Posts to look forward to...

I just wanted to do a quick post to try to help motivate me to keep up with my blogging! I WILL do a post about our fun family day we had today (12/22). In addition to this, I WILL also do a post (or several depending on length) discussing our various Christmas celebrations about to take place. We are leaving tomorrow (the 23rd) to go to Manhattan and won't be back until the evening of the 28th so these posts will have to wait (I'm too tired tonight). For all 2 of my blog readers, PLEASE pester me about doing these posts once we're back in town (the 29th)! I don't want to get behind and have TONS to do to get caught up. Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I'm not even going to say Happy New Year because I WILL do several posts again before that time, lol! :)

Many

Just a quick post with something Parker has been saying a lot these days..."many". Any time there is more than 2 of something he likes to say there are "many". If there are lots of toys on the floor he points to them and says "Uh oh...many!" (as in too many). When he puts more than 2 people in his Fisher Price Little People School Bus (or any other of his assortment of vehicles) he says "many". He even says "many" if there are lots of items on a page in a book we're reading. I'm not sure why he knows if he has one or two of something but anything beyond that is "many" but at least he understands the general concept that "many" means there are a lot of something... :)

Family Christmas Picture Photo Shoot

My friend Megan came over on December 5th and took family Christmas pics for us! Parker kept running away and NOT wanting to have his picture taken...Let's face it, he's a toddler so he was much more interested in running around a being wild than sitting still for a picture!) Considering all of that we were able to get some pretty cute shots although I only posted some of them...ENJOY and Merry Christmas! :)

This was the first one we took...it would have been perfect but it was blurry...


Parker was happy but I'm not sure what he's doing with his eyes in this pic...


Showing off the snowman ornament he got off the tree. Not the best but at least he wasn't running away...


He's shoving crackers into his mouth...we resorted to letting him have a snack so he'd sit still. We figured anyone with kids would understand why he's sitting there with a snack trap in his lap. lol!


Happy but still stuffing his face...


We decided this one was our favorite despite the fact that he has the snowman ornament in his mouth! He's smiling and "smizing" (smiling with his eyes)...Tyra would be so proud! ;)

"Mommy, Becky!"

Well...it's official...Parker knows my name!! For the past couple of weeks every once in a while Parker would say something that sounded like he was calling me "Becky". We thought maybe it was all in our heads and we were just hearing what we wanted to hear. Today however, there was no denying that he said "Becky". I was changing his diaper this morning and he asked if he could have a wipe (don't ask me why but the kid LOVES to hold a wipe and "clean" things while I change his diaper). I gave him the wipe and then I said, "Parker has a wipe and mommy has a wipe". He then looked at me and said "Wipe for Parkie" (James and I call him Parkie sometimes and so he now sometimes calls himself Parkie instead of Parker...although he can say both), "Wipe for Becky". I then said, "What did you say?...Who am I?" and he said plain as day, "Becky...Becky a wipe". I guess he has just picked this up from hearing James and other people call me Becky because we have never TRIED to get him to say "Becky" or told him that my name was Becky. Then later in the day at lunch he started saying "mommy Becky, mommy Becky!" over and over again! I tried to get a video of him saying it and it kind of worked, although if you watch the video you'll see that for some reason he started calling me "yellow"! He has never called me yellow before the video and hasn't called me yellow since the video so I'm not sure what that was all about. It's like he knows when I get the camera out that I want him to do a particular thing so he kind of does what I'm wanting him to do but is ornery enough that he doesn't do exactly what I'm wanting to get on picture and/or video. Oh well...maybe someday... :)

We've thought that Parker has been saying "Becky" for a couple of weeks now but weren't sure until today.

"Ring, ring...money!"

I am so proud of myself for really trying to stay on top of blogging lately! It had been SOO long since I did a post of something cute that Parker has done lately. This is certainly NOT because he hasn't been doing cute things, but is strictly my laziness and choosing to do things other than blog. Anyway, that being said, on to the actual reason for the post...

Parker was up in James and my room while he and I were getting "ready" for the day. I had a purse laying on the ground by our dresser and I looked over to see Parker sitting there with it. It has a magnetic closure that folds over the open flap of the purse and clasps closed and there's a hoop-type closure on the end of that. (wow, that probably didn't make any sense so I might just post a pic of the purse...) Anyway, I saw him trying to undo the clasp and shaking the hoop closure back and forth. I then noticed he was saying something over and over again. It took me a little bit to figure out what it was he was saying and what he was doing. I realized that he was saying "ring, ring...money!" over and over again as he shook the hoop. What was he doing you ask?? Well...He is my shopping buddy and we've seen A LOT of Salvation Army bell ringers when we've been out and about. I've been letting him put some change I have in the diaper bag into the bucket and one of ringers even let him ring the bell which he pretty much thought was the coolest thing ever! Apparently he remembered these experiences and something about the closure of that purse reminded him of the handle of the bell (perhaps because the hoop looks silver?) so he remembered that you ring the bell and then put the money in! It was too funny to see! I really wish I had a video of it but we keep the camera downstairs and our room is upstairs so I wasn't able to get it on camera before he stopped doing it. I hate when I miss video/photo ops like that! At least I blogged about it so the memory is saved somewhere... :)

November Parker Videos...

