The Life of Rob & Jess Plus Two: July 2016

Dear Parker,

How can it be that you have turned TWO?! I look at you and think, where did my baby go? The saying is definitely true: the days can be long, but the years are short. My oh my! You’ve changed so much in the last six months and even the entire year. Months 0-12 are mind blowing, but so are months 12-24! You have definitely turned into a little toddler and you know how to assert yourself… mostly by saying, “no.”

Your language has exploded! You speak pretty clearly and can string up to 4 words together, but it’s usually 2-4 words. As a side note, after going home for the 4^th of July and having everyone else try to understand you, I realize you pretty much talk like a 2-year old… only your mom and dad understand you….but hey, I think you talk great! You have mastered saying your favorite animal.. elephant.. correctly. You can pronounce all syllables now and you can thank your dad for that… he spent many hours practicing with you. I’m so proud of what all you can say and every day you say something new. You know that Green means Go, and Red means Stop. You also know what a stop sign is…. And when you see other signs on the road, you call them “yellow stop sign”, etc. It’s pretty adorable. You just talk and talk and talk.

You’ve started role playing and you will feed your elephant your snack. You can stack up to 8 blocks together at a time but you still get great joy out of knocking them down. Per usual, you love to be outside. You don’t mind that its 100 degrees outside, ever. Though, you now say, “sun bright” or “sun hurt eyes.” But, you refuse to wear a hat. I think its because daddy never wears a hat. Sometimes you will wear your ‘shades,’ but not for very long.

We’ve had lots of visits from DD Nana & T-Pa and we even took you to Sea World and stayed in San Antonio. You had so much fun. The sea lion show caught your attention and of course you liked Shamu. You were such a trooper. That was your first overnight hotel stay and you did great. Though, daddy didn’t like how we all pretty much had to go to bed at the same time! But, oh well. You slept great and had so much fun. We did this trip over Mother’s Day weekend.

You are definitely cautious and you like to watch for a while before doing anything new. You don’t like for us to really help you, but need to figure it out on your own. You aren’t a climber or anything like that, but you do like to jump on the trampoline and run around like crazy. SO MUCH ENERGY.

You have your own real tool set and you love to help daddy “fix it.” You work on the power washer with daddy and the lawn mower. You also love to help daddy “lawnmower,” “weeder” and “bo bo” (blower). You could do that for hours with dad. I hope you and your daddy will always be this close and that you’ll always love doing yardwork!

You like most any toys that you can build with and trucks as well. We recently found this YouTube Twenty Trucks channel that has fun kid songs to all sorts of trucks. You are able to identify the following trucks: cement mixer, garbage truck, dump truck, food truck, crane truck, concrete boom pump, fire truck, ambulance, digger (excavator), and bulldozer. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but as we drive down the road you are always pointing them out to me and mom has definitely learned a few lessons as it relates to trucks.

We rented a condo and stayed at the beach in Galveston for a long weekend. The weather wasn't that great as it was pretty cold and windy for a good part of the trip. But, you didn't seem to mind. We just strolled up and down the beach with the wagon. You didn't particularly care for the water, but you didn't mind being in your swim suit while it was cold. Your favorite part was the foot washer coming in from the boardwalk. You through the biggest fit every time we left the foot shower. You did great on the overnight vacay!

Daddy also built you a sandbox, but you don't play in it very much. It requires lots of participation from me or your daddy and we don't particularly care for playing in sand very much.. so therefore, you don't play in sand very much.

You are a very good meat eater and will eat pretty much anything if we call it chicken, steak or sausage. Your favorite foods are steak fajitas with refried beans. You can eat refried beans like you’re a trash compactor. It’s quite amazing. You don’t care for any vegetables and you are even picky with your fruits… you will eat blueberries or strawberries and sometimes peaches or apples. It’s real hit or miss with fruit. You also like cheese and of course YOGURT. You eat yogurt every day.

We just enrolled you in gymnastics class and you are CRAZY in that class. You run around like a person who just found out he won a million bucks. But, you smile and laugh and have fun. You do nothing the teacher says and lose focus in about 5 seconds. BUT, I have discovered you are picking up things from gymnastics because at home you will try to do a forward roll, you can do a straddle, you can do a pike, you jump and can do a tuck. So, you are paying attention, but you won’t do it at gymnastics. You love the trampoline the most. On side note, on July 7^th you finally did the trapeze at gymnastics! This is a huge win because it required you going up there all by yourself and letting the coach help you.

Most of all, you just really, really love your daddy. You love doing anything with him and he puts so much energy into playing with you. The love is mutual kiddo. I love watching you two together and you’re so smart because daddy is so patient with you. He has the patience of a saint with you. You two are always laughing and he teaches new things to you all the time. I fully believe you’ll be building engines with him by the time you are 5.

One of your current phrases is “Better” but it sounds like “Betta.” If you get hurt you’ll ask me to kiss your boo-boo and then will look at me and say “Betta.” It melts my heart. You also say “I love you” and will generally repeat anything we say.

You are going to be a big brother! I know it’s going to be a tough adjustment for you, but you will be a great big brother! You will teach him so much and I can’t wait to see you two become best of friends. You haven’t really figured out that mom is going to have another baby, but you will soon! J

Here are a few more fun facts:

· You wear size 5 diapers, but mom plans on potty training you in July.
· You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and typically have a snack in the AM & PM
· You sleep from about 8:30-8:30 on the weekends with a 2.5 hour nap and you sleep from about 8PM – 6:30 AM on the weekdays with a 1.5 to 2 hour nap at daycare.
· You wear size 18-24 M clothes—2T is still a little big with the pants being very long.
· You are 37” inches tall (90%) and weigh 30 lbs (70%)
· You tell me when you’re ready to go “night night” if we’re reading too long and all mom has to do is drop you in the crib, tuck you in your blanket with your animals and off to sleep you go. I love this about you. You’re such a great sleeper!!
· You love your elephant still and its definitely your security object.
· You love stuffed animals and pretty much one of your animals is your favorite animal at some point. My favorite saying is “Pooh Bear” when you talk to Pooh. It’s so sweet sounding.
· We just moved you into a bigger room, but we have left you in your crib. I don’t see why we should mess up a good thing.. so I’ll wait to put you in your big boy bed for probably another year or until you figure out how to climb out. We’ll see!
· You know your colors, can recognize letters a through f when you see them, know that numbers exist, but I can’t get you to really count in the right order. You know all your animals as well as their sounds.
· You know the ‘abc’ song and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”—though you won’t actually sing them. If I pause somewhere during the song you will tell me what the word should be.
· We are conquering your fear of water and you have mastered the water slide at our favorite water park, Noah’s Ark.
· The only game you will play on the iPad is Peak-A-Boo barn which lasts approximately 4 minutes.
· You like to help mom cook and you kneel on the stool at the counter and help me stir and pour.

We love you baby boy, always and forever. I pray that you always be this sweet, smart boy with heart of gold. I can’t wait to watch you become a big brother in the next 2.5 months!