my potty story

So this post will definitely fall under the TMI category for most of you, but It is what is going on in my life right now.  So, I am constipated in a real way.   Prune juice, miralax, colace, fiber plus/one/bomb are all absolutely ineffective.  I am impervious.  To all laxatives.  The result is that I spend a lot of hopeful time on the toilet.  Lyra and Parker, ever manifesting an unshakable aptitude for coping are completely undisturbed by this development.  For example,

This mornings toilet session started with me, on the toilet, with a towel over my lap (I keep the door open so I can hear if anyone has broken their neck or something) and with a granola bar in my hand.  Yes, the granola is unexpected, but it is actually very practical.  You see, if my stomach gets too empty, I puke just now.  Real, hard, veins-in-your-eyes-bursting barfing.  I have a nightmare of having to turn around mid long earned poop to stick my face just where my butt had been.  So yes, granola bar in hand.  Anyway, I digress...

As I am sitting there, straining to earn one, miserly brown nugget, Lyra comes in:

 'mommy going potty' 

me:"yes dear, now go play trains with Parker'

of course she doesn't because mommy going potty is(apparently) much more exciting.  I sit there, straining, but trying to do so mildly so that it is not obviously grotesque to my 2 year old daughter now picking at the remains of what is on the toilet paper roll.  Before long, she has pulled the toilet paper roll off while I was mid very promising push, and is now feeding the little bits of crumpled toilet paper through the toilet paper roll.  I we sat there wadding up the paper, making it into balls, feeding the balls through the toilet paper tube, turning the tube into a 'horn' and tooting little songs to the sound of my occasional gas.  The tube becomes a blow gun and we are blowing wads of toilet paper at each other when Parker walks in.  He insists on taking the springy bar that the toilet paper hangs on.  That becomes his horn and he toots, Lyra toots on her brown toilet paper roll and mom toots in her own fashion.  Still no fruits for this labor. 

yeah she is covering her face.

Parker gets board of the horns and comes over with a piece of toilet paper.  He wants to put it in the toilet bowl so he can flush it and watch it go down.  I tell him not till mommy goes poop.  He then puts his hand on my toweled knee and says in a strained voice 'Puuuuush mommy! puuuush!'  straining his own face as he extends the 'push.' 

Thinking that I was at rock bottom, with my little cheerleader I actually give it a try.  Gas.  Nice mommy. 

 Lyra laughs 'mommy flatulated' 
 Now, you think I am substituting flatulate for something else she said, but really, I have taught them to say flatulate.  There is nothing funnier than a two-year-old girl laughing about flatulent.  So, of course that push is interrupted by my laugh.  Parker then crouches next to the toilet, and peaks through the gap between the toilet lid and the toilet bowl.  He sat there, very seriously, searching for the poop to come down.  Finally I asked him to move, that's just a little weird for me.  Come on, Parker, go play with your toys, please.  He was not interested but Lyra came around the corner of the door and I screamed playfully.  She thought that was hilarious and so it was the new game.  She or Parker would peak around the door, I would scream in fear or play startled and they would run off giggling hysterically only to come back moments later. 

This game carries on for a while when I finally give up after huffing and puffing at it a little longer, trying all new postures, even bracing my arms against the walls... nothing.  It was not meant to be.  clearly.  I wrap things up and we all go to play outside, mom walking with just a hint of a waddle - there is too much in there to walk straight-why won't it come out?!

for future reference

Not much going on here

There is so much going on, and yet it seems like there is nothing worth writing about.  Or at least nothing I think will work for a blog post just now.

I am tempted to make stuff up. 

