1 Thing Parker Does NOT Think Is Really Funny

1. This awesome Star Wars shirt we bought for him while on vacation a few weeks ago. It's basically a long-sleeved t-shirt with this old school Star Wars poster on it:

Every time I try to get him to wear it his response is, "Noooooooo!" and then he hides in the corner. Some day he'll learn to love the ways of the force...........some day........

5 Things Parker Thinks Are Really Funny

1. Taking his shoes and socks off on the drive home from where ever we are. For some reason he thinks this is hilarious, and then he proceeds to smell his feet and tell us they smell like dirty cloth (from an episode of Toopy & Binoo). And then to top it off, he usually looks at me and says, "Haha now you have to carry me!!!!" since I usually just pick him up and bring him straight inside without putting his shoes and socks back on.

2. Being surprised. Like if you're chasing each other around through different rooms, then you hide behind the corner and jump out at him. It startles him but he cracks up every time and wants you to do it again.

3. Pronouncing words with the wrong letter. He has a Diego place mat that he eats every meal on and it kind of looks like this but the blue border is the alphabet. He was eating a banana one day and he looked at the letters and said, "V for banana!" and April said, "V for VAnana?!?!?!" and he thought it was awesome. So he made her go through every alphabet letter in reverse until they made it back around to the proper B for banana.

4. Spraying us with the garden hose. Pretty self-explanatory.

5. Scott! Parker thinks everything Scott does is the best thing ever. And when we ask Parker who his best friend is he always says, "Scott is my best friend!" Awwww.

(also, check out Twelve Sands!)

/shameless plug

Little Hands Cooking Class

Today Parker and I went to the Little Hands Cooking Class at Loblaws! While we were shopping on the weekend we saw a flier for the class and thought we'd check it out. Today was "Anytime Cookies" day! The class was from 10 until 11, and had 5 kids in it today. Susan (the instructor who was awesome) said she usually has 6 I think, and splits them into two groups of three. Luckily there was a spot for us because we just kind of showed up. Here are some photos of Parker being a chef.

Watching Susan as she gets the ingredients ready.

Not too sure about this mixing thing.......but at least he has his chef's apron on.

Listening to the instructor.

Mmmmm..... dough.....

Me helping Parker scoop his dough onto the pan.

More scooping onto the pan. Thanks to the lady next to us for taking the photos!

While the cookies were baking, the kids got to make some banana smoothies. Here's Parker dropping a banana in the blender.

And since there were a few minutes before the cookies were ready, Susan read a story to the kids!

It was a lot of fun, and the cookies were awesome! Parker seemed to like it, so we're going to try to go. It's every week, and it's $8 but they always do something new. Next week is muffins!

Here's the recipe for what we made today:

Banana Granola Cookies

(makes 24 cookies)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (125 ml) room temp butter or margarine

1/2 cup (125 ml) packed brown sugar (which Parker really liked because he spilled some on his sleeve and licked it)

1 egg

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) vanilla extract

1/2 cup (125 ml) mashed bananas (as ripe as possible)

3/4 cup (180 ml) all purpose flour

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) cinnamon

3/4 tsp (3 ml) baking soda

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) salt

1/2 cup (125 ml) granola of any kind (be careful of nuts)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a large bowl beat together the butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy

3. Add the egg, vanilla, and bananas and mix until well blended

4. Stir in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and mix until blended

5. Stir in the granola

6. Drop a tbsp of batter about 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet

7. Bake approximately 10-12 minutes until set

8. Eat the glorious cookies

zomg New Baby?!?

Welcome to the future blog home of our second child Lauren Grace Elliott! Her due date is August 10th, 2010 and she is super awesome. Right now she's practicing her kicks and absorbing copious amounts of cherry slushie.

Busytown Mysteries

Parker is really into this song right now. I think he likes how punchy the beat is. It's funny hearing him try to sing along because he kind of mashes up the, "Who what when where why how?" part.

What Did We Do Today?

We started the day with a nice breakfast of Raisin Brain for Parker and Corn Pops for me. Then we played with cars for a little bit, got dressed, and went to the Playtrium! We hadn't been there in a loooong time and April had a $2 off coupon, which is always nice! It was pretty quiet at the Playtrium but we still had a good time crawling through tunnels and across nets and stuff. Then we went to the grocery store, bought some regular ketchup (I accidentally bought Hot N' Spicy ketchup the other day but hate it -- anyone want it?) and a roasted chicken. Mmmm. After lunch, we read some books and Parker took a nap. Then I woke him up at 3:30, we played with his new watch and had a photo shoot, then April came home from work! She was super tired so we left her alone to nap while we went to the gas station, then to the post office to see Lynn (the lady who works there and looooves Parker), and we might have also bought some ovals. Then we drove downtown to pick up some Chinese food from our favourite restaurant ever, Silver Wok. If you're ever in Kingston and are craving Chinese, Silver Wok is the place to go. After dinner, Parker took a bath with April, they read some books, and then sleepy time! That's what our days are like! Good times.

