A Weird Conversation with Parker

Parker: When Daddy dies and we are down here, I can marry you.
Me: Well, we don't want Daddy to die, but even if he did, you still couldn't marry me.
Parker: Why not?
Me: Because I'm your mother, and you just can't marry your mother. When you grow up, you will meet a girl that you will fall in love with and want to marry her.
Parker: *smiles and giggles at the thought of marrying a girl

Parker's Heart for the Homeless

Living in New Orleans it is a sad and unfortunate reality that there are many homeless in our city. It is not uncommon to see someone on the side of the road just off an interstate exit holding a sign asking for help. I hate it. Not because I'm bothered by their looks, but I hate that I feel so helpless in helping them. I know the solution to get these people off the street and into a stable lifestyle can be a complicated matter. But that said when possible, I can do a little something to help.
Like I said pretty much anytime we get off the interstate their is someone there asking for help and this hasn't gone unnoticed by Parker. The other day we had this conversation.

Parker: What's that man doing?
Me: He's asking people for help because he doesn't have a place to live or food to eat.
Parker: Why?
Me: I don't know exactly, but sometimes people have things that happen to them and they end up without a way to take care of themselves.
Parker: We could give him our old home.
Me: I wish it was that easy, Bud, but we can pray for him. (Then we said a prayer for him.)

Last night as we laid in his bed and talked about how blessed we were to have such a nice, warm place to sleep in since the weather outside was so cold and wet. Parker doesn't usually like to pray out loud, but last night he wanted to, and he said such a sweet prayer praying for the people who don't have places to live. It just melted my heart. I pray that his desire to help others only grows as he gets older. I know the Lord will be able to do a mighty work through him.

Camp Family Update

 I have been such a terrible blogger lately. I hope to do a better job, but I'm not making any promises. I wanted to give a little update on what is going on in our life.
As of January 2, 2014, we have been in New Orleans for a whole year. This past year has flown by. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed at the fact that we are here. It's amazing to see God working in our lives. It hasn't been easy, but we have sure been blessed through all the hardships and adjustments. God is good.
Paul just began his third semester working on his M.Div. in Counseling.  He is still working as a manager at Chick-fil-a and as the youth pastor at our church, FBC Norco. Yes, he's a very busy man. I am so proud of him. Getting his M.Div. has been something that he has wanted to do since I have known him. Of course, he originally thought he would pursue his master degree right after he graduated from college, but God had different plans. It would have been less stress to not have to worry about providing for a wife and 3 children if he had gone straight from college. He sacrifices so much for us, and we are so grateful for all he does.
The kids and I are enjoying our time at home together. Baby #3 is due February 14 but could come anytime now. We are so excited about adding this precious baby girl to our family.
Parker and Ellis are growing up too fast. They are learning so much. They are best friends and enjoy playing together. Of course, they have their moments where they aggravate each other, but they really enjoy each others company.
I'm going to try to do a better job of blogging. Of course, I can't wait to make the announcement that baby girl has arrived.

Camp Family Update

I've been a terrible blogger lately. Between first trimester yuckiness, taking care of 2 kids, and having to share a computer with Paul, I just didn't get around to blogging. But I'm going to get better.

I haven't announced this on my blog, but I am expecting baby #3 due around February 14.  We hopefully will find out the gender on September 26. The morning all day sickness I had was worse this time around than with the other 2 pregnancies and lasted longer. Most of it was nausea but I did throw up many times too. I'm very thankful to be past that part of the pregnancy.

Since our family is growing, we are moving to a bigger apartment on campus. Since this will be our fourth move in under 3 years and it's such a short move, I have little motivation to pack. However, I'm making myself pack a lot of our stuff because it will make for an easier and quicker move. Paul is very busy with school, so I want to make this move as easy as possible for him. The worst part is we're moving to a 3rd floor apartment so you can imagine that alone makes moving difficult. We will be getting a great work out.

Paul started his second semester at school, and right off the bat has been swamped with lots of reading and projects. To add to the busy semester, he has been promoted to manager at Chickfila and started as the Student Pastor at our church.  He is very excited about working at First Baptist Norco. He loves working with youth, and we love our church. Paul is very busy, but he still makes time for us. We enjoyed having all the extra time with him that summer gave, but we came here for Paul to go to school.

