The Caldwell Clan: April 2011

Parker Loves to help make cookies

Parker at the Monster Truck show with Papa

Christmas at the Caldwells

These moments are few and far between. He never falls asleep on his own, and never in random spots.

Pumpkin Patch

In his undies!

All ready for work

Jolly Green Giant

Yes he does get into makeup

Where to start with Parker....he is our little monkey, and ball of energy. He is now 3 years old, but wants to be 4 so bad. He asks me every day, "Mom am I 4 yet?" I continue to have to tell him no and that he won't be 4 until it gets hot out. He still continues to ask though. When there is a commercial on the TV with a toy he will scream for me, even if I am upstairs. If I tell him I am busy he will continue to scream, "HURRY MOM, HURRY!!!!!" I will run as fast as I can to catch the commercial, and he will say so sweetly, " Mom can I hab that for my birtday?" I always just say maybe. Parker loves to jump and climb on anything and everything. He is always climbing on the back of moms nice couches, and that is always a no, no. But he continues to do it. He is also always walking across the kitchen counters and getting into everything. He is not the best listener, and I am not the best at disciplining him. Anytime I try he just laughs in my face and I just get more frustrated, because I want him to realize he is being naughty and to listen. I feel like I am being tough, but I guess I need to figure out a better method. Any ideas would be much appreciated. I also need to work on the education part with him. I look at my sister Megan who is so good at teaching her kids things, and I am some what envious that I can't get my act together and just do it. And really that is all it is, it's me being lazy and saying I will eventually do it. So for now he is pretty close to writing his name and can count to 14. After 14 he just skips to 18 and then just spouts out random numbers. My mom is really good at pulling out worksheets for him, and I give her all the credit for him learning his name. I will now have a goal to work on with Paisley, and to do a better job with Parker. Parker is still skinny as ever. We will usually fine him running around in just his underwear. He hates putting clothes on. So seeing him with nothing on always reminds me of how tiny he is. He can still wear 24 month clothes, but they are getting to short for him. So we have a hard time with pants fitting him. The only thing he ever wants to eat is sugar. Go figure he takes after his Mom. That's another goal I have is to do better with getting healthy things into his body. I suppose I should take him to the doctors to get him checked out, to make sure he is not withering away. Parker sure does love anything to do with his dad. Parker loves anything to do with the Fire station. The other night when we were saying our nigh time prayers, he said," Thankful for that I could here the fire station." We had heard fire trucks right before bed and he always calls them fire stations. Another time we were driving to my work, and he saw a boy walking on the side of the road, and he said, "Look mom, its a missionary man like Brady!" So I asked him if he was going to go on a mission when he got older. So he said, " Yeah, and a fire station man like my daddy." So I asked him why he wanted to be a fire station man and he said, "So I can drive fire trucks, play with water, climb on top of houses, but I won't get hurt cause I am strong man!" I just love that Parker looks up to his Dad so much. When Chase gets home from the station Parker just gets a big smile on his face, because he has missed his daddy so much. We sure do love our little Parker, he has taught us so much about being parents, and continues to teach me new things everyday.

I am going to do a few different posts to make this easier for me, so here is an update on our little Paisley. I obviously have not posted since she was born, so she was born August 17, 2011 by c-section. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz. She was quite small compared to our little Parker when he was born. I was really nervous for the transition of 1 kid to 2. Worried of how Parker would treat his little sister, and if he would torture her. But the transition went great!! Parker was not quite sure what to think of Paisley at first, but shortly warmed up to her, and wanted to hold her and give kisses all the time. He loves his little sister, and Paisley sure does love him. Paisley may be cute, but she sure has been a tough baby. The first couple of weeks of her life, I thought what a piece of cake!!! She slept all the time, and never cried. The only part I had a hard time with was nursing. For some reason my children hate nursing and it is so stressful for me. My mom finally asked me one day if I was enjoying it, and I said no. So she told me to just stop. I had so many mixed feeling about it, because I wanted to be a good Mom and give my baby the best nutrition that she could get, but she was not having it. So to formula we went. Anyways, after the first month of Paisleys life, our honeymoon was over. I realized I had a baby with Colic! It was AWFUL, and I never wish it upon anyone. She would scream and scream anytime we put her down, so getting anything done was out of the question unless she was sleeping. And even that was not for very long. She would nap from anywhere from 20 mins to an hour. Anything longer then that was very rare and still is. It is sad that I didn't get to enjoy the first 6 months of her life. I just wanted her to grow up so she would be happier. Paisley is now 7 1/2 months old and we just love her so much. She still has her bad days, but nothing like before. She has been sitting for a couple of months now, and is trying her hardest to learn to crawl. She can roll from front to back and she can scoot back on her belly. She doesn't last long before she starts crying, but she will get there. Her big brother has set the standard high for her, he was crawling at 6 months and walking by 10. So we will see how she does. For now we will enjoy her not getting into everything.