Scary Storm

This post is less about Parker and more about living in TN in general. Last Friday we had our first severe weather episode since moving here in February. Parker and I had enjoyed a great day of swimming at the pool then going to the splash park with friends when it started to thunder so we came home - luckily the splash park is close. Shortly after we got home it got really dark and started to storm. Jon called from work and said that Cordova just got hit by a horrible storm and they had lost power several times. While we're on the phone the tornado sirens go off so I hang up with Jon, get my dogs in the house and shuffle everyone into the master bathroom. The master bathroom and master closet are the only two rooms in the house without windows and the most center part of the house that we can all fit into. I'm trying to keep my cool so that Parker doesn't gets scared, but the sirens kept screaming and the storm picked up FAST! It always seemed like when the sirens went off in IL that you had 10 minutes or so to get into shelter - well not in TN! I called my mom and had her logon to the weather web site to see what's going on and when it's supposed to end. Thank God she was home! Just knowing more about what was going on made me feel better - plus having my mom on the phone was comforting too! I got into the bathtub with Parker after a few minutes because it sounded like the things were hitting the house and the winds were very strong. Parker thought the bathtub was great and proceeded to play with the soap and shampoo bottles. He still thought I was just playing a new game with him. The storm passed and we came out of shelter to find about half of one of our trees was down and some of our patio chairs were blown over - they are very heavy chairs so that must have been some wind! The rest of the neighborhood looked intact, so we were fortunate. We learned later that many people in our town had lost power completely (ours only flickered a few times) and they may be without power for up to a week! I feel like I'm much better prepared now to handle the next severe storm/tornado, but I hope that we don't see it! I really missed my basement after this, but homes here don't have basements because of the high water table.

What's New in Parker's World

Parker has been working on getting his first molar this week. It's almost threw his gums. I think it's been a little sore lately b/c he has been a little finicky with some of his meals and I notice him chewing on the opposite side of the molar. For a treat tonight I gave him some vanilla ice cream - he really liked that!

Parker has picked up a few new words...the one I hear the most is "bubbles". He got a bubble machine for the bathtub for his birthday and he cannot go past his bathroom without saying, "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles". I try to keep the bathroom door closed (out of sight, out of mind) but when I forget to close the door he crawls in there and stands up on the edge of the tub looking up at the bubble machine chanting for me to come in and turn it on.

Parker is pulling up on everything - including my legs everywhere I stand - and cruising along the furniture. He has let go a few times to stand alone, but he falls to his bottom as soon as he notices he's not hanging onto an object. I think he's a few months from walking yet.

I recently noticed Parker is mocking things he sees everywhere. What caught my attention was the other day I saw Parker mimicking something he saw on the television the night before while watching a movie with me and Jon. It wasn't a "bad" or "dirty" movie, but there were several scenes where this man would scrub his body in the shower...the next day I saw Parker rubbing his toys on his arms and chest just like the guy in the movie. He had to have picked that up from the movie...there is no where else he would have saw something like that. So, now we are watching very closely what we watch when he's around. I try not to watch too much TV when he's up anyway. He's also trying to repeat what we say...so we really have to watch those bad words that slip once in awhile. :)

So far, we're 2 weeks into Toddlerhood and it's had its challenges, but the good definitely outweighs the bad.