Mommy's Girl

If you read this blog, you know that my wife travels a lot for work.  Before last week, like I have recently said, Lora was gone at least two days/nights 3 out of 4 weeks.  She will also be gone next week two nights as well. BUT since her last trip and today, Lora and the girls and I took a trip to see some of our friends who have a cabin in the Rio Grande National Forest in Jasper, Colorado.  It was a cabin on the side of a mountain surrounded by trees and near a cold running river.  We had a nice, relaxing, enjoying nature time, but that is not what this post is about.  This post is about Paxten Parker AKA mommy’s girl!  On the trip up Colorado and back, we had to stay a night in a hotel, and both nights, I slept in the bed with Presley and Paxten slept in the bed with Lora.  On top of that, the 4 of us were basically together nonstop for four solid days. Somewhere during that time, Paxten decided, not only was she mommy’s girl, but if I was holding her and she could see her mommy, she would scream and yell and point until her mommy was holding her.  I am very good with both my girls, but admittedly, I usually handle P1 when Lora and I divide and concur, and she handles P2, but I’ve never seen P2 be as pro-mommy as she currently is, but I’m fine with it because I love seeing how much she loves her mommy, and she does have a really, really, really good mommy to love!

Presley, Swimmer

Presley is an amazing swimmer.  I can't believe how good she is for a 3 year old.  She is almost self sufficient in our pool by herself.  She can swim from the steps in the shallow end to the step in the deep end in one breath.  But, if she gets tired, she can come up and take a gasp of air before she goes back under.  She can swim to the edge of the pool and go "hand, hand, elbow, elbow, knee, knee, out" and get out of the pool, then jump right back in.  She can stop and change directions under water.  If anything she is way too confident.  I am with her every stroke of the way, but I am truly amazed and proud at how well she swims.  I was a good swimmer as a child, but I never had my own swimming pool.  With my help, Presley could be the next Michael Phelps, but if she's not, that’s okay too.

The other day, after she had been swimming the following conversation took place at the dinner table:

Lora:  Presley, you are such a good swimmer!  We’ll call you Nemo.

P1:  I don’t want to be Nemo.

Lora:  But Presley, you’re such a good swimmer just like Nemo is.

P1:  I want to be Ariel.

Lora:  You want to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid?

P1:  Yes, but I want to be Ariel the Princess not Ariel the mermaid.

I love my little swimming princess!

Honest And Sneaky

When I was a child, I can remember one of the golden rules of my parents is that you don't ask mom or dad for something, and then if you don't like their answer, go ask the other one.  That was a big no-no.  With that in mind, I have a story for you.

The other day, Lora came home from work with both girls.  We were all in the kitchen getting ready to start preparing dinner, and I went to our bathroom on the other side of the house.  About the time that I finished washing my hands, Presley walked up to me with a sack of fruit snacks, and she asked me if I could open them.  Thinking nothing of it, I grabbed them from her and started to open them, but then I thought, “Why would she come all the way in here and ask me to open these when she was just in the same room as Lora.”  I stopped opening them, and the following conversation took place:

Me:  Presley did you ask mommy to open these?

P1:  Yes.

Me:  Did she say “no?”

P1:  Yes.

I found out later that Lora had told her that she had to eat dinner first.  Obviously, Presley didn’t get her fruit snacks opened.  That was close though.  Lora and I have always said that we can’t undermine the other one in front of the kids.  That is why usually when one of us is dealing with a child, the other one is not allowed to step in.  Furthermore, I wonder at what point Presley can get in trouble for trying this.  She was honest with me when I asked her if she had asked her mommy.  Maybe her honesty will keep her out of trouble like it did with me when I was a kid.  I love my honest, sneaky girl!

To See The World Through The Eyes Of A Child

Presley and I were at Sonic getting a little breakfast when the truck in the picture above pulled in beside us.  Presley immediately got very excited and wanted me to look at the truck.  Why was she excited you ask?  She was excited because she thought the truck had a wagon in the back of it.  I let her know that it was probably just a shovel.  (This was confirmed later as we drove behind the truck on our way out of the parking lot.)  If I had to do it again, I would have let her think that there was a wagon in the back of the truck because of the smile on her face as she was pointing to it.  I love my girl and her imagination!

Dressed For School

Lora has to travel a lot for work.  This is actually the first week of the last four weeks that she has not been out of state at least two days for work.  That means I spend a lot of time getting P1 and P2 ready for school/day-care.  My routine with Pax is to put her to bed in the shirt I want her to wear in the morning to day-care.  Then when she wakes up, I just change her diaper, throw on some pants and she is good to go.  Presley takes a little bit more time than that to get ready.  She has to wear school "uniforms" with navy, yellow, blue or pink, but since there are only a few choices, getting her dressed isn't hard.  Doing her hair is what is hard.  Lora got her dressed on Wednesday morning, and I snapped this picture of Presley as she was walking out the door.  I could never have her hair looking this good.  Lora Cady Parker would make Laura Ingalls Wilder proud with those Little-House-on-the-Prairie-braids!

