Archive for June, 2005

When James was born, there was an extra thrill of surprise associated with not knowing ahead of time whether he was a boy or girl. Since we had to pick out a male and female names ahead of time, we didn't share them with anyone ahead of time, because the name we didn't use would be a leading contender if we needed it later. As it happens, Baby Parker #2 did turn out to be the appropriate gender (or so we think at the moment!), and so that's still pretty much the plan.

But so far, we've kept our naming thoughts to ourselves. Mostly, just out of habit, after keeping it a secret so long, but also partially out of a feeling that a little privacy just felt right. And, I guess, also out of practicality in case we wanted to change our mind at the last minute… and probably at least a little bit out of sheer orneriness. Whatever the detailed reasons, though, it's been a pillowtalk discussion and we've successfully kept it just between ourselves so far.

Then, Lauren decided to bring James into the loop. Just an offhand comment one day; up until then James thought that the baby's name was "Baby Sister".

Have I mentioned his scary memory? Not a photographic memory, exactly… more a phonographic memory. Anything you say to him, he remembers for weeks and weeks.

In other news, James doesn't do secrets. He tells Lauren the baby's name. He tells me the baby's name. He tells the coffee table the baby's name. He tells his aunts and uncles the baby's name. He shouts it into the microphone at church when someone standing nearby just mentions the baby. And it's not his fault, so you can't scold him or anything, but Lauren is constantly poised to clap her hand over his mouth and try one more time to make keeping secrets sound like a fun game. So far, luckily, we've made it without anyone understanding what he was saying, but it's a race against time. So don't ask.

Cradle bedding

I'm feeling really good for being 2 and a half weeks from my due date! Just a little crowded, is all. :) The baby is wedged between my bladder and my ribs, and when she tries to stretch out, I feel it! I think James is ready for "baby sister" to make her appearance (at least he thinks so now!) It's hard to believe we'll have 2 little ones soon! I am still going on with normal life right now, singing in the praise team at church and going to softball games that I really want to be playing in! I have finally finished the bumper pad that I've been working on for our cradle, so I feel a little more ready for the baby. It was a lot more work than I had intended it to be—I didn't realize what I was getting into. I appliqued 16 stars and moons around the outside and added piping at the top. These don't seem like that much work, but they were more complicated than I thought they should be. I am quite pleased with the finished product, though! Here are some more pictures.

Big-boy bed

Big-boy swing

James is beginning to migrate to the "big-boy" versions of his daily activities and accessories. A couple of days ago I replaced the side of his crib with a short rail, so now he sleeps in a "big-boy bed". He can't get up into the "big-boy swing" all by himself yet, but he taught himself how to lay across it and run forwards until it swoops him off his feet. "I go 'round and 'round!" We're starting to get the hang of "big-boy cups", but he usually forgets to lower them back down before taking his mouth off. We've experimented with the "big-boy potty" a few times, and he gets the concept, but doesn't seem quite interested enough to take the required proactive approach. Now, I just need to stop visualizing the Shoney's Big Boy sitting on the potty every time we have one of these conversations.

Cool dude

Elephants are bigger than we thought
(and Mama's pretty big, too!)

Today we went to the zoo! James had a good time, but wasn't quite as impressed as I thought he would be. It was crazy hot—up around 100 degrees—and I think he mostly just got hot and tired. He was pretty impressed with the gorillas and monkeys and elephants, though. I thought the giraffes would be a big hit, but he was more impressed with the water in their pen. "Green water, Daddy!"

It's taken us four or five purchases and returns, but we've finally found a pair of sunglasses that will stay on James without pinching his head like a vise. He's extremely proud of them. Sometimes when I come home from work, he will have talked Lauren into letting him wear them: "Hi, Daddy! I cool dude!"

James's memory is almost scary sometimes.

We've mentioned before how he'll pop up weeks later singing things that we sang to him at bedtime weeks before. This morning at church, he sang Amazing Grace in its entirety, without prompting, into the microphone to the great appreciation of the praise team and orchestra: 'Ma-zing GACE, sweeeet SOUND, dat SAVED, wrench, like MEEEEEEE. Once was LOST, but now FOUND, was bind, but now, I SEEEEEE!

The other day we were trying to teach James his full name. Jay was trying to get his attention and called him "James David". James said, "No, James Parker." Jay tried to explain that he was James David Parker, and James got very upset: "No! James Parker! James Parker, Daddy!"

James wet and mysterious

James wet and cute

June 14 drought map

James has become a big fan of sprinklers.

The fact that Arkansas is in the middle of a drought that was just upgraded from "moderate" to "severe" means that the sprinkler is running somewhere in the yard almost every night in order to give the whole thing a drink at least once a week… so if you let him out your sight for half a second outdoors, he'll come running back with water dripping from his hair. "I get wet, Daddy!" He is starting to learn the word "sprinkler", but still prefers to think of it as rain: "Rainin', Daddy! Rainin' outside! [pause] I want get in it? I want get in it pleeeeease?"

Baby clothes come in pink

Some ladies from church threw a baby shower for Lauren this morning, and we actually own girl stuff now! All of our nursery furnishings for James were gender-neutral since we went the potluck route with him, so what effort we've put into such things so far has all gone towards making the flowerdy-print guest bedroom into a little boy's room. We have a steadily increasing cache of pinkness in the closet, though, ready for deployment at a moment's notice.

My favorite part, though, was the diapers with "inspirational" messages written on the backside with a Sharpie. "This is all Jay's fault", "Where's Dad when you need him?", etc.

Freshly mowed lawn

I spent a large part of Saturday outside doing yard work… and the lawn is newly mowed, edged, with the sidewalks blown clean all on the same day for the first time this year! The fertilizer I spread a couple of weeks ago and the reasonably frequent rain we've been getting have the grass looking better than it ever has. There are still some spots that need topsoil spread to level them out and fill in gaps the landscaping folks left between the sod, and some places that look like they may need another dose of fertilizer to get them going, but at least for the moment I'm no longer afraid that it's all going to die tomorrow.

And now the James story: I was taking a water break after finishing the front yard, and decided to fill up the mower before heading around back. James helped me push the mower around to the garage, and I told Lauren what I was doing and walked off to get the fuel can. As I stepped away, James very purposefully darted over, grabbed a wad of grass clippings and ran back to the mower saying, "I put grass in it! I put grass in it!" I was mildly perplexed about why he suddenly decided this was so important… until Lauren said, "No, James, Daddy said he was going to put gas in it."

Ladies and Gentlemen, Johnny Cash

Lauren brought James to me to me yesterday morning:

• LAUREN: You need to hear what he was singing to himself in bed. [to James] Sing that again for Daddy!
• JAMES: [sing-song] Ring of fi-yah, Ring of fi-yah.
• LAUREN: ...and?
• JAMES: Burns! Burns! Burns! Ring of fi-yah, ring of fi-yah. Burns! Burns! Ring of fi-yah…

I guess this is what I get for singing Johnny Cash to him at bedtime. :)

I have a particular fondness for Ring of Fire because it was my favorite song on my dad's old Johnny Cash record I would occasionally pull out and listen to when I was a kid. (Well, that and How High's the Water, Mama?, but I don't know enough of the verses of that one to sing it to James.) On a tenuously related note, I discovered while googling around while writing this I discovered that A Boy Named Sue was written by another icon of my childhood… Shel Silverstein, of A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends fame.