the 'it never happened' icon

I invited a friend to this big Women's conference thing that is happening here in Houston for Church.  I couldn't manage to catch her in person, so I ended up writing an e-mail about it.  I wonder if that was the smart thing to do.  I was just too much of a weenie to do it in person.  That, and she is my neighbor...  So what if she thinks I am this zealot of a creepy Mormon now who is trying to force her family to join my sketchy cult.  She has had a lot of questions about the church and I really feel like this was something I was supposed to do.  But she still hasn't responded and I haven't run into her yet so I don't know how she took it.  Yeah, I am totally nervous.  We have a really cool cul-de-sac.  Everyone is generally friendly, everyone generally likes everyone.  I love that about it here.  What if I have ruined it for us?  What if now that I have invited the primary socialite to my church, I am going to be an outcast for religious imposition?  My kids blacklisted, never allowed to play games with the other little reindeer?  What have I done?  Why can't we suck back e-mails?  Wouldn't that be an AWESOME feature?  The 'it never happened' icon.  It would immediately retrieve from the mail box the offending e-mail from the other person's in box.  Then they would be left to wonder if it had ever happened at all.   They would have no proof and with time, come to think that it was all just in their heads, a figment of their imaginations.... Or they would just think that I had used the 'never happened' Icon.  Wow, that would be a fantastic button for lovers who have fallen out.  Yeah, you wanna send a message to your old boyfriend?  Well, just click that 'never happened' button.  Or, maybe you were one of those really lame type people who breaks up with your girlfriend online.  But then you hear that she was going to irreversibly bestow upon you millions of dollars... yeah, you would want THAT e-mail back now wouldn't you.  See all these practical applications?  Because that happens all the time.  Girlfriends bestowing entire fortunes on boyfriends.  It is very silly of them, really.  But what do you say to a girl in love?

There.  Weekly blog post goal met.  Bet you wish you could push that 'never happened' button on reading this one and get those minutes of your life back.  Then you could do what you really wanted to do with those minutes, like read a really brainy article about world peace.  That, or eat Wendy's while watching a video of some guys in Minneapolis playing a horrible ps1 game.

Parker

Parker is so fun.  Seriously.  The kid is exhausting, but he is constantly saying and doing the most ridiculously laughable things.  For example:

 someone 'heart attacked' us for Valentine's day so there were dozens of hearts tapped to BBQ sticks, stuck in our lawn.  Chris and I were just enjoying the view when Parker wiggled through our legs and exclaimed "Zelda's Hearts!"  He and soon Lyra gleefully began gathering the hearts, just like Link did in the Zelda game.  It's a connection I never would have made, but now that he mentioned it, yeah, that is what it looked like.  Now I get what Link was doing! 

Parker is also insanely persistent.  I do not give in to Parker, especially when he cries or whines so now he just diligently follows me through the house 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please' 'cookie please.'  If I chance to sit down he then climbs up in my lap, holds my face between his little toddler hands and with his nose touching mine he asks a little higher and quieter, 'cookie please?' 'cookie please?'.  And I don't give in, because I reward the annoying last half hour of cookie please.  Plus, he gets naughty when he's had more sugar, but man, the kid is persistent.  He will have stopped, I will have sighed with relief and an hour later he will be asking again 'cookie please?'  Entire days can go like this.  No, seriously.  Entire days.

Parker can be a scoundrel.  Trust me on this one.  I blame Chris.

Parker has an exceptionally sweet side.  Lyra is occasionally put in a time out for grabbing something from Parker and then refusing to give it back or say sorry.  When Lyra's time out is done, Parker will invariably bring the item to Lyra the moment she is done with time out and insist that she can have it.  Parker will also, without warning or solicitation walk up to you and give you a big hug.  When Grandma Phipps was here, he crawled up on her lap, gave the unsuspecting woman a huge hug, then crawled down off her lap and on to mine, gave me a great big hug and from my lap he toddled over to Chris and gave him one too.  None of us had said a word about hugs.  Also, today Chris had given us all a kiss goodbye as he headed off to work Chris was climbing into the car and as Parker was watching he started demanding another kiss.  Chris was in a hurry so I didn't call him back, but it took some smoothing over before he settled for the one kiss he got.

Parker is smart.  It would be exceptionally long winded to explain the dozens of occasions where Parker took something that we had said about one thing, and made a very clever connection to another.  One more simple one was when we told Lyra that we could not go see the Christmas lights right then.  Parker then turned to her and explained that it was because it was not dark.  You can only see them when it is dark.  Yes, kinda' obvious, but unbelievably reasonable and insightful when coming out of the mouth of a toddler.  unfortunately that day, we still did not go see the lights, even when it got dark.  Sorry kids. 

