whole time.

Parker and his proud mommy after the program

Happy Birthday Granstan!

Today is my dad's (Parker and Eden's Granstan's) birthday!

My dad has always been so supportive of me and he loves my kids so much. I am so thankful to have him as a dad.

We love you very much and hope you have a wonderful day!

What We've Been Up To

I know that it has been way too long since I have posted, but I am just beginning to get some of my energy back and I'm not having to go to bed as soon as I put the kids in bed at night. Plus, even though my nausea had gotten better during the day, up until a few days ago, it was still pretty awful at night. I think that the worst is over and am looking forward to my second trimester. Hopefully it will only be a couple of more weeks before I start feeling the baby move and kick, which is always my favorite part of being pregnant.
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Parker and Eden have both been under the weather this past week. Eden didn't eat for almost 5 days and was extremely fussy. Parker stopped eating on Thursday and on Friday woke up with a rash that covered his whole body. I finally got them into see our pediatrician and found out that Eden has yet another ear infection and Parker probably has strep. (The lab results will be in on Monday). I had no idea that you could get a horrible rash with strep...you learn something new every day! After 24 hours on antibiotics, I am happy to say that they are both feeling much better.
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We haven't been up to anything extremely exciting lately...just enjoying the beautiful weather and doing a lot of playing outside in the afternoons. I am really looking forward to school being out (only 3 more weeks to go) but am dreading the HOT weather that the summer will bring.

As you can see, Eden is all ready for the summer!

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For his birthday, Cory and I got Parker a Lego table and his Aunt Emily, Aunt Meredith, and Aunt Sondra got him a bunch of Legos to go with it. He has really enjoyed them and we play with them every day. As much as I've tried to keep them out of the table, I constantly find Parker and Eden sitting and playing inside the table.

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While we are driving around town, Parker has gone through several stages of being obsessed with looking for things. The first stage was stop lights and then we moved on to stop signs. Next was looking for yellow school buses and his most recent is flags. I never know just how many flags were flown around our town! He can now identify and tell the difference between the American flag and the Texas flag. He also knows that the Texas flag has one star that is called the Lone Star and that the American flag has 13 stripes and 50 stars.

It's funny how the excitement that a 3 year old has when spotting a flag can so quickly rub off on me. I find that I am just as excited to show him a new flag as he is when he finds one. I am anxious to see what he becomes obsessed with finding next!

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One day a few weeks ago, I was getting onto Parker for something and I said:

"Parker, when Mommy says 'no', Mommy means 'no'."

He quickly responded:

"When Parker says 'yes', Parker means 'yes'."

This kid definitely keeps me on my toes! The sad thing is that things like this happen so often that I don't even remember him saying this. My mom was with us when it happened and told me later how she she had a hard time not laughing after he said it. (And don't worry, even though I don't remember this, my mom said I did follow through with proper discipline after his outburst.) This job of parenting is so much harder than I could have ever imagined! Thank goodness it is also the most rewarding job I've ever had and I wouldn't trade it for anything!