I started homeschooling Parker. Since he's four, I'm just making my own curriculum with the help of the vast amounts of internet resources.  Ellis joins us for some of the stuff we do. There is a great homeschool group on campus. I'm really enjoying homeschooling. Although I have to admit that I haven't been the most consistent with it, but once we get moved and settled I plan on making more of a consistent routine.

We really enjoy living in New Orleans. It's such a unique place. There really is no other place like it. Home will always be South Carolina, but we have made our home here in New Orleans for now.

Easter Pictures

My family was looking pretty good on Easter Sunday. Although that's far from what Easter is about, I wanted to share our pictures for our friends and family far away. Plus, I had excuse to take boogoodles of pictures of us all dressed up looking cute. Normally, Paul doesn't tolerate such things.

Getting a picture of a 3 year old and a 20 month old together is nearly impossible.

It's nice to have a picture of just me and my love. Thanks Elise!

MiMi and Poppy came to visit.

My precious babies!

Where Food Goes

Parker: My food goes in my throat.
Me: Yes then it goes into your belly.
Parker: Then in my leg.
Me: No, it stays in you stomach and your body gets the good stuff it needs and the rest goes out in your pee or poop.

We've had conversations about where food goes in our bodies when we eat at least one meal a day. He just very interested in the whole digestion process. Usually it's accompanied with a lot of whys.

A couple of days ago we had this conversation over Sunday lunch.

Parker: My food goes in my throat (He puts in a bite and shows me how he swallows.)
Me: Yes, it does.
Parker: It goes in my belly
Me: Uh huh
Parker: It goes in my penis and my bottom.

At that point, Paul and I lost it. The boy is right.

My baby boy is growing up

Part of me wants Parker to stay little forever and the other part enjoys watching him grow up. Tonight when he was getting ready for bed I was just watching him in amazement at what he can do on his own. I recently realized I was doing way too much for him. I was doing things for him that he could do himself. Therefore, I was taking the chance for him to build his self-confidence.

During our bedtime routine, he told me he wanted to sleep in his underware instead of a pull up. We talked about if he felt his body telling him that he needed to go pee pee then he needed to get up and go potty and go back to sleep. Since his room was a landmine field of toys, I told him we needed to make a clear path for him so he wouldn't get hurt. I planned on just sweeping the toys to the side and straightening up his room tomorrow, but he decided he wanted to clean his room all the way. I watched as he put toys in containers in no particular way. No like toys together. Just a jumbled mess of toys. He worked so hard at finding a place for each container. I tried to convince him just to push it to the side, but he had to find the perfect place. He wanted his floor clear, and he worked hard to do it. I just watched in amazement.

I've been the one who cleans his room. I put like things in their correct containers and tuck them away on the shelves or wherever they belong. I like things organized and in their place. I like things to look neat. So watching Parker clean his room wasn't so easy because he didn't do it the way I would have. But I kept my mouth shut and just watched him work so hard. He did it by himself. In the end, his floor was clear just like he wanted. The best part of all was he was so proud of himself. He squealed, "I did it!" Yes, he did. I'm so glad I let him take on this big task by himself, even if it meant a little later bedtime and not so perfectly organized toys. I'm so glad that I didn't take this moment for him to fill good about himself and what he can do.  I'm learning.

Handprints

Last night was a rough night for Ellis and therefore me as well. Ellis woke up just as I was getting ready for bed (I admit that it was really late like 1:30. I was waiting on Paul to go to bed.) She would not go back to sleep. She screamed and screamed when I put her back in her crib. I finally gave up and put her in the bed with me which meant I "slept" with Ellis on top of me practically all up on my head. At 3 am, I had enough of the uncomfortable sleeping condition and I put her back in her crib. Again, she screamed. I angrily told Paul, who had gotten some sleep during all this, "it's 3 o'clock and I haven't gotten any sleep if you don't want to hear her scream then you can go get her because I'm done." He groggily goes to get her and claims that she has a poopy diaper and angrily asks where all the diaper changing stuff is. So I angrily get up, get Ellis from him, get the diaper changing stuff, and change what turned out to be just a pee pee diaper. I hand her screaming back to him. Two minutes later he brings her into the room to try to get her to sleep in the bed with us. As he walks into the room, I angrily think to myself, "I know how this will go. I guess I will be sleeping with a baby on my face." Sure enough. Ellis ended up on me all nuzzled up on my face. At 4 o'clock, she was finally restful enough to lay her beside me in the bed to sleep. So, I got about 3 hours of sleep, but the kind of sleep where you feel like you are sitting on pins and needles because your nervous about the child in the bed with you.

