The Big T-W-O!

I can't believe my sweet angel is TWO!  Where did the time go?  It seemed like the previous month really showed me how much he is learning and growing!  Almost anything I ask him to try to say, he will!  Which also means we have to be very careful about what we say, too.

One of the best highlights of the month was this little conversation we had on the couch:

Me:  Who's this?  (pointing to Greg)

Parker:  Dada

Me:  Who am I?  (pointing to myself)

Parker:  Mama

Me:  Who are you?  (pointing to Parker...obviously)

Parker:  Parker

Me & Greg:  *GASP*

Prior to that, I had never asked him what his name was, and I hadn't ever tried to get him to say it, either.  It was a pleasant surprise.  Now I can ask him, "What's your name?"  and he'll say, "Parker".  It's adorable.

Once he got his name down, I figured he better learn how old he was.  I didn't want to confuse him by teaching him "one", and then a week later telling him he was two.  Luckily, he learned quickly, and on his birthday if someone asked  him, "How old are you?"  He could say, "two".  Granted, that doesn't mean he answers every time!

Some fun things that happened this past month for him were:

He began potty training!

He went to the circus!

He saw a real live turtle for the first time!

The easter bunny visited him!

Money he found in an egg left by the Easter Bunny.

He got to play in the rain!

A neighbor gave him all kinds of "new" outside toys...we put this one up in storage because it's too big for him still, but I love this pic of him!

Parker is still sleeping really well!  He takes naps in the afternoon and at night he never fights me about going to bed.  Although he has never tried to climb out of his crib, I plan on converting it to his "toddler bed" in the very near future.  We'll see how things go once that happens!

He still has the combination of straight and curly hair, which is sometimes a little wild-man looking, but I love it!

At some point this past month, he began getting his back top molar in.

Parker's favorite things are:  bubbles, trains, running, playing outside, and chips!!  (Not too proud about the last one, but oh well!)

On his actual birthday we went up to Norman to stay at Parker's Nana and Papa's house.  We had his birthday party there the following day (post to come!).  We had a celebratory lunch at Braums on the way there, complete with Birthday Cake ice cream!  He was out cold for the entire journey there.

One interesting thing that happened shortly after our arrival was that we had to take shelter in my in-laws storm shelter.  A tornado touched down a mile away from the house, but luckily we were safe and no damage was done.  How many kids can say they got to turn two in a storm shelter?!

HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY, PARKER!  I love you more than you'll ever know.  There are days when I'm ready to tear my hair out, but then you can look at me with a huge grin and a loud laugh, and I'm reminded again of how precious you really are.  You are smart, sweet, energetic, and so fun to be around! 

I am TWO!  I am 26 pounds!

23 Months Old

Parker turned 23 months old on the 13th (yup, I'm behind on blogging.  Shocker.)  Things have been such a whirlwind lately that I don't remember much....let's see:

My father-in-law took this picture and I'm so grateful!  My camera is always too slow to capture the "real" Parker!  He's all smiles!

1.  Parker started day care.  I blogged about it here.  He does great, although he had a solid week where everytime I tried to drop him off he clung to me and cried.  This happened a day after a little boy bit him twice in one day (although I was told that my little champ didn't cry and gave the boy a hug afterwards!  What a sweetheart my little boy is!)  However, the best part about day care is picking him up.  He always runs to me with the biggest grin and a warm hug.  It completely melts my heart since he is such a daddy's boy.  I'm glad he misses me!

2.  He began saying, "I love you".  It sounds like "ah boo", and I love it!  Granted, Greg or I have to say it first, so the day that he says it first will probably bring me to tears!

3.  His vocabulary is expanding!  He will readily try to repeat words that you ask him to repeat.  He is also pretty great at repeating back the alphabet!

Too cute for words!

I am 23 months old today!  I weigh 26 pounds!

This is the expression he made when I said, "Smile for the camera!"

19 Months Old!

Parker is officially 19 months old! And I'm pretty impressed with myself that I'm getting this post written on the actual day he turns 19 months! Sadly I realized that I forgot to take a picture of him today (Opps!) but oh well, I'll try to take one tomorrow and add it then. And, I just realized I forgot to meausre and weigh him. I'll add that to tomorrow's list as well! I'm sure he won't change that much in a day! The eighteenth month was pretty fun for Parker. I started working full days at the office twice a week, which means Greg watches him those days. I can tell that Parker really loves those special days when he has his daddy's full attention. He is such a daddy's boy!