New Watch!

The other day I mentioned the Spider-Man watch I ordered for Parker and it arrived today! Here he is being a watch model (which is kind of like being an iPod model, but with less Blue Steel).

Old Paddle Boat Photo

I'm not sure if I posted this back when we originally took it, but I was looking through old photos and videos tonight and thought it was pretty cool. Here's us at a cottage last summer in a paddle boat! Parker is so little!

Reading Is Fundamental!

Okay, so Parker can't actually READ yet, but he's getting really good at sight words! He's always been pretty interested in books and now his new thing is to say, "What's that spell?" while pointing to a word he sees. So far, he can recognize these words:

Parker Mommy Daddy stop cat go on off Lita snow bathroom of boo moo book hug Bobo Ella (hi Ally and Darryl!) Elmo not box courage hope train

And there might be a few more. He knows all of his upper and lower case letters, and can even read upside down! He's also really interested in knowing what the time is so we ordered him this awesome watch the other day (thanks to brgulker from DBB for shipping it to us!). Hopefully he doesn't just take it off when we put it on him, but he does a funny impression of me looking at my watch where he's all stoic and into it, so I think he'll like it.

Parker Is Having A.....

BABY SISTER! ZOMG. I think most people know already, but I thought I'd post it here just in case. We found out on the 29th that we're officially going to have a daughter. So it'll be really interesting to see if the two kids are similar or if they're polar opposites or whatever. Parker and April were right all along with their predictions! Should be fun! Except for the teenage dating thing. That might not be fun. We think we have a name picked out, too, but there are still a few months left in case of emergency veto. Do I merge baby sister with Parker's blog or create a totally separate one for her? I'm leaning towards giving her her own blog, and that'll keep me on my toes for posting stuff, hopefully.

Ready For Spring

Bring on the nice weather! Parker and his hat are ready.

"Cheeeeeeeese!"

We used this photo for his birthday invitations, along with a speech balloon that said, "I'm turning 3!"

"Look how I casually and comfortably lean against this wall in a totally normal fashion, Daddy!"

Happy Easter

On Eater weekend we went to Brockville for dinner with April's family! Here are some photos.

April and Kellen reading a Thomas book.

Parker going for one of his favourite things -- a wooden duck that he walks around with.

Parker is thoroughly impressed by Grandpa's harmonica-playing skills!

Now it's his turn. I think he played Beethoven's Symphony Number Five (in C Minor).

Kellen checking out some birds.

Easter egg hunt!

"Oooo! I found an egg!"

Strike a pose.

Hoppy Easter, everyone!

(har har, see what I did there?)

Play Date At The Park

Thanks to Scott, Gemma, and Milo for inviting us to a playdate at the park on the weekend! We met a bunch of other parents and kids, which was fun to see because most of the kids were around 14-18 months old. Being around Parker always makes me forget what he was like when he was younger -- for some reason I always think he's just the way he is right now, and that's kind of always how he's been. So when I got to see all the younger guys wobbling around and stuff it was a nice reminder of how little he used to be! Here are some photos:

Parker is officially over his temporary fear of slides. He goes down them on his own again! Yay!

When ever I ask Parker to smile for the camera he yells, "CHEEEEEESE!" and looks a bit distressed.

On his way back Parker yelled out, "I found the water!"

And a stick!

Ready for action.

Ready for sliding.

Ready for looking suspiciously at others.

Ready for cleaning dirt off his hands.

And ready for more sliding.

Scott had a stash of Goldfish crackers and he'd sneak them to Parker every now and then. Parker thought it was hilarious, and he would run over onto this big open hill top, apparently to be more discreet about their transactions.

Milo playing in the sand with some trucks and shovels!

It sure is nice to be outside again without freezing!

Swings Are Awesome

Scott, Gemma, and Milo came over for a visit the other night and we had a chance to enjoy the awesome weather! Here are Parker and Milo on the swings, making faces and goofing around. Milo calls a swing a "weeee", and for good reason. Wee indeed, Milo. Wee indeed.

The hardest part was holding the play structure down! Our property sits on a gigantic bed of limestone, and the pegs to hold the structure into the ground don't actually hammer all the way in because they hit rock. So when both boys would swing in the same direction, it would lift the opposite end of the structure off the ground, which was mildly traumatizing. We need to figure out a new way to nail it down!