Conquered!

Mission accomplished!  Parker has successfully conquered the stairs of death and Landon conquered his first day of preschool.  They are getting so big, which is both good and bad.  Good because I like their independence, bad because every day they are getting closer to being big, hairy, stinky teenagers.
I don't do baby gates so the pressure was on to teach Parker how to maneuver the stairs (a death trap because they aren't carpeted) and like all children, he reminded me I was not the one in control.  He refused to slide down the stairs feet first on his tummy.  I tried and tried but he wouldn't do it.  So I compromised.  I know, crazy huh?  I taught him to absolutely, positively, never ever go down the stairs.  So he didn't.  It was great.  Especially when we were in Utah and staying in different homes every few days, all of which had stairs.  Now he's free to roam the house from top to bottom spreading messes everywhere.
Landon is a big whopping 4-year old going to preschool for a couple hours every afternoon.  Of course he loves it.  I overheard him saying his prayers on the second day of school and it went something like this, "Heavenly Father, help me to make friends at school.  But not with the girls."  Yes, my sweet boy.  Stay far, far away from those girls.  At least until your twenty-one.

going up

coming down