I wrote in my 18 month old post that I did the CIO method to get him to sleep through the night. A few days after writting that post I decided I also needed to let him CIO before he went to bed. I'm so glad I did! Prior to that I would spend at least thirty mintues leaned over his crib, patting his back until he fell asleep. The first night I laid him in bed and left the room he cried for maybe five minutes. The following night it was about 30 seconds. He continued with the 30 second cry for the next few nights, until one night he just magically didn't cry when I left the room. Horray!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I was pretty pumped about this little feat! The down side is that I really have no idea when he wakes up in the morning. Since he figured out I don't run into his room anymore when he cries, I think he lays awake until he absolutely can't stand it and then he wimpers. There have been numerous times that I would go into his room around 7 and peek at him, only to have him pop up and start talking to me. Other times I'll hear him rolling around and I know that he's up. He got to spend lots of time with family again this past month (another bonus for moving back to Oklahoma!) His grams came and watched him a few days while Greg and I were both working. Then, we went to Norman and stayed at his Papa and Nana's for a long weekend. While we were there his grandma (technically his great grandma C), granny (his great grandma L), and grams (my mom) came to visit him as well.

While we were there he got to go trick or treating for the first time! He was a little handyman! I was so excited about the outfit that I created for him: a shirt I ordered from cafepress and a toolbelt from etsy. Sadly, Greg made fun of the toolbelt, saying it looked more like a waitress apron. And, I have to admit, he's right. Oh well! The best picture I have of him is with him wearing this witch hat. I did have a construction hat for him to wear, but it was too big and he kept taking it off. He had a blast and loved hanging out with his cousins!

I don't know if I've mentioned this in other blogs, but Parker loves to dance! It all started with a toy guitar that he has that he will "play" and he dances to it. I love it and hope he continues to love dancing! His favorite dance is when Greg imitates the music to Michael Jacksons "Smooth Criminal". Parker LOVES other kids. If he's around his cousin Zoe, or his friend Braxton, he is constantly going up to them and hugging them. Granted, both kids are older than Parker and after awhile they get tired of it. It's still pretty adorable to witness.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took him to a pumpkin patch. It was a fun outing for my cute little toddler.

He now has a new favorite food: bananas. Anytime I open the pantry he immediately points to the bananas (even if we're out he points at where they are normally kept) and says, "nana". He also has a new found love of ICE. One habit my husband has that drives me bonkers is that he loves to chew ice. I'm afraid I may have a son who has inherited that habit as well. This is what Parker usually does when he completes a meal.

He calls it a hat. Silly boy! Parker still loves dogs. One really exciting event that has happened in our house is that we finally have our dog, Shady, back! Our awesome granny was dog-sitting her for the last six months, since the cabin we were staying in in Texas didn't allow pets. We brought her home two weeks ago and Parker is over the moon to have a dog to "play" with. I use the word play lightly because Shady is old and doesn't play. However, if she's inside, I can often find Parker snuggled up next to her on her pillow. His new favorite game is to chase her around the kitchen island with his popper toy while I'm making dinner. Hopefully I can catch that on video soon. Prior to bringing Shady home there was a neighborhood dog that continually made an appearance in our front yard. Her name was Billa, which is a name that Parker quickly learned. According to Parker, Shady's name is also Billa.

Other words that Parker began saying this past month were: banana (sounds like Nana, and it's funny to watch him say it because his tongue gets in the way), luckily that made it easy to teach him the word Nana (Greg's mom), and he also began saying PaPa while we were at their house. He also began saying "mower". In case you're wondering why he says mower it's because before we got a golf cart (a required item in a lake community!) Greg would give him rides on the riding lawn mower. He also says ice (eye) and boot (boo). I'm sure there are several other words but they are escaping me at the moment. Parker loves books! In fact, the other day I spied him in his room doing this:

