Parker's 3.5 Year Update!

Dear Parker,

My, oh my, how is it that you are 3.5 years old?  I look at you and all I see is boy.  You aren’t a baby anymore and seem to be growing like a weed.  You’re tall enough to look over counters and table tops and 3T pants are almost too short (though I have no idea how we’d get anything bigger to stay up on your waist).  My first born… I love watching you grow up.

You are so stinkin’ cute and logical.  It cracks me up.  “Mom—it’s not cold out!  That means, when it’s not cold out, we can wear shorts!”  Yep- buddy, we can wear shorts (Hello Houston!).  You can spell P-A-R-K-E-R and know all of your ABCs.  You can write PAR ER.  The K is still giving you some trouble which I’m told is totally normal (A, K, V, etc are hard letters b/c you have to make your line go diagonal).  You can count to twenty and are starting to recognize some words by sight.  Watching you write your letters is so fun.  You’ll say “long line down, circle at top” for P.  What’s also funny is that you don’t know when to stop drawing your lines so your letters are always the full page of the paper b/c you stop your line when you reach the end of the paper.  It’s so cute. 

Each night we look up at a canvas mom made before you were born that has various vehicle sounds (Beep Beep, Choo Choo, etc) painted on it.  We’ll lay on your bed and you’ll show me all the letters and then ask me to tell you things that start with the letters.  Of course your favorite letter is P.  You like it when I pretend I don’t know what words starts with P.  You also know your numbers and can do them on your hands, too.  You can count at least to 20 and when we were doing our Advent calendar you always knew where to put the star.  Mom was very impressed.

You still do gymnastics once a night and you crack me up.  You’ll walk out there all on your own and give be a big smile and wave.  You crinkle your eyes and just smile real big.  You are super cautious still and like to observe before you do anything.  You’re not the first one to volunteer to go first and you really need someone to show you what to do before you do it.  I totally get it baby boy.  It’s so cute when you salute, too.  You don’t quite hold your arm up high and instead just bend it over your head (drives your coaches crazy—who am I kidding—it drives me a little bit crazy, too.  Not that I love you any less).  I’m hoping you’ll get the hang of doing a cartwheel.

You have mastered your balance bike and then also this really cool scooter that requires balance.  You have definitely become comfortable on a bike or a scooter and are starting to get a little fearless.  You’ll go up to people’s driveway with bigger hills and go full speed down.  You like playing at the park and just generally being outside.  You, daddy and Andrew will play “crash-tacular” in the living room where most anything goes and you guys jump, wrestle and just, in general, act like wild boys.  You all have so much fun wresting around and being wild.

You absolutely, hands down, love the trampoline best.  Still want to jump with daddy all the time.  You have recently realized that Andrew also likes the trampoline and we can put you two in there by yourselves and you guys will just run around and Andrew thinks its hilarious.  You still prefer to jump just with daddy b/c Andrew can’t do “big” jumps, tho.  You are also very good at soccer.  You follow directions well and love to run.  I’m excited to see where soccer will take you—I think you’re pretty swell at it for the age of 3.

Puzzles are your jam and I’m pretty sure you’re better at them then me.  You also like k’nex and legos and just building things in general.  I heard you saying the world “propulsion” the other day and I knew that you were just like your daddy.  You like playing with trains and building tracks.  You’ve started having the attention span to watch a TV show and we’re definitely still into the Twenty Trucks YouTube channel.  You sing along to the songs and correct all of your friends when they don’t use the proper names for a truck.  You’ll watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then also rocket ship videos we find on YouTube (thank you NASA for recording all of your rocket launches).

You’re still a great sleeper—go to bed at 8:15 and will sleep to around 8 or 8:30.  You still take about a 1.5 to 2 hour nap each day as well.  You like to sleep without pajamas and with all of your stuffed animals.  Sometimes when I go to wake you up in the morning I can’t find you amongst all of your animals!  Little E is still a thing around here as well as Big E.  Though, what’s really taken off in the past six months has been Mickey Mouse. 

