Copy Cats

Part 1

The other day while I was on the phone wishing uncle Chuck a happy birthday, Presley Parker decided to copy everything I was saying, and it was funny and annoying all at the same time.  I remember doing that when I was a kid, but I don't remember being 3 when I was doing it, which means she's ahead of me or she's going to be doing it for a long time.

Part 2

Paxten has become quite the talker here lately and will try to repeat anything we say. The other day while we were driving, Presley started saying, "Paxten say (insert any word here)," and  you know what, whatever Presley said, regardless of if it was a real word or not, Paxten was able to repeat recognizable. Her vocabulary is really picking up and she is constantly attempting to communicate with us every day now. Fun, fun.

I love my two copy cats!

Don't Say That

The other day we were eating when all of the sudden, Presley Parker stood up and said, "what the heck?" I was amused and didn't like it all at the same time:

Me:  Presley don't say that.
P1:  Why?
Me:  I don't know, but I don't like it.
P1:  Is it a bad word?
Me:  No.  You just seem young to be saying that. You can say it when you're 8, okay?
P1:  Okay.

Montessori Camera

Presley attends a Montessori school right up the road from our house, and she has since she was about 2.5 years old. Presley has done really well in that environment so we wanted to start Paxten in the same school as soon as we could. Technically we could have started her at 18 months, but we decided to wait until the new year, so Paxten starts Montessori school with her sister next week.

One thing the Montessori school does before a child starts is to have the child come in the week before for an hour or two on a few days to help them adapt. We took Paxten today for about an hour, and she did fine.  The Montessori environment thrives on children working with older children so there are really only two age groups at their school: 18 months to 3 years and 3 years to 6. Presley and Paxten are not in the same class, obviously. HOWEVER, since this is not a normal week due to it being the holidays, there are only a few kids and one teacher for each class instead of two teachers.

There we were about to leave and watching Paxten on the camera in her new class, when her teacher had to go make their snack, so she took all of the toddlers (P2's) into the primary class (P1's). We wanted to see what happened when P1 and P2 were in the same class together, and here's what happened:

P2 walks into the class room with all of the other kids.

P1 runs over to P2 and gives her a hug.

P1's teacher walks over to meet P2.

P1 gives P2 another hug with a kiss this time.

P1's teacher is talking to P2.

P1 gives P2 yet another hug and a kiss.

As a parent, it just melts my heart to see those two girls, who I've always known were going to be best friends, start to display signs of it. I love my two P's!

Balloon

I'll have to post about the girls' wonderful Christmas later, but I wanted to touch on one thing that P2 does so we can have it on record.

Pax loves balloons! I'm sure all kids do. We were returning some things to the mall yesterday, and she saw some balloons at one of the stores and went crazy.  The good thing for us is that we were able to get her and Presley a balloon to hold and carry while shopping, but any time Paxten dropped hers or she saw another one that she wanted, she immediately started yelling over and over, "Balloon."

The funny and cute part about it is that Paxten can't say "balloon," but instead she says, "bababoon" over and over again! I think one of the reason's it's so cute is because she adds an extra syllable.

"BABABOON! BABABOON! BABABOON!"

I love my little girl with the every expanding, hard-to-always-understand vocabulary!

(Below is a pic of P2 wearing a new shirt that we did not take back and not playing with a balloon.... in other words, it's a cute pic of Paxten that did not fit with today's blog theme.)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers. This Christmas I have come to appreciate my family more than ever because 2 weeks ago I thought P1 and P2 were going to grow up without their SuSu, and then their Poppy had a mild stroke a few days later. Needless to say, it has been a crazy month. We have not told the girls about it because we are hoping for a full recovery, but I have missed spending time with my girls. The scare my parents gave me made me appreciate them more, but what's funny is that it made me love my girls even more. So in a time when my parents needed me more than they ever have, I loved and appreciated my girls more than ever. I guess it was just the perspective of how fragile and wonderful life can be all at the same time. Here's to a full recovery for SuSu and Poppy, and to Presley and Paxten spending many Christmases with their SuSu and Poppy in the future.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

What To Do?

Me:  Presley, tomorrow after school we're going to Miss Linda's house, and do you remember who I told you is going to be there?

P1:  Who?

Me:  I already told you. Do you remember?

P1:  My cousin Claire?