I love my girls and that they will still let me get them dressed! ! !

Note: When Lora and I are both home, usually I get Presley dressed, she gets Paxten dressed, and depending on if Presley wants her hair up or down, then we’ll decide who does P1’s hair.  Down=Daddy.  Up=Mommy.



This picture does not do the braids justice. The pic was a little blurry.



Her Shirt Says It All

"Cute is my middle name."

Dress With Shoes

Presley wanted to wear the dress she is wearing in this picture.  She also wanted to wear the sparkle shoes that she is wearing as well.  Contrary to the punk princess look that Presley is portraying in these pictures, she seems more like a princess dress wearing girl that a punk rock girl to me.  Of course, I'll love her regardless of what she wears...... (This is subject to change when she becomes a teenager.)



The tongue adds to the punk look!




That's better... back to a princess!



"Juicy-Pop"

One of P1 and P2's favorite thing to eat, especially after a swim or dinner is a "juicy-pop," and they really are an inexpensive treat that the girls just L-O-V-E! ! !   Presley, obviously, can eat hers by herself, but Paxten needs mommy or daddy to push it up for her so she can take a bite of it.  The way it works is Paxten will be eating on hers, and then after the ice is below the plastic she will make her usual “ni-ni” noise and hold it up to mommy or daddy to push up the ice so she can eat some more off the top of it.

A funny thing happened the other day.  Both girls were sitting in their chairs eating their juicy-pops outside, and Paxten needed someone to push the ice up for her.  So since she was closest, sweet Presley decided to come help her.  The second Presley got close to it, Paxten put a death grip on her popsicle and started screaming “ni-ni” over and over as loud as she could.  Presley, was saying, “let me help you baby,” and she finally pulled it out of Paxten’s hands, and Paxten started crying and screaming so loud.  Lora and I were  cracking up.  Lora had to step in and fix it for Pax, and after she got it back, she was fine.

This was such a reflection of their relationship.  Paxten will let mommy and daddy take it from her all the time because she knows she’ll get it back, but the second Presley came over, immediately Paxten’s fireball-ness showed up.  She is going through the normal “I don’t know how to share” phase that all kids go through.  It just doesn’t make sense to her.  Presley was being very sweet trying to help, but Pax didn’t know that, but one day she will because they already play so well together!  I love my fireball and her helpful sister!

Dolls

Presley has a lot of dolls and stuffed animals, which means she has a lot of dolls and stuffed animals that she never plays with too.  Usually the older ones are the first ones to to be "put on the shelf."  Take the two dolls below for example.  She hasn't batted an eye at them for well over a year, but before we left to go to the grocery store on Saturday, Paxten started holding these two dolls and being sweet to them and playing with them. So much so that we could not take them away from her without her screaming.  We let her take them in the car with her.  Seconds before I took the picture below, she was squeezing them tight and their heads and her head were at the same level, and she looked like E.T. in the stuffed animals' closet.  Guess who all of a sudden had to have one of these dolls once we got in the car?  (Any of you parents out there saw this punch line coming a long time ago, I know!)  I love MY two dolls!

Hug Or Head Lock?

I know what this looks like, but P1 was actually trying to be sweet and give P2 a hug in this picture.  The correct answer is hug.

Paxten Parker Loves...

... Tomatoes, Eating, and the Longhorns.

  

Okay, probably just 2 out of the 3 right now, but she doesn't really have a choice about her college because just like her sister: her parents, grandparents, great grandparents, uncles, great uncle, great aunt and a few 2nd cousins all went to UT.

"Uh-Oh"

Part 1

Paxten Parker likes to say "uh-oh" when she drops something.

Sometimes she says "uh-oh" after she drops something, but sometimes she says "uh-oh" before she drops something too.

Part 2

When reading "Where's Spot?" when you open the different objects (cabinets, chests, doors, etc.) to look for "Spot," the answer to “is he behind the (insert object here),” is always "noooooooooo." 

Paxten Parker says "naaaaaaaaaaa" whenever we read this book together and she opens whatever it is that doesn't have "Spot" behind it.

Both of those stories are just things that Paxten does, but they have a special meaning to me because I can remember Presley doing both of those things.  I don't recall how old she was at the time, but it is neat as a parent to experience something again that you experienced with your first child, but maybe didn't appreciate it as much as you should have.

I love P1 and ReP1.

Garage

Quick, walk into my garage, turn your head to the right and look at the wall.  Now, in five seconds, tell me what has changed.  Presley did.