He had received the boots in the above picture at Christmas last year. They are finally the size that he can wear so I put them on him for the first time last week. It was a struggle to get them on him, but I finally got his feet in. I was kind of apprehensive about putting them on him because I am in no way a cowgirl, but they are sooo cute on him! While I was at work that day, Greg had to put them back on him after his nap. He taught Parker to push (complete with a loud grunt) and it makes it so much easier to put them on. In fact he thinks it's a game and begins signing "again" after we put the first boot on! Parker has finally perfected the kiss. He will randomly come up to me or Greg making a loud "mmmmm" sound and his little mouth will be puckered up. What's cute is when he knows one of us is leaving the house, he will pucker up and expect a kiss (and rightfully so!) before we walk out of the door. Stay tuned; I'll post a pic of him soon! *side note-I just began using Bloggers new settings and for some reason it didn't save my paragraphs...sorry! And, if anyone can tell me how to fix it I'd love to know! Here is my 19 month and 1 day old little boy! He weighed 23.3 pounds!

One and a Half!

My little pride and joy is exactly a year and a half old today! And my what big changes he had this past month!

The most exciting being that a couple weeks ago we finally finished his nursery (OK, it's only 95% finished, but it's close enough that he can use it!) which meant that for the first time in five months he had a room to sleep in all by himself. I was pretty nervous about how it would go...and he slept just like normal! Which meant, he still woke up a few times during the night and I had to rock him back to sleep. Since he is the age that he is, I was growing a little tired of this. I decided that since we are now in a place where we plan on staying awhile, that I would try the CIO (cry it out) method.

I'm sure I did it wrong the first night because as soon as he started crying I went into his room. He began signing and saying, "milk" so I left the room to pretend that I was getting him some (I say pretend because I never give him liquids in the middle of the night. No sense in starting that habit) and went back a minute later hoping he would lay down for me without me having to rock him. That wasn't happening so I decided to leave the room. The crying lasted for 15 minutes and then he began saying, "mama, mama" so....I caved. I went in and said, "Lay down", which he did, but a minute later when he realized I wasn't in the room with him he began crying again. Within 10 minutes he was asleep again. The whole process lasted 28 minutes. This was last Monday. Here's what happened the following nights:
Tuesday-He slept the whole night!
Wednesday-He woke up (I didn't go into the room at all), crying lasted 7 minutes.
Thursday-Crying lasted 1 minute

Ever since last Thursday, he has SLEPT THE ENTIRE NIGHT THROUGH!!! And what's even better, is he is sleeping in longer. He used to wake up around 6 and I would bring him into bed with me. He would then either fall back asleep or we would just lay there for a bit. Now he's not waking up until 7:30. This really pleases me because he only naps for an hour and a half. YAY!!! Now, if only I can get him to fall asleep on his own for naps and bedtime without me leaning over the crib patting his back. I have a feeling I'll be trying the CIO method again real soon!

Now I have to brag about how smart he is! Greg has been working with him on learning different body parts, and he now knows where his hair and his feet are. He also knows where his teeth are, and if I tell him it's time to brush his teeth he sticks his finger in his mouth and mimics brushing his teeth. Speaking of teeth, one of his bottom molars broke through the gums on Monday.

He learned to sign and say the word "please". He doesn't sign it correctly, but I know what he means which is fine with me. He'll catch on with the right way eventually. He has also began to say the words: more, golf cart (which is his absolute favorite thing), truck, juice, cracker, and cookie. There's probably more but these are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Despite the fact that he is my little angel, he does have some "not so great" qualities about him right now. He has been disciplined several times for constantly putting things in his mouth that he shouldn't and he thinks when you tell him "no" that it's funny. It may not sound like much but there's only so many times he'll stick acorns (or a screw, or a rock, or a washer, etc.) in his mouth, and we tell him no, or chase him around so we can try to get whatever is in his mouth out of his mouth without being bitten, that one can handle. Lets just say he is very rambunctious and keeps us on our toes.


He has never met a stranger and wants everyone to pick him up...be it the internet service technician or the waitress at a restaurant, he LOVES people! Especially kids! I hope to find a play group to join soon so he can have more interaction with other toddlers.

We have a fake fish aquarium type thing in our living room that Parker loves. It's a tall cylinder of water that sits on the floor, and when it's plugged in the water bubbles and there are fake fish that float around. If that things is not plugged in when Parker first goes into the living room, he will let you know about it. He'll point and yell and say "uh, uh, uh" which is what he says whenever he wants something. He's even gone so far as to try to plug it in himself!

