Where did my baby go?

I don't know when it happened, but my baby is now a toddler. He is so big and proud of his new accomplishments, and while I am proud of him sometimes I miss my baby boy.

I put him down for a nap he took off his shirt. He was playing in their room and climbed up on the dresser and pulled his sister's32 CD player down on his nose. If you look closely you can see the cut in his nose.

Climbing Dad got him down.

Climbing again.

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL. I think so not because she is my daughter.

Halloween

Not one of my favorite holidays. It is usually cold, wet, snowing, did I say cold. Well, this year it was BEAUTIFUL! Utah was beautiful and warm...Ariel was very happy. The kids had a great time! Although in our house every day is a dress up day. Here are a few pictures. Tori could not decide between Ariel or Tinkerbell so for Pre-School she was Tinkerbell and for Trick-or-Treating she was Ariel.

Mundane

I honestly can say that life in the Parrotti household has been a little slow and mundane, which is good. Trust me I enjoy life when it is predictable. Now I have probably jinxed myself, but oh well. There is not very much new and exciting. Unless you count the fact that my house looks as if a tornado has struck. My mom said that a TORInado has struck..she is right. I love my little girl, but she LOVES to be messy. She is polite she does thank me for helping when I help her clean up. Mikey and Tori continue to grow and learn new things daily. Tori is becoming a very good reader and Mikey is learning new words and phrases every day. So I leave you with a few cute pictures of two of my favorite people.

Tori's Halloween Costume

Isn't he adorable?

She is getting is SO big

She is beautiful

Mikey's latest trick...pushing his sister out of the way

Just Words Continued... Mikey Milestones

Jared is still gone with the camara which is sad because Mikey has reached a few milestones today. This all happened BEFORE 11:30am

• Was FINALLY successful (he has his dad's short Italian legs) able to climb up onto the kitchen chair.
• Promptly went from the chair to the kitchen table to dance in the middle of the table...pure delight.
• I changed the sheets on his bed. I put him down for his morning nap. Instead of sleeping he removed his diaper and PEED all over his bed...GROSS

We went out. I had had enough of his milestones. Upon our return.

• he learned that he can reach whatever he wants with the assistance of the kitchen chair (ie he can now reach the power button to the golden calf) again...pure delight
• he threw spaghetti around the kitchen for dinner, and put spaghetti in his hair
• likes to pull his sister's hair so that he can take the toy that she is playing with...she screams in pain, he screams in delight

He is one happy boy. I have not even been upset. It was a good day. Active, busy, slightly challenging, but a good day to be a mom.

Just Words and Random Thoughts

Jared is in New York with the camara and the computer, hence, all of the pictures since the last post. This past month has been busy. Grandma Judi came for a much anticipated visit. It was one of the BEST week's of Tori's life. Mikey is not a Grandma Judi fan...yet. That worked well for Tori. As I have said before Tori and my mom are the same person, and it is almost frightening. Tori and Grandma Judi had a sleepover a a hotel, or as Tori calls it the show and tell. They swam, watched television, played video games and raided the snack area and vending machine multiple times. Did I mentioned they shopped and called people on the cell phone (Tori is proficient at using the cell phone and calls people on a whim)? In fact one day I caught her with my cell phone explaining to her brother that if "you just press 3 you can talk to Grandma Judi" (speed dial). She is cute. She is a little annoyed with me right now because I won't teach her how to text "I can read and write" (she can). However, let's be honest I cannot text. It is so frustrating and quite frankly I think texting makes me feel old because I get so frustrated. Futhermore why does a 4 year-old need to text??? In short the week with Grandma Judi was WONDERFUL, and we miss her. I wish you would just live closer.

It appears as though fall is upon us. We are in the middle of October already! Jared will be done with school in eight short weeks. We are so excited. Where are we going from here? Hopefully to New York, time will tell in the very near future.