P1:  Daddy, is that new?
Me:  What?
P1:  That. (pointing to the wall)
Me:  You mean the shovel on the wall?
P1:  Yes.  Is that new?
Me:  Actually, I put it there this afternoon.
(This was the first time that she had been in our garage since I had hung up the shovel, and she spotted it in five (5) seconds.)

I love my attention to detail girl! ! !

Bite, Toss, Bite

The whole reason I started this blog was to record things that my girls do that are worth noting to remember as they get older, which is the reason for this post.  I definitely need to talk about Paxten Parker's eating habits.

1.  She eats more than any kid her day care provider, Miss Linda, has ever had.  Presley’s daycare provider told us the same thing about Presley.

2.  She will toss food on the floor if she doesn't want it, but she will also toss some food on the floor while she is eating it.

3.  She eats with two hands, which is probably common at this age, but at times, again, she will love what she is eating, but then all of the sudden, there will be a rogue tossing of the food on the floor followed by a another bite of the food that she is enjoying.  Lora and I think it is so funny.  It is almost as if it is out of habit or that her mouth isn’t ready for that particular shoveling so she tosses it.  That reminds me, she eats SO fast.  (“Like Parker” is what Lora’s mom told us on Saturday night.)

4.  This kind of goes with the theme, but she doesn’t like more than one type of food on her tray at a time.  If there are two different types, usually, she will toss her least favorite…. even if she loves it.

Notice the sippy cup and noodle on the floor behind Paxten on the left.

Paxten, eating and/or shoveling with two hands.

Swimming

We went to a birthday party for a set of twins that Presley goes to school with at Keller Pointe on Sunday.  It is owned by the city of Keller, but the swimming park is amazing.  It has indoor and outdoor swimming, two lazy rivers and multiple slides and kid playground-like equipment.  Even though we have a pool of our own, we’ll definitely go back at some point.

I was very proud of both of my girls.  Presley is 3.25 years old, and she was invited to a birthday party of two girls who turned 5, and there were several other girls there playing with them that were older than Presley.  Presley was the only one not wearing a life jacket.  She doesn’t need one.  She can swim on her own.  Relax, mom and dad, I was watching her like a hawk and the water only went up to her waist.  Lora thought this was silly of me to be excited about, but I love swimming, and I was always pretty good at it as a kid, so I like to see my daughter excel at it so well.

As far as Paxten is concerned, Lora and I decided that she did not like the water as much as Presley because whenever we put her in our pool, she has had a death grip on us, but now I think that it was just because she was cold.  Yesterday, she loved playing in the wading water that just went up to her knees with little bubbly fountains.  She loved it so much that she did her normal scream-and-point of “Ni-Ni” whenever we took her out.  It was a fun day with the family.  Below is a picture of the cutest 1 year old at the park yesterday as she got ready to swim.



Dancing Pax

We went to a free concert in the park on Friday night, and the girls had a lot of fun.  Paxten will start to "dance" if you tell her to, and I had no idea that she even knew what "dance" meant.  Below are some pictures of her dancing and the girls from that night.  Presley got her face painted with a butterfly on it.  I love spending time with my family.

P1 & P2 with Finn Tobar.

A Tale Of Two Nights

Part 1

The night before last, Presley woke up coughing because of her bronchitis around 4AM.  I took her a glass of water, and she took a sip then went back to bed.  She woke up 5 minutes later coughing and asking for water.  I went up stairs and gave her some more water, but I decided to stay in her bed with her in case she woke up again.  She woke up 3 more times every 5 minutes coughing and asking for water, and I was always right there to reach over and hand her the cup of water.  About an hour after the last time that she woke up, I woke up in her bed, and she was sound asleep.  My job there was done, and I felt like the best dad in the world!

Part 2

I woke Presley up at 10:15 this morning with uneasiness in my belly.  She usually wakes up around 8:00:

Me:  Presley, good morning!

(pause)

Me:  Hey Presley, look at me............. Did you wake up last night and call for daddy?

Presley shook her head "yes" as she was waking up.

Me:  Did you cry?

P1:  For a long time.

That was the conversation I had with Presley this morning, and it broke my heart. 

When I woke up this morning around 8:30, I felt so refreshed.  Presley had been waking up in the middle of the night because of her bronchitis over the past few nights, but last night, I said to Lora, “Presley didn’t wake up at all.”  Five minutes later, after we were out of bed, Lora looked at me and said, “We forgot to turn on Presley’s monitor last night.”

The longer Presley slept this morning, the more I feared that she had in fact been awake at some point during the night, and as I woke her up this morning, my fears were realized.  Lora turns off the monitor every morning because it makes a weird buzzing sound, but this time, for the first time, we did not turn it back on.  Presley’s eyes are puffy, probably from crying, but she really isn’t acting like last night bothered her at all, but it is one of those things as a parent, I still feel guilty about.