Videos of Parker from November. He was about 20 months old in these videos...
*I know I posted a couple of these in my post about Thanksgiving but I like having the videos from the month in one place...

Any time Parker has more than one of something he says he has two of them. On this day he happened to have two gourds and kept looking at them while saying, "two!". He was also in the habit around this time of really wanting to see the videos on the camera. You can hear him say "other side" as he tries to turn the camera around so he can look at the screen on the other side...


Parker was really wanting to look through the screen on the back of the camera and watch videos. I asked if he wanted to take a video of dada so we would actually be taking a video of something and he said, "uh huh!" He thought it was really neat to see a video of daddy! :)


This was the day that Parker insisted on taking videos of nothingness so that he could look at the screen on the back of the camera while I took the video. In this video I was really trying to get him to understand that the video would be more fun to watch if he were in it but he kept refusing. He can be very stubborn when he wants to be... ;)


Parker loves to color!!


Parker loves finding dandelions and trying to get the seeds loose. I think it's so funny to watch him try to get all the seeds off of the stem!


Parker and his cousin Elsie playing "Ring Around the Rosie"! They played several times and had so much fun! :)


Parker playing the piano with his Great Aunt Lara! He really liked the piano! :)

(more)

October Parker Videos...

Videos of Parker from October. He was about 19 months old in these videos...

Parker helping me read "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". We have only read it a few times but I think he must really like it because when I started reading it to him today, he instantly started doing the motions! :)


Parker has only seen Sesame Street a handful of times, partly because it is on at 9am and we're usually running errands or out and about doing something at that time, and partly because we really try to limit Parker's television watching since he's not even 2 yet. Despite only seeing it a few times, he know many of the character's names and says them. I love how he says Abby Cadabby (sp?) so I wanted to get a video of him saying it! :) (more)


Parker LOVED frosting and putting sprinkles on the pumpkin shaped sugar cookies! The frosting was a bit thick for him to figure out how to spread it very well but he still had fun! Putting the sprinkles on was his favorite but I don't have a video of him doing that because I had to do more helping with that process or half the cookies wouldn't have had any sprinkles...you can't exactly convince a toddler that less is sometimes more! ;)

September Parker Videos

September Parker videos. He was about 18 months old in these videos...

Just a video of Parker playing with Playdough for the first time. I would have tried it sooner but was afraid he'd just try to eat it. He didn't try to eat the Playdough even once when he played with it and was pretty good at manipulating it! :)


I decided to take a video of Parker eating his peas because this was shortly after he got his booster seat and he started sitting in it instead of his highchair. He knew all of his colors very well before I took this video but back then I think he thought it was funny to say the wrong color. He did sometimes get confused back then as to whether people were boys or girls though he now usually correctly identifies whether someone is a boy or girl.


This was back when Parker had first started saying "Uh oh!" when he'd drop something or something would be out of place. It didn't take long before he probably said "Uh oh!" literally over 20 times/day! :)


I was away this night and came home and James had taken this video of Parker. Apparently he had seen his lion costume hanging in the closet and asked to wear it. I love watching the lion sleeves flap as he walks...too cute! :)


Parker LOVES to pretend to go "night night" and then wake-up! He will do it over and over again! Shortly after this video he started saying "awake" so now he will usually say "night night" when he pretends to sleep and then says "AWAKE" very enthusiastically. He is too funny! (more)


Parker always points it out to us when it's raining outside. He will just stare out the window and say "raining" over and over again! He also says raining any time he sees water on the ground outside or on people's car windows. He is holding a puzzle piece that is a bee and says "bee, buzzz" toward the end of the video. I didn't even know he knew what a bee was because I don't remember ever telling him but maybe daddy taught him about bees...


Parker loves to run on the long rectangle trampoline at Flipz Gymnastics during open gym. Here he is just walking around on it. I didn't start filming until after he'd been on it for quite a while so I didn't get much of it.

end of July and 1 August Video

So I was going to get caught up with adding Parker videos on here when I looked back and saw that the last time I added a Parker video it was JULY!!! This might take a while but you have to start somewhere. Here are a few videos and the 1 video I have of him from August (things were kind of crazy that month since that's when we moved to Columbia). Parker would have been about 17 months old in these videos...

Parker saying "my book" and signing "help" for me to lift him up on the couch. This was back in July. For quite some time now he has said and signed help at the same time when he wants help or will sometimes now just say help instead of signing it as well.


I started making monkey noises to entertain Parker...he thought it was pretty funny. He signed "more please" SEVERAL times to keep the monkey noises/actions coming! ;) He also says more while he signs it but only did the signing for please at the time this video was taken. He now says and signs please in addition to more when he wants more of something. Toward the very end of the video he sees one of the roosters in grandma's kitchen and says "cock-a-doodle-doo"...too cute! p.s. James was NOT supposed to get me on camera!