Lyra

Lyra loves to tease.  She loves it.  She lights up and squeals with uncontrollable delight when she threatens to eat the food, or 'airplane' I mock tell her not to eat.  Then she giggles and laughs when I cry out in dismay when she does, in fact, eat the helpless airplane skewered at the end of her fork.  Or I snatched a pirate hat from her head, declaring 'my pirate hat!' and she again started dancing with delight giggling and laughing, then sneaked up on me and snatched it off my head like she was getting away with the most clever, naughty of tricks. It is particularly adorable when taking into consideration that Lyra is the ideal of a well behaved child.   

 

She is incredibly anxious to serve.  I love that in her.  It is so beautiful to see it in a toddler, too.  She will ask for a treat but will not leave until she has secured one for herself and Parker.  Then she will track Parker down and follow him saying 'here pookah, here pookah, here pookah' until he takes it or says no thank you (if he simply says no, she gets upset.  He has to accept it or say no thank you.  go figure).  When I announce we are going in the car she puts her shoes, grabs Parker's shoes and chases him down to give them to him.  She will then go get mine, often a pair of  heels to go with my trendy T-shirt, and then Daddy's if he is home.   One night there were papers strewn across the floor and Lyra started to gather them up.  I asked her what she was doing and she said 'putting in na' trash, mommy.'  And she was.  She picked up every last stray piece of paper and put it in the garbage without my even mentioning that it was a mess.

Lyra is very smart, too.  She is exceptionally good at finding unsuspected solutions to her problems.  For example, the other day I told Parker that he needed to eat his cracker in his kitchen.  Parker stuffed the rest of the cracker in his mouth and the problem was solved.  Lyra, seeing this and who didn't want to finish her whole cracker yet, but wanted to play outside the kitchen, took the bite she wanted and held the rest of her sizable cracker in her lips and then began to run about.  Nope, can't just hold it with a different part, Lyra.  Clever, but the thing still crumbs from there.  

 

Lyra can find a friend anywhere.  We go to small playgrounds full of perfectly strange children, but in seconds some other sweet girl of equal or older age will be holding her hand and walking her around the playground.  Without fail.  Once she fell and gave a bit of a whimper before a little boy, not much older than herself, had come over to pat her and ask if she was ok.  The poor little kid was about to get in trouble because the mom only looked over and her little boy was standing over a tearing little girl.  I explained and the mother was very impressed with the little guy.  So was I.  But it amused me to see that, given there was no little girl to buddy up with Lyra, some sweet little boy was ready to do it.

Oregon 2011

I recently finished this clip and thought the Heatons would enjoy some of it... so here you go, Heatons. 

'Holy Cow are you kidding me?!'

'Holy cow, are you kidding me?!'  Parker cried as he gave Chris a five.  Chris and I both laughed.  It was Lyra's turn; 'holy cow!  kidin' me?!' Lyra yelled excitedly as Chris fell backwards with Lyra's mock strength.   Parker had made another game of something he had heard us say.  I think Chris cried out 'holy cow, are you kidding me?!' when a package arrived once and it has stuck with Parker since.  Eventually he decided that it was an integral part of Chris's high five game and it made Chris and I laugh.  We played along and Lyra has followed suit with 'holy cows' in her turn. 

Lyra and Parker are really watching us now.  I'll say something and Lyra will walk away repeating it to whatever toy is in her hand at the time.  She doesn't say much unless encouraged.  I have begun to insist that she say important phrases like 'put her head on' when Poly pocket needs her head put back on, but in general, she still mostly just sings to herself about trees and things.  Maybe she really is a fairy.  But I think it is primarily because Parker says everything for her. 

The other day we were walking down the stairs when Parker paused thoughtfully, slowly turned to me and said 'mumydebest.' 

'Huh?' I asked,

'mommy's dabest!' pointing emphatically at me. 

I should have seen that one coming.  I quickly corrected him, saying 'no, daddy's the best'

'mommy's the best!'

'daddy's the best!'

Parker started really giggling now 'no, Mommy best!'

Daddy was working from home that day and heard the debate and soon it was in Daddy's room; 'Parker's the best!'

'No, daddy's the best!'

'no! mommy's the best!'

 'no, Daddy's the best.'

  Around and around we went.  Parker was picking up on the many, many ridiculous conversations Chris and I have almost constantly.  You see, we all know Chris is the best, and yet he still insists that it is me, silly man.  I am forever going to stand for the truth, so I must correct him over and over and over again.  You think by now he would have given up.   It is still surprising and funny to hear Parker pull it up out of nowhere.  The debate is getting more complicated now, though, because Lyra and Parker, being offspring of Chris, are also the best.  So now Lyra and Parker will point to a member of the family, yell that they are the best, and a storm of wild pointing and 'best's will fly.  