You aren’t as big into Thomas the Train anymore—you’re love is Mickey Mouse.  And I have no idea where it came from.  But, you love him nonetheless.  We have 4 little Mickey Mouse stuffed animals and then 2 GIANT (3.5 ft tall) Mickey and Minnie.  You love ALL OF THEM.  They all sleep with you and come downstairs every morning.  It’s so sweet.  When I got you big Mickey and Minnie I had them sitting downstairs one morning before work/school and you came down the stairs and saw them.  So, with a look of pure joy you said “Mom!  Mickey is looking at me!!!!”  You slowly walked up to them and gave them a hug and were just so excited.  You give them a hug and kiss each morning before we leave for school.  You were also Mickey for Halloween and you sometimes where your Mickey costume just for fun at home.

When we go for walks in the evening you call me Minnie and insist on being called Mickey.  You’ll yell down the road, “Come on Minnie!!” and I’ll say “I’m coming Mickey!!”  Parker, I will always be your Minnie.  I know one day that you’ll find a whole new Minnie to love.  I know you will dazzle a future Minnie with your big cheese face and sweet heart.  But, for now, I’m going to cherish being your Minnie. 

You have some good friends at school and I like hearing you talk about your friends.  You’re learning that you have to share with Andrew more and more as well as with your friends at school.  It’s sweet to hear you talk to your friends and Andrew.  We’ve had friends over so you can play with them and, well, what it boils down to, is you’re just growing up!  You will play with Andrew more and more each day and you love following him around mimicking everything he does and Andrew thinks it’s really fun.

You still eat yogurt every morning as well as some pancakes or a waffle.  You also love yellow bars (nature valley soft baked peanut butter bars), goldfish, oatmeal bars, and applesauce for snacks.  Otherwise, your eating habits are about the same--- sometimes you eat great and other times you don’t.  You love spaghetti, steak, chicken, oranges, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries.  Fajitas with rice and beans is your jam.

You talk about the beach a lot—could be because we went to the beach 3x last year.  I’m already planning our next trip in late March (hopefully!).  You really, really love the beach.  You can just be free and we don’t have to tell you “no” a lot which is why I think you like it so much.  You are always talking about, “When we go to the beach….”  You also experienced two snows since turning 3!  You were fascinated by it and thought it was so cool.  Can you believe it snowed in Houston (and I didn’t even get to experience it b/c I was in NY!). Then, it also snowed when were back in Arkansas where you got to more legit play in the snow.

Me and you had one of the best days the morning we put up the kids' Christmas tree.  You helped me every step of the way and were such a good helper.  I had bought you some special Mickey ornaments and glass displays and you were just floored.  We wore light up Mickey mouse ears just for fun and I hope its something I can remember for forever.  True mommy/son time.  You also really helped me put lights on the columns when we were doing the outdoor lights at Christmas.  I believe your words were "You can just call me the helper!" And boy did we.  You were all over the place helping us with lights (Andrew preferred to just put the lights in his mouth).

Our evenings are filled with reading books, pushing trucks around, and just overall being silly with brother.  We still refer to it as “giggle time.”  You and brother play best while in the bathtub each evening.  I’ll be honest in that the bathroom is a wet mess every evening but I try not to get onto you guys too much so that you’ll play together.  You both love splashing and just being silly in the bathtub.  Bubbles are a hit in the bath as well. 

You also went to the dentist for the first time!  (I know, I’m late in doing this, but I didn’t think you’d handle it very well until recently).  And boy oh boy you did so awesome.  We checked in at the front and were surprised to find your classmate Zeeland there, too!  I think this helped immensely.  But, they called your name back and you grabbed the nice lady’s hand and walked back without me!  I felt like I was watching you go off to college.  SO BIG.  I stayed in the waiting room while they cleaned your teeth.  I came back to find you playing quietly with toys while the dentist explained everything to me.  Then, she asked you to hop in the chair for her to do one more quick exam.  You shimmied up into the chair laid back and followed her directions to a T.  It was awesome.  I was so proud.

