Pop quiz: What's a mandolin?

Here is our overdue Parker update.

If you don't know the answer to the question in the title of this post, don't feel too bad - if someone one had asked me two weeks ago, I wouldn't have had a clue either.

The answer: It's the instrument Parker has started learning to play.



He wanted to learn the guitar, but when a friend from church offered to loan him a mandolin and give him free lessons - we couldn't say no!

Parker has also been exploring his budding computer tech skills by taking apart (and putting back together) his grandma's laptop that died.



He was concentrating so well that I doubt he was even aware I was taking these pictures.



Notice his tongue sticking out in this next pic. I think boys in this family just can't help doing that when they are working. (If I were more blog savvy, I'd put a little link here to a similar post of Lincoln doing playdough last year - somebody showed me, but I've already forgotten!).




As Parker's wolf den leader, I'm usually too busy leading the activity to remember to take pictures. But last week I asked one of the fathers to take a few shots:



Learning the names and functions of many basic tools:



He has a fun time with the other two cub scouts in his den (he joined a pack that kids from his school attend because there are no boys cub-scout-age at our church).




I just noticed that he is wearing dark blue in all these pics - guess you can tell that's his favorite color.

He lost his fifth tooth last week and it was the first time he pulled one out without any help - a fact he was very proud of. However, there's still no sign of his top front permanent teeth coming in - I think he is a little concerned that he will have a gummy smile for years.



(He took the picture above himself).


Finally, since it's hard for me to do any post without a picture of my toddlers, here's a shot Todd took of the three of us about 5 minutes after we all woke up the other day:

Anndra's first 'haircut'

I don't know if you can call a teensy-tiny trim of her bangs a 'haircut' - but still it's the first time scissors have touched her hair... so I guess it's news!

Here's a "before" pic from December for comparison:



Now here are the "after" pics:







She has also come up with some new 'tricks' since the last post. She can say na-na (for banana) and GO! She even tried to say 'thank you' for the first time today - and it sounded just like the way Lincoln said it when he was first learning to talk: "DAH-doo."

She just started doing a little mimicking thing lately by copying some of our gestures and body language. Like lifting her shoulders one at a time to do a funny kind of shrug I was doing to be silly with her. Or she'll stand with her hands behind her back (because she doesn't know how to put them on her hips) when she's trying to stand the way I'm standing. It is so much fun.

But it's not just non-verbal stuff. She's become quite the little parrot, especially when someone coughs or grunts - she tries to make the same sound - it is pretty hilarious. This morning we were out for a walk and one of our neighbors (we couldn't see him because he was in his backyard) cleared his throat in a fairly loud and unique way... and Anndra immediately began making the exact same sound (only higher of course). It was really hard not to laugh and I hope he could tell it was a baby and not an older child making fun of him. :)

Family Room Fun

Parker used the box the trampoline came in to build what I call a Hamster House. All three kids were given Kong Zoo toys (which I'm told are the boy version of Zoo-zoo Pets) for Christmas... but I just call them hamsters because I can never remember their names.





The kids have come up with all kinds of creative ways to play with these little guys. Sometimes I even hear them talking to their pets as though they are alive. The hamsters make cute little noises and move all around - I'm just glad we can shut them off & put them away and we don't have to worry about feeding them, cleaning a poopy cage, or finding them when they escape.




We've also had the tent out for a few days (to see if it will work for a camp-out Parker's cub scout pack is having in a few weeks). As you can see, Lincoln and Anndra have been learning to play together quite nicely.



Between this and the hamster house, our family room has been rather crowded recently!

Life with a 1-year-old and almost-3-year-old

For all you Parker fans out there, forgive me. This post is only about the 2 little ones, sorry! Just know that our oldest continues to be an awesome 8-year-old... learning like crazy and enjoying life.



Lincoln and Anndra are changing so fast that I felt I should use this post to take a 'snapshot' of what they are like right NOW. It may be completely different from the way they were a few months ago and might not be true two months from now... but that's kinda the whole reason to do it. :)



Anndra turns 15-months-old today and she is such a happy light in our family. But she shines brightest when she is with her daddy. She starts asking for him and pointing at the door between 4 and 5 o'clock each afternoon because she can sense that it is almost time for him to come home from work. She loves to wait for him on the driveway. She is walking better and better each day and practically RUNS to him when he gets out of the car. Even in the rain:



She says about a dozen words now. Her newest one is "please." She said that for the first time this morning. She can also say:

da-da or daddy --- she switches back and forth
mama or mom --- depending on her mood
bye-bye --- which includes a wave and, if you're lucky, blowing a kiss
no --- when she's serious (or 'no-no-no' when she's laughing about pulling my hair)
uh-oh --- when something falls down
wee --- on the swing or slide
shoe --- brings them to me to put on her even if she was some on
baby --- she calls all her dolls and stuffed animals 'baby'
ga-ga --- for Grandma
woof --- every time she sees a dog
Parker --- which sounds more like 'cracker'
beep --- because her favorite song is 'Wheels on the Bus' and she loves to say this as she taps her nose on the second verse
pop --- also from a song: '5 little peas'

She can sign 'more' and 'all done' when she's eating. She switches the sounds in uh-oh when she sees a monkey in a book or a monkey toy... she thinks they say oh-ah.



She is a cuddler. She almost always puts her head on my shoulder for a few minutes when I pick her up out of her crib, which I really enjoy. Unfortunately, she is in full-blown hair yanking phase and I joke with Todd that I'm so sick of it I'm going to shave my head.



She is fairly obsessed with the key clicker that goes to the van. She has pushed the panic button only once and the noise scared her so much that she has never touched it again. She loves to open and close the side doors and hear the van beep when she pushes the 'lock' button. In fact, it was when she was asking for the clicker that she said "please" this morning.



Anndra is a good eater and is wild about baths. Basically, she loves to get messy and she loves to get clean. She also enjoys when we read her books together before she goes to sleep. She insists on turning the pages herself. And when she figured out that she gets put in her bed when the story is over, she started turning the pages backward whenever we got close to the last page... I was so amazed that she figured out how to prolong story-time that way - what a smartie!




Lincoln is my little buddy. He is a walking contradiction, though. He can be so independent sometimes and then so clingy at other times. His emotions are always super hot or freezing cold (no middle ground) and very near the surface. One of my friends tried to put it nicely when she saw him yesterday, by saying: "He has a lot of... passion."



He is fearless when he rides his two-wheel scooter up & down the street or tries new stunts on the trampoline... but he says he's 'afraid' when I ask him to do little things like get something from his room or say he's sorry to a friend.



He loves to do anything that makes him seem more grown-up. For example, these days he would rather push Anndra in the backyard swing than ride in it himself. He wants to dress himself, but refuses to dress appropriately. I found him making mud pies while wearing his new church shoes earlier this week.



There are some tasks that he will completely re-do if you try to help him. For example, he always buckles himself in his car seat now. But sometimes I'm in a hurry and accidentally start to untwist the strap or something - but that just won't do! Lincoln pulls his arms back out of the straps and starts all over again from the beginning.



Another thing he does to seem more grown-up is echo Parker. He only does it when Parker is talking to someone else, and (like a translator) doesn't wait for Parker to stop talking before he launches into his own version. He'll be just a word or two behind the entire time... and doesn't repeat the other half of the conversation, just Parker's. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to drive his big brother too crazy.



He has also begun exploring his artistic side and suddenly loves to color with markers. But instead of drawing a picture or working in a coloring book, he marks on a blank sheet of paper until the entire thing is colored (front and back). This takes a long time because his little hand muscles are not very coordinated yet, and when he gets tired he asks me to help. He'll hand me the marker and then get really busy pointing out all the 'holes' - which is what he calls the little specks of white paper still showing through. And sometimes when we're finished he grabs another color and does it all over again.



We are always laughing at the way Lincoln says things. It is hard to think of a lot of examples at the moment, but yesterday when the boys were looking in the snack cupboard together I noticed that Froot Loops & Pop Tarts became Froot Poops & Top Parts when Lincoln said them.


***warning: if you don't like bathroom talk, skip this last section***



The biggest exception to Lincoln always trying to be more grown-up is when it comes to potty-training (he is completely trained when it comes to #1, but when he needs to go #2 he asks for a diaper). Here is a conversation we had 2 days ago right after I walked out of the bathroom:

Lincoln: Did you poop?
Mommy: Yes
Lincoln: In the toilet?
Mommy: Yes, because I'm a BIG girl.
Lincoln: I'm a BIG boy!
Mommy: Good! Does that mean you'll poop in the toilet?
Lincoln: No, I'm a baby boy.
Mommy: Ok, so when do you think you'll be big enough to poop in the toilet?
Lincoln: When I'm seven!

Christmas Then & Now

One of Anndra's Christmas presents was a little stroller for her dolls.



As I looked at these pictures they reminded me of a picture I had seen from another Christmas morning.



December 25, 1980 (I was a year and a half old).