Me:  No Presley.  Someone else. We talked about it this morning.

P1:  Claire?

Me:  I'll give you a hint. He wears a red suit.  He's fat, and he says, "Ho, Ho, Ho."

P1:  Santa Clause!

Me:  That's right!

P1:  You aren't supposed to say "fat."

Me:  Why?

P1:  Because we don't say "fat."

Me:  But Presley, Santa is fat.

P1:  No, he has a big belly.

Me:  Presley, people with big bellies ARE fat, and it's an adjective used to describe them.  If someone is fat, then you can call them fat.

P1:  We don't say fat. We say they have a big belly instead.

Me:  Well you can call someone fat if they are fat, but you're right, you shouldn't say it to them if you think it will hurt their feelings.

This conversation really stuck with me for some reason.  Fat just describes some one or thing.  If they are fat, then why can't you say that? The more I thought about it though, the more I realized the negative connotation associated with this word, and why maybe perhaps you should not say that to someone because you could hurt their feelings. What's more is that at the age of almost 4 years old, she has already learned the negativeness associated with this word. I'm really confused about what to tell Presley the next time we have a conversation like this. I suppose I'll tell her she can say it, but that she should never say it to be mean to anyone.

Nice Try

Last night Lora was out of town in Chicago, so I was Mr. Mom! It is really hard right now to put both girls down and spend the normal 15-30 minutes that we usually spend with each of them reading books, so usually in this situation, I tell Presley that I'll let her stay up later than normal watching Dora while I put down Paxten if she's okay with no books, no stories and no songs at bed time. She is always willing to make this deal. Last night we made the deal again, but after she had been in bed about 10 minutes, she called me to her room and the following conversation took place:

Me:  Yes, Presley?

P1:  Will you tell me a story?

Me:  No Presley. That wasn't the deal.

P1:  Please.  Just a short, tiny one?

Me:  That wasn't the deal. If you don't keep your deal with me, then I won't make that deal with you any more.

P1:  I don't want to watch TV anymore. I watch TV every day. I watch too much TV, so can you tell me a story?

Me:  Presley, if you think you watch too much TV, then we'll stop letting you watch TV, but we've already made the deal tonight, so it's bed time.

P1:  Please?!?! Just a tiny one?

Me:  Fine.

(I told her a short story, and she was happy, and so was I.)

I guess I lost the battle, but I lost the war with my two girls a long time ago in these types of discussions. I'm sure I'll get tougher when they're teenagers.

Encouragement

A few weeks ago, as I was taking the girls to school, for some reason, when I tried to open the garage door with the remote on the wall, it wouldn't open.  I was holding Paxten when this happened so she was very aware of it not working.  I tried two more times unsuccessfully, so I put Paxten in her car seat while I looked at a few things on the door itself, and then I was able to open it.  After I opened it, Paxten cracked me up because she started clapping and said, "Yea Daddy."

Since that happened, every now and then, including yesterday morning, whenever I open the garage door successfully while holding Paxten, she claps and says, "Yea daddy!" It always makes me smile and feel good inside even though I just pushed a button. I love my little cheerleader so much.

Gingerbread Woman

Recently when I was picking up Presley, I noticed that her classroom window was covered with gingerbread men. I asked Presley which one was hers, and she pointed to the only gingerbread man with something on top of his head. My first thought was that she did not do a very good job cutting the gingerbread man out, and I asked her what was on top of the gingerbread man's head. She told me that her gingerbread man is a girl and that is her ponytail. That made me one happy parent, obviously.  I've always thought she was a very smart girl, but I don't think I've ever seen a side this creative and so much against the grain before. I loved it!

I asked her teacher about it the next day, and she told me that Presley drew the ponytail on top of her gingerbread woman, and afterwards, a lot of the other kids wanted to change theirs that had already been cut out, so obviously they couldn't.  I love my smart AND creative little gingerbread girl!  Pics below.

Can you see Presley's?

Closer view of Presley's gingerbread woman.

