Let's lighten the mood a little

The Saga of the Porcupine

So the other day I put Kenley in a new shirt that has a little cartoon porcupine on it. I told her it was a porcupine and she got all excited and said, "Porcupine book!" and took off running for her room. She flipped through her book until she found her animal book, and then flipped through all the pages until she found the page with, sure enough, a porcupine! Then the next morning James had his hair all spiked and she pointed at him and called him "Porcupine!" Silly girl - smart and funny!

Newest Phobia

James Earl Jones. He makes an appearance in Fantasia 2000, and when he came on she told me he was a "scawey man" and crawled into my lap. I tried to ask her what about him was so scary, but she did not choose to enlighten me.

Fire Damage update

Please pray that the worst is over for the Rancho Bernardo area. If what's been done is the extent of it, our friends and family have been spared in a series of miracles. Our neighborhood of High Country West was spared, and we are so grateful! Fishers, Drakes, Muirs, Lillys, Brundages, Humberstones - all of our loved ones in the Westwood area had homes on their street burn, but not their homes. Of course we feel so sad looking at the extensive list of homes burned in RB, but after so much scary news, it feels so good to be able to breathe a sigh of relief for those we love so much. We have had a wonderful 20 years here and made so many memories at these friends' homes, we truly would have been mourning alongside them. This afternoon has just been call after call after call saying, "It's amazing. The neighbors next door and across the street burned, but our house was saved." SIX of our closest friends have stories like that - it just makes me so grateful. Thank you everyone for your prayers, and please continue to pray that the winds die down and the firefighters continue to have strength, because we are not out of the woods yet.

Fires

Although the fires are raging all around us here in Southern California, we are out of the way and safe up here in Murrieta. Scott, Dad and Joanie, and Mom and Kirk have all been evacuated. As far as we know, all their homes are fine, but there is still much to hear today and more to come I'm sure. Rancho Bernardo, where we grew up, has seen a lot of fire damage so far. I saw it on the Today show this morning and it was absolutely unrecognizable. The restaurant James works at is also in the danger area so luckily he has been able to be home with us. Please keep the area in your prayers and especially pray for the winds to die down and for comfort for those who lived in the hundreds of homes lost so far here in San Diego.

A little bit about Parker

You know how as a mom you're always saying, "This is my FAVORITE age!" no matter what age your baby is? (I've found that habit stops when they turn two.) Anyway, seriously, Parker is just at my favorite age right now. Old enough to sit up and play with toys, but not yet mobile. He's getting good sleep and is just a happy little man.

We had his six month appointment this week, and he's still a long guy. Again he's between the 75th and 90th percentiles for height and in the 50th percentile for weight. He weighs 17 lbs., 6 oz. and I think he was 23 inches long. That last number doesn't sound quite right. Maybe it was 27 inches. Someday I'll learn to write these numbers down. Okay, I just measured him with a ruler and it was 27 inches. Anyway, he did so good at his appointment. Shots just do not even faze this kid. Last time he was asleep before we even left the doctor's office. This time I took Kenley out in the hall during shots so she wouldn't be scared and by the time James and Parker came out, he was all smiles again. Then we took them to get portraits done in their costumes, and then out to lunch at Chipotle. Yum. I'm getting sidetracked. This is supposed to be about Parker, not tacos.

Anyway, we are seeing the beginnings of scooting. I kind of thought we never would because he's so content to just sit and play, but sure enough, we're seeing new things lately. Propping up on his arms, sticking that bum way up in the air, and the frustrating scooting backwards AWAY from his toy. I think we'll see big things here in the next few weeks. He's also starting to get interested in Lucy, our dog. He likes to grab at her face, talk to her, and flail his arms all around. She has been licking him for months, but it's like he just now noticed that there was a fun doggie attached to that attacking tongue.

Well, Parker's telling me he's hungry and Kenley's in her room shouting, "Mommy! I'm AWAKE!!!" So I guess this is it for the morning. Hope everyone has a good weekend! Oh, and our whole family is always giving my mom such a hard time for her lack of picture-taking skills, so I will take a quick moment and credit her for the first picture of me and Parker. As the mommy, I so rarely get cute pictures WITH my kids, and I love this one. It's part of a huge batch of pumpkin patch pictures that I will be posting soon.

Why I Love Having Two Kids

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I know I say this all the time, but Kenley and Parker really are just such sweet little buddies. Parker just adores Kenley and thinks she is SO funny! All of his biggest smiles and laughs are for her. They have such a tender little friendship and I'm savoring it while it lasts!

Photo Shoot at the Park

Well, these turned out okay. Not what I had hoped. I think what was frustrating to me was that I had anticipated Kenley having a hard time sitting still and doing a good smile, and she did have a hard time but in the shots of the two of them, SHE is the one that looks adorable! And Parker, who normally does nothing except for sit around all day looking cute and grinning, just looks dazed and weird and totally not himself. Whatever. They're okay. I do love the individual ones of Parker.

Picture overload, but they're cute!

I was practicing with my camera settings today in anticipation of trying to do a little photo shoot with both kids next week. But so far, so good - I'm happy with the ones I got today! The real challenge will be getting the two little wiggleworms together. Should be good times. We should add Lucy in the mix to make it even better.

Side note: Today Kenley came up to me wearing only panties, holding a black marker, and asked me if she could color her body. At least she asked. This time.












Just adding one more in here for fun. This is picture #2 after I messed around with it in Photoshop. Love it.

Ah, sweet sleep.... We are almost there....

I'm sure by writing this post I am totally jinxing myself. Oh well. Kenley is doing great in her toddler bed. She loves it. She still wakes up a few times a night and cries a little bit, but then settles down. I think she's just disoriented. I put a nightlight in her room tonight so we'll see if that helps. Parker is doing a good job sleeping as well. He's going down around 8pm, we give him a dream feed at 11ish, and he's been sleeping until morning, getting up somewhere between 6:00 and 7:30 for a bottle. The good news is if he's up before 7, he'll go back to sleep after eating. So I'm hoping Parker will keep sleeping all night, and Kenley will get used to her toddler bed, and then we will have night after night of delicious, uninterrupted sleep. Doesn't that sound so nice? Yes, it sure does. However, Parker has yet to pop a tooth through, and I think he's saving them for when we all start getting some sleep. Teething, here we come!

On another note, it must just be really frustrating being a toddler. It is also frustrating being the parent of one. This morning Kenley was walking around saying, "Baby water! Baby water!" Stop and think what she might possibly want. I got her a sippy of water but she made it clear that that was NOT it. She was getting more and more frustrated and starting to cry. Finally the much more patient James lifted her up and had her point to what she wanted. It was this small pink cup we have (haven't used it in weeks) - it's like shot glass size and has no lid. So there you go. That's a baby water. Water in a small, small cup. Sheesh.