6:10 - Parker begins talking in his crib; sounds like he may be up for the day, but I wait to make sure because sometimes he falls back asleep
6:20 - I hear him start to cry; I go to peek in his room, and I find him standing up in his crib with his blanket and bear in hand. Yep, time to get up!
6:25 - "Dah," he says...somehow in the past couple of weeks, he has decided that this means waffle. I pull the package out of the freezer, set P on the counter, and let him plop two in the toaster - one for him, one for me. When they are ready, I help him off the counter and he climbs into his chair. "More, more, more" - Heaven forbid should I forget to give him that darned whip cream. He continues to ask for "more, more" whip cream while he is eating, and I continue to remind him he already has some on each of his cut-up bites of waffle. I eat mine plain, as usual, and he is so confused why I wouldn't want to load it up with the sweet fluffy white stuff. At one point a piece of waffle falls in his lap..."uh-oh, uh-oh" - he says it several times; he does not like things out of place, including food that should be in his mouth or on his plate. Even after I help him clean up the bite of waffle, he continues to scrutinize his lap, pointing at tiny specks and continuing with the uh-oh's until I convince him that it is okay, we will clean it all up later. A smudge of whip cream finds its way onto the table - let the uh-oh's commence again. He attempts to wipe it up with his fingers, but some still lingers on the table, and now it is also on his hands - again with the uh-oh's.
6:50 - About fifty uh-oh's and almost his whole waffle later, we are done with breakfast, our hands and faces are washed, and everything is cleaned up.
7:00 - I wash some dishes while Parker plays with his alphabet fridge magnets. He begins to wind his way around my legs as I stand at the sink, giggling at his sillyness of trapping Mommy.
7:05 - He eventually asks for a "nack?" A full breakfast in his belly and the kid is still hungry. I find him some crackers to snack on - not willing to settle for just a few or even a cup filled with them, he wants to carry the whole bag. Whatever.
7:10 - Parker indicates he wants to go outside. It was in the upper-30's/low-40's last night, so you can imagine my enthusiasm of playing outside so early in the morning. "Okay, but you need to get your clothes on and we need to change your diaper"...both of these tasks are torture to him most mornings, so if I can bribe him into cooperating all the better. Even at the prospect of going outside, Parker still puts up a small fight with his diaper and clothes.
7:20 - Clothes finally wrangled on, and we head outside. I've opened the garage door, and he trots inside and up to his stroller so that we can take a walk. He LOVES his stroller; he could go on walks all day and not complain a bit if Mommy and Daddy had the energy and time to do so. I'm so glad he likes them so much.
On our walk to pass by all of the sleeping houses in our neighborhood. I wonder if anyone inside them have even considered waking up yet on this chilly weekend morning. They all seem pretty quiet.
7:45 - Our walk eventually brings us to the neighborhood park. I help Parker out of his stroller, but we are bummed to find the morning dew still clinging to all of the toys and slides. I know how he is about getting his pants wet (yes, more uh-oh's...) so I help him understand that the park is too wet and slippery to play at right now. He seems to understand and climbs back into his stroller.
7:55 - We are home from our walk, but Parker refuses to come inside (meanwhile, my ears are cold, so I let him continue to tinker in the backyard while I watch from the kitchen windows).
8:00 - Parker still won't come inside.
8:05 - He starts to whine and fuss, and I think it's because the deck is wet [again with the morning dew] and he is worried about climbing the stairs without my help. I go to assist him but he runs in the opposite direction towards the car in the garage. He pulls at the handle and I help him open the door to the backseat; he climbs inside and pulls himself up into his carseat. I buckle him in and tell him, "okay, let me get my purse". I come back with my purse and go to start the car. "Mol?" Of course, milk; how could I forget? I go back inside and retrieve his milk and blanket (he is still carrying around the bag of crackers from an hour earlier, munching one or two every-so-often). All essentials gathered together, we take off down the driveway to who-knows-where, but if Parker finds it entertaining, especially in Daddy's absence, I'll take it.
