Update on life

I don't think I have enough energy to form cohesive thoughts into a well thought out bit of writing. So, I think bullet points will have to do. Here's what's been going on (big and small) with us.

• Parker has what appears to be her first crush on the baby in her book, "Jazz Baby." She kisses every page that he appears on and gets upset if someone else gives him a kiss.
• Parker "reads" herself books. This is her version of "Click, Clack, Moo." "Cick, Cack, Moo! No bankets! No milk! No ecks (eggs)! Siddy (silly) Cows! Duck." Yeah, that about sums it up.
• Parker LOVES visiting Alicia's school and seeing the bugs in Mrs. Bradley's room. Unfortunately, one of the bugs pooped on Mrs. Bradley's hand last time. Now, Parker refers to Carolyn as "Poop Bradley." Awesome.
• Parker has a new big kid best friend: Maggie Beckman. Fine by me! :)
• Alicia's student, Elise won the State Poetry Out Loud contest.
• I am happy about this, but upset because 1) Alicia will be in Washington DC for several already chaotic days in April 2) Elise is the female lead in the musical and she will be gone at the beginning of "hell week."
• I have been rehearsing 3 days a week for the musical- soon to be many more than this.
• We have all been attending pep band games. I'm hoping this ends soon.. (This week????)
• We've been cleaning our house more than I think I have in the past 5 years in the hopes of selling it. I think we might be close, but it's hard to tell.
• We've been looking at houses so we aren't completely taken off guard if/when ours sells. We would love to find something closer to University, but that doesn't appear to be likely. So, instead we have fallen in love with something further away. Good job us.
• I'm still plugging away at these classes. I have no idea how I'm doing in the one as the professor has not yet bothered to grade any work. The other class is okay so far.
• This craziness will all end by May 11th. We will either be in a new house (or not). ALL performances of everything will be over!!!!! And, my classes will be done. Although I am thoroughly enjoying the work I am doing, it is exhausting. Even the classes are kind of interesting, but...you know...the work bit. I am very much looking forward to summer and being able to spend the time with Parker that she deserves instead of the hour or so a day that she is getting now.

I think that's about it for now. Time for bed!

Not a Snow Day

Today was not a snow day for me. But, Alicia had one so Parker got to spend all day with her Mom. Alicia wasn't brave enough to take Parker outside by herself while she shoveled the driveway, so we all went out when I got home from work.

Here is what is apparently our annual "Parker on the snow pile picture." To see last year's photos, refer to my post from last January pics 2. (Yes, it's the same post as the last comparison picture.... She's also wearing the same hat. It was big last year and it's a little tight this year, but the other one is a little big and I wanted something that would keep her head the warmest!) Anyway.
P mostly wanted to walk up and down the driveway. She was intrigued by the shoveling process. She also wanted to walk in the snow, but only the little bit (about 2 inches) that was on the driveway. I put her in the deeper snow and she freaked a little. This was problematic because the driveway snow was disappearing! LOL
Here she is doing some laps up and down.
And this is just one of my favs from today.
Happy Un-Snow Day!

A sundry collection of photos.

* I always thought the word was "asundry." As it turns out - it's just "sundry." Who knew? (Well, someone I'm sure, but not me!)

Although I haven't been able to take nearly as many picture recently as I would like, I have gotten a few and I'm taking a few minutes in between homework for one class and homework for another, so I thought I'd post some. So, here they are!

Parker has taken to laying on her tummy and reading. I think it's adorable! She hasn't quite mastered it yet, as she will only lay there for a few seconds before she repositions, but she keeps trying to find a comfortable position. Here she is reading "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" which she carried around with her for a solid day. I must have read that stupid book a million times. Ah well, I suppose she could be doing worse things! ;)
A few weekends ago we built a fire. Here Parker is watching the flames. I post this only because I have a very similar picture of her from about a year ago, doing the same thing (and wearing a pink hoodie) If you want to see that one, it's in my post, cleverly titled: pics 2.
Parker's hair is incredibly unruly. We bathe her at night and then she sleeps on it, which causes even more problems. I was trying to get a picture of how cute all her little curls were before they got slept on, but P just kept grabbing her head and saying, "HAIR!"
Parker loves, Loves, LOVES our cats. They, generally, don't want much to do with her. However, the other day she got a rare moment on the couch with BOTH cats. Thirty seconds later they were both gone, but she was really happy for a minute! (She's also watching tv, hence the inability to look at the camera!)
And lastly, we decided it was time to switch Parker over to the big girl part of her bed. It's really not that much different than the crib, but I think it makes a good transition between actual bed and a crib. So, when we move (fingers crossed) and we have another baby (more fingers crossed), she will make an easier transition to a "real" bed. We had a heck of a time trying to find bedding we liked. All anyone carries in stores is Disney character stuff - and you ALL know that I am not going to buy her a princess bedspread. (Plus, she wouldn't even know who they are!) So, I finally found this online at Wal-Mart. It think it's cute and girly (but not TOO girly) and it looks okay with the current paint in her room. Please don't mind the skirt that goes with the crib bedding. We have to leave it up because we are hiding tons of stuff under her bed while we show the house and if we take it off, we lose all that space! Yikes!