Christmas

Christmas was awesome.  It took me this long to write about it because I have been so busy basking in the memory of it, that I haven't stopped to write about it. 

At the start of December Chris and I reviewed some of the things that we think are worth making into traditions.  One that we have had since the first year we were married was the chocolate covered apples that we make.  We are actually getting really good at them.  Chris has carefully tested every apple type and found the one most optimal for chocolate dipping - ask him, I don't know what they were - and we let the babies in on the magic this year.  The best was watching them deliver the apples to our neighbors and friends.  Parker shouted 'marry kissmass!' at everyone as they opened the door, and Lyra said something like 'mass mass!!!!!!' dancing with delight as the lucky recipient took the apple from her.  They must have liked it  lot because during our big Christmas dinner, Lyra gave Parker a cupcake (she asks for two of everything now, one for her and one for Parker - and it really is for Parker) and, cupcake in hand, he ran up to some 6'5" guy we had invited, stood at his feet, peering up with his beautiful heavily lashed eyes and said 'marry kissmass!,'  offering the precious cupcake.  It was so sweet. 

Oh, yeah, we had a banquet at our house for Christmas.  I am resolved to do it next year, too!  We had 20 people over, more if you count really small children.  I think it was four families that we had found that we didn't know super well, but wanted too and were just in town alone this year.   Anyway, it made for a house full of laughter and fun.  We did games with the kids and then Chris introduced some really fun games for the adults while I took the kids and made huge towers out of cups.  I don't know what game Chris had them playing, but they were laughing and having fun... and one person was throwing a pillow at people?  They were laughing and having a good time, but they missed out... you should have seen some of those towers go down!  We were sad when it was bedtime for everyone, but as we packed people out the door, the smiles and laughing eyes were the best good night I could imagine.  Wow, that was cheezy, but really, many of these people were good polite people that had always struck me as so sober.  Of course, I suppose that was what people probably thought of me until our new years eve party.

I can't remember why, but I hadn't really had much sleep the last few nights, and we were determined to stay up till midnight.  So us and two other families put our kids to bed upstairs and we started to play games.  We played and played and played and finally, I think we had all been at that table long enough that we really just let go.  There was a lot of good laughing that night, too.  Also, I think that my block alone easily spent a cumulative $1,000 on fireworks.  And the blocks surrounding us probably did more. All these Texans with pent up firework lust.  They may have been forbidden to do them fourth of July, but they made up for lost time.  At 12am,the sky was lit on fire from every angle.  We just stood in the back yard watching them go up. Apparently Parker was watching from his window because I was hearing about the fireworks for days after that.  

How often does it happen...

Hey, how often does it happen that the senior editor at The Atlantic corrects himself on his blog because you had intelligently thrashed some graph he put up?  Not often, I would guess.  Or at least it doesn't happen all that often to me.  Apparently, though, it happens to Chris.  Derek Thompson, the senior editor guy, corrected his graph (which made a HUGE change) and then explained the difference by complementarily quoting Chris.  I thought it was extremely cool.    
See article here

We made gingerbread houses with the Blacks.  It was awesome.  There is a cop car in the front.  In the back where you can't see, Grandma's car has the severed body of Santa underneath it.  Grandma ran over Santa this year. Oh, and Parker is off playing with trains.  Lyra actually helped put on most of the red hots there on the front.

Also, my kids were being cute and, while it was a time ago, I thought I would throw it in for the many baby hungry uncles and aunts.  Yeah, I'm on to you.  You are just all sending my kids Christmas presents because you simply wanted an excuse to dip your toe into little kid world.  And because I am on to your selfish gift-giving I am still only going to send you a miserably narcissistic Christmas card and DVD of my kids.  That will sure teach you to be baby hungry.  (ok, no, really, you guys have all been so sweet.  Thank you for remembering and finding time to tenderly select, wrap and mail a gift to my kids.  They are rapt with excitement.)

Nov. 29, 2011

Lyra Parker

Lyra: cough cough*

-Parker, with the adorable awkwardness of a toddler, gently patting Lyra on the back

Parker: 'are you ok?'  