Parker, these last few months have been so much fun.  There have been moments for sure where I’m convinced that you can’t be my child, but every evening when you give me a hug and wave to me from your bed, I know that all is right in the world.  Mom and dad love you sweet boy, always and forever.

First time fishing

The beach!

Bath time giggles

My own little Mickey!

*Mickey and Minnie*

Silly boys on Christmas Eve!

Playing in leaves!

Snow day in Arkansas!

Mickey helping me add ornaments to the kids' tree!

We all love everything Mickey around here!

Parker's 3-Year Update!

Dear Parker,

How is that you are THREE YEARS OLD?!  I see you run up and down the hallways at school and think, where did my baby go?  Your legs are getting longer and your face is thinning out some—you look just like a little boy, now.  You are definitely tall for your age, most people think you are turning four rather than three.  You certainly act like you know it all, that’s for sure.  So, let’s see.. since your last update, what all has changed?!

Well, one thing would be that you sleep in a big boy bed!  We converted your crib to a full bed.  You helped me pick out your sheets you sleep right in the middle of your bed.  Big Elephant acts as your pillow and I’m not gonna lie.. Big E has a deodorant problem.  He stinks!  Which means your head stinks, too.  But, you must sleep with him, so the stink doesn’t bother you.  Mom has to Lysol spray and Febreze Big E every week!  You didn’t bat an eye at transitioning.  I bought you a book about moving to a big bed  and it had you convinced to have your own big boy bed within a week (thank you Elmo).  You stay in your bed and won’t get out until someone comes and gets you in the morning.

You love reading books at night and we rotate through a pretty large collection pretty regularly.  Some of your favorites are the “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site,” “Mighty, Mighty Construction Site,” “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie,” a Thomas & Friend’s book, “Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom,” and the Bible.  You love reading about how God made the sun, moon and starts as well as Noah saving the elephants.  You can recite most of the books back to me, it seems.

You recently mastered making numbers with your hands from zero to five.  This was a big accomplishment to get your fingers to do what you want!  Now you are so proud to show me how you are TWO but you are going to be THREE.  Mom also makes the church, the steeple, the doors and all the people with her hands and that fascinates you, too.  You try to mimic what I’m doing with my hands.  You can count to 10 and say your ABCs (if you are in the right mood). You also like to sing B-I-N-G-O to yourself.  You can even put your shoes on and off your feet and like to do the Velcro strap yourself.  It’s pretty fun to watch you concentrate on this task.

Some of your most favorite things are still elephants.  You love little E, big E and even your gray elephant from Mary Beth which alternates with the name “Mommy Elephant” or “Daddy Elephant” depending on who is your favorite right now.  Mom got you a life-size baby elephant for your birthday and jumped up and down over and over when you saw him.  You also have a fascination with anything Thomas the Train or trains in general.  You refer to trains just as Thomas.  We have to cross railroad tracks to get to the highway from our house and one day while we were crossing the trains I could see one coming, so I pulled into the post office next to the tracks and we watched it go by.  You loved it.  And now you think I can summon a train every single time we cross the tracks.  So, I basically set you up for future disappointments.  Ha!  You also have an extreme fascination with garbage trucks—it would be your life’s mission to see the garbage truck pick up the trash every day.  We see the trucks pretty regularly on the way to school in the morning, so you get all jazzed up about it routinely.

