Halloween Costumes

No words needed.

Cheese

Lately, we've been taking a lot of pictures of the girls.  We've been working on Paxten's vocabulary a lot recently too.  The two forces met the other day when we were taking a picture of Presley and Paxten.  As we told the girls to, "Say Cheeeeeese,"  Presley, of course said, "Cheeeeeeeese," but Paxten apparently thought we were working on vocabulary at the moment because she said in one syllable as perfect and quick as she could, "Cheese."  This really doesn't translate well, but there we were telling them to, "Say Cheese," and while Presley was holding out a 3-4 second "cheeeeeese," Paxten's "cheese" was as short as if she had just said "ball" or "tic" or "toc."  It made me laugh.

Deep Question

I try to have serious conversations with Presley every once in a while to help build her self image or self confidence or knowledge or vocabulary, etc.  For example, the other day, I was talking to her about what she does when someone bothers her.  Hopefully it doesn't happen very often, but like anything, I just want to discuss it with her so she's been introduced to the situation.  If you ask her what she is supposed to do if someone is hurting her or bothering her, she'll tell you, "Say 'No' and run away."  That's my girl.

I guess the other day the conversation I was trying to have with her was too deep:

Me:  Presley, did you know that when you grow up you can do whatever you want to do?

P1:  Huh?

Me:  I mean if you decide that you really want to do something, if you work hard enough at it, then you can do it.

P1:  Ummmmmm.  I wanna watch T.V.

Like I said, I don't think she gets it yet. Made me laugh though.

Seek And Go Seek

Yesterday I mentioned how Presley and Paxten are playing more and more together, well the other day, Presley told Paxten that they were going to play hide and go seek.  Presley told her that she would count first and proceeded to go up to the fence around our pool and hide her eyes and start counting.  The funny part is that of course, Paxten went up to the fence, hid her eyes and started counting too.  I wish I could have taken a picture of both girls up against the fence, hiding their eyes and counting because it was cute and funny.

Best Friends

We've always said that Presley and Paxten would be best friends, as most sisters are, but they are starting to show it more and more.  See Exhibits below.

Sleeping Beauties

Here lately we've had some issues with Paxten waking up in the middle of the night and screaming non stop and refusing to go back to bed.  It makes it hard on all of us, so Lora has started bringing her in bed with us.  I know it isn't ideal; however, when she is waking up screaming at the top of her lungs 2-4 times a night, sleep is hard to come by.  Last night Lora put Paxten in bed with us.  I don't know if it helped because Paxten talked until from 1AM to 3AM anyway:

P2:  Hi daddy.

Me:  Hi Paxten.  Night-Night.

P2:  Night-Night.

P2:  Hi mommy.

Lora:  Paxten, go night-night. Lay on your pillow.

P2:  Pillow. Pillow. Pillow. Pillow.

Me:  Yes, Paxten that's your pillow.  Now go night-night.

P2:  Hi daddy.

It made for an interesting night, but the highlight for me was when I woke up in the morning.  I assure you that these pictures are not posed at all.  I woke up in the morning after a rough night and found Paxten and Lora sleeping identically, and then after I got out of the shower, they both had moved, but were still identical.  It cracked me up.  I took a chance of waking up Paxten when I took the photos with the flash, but I thought it was worth it because this had to be documented.  I love my sleeping beauties.  Pics below.

Back To Life

My blog postings have suffered over the past week.  Presley and Paxten lost their great grandmother Peaches.  I know that neither of them will remember her, but she was an important person to almost every other family member that Presley and Paxten have; therefore, she is more important to them than they'll ever know, and that's okay because that is life.

One thing that did happen that I thought was sweet:

Presley saw Peaches's bed and asked if that was the bed that Peaches fell out of.

Me:  Yes, it is.

P1:  Did she cry?

Me:  Yes, she probably did, but it's okay because she's gone and not in pain any more.

P1:  Is Charlie sad?

Me:  Yes Presley, we're all sad.

P1:  Why?

Me:  Because we're going to miss her.

P1:  Why?

Me:  Because we won't see her any more.

P1:  I want to give Charlie a hug and make him feel better.

(At this I started crying.  I asked her to repeat what she said to see if I heard her correctly, and I did.  I gave her a hug and took her out to see Charlie, but she saw that Diego was on TV and decided that she wanted to watch it instead, and I thought that was funny too.)

Presley is a very sweet girl.  Even if she doesn't understand everything completely, she has a lot of sweet thoughts and tendencies already.  She's sweet like a pink donut with rainbow sprinkles on it.

It's Been A While

My daily blog posts was terribly interrupted last week when everyone in the house except for Lora got sick at one point or another.  It seemed to linger particularly long with Paxten, but it seems like it's getting better now.  Here are the girls loaded up in the stroller to go to the FW zoo on Sunday.  Hopefully we didn't get any of the animals sick like we got their SuSu when we visited the day before.