It is amazing what a difference one night makes in my perception of myself as a father.  The fact that Presley isn’t acting like it affected her negatively, has made it a little bit easier to write off as “just an accident,” but I promise you I will never forget to turn on her monitor again.  Presley, if you ever read this, I hope you have no recollection of last night.  I love you.

ToothPaste

If you follow this blog, you know that a few months ago Presley started using toothpaste with fluoride A/K/A "big girl toothpaste."  So since that time, she has been very curious about any other toothpaste that she finds around the house, and she usually asks if she can try them too.  A few days ago, she found a sample of toothpaste for kids that her dentist had given her, and she asked if she could try it, and I told her that she could that night when she brushed her teeth.  I should tell you that right now she uses toothpaste that is pink with a picture of some of the Disney princesses on it.  (See Pic)  I think it tastes like bubble gum.  The toothpaste she found that particular day that she wanted to try was regular, white, fluoride toothpaste.

When it was time to brush her teeth that night, I put the white toothpaste that she had found earlier that day on her tooth brush and went into Paxten’s room to check on Paxten while Presley brushed her teeth.  I told her to keep brushing until I got back.  I was gone about 20 seconds, and when I got back, I heard her making this fake cry/whining/pouting noise.  I asked her what was wrong, and she told me she spit her toothpaste out on her hand.  Sure enough, she had her arm across the front of her when she went to spit out her toothpaste, and she had spit it out on her hand.  I cleaned up the toothpaste and asked Presley if that was better, and her response cracked me up, but this post won’t do it justice because the tone in her voice is what made it:

P1:  Daddy, I don’t like the white toothpaste.

Me:  You don’t?

P1:  No.  Girls don’t like the white toothpaste.  It’s for boys.  I wanna use my pink princess toothpaste.

I love my teeth brusher!

Sweet Sweet Presley

The other night around 8pm and when Presley needed to get into bed, Lora came across the show "Minute To Win It."  It is a game show where the contestants have 60 seconds to do some crazy stunt that you can practice at home such as tossing a DVD into a cut open watermelon.  Together we have only watched that show two times, but we've let Presley watch it with us both times.  Both times, we've told her that if she watches it with us that she would not get a book, a story, or a song at bed time because it was after 8pm.  So there we were watching it, and Presley was sitting in Lora's lap.  I told Presley if she wanted to stay up and finish it, she would not get a song, story or book, and she said okay.  Then I asked her to come sit with Daddy, and she did.  Lora started pouting about it and fake crying, etc. because Presley wasn't sitting with her any more.  So sweet sweet Presley got up from my lap and sat by herself on the ottoman because she didn't want to hurt mommy or daddy's feelings.  At least that is what I think she was doing.  I thought it was so sweet.  I told Presley that it would not hurt my feelings if she sat with her mommy, and so she went and sat with mommy again.  That girl is sweet and sensitive just like her daddy.

Movie Day

Presley's school is always off the day after a Monday holiday (Labor and Memorial) for "teacher work" days, but I've noticed that there are usually not any cars at her school after noon.  I'll never understand why they take off the Tuesday after the Monday holiday instead of the Friday before the Monday holiday, but that is only the background for this post.

Presley was off from school yesterday, the Tuesday after Memorial Day (see above), and at Lora’s suggestion, I decided to take her to see a movie in a movie theater for the first time.  I told her we were going to see Cars 2 the night before, but it doesn’t come out until June 24th, so we saw Rio instead, and it was actually very good.  A few notes from the event below.

1.       I took Presley potty at home right before we left.  As I was taking her potty, I explained to her how important it was that she went potty and did not have any accidents during the movie because we would have to leave without finishing the movie.  Her response was, “Daddy, you have to go potty too.”  (I guess she wanted to make sure that I didn’t make us leave the movie early.)

2.      I explained to her before we got there that it would be dark, and there would be other people in the movie so she had to whisper whenever she talked to me.  We went to a 9:45 AM showing, and we were the only ones there.  She quickly reminded me of that, and no matter how many times I told her to whisper, she talked in her inside voice when she did talk.  Although she didn’t talk as much as I thought she would.

3.      We got a small popcorn to share, but I wanted her to get most of it, so I wasn’t eating that much.  She kept telling me to “eat the popcorn” with her OR she would just feed me directly.

4.      Ten minutes before the movie was over, she stood up and told me that she wanted to go home.  Ten minutes later, when the movie was over, she told me it wasn’t over yet during the credits because they were still singing.  When we walked out of the theater, the second thing she told me was that she didn’t want to go home.

5.      The first thing she told me was that she didn’t get to see Cars 2.

It was a fun thing to experience with her.  Everything was new to her.  The stairs with lights on them. The big screen. The chairs that fold down.  I had a lot of fun with my girl, and she had a lot of fun too.