We went to the beach in Port Aransas in late March with DD Nana and T-Pa and you had a great time.  You slept in a bed all by yourself with no problems and really enjoyed playing on the beach (just like you have in the past).  You did really well in the car (of which Andrew did NOT).  You also got your first real stomach bug that lasted for a whole week.  You were throwing up and having diarrhea regularly for a whole week and were miserable.  You also passed on your stomach bug to your mom and dad.  I think Andrew got away scotch free—lucky soul.  It was a miserable existence for those days.  You didn’t understand what was happening to you and you looked so sad.  In general, the month of April was not a good month for you.  You got the stomach bug and a random virus that made you run fever for 7 days, too.  Mom and dad had to miss a lot of work in April, but we all survived!!

You still enjoy splash pads and fixing things with dad.  Mom donated a TON of your toys to goodwill recently, but you haven’t seemed to notice.  You’re back to playing with some of your magnetic blocks and regular blocks.  You also love the train table you got for Christmas.  You do a lot of independent play at your train table.  Play-doh is also a win-win at our house.  You love to use your play-doh scissors to cut your play-doh.  We took you to your first Monster Jam and you had a blast!!  We did that in February and literally, at least once a week, when we get your underwear out for the morning you will hold up an extra pair and say, “I’m saving these for the monster truck show.”  Of course you are.  You also saved a brownie for the monster truck show (don’t worry—mom ate it when you went to bed).  So, monster trucks are big thing around here, too.  You did so great at the monster truck show—you didn’t mind the loud noise and really loved getting to eat popcorn. 

Let’s see.. you also went to an Astro’s game with your dad on a school night!  You had so much fun with him.  I would say these past few months you have really become a momma’s boy.  I think it stems from you being sick and mom taking care of you the most.  So, I know your dad was happy that you had a really good time with just you and him.  You also really like doing puzzles.  You can basically do a 12-15 piece puzzle all by yourself.  It amazes me.   Mom is no good at puzzles, so this is a skill I can appreciate!  You also love to play with legos, blocks, etc.  You like having to build things and when you’re done you always say, “Look, mom!  I builded you an elephant!”

So, I’ve talked a lot about what you love and things that bring joy to your face, but let’s talk about what you don’t like.  And that’s swimming.  I’ve put you in swim lessons and you hate it.  HATE IT.  You cry, you scream and are, in general, just miserable during the lessons.  The water really scares you.  You like splashing, but you do not like being submerged in water.  But, I’m not going to lie, last night, I stepped out of the bathroom to get your towel for 5 seconds and came back to you blowing bubbles in the water.  This is a HUGE step.  The most you would do at swim lessons was kiss the water.  And you didn’t like that.  So, I’m hoping you’ll come to like swimming in your own time.  We stopped taking gymnastics lessons for the summer so you could do swimming.  So, we’ll revisit in August what we should do about swim vs gymnastics.  We also got you started in Soccer Shots!  You do that at school at 8:30 AM on Wednesdays—and appear to be having a great time with it!

You also are not having the greatest time with your baby brother right now.  You try to play with him, but you generally take toys and say “CRUSH HIM” and then pounce on him like you’re a lion going in for his prey.  But, Parker, Andrew ADORES you.  He crawls after you and just wants to be doing what you’re doing.   I can see his admiration for you.  You are a bit jealous that he can pick up all of your toys and you get even more frustrated when he drools on them.  But, at the end of the day, you still give him a big hug and kiss at night.  I know you love him, it’s just another transition phase we’re going through now that Andrew is mobile.

You love with your whole heart.  You like to run into the house when you’ve been gone and say, “mom!  I’m home!” as though I’ve just been sitting there anxiously awaiting your arrival.  You give big hugs and sweet kisses.  I’ll laydown with you at night for a couple of minutes and you will just talk to me about your day.  You have many friends at school love showing off elephant (and recently turtle).  You’re favorite friends are Beckett, Ethan, Molly, Zee, Vince, Jace, Lily and a handful of others.  You just moved into the three year old class at school and left some of your good friends behind for a little bit.  You had a rough transition, but seem to be getting the hang of it, now. 