You may be thinking, "what does this story have to do with handprints as the title suggests?" I said all that to understand the fatigued state this mama and her husband were in this morning. After feeding the kids, because you have to keep your children alive no matter how tired you are, I crawled back in bed. Paul got up and was taking care of the children. I don't know what happened the next couple hours, but at some point in time Paul came and crawled back in bed with me for a few minutes. Just a few minutes. That's when it happened because a few minutes later we had two precious children come in our room proudly showing off their colorful hands. Parker's hands looked like he had smacked a smurf and Ellis hands were black (although after further exploration, they were actually a deep purple). That's enough to spring a fatigued mama into action. I jumped up looked down the hall the finger paints looked untouched. I was just thinking, "did he get ahold of a marker and break it?" Then, it hit me. I let out a gasp and ran into the kitchen and found it. There lay a puddle of food coloring where four bottles of color had been emptied and mixed. Paul got to work on that clean up, and I put the kids in the bath tub really just to contain them to a single spot. After getting them in the bath, I noticed that Parker must have tried cleaning his hands off because my pretty hand towel had blue stains all over it. I got to work using the trusty rubbing alcohol to get the hand print marks off the walls. It really could have been worse. The hand prints were mostly contained to the bathroom and the sheets of our bed. For the most part the evidence has been wiped away, although a few marks still remain. I guess we are going to have to do a handprint art project so I can show the children the proper way to leave their mark.

Ellis's handprints on my bed. I was in panick mode so I didn't think to take pictures until I got to this.

Pancakes

We have a tradition in our house to make pancakes for breakfast with a candle for the birthday person. This year we will be at our house on Christmas morning for the first time, so we decided to make pancakes for Jesus's birthday and Parker will get to blow out the candle for Jesus. This morning I was making pancakes for breakfast and we had the following conversation.

Parker: (running into the kitchen) It's Christmas! We eat pancakes for Jesus birthday.
Me: No, buddy, it's not Christmas quite yet. We are just having pancakes for breakfast just because.
Parker: I like pancakes.
Me: I know you do. They are your favorite breakfast food.
Parker: Jesus like pancakes too
Me: I'm sure he does.

Parker is so excited about celebrating Jesus's birthday. He keeps asking me if it is Jesus' birthday yet and telling me that Jesus likes pancakes on his birthday. Although he is looking forward to opening presents on Christmas, it just makes me so proud that he is just as excited about Jesus's birthday.

Little Sneak

After breakfast this morning, Parker asked for a piece of candy. I don't let him have candy after breakfast, so I told him no. He spotted a half-eaten roll of Smarties sitting on the corner of the table and asked for it. I again told him no because of the aforementioned rule and because that was Ellis's leftover candy. A few minutes later Parker got down under the table. I then saw a hand pop up from underneath the table and blindly began feeling around in the area where the candy was located. The little sneak thought he could sneak that piece of candy off the table. Nice try, Parker!

Although this was an unsuccessful attempt, there have been numerous times where he has sneakily gotten my cell phone and has dialed many people's numbers stored in my phone, including my OB/GYN!

Parker at 3 years

There is just know way I should be writing about my 3 year old boy. He just can't be 3 already! He has done so much growing up over the past year.