This video was taken at my brother and sister-in-law's house. We stayed with them after an evening wedding we went to. It was well past Parker's bedtime by the time we got to their house and Parker was a bit slap happy! He kept standing up and pretending to fall down. It's hard to hear his laugh over all the talking but he thought he was pretty hilarious! ;) -sorry for the poor picture quality...it was very dim in the room which really affected the quality


I realized when I started taking this video that I hadn't taken any videos of Parker recently so I wasn't even sure what I was going to take a video of at first. I tried to get him to do the colors that he knew at the time but he got distracted because he wanted more water in his cup. Back when he was first learning his colors, he would often times call everything yellow at first and then say the correct color right after saying yellow. For about the past month now (since sometime in September) he has correctly identified all his colors without first calling them yellow! ;)

Big Boy Underwear...

A couple of weeks ago Parker took his little stuffed Mickey Mouse and told us that he (Mickey) needed a diaper. We put a diaper on Mickey and Parker started pretending that Mickey had gone "poo poo" or was "wet". He'd go "Uh oh...wet!" or "Uh oh...poopy" and would start taking the diaper off of Mickey and pretending to change it...he even asked for a wipe and wiped Mickey while saying "Clean the Mickey". It was too precious! Then about a week or so ago when Parker told me that Mickey was poopy I asked him if he wanted Mickey to sit on the potty chair like a big boy and put his poopy there and Parker said "Uh huh!" (that's a yes in Parker language) very enthusiastically! We took Mickey downstairs and Parker set Mickey down on his (Parker's) potty chair and said "Mickey poo poo!" He then took Mickey over to the sink and said "Wash the hands too!" We praised Mickey for a job well done on the potty chair and I talked to Parker about how Mickey was becoming such a big boy and that since he was putting his potty and poop in the potty chair instead of his diaper that Mickey needed some big mouse underwear!

I decided that day that we'd go ahead and buy Parker some big boy underwear, even though he's really not quite ready to potty train yet. I'm big on following a child's readiness cues when it comes to toilet learning and although he's not completely against the idea, I can tell he's not ready to take that plunge and I'm just fine with that. (afterall he's not even 22 months and is a boy) We went to Target and I saw some "Cars" and "Sesame Street" underwear...perfect! :) I handed him the underwear and we talked a little more about using the potty chair and how we'd have to put some big boy underwear on Mickey when we got home since he puts his potty and poop in the potty chair! Then I saw some "Thomas" the train underwear that I hadn't seen at first. I handed it to Parker in the cart and asked if he wanted to get some Thomas underwear too. He looked at me, said "Uh huh!!" and then brought the Thomas the train underwear package to his mouth and gave it a kiss! It was too funny and super sweet! :)

Language Development in November...

During the month of November Parker seemed to have another language spurt! This is a phase of toddlerhood that I absolutely LOVE!! I remember when I used to teach in a toddler classroom and I always thought it was so neat to watch the kids go through language spurts seemingly overnight! I think it's so fun that I now get to watch my sweet "baby" boy go through it! :)

During the first week of November, what used to be one word phrases had suddenly turned into 2 word phrases! He could frequently be heard saying, "open door", "more please", "more nugget/cheese/(or whatever else he wanted more of)", "close door", etc...

During the second week of November it was, "open the door", "up and down" (said as he'd bounce up and down), and "open the door, garage".

November 17th he started saying "Read me a book." instead of just bringing a book over and saying "read it". Oh, and FYI about that, when he doesn't say please, we ask him to say "Will you please read me a book" or at least ask him how we ask politely and he responds with a very sweet "please". :)

It has gotten to the point now where he pretty much ONLY uses at LEAST 2 word phrases to communicate his wants/needs to us or just for communication in general! :) This morning he was standing next to James and my bed and saying "up on the bed" to let us know he wanted up...yesterday morning James told me he asked Parker if he wanted Cheerios for breakfast and he said Parker said, "No, me eat toast", then earlier today Parker got out his "Cars" sticker/coloring book and said, "sticker on shirt, no on the paper"! My sweet boy is SO much fun!! :)

That reminds me...Little Gym Halloween Costumes!

Parker's class at the Little Gym could dress up for their class on the Wednesday before Halloween! Here are some pics...

Parker and friend Saffa (no idea if that's how you spell her name, but that's how it sounds) waiting for class to start. We tried to get them to stand next to each other but that's the closest they would get...they do like each other though, promise! lol ;)


Parker and friend Josie playing with the activity cube (not sure what else to call it) before class


Sitting on the "air trac" as it filled with air...he loves that thing! :) I took his costume off once we went in to class so he'd actually be able to move around and wouldn't get too hot.


Crawling around on a mat...


Playing "basketball" with friend Brenton


They do bubbles at the end of class every week...Parker LOVES it!


They always get stamps at the end of class. They all sit and wait so patiently for the stamps.


Getting his stamps


Parker pointing the cars in the parking lot out to friend Sarah.

That reminds me...MOM'S Club Fall Festival!

As I was adding pictures to the previous blog post, I realized there are some other fun things we've done since the last post that I had meant to put on here!