You are fully potty-trained during the day, but not at night.  Mom just needs to give you less to drink at night, but it’s hard since we’re so active.   We’ll figure it out one day.  You weight 31lbs, wear 3T shirts, but 2T shorts.  The 3T shorts just fall off your waist.  You wear size 9 shoes, but will probably be a size 10 by the time summer ends.  You still love yogurt—strawberry banana yogurt if we’re being specific.  You also like spaghetti, chicken, steak, quesadillas, chips, oranges, blackberries, raspberries, yellow bars, oatmeal bars, goldfish and a few other foods, too.  Some days you eat great and some days, not so much.

We had your third birthday party at Discover Gymnastics.  You had a ball and were great during you party.  You understood that people “sing first and then blow out the candles” as you kept reminding me throughout the day.  I had so much fun watching you enjoy your special day.  Mom and dad got you some Lego Duplo sets and digger underwear.  DD Nana got you this fun building set and Mimi & Papa Randy got you some balls to play with outside.  We haven’t opened all the rest of your presents, just yet.  I like to leave those for a rainy day.

You will always be our first-born… our baby who made us parents for the very first time.  Mom and dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

Parker's 2.5 Year Update!

Well my first born, you have changed quite a bit in the past six months!  Or rather, life in general has changed quite a bit since June!  You are now a big brother and you are such a big helper!  I will never forget the first time you met baby brother, Andrew.  You walked into the hospital room with DD Nana with a “I’m scared” look on your face.  I could tell the tears were about to start rolling… but then you noticed the baby I was holding.  You walked right on up to me and climbed on the bed, held your hands out and said, “Need that.”  It’s been a love relationship with your brother ever since.  After that moment in the hospital you’d hold your hands out and say “Hold him.”  You were quite enamored with the new baby for the first few days.

You are such a big helper, too!  You love to run and get diapers, wipes and “oye-ment” [ointment] for us.  One time Andrew had quite the poop explosion that resulted with poop everywhere.. like the floor, daddy’s shirt, daddy’s pants, mommy’s foot, the closet door and the wall.  It was amazing… I’d never seen anything like it.  So now, anytime Andrew poops you always say, “Andew poops on daddy’s shirt!” or “Andew poop on mommy’s foot!” or even “Andew make big poops!”

This update might include a lot of poop/potty talk because besides getting a big brother we’ve been potty training you and poop was a BIG, BIG deal.  We started at the end of July and did the bare-bottom weekend with you.  It was CRAZY.  We scared you half to death trying to run you to the potty… so much so, that you refused to sit on the little potty.  The first day was pretty much you peeing everywhere and mom trying to catch the pee.  I felt like I needed a potty tool belt that was equipped with wipes, cups, sanitizer and the like. It did not go well.  But, you started to catch on for day 2 and 3.  With pee at least.  It took us 3 MONTHS to get you poop in the potty.  You refused—you would just hold it for forever and poop in your pants.  So, mom had to result to giving you a laxative of sorts and just sit you on the potty until you pooped.  That kickstarted it for us.  You cried though.  It was a traumatic experience.  I can now officially say that you are daytime potty-trained!  The book Oh Crap Potty Training was a god-send.  You haven’t had a poop accident since before Andrew was born and only randomly have a pee accident when you get too focused on an activity and we forget to tell you to go potty.  They are few and far inbetween.

Potty training has been such an experience for us—we read what seemed like every book possible about pooping.  I will never forget reading “Everybody Poops” which is a book about animals and people pooping.  You would scream out Elephants make “BIG poop!” and a mouse makes “TIIINNNNYYY Poop!”  A one hump camel makes “ONE HUMP POOP!” and a two hump camel makes “TWO HUMP POOP!”  I can’t even say the word tiny without picturing you yelling out “TTTIIINNNYYY POOP.”  We talk about pooping and peeing a lot.  That has literally been our world for the past 6 months.  We carry a potty chair in the back of our car and a potty seat in the diaper bag.  I’ve got post-it notes to put over the automatic flushers, too.  That way the auto flush doesn’t go off while you’re sitting there.  When you first getting the hang of it, when you’d poop in the potty you’d raise your fists up and yell, BIGGG POOOOP!”  You were so proud of yourself and so were mom and dad.  Now, you thank Jesus for big poops and pee at your nighttime prayers.

