Let me explain...

For the record, I do not purposely teach my child inappropriate songs.  Most of the time I don't even know how he learns (or hears) some of these songs...mainly because we have to download them after he starts singing them.  This is not an excuse, however, that I can use for his latest obsession...'I'm Sexy and I Know it.'  I know what you're thinking, but let me explain...this is all Brady's fault. ;)

Brady took Parker with him on an errand a few months ago.  When he got back, Brady goes, "go tell mommy what you learned."  P comes over and says, "I'm sesy an I know it!"  Brady then decided to download the song on the computer...with P in his lap...I don't know if you've seen the LMFAO album cover, but it shows a woman's belly.   For the next week, he kept asking, "can I see her belly?"  Oh geez...well, now he just says, "I want to listen to 'body parts'.  Can you find 'body parts.'"  Unfortunately, because he knew what the album cover looks like, he was soon able to find it on my phone himself...shoot...

Thankfully

Thankfully, Parker has slept until at least 6:15 for the last four days (until 7 once)!!
Thankfully, the amazing weather has continued...seriously, where am I?
Thankfully, I don't live in Kansas right now because 78 degrees now feels like 95...it's amazing how things change in a year!
Thankfully, I stay home with Parker and get plenty of moments like these...

Thankfully, we live in England for one of the most amazing summers in history...Diamond Jubilee, Olympics, wahoo! (although this does mean that the union jack has pretty much 'thrown up' everywhere you look)
Thankfully, Saturday was for Brady/Parker time which meant my friend Mandy and I had a shopping day:)

Thankfully, we found a highly recommended babysitter that Parker likes...doesn't make me any less nervous.
Thankfully, this means Brady and I have our first date night in A YEAR on Friday...it is only a quick dinner to make sure P does ok, but I'll take it!
Thankfully, I got to watch my friend, Mandy's daughter, Ellie on Friday which means I was able to capture this...

And finally....thankfully, Parker's stuttering has ceased...he has been stuttering since Christmas and one day last week he woke up and it was gone.  

Crazy

Whoa, is it really Friday?  That seems crazy...awesome...but crazy...we've been busy this week and the time has flown by!  I think part of it has to do with the AMAZING weather we have had.  I'm not kidding...it has been at least 60 all week and then yesterday it was almost 80 degrees!!  Holy cow, it's a miracle.  This means that P and I have been spending lots of time outside.  Picnics, parks, walks (oh and yes, the football outfit came out a few times too)...you name it, we've done it.  This also means that we have been exhausted by the end of the day...I'll take it.

Here are a few of the highlights...
At a open house for P's new school (hopefully in 2013), Parker said, "Mommy!  That lady has a baby in her belly!"  Nope, she did not...shoot...color me embarrassed...

Parker went right up to a little girl named Ember at the open house and held her hand...he will be fine..

I spilled my coffee two seconds before walking into mommy/toddler time at church and Parker tells me, "it's ok mommy, everyone spills their coffee sometimes."  Smart kid.

We got to have lunch with P's little friends from toddler time in the park one day and my friend, Kat, the next...I love picnics!

Parker told me, "Katie is going to drive me crazy!"  Seriously, this was out of the blue and Katie (Mandy's oldest daughter) wasn't even there...weird...

KiKi has also come back this week...but now Parker will say, "I'm pretending that KiKi is here."  Hmmm, ok, as long as you know.

Anyway, it has been a fantastic week!!  I seriously need to start doing 'Parkerisms' again because I feel like he has been cracking me up lately and I don't even remember!!  Shoot!  Here are some random pictures for the grandparents!o

Jaime

How lucky am I?  Seriously, in the last 6 months, my good friend, Jaime, has had to come to London for work...twice.  I can't tell you how nice it has been to see her!  She had a free day yesterday so P and I took the train to London to hang out for the afternoon...it was fantastic!  She made my whole year!

The weekend according to my phone

We had a pretty laid back weekend...P has a cold so we took it pretty easy.

We had lunch with Brady at a riverside pub...there were a ton of swans (all of the white dots you see above) and P was going crazy!!

 We went and tried on glasses with Brady...we looked down and P was trying on glasses too...oops!

Brady had to work so I took P to see Beauty and the Beast 3D...this was my FAVORITE movie when I was younger (I would not only say and sing all of the words, but act them out too...no wonder my brother hates it)

We took Amish Parker to church (am I allowed to say that?)

And we went shopping for P some new pants...Parker was more interested in the hats!

We also had dinner with Matt, Mandy and there girls on Saturday...I can't believe I didn't take a picture...P is obsessed with Gracie...it is kind of funny, if you're not Gracie:)

Shock-e-bow!

Warning...this post is really just for me so I don't forget:)

Ok, so I don't know if this is exactly how Parker would spell it, but that is what it sounds like...P says, "Shock-e-bow!" every time he is excited or doesn't want to answer a question or is trying to make us laugh...we asked him where he came up with this, and he told us Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Hmmm, for one, P doesn't get to watch that very often, and two, I have watched it and studied it listening for this word...seriously, I have no idea.  Crazy kid!

Today

Ok, so this is more like the last 48 hours...

P decided to put on his pirate costume...without pants...I love listening to him say, 'yo ho!'

Brady decided the dinner menu wasn't appetizing (I can't say I blame him:)...so we went to our good 'ol standby, Zizzis...P took a lot of pictures of himself as 'chef parker'

P wanted a picture of himself with the statue and his new paint job...the Norwich art festival is going on right now so he gets a new paint job every few days.