No Post, No Problem

I didn't have a post this morning.  I usually write my posts a day or two or three before they are actually posted, then set them to post some time in the early part of each day.  You see Paxten Parker has been sick throwing up for the past few days, and I have been taking care of her.  She threw up multiple times Tuesday night and Lora and I were both exhausted on Wednesday.  Wednesday night she slept threw the night.  This morning she was lethargic but had not thrown up in over 24 hours so we decided to take her to school.  I gave her some warm from the microwave white grape juice because I figured it would feel good on her throat.  She gulped it down.  So it was finally time to take her and Presley to school.  I was carrying Paxten to the car, when all of the sudden my body was COVERED in very very warm white grape juice!  The thought of anyone else other than Paxten or Presley throwing up on me just sickens me, but for some reason, when it is your daughter, you clean it up and move on, and after that happens, well, it's easy to think, "no post today, no problem."  I hate that my little baby doesn't feel well, but she can puke on me when ever she needs to if it makes her feel better.  #unconditional love.

Nocturnal Animals

Presley is a smart girl and learns a lot at her Montessori school.  The other day while she and I were outside, I grabbed a broom and put it between my legs and told Presley I was flying like a witch.  We started talking about Halloween and witches, then as we were going inside, the following conversation took place:

P1:  Witches are nocturnal.

(I had never heard her use that word before, so I wanted to make sure I heard it correctly.)

Me:  Presley, what did you say?  Say it again.

P1:  Witches are nocturnal.

Me:  THAT'S RIGHT PRESLEY, WITCHES ARE NOCTURNAL! ! !  They aren't real though.  Do you know anything else that's nocturnal that is real?

P1:  Bats!

Me:  That's right!  Good job Presley.

I was very proud of this.  Also, I've been telling Presley the difference between things that are real and things that aren't real.  Basically this comes from her believing that monsters were real.  So now, I am having to tell her what is real and what isn't real, even if it takes a little of the magic away from her.  I had to tell her the other day that Elmo isn't real.  (Elmo's a "monster" on Sesame Street.)  I love my non nocturnal daughter!

From Across The Gym

The other day, when I took Presley to gymnastics, it was "open practice."  In other words, the parents were allowed to watch their kids go through the drills and exercises, etc.  As soon as she saw all the parents, Presley said, "Are you going to watch me daddy?"  How could I say "no" to that?  

The bleachers were on one of the baseline sides of an old basketball court, and for 45 minutes, Presley did all sorts of drills, rolls, jumps, etc. on the half court side where all the parents were.  None of the groups were using the other half of the gymnasium up to that point.  Presley and I smiled and waved at each other multiple times.

With about 15 minutes left though, her group went to the other baseline where there weren't any parents or bleachers.  Her group was as far as it could be from all of the parents.  They were going through a tunnel for fun, and since I could only see her when she wasn't in the tunnel, I stopped watching her as intently.

Then all of the sudden, I heard from the other side of the gymnasium, "Daddy."

I looked up to see Presley, and I waved and smiled.

Once she knew I was looking at her, she stood up, then bent down with her palms and feet on the ground and her bottom facing me and the rest of the parents and started shaking her booty back and forth while she was laughing!!!!!!  I don't know what the correct response would have been, but I was so caught off guard by this, that I just reacted by laughing out so loud that she could hear it from the other side of the gym.  She started laughing more and stood up smiling from ear to ear.  I don't know if my laughing encourages that kind of behavior or not, but it sure was funny.  Often times, Presley is having fun and laughing and giggling, and it is fun most of the time.  The only time it isn't is when we're trying to actually get something done, such as getting her dressed, etc.  I love my silly girl! ! ! 

Name

I've been meaning to post this for a while.  Presley can write her own name now.  About a month ago we were at a hotel, and the hotel had colors out for the kids to play with, so I told Presley to go color.  Two minutes later, it was time to go, and she had already written her name.  I was very impressed with this.  Here is a picture she did around the same time, again, showing how well she can write her name.  Sometimes she starts too far on the right side of the paper, but as you can see, she can always start over.

Blue Bird

Some of  you are going to enjoy this post more than others.

On Wednesday morning, Presley was already late to school and wanted to go eat breakfast at a restaurant, so we went to have breakfast together.  Just the two of us.  While we were waiting for our food, Presley was coloring the sun, and then all of the sudden, she got really excited, put the yellow crayon up and went for the blue crayon and said the following very excitedly while she was coloring:

"Let's color the bird blue for Su-Su.  Daddy, let's color the bird blue for Su-Su.  Blue is Su-Su's favorite color."