• Stats: 35.6 lbs  40 inches tall. Yep, he's a biggun. I'm going to be looking up to him one of these days.
• His interests: trains, cars, planes, generally just things that move, riding bikes, puzzles, books, hide and seek, jumping, tumbling, water, music
• Favorite shows/movies: Word World, Caillou, Curious George, Wild Krats, Cars, Thomas the Tank Engine, Toy Story
• Favorite color: green
• Favorite foods: spaghetti, broccoli, cheese, raisans, rice, salsa, tacos, black beans, corn, bananas, pretty much any fruit
• Foods he doesn't like: mashed potatoes, any potato unless its french fries or sliced thin and crispy, tomatoes (unless it's salsa)
• He loves the water! He took some swimming lessons this summer and was quite the water bug. He would jump in without holding anyone's hands. He wouldn't hesitate to put his head under water. He would have been content to stay in the pool all day.
• His speech has improved greatly especially in the past few months although people who aren't around him much might disagree. He's talking a lot more and it is becoming easier to understand what he is saying.
• He's very social. He will make friends with other children when we are out and about in places where there are other children.
• He loves music and dancing. He has some interesting dance moves. Sometimes he will even "break dance." He just roll all around on the floor and hold one leg in the air while he's in the bear crawl stance.
• He's still a daddy's boy. He tries to be just like Paul.
• That being said. I'm his comforter. I'm the one he goes to when he's upset or hurt.
• He's such a loving, snuggly little boy. He loves to snuggle up with us on the couch and wrap up in a blanket. He gives some good hugs and kisses. He makes sure you get kisses right on the lips. He doesn't settle for a cheek.
• He likes to be a helper. He does a good job helping me around the house and taking care of Ellis.
• He is such a good big brother. He looks after Ellis and plays with her. Of course like every brother and sister, they have their squabbles, but for the most part they are great companions.
• He has yet to have his first hair cut, but soon it's gonna have to happen. He doesn't have a lot of hair, but it just needs some trimming and shaping in some places.
• He's convinced that he is a six year old boy.
• Most days his attire consist of only underware. Some days I can manage to convince him to put on some clothes.
• He has a pair of green crocs that he wears a lot. I don't know what we are going to do when he grows out of them.
• He can dress himself. I just love to see what outfit he's going to put together.
• He thinks band-aids and kisses make any boo boo better. However, lately he also thinks any boo boo should warrant a trip to the doctor. His reasoning is that "doctor's fix."
• Doctors may fix boo boos. But Parker thinks Paul can fix anything that's broken. I mean anything.
• I love his little toddler sense of humor. He will just laugh and laugh at some of the silliest things. Sometimes I'm not even sure what makes him laugh.
• He loves to put together puzzles. A new puzzle can keep his attention for a loooong time. Even an old puzzle can keep him busy for a while. At church on Sundays, he will spend most of the worship hour time in the nursery putting together every single puzzle in there.
• He has pretty much given up his nap. Every once in a while he will take a nap in the afternoon, but if he does, I limit the amount of time he sleeps or he would be up waaaay late at night.
• He loves to color and is very good at it. He actually colors objects on the coloring page. He doesn't just scribble all over everything.
• He is potty trained except for at night. It may be a while before he's in underware at night.
• He just absolutely melts my heart. I could just bunch him up and squeeze him and kiss him all day long.

Dear Parker (a special 3rd birthday letter)

Birthday pancake tradition continues

My Darling First Born Son,

You simply cannot be 3 years old! Time has flown by since you were a snuggly rather large little newborn baby boy. I was looking at pictures of you the other day from a year ago and could not get over how much you have changed. You have definately lost all of your baby look and have taken on the full fledged little boy look. Even though you are now a big three year old boy, I still want to hold you and snuggle with you like were still the little 9 lb 8 oz baby, and most of the time you are willing to appease this desire. You have the ability to melt my heart with one look. You take care of me and kiss my boo boos. You make me so proud as I watch you come along side me and help. You have been such a great big brother to Ellis. She is such a blessed girl to have you watching out for her and playing with her. Daddy is one of your best buds. You bring such a sense of joy to his heart as you mimick his every move. Watching you learn and grow has been so special. You soak up the world around you like a dry sponge submerged in a bowl of water. It is thrilling to know that the same desire and curiosity you have for life now can catapulte you onto greatness as you continue to grow. You are also learning about our awesome God. We pray that all that you are learning right now about God and His creation develops into a deep trusting that His great love is the only way for salvation. You are so special. I just can't put into words what all you mean to me. I love you with 100% of my heart! What a blessing you are to our family.

