Once again, I am a little late on the monthly posts. I feel like we have entered a time warp the last two weeks because I am pretty sure that it was July 1st like yesterday. I keep going back and forth on whether this post should be a family update post or just a Parker update since it will be a year (A WHOLE FREAKING YEAR PEOPLE) next month. I have been trying to do quarterly family updates but I missed it at nine months so here goes.
Parker:
Man this kid is big! Every day I look at him and am just astonished at
how big he is compared to when we brought him home. He started daycare in
June and had a hard time adjusting for the first few weeks. He would cry, not inconsolably just sad, when
he was dropped off and when he was picked up.
Then in the first two weeks he got sick, was exposed to hand-foot-mouth,
then they thought he had pink eye and then the rest of us got sick. In his first month at daycare, I blew through
six months of sick time. Three weeks
into all the sickness, he still has a lingering cough and another runny
nose. Poor kid. He’s got five teeth now, two on top, three on
bottom and a molar coming in the back.
He says dada, mama, dog, almost says kitty, and generally tries to talk
all day long, definitely Mike’s kid. He
has his own version of a meow that he does whenever he sees Mr. Kitty, and he
and the animals have become partners in crime recently. They patiently hide under his high-chair and
he thinks he subtly passes drops them food with a big smile on his face as if
we can’t see his hands. He’s standing on
his own for good amounts of time, walking across the furniture and desperately
trying to build up the confidence to take a step unassisted. He’ll stand up and you can see it on his face
that he is trying to figure out how to get across the room; he’ll start to move
forward a little and then plop down. We
are transitioning him off of bottles to sippy cups and slowly adding an ounce
of milk at a time to his formula, though he eats dinner with us for the most
part so the number of bottles he has a day has gone down quite a bit. He loves music; that may actually be an
understatement, he is completely fascinated with music of all kinds, he loves
to sing along and dance and loves to try to whistle along with Daddy. He often bee-lines for the bookshelf with the
speakers on it and will look back at me waiting for the music to play as he
gets ready to dance. He’s gotten over
his anxieties from starting daycare and is back to his independent self, though
he does love an audience. He still
generally prefers Mommy and Daddy to strangers, where he had no real preference
before, but happily waves and high-fives anyone with a smile. Overall, he is a very happy baby with a big
personality and a resilient sense of curiosity that keeps him busy.
Mike:
Mike has gone back to work with his Dad and is enjoying a daily sense of
accomplishment that he was starting to lack staying home with Parker. He loved the time they were able to spend
together, but is definitely happy to have a more defined purpose each day. He is still doing pools for now, but is hoping
to give them back to his Dad soon.
Hailey:
Hailey is out on summer break and has been quite a busy girl with day trips
and camp outs and all sorts of outings every week. Monday night after I picked her up from her
mom’s house, we were at Dennis and Gloria’s and she gave Mike a hug and it hit
me how big she has gotten in the last few months. She has lost that baby face
and toddler body and is started to become a young lady. Luckily for us, she is still content with a
family walk to the park or a quick card game and hasn’t fully been taken in
with the pre-teen-itis just yet.
Hopefully we can squeeze another year in before she’s over family time.
Me:
I am enjoying my job; I’ve been busy but not stressed. It’s been great to get a different
perspective of the campus and a new sense of business as usual and my boss does
a great job of allowing me to be involved at a different level than before. I haven’t been able to keep up with my
photography as much the last two months with sick kiddos and new routines, but I
am hoping to take advantage of the long summer days and great sunny outdoors
for some family photo shoots soon. I’ve
been keeping up with the photo-a-days and have a photo dump coming soon. We have been eating really healthy lately,
doing most of our shopping at the farmers market and eating fresh every day. For the most part during the week, we are
sticking with a vegetarian diet and only adding meat on special occasions or
when we are really craving it. With the
smoker, we got into a ‘all-meat, all the time’ diet, and not to sound bougie
but Mike and I were both a little over it.
Now when we smoke something, we appreciate it more instead of critiquing
how it was better or worse last time around.
I am 10 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight and have lost a total of 8
inches between my arms, waist, hips and legs.
My goal is to lose another 10-15lbs to get me to my ‘when we first met’
weight and I am very confident that I will get there sooner than later. Although, then I’ll get pregnant again and
have to do it all over. I am well under
way with planning Parker’s 1st birthday party and will have some
party planning updates soon.
