at 2 and 3/4

Dear Parker,

You are getting drastically close to being 3 years old.  We still have 3 months left in which I will call you 2 and 1/2, but you are technically now 2 and 3/4, so I thought I would give a little update about the things you are doing now.
Here goes:

Imaginary play - you are WAY into this.  You take your babies (Allie, Crackers, Tiny Baby, Pig Baby, Squishy Baby, Koko, Glinda and the 3 or so other unnamed babies) to the store, to school and various other places.  You mother them constantly.  You make sure they always have their cloths.  (Yes, each baby now has her own specific cloth that comes with them.  I can't keep them all straight, but you can.)  You make sure they take naps and have the toys they need.  You cook them food.  We took lunch to Mom today and you had to pack a lunch for Allie as well.

Imaginary friends? - I don't know whether or not to call these friends, but we are frequently visited by the Pamas and the Hayfers.  The Pamas are animals, I think.  According to you, they are "Giant" and covered in fur.  They walk on 9 legs, but have no eyes.  They also have hair on their heads in addition to the fur.  Allie does not like the Pamas.  Then, there are the Hayfers.  They are very small and apparently many of them are babies.  We don't yet have much information about their appearance other than they are very small.

New things you are into: Lately you have been obsessed with puzzles.  You have completely mastered all the "pre-school" puzzles in our house (the ones with the picture underneath the puzzle) and you can do several 12 piece regular puzzles (ya know, the kind that come in a box and you have to look at the picture to put them together.)  You help me with the 25 piece puzzles.  You haven't quite figured out the whole "do-the-edges-first" concept.  Instead you like to find all of one thing and put it together.  (Like, let's put together the elephant.)
    
You have a tracing book that I was really hoping you would get into about 3 months ago, but you are very excited about it now.  You trace straight lines and curvy lines, but get a little confused when they combine straight and curvy.  Then you just draw a circle! :)
    
You have also recently become excited about learning your letters.  Thank goodness.  I am confident in saying that you know B, H, O, P, Q, S, W and Z.  There are many others that you get sometimes. You confuse letters that look the same or sound the same....like C with S or I, J, L and T.   I guess that is to be expected.  I would really like you to know them before you go to school in the "fall," but I'm trying to not stress about it or pressure you.
  
 You still like to "read" and make up stories for the books you don't know or recite from memory the books you do know.
    
You have many pretend phones and get many important calls.  Most of them go like this, "HelloHowAreYouGoodOkayBye."  It's all very quick.  At least two times in the past week you have exchanged "texts" with Grandpa Booga in which he has thanked you for the gift cards you bought him.  I'm not sure where you got the idea to buy gift cards, but apparently he enjoyed them. ;)

New Adventures: Yesterday, I was working on staining the fence.  You were trying to be such a good girl and play in the yard by yourself.  Then, the neighbor boy came out and you started "playing" with him through the fence, so I just went over and asked if he wanted to come play in our yard.  So, you had a playdate with a kid neither of us knew very well.  He was pretty well behaved and you seemed to enjoy his company.  Here's the thing though.  He will be 5 next month - so he is more than 2 years older than you are - and you played together just fine.  I guess I don't know if this is normal or not, but you do seem to enjoy hanging out and playing with older kids.  Whatever that means.

Okay, baby.  I guess this is long enough for now.  I can't believe how old you are getting.  You look old and act so grown-up sometimes.  I love you so much but am not quite ready for all this big kid stuff.  I love you so much.
Love,
Mommy

Splash!

Dear Parker,

You have certainly been getting your fill of the summer water activities lately.  Last night, your cousins came over to play and you all played in the pool.  You were much more aggressive with the "swimming" when other kids are around.  I think it also helped that the water was MUCH warmer than it was the first time you used the pool.  You splashed and tried to blow bubbles and dumped water on Alex's head.  There was a slightly scary moment where you lost your balance and went under and couldn't get yourself up, but Uncle Stu was right there and grabbed you.  You were totally fine and even laughed it off!

This morning, Mom needed to go into school for just a little bit, so we came along and went to the park across the street.  In addition to some pretty fun playground equipment, they have a "splash park."  I wasn't sure how you would react to the splash park part seeing that when you run through the sprinkler, you usually run around the sprinkler.

At first, you weren't too sure - just hanging out on the edge of the water.

 You liked wading through the "river" to the big rocks at the end

 but eventually you warmed up and ran through the water like a champ.

 This picture kills me because you look so old running like that.

 The biggest excitement of the day, however, came on the slides.  First there is a ladder to get to this enclosed platform area that leads to all the slides - you just climbed up the ladder all by yourself.  Then, I was trying to keep my eye on you on the platform, but it was very hard to see because it's kind of enclosed and it's pretty high up.  So, I went underneath and was looking around for you.  Then, I looked at the bottom and there you were.  You had gone down the really big slides all by yourself.  Before you had always wanted to go down with Mommy or Mom.

You kept to the biggest twisty slide, which is pretty slow because of all the bends, but then you tried the straight slide.  Mom started moving as soon as she saw you go in, but she didn't get there in time.  You just popped out the bottom and landed flat on your face.  It is a FAST slide.  Very Steep and Very Straight.  You said you had fun on the way down, but you didn't like falling.  That seemed like a good time to go home.  So, we grabbed some lunch (where you ATE an entire sub sandwich that was chocked full of meat) and came home.  It was a really good morning.

I love you so much.  I am looking forward to more days like today.
Love,
Mommy

Social Skillz

Dear Parker,

Saturday was graduation at Mom's school.  This is always a big day because we have to do the ceremony, the reception and then, inevitably, several graduation parties.  You did pretty well through the ceremony.  You made it for over an hour and only missed the last 2 speeches (out of 6, so not too bad.)  All in all, we only missed about 10-15 minutes, which I think is pretty good.  You did alright through the reception, but mostly because we let you eat. (This was not my finest nutrional parenting day, but you didn't die so I'm calling it a success.)