Love,

Mama

Literal

Me: What did you eat at VBS last night?
Parker: nandy (candy)
Me: What did you eat for supper?
Parker: chicken
Me:What did you eat with your chicken?
Parker: with my hands   *as he holds his hands up to his face like he's chomping on a chicken leg.



Not quite the answer I was gong for. I just love how children are so literal.

The Fly Hunter

If they had a show about a little boy who hunted flys, Parker could be the star. He reminds me of a cat when he spots a fly. He will follow it all around watching it and waiting for the right moment to attack.  He actually has pretty good reflexes and has killed some flies with his bare hands (yes, it is gross). One time he had injured the fly to where it couldn't fly but it was still alive and he carried it around in his hand. I didn't know whether to be proud or just grossed out. I was a little of both. I don't know where his interest in flys comes from. He actually is interested in all kinds of bugs. I'm so excited that he likes to pick up bugs and bring them to me to check out (please note the sarcasm). I guess the classic poem is true. What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.

Six

Me: Parker, how old are you?
Parker: Two
Me: How old are you going to be on your birthday? (which is eleven days away!)
Parker: Six

Parker is determined that he is going to be six on his birthday. We've had this conversation many times, and he always says six. Six is his favorite number right now. Whenever he can get a piece of candy, marshmallow, or some kind of little treat, he always negotiates for six. That little booger! I don't know what it is with the number six but I'm sure glad that he's only turning 3.

Ellis at 11 Months

Since my baby girl will be turning one in 2 days, I thought I better write her 11 month post. But before I do that, allow me to freak out a bit that my baby girl is turning one in 2 DAYS! 2 DAYS! and my baby girl will be TURNING ONE! Ok, I got that off my chest.

Ellis is growing and developing by leaps and bounds. I can't even blink or I'll miss something.

• Stats: 17 lbs 1.5 oz! She packed on 28 ounces in 21 days at the beginning of the month which put her back on the growth curve. Yay for the 5th percentile. She has been packing on the weight since then so I'm curious to see what she will be at her 12 month check up.
• She can now pull up like at pro. At first, she could get her self up, but she was scared to drop back down. She would fuss and I would come save her. She finally got the hang of it and can pull up and sit down without problems.
• She has been crusing around the furniture. She will also walk behind her push walker thingy. I'm sure it won't be long and she'll be walking. I have to admit that makes me kinda sad. She's growing up.
• She has stood up, completely on her own, out in the middle of the floor for a few seconds one time. I freaked out when I saw her do it. She often will stop in the middle of crawling and push her butt in the air like she wants to stand up.
• She now says mama, dada, baby, kitty (she says it in a very high pitched voice and the t sounds aren't completely distinct, but you know that's what she's saying), nigh nigh (night night). I have heard her say no copying Parker. Her brother is already causing trouble! Haha!
• She likes to copy sounds we make. I would write them out but it's kinda hard to translate silly sounds into words.
• She will occasionally blow kisses. She will hold her hand on her mouth and blow out to where it makes a kinda pooting sound. I know that doesn't sound cute but like I said it's hard to put sounds into words.
• She will play Peek-a-boo and she will cover up her eyes and go "peee" in a squealy voice.
• She still only has her bottom 2 teeth, but her top gums are so swollen. Maybe soon those top teeth will finally make their appearance.
• She spooks really easily. For instance, at Chick-fil-a one day, the cow came around and she freaked out.  Another time, she was around a cat that was the "I'm friendly, but I could bite you without a moment's notice" type. After rubbing around her stroller, it stretched up to get closer to her and she freaked out. I can foresee Halloween being terrifying for her.
• She likes to put things inside of things while playing like she likes to put balls inside cups.
• She really enjoys eating table food. I have to watch her to make sure she doesn't put too much in at one time. Although when she's full, she'll start tossing food overboard.
• She likes to nod her head but when she does she also lifts her eyebrows. It's too cute.
• She can get a little attitude with you if you take something from her that she really wants!
• When she's waiting on her food, she will squeal to let you know to hurry up.
• She sleeps with her butt up in the air. Again, so cute!
• She is making the transition to one nap much to my dismay. There are days where she will still take 2 naps, but most day now she only takes one.
• She loves to play in Parker's room. Sometimes this means arguments between her and Parker when she gets into something that he's playing with.
• She is so smiley and laughs very easily. She gives good hugs and kisses and is just oh so lovable!