I am in a group here in Columbia called "MOMS Club of Columbia-North". We do several events each week and we've really enjoyed getting involved! They had a Fall Festival back on October 10th that Parker LOVED!! They painted pumpkins, had a costume parade, hayrack ride, cookout and smores (although we didn't stay late enough for the smores due to Parker's early bedtime). Here are some pics from the Fall Festival with MOM'S Club! :)

on the hayrack ride. It was very cold and Parker's mittens from last year were too small so I gave him my gloves to wear instead. He was less than impressed with the hayrack ride...maybe next year I guess...


trying to get him to take a picture with me. He just wanted to run toward the very dangerous bonfire...go figure!


Painting his pumpkin! James and I were actually surprised at how well he did painting it. It was his first time painting anything! :)


Still painting. I love his expression in this one!


Waiting in line for the costume parade


Sitting with the other kids (or at least the kids who hadn't scattered before we could take the pic, lol!) for a group shot after the costume parade. The only reason Parker stayed is because I told him that after he sat there and we got a picture it would be time for dinner...he was hungry!


Waiting patiently due to the promise of impending food, LOL! ;)


Sitting on a little bench by the bonfire. This was shortly before we left to go home. He was cold and tired...

Long Overdue Halloween and Thanksgiving Update...

Well so much for staying on top of the blog! I'm going to try to write and update about our Halloween and Thanksgiving since I have majorly been slacking on the blog once again! Let's just hope Parker takes a long nap so I have time to do all my updating...

Halloween: For Halloween we went back to Manhattan to visit family so they could see Parker as a lion! The day before we left to go back home we made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and Parker helped with the frosting and sprinkles! He would start to spread the frosting, then hand me the spreader and say "mama, mama" to have me do the remainder of the spreading. He loved decorating the cookies but putting the sprinkles on was definitely his favorite! On Friday October 30th we went to my mom's office and did some trick-or-treating at the different cubicles there. The employees all get dressed up and they really get into it. Parker was even good about using his best lion roar to tell everyone what a lion says! :) While we were there there were a couple of little girls that were there with their parents. When Parker saw them, he instantly said "GIRL, GIRL!!!" and started running over to them! It was really cute, but my goodness...not even 2 and already a ladie's man...we're going to have to watch out for our little stud muffin! ;) One of the little girls dropped a piece of candy and Parker said "Uh oh!!", picked her candy up and handed it back to her! He's such a sweetheart! :) Then on Halloween day we went to Westview Church's Halloween event. It's basically school carnival type games and the kids get candy as a price at each station. It was nice to go home for the visit and fun to see my nieces and nephews on James' side of the family as well as James' cousin's family! :)



Having a snack at Grandma and Grandpa Lehrman's house


Parker (left) and Owen (right-James' cousin's little boy), they had the same costume! :)


Parker's cousin Sam as a bumblebee! :)


Cousin Carter as baby Yoda! :)


Cousin Elsie (left) and Avery (James' cousin's little girl, sister to Owen the lion in the earlier picture)


He didn't want to stay still for a picture so he was running away (as fast as he could go wearing his big lion costume, lol!) This picture makes me think of the creatures in "Where the Wild Things Are"


view from behind...


Petting the horse at Westview church


Playing one of the carnival games at Westview church with daddy's assistance because when left to his own devices he preferred to use his hand to grab the ducks out of the water thus soaking his hand and costume...


Happy boy running around free...


...not so happy boy having to sit still for a picture with mom and dad, lol!



Thanksgiving: We went back home to Manhattan for Thanksgiving as well. We left Monday late morning/early afternoonish and got to Manhattan by about 4 or 5. We went to dinner at COCO BOLOS (SOOO yummy...oh how I've missed it!) and then headed over to James' parent's house. Tuesday and Wednesday was spent with James' family and we had our Thanksgiving celebration with them on Wednesday. Parker had a blast playing with all of his cousins on that side of the family!! I can't wait until next Thanksgiving when my nephews will be older and they'll really all be able to play together the way he and Elsie play now! He REALLY enjoyed playing with his cousin Elsie (she's a year and 5 days older than him)! I think their favorite thing to do was play "Ring Around the Rosie"! There have been several times since then when I have seen Parker walk around the room and all of a sudden say "all fall down" as he falls to the ground...too cute! Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning we left to go to my aunt and uncles house in KC. We had a lovely family lunch with 2 sets of my aunts/uncles, my cousins, grandparents, my parents, and a few sweet girls who are friends of my aunt and uncle! The food was awesome as always and everyone seemed to really have a good time! That next morning we came back to Columbia. It was nice to be able to get away for several days but it was nice getting back home so Parker could get back into his normal schedule, (the only time he napped while we were away was in the car on the way to Manhattan on Monday, on the way to KC on Thursday and on the way home on Friday).

Playing with cousin Carter the day before Thanksgiving!


Playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with cousin Elsie the day before Thanksgiving!




Playing the piano with Great Aunt Lara on Thanksgiving!

Sorry for the long delay between posts...

