Look Who's Talking

I would love to report that Eden has started talking up a storm over the past few months since getting tubes in her ears, but unfortunately that is not the case. Although she babbles all of the time and thinks she is talking, most of what she says is still unintelligible. She has, over the past few weeks, picked up several new words and uses them all of the time. Here are the few words that she has mastered:

Go- used to tell Rocky to get away from her snack

No,no- also used to tell Rocky to get away from her snack!

Bye- used when she wants to do something she knows she is not supposed to do (She will look at Cory or me, wave, and say "bye" so that we will leave her alone and she can go about getting into mischief!)

Uh, oh

Cheese- used when she sees a camera

Boo- used when you walk into her room in the morning or after her nap

Hopefully more words (like mommy!) are just around the corner and she will be talking in complete sentences in no time.
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Parker's newest thing to ask is "How?".

Parker uses it the same way other kids use 'why', but Cory and I have quickly discovered that it is a lot harder to answer a 'how' question than a 'why' question. For example, "How is that truck in front of us?" is a lot harder to answer than "Why is that truck in front of us?". Or, "How did that bee sting me?" isn't as easy to answer as "Why did that bee sting me?"

I am hoping that this will be a short verbal phase and he will stop asking me "How?" about every. little. thing!

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A few new Parkerisms:

Parker has a knack for mixing up compound words. Here are just a few that he has come up with lately.

Casesuit= suitcase

achetummy=tummy ache

achehead=headache

broweye=eyebrow

Cooler Weather

Yesterday we finally got a break in the hot, humid weather that has confined us to our house for several weeks. It was cloudy with a nice breeze and I definitely wanted to get the kids outside and take advantage of it. In Texas, you never know when the 100+ temperatures will return and make you a prisoner in your house again.

After I got off of work, we left to go visit a friend in Aledo who has three girls. Every season, she calls me and lets me know when she is selling some of their cute clothes that they have outgrown. I always get some great gently used clothes and shoes for Eden at a really good price. My sister and her girls met us there to "shop" and play with her girls for the afternoon.

On the way to her house, Emily and I saw this great park and decided to take the kids on our way home. The kids had a great time running, jumping, sliding, chasing, hiding, climbing, swinging, and digging. I think they were just glad to finally be outside rather than cooped up in the house. We stayed as long as we possibly could and Parker still asked for 'one more minute' when it was time to go.

SLIDING

RIDING

SWINGING

CHASING

CLIMBING

CRAWLING

PEEKING

When it was time to go we told the kids to give each other good bye hugs. So sweet! I love that they love each other. One of the best parts of the day was when we were swinging and Parker told me, "Addison is my favorite friend." It is so nice that they truly love being together and miss each other when they haven't seen each other in a while. I hope it will stay this way for many more years to come.

Mission Accomplished!

The one huge goal that I had to get accomplished over my summer vacation was to get Parker completely potty trained. He is starting a new preschool in a few weeks and has to be fully potty trained to attend.

I fretted and worried all spring that Parker was never going to master potty training. He showed no interest for such a long time that I was sure he would be the only kid in his kindergarten class that was still wearing diapers! Throughout his whole life, he has always been on the later end of reaching his milestones, but once he figures something out, he does it quickly and never looks back. For example, he took his first steps and started walking all in the same day. Also, I never thought he would learn to talk, but once he started, he has not stopped. I was hoping the same thing would happen with potty training.

Our first attempt at potty training was back in March over spring break. We had one successful day and then the stomach bug/morning sickness hit and potty training was quickly put on the back burner.

As soon as school was out, we tried again. This time Parker was completely ready for it and he did a great job learning to go pee on the potty. To this day, he has still only had 2 accidents and one of them was on Day 2 of training. At first, he still wanted nothing to do with pooping on the potty, so I would give in and let him have a diaper to do his business.

After several weeks of successful peeing on the potty, I decided that we had to take the next step and get rid of the diapers completely. After a LONG day with lots of screaming and crying, Parker was finally successful with pooping on the potty. It took several days for Parker to realize that I was not going to give in and put a diaper on him. There were lots of crying/screaming fits but my stubbornness won out, and Parker finally realized that his only choice was to go poop on the potty.

Because of how stubborn Parker was with learning to poop on the potty, we decided to reward him with a Hot Wheels car every time he was successful. He now has an entire bag full of cars that he plays with all day long and takes everywhere he goes. He even asks to sleep with them at night!