A Good Ole' Fashioned Whoopin'

This week is kicking my butt. I am completely wiped out. As many of you know, our house is on the market. We put it up a couple days before Thanksgiving and had a few showings before the holidays. Things were pretty slow for a few weeks, a showing here or there, but who0-boy did things kick up this week.

We had a showing Monday, and decided (on Sunday afternoon) that we needed to start kicking it up a notch in terms of how we are showing our house. So, around 4:00 on Sunday we started a massive purging/hiding of our stuff. (Okay, mostly hiding). Things are under chairs, under beds, in the garage. All I have to say about that is CURSE YOU HGTV! Anyway, this continued until around 11 when we went to bed.

Just as I was falling asleep, I started awake wondering if the paper I had for one of my classes, which was due at "Midnight, Monday February 1st" was due in 45 minute or in 24 hours and 45 minutes. I knew the technical answer, so I got up and hastily (read: poorly) finished it, sent it in and went to bed shortly after midnight. Then, again just as I was falling asleep, I am woken by the nightmarish screams of my darling daughter. She is a normally a really good sleeper, but she goes through phases where she has bad dreams and needs a hug to go back to sleep. It sounds like no big deal - it literally takes 30 seconds. That's 30 seconds with her and then I can't go back to sleep. The night continued like this - me finally drifting off to sleep and the Parker having a bad dream - for the rest of the night. I think I got 4 hours of non-consecutive sleep.

Monday was a full day with work and then heading straight to University for musical auditions, which kept me there until 8pm.

I was really looking forward to Tuesday because the season premiere of LOST was going to be on and the only thing we had planned was Kindermusik. 7:55: the phone rings. Can we show our house tomorrow between 12 and 1? Sure. No problem. Except that now I have to tidy/re-clean my house instead of relax on the couch. It's not that it's super dirty, but you always have to wipe down the counters, hide the stuff again, mop the floor, scoop the cat box (God forbid there be cat poop during a showing!). Anyway, not such a horrible night, but not the relaxing time on the couch that I had envisioned.

Wednesday, the fun begins. Lauren has to cart Parker all around town since she can be anywhere but in our house. (Let's remember it has been cleaned and Parker can destroy that in a matter of seconds). So, she spends all day other places. I pick her up from Amy's (Thanks Amy!) around 1:30. We go home, but leave at 2:45 for musical rehearsal. I'm really looking forward to Thursday, - sleeping in, no showings.... Ahhh.

Thursday: Parker gets up at 6:30 (WTF, baby?) 8:15am, the phone rings......showing at 3pm. I start frantically cleaning again (which is significantly harder with a cranky, clingy toddler). I think that it will all be okay because she normally naps from 11-1ish, so that should give me time to get everything done and not have to leave the house too early. Nope. She naps at 9:45 (maybe because you got up too early!!!!!!) and only for an hour and a half. Great. So, I get the stuff done, but now we have to leave much earlier than I would like. It's 12:30 and we're out. I successfully stall around town for a couple hours and then head to University where we stall for a little more before musical rehearsal (yes, this is a trend.). I drop Parker off with Nancy (because Alicia is in a meeting) and go to rehearsal. After rehearsal, I meet Alicia (who has brought dinner) with Parker so that we can have 30 minutes of family bonding time before the double header basketball game (oh, yes, my life is just that awesome!) Parker (who normally goes to bed at 7) makes it through the first game, but it fading fast. Nancy takes her back to her house where we all hope she goes to bed. We fight through the second game, which doesn't finish until 9:30. I get the kiddos all out and go to pick up my ridiculously exhausted daughter who has NOT slept. She is home and in bed by 10:15 - that's reasonable for a 16 month old, don't you think? (This is where I make my plug for parent of the year....)

So, yeah. That's my week so far. I'm hoping for no showings today. (That's terrible). Really, I'm hoping that one of the 2 we had yesterday. (I forgot to mention that they called at 5:25 asking to show it at 5:30 WHAT????? Luckily, we weren't home and the house was ready!) leads to something so that this craziness can end (or at least lead to different craziness. I just want to stay home and chill with P.