 We went and watched the 'dinosaur petting zoo' at the forum...two days in a row...Parker was totally enthralled...it was so cold the first day and I couldn't get him to watch from inside so we had to get some hot chocolate after...we also had to go in and check out a dinosaur book from the library after...it was kind of the most ridiculous/awesome thing I've seen in a while.

This is a picture of P on the first day when the dinosaur walked right by him growling (I know, crazy, right?)  However, P still wanted to come back the second day...thank goodness.

We went to the castle...it has 'pop in for a pound' during the noon hour and this is the first time we've taken advantage...silly mommy...

B's family in London!!

We are so blessed.  Brady's mom, aunt, and brother came into town last week and we had a great time. We packed as much as we could into the time they were here...it was great, and exhausting.  They literally took planes, trains and automobiles to come and see us...long story short...beware of American Airlines vouchers when your plane gets detoured (and subsequently cancelled in Moline, IL).

Here are a few highlights...

P peed in a McDonalds cup at Buckingham Palace...seriously...more specifically it was next to the wall in Green Park...London should really have more public restrooms in public parks...

Janae, Cortney and Deb randomly ended up in a car to Chicago with a man from Bristol...they felt like they knew him so well after their travel ordeal, that I heard, "I feel like Greg should be here" more than once:)

I accidentally dropped P's 'big cow' on the train tracks...and cried...luckily a maintenence man rescued it...I cried again...

Janae and Cortney made it to Norwich's famous club-lined street, Prince of Wales Road, and made lots of fun new friends. (yeah, Brady and I are pansies)

We ate sticky toffee pudding three times for dessert...if you have never had this...you should...

Janae and I ate fish and chips for two meals in a row...what?  When in England...:)

A man on the London Eye kept taking pictures of Parker with London in the background...then he asked if P could take a picture with him...I'm trying not to worry about this...

I know there are more that I am forgetting, but in short (ha), we had a wonderful time and I am so glad they came!!

the giving tree

'Once there was a tree, and she loved a little boy.'

I know that I have read the poem 'The Giving Tree' at some point along the way (for some reason I always think of 5th grade gifted class when I think of Shel Silverstein).  However, I don't think I really read (or understood) it until I became a mother.  Recently, it has become Parker's favorite book so we have been reading it a lot.  

In some silly way, this book has made me appreciate our parents even more than I already thought I did.  I know that I would give anything to make Parker happy...I also know that our parents did and gave everything they had to make us happy.  I know that part of that is supporting our decision to live over here because it makes us happy (good opportunity might be more accurate:)... even if it sacrifices their own happiness.  

I had prepared myself for holidays over here...knowing that would be hard without our families near...Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.  However, I don't think I had prepared myself for how hard Mother's Day would be.  I think I had forgotten how much importance I had putting on being there for our moms.   Just knowing that they were sad because we weren't there was so hard.  Don't get me wrong...they didn't say a word, but you just know.  

I guess the point of this post is to let our parents know that we know what they have given up to support us over the years and to make us happy.  I cannot tell you how much we appreciate everything they have done for us.  We love you so much!!

"And the boy loved the tree...ver much.  And the tree was happy." 

america's got talent

This morning was just one of those mornings...we were both exhausted...as we were running to the gym, I noticed we were getting more stares than usual (the music usually gets a few)...then I looked and remembered I let P go like this...

sometimes its just easier to let him wear what he wants to wear...we had made a deal, if he let me go to the gym, we would play football in the park...he pushed his stroller all the way from the gym to the park...

when we got to the park, he took off his sweatshirt and we started playing...within a few minutes, a class of kids came to eat lunch...parker was the entertainment...they cheered for every touchdown, caught pass and throw...they especially enjoyed P's 'touchdown dance'...by the time we left they were all 'raising the roof' with Parker!

the kids were cracking me up...here are a few of my favorite quotes...

'is that what they wear in America?'  

(apparently, my workout clothes in addition to P's outfit was just too much)

'America's got talent!'

'no, Parker's got talent!'

'he's going to be famous someday!'

Whew

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks...Brady's family has been here visiting for the past week.  It was awesome.  We are exhausted.  More pictures to come...but here is a sneak peat at how excited P was...:)

team socks

One of my favorite parts of the day is our afternoon walk.  Sometimes we go to the bookstore and look at the books and animals...sometimes we go to the library...sometimes we go and get coffee and a marshmallow...sometimes we just go kick (or throw) the ball around the park.  Yesterday, we went to the bookstore and the park.  

First, we stopped at the bookstore and P tried to convince me that we needed to buy all of the giraffes..."we need to buy these giraffes and take them home so they can be with their family."  I'm not going to lie...it was a pretty convincing argument...but I was strong and we left with nothing.  Whew.

Next, the park...I'm so glad we stopped at the park...P is actually pretty awesome at kicking the ball...he kicks mainly with his right foot which adds further confusion to the 'righty or lefty' argument (eats, hits and golfs with left, throws and kicks with right). We had so. much. fun.  Seriously, I love this guy.  I especially got a kick out of him wanting to wear his 'team socks' with his football jersey and football shorts.  Yep, they say GAP, but whatever floats his boat.  Oh, and yes, I totally let him wear them up all around  town before we went to play...not ashamed:).

this and that

So...we've been back for almost a week...p is battling sleep...and he's still winning...darn...I'm battling sleep too and unfortunately, still winning also...shoot...I took my driving theory test, and passed...barely...lesson, never take a test you haven't studied for within 24 hours of traveling overseas...we broke out the wagon yesterday...seriously, I love watching people stop and stare...in short, we're surviving...I need some sleep...