8 Months Old!

Parker is a few days past 8 months old now! I really don't want to write, yet again, that time seems to just be flying by...but I can't help myself! Time really is flying by! Some VERY exciting things happened in Parkers world this past month! We took a trip to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving! We didn't get to see nearly as many friends as we would have liked, but we did see a lot of family! And, I would post pics of Parker with all of his extended family, but there are just so many that would take awhile! But, here are a few cute pics from our trip home.










One of my best friends, Shannon, made this adorable Turkey onesie for him! Is that not the cutest thing? I loved it! Thanks, Shannon!


While we were "home" I desperately wanted to have Parker's picture taken with Santa. I had heard in the past that the "best looking" Santa Claus is at Bass Pro Shop. Unfortunately, we just couldn't seem to make our way up to downtown OKC, so I settled for the Santa who was at Sooner Fashion Mall in Norman instead. Parker did great! I was curious what he would do once Santa took him. He looked at him kind of funny, reached for his glasses, and then gave him a big smile. We had a picture taken (not on our camera, so I won't be able to post it on here) and he gave the best smile on the second click. Everyone who was waiting in line behind us said, "Aww" when he did. As satisfied as I am with the picture, a few weeks ago a fellow friend of mine posted pics on her blog with her kids visiting Santa at Bass Pro. Needless to say, he was a much better looking Santa!

Parker loves it when I sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and do the motions with him!


When we got back to Colorado Parker had what I thought was his first illness. Luckily, the doctor disagreed. He just had a major runny/congested nose. Let's just say Parker got a little unhappy with the bulb syringe and would begin crying at the mere sight of it! Luckily he is much better now!

As far as food goes, we have added green beans, apples, and peaches to his menu! I try to get him to drink water out of his sippy cup. He loves "drinking" from it, but I think more than anything he chews on it. I actually bought him some straw sippy cups for Christmas to see if he can get the hang of those better.

At the beginning of December a big milestone happened! He crawled and sat up all in the same day! He could kind of sit up for awhile now, but always toppled over after a few minutes. I had read that babies should be able to sit before they can crawl so I was starting to get a little worried. Now when he sits, he is leaning on one arm. If I put him in the normal sit, or tri-pod, position, he still doesn't last that way very long. Now that he's crawling, I can barely keep up with him! Child-proofing is in full swing here at our house!


A week after he finally mastered crawling, he began clapping his hands. He doesn't make any sound when he does it, and he doesn't do it very often, but it sure is cute when he does! The evening of the day he clapped his hands, I had him in his nursery playing on the ground. I was doing something in the bathroom and walked by the nursery to go into the office. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that shocked me. Parker has a little fisher price chair with a desk attached to it that has a singing lamp and book attached to it. Parker has always been fascinated with it, constantly crawling or rolling over to it and banging on the seat with his hand. Imagine my surprise when I walked by and saw that he had pulled up on his knees for the first time to get a little bit closer to the desk! He doesn't pull himself up to his feet, just his knees. In fact, he doesn't ever place his feet on the ground correctly if you hold him in a standing position. I hope this will be a problem that will correct itself shortly.

Parker is all BOY! He loves BALLS and DOGS! In fact, chasing a ball on the floor is what made him learn to crawl! His most recent favorite toy also includes: a plastic cup!





Another random fact about Parker is that he always has a scratch on his face. I just cannot keep his nails trimmed short enough.

He loves to be carried in his baby bjorn. It comes in very handy during shopping trips. Too bad he's getting so heavy now that it hurts my back!

This is a typical Parker pose in his car seat! He loves to chew on the puppy's ear!


I am 8 months old! I weigh 19 pounds and am 27" long!


This is another one of my favorite toys: the doorstop!

I'm gonna get you, mama!

Christmas Card Drama....Again!

Some of you may remember the Christmas card drama I had a few years ago. Well, go figure, two years later I'd have some drama again.

I did a Christmas photo shoot with Parker with intentions of using one of the pictures on our Christmas cards this year. The pictures turned out fairly well and off I went to upload our 2010 Christmas cards onto www.shutterfly.com I knew they would be arriving any day now so I was super excited when I heard the UPS man pull up to my house. I was in the middle of nursing Parker but I know from experience that UPS will leave packages on my front porch. As soon as I was finished nursing I quickly ran downstairs and retrieved my package.

As I tore open the box like a little kid I couldn't help but feel a quick flutter of excitement! I knew this year I wouldn't have the same problem as I did the year before. I pulled one of the pictures out of the box to do a quick once-over when I quickly let out a cry of horror. There it was. Plain as day. I spelt my son's name wrong.

I probably wouldn't be too upset were this not my son's very first Christmas. Especially since his sweet little face is the only person pictured on the card. I even planned on placing one of the cards in his baby book. How will my little boy look back as he's older and be able to see how excited I am to celebrate his first Christmas with him when I sent out a Christmas card calling him, "Parer"?

