Parker's Dilemma

We got on eBay before Christmas and decided to give ourselves a present...A new camera! We've had our old camera for over 5 years. That seems like a long time in camera years and when you look at the mega pixel count (5.0) , it really shows it's age. I love my new camera. Not a lot of bells and whistles, just love it. It takes good pictures (nothing fancy like my dad's, Larry's or Kipi's cameras, mind you) but it takes good mom pictures and that's all I need. So, I've been taking pictures. That is what I've been up to.....oh and full time potty training with Parker. I went to the store last week to buy diapers and decided that was the LAST box of diapers that I would buy. REALLY.

Parker has been doing dandy on the potty. I'm really excited for the possibility of him not being in diapers for much longer! I know, I know...don't get your hopes up. I've heard it, but it's not going to discourage me, one little bit!! He wears a diaper to bed and that is it....to school he wears a pull up (just because I'm not going to make his sweet teachers deal with what ever could happen) and here at home the little man is wearing underwear.

This morning he woke up, came in and loved on us and told us he needed to go potty. Pretty good. Parker went with me to take Grace to school and Aaron stayed home with Sus (she was sleeping in...no school for her today, yippe!) When we got back from the ride, all 3 minutes of it, Parker announced that he wanted to poop and get candy.

Okay, this little one gets more than his fare share of candy. I realize that. He gets it on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from the gals in the church office after school. He gets candy on Sunday and Wednesday nights after church from the candy man....he is NOT lacking in the "I never get candy" department. But he also gets to choose from the candy bowl (leftover candy from Halloween) after he poops.

I know....I should just let him have an M&M or maybe even 2 M&M's if he poops, but guess what? When he decided that he really wanted to "be big", we didn't have M&M's around so we just grabbed the candy bowl....I know, take away my "Mother of the Year" award. I don't care, I haven't changed a poopy diaper and a long time and I will brush his teeth 10 times to make up for not buying diapers and wiping his little bottom!!!

SOOOO, here I am 10 days later and he announces at 8:15 AM, that he wants to poop so that he can get candy. Hey man, whatever works, and for this little one, it does. So, he pooped and here was his dilemma today.....Which candy do I want today???? And, how many do I get again? Yeah, just ONE, so I better choose wisely.....It's pretty safe to say that he wants a tootsie roll pop. He would say, "I get one for me, one for Susie, one for Grace, one for Mommy and one for Daddy." What a sweet boy that wants to share, but....Eh, No. Just one for Parker.

He was one happy little man this morning and I was one happy Mama because all I had to to was help him off the potty.

I love my life and that little boy.

What we have been doing...

I know, I have heard from several of you about my 10 Things and I just didn't get to the computer yesterday. We knew a storm was coming in so we played outside as long as we could last night. Okay, I had a really cool video of Grace on the trampoline, but blogger is being difficult and won't process my video-that or it takes 3 hours for a video to process and I know that isn't right.

The "Parker on the Potty" days have been going pretty good. One of my great friends (and I say great, because not many people would keep my Parker while their little one was at school and it was their day "off") kept Parkerman while I had a children's committee meeting yesterday. He told us he needed to go to the potty, but I think he had already finished his business. No big, I would rather change one stinky diaper rather than 7 (or more) a week!! He is doing super. I just have to remind myself that he isn't even 2 yet so the fact that he is telling us that he needs to go is a big bonus!
Grace has one softball game left and then the season is over. She has been doing amazing (she's my kid, I can brag.) Of course, she and 2 others are the "big girls" on the team. I'm thankful that she has a season (and a sport) where she can shine. Not all kids get that and Grace will not have that when she moves up a league in the fall. It's great while it lasts!!Susannah has one (half) day of school tomorrow and then she is finished for this school year. They have a "splash day" and we are hoping for no rain. Of course, we had a zoo trip planned with our bible class today and it was grey and raining this morning...what is it now? Yep, sunny and not a drop! If we had all loaded up and gone it would have poured. Oh well, next week we are going to a cool park with a neat trails system and that should be fun for all of us! Susannah loves Wednesday play days and is not happy with me right now for not taking them to the zoo.
My Mother's Day was WONDERFUL! Aaron and the kids took me to Buca di Beppo for lunch (one of my favorite places) and then we had a nice day at home followed by a fun park trip that evening. They bought me new bedroom furniture which will be delivered on Friday....I'm SOOOO excited. We bought a set of bedroom furniture from Goodwill for $100 when we were first married and now that we are getting to be grown-ups, we decided it was time for some real furniture! So, on Saturday, I will be letting people come and see my "new room!" I can't wait! Now I need to get off here and start shoveling out my room so that we can give the old furniture back to Goodwill for some other young married couple with no money and make room for my new furniture! YIPPEEE!!

Pheww! Fun weekend!

This past weekend I went to the ladies retreat up at Texoma Youth camp with some great friends from church. We piled in Jen Mall's van and took off fast...literally, we even got a ticket in some little town on the way there. he he he...always the adventure with us!! We still got there in plenty of time to get some good bunks (you know that is important) and got in some good laughs before the actual program part of the retreat started. It was fun. We stayed up WAY too late playing spoons and some Balderdash game while eating gummy worms and popcorn. We spent Saturday "digging" into God's word and got to know some other people in our small groups sessions. I had a wonderful time.

I love being out at camp. I spent many a summer growing up at Camp Takodah in Arkansas and then as a college student, I spent every summer at Florida Bible Camp in High Springs Florida, representing Harding. I have so many great memories of those camps. I can't wait for our kids to have those fun, "mountaintop" camp experiences. I'm so thankful that my parents always made it open for us to go and have our own growing time, too. Hopefully, we can get out to camp on Memorial day and help Texoma Youth camp celebrate the opening of their new cabin and boat dock!

Aaron and the kids had a great time here at home. Parker was still in his PJ's when I got home Saturday night, but they had a great time together! Oh, and Parker is now using the potty!! YES!! I haven't changed a yucky diaper all week. He just comes up and says, "Mama, POO, POO!" and drags us to the potty! It's great! Now we just have to teach him to pee pee and we will be good! I know that ya'll wanted to know all of that didn't you?? Oh, it's the little things that make my day and not changing a poopy diaper is one of them!!! :)

VERY interesting!

The front page of MSNBC.com was on "Diaper-free"babies, and they do it by using 'elimination communication’. WOW! I had no idea....I always wondered what they do in countries where they don't have access to diapers like we do here in the U.S., but I think I was just thinking they used cloth diapers. I have to give big props out to my mom and every other woman (you go, Dyane, didn't you do it with the boys?) who used cloth diapers. I really do love my disposable diapers. You clean up the sweet baby and you throw the yucky stuff in the trash. I really think it would be neat to train your little one to use the potty when they are so small, but honestly, with 2 other kids, it would probably NOT happen here at our house. The highlight of the article: one woman was using the sink in a public restroom to let her little girl go potty....the sink? That's pretty gross...the sink is where I go to get the stuff OFF of my hands!!

Oh, another thing...this story is about my kids and poop so I'm just warning you....
Susie was on the toilet yesterday and I heard a huge sound so I went in (I really thought, "there is no way that big sound came from little Susie") to check on her.
Susie says, "Mommy, my bottom did a BIG zerbert! It sounded just like Daddy!!"

Yes, you are your daddy's daughter, my sweet Susannah!