Of course I may be a little biased when I saw this but she is just the most precious little girl ever! She continues to bring so much joy into our lives. I don't know how it is possible but I love her more every day.

Spaghetti and What?!?

While watching the latest Olive Garden commercial about the 4 course special, they explain that one of their entrees to choose from is spaghetti and meatballs.

Parker: I want bootballs.
Me: You do? Those meatballs look good don't they?
Parker: Uh huh...I want bootballs.

I'm not sure how delicious bootballs would be but Parker really wants some. We've had the above conversation several times. So, today I opened one of those nasty (ok they aren't terrible, but when I think about how unhealthy they are I just think nasty) cans of Aldi brand spaghetti rings and meatballs. You really can't compare the two, but Parker really enjoyed his "bootballs."

By the way, Ellis was not impressed with the spaghetti and meatballs. Apparently, she has a sophisticated palate and is holding out for the good stuff.

Little Chef

Parker loves to be in the kitchen with me, and he loves to help me cook. To be honest, I'm not always welcoming to these loves of his. Certain meals just aren't condusive to having little toddler helping hands, and therefore, I can get a little stressed and just maybe a little irritated and just maybe I might raise my voice at him.

Anyway, today I let him help me make super. We made pizzas using tortillas. This was an easy meal for us since Paul was working this evening, and this was a perfect meal for Parker to help me make. He helped me stir the sauce. [This is a little free information here. I make my own pizza sauce using tomato paste. I just add water, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, sugar, and italian seasoning and you have it. Whenver I have left over tomato paste, I freeze it in ice cube trays so when you need a little bit for a recipe you have it there without having to open another can. These were also handy for making pizza sauce for two mini pizzas.] He put it on our "dough." Then, we had fun topping. He put his pepperonis in the shape of a Mickey head and adding some olives, mushrooms, and onions.

There was a moment when we were putting together our pizzas that I thought about one of my prayers of that morning. I prayed for God to help me be a good mother and to have a good attitude toward my children no matter what they do. There were moments that day when Parker was doing something that he shouldn't be doing where I could have handle the situation by yelling at him, but God helped me to diffuse the situation and to reroute him to good behavior. Blessings from God! God helped me to show grace to my baby boy and to love him unconditionally. Then, there I was enjoying this sweet moment cooking in the kitchen with my little chef. I couldn't have answered that prayer better by orchestrating my day myself.

Rewind: Beach Vacation

In May, Keri and her family went to the beach on vacation, and they invited us to come along. The kids and I went for part of the week, and we left Paul home to work. This was Ellis's first trip to the beach. She didn't like the beach at all. When I would put her in the sand, she would cry. So most of the days, we went to the beach while she stayed at home for her nap (don't worry. Keri's father-in-law was there with her.) We had a great little get away, but of course, we missed Paul.

WARNING: If you don't like to look at a bunch of pictures of cute children, then you might want to skip the rest of this post.

Ellis posing in her cute bathsuit.

Such cuteness!

Hannah and Ellis are having a serious conversation.

One of their favorite activities- wrestling!

Watching a little TV. Gives the adults a little peace and quiet.

Adorable!

Everyone, except Ellis, loved playing on the beach!

Hugs!

So beautiful.

They made a friend. Hence the strage red-head in the picture.

I love this little boy!



I just absolutely love Zoe's chubby thighs!

NO!

I've had so many conversations like these recently.

Me: Parker, let's go brush your teeth.
Parker: NO!

Me: Eat your supper, Parker.
Parker: NO!

Me: Is Ellis your sister?
Parker: NO!

Me: Do you love your mommy?
Parker: NO!

Me: Parker, put on some clothes.
Parker: NO!

I could go on and on. Parker's new favorite word is no.  Apparently, he thinks it's fun to be contrary. I'm just working on ignoring it and not getting in a back and forth no/yes argument. Oh the joys of toddlerhood.