I haven’t attempted to get you to be potty trained at night yet.  That seems like a feat that will be impossible.  You don’t seem bothered by wet sheets or anything, so you don’t even wake up when you pee in your bed.  So, our goal is to get you potty trained at night by the time you are 3.  I think we’ll pretty much have to eliminate drinks after like 4 PM to get you stay dry… you’re a very deep sleeper it appears.

Let’s see.. what else?!  Your vocabulary has exploded [and continues to explode!] and you can say sentences now.  How crazy is that?!  I love listening to you talk and I think you are maybe slight ahead of your peers right now when it comes to your pronunciation of words and the amount of actual words you say.  You just love to talk! 

Your favorite thing is still to jump on the trampoline with dad.  You call it the “jumpleen” though.  You do seat drops over and over again and just jump.  You could literally do it for hours and hours.  One of your birthday presents was a marble run and you really loved helping dad set up the run and then watching all of the marbles run down.  You’d jump up and down and say, “yay marbles yay!”  You seem to be losing your enthusiasm slightly for it recently but that could be because we’ve lost most of our marbles… they’ve descended down the toilet or otherwise been thrown around/lost by you.  We started with 15 marbles and now are down to two.

You still love all things elephants.  You have recently started wanting mom to sleep with you--- I don’t even know where you get this idea b/c we’ve never slept with you before.  You seem to have become scared that we will leave you.  I think it has a little bit to do with Andrew being around and knowing/sensing that I spend all day with him at home right now and see me with him a whole lot.  You’re still my good little sleeper though—we went through about a week long phase of you not wanting to go to sleep for naps/night but luckily that was short-lived! 

Your crib is filled with animals (3 elephants), red blanket, pumpkin towel, parker-saurus towel and giraffe towel.  You even like to sleep with a pair of pants and your “fuzzy ball” hat.  For some reason you want to sleep with your bath towels.  But, whatever floats your boat when it comes to sleep!

We are in the throes of the terrible two’s.  If this is bad I really don’t want to see the horrible three’s.  You want to do many things by yourself and get frustrated when you can’t actually do them and you want things done a particular way.  You say no a lot and “I want..” a  lot.  Some days you just have meltdown after meltdown.  You do best when we go out do something.  But, even then… you can just plain have a bad day.  I’m working on trying to get you to understand the emotions you’re feeling and letting you work through it, but I’m not gonna lie… it’s hard!  I sometimes feel like I’m failing you because my patience is short at times.

You still dig trucks and rocketships.  In fact, we made you a bulldozer costume for Halloween, but you insisted on being an elephant.  So, an elephant you were!  The cutest elephant there ever was I might add!  You loved trick or treating this year, too!

Let’s see….  Food.  Some days you love it and some days you could care less.  I have to remind myself this is pretty normal.  In general, you like noodles, chicken, steak, sausage and turkey.  You also like oranges and strawberries.  Blueberries have gone by the wayside.  You can eat a baked potato like nobody’s business, too.  You also love all things yogurt.  We made a ton of homemade smoothies during potty training whereby I would throw in some flax seeds and coconut oil to keep your stool soft and make you go regularly.  You thought I was just putting in “butter.”  Mom’s a trickster!  Hehe!  It really helped you, though!  You eat yogurt for breakfast every morning along with either pancakes, sausage biscuits, cheerios or waffles (all frozen!).  You also have a strawberry smoothie for breakfast, too.  Then, you might have another smoothie or another yogurt after nap.  Yogurt is your thing!  You also like goldfish and the Nature Valley Soft Baked peanut butter bars.  You are also really into chocolate milk… just like your daddy!