Well it's been a LONG time since my last post so I apologize! We've just been doing the same ol' same ol' around here lately. We've been keeping really busy with activities and Parker really seems to be enjoying himself! I joined the MOMS club of Columbia-North and it's been nice meeting new moms and doing fun activities! They plan 2-3 events per week and I usually end up going to one or two events each week. It's been nice meeting some new mommies and kids and Parker seems to enjoy playing with them! On top of those events we go to Barnes and Noble Storytime on Monday morning (as long as MOMS Club or other events don't conflict with the time). Tuesday's we usually end up running any errands we need to run and cleaning at home. Wednesday morning is Parker's Little Gym Class. Thursday morning is Barnes and Noble Storytime again. Every other Friday Flipz Gymnastics Center has open gym and MOMS Club meets there for Flipz and then heads out to eat lunch together afterwards. Saturday morning is Parker's Music Together Class (which I've actually been meaning to do another post about but haven't gotten around to it...). Sunday morning is church, and that's our week. The church we go to has a women's bible study that I think is primarily stay at home mom's because it is from 9-11am Thursday mornings and childcare is provided unilke their Tuesday morning bible study where childcare is not provided. Obviously it's probably older women at the Tuesday morning one and stay at home moms at the Thursday morning one due to the lack of childcare available for the Tuesday bible study. I'm looking forward to starting to go to that and think I might start that up this week actually! That will cut out Thursday morning Barnes and Noble Storytime but Parker always enjoys playing in the nursery at church and lately we've had other things goibng on and haven't been able to go to Thursday's storytime anyway so I don't think he'll really mind. Just thought I'd let you know what a typical week looks like for us right now. A lot of times we'll also go somewhere in the afternoons (Target, Hyvee, the mall, etc) just so we can get out for a bit. I'm going to try to be better about updating but we'll see how it goes. I just uploaded several videos to You Tube so I'll hopefully be posting those here soon! :)

Lack of Nap...

Well anyone who follows my Facebook status knows that Parker has (hopefully only temporarily) given up his nap for the day! Last Tuesday was the last time he took a nap for me, so as of today, it has been 8 days since he napped. I KNOW he's tired because numerous times once I get him out of his crib after giving up trying to get him to sleep (and trust me, I try for a long time and I try hard to get him to actually take a nap again), he will start falling asleep while sitting up "eating" a snack on the couch! I have been waking him up as soon as he falls asleep and telling him that it's fine if he wants to sleep, but that we sleep in our bed, not on the couch. I've tried re-taking him upstairs and putting him down again when he starts falling asleep on the couch but he just screams and cries just like the previous times when I have put him down and tried to get him to go to sleep. He also falls asleep if I drive somewhere with him in the car. I've had people tell me that their 18 month old tried to give up their nap at around this age but when they stuck with it and kept trying they ended up napping again after a while. I'm hoping this is the case for Parker but it sure seems like he has just decided that 18 months of taking a nap during the day is enough! (NOT true, but that seems to be what he thinks!) I'm sticking with it and continue to try to get him to nap despite it being exhausting when he so adamently refuses! I have some pics I took of him on a couple of different days right after he fell asleep on the couch but I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. When I do I'll post them in a new post for "everyone" (all 2 of you) to see! Frustrating that that's the only place he'll sleep, but still so cute to see him fall asleep like that! God definitely made kids cute for a reason! :)

The Little Gym

Just note to say that we have enrolled Parker at "The Little Gym"! "The Little Gym" is essentially a gymnastics center and they offer various classes for different age groups. We enrolled Parker in the class for 19 months-2 1/2 year olds even though he won't technically be 19 months until the end of this month because the class is 5 months old and this way at least for the remainder of the class, he'll be with kids his own age instead of being the absolute oldest one in his class. Each week, they sing songs, do a group activity (sometimes it's a big parachute, sometimes it's bouncing together on a large inflatable mat, etc.), have free play/exploration of the equipment, learn 2 "skills" on specific equipment taught by the instructor, play with balls and blow bubbles! :)

We went to a preview class 2 weeks ago and well...it didn't go so well! :( He clung to me like crazy and refused to do any of the fun things the other kids were doing! He didn't even want out of my arms to explore when they got to do free play/exploration in the gym. He has always been kind of a shy guy and is usually slow to warm up to new environments so I wasn't all that surprised that it took him so long to adjust. Anyone who personally knows Parker knows how much he LOVES balls! Well, toward the end of the little gym class they always get out balls for the kids to play with. Once Parker had that ball he had tons of fun with it and finally quit clinging to my side! I could tell by the way Parker was acting at that first class that he would probably be much more willing to try things out the following time we went and that it would be beneficial to enroll him in the class for him to have the experience!