So much to blog about....

But so little time to do so!!! In an effort to motivate me to blog here are some tidbits I hope to blog about soon!

*Thanksgiving
*My first Bling On A String Trunk Show
*Decking The Halls
*Parker turning 8 months old (because lets face it....he's not quite there yet but at the rate I've been going he'll be 8 1/2 months old before I blog about it)
*How badly I sucked at keeping up my New Year Goals this year. There. I've said it. Now maybe I can quit stressing out about the fact that I still have a few days to go and maybe just maybe I can at least cross off a few of them. *cough*yeah right*

:)

7 Months Old!!!!

My internet has been hit or miss lately so this post is coming a little later than I would have liked!

This past month went by way too fast!!! Parker mastered rolling over both directions, and now loves that he has so much more freedom! We have quickly learned that our living room just isn't big enough to accomidate his budding curiousity! He loves to just lay on his stomach with a variety of toys in front of him. He does what we call the "superman" pose; he lays on his tummy with his legs slightly lifted off the floor and he kicks like crazy! Actually, he looks more like a frog than superman but somehow that nickname has stuck!

We have been getting together for a baby playdate for the past two months now. Right now I think it's more of a "mommy playdate" since the babies aren't really interested in each other at the moment. I think that will slowly begin to change though. Here's a cute pic of the four boys at one of our sessions.



He has added a bunch of food to his list this past month: squash, sweet potatos (his favorite!), peas, bananas, oatmeal, and carrots. I also give him a "treat" called a baby Mum-Mum. This is basically a rice cake. As funny as it sounds, I think he could really care less about eating. He is easily distracted while I'm feeding him. He would much rather chew on his spoon, watch Shady (our dog), or chew on the fabric of his high chair. Luckily, he always finishes his meal, even if it takes me fifteen minutes to feed all of it to him.

One of the funnest moments of this past month was my favorite holiday: Halloween! My mom saw a pea in the pod outfit at Family Dollar, and since she knew I labeled all my pregnancy blog posts as "pea in the pod" and since one of my baby showers had the same theme, she could't pass it by. I have to say, he is the most adorable little pea ever.



Funny story: When I showed my husband these pictures, his first comment wasn't the typical, "Oh, he looks so cute", or "You did a good job on these pictures". No. It was, "We have carrots?!" Yes, my husband enjoys his vegetables!

A woman who attends the same Bible Study as me also gave me a cute Pumpkin costume for him to wear. This is the first time I ever took pictures with my little pumpkin like this. I think he thought it was fun, what do you think?



We got to attend a fun costume/cocktail party.



I took him to Wichita for a night to meet his god-parents. (Silly me, I didn't get any pictures). I took him to church for the first time. Unfortunately that didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped. Maybe I'll venture back in another couple of months! His very first tooth is slowly trying to make it's grand debut. It has broke the surface but I can't see it, I can only feel it. So far he's been a very good teether.

I have to say I believe I may have a future model on my hands. I always seem to get big smiles out of him when I want to do a quick photo session. I even took him to get "professional" pictures taken one day. This was a fundraiser for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and I personally thought the actual photographs were overpriced so I only got the big picture that I paid $10 for. However, the photographer kept commenting on how good he was. He said he had been dealing with crying, screaming babies for the previous two hours and was glad to have such a happy, photogenic little trooper. Of course this instantly made me have visions of them asking if he could be the new "face" of this particular company, but that's just the consumate daydreamer in me!

One magical milestone happened this month: he began giving me kisses! It actually took me awhile to figure out what he was doing. They don't tell you in baby books that baby kisses aren't like "real" kisses. My sister had told me that baby kisses are open mouthed and slobbery. So one night, in the middle of my slumber, I woke up with an ephiphany: Parker had been kissing me! (Am I the only one who wakes up in the middle of the night because my subconscious has finally made something clear to me?) This is how it normally happens: I'll nurse Parker. While I'm burping him he'll turn his head and place his mouth on my cheek. At first I would laugh and say things like, "There's no milk there" or "That's not the boobie!" He always has a huge smile on his face when he does this. Once I finally realized what he was doing my heart just melted. I think he's proud of the fact that he can finally show affection back. Now I try to force it, which doesn't give the same affect. Apparently always placing my cheek in front of his face doesn't result in an instant kiss.


As these months are passing with a faster rate, I find myself falling more and more in love with my little bundle of joy. This makes me extremely happy because I actually struggled with a little combination of the baby blues/feeling like I didn't love him enough issues when he was an infant. I now realize that I was completely exhausted and that some of my feelings are normal for women. The icing on the cake is seeing how great Greg has become at being a Daddy. I think Parker really is the pride and joy of our lives and I'm so happy that we have created this special little boy.

I'm seven months old today! I weigh 19 pounds and am 27 1/2" long!

Six Months Old!