Tooth Brush

Speaking of tooth brushes (see yesterday's post), recently we had a holiday party with some of our friends who also have kids around the same ages as P1 and P2.  At one point, one of the dads walked into Presley's bathroom to find 4 different girls each using one of Presley's 4 tooth brushes.  I'm sure it was quite a site.  I threw those toothbrushes away, however, and had to buy some new ones for the girls. When I brought them home, I let P1 and P2 each pick out which new toothbrush they wanted.  Of course they both wanted to open them right away, but I told them to wait until after dinner.  Well, P2 was apparently very excited about her new toothbrush because she started brushing her teeth before it was out of the package.  It was cute and made Lora and me laugh.  See pic below.

Out Of The Clear Blue Sky

Presley and I were driving home from school last week, and we weren't really talking about anything.  The ride from her school to our house is .25 of a mile so it takes less than two minutes with the stop signs, etc.  As we turned on to our street, she could see the Christmas lights on, and I expected her to say something AGAIN about wanting to have Christmas lights up.  When all of the sudden out of the clear blue sky, Presley says, "why don't dogs brush their teethes?"  I started cracking up because it was so unexpected and off topic. I explained to her that dogs do brush their teeth, but their owners have to do it for them.  THEN she told me she wants to go on the roof and watch me put of Christmas lights. I love my grand inquisitor. 

Fire Station Birthday Party

We went to a birthday party at a fire station recently, and I think the girls had a really good time.  Here are some pictures of the event.

This one is my favorite of both girls. Pax looks cute in her hat and P1 is just being silly.

Buried

Presley and I had a very grown up conversation on the way to school last week, but then she followed it up with a question that reminded me that she is in fact, still just 3 years old:

P1:  Daddy, where is the trash man? (She saw our trash out by the curb.)

Me:  He hasn't come to pick up the trash yet, I guess.

P1:  But daddy, where does the trash go?

Me:  What do you mean?

P1:  When the trash man gets the trash, where does he take it?

Me:  Presley that's a very smart question.  He takes it away and chops it up and puts it in a landfill.

P1:  Whats that?

Me:  That is a place where they bury trash.  So they will cut up the trash into small pieces, then bury it in the ground in a landfill.

P1:  Why?

Me:  They just do. We have to put it somewhere, and we bury it in the ground.

P1:  Is the trash buried with Peaches? (That's her great grandmother that passed away recently.)

Me:  (With tears of love in my eyes.)  Presley, you're sweet.  I love you.  Peaches is buried in a cemetery and the trash gets buried in a landfill.  They are both in the ground, but they are not the same place.

Chimney

I was driving down the road last week after dark with Presley, and I passed an office building that was completely outlined in holiday lights, including what appeared to be a chimney.

P1:  Daddy look, a chimney.

Me:  Oh yea, I do see a chimney. Do you know why houses have chimneys?

P1:  SO SANTA CAN BRING US PRESENTS! ! ! !   

(She was serious and she was excited.)

After I finished cracking up, I explained to her how a chimney works with a fire place, etc., but I loved her answer much better.  Every day is magical with P1 and P2, but around Christmas time, some of the days seem to have a little extra magic.

Ketchup Cady

Paxten loves to dip food in ketchup and lick the ketchup off of said food.

Paxten loves to  throw food on the floor when she decides she does not want to eat any more of it.

Paxten loves to throw food on the floor even when she is still eating if Cady is around to see if Cady will eat it. (Cady doesn't eat bananas, btw.)

Last week, Paxten decided to dip food in ketchup and throw it directly AT Cady.  Results below.

Daddy's Girl

Earlier in the year, I told you how I had taught Paxten to respond to, "whose girl are you" with "daddy" to Lora's dismay because clearly she was mommy's girl at the time.  However, that has recently led to something else that Paxten said in front of Lora for the first time last week:

Me:  Paxten are you daddy's girl?

P2:  Daddy.

Me:  Paxten are you mommy's girl?

P2:  Daddy.

Lora:  STEPHEN PARKER!

He he he he he!

I love my TWO daddy's girls!

Pajamas With Feet

When I was a kid, I can remember wearing pajamas with built in feet, and I loved them.  They were just fun to play around the house in before bed time, but that was when I was probably 5 or 6.  Well as an adult, I love them even more because when I put Paxten to bed in this particular set of pajamas, I don't worry about her getting cold or kicking the blankets off, which she always does.  When I put her to bed in this, I have one less thing to worry about for the night.  I love my footed pajama baby! ! ! 

