Spring Break

This Spring Break was the busiest week off work ever! Saturday we went to my Mom's house and painted her spare bedroom. On Monday Grant and I decided to go carpet shopping to replace the nasty bedroom carpet. We picked our carpet at the third place and could get it installed on Thursday. SO, the week was filled with cleaning and emptying 3 bedrooms out and shoving all of that furniture in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I also painted our master bedroom. We did get away for a night and a day to the beach for some relaxation. Thank goodness! It was beautiful weather and we had a great time. Our carpet was installed on Thursday and we love it! Thursday night and Friday were spent putting everything back and Saturday Grant's whole family came over for his Mom's birthday.

Sunday I spent 8 1/2 hours standing in line to audition for Biggest Loser. It was crazy! I went with Grant's sister, Kristen. Over 4 1/2 hours were in the cold and rain... all for a group interview of 15 people in front of 1 casting director. We were asked 3 questions. I'll know tonight if I get a call back. I would be very surprised. It is hard to stand out amongst 2,000 people! 30 people will get called back and possibly 2 will be cast on the show. What a day! Not sure that I would do it again. I may still submit my 9 page application and make a video to send in.

Parker's sayings

Parker is doing and saying new things everyday and his sentences are getting more complicated. He is now 2 years 4 months old. Here is a list of some of the fun things he is up to:

• Counts up to 20
• Knows colors: Red, blue, green, pink, black, white, brown, yellow, but sometimes mixes them up.
  
• Knows planets Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus. Says Outer Space too.
• Shapes: circle, oval, triangle, square, diamond
• We were driving on a rainy day and he said, "Raining in the clouds."
• He woke up yesterday morning and said, "Captain of the ship boat!" I didn't even know that he knew what a captain was. I asked him if he was the captain and he said, "YES!"
  
• When he woke up from his nap that same day he said, "Horse loves carrots."
  
• He talked more about captains and I asked him what a captain says, and he said, "Argh!" I guess captains are all pirates! :)
  
• I picked him up from daycare and asked him if he had a fun day. He said, "Yes. Play trucks and cars Zack and Rylan." I said, "Are they nice to you?" And he said, "YES! Share!" I was amazed at how many words he put together!
  
• If anyone comes to our house, he thinks they came to play with him. He has taken people he's never met by the hand to play in his room.
• Parker is really getting a great imagination. His cars talk to each other and yesterday he stood behind the coffee table and served Grant and I imaginary cheeseburgers and would say, "Here you Go! Cheeseburgers! Eat it!"
• After we read a book to him, he says, "I read it too!" and he reads it to himself.
• "Oh, my pants falling down!"
• "Bird fly in the sky!"
• "I want some more orange juice, please."
• "Elephant has long trunk."
• "Umm.... No thanks."
• "Yeah, sure."
• "Oh Boy!"
• Last week some snowflakes fell and we watched through the window and Parker said, "Where Frosty the Snowman?" He remembered that we had a snowman decoration in the lawn for Christmas.
• "Santa live in the South Pole?" and I say "No, Santa lives in the North Pole. Penguins live in the South Pole." Parker smiles slyly and says, "Santa lives in the South Pole!" I say "No." He says, "Penguins live in the South Pole?" We've had this little argument at least 10 times.
• Makes faces for Show me... sad, happy, surprised, and scared.
• "Why?" has progressed to "Why not?"
• I picked him up from the nursery at church and he shouted, "Sun BEAM!" and did the hand movement. He loves that song and many others.
• He's great with puzzles.
• Will show you he means business or is unhappy by folding his arms dramatically or putting his hands on his hips.
  
• Knows tons of character's names from books and TV shows. Knows most of the Cars characters and we don't even own the movie. We do have a couple of books we read lots and he owns about 4 McQueen cars, Mater, Doc, and now Ramone. Oh, and the big Mack truck that holds them. "My truck called Mack."
• He will list off things that live in water: "Dolphins swim in the water. Sharks swim in the water." And continues with... frogs, turtles, fish, goldfish, and even Daddy.
  
• "Zebras run in the grass" and "Giraffes run in the grass." "Giraffes eat leaves."
  
• This week he has thrown 2 toys in the toilet. To teach Parker a lesson, when he threw his truck Mater in the toilet, Grant made a big deal about it by getting tongs out picking up Mater with a disgusted face and he boiled Mater to try to deter Parker from doing it again. Well, Grant accidentally boiled Mater a little too long and his wheels don't turn so well anymore and his eyes are falling off.
  