I thought it was a great moment, and I immediately knew I had to blog about it.  Blue IS Su-Su's favorite color, and I love the fact that she knows that.

The following picture is a reenactment because she had already finished coloring it by the time I got my camera out.

GOOD MORNING! ! !

That's it.  Good morning!

She Tells It How It Is

The other morning Presley was in the bed between mommy and daddy, and I have to give her credit.  She has learned how to work a room, but she also tells it how it is.  The following conversation took place:

Lora:  Presley, are you mommy's girl or daddy's girl?
P1:  Both.  I'm mommy and daddy's girl.  (NOTE: when mommy isn't around she'll tell me she is just my girl. Not saying it's true, but that she's working the room.  I actually like the fact that she says that she is both of our girl.)
Me:  Presley, that's sweet.
Lora:  Presley is Paxten's mommy's girl or daddy's girl?
P1:  Mommy's girl.
Me:  Presley, you're not in trouble for saying that because I really can't argue with you.  Paxten loves her mommy.

I love Presley and Paxten and Paxten's mommy too!

"Your Daughter is so Photogenic."

We went to a birthday party on Saturday, and one of our friends there who was sitting in a chair most of the afternoon taking pictures told us as we were leaving, "your daughter is so photogenic."  We didn't think much about it.  We think both of our daughters are photogenic and beautiful all the time, but we are partial; however, she sent us the pictures of Paxten, and here are two of my favorites.  Yes, I"m partial, but I think she is so cute in these pictures.  Enjoy.

Bless You

Paxten knows a lot of words for her age.  Most of the words I hear her say are words that we've been working with her on or that we say a lot.  For example, on several occasions when I've been doing something for her or her sister, I'll say, "Alright" after I'm finished, and Paxten will almost immediately repeat, "Alright!"  

Every once in a while, however, she'll say a word that I didn't even know that she knew:  This morning, while I was getting her dressed, I had to sneeze, so as she lay on the changing table, I turned my head to the side and let out a violent sneeze, then went back to changing her diaper.  I then realized as I went back to changing her diaper that she started saying, "Achoo dadda, achoo dadda."  Of course, I said "Yea Paxten, good job! Achoo dadda is right." This made me smile.  I love my little girl and her ever expanding vocabulary.

Shoes Part II

Paxten can put on her own shoes now.  I told you all about it in "Shoes."

It might not be as challenging, but she can also put on mommy's shoes.

These pictures don't do the situation justice.  Paxten was walking around in these shoes with the biggest grin on her face.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy?"

Paxten loves her mommy.  

No, I mean really loves her mommy.  Right now she is going through a phase where she will realize every once in a while that mommy isn't with her, and she'll immediately start saying, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy?" until I tell her where mommy is.  Sometimes knowing where she is, is not good enough because she wants to see mommy.

I was putting Paxten to bed the other night and after the books had been read and it was time to hold her while she relaxed before I set her in the bed, all of a sudden, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy?"  She then proceeded to scream for mommy and so mommy ended up putting her down that night.

I was loading Paxten in the car to take her and Presley to school the other morning and about the time I loaded Paxten up, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy?"  So I had to go get Lora to tell her bye.

That same morning, Lora got Paxten dressed upstairs then went down stairs to jump in the shower while I finished getting Presley dressed.  After a few minutes of me working on Presley and entertaining Paxten, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy?"  "Paxten, mommy's down stairs."  Paxten leaves to go down stairs.  (I made her wait for us.)  She gets downstairs, "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy?"  "She's in there." (Pointing to our bathroom.)   Paxten goes into our bathroom where Lora is showering, and I hear, "Hiiiiiii mommy."

Paxten loves her mommy.

Night-Night Time

Paxten understands a lot of words.  We talk to her like she's 3 and she either understands it or she doesn't, but more often than not, she does in fact understand what we're trying to say to her or tell her to do.

She knows what "night-night" is, and honestly, she doesn't like to go "night-night."  I don't remember Presley ever going through this stage, but whenever we tell Pax that it is time for "night-night," she usually shakes her head "no" or starts running away from us or just screams really loud in disapproval.

The other night she was playing with some of her baby dolls.  It was almost time for bed, but not quite.  The following conversation took place between Paxten and me:

(P2 was playing with her baby dolls and put them all on a pillow in the living room and put a blanket over them.)

Me:  Ah night-night Paxten.

P2:  No, no!! (Screams as loud as she can like a pterodactyl.)

Me:  It's not night-night time for Paxten.  I was talking about your babies.  Night-night babies.

P2:  (Biggest grin possible.)  Night-night babies.  (Still smiling.)

That conversation is a great example of her understanding communication with us, but with a bonus example of how she does not like to go "night-night."