Party Pooper

Parker, I'm writing this from hearsay(thank goodness)! Tonight I went out to run a few errands and left you and Payton home with Daddy to go over to Ava and Charly's to swim. As the story has been told to me, it started to get stormy so you girls went inside to play, and the daddy's stayed outside talking. At some point the big girls must have lost track of you, because you went into the half bathroom downstairs to take care of some dirty business. Well, they eventually found you and ran panicked to the back door, "DAD, Parker needs you! She's in the bathroom and she's crying!" As the story goes, your dad (and I assume Karl) came in to find you with poop smeared on your legs and who knows where else, and you'd used every bit of toilet paper in some attempt to clean yourself up only managing to rub yourself raw removing very little of the poop. So your poor daddy had to clean you up, flush the toilet using a plunger and many attempts, and somehow attack the mess that is our dear friends bathroom. You must have been EXTRA sweet to him tonight because he was able to laugh about it in the end, and somehow you got a sucker out of the whole thing because he was really proud of you for trying to use the potty. I have been told that the two of you had a long in depth talk about always letting Mommy or Daddy know when you need to go poop. Oh how I wish Leslie had been there with a camera! (OK, not really Leslie, but that someone would have taken a photo)

The Future According To Payton

The day after my last post about Payton and her fears of college we had the following conversation in the car.

Payton (in an almost startled voice): Mommy, when are we going to make me a car?!

ME (very confused): What, why would we make you a car? We don't make cars, we buy them, but why?

Payton: I'm gonna need one to go live at school!

After trying to explain that was a long time away we moved on. From there we had a deep conversation that moved from school, to her house, to her being a mommy and of course her having 2 little girls, and deciding that Parker would live in the house next door and be her neighbor. Living near Mommy & Daddy somehow lost it's priority level from the night before. In fact, she wasn't even sure if she'd know the way to get to our house anymore once she realized that Parker could be her neighbor.

Snuggle

I'm a bit sad this week, as Parker continues to prove she's growing up. For the last few months my favorite Parker-ism has been her word, nuggle. She uses it to get out of trouble, to avoid bedtime, to work her way between Payton and I, pretty much to get her way. She nuggles up with me on the sofa and it melts my mommy heart. But I've noticed that she's finding the s more and more and it's turning into snuggles. I guess that's okay, as long as she keeps doing it.

Now if only she'd prove her grown-up-ness by using the potty...

College

Tonight as I was tucking Payton into bed I mentioned that tomorrow is Anna's last day with us, because she's leaving for college. Payton somehow seemed stunned. I tried explaining that she's going away to school and she will live at her school, apparently that didn't make it any less strange or frightening. Now she's starting to get worried, she knows that next week SHE starts school, I could see the little wheels turning in her head. I assured her that when she gets to be a big girl she too will go away to school, but not for a LONG time. Still not buying into all of it. Suddenly, she starts grinning, and announces she wants to pick out a pretty house, and all was well in her world when I assured her that I'd help her pick out a pretty house, someday. She was getting into it all, but just had one more requirement. She wants a pretty house that is close to us. I'm okay with that.