This kid could raise herself

Today I could hear Parker and Kenley squabbling in the other room...

ME: It sounds like someone's being a little mean in there!
KENLEY, remorsefully: It's me.
ME: Do you need a time-out?
KENLEY, contemplatively: Um, yes. Sorry Parker. Toddles into her bedroom and says over her shoulder, Two minutes, kay Mommy?

What do you even do with that? She cracks me up.

Can't think of a non-sacreligious title for this next one...

So you all know that Kenley is scared of sirens. Completely terrified. But she has this little friend named Parker whose daddy is a firefighter, so now when we hear the siren, we talk about how maybe it's Parker's daddy, and he's a helper, blah blah blah. So today at my mom's we hear a siren, Kenley flips out, and I go over to comfort her. "Yeah, you hear a firetruck! Full of helpers! Who do you think might be on that firetruck?" I ask. "Jesus," Kenley replies, and then adds a peeved little, "What?" in response to our hysterical laughter. When I had calmed down a little I asked her why she thought Jesus would be riding a firetruck. "He's a people," she says. Okay then.

Another funny little quirk of Kenley's is her love of adjectives. She cannot eat anything without pausing after the first bite to describe it. "Crunchy! Sour! Cold! Yummy! Spicy!" The list goes on and on. Although she has this tendency at other moments ("Slippery! Pretty!"), it happens most often with food. Perhaps a career as a food critic awaits....

Parker was a total fuss-pot today. Maybe another tooth or another ear infection, don't know. I'm obviously hoping for the tooth. Or, he could just be annoyed by the tooth that he has, as it has formed into a horribly sharp peak, most closely resembling a shard of glass in his mouth. I mean seriously, how badly must teething hurt? A pokey tooth breaking through your gums? It makes me shudder just to think about it. Poor little guy.

You may have noticed that I changed my friends links a little. I may or may not change it back but I figured this would be an easier way for people to blog-hop to others who they actually know. Since some of you might not know, the name Kenley is actually my mom's maiden name, hence my many cousins with the same maiden name. Just wanted to clear up any confusion.

Christmas was fantastic, aside from missing my little missionary sister like crazy. Everyday life isn't so bad without her anymore, but it's the traditions, those experiences that I've never had without her, that get to me. James always has to deal with a crazy weepy me on the holidays. At least we got to talk to her on the phone, which was fabulous. Except then the next day the phone rang and Kenley looked up all happy and hopeful and asked, "Annie?" and I had choke out a sad little "No." But other than all that Christmas was great and Kenley's excitement just made me so happy. More to come on Christmas...

Crazy busy holiday week... and then a chance to breathe!

This week was pretty busy, I'll give you all the rundown starting on Tuesday. oh, but FIRST, in the interest of not neglecting my second-born, I will mention that Parker had a HUGE week! He had his first overnight away from us, cut his very first tooth, learned how to go from laying down to sitting up all by himself, and learned to scoot/crawl forward! Hooray Parker! You no longer appear to be a hugely overgrown five-month-old! That's not a mean thing to say, is it? I'll ask James. You may not see that comment in the morning.

Here is a picture of our little man within 24 hours of accomplishing 3 out of the 4 things I just listed above. It was a very big day, and he is quite serious.


Anyway, here's how our week went. It was a crazy one.

TUESDAY: I went to see Whitney at the hospital because she had her baby boy on Monday. Isn't he just the most precious thing?


That night James, Kenley, and I went to the Festival of Lights at the Wild Animal Park. They had Santa and snow and tons of fun crafts, but you couldn't really see any animals because it was dark. Kenley kept looking for all the animals, asking, "Eee ee?" (Monkey) "Panda?" "Starfish?" She was a little confused at the lack of animals at the animal park. We did see a bunny in the bushes and that seemed to suffice.


Kenley got her face painted, and she just wanted something pink. Her favorite animal is a monkey, so I suggested a pink monkey. It looked like Satan. It was awesome.



WEDNESDAY: My mom and I watched my friend's 5 kids, plus my two, making 7 kids under the age of 9. They were all really good but it was a busy morning. That night we went to James's work party at the La Valencia in La Jolla and then we got to stay there that night in one of the villas. Ahhhhh.... I love a good night's sleep! Thank you SO MUCH to Mom and Joanie for each taking a kid so we could have a little time together in the midst of the holiday craziness.

THURSDAY: Tried to stay at the La Valencia forever but they wouldn't let us, so we left and went to my mom's. My mom, James, Kenley, Hollie, and had a good time decorating a gingerbread house, and then we finished our Christmas shopping, then went over to Dad and Joanie's for a very fun early Christmas.