Little Feet Love

Paxten has a book that Lora or I read to her every once in a while called Little Feet Love.  Basically, you read what 'little feet love,' and then Paxten puts her feet on it to feel it. We always read it to her while she is in our laps.  The other evening, after her bath and before pajamas, she grabbed the book, threw it in the chair, climbed up into the chair and started reading it to her self.  The result:

Telephone Calls

One night last week while I was talking to my mom on the phone, Paxten crawled up in my lap with her pretend phone.  I did not realize it until after I hung up with my mom, but she was acting like she was talking on the phone right beside me as I was talking on the phone.  It led to the following conversation after I got off the phone:

P2:  (holding the phone to her ear.) Hello.

Me:  Are you talking on the phone?

P2:  SuSu?

Me:  Yes, that was SuSu.

P2:  Do you want to talk to her?

P2:  SuSu, SuSu, SuSu. (while trying to grab the phone out of my hand.)

Me:  Okay, we'll call her.

(We called my mom back.)

Me:  Mom, Paxten wanted to say hi.

P2:  Hi SuSu.

(She and SuSu said 'hi' to each other for a bit)

P2:  Poppy?

Me:  She wants to say hi to Poppy.

(Poppy got on the phone.)

P2:  Hi Poppy.

(She and SuSu and Poppy said 'hi' some more and said 'night-night' and 'bye-bye' and 'I love you.")

(I hung up the phone.)

P2:  Pat-Pat?

Me:  You wanna call Pat-Pat?

P2:  Pat-Pat.

(We called Pat-Pat and got his voice-mail.)

Me:  Say 'hi Pat-Pat.'

P2:  Hi Pat-Pat. Kevin? Kevin?

Me:  Say 'hi Kevin'

P2:  Hi Kevin.

(I hung up the phone.)

P2:  Mommy? Mommy?

Me:  Mommy is at gymnastics with Presley.  Okay?

P2:  K

It was a fun funny moment.  She is communicating more and more, and I am loving every second of it.

Super Size Me

I've been putting this post off for over two months now, but after multiple requests from my wife, I figured I better document it anyway.

Back in the fall one night, it was my turn to put down Presley.  (We alternate nights putting down P1 or P2.) This particular night Presley said that she wanted "mommy to put her night-night."  I played along and acted like I was crying.

Me:  Boo Hoo Presley. Don't you love your daddy?

P1:  I love mommy more.

Me:  Presley?!?!?!?! (Serious now)  You don't love your daddy?

P1:  (As she is squeezing Lora)  I love you medium daddy.

Me:  Medium?  How much do you love mommy?

P1:  Extra Large.

(It broke my heart.  Lora could see it in my face.  Presley wasn't teasing.)

So the next morning on the way to school:

Me:  Raise your hand if your name is Presley. (Presley's hand goes up.)

Me:  Raise  your hand if your name is Paxten. (Presley's hand goes down.)

P1:  Paxten raise your hand.

Me:  Raise your hand if you love daddy. (Presley's hand goes up.)

Me:  Raise your hand if you love daddy extra large. (Presley's hand does down.)

Me:  PRESLEY! ! ! ! You don't love me extra large?

P1:  I love you medium daddy. I love mommy extra large.

 (Again, my heart was broken. It's okay though because she has since told me that she loves mommy and daddy extra large.... so I guess I did something right since this happened.)

Vitamins

I was telling Presley that the oranges she was eating at breakfast earlier this week contained vitamin C, which led to a conversation about vitamins, well vitamin D anyway:

P1:  What other kind of vitamins there are?
Me:  What other kind of vitamins are there?  Let's see.  I like vitamin D.  You know why?
P1:  Why?
Me:  Because you can get it by the food you eat, but you can also get it by going outside.
P1:  How?
Me:  Well, what's outside that could shine on you to give you vitamin D?
P1:  The sun!
Me:  That's right!  You can go outside and your body will absorb the sun's rays and get vitamin D.  Vitamin D helps you grow with calcium.
P1:  What else has vitamin D?
Me:  Let's see. Milk and any dairy product.  Cheese Yogurt.
P1:  And duck.  Duck has vitamin D because it starts with a D.
Me:  Ha ha!  Presley, you're silly.  I'm glad you know that duck starts with a D, but just because it starts with that letter doesn't mean that it contains that vitamin.  Good try though.

I love my little learner.