I cannot believe Parker is half a year old today! It literally blows my mind. The icing on the cake is that he is turning out to be such a happy baby! This previous month had a few "firsts" for my little guy.

He ate his first solid food. Although, I don't think he's a big fan of rice cereal.



He drank from a sippy cup...granted he only "drinks" from it on accident. He mainly does a lot of chewing on it!

He wore his first pair of shoes.



He went to his first play group. I thought he might be a little young for this, but we learned motions to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and he loves it! We sing it everyday now and I always get a huge smile from him as we row away.

He played with another baby for the first time, (this is his friend, Kazwell).



I'm currently working with him to learn to roll over the "other way". He will only roll in one direction. The past few days I have been trying to entice him to roll the opposite way with a toy. He tries really hard, then gets frustrated and rolls over the direction he usually goes, and is surprised to see that the toy he rolled over for is actually further away!

I'm also trying to work with him on sitting unsupported. This usually results in him flinging himself backwards. Oh well.

It wouldn't be a proper "month old" post if I didn't talk about his naps. Have you guys heard of Scentsy? If you haven't, you're missing out! (My sister in law sells it; here is her website so you can check it out and shop 'til you drop.) Well, Scentsy has a new line of nursery warmers. One of which happens to be a "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" warmer which matches Parker's nursery perfectly! My friend Courtney and her Mom gave one to me for Parker.


The first day I had the warmer on, Parker took an hour and a half nap. I thought something was wrong with him. As you know, I'm usually lucky if he naps for 45 minutes. This continued the next day, and the next, and the next, etc. I firmly believe that the Scentsy is basically like aromatherapy for my little angel! He has even slept for 2 hours and 15 minutes! This is both for his morning and afternoon naps. I can tell these naps are what he has been needing because he is so much happier lately! And as a bonus, the whole upstairs smells wonderful!!!




I'm 6 months old today!!! I weigh 17 lbs. 8 oz. and am 26 1/2" long!





I sure have grown a lot since the last time Mommy tried to take pictures of me inside Daddy's guitar case, haven't I?

And....She's Back!

That's what one of my friends wrote on facebook when she saw that I had re-launched my etsy store a month ago. I love creating fun jewelry, but my challenge when we first arrived in this town was that there was not a bead store. So, I put my little hobby on hiatus. However, while I was pregnant, I knew I had to make myself a breast feeding reminder bracelet. Some of you may remember this one that I made for sale a couple years ago.

The great thing about breast feeding reminder bracelets is that not only are they an easy way to keep track of the last time one has fed their baby, but it also plays double duty since one is supposed to switch it from one wrist to the other after a nursing to "remind" the mother which side to begin nursing from. Mine worked perfectly for me after giving birth. I was on a strict nursing schedule (every hour and a half) including waking both myself and Parker up during the night because he had lost so much weight. It was draining and I was seriously sleep deprived. For the life of me I never could (and still can't) remember which side I had left off on. The switching from wrist to wrist was such a life saver for me! Unfortunately, I broke the clasp that the charm is on after a few weeks. And, go figure, there wasn't a store near by for me to buy a replacement clasp. Although the "time" charm could no longer be used, I was thankful that I could still use the bracelet to remind me which side to have him start nursing from.

That's when it hit me. A breast feeding reminder bracelet can only be used by a select group of women. However, a bracelet that any woman could wear, but that could double as a reminder bracelet, seemed easier to market. And thus "Slinky Bracelets" were born! What I love about them is they are so versatile! They can be easily added to complete a "look" since there are no clasps to fumble with. A nursing mother can switch hers from wrist to wrist to "remind" her which side to begin nursing from. An enthusiastic sports fan can show her spirit by wearing one in her teams colors. How fun would these be for high school teenagers to wear one in their school colors on game days? I have high hopes that my "Slinky Bracelets" will catch on. So, with that being said, please visit my little shop at: www.blingonastring.etsy.com




My ultimate goal with Bling On A String is that I can begin producing enough sales in jewelry to allow me to continue to stay at home with Parker. I am not in any way expecting this little vision of mine to happen over night. But, I know that a small business like this cannot have success without the support and encouragement from family and friends. In the upcoming months I hope that I can have enough inventory of hand made jewelry that I can begin having a few trunk shows here and there. I think jewelry is something very personal and most women like to "try on" before they buy. Your prayers and positive thoughts for my little venture would be greatly appreciated!




I know that Christmas is right around the corner, so please consider buying a special lady in your life a gift from Bling on a String! I'm open to custom orders, but those will take a little bit longer to produce and ship. Slinky Bracelets are only $15.00 and would make a great stocking stuffer!

As of right now I am only selling on Etsy. I accept payments via paypal and in order to make a purchase you will have to sign up for an account on www.etsy.com, but it is free and literally only takes a few minutes!!!




Thank you so much for your support! Anyone wishing to "re-post" this blog has my permission.

www.blingonastring.etsy.com

Happy Fall, Ya'll!