Here is Kenley enjoying new presents: a Cinderella Barbie, some sparkly new shoes, and some markers, all of which she promptly stuffed into her pocket.


FRIDAY: I went to a candy-making class in the morning and then had a friend come over in the afternoon. I also had many fiascos with our family Christmas letter. It'll be late this year.

SATURDAY: Relaxation! Today the kids staggered their naps, Parker slept from 10-12, then Kenley slept from 1-3, and now it's 3 and Parker is about to go back down. It's not an ideal schedule every day for obvious reasons, but on days like today when we're not going anywhere, it's really nice to get to spend some one-on-one time with the kids. This morning Kenley was insistent upon wearing her new dress Joanie got her for Christmas, and she seems to believe that if she only wears her dress long enough, it will turn into Sunday and we can go to church. This morning we finished wrapping presents (Kenley was ever-so-helpful), and got all packed and ready to head back down to my mom's for a few more days. It really was such a nice day, with lots of loves from my kiddos. Tonight Kenley picked her "Jesus book" to read before bed and we got to a picture of Jesus and Mary and she was so hilariously happy about it. "It's Mary! Jesus's mommy!" Squeeze for me, kiss for me. "MY MOMMY! Katie!" And then earlier today we were sitting next to each other eating lunch and she looks over, gives me the most adorable grin, and places her tiny hand on my arm. Then takes my arm and actually wraps it around her own little body so I'm giving her a hug. I think she purposely withholds affection most of the time so that she can make me just melt at times like this.

My laugh for the day

"Kenley, what are you doing?"
"I'm Cinderella!"

Two little buddies

Now that Parker is more mobile, he and Kenley are having even more fun. I think they spend their time conspiring against me. What else would be so funny?

Getting bigger every day

Okay, so Parker looking like a two-year-old in this picture is partially due to the camera angle, and partially due to the fact that I dressed him exclusively in clothes that were too small on this particular day, but seriously, doesn't he look so big? He is trying so hard to crawl now and he's getting a little frustrated. He gets up on his hands and knees and just rocks and rocks, but either goes nowhere or backwards. It's starting to make him really mad.

See... we have seasons!

Okay, well, maybe not actual seasons. BUT, the tree in our neighbors yard was losing some leaves, so I took advantage of it and snapped these cute pictures of the kids.

Musings on the blog world

Okay, I have two confessions about blogging. One, I love blog-hopping. Checking on my friends' blogs, and then clicking on their friends, and their friends, etc. People I don't even know. Why do I love it? I'm not sure. There's something so interesting to me about peeking into people's lives, especially ones with little kids, and seeing how their family is the same as mine, and how it's different. It makes me feel so normal as a mom, because I read so many of the same challenges and funny things that we go through. I just assume that everyone does this, but maybe not. Maybe once you click on this blog you're done, and you don't randomly check out my friends who you don't even know. Am I the only one who has this weird habit?

Second confession - I have "blog buddies" whose blogs I check religiously who I am not even really that great of friends with in real life. It's such a strange sense of friendship and intimacy that you can run into an acquaintance at a party and know the smallest details of what they've been up to, yet you've never actually hung out with them. And here I quote Alan Sabin, who said to us at Devan and Lynn's Halloween party, "I feel like I've been hanging out with you guys for two months straight just from looking at your blog." By the way, if you are into blog-hopping, Alan is the dad of one of my favorite blogger families, the Sabins. Check it out. But yeah, it's strange.

Anyway, I think I love blogging. I'm excited that several of my cousins started blogs this week because we're scattered all over the country and I never hear anything about what they're up to, because really, most of what we do is just not worth reporting through the grandparent grapevine. And thanks to all my other blog friends for being so diligent and providing me with cute stories and videos to laugh at! It's always nice to know you're not the only mommy struggling with bedtimes, binkys, and the terrible twos.

Cranky Pukeys

Just a quick pity party here. Both kids have had bouts with puke this week. Ew. Parker threw up all night long on Wednesday night but didn't have any other symptoms (weird). We thought Kenley was in the clear but she threw up this morning, on the carpet in her room. You would have to know what a small percentage of our house is carpeted and what a microscopic percentage of her day she hangs out in the bedroom to truly appreciate how unfortunate that was. Anyway, Parker is still just off. He's sleeping but not eating. It's almost 3pm as I write this and he's only had 3 oz. of formula today. For comparison, he usually eats 6 oz. every 4 hours. He's sleeping a lot, which is great, but totally fussy when he's awake. Brings me back to the first three months of his life, which were not too fun. Kenley was weirded out by throwing up this morning and now all day she's been crying, "I'm frowing up!" and running to the bathroom, only to cough and sputter. I know it could be worse right now but this is not my favorite day. And poor James only got to (potentially) sleep from midnight to 4am last night and he woke up TWICE in that time with Parker. He gets Dad of the Year, no contest. I told him to wake me up before we went to bed and he says, "Believe me, I TRIED." Sorry babe.

