New Daddy

Here is a conversation I had with Payton in the car a few mornings ago.

Payton: Daddy's broken so I got a new daddy, Jason.

Me: Huh? You got a new daddy?

Payton: Yeah, Daddy died so I got a new daddy, Jason.

Me: Really?

Payton: Mommy died too, so I got a new mommy, Leslie.

Me: Leslie??

Payton: Yeah. Leslie. but not Karl, just Leslie

Me: OK?!?!?

Payton: You and Daddy were broken, so I put you back together, I put on your necks...and your heads...And put you back together.

Yep, if I go apparently Payton's got a back up plan all worked out. I wonder which friend I should credit for giving her these ideas???

Unt!

This morning I went into Parker's room to pick out clothes for her and she followed to help. I picked out clothes while she tugged at her Halloween costume telling me "unt, unt!" I walked back into my room and heard a snap in her room, wondering what might have been broken I looked around the corner to find her walking my way holding her Tinkerbell Dress with a now broken hanger continuing to tell me "Unt, unt!" with a great deal of enthusiasm. I tried to reason with her, suggesting we put on her clothes to go to Grandma's house, but she pushed the costume demanding that she unt (translation = want) the Tinkerbell suit. How can you argue with such a cute face! Payton had to get in on the fun and ran to get her Ariel dress as well.

Time Out!

Parker does understand what I say to her. A few minutes ago she was trying to steal a toy from Payton by wrapping her arms around Payton and pulling with all her might. I told her no, and asked if she wanted to go to time out. Apparently she did, because she grinned at me and marched right over to the time out spot and sat down.

Holidaze

Payton's been working very hard to understand holidays/the calendar/time for the last couple of weeks. Before Halloween she started asking about fireworks and planning her birthday party. She would ask (daily) when is 4th of July? What month is that? And then she'd go on to tell me how she wanted to buy herself a birthday card for her birthday party. Each time I go though the calendar, first we'll have Halloween, then Christmas, then Valentines, so on and so forth.

Progress!

Parker is more aggressive than Payton ever was as a toddler, and we're trying to figure out how to teach her how to rein in her outbursts. It's a little funny, but we can't let her know that. She bites sometimes and hits when she's trying to get your attention or is excited. So we tell her to be gentle, and show her how to touch softly. So over the last couple days when she starts to hit, I say "gentle", and she stops hitting and starts gently rubbing her hand on my arm and grinning at me knowing that she's making me proud.

When's Daddy Coming Back?

Jason's been gone for 2 days of an 8 day trip to Denver. I have been dreading this for weeks for fear that I might loose my mind and run away or be locked up, but it's going amazingly well. Payton's been on her very best behavior, all thanks to her desire to please Santa and Daddy. I've been giving her huge amounts of kudos after each outing or situation she's handled well, hoping to encourage more of the same. Parker, well, she's been more of a handful, working hard to make up for any ease that Payton's offering me. After each round of high fives Payton reminds me that Santa likes it, and he doesn't like fits or whining so Parker's not going to get presents. Tonight I had to remind her that Parker is trying to be a good girl (I truly want to believe), she's still a baby and learning how to be good, and that Santa will probably understand that and still bring her presents. I'm not sure that she bought it, so there may be a problem on Christmas morning when Santa does treat Parker equally.

As well as things are going, we all miss Daddy. Each time we come through the garage and see his truck Payton's convinced that he's home. Every few minutes (no I'm not exaggerating) she asks if he's coming home today, even though I'm quite clear that it's 6 more days. It's hysterical to hear her on the phone with him, filling Daddy in on how good she's being and how bad Parker is being. I felt so badly for her last night at bedtime, she seemed very uncomfortable without Daddy in the house, even though she didn't vocalize it I could tell she was nervous. Parker misses Daddy too, but is somehow afraid of the speakerphone and clings to me when Jason tries to talk to her on it, I'm hoping that tomorrow when he can talk to her on Skype she'll loosen up. The rest of the day she walks around talking into everything saying da-da da-da da-da. I am afraid to fall asleep, somehow thinking I need to stay up all night to keep everyone safe from the bad guys. I won't even go into our diet for the week, man we really need Jason around here!


This morning we ventured out to Chuck E Cheese, yep, me and the girls for Jake's birthday party. I was pretty convinced there was no way this could go well, but I couldn't NOT take them so off we went. I was proud of us, we arrived happy and unstressed, only 20 minutes late which they didn't even understand AND made it there with a gift in hand. I had visions of Payton clinging to me, begging to be carried as Parker sprinted off in multiple directions all at once into the ciaos. I was pleasantly surprised when Payton met up with Charly and tagged along with anything she wanted to do. Parker was thrilled to ride the merry go round over and over, and then again. She'd kick and get mad when I'd take her off of it. I was impressed with all the things that she found that she could do. I had so much fun watching them playing together and with their friends. It is funny that they can be so amused by the simplest things. Mind you, it's all wrapped up in a crazy place, but truly the things that they loved where the same rides that we had in front of K-Mart when I was growing up, the little car/train/horse that goes up and down maybe 6 inches, the barely-merry-go-round with horses that don't move just go around three times and stop. Ah to be a kid!