As I mentioned earlier Jared is gone. One day down only five more to go. As I dread doing the parenting thing alone (Jared is a great Dad, but you already know that), I think of my friend and sister-in-law (she will always be my sister-in-law even if she is no longer married to Jared's brother and has remarried another man) whose husband just left for his deployment to Iraq, and I remember six days really is not that long. It is all about keeping perspective.

I am now a converted fan of Facebook. I joined Facebook two years ago when I became a Hall Advisor at BYU as a way to connect with my residents. Over the course of the last two years I have found Facebook as a very useful tool. Frequently my residents send me a message. Recently Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with some of my high school friends. It has been great to see what is going on in their lives. I have really enjoyed reconnecting with some very dear friends. I lost track of a lot of people when my parents divorced six years ago and moved from my hometown. Divorce brings with it so many residual losses that you do not anticipate (that is a blog for another day, or better yet probably a topic for a LONG overdue therapy session).

I have been awake since 4am and I am tired. I apologize for the randomness of my thoughts. I will probably edit this in the morning.

The Tea Party

Isn't this the cutest thing EVER? They took their tea party very seriously

Tori is really friendly and likes to make friends, however, one of her very FAVORITE friends is Kaylie. Kaylie and Tori have really similar personalities and enjoy spending time together. Sometimes they will argue, but they LOVE to play together. Tori has been asking to have Kaylie over for a tea party. This morning we did it! The girls had some much fun eating muffins and drinking apple juice. As a mom I enjoyed teaching Tori some etiquette (serve your guest first, ask your guest if they would like more, Kaylie loves Ariel let's make sure she has an Ariel plate and cup, and of course sharing). The girls had so much fun. Of course after the tea party it was time to play dress-up...they love to be princesses.

We are Alive!!!

We are alive and well. The time has just flown by so quickly. Where did summer go? My summer students checked out, and the fall students checked in. The students have been in school for the last 10 days and my life seems to FINALLY be slowing down. The summer was insane. I felt as though I worked constantly. I knew that it was true because every time Tori had the opportunity she would turn the sign on the door so that it indicated that it was my DAY OFF. As I have said before motherhood + work = GUILT. And I usually feel guilty most of the time.

We have done quite a bit over the last few weeks, but I can only find the pictures from the State Fair on the camera...I think that Jared may have downloaded the rest of the pictures onto his computer. He is asleep and I am afraid of his computer so you get to look at a few pictures from the State Fair.

Tori is pretending to pick apples here. There is an exhibit Little hands on Farm where the kids have the opportunity to learn about the connection between the and the grocery store. The exhibit is fun. Tori had a good time. Actually any time she can play in dirt is a good time as far as she is concerned.
Isn't he cute? He is just hanging out watching his sister. Check out his adorable new walking shoes. OK so he is not THRILLED with the shoes, but it is getting colder. I think that the shoes are cute, and that he looks dapper in them.

This was Tori's favorite part of the day...riding a pony. She told me that she is a COWGIRL and she needs pink cowgirl boots. Tori finds life to be a shoe shopping opportunity.

Jared has just started his LAST semester! We are so excited. Our plans? Most likely we will be moving back to New York by April. We really want Tori to start Kindergarten where we plan to stay. As odd as this may sound Utah has grown on me. As I comtemplate our impeding move I think about some of the things that I will miss here. There is nothing better than a Utah peach or apricot.

Our children are growing. I can't believe how quickly the time goes by. Michael is currently getting FOUR molars at once. He is not even that cranky. He continues to love to explore. We have discovered that he does have a love for cars. He turns anything into a car. His father's wireless mouse, dolls, cups, etc. Yesterday Tori wore her Lightning McQueen pants he got sooooooo excited that he kept kissing her pants! It was really funny.

Tori loves to cook. Today we made an apple pie together. Anytime that I am cooking she is in the kitchen with me standing on a chair insisting that she help. She does freak out about the "fire " from the gas stove and oven, but other than that minor set back she is an excellent help.

Life is going really well and I promise that I will try to improve my blogging timelyness (is that a word)