On a better note, we have a new niece! My very first one! James's sister Jennifer had her baby last night at about 7:30pm. Congratulations, Jennifer! We can't wait to meet your baby girl!

Oh, here's a cute picture of the kids from this morning. I know they don't look cranky or pukey. Let's just say our morning started better than it ended.

Sweet and Sour

Kenley has been at her best and worst lately. The Sour - she is getting more demanding all the time. It drives me crazy. Isn't 26 months a little old for expecting instant gratification? ;) She always wants to watch Fantasia, but most times she is scared of the entire thing. Each part: "No, scawey. No, scawey." She has overcome her annoying potty training regression thanks to "pumpkin snacks" (Halloween candy, yes I'm a bad and lazy mom), but now she refuses to use the bathroom by herself. "Mommy too? Mommy too? Mommy too?" times a thousand until I seriously debate just pretending to pee just to get it over with. And she is an absolute snack fiend. She will walk around the house shouting, "I want NACKS! I want NACKS!" I've started a rule that I only say no once and then I ignore her, but I just want to channel some antique dad and go, "If I've told you once, I've told you a HUNDRED times....!!!!!" I know antique isn't the word I want. I have a headache. What is the word I want? I kind of like antique. So yeah, she tries my patience at times.

But oh, how sweet and cute she is being right now! Last night I was hustling her into bed and she knelt down by the bed and patted the blanket next to her and said, "Prayers, mommy?" because I had forgotten. I totally melted. And tonight we were looking through her church book and she can tell me Jesus and the Children, Mary and Joseph, Jesus Saying Prayers, and President Hinckley. But lest you envy my doctrinal scholar, when I asked her who made the Earth, she answered Cinderella. Upon some further questioning, she conceded that Heavenly Father and Jesus might have helped. She's such a sweetheart and makes us laugh every day.

I've been tagged!

Four Things

Four Places I've Lived:
*Anchorage, Alaska
*Rancho Bernardo, California
*Provo, Utah
*Murrieta, California

Four Jobs I've Had:
*RSP Teacher
*Preschool Teacher
*BYU Gardener
*Selling men's clothing at J. Riggings

4 Things I'd Like to do Before I Die:
*Go to Europe
*See all my kids and grandkids get married
*Serve a mission with James
*Spend lots and lots of time with my family

Four Favorite Desserts:
*Brownie sundaes
*Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
*Any ice cream with lots of chunks of chocolate/peanut butter things
*Cheesecake, especially when James makes it!

Four Interesting Facts About Me:
*I love reading so much that I can't let myself do it, or else I get annoyed if something or someone interrupts me. I can't even read on vacation or else I ignore my husband the whole time. I'm also a very fast reader and when Kenley was a baby I read the whole Work & the Glory series at a rate of about one book per day.
*I don't understand Daylight Savings Time and don't really care to.
*The smell of syrup reminds me of Saturday mornings spent arguing about chores and being cranky from sleepovers - I cannot stand syrup, and usually do not eat pancakes or french toast.
*Sometimes James and I stay up until 2 or 3am playing video games and eating an entire bag of peanut butter M&Ms.

Four Favorite TV Shows:
*The Amazing Race
*Grey's Anatomy
*The Office
*America's Next Top Model

People I'm Tagging:
*Stacey Kneeshaw
*Stephanie Bradshaw
*Anissa Wheeler
*Tara Harrison
*Krystal Dobron
*Erin Seymour

Happy Halloween

I'm beginning to think that perhaps we over-celebrate our holidays. This year we did regular trick-or-treating, two church Trunk-or-Treats, and a pumpkin carving party. Oh, and two trips to the pumpkin patch. Well, I like candy. So there.

This year Kenley was Cinderella and Parker was Gus-Gus, the mouse. They both looked so cute! The irony was that Parker HATED getting his whiskers and nose drawn on (all three times), and Kenley was horribly envious of the whiskers and nose. So each time I had to do it I had Parker crying because he DIDN'T want whiskers, and Kenley crying because she did. By the third time, Halloween night, I was about ready just to draw some stupid whiskers on her face. Who cares, right?







This is Kenley with her goldfish Walter that she won at Trunk or Treat. He has already died and been replaced by Wal-Mart imposter fish, but don't tell Kenley.


Here is Kenley with Cameron Humberstone at the pumpkin carving party. Aren't they so cute?

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

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

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.