His class is Wednesday's from 10:15-11:00 am, so yesterday we went to his little gym class for the second time. He did MUCH better than the first time we went! It was really funny because as soon as we went into the gym, he ran over to the door of the room where the instructor (Miss Sherry) had gotten the balls out for them to play with the time before and started saying "ball, ball" over and over again! I thought it was so cool that he had remembered that was where she had gotten the balls from the week before! What a smart boy to remember that a week later! :) He climbed all over the equipment when it was free play time and even tried the "skills" with the other kids! I love that for his age group it is a parent/child class where you are with your child the whole time and get to participate with them as they explore and learn new things! When we got home and saw James, I asked him to tell daddy what he did at the little gym and he instantly said "balls, bubbles!!" in a very excited voice! I'm looking forward to next Wednesday and I think Parker is too! :)

18 Month Check-Up

Parker went in for his 18 month check-up today! I thought he was due for shots today, (turns out he was actually due for one that he was supposed to get at 15 months but there was a shortage of the vaccine 3 months ago so our former pediatrician's office couldn't give it to him). Anyway, apparently at our new pediatrician's office, if you are uninsured (we're still waiting for all of our new Missouri insurance stuff to get processed...uggghh!), they don't do the shots in the office because it would cost over $200 to do them versus 20 some dollars at the Health Department so they have their unisured patients go there instead. So it was kind of a good news/bad news type of thing. I was glad that he didn't end up having to get a shot this morning, but I'm really hoping our Missouri insurance stuff gets processed soon so we don't have to have them done at the Health Department. No offense to them, just in my experience, the health department doesn't seem to do as well with things like shots. My arm is ALWAYS sore, bruised and the people that work there usually act like they'd rather be ANYWHERE than at work! (I mean seriously, couldn't they at least pretend they don't HATE their job? People have to pretend all the time that they don't like their job) Not an environment I want to take my son to have shots! Like I said, no offense to anyone who routinely uses their services, I'm sure they're not all like that and I'm sure plenty of people have had similar experiences at places other than the health department that I have had AT the health department as well as being completely satisfied with the health departments work! The fact of the matter is just that we naturally make our decisions at least in part based on our experiences and mine with the health department have been less than satisfactory. WOW...I sure do DIGRESS don't I??!!

Anyway, on to the good and hopefully non-boring stuff...that is if anyone (and by anyone I mean the 2 people who read this) is still reading! ;)

Here are Park's 18 Month Stats:
Head Circumference: 18 3/4 in. (50th percentile)
Height: 31 3/4 in. (50th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz. (5th percentile)

To compare these stats with his 15 month stats you can go here. Parker is clearly still a skinny little guy but we're just fine with that! :) The pediatrician did ask about some history of his weight etc. since both his height and head circumference are average and it's only his weight that is really low percentage wise. When we told him that ever since 9 months, the largest he has been percentage wise is 10% and that when he was sick around his first birthday and was only in the 1% he said it sounded like we just had a little guy and that he seemed to be developing "perfectly". :) Hopefully we won't have to go back to the pediatrician again until his 2 year check-up! I still can't believe that in just 6 months my "baby" will be turning 2 (*sigh)!

Colors!

As the days have gone on, Parker has done a really good job of learning his colors! The colors he can say and correctly identify are: purple, yellow, blue, green, red, and orange!

He can also correctly identify black, although I don't think I've heard him say it yet. I can't believe how quickly he picked up on it with just a LITTLE bit of practice! I guess it's time to move on to more complex things...it's not going to take him long before he'll be smarter than I am and then we're REALLY in trouble! ;)

"geen" and 2 word phrases

I started writing this post SEVERAL days ago and I keep getting side tracked so I've decided I MUST finish it this evening or I might not ever get around to it!

Well Parker has added another color that we're sure he knows... "geen" (green)! We actually think he knows more than just the yellow, purple and green because often times when we ask him to point to say the orange ball he correctly identifies it numerous times so I think if we were more conisistent about asking, we'd find that he knows a lot of the basic colors! This morning I was getting Parker ready to go to the library and I held up 2 different jackets (one green and one blue) for him to choose from and asked which one he wanted to wear. Without missing a beat, he pointed to green jacket and said what sounded like green. I always keep these things in the back my mind in case it is just a fluke or I'm hearing things because I want to hear them, lol! :) I briefly told James later that morning that I thought Parker had said green and that was about it. Then when we were at the library, Parker was sitting at one of the activity tables they have for kids and was doing a puzzle when he pointed to the green chair at the table next to him and very clearly said "geen". He has pointed at green things and said geen several times since then too! :)

On an entirely different note, Parker has started stringing 2 words together to make 2 word phrases! The ones I've heard him do so far are, "yes please", "yellow car" and "out car" (his way of telling me he is ready to get out of the car). "Yes please" is kind of a breakthrough because Parker used to say "yeah" and even "yes" occasionally when he was younger and somewhere along the line, his "yeahs and yeses" have turned into "huh and uh-huh". It sounds ADORABLE when he says his sweet little "uh-huhs" although not exactly polite. For this reason we have really been trying to stress lately that when we ask him if he wants something and he would like it, he should say, "yes please". We asked him a couple of days ago whether he wanted more vegetables and he at first said his usual "huh!" (yes) but then when we said "Parker, if we want more of something we say "yes please"...can you say yes please?" (which by the way is that same way we have asked him to say it all along!) it was like a light bulb went on in his head and he all of a sudden started saying "yes please" over and over again. Funny thing is, he hasn't done it since. Such a silly kid! Either way I'm really proud of him for figuring out how to string 2 words together to make phrases! Such a big boy thing to do! He'll really be talking up a storm before we know it!

Triangle!!