He also began making the craziest sound this past month. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say it sounds like he's saying "HA!" but with a hiss sound to it. It makes my own throat hurt when he does it. I think he does it when he does something "bad". For instance, he'll throw something on the ground and then make that sound. He'll do it repeatedly. It drives me crazy, but it's just part of what makes him Parker.

We took our first family pictures this past month. I have only seen a few of the images, but this one is an adorable picture of Parker. No..that's not a back drop. This was taken at the beach that's a short walk from our house!


He had his third hair cut this past month. He did really well considering the lady had him sit in a booster chair. The previous two times I held him in my lap while his hair was cut.


He has finally began to show an interest in more of his toys. Especially this toy dog. He frequently carries it out into the kitchen and I'll find him laying down looking at it or hugging it. He'll really love it if I ever put batteries in it!


We bought him a wagon this weekend. I can't say that he loves it, but I pulled him around on it for 30 minutes the other night. Every kid needs a wagon, right?


I am 18 months old today!!! I am 31" tall and weigh 25 pounds.

9 Months Old!

As usual, the time is just flying by at a rapid speed! But, a lot of exciting things happened during Parker's eigth month!

He began saying mama! Although I don't think he really knows that it's supposed to mean me. However, I'm not complaining!

He celebrated his first Christmas!


He got his second tooth!

He began drinking water from a straw sippy cup!

He said dada! And what's funny is that we happened to be on Skype chatting with my sister in China. I had just told her that we were working on him with saying it but with no success. Wouldn't you know Greg would walk into the room, I would say, "Parker, say dada" and he said it! I know my sister probably thought I was lying when I said he hadn't said it yet!

He had a special visitor one day! One of my best friends from high school stopped by on their way home from visiting some of their family in Colorado. Her little boys were very entertaining for Parker!


He had his first black eye. Obviously, I'm not proud about this one. I had all of his rattles and toys in the living room in a decorative metal bucket. I'm sure you can figure out how this story ends. Needless to say the decorative bucket now has a nice new home in our coat closet. Luckily, it was only visible when he had his eye shut. Everytime I tried to sneak a picture of him while he was napping he was laying on his tummy with that eye down on the mattress so I don't have any pictures of it.

I began using baby sign language with him! So far he hasn't signed anything back, and for the most part he thinks it's funny. If I ever want a big smile from him I just sign the word "sleep" and he thinks that's just a riot!

He began pulling up! Baby proofing is in full swing here at our house!
(Dontcha just love how my idea of baby proofing is to place pillows around the entertainment center?)

I added chicken, pears, and strawberrys to his growing menu.

He loves when I play patty cake with him and he has begun clapping his hands. It is just the cutest thing ever! He absolutely loves it when Greg places him on his shoulders. A sure-fire way to get him to stop crying is for Greg to do that with him.

He LOVES Shady. We have a little game that we play each night while I'm preparing dinner. Parker will be on the kitchen floor along with Shady (who seems to think I'll be dropping food on the floor for her.) Parker takes this to be that Shady is chasing him. So he will speed crawl to me and try to climb up my leg, all while looking at Shady and laughing at her. He is just the cutest thing.


His new favorite toy was a wooden spoon, but Greg thinks that's a dangerous toy so I have placed the wooden spoons back in the drawers where they belong.



He now LOVES going to the grocery store! I officially graduated him from the infant car seat to just riding in the cart.



Luckily we went to the doctors office for his well baby visit the day before he turned 9 months old, since the next day we were in Oklahoma. At that time he weighed 19 lbs. 7 oz. and was 28" long!

Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me in Oklahoma so here he is at 9 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day!

5 Months Old!

Parker turned five months old yesterday! I can't get over how fast time seems to be flying! I took him to the county health department yesterday to have him weighed and measured, only to be told they were remodeling and to call in a week to schedule an appointment. I was pretty disappointed. So I returned home and decided the only way I'd be able to see how much he weighed was to try to weigh him myself. Apparently scales aren't used to a baby being placed on them. They said he weighed 0 pounds! So, I weighed myself, then I weighed myself holding him. I know he weighs 18 pounds, but I don't know how many ounces. He is 25 1/2" long.