Lyra: ok

Parjer: cough cough cough*

Lyra:you ok, Parker ok?

Parker: yeah, I'm ok

-note, we still have runny noses and coughs... will the river of boogers never cease to flow?..

Nov. 30 2011

Parker is constantly marching around the house chanting 'one two three four'  over and over.  Occasionally he will count to five again and again with each footstep, occasionally it is ten.  What is consistent is that those legs are extended fully and as high as he can get them while he counts around the house 'one two three four one two three four'  it is his interpretation of the elephant march song in Disney's Jungle book

December 11, 2011

Lyra and Parker were happily playing together on a box and an ottoman.  Parker had earlier raided the pantry and retrieved a granola bar, which he was still gnawing on. I had long left them to play (forgetting that he had the granola bar) and as I was doing dishes heard from the other room, "here, lyma." in a sweet, brisk voice then Lyra's "gegu"(thank you, Lyra style, the 'th' sound is still hard on her'.  Then, a few minutes later I heard Lyra, "here, pookah" and Parker's "oh, gagu," again, all business.  The exchange continued with a few minutes of time between each "here, lyma," "here pookah" back and forth back and forth for a good half hour.  Finally I peaked in and sure enough, they had been sharing that granola bar, back and forth back and forth till there was nothing but a little slimy nub sitting in the bottom of the wrapper I had left around the bottom.  Sweet little kids had been passing it back and forth that whole time.

Oh, and as long as I am dumping everything under the sun in this post, Remember that goose that chased Parker forever ago at that park?  We went back on a beautiful fall day, Parker, of course, wanted to go see the 'ducks' and when they didn't walk away, he was confused, but happy.  He got closer and some stupid goose waddled up to him and pecked at Parker's shirt just once before I had it by the neck and was throwing it away from him.  Parker was confused, I think the stupid goose will be bruised and I was simply unamused (yeah, I am so rhyme-y and cool).  It was funny, though, how I had confused Parker cradled safely in my arms before I realized how I had actually just brutalized some dumb goose.

This is my husband.  With the family that loves and adores him.  Chris, you are my hero.  You are generous, thoughtful, and patient.  You work so hard to be conscientious of the people who depend on you.  I love that you seek out ways to make those around you feel loved, noticed and appreciated.  I know our friends feel the same way.  Thank you for being a leader in our community.  I'm often told of inspiring and kind things you have said and done with other people that you didn't even think to mention to me.  I know you are very respected among the people who work with you most.  You are so handsome.  You are everything to me.  Thank you.  I love you. 

Thanksgiving and Family pictures

Chris and I have made something of a tradition to relive bits of our first week we met for thanks giving.  I suppose it was chance that Thanks giving would become our most celebrated holliday (yes, it outshines Christmas here) seeing as it was the week we met.  We have fudge one day, since our first date Chris came over to my place and choked down the fudge that I loved and he HATED.  Another night we go bowling where I absolutely embarrassed myself and still do every time we go.  And then later in the week one of my siblings graciously watches my kids as Chris and I hop over to the temple to enjoy the place and moment when he really proposed to me.  It is sweet and tender.  This year when we got there he hugged me tight in the rippling reflected light of a water fountain and tenderly, sincerely thanked me for another wonderful year.  Yeah, I choked up like a little school girl and then said something dumb and unmemorable, but equally loving and sincere.    

Later that evening we were running through the things that we would most want our kids to appreciate and respect in any given relative were we not here to teach them ourselves.  A morbid topic, I suppose, but it was interesting to see what came up.  The ones that come most readily to mind was the ability to work tirelessly from Uncle Steve; another one was Jessica's ability to lightly lead in a way that made you want to pleasantly follow (Chris's unprompted words, Jessica. ).  It was an interesting conversation.  Apparently we are surrounded by absolutely remarkable people.  We are so thankful for you.  Thank you for being part of our lives.

 

So, we have some thanksgiving pictures, but only Barbara was cool enough to take them.  So they are somewhere floating above Baltimore about now.  hopefully they will land safely in the UK, drive a few hours to Rugby and find their way into an unburned computer where they will be sent to me presently.  Until then, please enjoy some of the new family pictures.