Shapes are not something I have tried to get Parker to learn because I figured he was just too young to try to learn concepts like that. I do sometimes label the shapes of things in books or of things he's playing with, etc. but beyond that, I don't stress the shape thing. Well today out of the blue, Parker walked over to me with a toy triangle that goes in one of his shape sorters and started saying "gee-a-gal" (i.e. triangle) over and over again. I looked down and noticed the triangle in his hand and said "triangle? Are you saying triangle?" to which he said, "uh huh" (Parker's version of yes). Later this morning he found a different triangle for a different shape sorter toy and brought it over to James and said "gee-a-gal" over and over again to him. Triangle seems like an odd shape to learn before say circle or square but whatever! Such a silly boy I have! :)

July Parker Videos

All of the following videos are from our family Branson vacation...

7/6/09 Squeaker Shoes
This is just a video of Parker walking around in a pair of his squeaker shoes in our lodge room in Branson when we were on vacation. He just walked back and forth over and over again so he could hear them squeak.

7/6/09 Pool Time in Branson
This was at one of the pools at Big Cedar (where we stayed when we were in Branson on vacation). This day at the pool Parker particularly enjoyed playing with the water jets. :)

7/10/09 Parker Feeding Fish at Big Cedar
Parker loved feeding the fish at the fish pond at Big Cedar when we stayed there on our vacation in Branson.

7/10/09 Shredding/Eating Kleenix
We were in the car on the way home from our Branson vacation when Parker asked if he could have a Kleenix. I figured he would shred it and make a huge mess but he was getting restless and I was desperate! At least it made him happy. ;)

(more)

Remainder of June Parker videos

6/17/09 Parker Eating Snack
Just a video of Parker having some crackers for snack. In this video he signs help after he first tries to get the bib off of the side of the highchair, says: puff, bib, and on and undoes his bib on his own and tries to put it on. He's getting to be such a big boy and this was back in June!

In the next video, Parker correctly identifies the color purple! This was back in June but I thought maybe it was just a fluke but then today he correctly identified purple on more than one occasion so I'm pretty sure he knows it as well as yellow! :)

6/19/09 Father's Day Painting
After Parker finished finger painting a box for James to keep at his office (for Father's Day), he decided he wanted to paint his body. He says: body and purple in this video! He even correctly identifies purple! :) He's such a smart, sweet boy!

"lella"

Parker officially definitely knows the color yellow, (or "lella" as he says it)! A long time ago I wrote a post where he correctly identified blue and red, but that only lasted for like a week or something and then he couldn't identify them anymore...strange because EVERY time we asked him for that week, he correctly identified them. I guess that was all just a coincidence!

Lately we have been mentioning the color of things more frequently as Parker plays to help him pick up on it. About a week ago, if you asked him what color something was, he would instantly say "boo" (that's blue to those of you who aren't parents yet). Well earlier this week James pointed to a picture of a yellow car in a book and asked Parker was color it was and at first Parker said his usual "boo" but then right after saying that, he said "lella"! This happened a couple of other times this week when we would ask him the color of something yellow! Then this morning I was putting some different colored balls onto his ball pop table and when I pulled out the yellow one, he pointed right to it and he said "lella" once again! :) I'm so proud of my smart little man!! The funny thing is that now when you ask him what color something is he either says it's "boo" or "lella" or he'll say "boo, lella". Oh well, at least he knows one color...I'd say that's pretty good for a 17 month old! :)

Breakthrough??

We may have had a breakthrough in the "throwing things in the trash can" department!! Today, Parker was bringing me books to read him, but he would walk over, throw the book in the trash can (the office trash can that is so the only thing in it was papers, nothing gross), pull it out of the trash can and bring it over for me to read it to him. After watching him do this not one or two times, but THREE times in a row, I decided I needed to take a different approach than our usual "technique" (see this post).

So when he got the book out of the trash can and handed it happily to me to read to him, I told him that I couldn't read the book to him because it was dirty from being in the trash can. At first he looked at me like I was nuts and started crying/wimpering to me while pointing to the book and saying and singing "book" repeatedly. I held my ground and explained again that when we put things in the trash can, they get dirty and we can't read them unless they are clean. I then told him that he could bring me a clean book from the other room in one of his book containers and I would read it to him. He then proceeded to go to the other room and get a book that he brought to me to read without putting it in the trash can first! He successfully brought 2 more books in without even hesitating at the trash can either time! I'm hoping this is a trend he will continue...I'm tired of digging things out of the trash! Thank goodness the kitchen trash can is under the sink and the bathroom doors are kept closed so he can't get into them!

Stairs and Trashcans

I realized the other day, that sometimes I put things in my Facebook status that Parker is doing but don't always blog about it. I thought I would share some "funny" things Parker has done that I have had in my Facebook status recently...

