Kidspace

Kidspace,
originally uploaded by Car2nGrl.

ZAP! Electric Kaleidoscope walls, giant bugs, a working bee hive, bike course, and more. Yup, we've found the location for Parker's birthday party.

Dinner with Oscar

So in honor of the Oscars, we headed over to Thommy and Geoffrey's house and feasted on items inspired by the 5 movies nominated for best picture.

We started by snacking on chocolate -- Cadbury (Frost/Nixon), Ghirardelli (Milk), and Scharffen Berger (The Reader) -- as we got dinner ready. We then started with samosas (Slumdog Millionaire). We then followed that with some delicious gumbo (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) that Geof made from scratch.

After a break where we watched a bit of the Oscar ceremony, we then had bratwurst and sauerkraut (The Reader).

More of the Oscar telecast and then we had dessert -- Watergate cake (Frost/Nixon), which was again made by Geof from scratch, and ice cream and rainbow sherbet (Milk).

Looking back on it all, it was a whole lot of food but fun nonetheless. It'll be interesting to see what we come up with next year.

Mail Trail

So, we're off to the mail box again. This time, Parker gave up on the trike, which was a bit hard to ride back up hill -- even with me and Frankie towing him uphill. So now Piper and I just had to keep up with big brother who pretty much wanted to run the entire way to the mailbox.

Lucky for Frankie, Parker wore his mittens, which means he can play fetch with the pooch without the chucker and NOT get slobber all over his hands.

On the way back, Parker then decided to give up and lay down in the middle of the road and refuse to get up. Yeah, we were now stalled with home just a few minutes away. Time for mom to play hard ball and start up the hill to the house without her little man.

As you can probably guess, he then freaked out because I started up the hill without him.

Sure I felt bad, especially with him working the most pitiful expression. Of course, not so guilty that I didn't whip out the camera and take a few shots of him frowning.

Expressions -- Part 4

Wonder what I see when I look at Piper? Well, not the monkey that seemed to characterize Parker at her age.

Piper's pixie doo makes me think of Janet from Three's Company. Sometimes, when she's cranky, she seems to be channeling Alex Baldwin. (Weird, I know.) When she's insatiably hungry, I can't help but think Veruca Salt. (Something for Chris to look forward to from ''Daddy's Little Girl.'')

Not sure what it all means...except that maybe I'm watching a tad too much TV.

Off to the Mailbox

Off to the Mailbox,
originally uploaded by Car2nGrl.

So, to get a little exercise and blow off a bit of toddler energy, we started to walk (and in Parker's case, ride) to the mailbox in the afternoons to get the mail. As you can see, Parker digs it...even on the rough road.

Just don't stop peddling Parker 'cuz it's a long way down.

Sharing the Love

Parker continues to impress me with his enthusiasm for Piper. Knock on wood. He doesn't seem to be jealous of her and love to show her off, especially at daycare where all his friends also can't seem to get enough of her.

Of course, she's the passive one in the relationship. It'll be interesting to see how the dynamic changes as she becomes more demanding on Parker. Let's hope he can keep up the great attitude.

Expressions -- Part 3

Yes, another set of Piper expressions. As usual, she starts out as interested. But in the end, she just ends up irritated and cranky.

Parker's POV

So the great thing about my camera is that it can ''supposedly'' be dropped from 5ft and submerged in 10ft of water without damage. With that in mind, I've let Parker take control of the shutter every now and then -- which came in handy when Piper was born. With the shaky hand control on, he comes up with some interesting pictures.

Now with the weather outside, today seemed like another good day to give Parker the photographic reins. That said, here are a few of his shots.

Another Snow Day

Another snow day on the ranch, which means Parker couldn't wait to go outside and taste it for himself. He'll need to wait a bit longer to get a good bowlful to eat in front of the TV. Then again, we have the two satellite dishes, which prove to be great snow collectors. All I have to do now it wait for either the TV or internet connection to fail to let me know there's been enough build up.

Expressions -- Part 2

Again, I spend a lot of time looking at Piper so, for those of you jonesing for more pictures of the little girl, I figured I'd share another set of Piper's various expressions. Lucky for you, I seemed to catch her a contemplative mood.