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me now that Parker has reached this milestone in his life. It is so nice to be able to trust him to tell me when he needs to go potty and not have to worry about him having an accident during the day.

Over the past week, he has made the final transition from using the little portable training potty to only using the big grown up potty. Parker is now ready to start preschool and I am able to say "Mission accomplished!"

Gone

As much as Eden doesn't want to hear it, summer vacation is over. I started back to work this week and we are being forced to get used to our new back-to-school routine.

Gone are the days of sleeping in as late as we want.

Gone are the days of staying in our pajamas until lunchtime (or sometimes all day!).

Gone are the days of playing with friends at Wednesday playgroup.

Gone are the days of waking up without an alarm clock.

Gone are the days of mommy being home to play all day.

Gone are the days of lounging around in t-shirts and shorts.

Gone are the summer days of only having two kids to take care of and enjoy.

School is back in session and although we have a lot to look forward to this fall, I will miss spending my lazy summer days with Parker and Eden. They have been so much fun the past few months and I have really gotten spoiled being a stay at home mommy.

As much as I hate to see summer come to an end, I am looking forward to getting this school year started because the sooner we get it started, the sooner we will be able to meet our sweet baby girl!

Good-bye summer!

Hello to the next season of our lives!

Daddy's Birthday

We began Cory's birthday with a special birthday muffin complete with a candle, which Parker loved. The kids and I sang "Happy Birthday" to Cory and then Parker insisted on blowing out the candle for him.

When I woke Parker up and told him it was Daddy's birthday, his first response was, "Is he going to have a jumpy house?" I guess he thinks everyone gets a bounce house on their birthday!

Later that day, we invited both of our families and a few friends to come over for a cookout and swimming at my mom's house. The kids got a little restless while we were preparing dinner so we let them play on our iPhones for a few minutes. These kids are going to be so technologically savvy!

After dinner, all of the dads took the kids swimming, but they didn't last long because it was just too hot. Where else but Texas in August is it too hot to even swim?

After swimming we came inside for cake and ice cream. Parker helped Daddy cut the cake and then enjoyed 2 pieces himself! Overall, it was a fun day celebrating Cory's birthday with family and friends.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Cory's 35th birthday!

You are such a wonderful husband, father, and friend.

We are so lucky to have you in our lives and we hope that you have a wonderful day!

These are just a few of my favorite pictures of Cory with the kids over the past few years.

Unsafe Driver

I should really talk to Eden about the dangers of playing on the phone while driving!

Girl's Day Out

Today I was able to go spend the day in Dallas with several of my close friends from college. I was so blessed to meet some wonderful girls when I attended Texas A&M and we have stayed close ever since we graduated 11 years ago. They are the kind of friends that no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we can pick up right where we left off.

We started our day with brunch at Bread Winners. The food was great and the conversation was even better.

Jeni, Amanda, and Heather
Ruthie, Brooke and Emily

After brunch, Ruthie and Heather had to leave so the rest of us headed out for a little shopping and pedicures. What a relaxing way to spend an afternoon with friends!

After pedicures, we still were not hungry enough for lunch so we stopped at Celebrity Cafe & Bakery for a little sweet treat before we all headed home.

It was a great day of laughing, relaxing, and catching up with old friends. I am already looking forward to the next time we will be able to find time in our busy schedules to all get together again.

Top 10 Things We Learned in Colorado

10. The views in Colorado are much more beautiful than the ones from our back porch in Texas.
9. Always keep your middle-of-winter coat handy. You can never be too prepared for a chilly mountain breeze.

8. The fireplace hearth is an excellent place to store shoes for 11 people.
7. People who travel on a plane with 2 young children without the help of an iPhone are CRAZY!!!!!


6. Playing in the dirt, rocks, or in this case- mud, is a very inexpensive way to entertain 3 young girls.


5. If not careful, we will soon need to hire help from strangers just to push all the strollers down the street. 4. Getting on one elevator with 4 strollers, 4 children under the age of 3 1/2, and 4-7 adults requires a lot of strategic planning.


4. Pushing a pink stroller EVERYWHERE you go can be quite masculine, as long as you are wearing your cool Lightning McQueen shoes that light up.

3. Eden is totally addicted to her pacis!!!

2. When traveling with 4 toddlers, meltdowns will occur at some point during the trip.

And the number one thing we learned on our vacation is:

1. Traveling with Granna and GranStan is lots of fun! Thanks again for such a wonderful week in Colorado! We had so much fun and made so many great memories! We can't wait to go again next year!!!