Parker stories

I feel like I did a quick blog with a bunch of Lyra all over it, so I thought I would do the same for Parker.  Unfortunately he is not as camera friendly as Lyra, so I will do a bunch of stories.

I took the kids to a small park and they were having a jolly time.  At one point Lyra was at the top of a slide and Parker tottered over to the base.  Holding out his arms he called 'catch you!' to Lyra.  Lyra with full confidence in her tiny brother took off down the slide into his waiting arms.  She skidded to a halt three inches from the end of the slide and Parker, still with arms outstreached, waited for a moment, then patted his sister on the head, took her hand and helped her off the edge of the slide.  Parker loves his sister.

We had Chris's boss, Veronica, over for dinner the other night.  We had settled down to eat and Chris gave me a look that said 'uh, let's not do a prayer in front of the boss.'  So we all dug in.  All of us except, that is, Parker.  He looked from one eating adult to the next, so confused.  He looked at me with his little toddler arms folded ignoring our prompts to eat.  We prompted him again 'eat, little man.'  But he just sat there, waiting for the prayer.  Finally I turned to Veronica, just a little embarrassed, 'Veronica, I am so sorry, do you mind if we say a prayer.  I don't think Parker will eat unless we do.'  She was embarrassed that she had begun to eat already, even though we all had.  Oddly enough the confusion broke the ice very well and, after the prayer, we then went on to have a very comfortable conversation.  Parker took two bites and toddled off to play.  I think he was just there to remind us all how to behave.  I should have insisted on a prayer from the start.  Thank you Parker for being such a good example.

Barbara's visit

We had the chance to snag Barbara during a layover she had in Houston.  We were so deeply grateful that we got to see her. 

While she was here we took some video  of her with the kids, Just to make Mal jealous.  (don't worry, Mal, you will get to see your little girlfriend soon.)

Oh no! it won't upload!  NOOOOO!

Well, a silly story will have to suffice.  Sorry Barbara, that would have been funny.

11/4/2011 - Parker just got out of time out and Lyra quickly toddled over to where he had been sitting, I told her that she was ok, that she need not sit in time out.  She looked at me, blinked, walked over to me, looked me in the eyes, and gave me two tentative hits on the shoulder.  I guess she just didn't want to be left out of the action?  I am doing something wrong here.

I have been writing down at random some of the cute things the kids do while playing.  I thought I would just share them here.

 

Parker always calls his food something: a car, a truck, an alligator, an elephant, a train, a hippopotamus and then always apologizes to it by name when we cut it or eat it.

Parker 'feeding' lyra imaginary food from the pictures in books

I was frustrated with adobe and said 'ugh! it's s broken!'  Lyra and Parker in chorus started chanting 'try again, try again!' Like I do when they can't do something the first time.

Lyra asking to hold hands - mine were full, didn't think much of it till Lyra and parker got to the bottom, holding hands, lyra saying proudly 'Parker hand!'

Lyra asking parker to hold hands after seeing mom and dad do it, then walking our Sunday walk, hand in hand as a family.

walking through the store - two babies in the cart, one holding a pregnancy test, sitting on a small bag of whole wheet flour the other in a filthy shirt (chocolate, curry, dirt - it was all there) with a band aid across his forehead. mom running the cart up and down the isle both babies waving their arms in excitement, Chris calling out the best ice cream options as I swished by.  My guess is that it looked like we had enough sugar in our systems.

Lyra asking parker to hold hands after seeing mom and dad do it, then walking our Sunday walk, hand in hand as a family.

Lyra picking up frogs and saying 'there you go' in her sweet little voice to save them from the hot sunny road

Parker picking a frog out of the grass and holding it for lyra to see - it classically jumping out of his hands

Lyra making nativity scene characters laugh, cry and play with each other

lyra and parker sitting in a corner as Lyra gave parker raisins and parker said 'thank you' - lyra fed parker almost an entire bag of her raisins like that

The two sitting side by side under the playground slide, covering their legs in bark chips and saying 'ooooo' as the chips fell on their legs

Parker getting excited about the elephant marching song and marching - knees high - the entire song

Every morning, without fail, we sit in the doorway and wave goodby to daddy until we can't see his car anymore.  Lyra and Parker sit there blowing kisses and waving.  We love our daddy.

We went door bell ditching with our kids in tow.  They probably heard Parker's squeaky shoes as we tottered away.