8:10 - We drive by and check the hours at Hobby Lobby: they open at 9am, so we will have to find somewhere else to entertain ourselves. But Parker loves the speed bumps in the Parker lot, laughing at each one from the backseat.
8:25 - We find ourselves at Wal-Mart after taking the long route, looking for more speed bumps and trucks along the way. I only have one or two items on my list of things to buy since we just recently did a grocery run, so this trip Parker can call the shots on where we go.
Checking out all the different containers of tomatoes. Parker wanted to carry around these little "balls" and didn't like being told he couldn't
9:20 - In the Wal-Mart parking lot on the way to the car, I nibble on Parker's creamy smooth cheeks. He pushes me away a little, but I keep at them and tell him if he didn't want me to constantly kiss them and snack on them, he shouldn't keep them so soft. He relents.
9:25 - We find ourselves at Hobby Lobby; I only want to see if they have a fabric style that I am looking for. It's a quick trip, pulling up a negative unfortunately.
9:40 - The waffle I had this morning is not keeping my pregnant belly full enough, so we drive on over to Daube's Bakery downtown for a treat. Parker and I eat get a freshly-baked cake donut with frosting and sprinkles. Although identical, mine is apparently much tastier than his own, so within thirty seconds of sitting at our table Parker is in my lap and thoroughly enjoying himself. "CHEESE!" for the camera - what a cute-patoot, I can't get enough of him.
So many yummy things to choose from at Daube's...
10:10 - Our bellies are satisfied and we find ourselves stuck watching a traffic light cycle for about five minutes before we are finally allowed through the intersection...more construction? I feel like the whole city of Rochester is under construction this September: just outside our neighborhood two separate projects are underway [one on the road, another on a building reconstruct]; over on the west side of Costco, a field is being turned into some sort of development [more housing? Retail? It's not clear yet what's going in there]; 2nd street between Mayo and daycare is totally torn up with the road expansion that started in the spring; there's a Texas Roadhouse being constructed in the Wal-Mart parking lot; on the other side of Wal-Mart's parking lot they are digging-up and re-laying concrete for some reason; and now Broadway downtown for several blocks is totally torn up as well. We had a beautiful summer with low humidity, so why have all these projects sprung up right at the weather begins to turn on us in preparation for winter? They don't back things up too badly (come on, it's Rochester, where 'rush hour' equates to an extra five minutes in your commute if even that much), and the opportunity to see so many trucks everywhere we go is so much fun for Parker.
10:25 - We've successfully weaved through all the construction and have found ourselves at another fabric store on the south end of town. Still no luck on the fabric I have in mind, so we again leave disappointed.
10:50 - We arrive back at home, playing peek-a-boo games in the rear-view mirror to keep a drifting Parker awake in his carseat. If he falls asleep on the way home for even a few minutes then I can kiss his three-hour nap good-bye!
10:55 - Serve up some applesauce for the munchkin. Yum yum!
11:05 - Snuggles on the couch while reading books. His favorite lately is a construction book: we like to find all of the trucks, dogs, cats, and birds on every page. And then he snaps it shut about two pages from the end like so often happens with his books :) No amount of explaining will convince him to let me read the last two pages today.
11:15 - Is Parker ready to be potty trained? Over the last couple of weeks he has been letting us know that he has a messy diaper; today, he told me in advance of him going. I try twice to sit him on the toilet over the course of ten minutes, but I think the toilet confuses him still because both times he stops trying to go potty when I set him up there. I finally give up and sure enough, within five minutes he is stinky and up on the changing table. Darn, but maybe soon we'll find success.
11:30 - An early wake-up warrants an early nap; he puts up a small fight, but he gives in to his drowsiness a few minutes later.
What a novel this is for only five hours of time elapsed - life with a toddler is never dull! As Derek asks on a regular occasion, "how many of these things do we want again??" We sure do love him though!
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