10 Months

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 1^st birthday party and will have some party planning updates soon.

9 months

okay, so this is a little bit late (and by that I mean almost a month) but here goes.

Parker:
At 9 months, this child can pretty much be described in one phrase: 'on the move.'  He just doesn't stop.  He loves food and will eat almost anything, except carrots, which he still just doesn't like that much.  He has recently discovered how much it is to roll a ball around the room and chase after it, just to roll it again.  He really loves the animals and plays with Mr. Kitty and the dogs all the time.  This leads me to his 9 month pictures: 

what kind of mischief will I get into today Mom?

Yep, it's official, he's learned how to crawl out the dog door.  Because that was exactly what we needed a baby that just doesn't stop moving to learn!

The Evolution of Bathtime

Bath time has always been something Parker enjoyed.  From the baths after first bringing him home until now, bath time seems to be very soothing and fun for him.  A few weeks ago I was thinking about how bath time has evolved, so here's a little view of our world:

8 months

So I am a little late on the monthly Parker updates, but better late than never, right?

For this month's pictures, I decided to change up the scenery a bit, mostly because trying to get a self-mobile 8-month-old to sit still on the bed while I take pictures is not a realistic plan. 

Upon this decision, I started thinking about the changing landscape of our home and of our lives that directly correlates to the changes we see every day in Parker. 

 He has transitioned from this tiny 7lb 9oz sleepy ball of personality waiting to emerge, subject to the whims of our imaginary futures full of 'and won't it be so cute when he is older and acts like this...'  Mike and I spent nine months dreaming about this person who was yet to be. 

Now that he is here, its not like we've stopped imagining what he'll be like down the line, but these visions are more fluid, affected by the ripples of his personal development. 

We are so fortunate to have such a happy baby, and my hope is that his positive outlook will remain a constant throughout the years.  He is so curious about the world around him. 

It amazes me to watch him explore the uncharted territory of his new world, to watch him touch and feel and stare and analyze the information at his fingertips (which most often leads directly to his mouth).  It amazes me to think of the man that he will become, the man that started as this tiny baby infinitely curious about the world around him.

Now that I have gone on and on about the wonders of my child (of which I am sure most parents can relate to), I will keep true to form and give you a rundown of life at 8 months.

Parker:
He pretty much doesn't stop, ever.  He is always on the move, always wanting to explore. 

He wants to walk, and really wants to climb. 

The other day he was trying to open Hailey's bedroom door (Hailey's room is pretty much the cave of wonders for him, with so many bright and color toys and of course his favorite of all playmates, his sister.  Even when she's not around he crawls to her room looking for her).  Mike took a video of him reaching for the doorknob, trying to figure out how to jump for it.  Dear goodness, don't let him learn how to walk, climb or jump yet! I don't think Mike and I could keep up!  He is gigantic, about 22 pounds at this point. 

He loves food and loves to be the one to feed himself.  I think he would live off of Cheerios if he could because he gets to put them in his mouth by himself (and because they are delicious, let's just be honest).  At this point he is eating a handful of cheerios, a full 4oz of solids and at least an 8oz bottle 4-5 times a day.  I don't even want to think about how much food he is going to graze through when he is a teenager.  He loves his dinosaur stuffed animals, his giant monkey and the little gray monkey.  He really loves music, and we recently figured out that his odd prolonged squeaks are his attempts at singing.  When I put on music, he crawls over to the bookshelf with the speakers, pulls himself up and dances and sings when he likes the song.  He loves playing with his drum toy and the shape sorter.  Recently, he has really started liking books.  He crawls to his bookshelf and pulls them all off and just looks at them.  If I grab one, he crawls over into my lap to get comfy and anxiously waits for me to start reading.  He has started to make defined consonant sounds, ma and ga and da and ba, etc.  It hard to tell just yet if he understands the word associations, but Mike and I think he does.  So if we assume that he does, than he has said 'da-da' and 'ba' for his baths (which he loves, so much so that I am devoting an entirely separate post to come later this week).  If you talk to my parents, they will adamantly state that he said 'you do it' the other weekend when they spent the night.

And here are a few more pictures in case you were able to make it through all that cuteness:

7 Months (a few weeks late)

Parker James:
He has officially mastered crawling and DOES NOT STOP moving ever. He is so curious about everything around him and wants to touch and feel (and taste) it all.  He loves food, loves to feed himself and loves to be able to eat whatever we are eating.  He has so much personality and is a constant crack up.  Lately, I can't help but think about how big he seems lately, not just physically (and boy is he huge) but mentally.  He understands so much more and is able to communicate so much more effectively than just a few months ago.  He is starting to pull himself up and you can watch him trying to figure out how to climb things.  He is going to be such a handful when he can walk.  He loves the dogs and plays with them all the time.  He came up with a game with Rose when she is outside where he will tap on the dog door and she will tap back from the outside.  They have fun together.  In my March Photo challenge pictures, there was one of him kissing his giant monkey that he absolutely loves.  It's the only thing on our house that gets consistent hugs and kisses, makes Mike and I so jealous, but its cute to watch so we haven't 'accidentally' given it to the dogs yet. Maybe by next month, I'll be the one getting kisses everyday!!