After the reception we had 5 graduation parties to attend. (Not to mention the three on Sunday and the one this evening.) You were a trooper.  There is such a difference between last year and this year.  Last year, you clung to my side the entire time.  This year, you ran off with other small children as well as teenagers.  It's nice.  You are socializing and I don't have a toddler stuck to my hip.  I'm so glad to see the change in your social skills.  I don't know whether to attribute it to school or just you growing up, but either way, my baby is gone.

Right now, I am listening to you "go to sleep."  Riiiiiiight.  We'll keep working on it.

I love you, baby.
Mommy

Catching Up: Visiting Sadie

Dear Parker,

I'm still working on getting caught up.  Over Memorial Day weekend we drove to Columbus to visit our friends, the Smiths.  In the past, we have tried to visit with them and things have gone tragically south - Sadie hasn't slept at all, you got the flu.  It's just been bad, so we were prepared for something awful to happen.  However, things were great.  You each had your moments (usually when you were tired) but overall, you had a fantastic time and loved playing with your friend.

We kept very busy visiting the zoo, the Franklin Conservatory, playing at the park down the street from Sadie's house and going to the Memorial Day Parade.  You had such a great time, but I honestly think you had the most fun when you were chasing each other all over the house - up and down Sadie's super cool loft bed slide.  I hope we can visit them again soon because I think you are going to be really good friends.

I love you,

Mommy

Catching up: Visiting Tyler

Dear Parker,

I've once again fallen a bit behind in your letters (even though I just promised to try to do better.  I guess this is me trying to do better.)  Anyway, a couple weekends ago, we drove to Michigan to finally meet your new cousin, Tyler.  You absolute adored him.  You were very patient waiting to hold him.  You had to wait several hours because he was eating and then we had to go to Uncle Steven's game and then you needed to take a nap.  But, when you finally got to hold him, you didn't want to put him down.  you held him for about 40 minutes.  You were so excited!  (A picture is below - they loaded in the wrong order.)

Aunt Stacy also came up for a little bit and you were so excited to see her.  I managed to capture your welcome hug.  It's so cute.  I love how much you love your Aunt Stacy.  You had tons of fun playing with your Aunts and Uncle and Grandma.

 We spent a few hours and Grandma and Grandpa's house before heading home and you, of course, wanted to jump on the trampoline.  The last time you were on the trampoline was last July and you are so much bigger now.  Last year you didn't even know how to jump.  Now, it's one of your favorite pastimes.  So, you just hopped up and started jumping.  I think, if given the chance, you would have stayed on there all day.

We had a great, but quick, visit.  I'm hoping we get to see everyone again soon.  You LOVE your cousins.
I love you.
Mommy

I'm sorry.

Dear Parker,

I have not had the best day and I was not the most patient with you.  I'm sorry for that.  I'm also sorry that I STILL haven't figured out how to get the the things that I want for our family.  I'm sorry that we are just muddling through.  But, I do love you more than anything and I recognize how lucky we are to have such a funny, smart, healthy, amazing little girl.

I will be better tomorrow.
I love you,
Mommy

Almost Summer

Dear Parker,

I meant to write you a letter Friday night because there were so many cute things that you did, but I got so busy packing and getting ready for our weekend that I ran out of time.  I’ll see if I can remember the things I wanted to tell you about.  My birthday was Sunday and on Thursday night, you and your Mom went and bought me a present.  On Friday morning, you were so excited that you blurted out , “Mommy!  We got you pink flip-flops!”  Then, you started crying and said, “Oh. It was a surprise.”  It took me quite a while to get you calmed down because you were so upset.  

After school, Mom and I met with Ms. Doreen for your end-of-year conference.  She said you are doing great and are ready do to move to the Pre-School room.  I can’t believe that you are old enough to go to Pre-School!  But, I’m so proud of you for doing so well in school.  The only thing Ms. Doreen said that she would say you could work on was just interacting with other kids – not that you are behind or abnormal in that area, but that it is your weakest – if that makes sense.  She recommended lots of play dates this summer.  Sounds good.  J

After your conference, Mom had to go to a meeting and we went to get the oil in my car changed.  You were very interested in the process.  You watched through the window the whole time.  After that, we went to dinner, played on the playground for a few minutes, got ice cream and then went to Old Navy because they had flip-flops on sale and you Love shoes.  I let you get 2 pair.  You are now officially spoiled.

You knew we were going to meet your cousin Tyler this weekend and were ready to go right then.  We couldn’t leave until the morning, but you wanted to GO.  You kept asking when we were leaving.  I told you we couldn’t leave until Mom got home and that you had to go to bed.  The next morning, I attempted to sneak in your room to get a couple things to pack without waking you yet, but you popped right up and asked, “Is Mom home yet?  Can we go to Tyler’s?” 

Once we arrived, you were pretty patient.  Tyler needed to eat and then we had to go to Steven’s baseball game. When we got back you were really tired, so you took a nap  and THEN you got to hold Tyler.  You loved, loved, loved holding him.  You held him, in various positions, for probably about an hour.  You are pretty good with babies for being only 2 ½.    

Sunday, we went to your Grandma’s house and you jumped on the trampoline.  You are so much different than you were last year.  Last year you didn’t know how to jump so you relied on others to make you bounce.  This year, you just started jumping away.  You thought it was awesome.

I’m very much looking forward to summer and this weekend (Summer is not officially this weekend, but I’m pretending it is.)  We are going to visit your friend Sadie.  I hope that you two will hit it off and play nicely.

I love you so much Parker Alyse.

Happy Almost Summer,

Mommy