All This Heaven

We've had a busy morning already.  We've been awake for an hour now and the first 40 min. went like this:  "Mommy!  Pirate costume!", so first I made Noah go pee pee on the toilet and then I put him in his pirate costume.  The very second I finished getting it on him I hear, "Mommy!  Full, full!  Change me.  I go poo poos."  So I take his costume off and we take off his diaper to find out that it's completely clean and dry.  So I put him on the toilet.  After about 60 seconds he pronounces he's done, even though nothing has happened.  We put his diaper back on and then his costume, again.  The second we finish getting his entire ensemble on I hear, "Mommy!  Poo poos!".  I verify with him that he needs/wants to go poo poos on the toilet.  Yep, he does even though not two minutes ago we were JUST DOING THAT!  So, off comes the costume and the diaper.  On he goes.  A few minutes later, hooray, th...

I love conference weekend.  And not just because it means I don't have Sunday morning meetings in a tie.  One of my favorite things from yesterday was during  Priesthood Session.  I think it was President Eyring who quoted the song "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go."  As he read the line, "I'll be what you want me to be" I gained an insight I hadn't had before, which is likely a testament to the fact that I rarely pay much attention to the words of songs. Anyway, I've always thought of that line as meaning that I will be whatever the Lord wants me to be: Elder's Quorum President, teacher, counselor, doctor, lawyer, mechanic, whatever.  But it occured to me that at least a part of what it means is that what the Lord really wants me to be is like Him.  That's what I think that lyric means; that I'm prepared to be like Him (or die trying).

(At least these are the top 10 signs at the Parker house right now.) 10.  Your son likes to take off all his clothes  and  his diaper and run around buck naked. 9.  Your son can tell you that he needs his diaper changed. 8.  He tries to change his own poopy diapers. 7.  He disappears into a corner to do his "business". 6.  The smell...you know what I'm talking about! 5.  He's fascinated by the toilet and never wants to get off of it. 4.  He's also fascinated by "captain winkey". 3.  He's been going on the toilet "for fun" for an entire year now. 2.  Yesterday when you were about to buckle him up in the car to drive home from lunch, and you knew he'd just had a lot of lemonade to drink for lunch and that his diaper was never going to hold it all, you told him to hurry up and go pee in his diaper so you could change him.  Then he looked at you with a really funny face and did what you asked ...

It seems like the older Noah gets, the more often I giggle.  In fact, I think I giggle more now than I did even when I was twelve years old.  He's just so darn charming.  There are so many times when I should be mad, when I should be firm and stern, and yet it's all I can do not to laugh.  More often than not I can't help myself. Tonight Chris and I took Noah to the grocery store.  He held our hands all the way across the parking lot and into the store, but the second he realized I wasn't going to succumb to his playful pleadings to let him walk by my side in the store instead of riding in the cart he took off.  Boy can he run.  He had run all the way to the end of the produce department and around the corner faster than I could realize that he wasn't going to stop.  Chris followed and I took off in a different direction to cut him off.  He was on the complete opposite side of the store before we caught up to him.  And that ...

I'm learning that with a child you have to use every ounce of creativity you have on a daily basis, and this is why a "sugar bug family" lives in Noah's mouth.  I picture sugar bugs as smaller versions of the Tweedle Bugs that lived in Ernie's window flower box on Sesame Street.  Remember how cute they were and how they were always having adventures and getting into mischeif?  They were one of my favoite parts of Sesame Street.  Well, Noah's sugar bugs have adventures too and every morning and night when we brush his teeth we find out what they are up to.  Big surprise - normally they are doing whatever we've been doing during the day, only I try to make it sound exciting!  I used to have a huge battle with Noah every time we brushed, holding him down in a wrestling move that I'm sure could beat any high school wrestler at the State Meet.  Now he will lie down, open his mouth and giggle when I tell him what "Mommy sugar bug, Noah sugar bug, and D...

Lately Noah has been showing some major two-year old characteristics and by the end of the day we are both exhausted from it all.  He is learning so much and I swear he does 90% of the talking in our family.  He doesn't do the classic toddler, "Why, Mommy?  Why?  Why?  Why?" thing yet, but he has his own versions.  He is constantly asking me "Where _________?" and "What_________?"  For instance, one of his favorites to ask when we are in the car is, "Mommy, what you doing in my car?"  I will tell him, "I'm driving you to Aunt Heidi's house (or whatever we're doing), and he will immediately ask me all over again, "Mommy, what you doing in my car?" and then ask me the same thing 5 more times.  I've noticed a big change in his language skills.  He is getting so good at talking!  He gives me an almost constant jibber jabber of his stream of conciousness and the big change is that he wants me to always be paying att...

Tonight we went out to dinner with one of my old law school friends who was in town from Palm Springs where he's a prosecutor.  He has a little boy who's four.  He's named Wyatt.  Well, when I intorduced him to Noah, Noah became fast friends as he always does.  The only problem in the little relationship is that Noah couldn't quite say "Wyatt."  Instead, he was saying "Qwyatt" (pronounced "quiet") all night.  Poor kid must've thought Noah was shooshing him all night.