Overall, it’s been so fun to watch you grow.  You are quite a big taller and look more and more like your dad each day, I think!  You are full of energy and don’t like to sit still [will you ever?!].  You can count to 15 and know your ABC’s.  It’s so cute to hear you sing them.  You know all of your trucks—thanks to TWENTY TRUCKS you tube channel.  We can just drive down the road and you’ll start yelling them out.  You are a bossy little thing—it’s your way or complete meltdown ensues.  I have no idea where you get that from.  J 

The bright and shiny of having a baby brother has kind of worn off in the last month and half or so.  I think you realize that this baby is staying with us and sometimes you feel a little resentful that we spend time with Andrew, too.  But, when you don’t think we’re paying attention you will go up to Andrew and try to tickle him the way mom and dad do and talk in a real baby voice.  It’s the most adorable thing.  I know you love him and he’ll get more playful, soon!  You will give him your elephant and like to see Andrew in the morning.  You give Andrew hugs and kisses every night.. you really are a good big brother already!

We spent Thanksgiving at the beach and you loved it even though it was cold.  I’m excited to take you back there this summer.  You loved the waves and would say 1-2-3 Blast Off before you jumped in the water.  You also did seat drops in the cold water, too.  It doesn’t bother you that the ground is hard, haha.

You love to read books.  You’ll say, mommy, read that one and you’ll pick up your own book and flip through the pages.  We read 3-5 books a night and you seem to have most of them memorized—which I think is amazing because I don’t think you are usually too much attention to me.  But, somehow you are!

So, here’s some more fun stuff that you’ve been up to these past six months:

• Weigh around 31lbs and are just over 3 ft tall!!  You can see over the kitchen counters!  Aah!
• Wear size 8 shoes and are just about into a size 9.
• Will do just about anything for a sucker.
• Enjoy taking your picture with a smile if it suits you
• Sleep about 8-8 every night in your crib with a 2-2.5 hour nap around 1.  I still haven’t moved you to a bed because you do so well in your crib—maybe by 3 I’ll finally do it!
• Enjoy taking a bath every night and right now you are into bubble baths.
• Love all things yogurt.
• Love to keep little elephant “safe.”
• Would run a mile straight if mom could keep up!  We are always running around outside.
• Still have not figured out your balance bike yet
• Love to swing
• Enjoy playing chase at the park with daddy and you hardcore play on the jungle gym.
• Need a new trampoline because daddy has ripped two springs off of ours
• Go to gymnastics once a week on Thursdays.  Some weeks you do really great and other weeks all you want to do is jump on the trampoline.  You finally do the trapeze, now!  6 months in the making for that trick!  I had to convince you to just do “little trapezes” which you agreed to and you’ve been excited to trapeze ever since!
• Give the greatest hugs and kisses.
• Going through a separation anxiety phase with mom.
• Love your teacher Ms. Zainab at school.  We are sad to be transitioning to a new class in January.

·          We love you baby boy, always and forever.  I know the next six months will be just as fun!

 

Fourth of July-- your first sparkler bomb!  Which ruined your taste for fire and fireworks!

You love splash pads!!

You love scootering and like to wear your helmet!

Meeting Andrew for the first time!

Giving Andrew hugs!

My little elephant!

My elephant and pumpkin!

At your school costume parade!  You would just hold you elephant nose and show it to Ms. Zainab and say "look, I have elephant nose!"

Playing a little football at the beach!

1-2-3 Blast Off!

Gosh your big.  And you look handsome like your daddy.

With your "fuzzy ball" hat

Bubble baths!

I love seeing all this joy on your face!

Parker's 2-YR Update!

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!

Parker's 'cheese' face!

Happy Easter!

You did not like getting into bluebonnets-- you just called them "weeds".

You love to make goofy facial expressions.

Playing at the pool at Noah's Ark.

Sea World!

What you can't see here is the fact that we're tempting you with lemonade.

Happy Birthday Parker!!