Parker has gotten into the lovely habit of throwing things into any available trashcan! James and I are partly to blame for this because when he was younger and would find the tiniest little food scraps or whatever on the floor, he would bring them over to James and I and we would tell him that it was trash and to put it in the trash can. He would then faithfully crawl over to the trash can and throw away whatever paper/food scrap he had found. Anyway, on to the trash can incidences...I think I've been around each time he's done this (since I keep a close eye on him...after all, he's no longer a baby and is definitely a mischievous toddler!) He finds things on the floor, (usually his toys) and will just put them in the trash can and walk happily away after doing so. Ironically, he JUST threw grandma and grandpa's phone in the trash can and when I took the phone out, I found his toy police car and toy ladder to one of his Little People toys...NO JOKE!! LOL!!! I can't hide the trash cans because we are still staying with James' parents. Every time I see him throw something in the trash can, I tell him that we ONLY put things in the trash can if mommy and daddy ask him to put it in the trash and that ONLY TRASH goes in the trash can, not toys or anything else! If he were older, I would tell him that if he puts his toys in the trash, they will get thrown away and he won't have them anymore but I am far too practical and quite frankly cheap to do that now! He's not really at the age to "get" that concept anyway, and we would like to have more than one kid and I buy toys with the intention of multiple children being able to use them not just Parker until he throws them away! lol! Anyway, it's quite frustrating because it's like it goes in one ear and out the other but I guess that's just one of the "joys" of having a toddler...

The other thing that Parker has been doing, is throwing things down the stairs and laughing hysterically as they tumble down and reach the bottom of the staircase. So what exactly does he throw down the stairs you might be asking yourself...you name it, he throws it! His cup, toys, stuffed animals, kitchen utensils, pretty much anything that he finds and gets in his silly head to toss ends up either at the bottom of the stairs or on one of them. He threw his cup down the stairs a couple of days ago and as a natural consequence when he asked for his "wawa" (water) with his snack, James and I told him that his water was downstairs because he had thrown it down when we asked him not to and that he'd have to wait until after his snack when we could go downstairs to get it. Was that a bit harsh of us? He is old enough that he TOTALLY understands what no means and he gets a sly little grin on his face sometimes after he's done things like that that he KNOWS he's not supposed to do! He acts like a toddler now for sure, not a little baby so we're sure he's just being the typical toddler and testing his limits. And seriously, it's not like we never allow him to have anything to drink! Right after he finished his snack, we went downstairs where he took one TINY sip of his water and tossed it aside like he wasn't even thirsty!

Anyway, that's what we've been dealing with lately...that and the fact that Parker wants to be outside ALL THE TIME!!! Not so much of a challenge when the weather cooperates and we don't have anything else going on, but much more challenging when we've got things planned or it's a heat index of over 100 degrees as it has been some days lately here. At least this last week the weather was bEaUtIfUl so we were able to spend more time outside! Hopefully this week is nice too so I don't have to hear "outide, outide, outide" every time Parker looks out a door or window! ;)

Branson Vacation!

We recently got back from the annual Stowe family Branson vacation and I figured if I don't blog about now, I never will so here goes! We left Sunday July 5th and got back Friday July 10th. James, his 2 brothers and their families and James parents all went, (oh and of course Parker and I went as well). James' parents own a timeshare and try to head to Branson once a year with the whole immediate family. Why Branson you may be wondering...well even though we aren't as easily able to take in the "touristy" things now that there are 4 little ones (Parker and his 1 girl and 2 boy cousins), the trip is only about 6 hours away so it's pretty doable (although still a long day for young kids to have to sit in the car). Since James is currently in grad school and he and his brothers all have young families, it is just not financially in the picture for each family to try to afford plane tickets to fly anywhere in addition to the money lost due to not being able to work during the vacation week and all of the other random expenses that inevitably occur on vacation. Plus Big Cedar Lodge (located right outside of Branson) is a great "resortish" hotel right on the lake with several heated pools, hot tubs, walking/hiking trails, fish pond, restaurants, and other very nice amenities that we all seem to enjoy. It's a nice little vacation getaway! :)

Now on to the actual trip. Basically the trip consisted of: LOTS of walking, LOTS of pool time, some SHOPPING (hooray!!:), feeding the fish at the fish pond, and relaxing in general. Also, one morning on the trip, James' parents took Parker and his cousin Elsie (who is only 1 year and 5 days older than him) to a place called "The Butterfly Palace" (Here is their website if you want to check it out!:) It was a nice trip and all-in-all Parker did really well on the drive and with sleeping in a new place in his pack n' play instead of his crib. I'm looking forward to next year's Branson vacation already! Here are some pictures from the trip for anyone interested...

Dressed and ready for his first day of Branson fun!


about to head to one of the pools


He loved playing with the water jets at the pool! I got a video of him playing in the water jet but have been having difficulty getting my videos to load to You Tube lately. I'll post the video on here whenever I can...


Parker playing with cousin Elsie at the pool. They have so much fun together! :)


Feeding the fish in the fish pond at Big Cedar! I have a video of this too so if You Tube will EVER allow me to actually load it then I'll post it on here too!


at the butterfly palace...


cousins walking hand-in-hand at the butterfly palace...aren't they just too sweet together??!! :)


In the car on the way home...Why is he so happy you ask?...


...this is why! He was getting restless and when he saw me blow my nose, he decided he wanted to play with a Kleenix. I gave him one (a new CLEAN one of course...what kind of mother do you think I am??!) and he proceeded to shred it into tiny pieces! Needless to say it was quite the mess but TOTALLY worth it to have a happy baby! ;)