Most of his fourth month just coasted by with no big milestones. He did receive his second round of immunizations. I was so proud of how well he took the two pokes, only crying for about twenty seconds after the second shot. Three hours later, he was boo-hooing up a storm! After spending thirty minutes trying everything I could think of to calm him down, I finally administered his first dose of baby Tylenol. Luckily, the effects of the medicine kicked in fairly quickly and he fell asleep in my arms. I'm really not looking forward to his next round of shots!

Unfortunately I spoke too soon about finally learning how to get him to take naps. I still battle with him every day. And now he knows the routine!!! It doesn't matter if he's exhausted or not, as soon as he realizes what's about to happen, the whimpering begins! I mentioned before that he liked to be rocked. Now, as soon as my bottom hits the rocking chair, the screaming begins. I have to quickly jump up, hold him upright against me and pat him on the back for a little while while twisting my body from side to side. Once he's settled down, I drop him into a cradle hold. He usually wakes up then and whimpers, so I then add a slight bounce to the twisting motion. (Side note: I keep having people ask me how I've lost weight. Maybe they should begin standing with their feet shoulder width apart, twist from side to side at the waist, then add a bounce in with it, all while holding 18 pounds of weight! Do non-stop reps for five minutes.) Then I slowly walk backwards to the rocking chair. I rock him for about a minute or two, then reposition my hold so I can place him into the crib. Stand up slowly...walk to the crib...lower him in. If I'm lucky he stays that way. Sometimes I have to repeat the whole process again. If I'm having a really good day I get to do it three times. Yesterday was extra special; I got to do it four times! He then proceeds to nap for about 30 minutes, tops.

His hair is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. I am kicking myself for never measuring it when he was born. To date it is 2 1/4" long. Unfortunately, he has inherited my wavy/curly hair. I say unfortunately because I'm not really a big fan of guys with curly hair. I've resorted to using massage oil to try to keep it somewhat tame. I truly hope that when he grows up, he can have really cool hair. And not a big frizzy mess like mine can be. When the day comes that he begins caring what his appearance is, rest assured, Mommy will be right there with the hair products!

Another thing that is constantly growing are his finger nails! Those things are sharp! Despite my best efforts, he always seems to have several self-inflicted scratches on his little face.

Obviously, the biggest event for Parker happened recently. He rolled over! And I was fortunate enough to catch his second roll over on video after having missed his first roll over. Funny me for thinking that it would take him a lot longer to learn how to roll back over from his tummy to his back. He had been trying from back to tummy for over a month but I had never even seen him try during any of his tummy time to roll to his back. The little smarty figured it out five minutes after his second roll. Of course it was while Mommy was taking a bathroom break. Regardless, I am so proud of him!

He had his first baby sitter this past month! Well, technically my father in laws girlfriend was the first. She let us go out to a bar one night while we were in Oklahoma, but he was already asleep by the time we left and slept until we got back home. This was the first time I left him while he was still awake. We went to a neighbors Patio Party, so we were only a few houses down the street. One of my good friends and her husband came to the house and watched him. The party wasn't as fun as Greg and I had hoped, so we were only gone for about an hour and a half. It still counts though!

I'm a huge fan of Britney Spears. She has a song (I'm forgetting the name at the moment) that she wrote about her baby boys. One of the verses says, "I smell your breath, it makes me cry." Of course, she means it in a positive way! Ha, ha, without the actual song to hear I can see how one would take that the wrong way. Before I had Parker, I always thought that was kind of gross. Who would want to smell someones breath? Well, I have to say, I love the smell of Parkers breath! It has the sweetest scent to it, which is surprising since his diet consists of strictly milk! My favorite part of holding him in my arms is when his mouth is open and I can smell the wonderful aroma that escapes from it.

Other random Parker tidbits: he loves to be outside! He is fascinated by leaves on trees and generally likes being taken on walks. When I hold him now, it feels like he's beginning to "hang on". He is a "morning person", always cooing and smiling, whereas night time he begins to get a little fussy. He loves to pat my face when I'm holding him. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I always pretend to eat his little hands. He's starting to last longer periods of time in his bumbo chair. His Daddy can make him laugh better than anyone else.

Again, I sucked at taking pictures this month. So, these are literally all the ones I took:
Ready for a walk to the park!

I like being in my crib a little bit more now that I have a friend in there with me (courtesy of the crib mirror)

I am 5 months old today!

I love checking my feet out when I'm in my Bumbo!