• He has a silly little dance. See video.
  

We are totally in love with this little guy and his fun personality!

OMSI

OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) hosted 2 teacher open houses and we attended both. We wanted some free, fun evenings with Parker. My brave boy! I wasn't sure if he was going to touch the snake.

He wasn't scared of the dinosaur, he just didn't want to take a picture.

My mom.
Future Astronaut

Sleeping in the moon base.

Oh, did he have fun in the sand!

Our little scientist checking out some x-rays of bugs with some magnifying glasses.

We hope to buy a year pass at the end of the month when our Children's Museum pass expires.

A sign that we need more sleep!

Incident #1: Grant carried Parker and his library book out to the van and put the book on the roof of the car as he strapped Parker in his car seat. He then drove off and went a few blocks, came to a stop sign, and saw something flash by the window... the library book! He got out and retrieved it. No major harm done.

Incident #2: I grabbed a diet soda, took a few drinks, put it on the top of the car as I strapped Parker in and drove off. Went up our street and realized I didn't have my drink. Stopped the car, got out, and it was still there. Duh!

Incident #3: We were heading to the school's 5th grade program. Grant put Parker's shoes on the roof of the car (sound familiar?) and buckled him in his car seat. I drove us to the school and Grant looked around the car for his shoes. Luckily, I brought his fireman rain boots, because the shoes were no where to be found. The next morning, I'm driving on the on-ramp to the freeway, and what do I see?.... my baby's shoes!!! I couldn't believe it! I drove right between them and watched in the rear view mirror other cars drive between them. I didn't react fast enough and didn't have a spot to pull over, plus I was running even later for work than normal. Those shoes are my favorite so I called my mom, who was at our house watching Parker, and asked her to retrieve them, if she could pull over and get out of the car completely safely. She did. I called Grant and we swore that we would do better about not putting things on the roof of the car.

Incident #4 (yes, another incident! And these incidents are all within a 2 week period!)
Grant went to the store to get a few groceries. He came home and told me that he also rented a movie from the Red Box. He started to tell me about it as he was looking for it. He thought he had slid it into his pants pocket. He looked in the dirty clothes, on the kitchen table, in the car, and around the house. He then figured out that he had put it on the roof of the van and driven off!!! He drove back to Fred Meyer to look around the parking lot, in carts, and talked to Customer Service. No luck! He looked online to find out what happens if you have lost one of the Red Box movies. He told me I didn't want to know what the charge was to replace it... $25! We just hoped that a good Samaritan would find it and turn it back in to the machine. Grant checked our credit card and we were just charged $1. Thank goodness!

Incident #5
Even after all of this, I was getting in my car Monday morning and put my bowl of steaming, hot oatmeal on the top of the Jetta as I loaded the car with my purse, bag, and lunch, got in the car and drove off. I passed a girl on the street waiting for the bus, and she must have thought I was crazy. I went up our hill, stopped at the stop sign, turned the corner, and looked around for my breakfast. Ahhh! Not again! I pulled over, grabbed my oatmeal, and headed off again.

We definitely need to get more sleep! Or carry less stuff out to the car at once. Geez!

Cathedral Park

I love this park. We have gone there before and I've photographed it when Parker was 9 months old. See that post here. It is in North Portland and I first discovered it because several photographers at Saturday Market had pictures of it and I asked them where it was. It is called Cathedral Park because the underneath structure of the bridge has those arches that make you think of a Cathedral. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We had a great time walking around.

Snow Day!

President's Day... No work! What do we do? Go to the snow!
It was a beautiful day and I wanted to make sure Parker got to use his snow boots and bib overalls at least once, so we headed to Mt. Hood. We bought him a sled for $1 at a garage sale last summer. Grant hated the idea of buying a sled and storing it in hope that it gets used, but I'm so glad we did. It was perfect for Parker and seemed really safe.
It was a bright, sunny day. Not too cold. This was one of my favorite days.... ever. Parker was so intrigued by the snow and had so much fun on the sled.

He looks like such a big boy dragging his own sled through the snow.

MY ANGELS!

Bombing Daddy with a snowball!

Mommy's turn to get hit by a snowball.

Grant was circling around fast! He loved it!

My favorite picture!

And the real sledding begins!

There was a big dip here. You can see where Grant's boots hit.

All smiles. Again! Again!