Spring Tease

So lately the weather has been nice and not-so-nice/warm then cold/ dry then wet. I'm more than ready for some warm, spring weather! Parker is too! He stands at the back door looking at his swing so sad and asks over and over, "swing? outside?" The last 2 days have been rainy and cold so he's been disappointed. Hopefully that is short-lived.

Parker's become quite the basketball fan. He love to watch it (live or on TV) and loves to play it. He's actually getting pretty good for his age. He has a basketball hoop that's just his size that he plays with all of the time. We pick him up to dunk, which is a frequent request - "dunk, dunk, dunk!" is a common thing we hear. He can even recognize a dunk on the television and runs around yelling, "dunk, dunk, dunk". It's a riot!

Here's hoping for some warmer weather!

Adventure of the B.B.s

Parker has accumulated quite the bedtime collection of necessities. He has 2 blankets (he calls them his B.Bs), a beanie baby dog - called "puppy", a teddy bear - called Dakka bear and his paci. Tonight I was changing his bedding and putting his blankies in the wash and he was not going for it. I would put the blankets in the washing machine then he would take them out...in, out, in, out...it was a vicious cycle. He didn't want his b.bs in the washing machine - period! I didn't want to upset him for the 50 minute wash cycle by forcing him to give them to me so I talked him into a game of ball and tossed them in once he was distracted. He was very happy to see them after they were dry. Crisis averted! Whew...mom wins this one!

Fun Afternoon at the Park

Parker loves to run and play at that park! Yesterday it was sunny and warmer than it has been so we took off to meet a few of our friends at Cox Park. One of the cool things about this park are the pine cones - Parker didn't remember them from last fall so it was a new discovery to him. He thought they were pretty cool and stayed entertained by "hunting" for pine cones and bringing them to mommy. What a great way to burn off all of that toddler energy!

Finally, an update...

My good friend, Katie asked me if I was still sitting in the closet from the scary storm post that I made a LONG time ago... Ha ha, no we made it out safely! :)

There have been many updates in our life since my last post. Parker is now 21.5 months old and we're getting ready for the big 2nd birthday that is quickly approaching. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone...most of the time I just want it all back, but I'm anxious for every new step ahead of us. Parker has developed an extensive vocabulary - too many words to list and even has many sentences and phrase that he uses often. His favorite questions are "what is that?" and "where is __________?" He is very inquisitive and I love it. Sometime I think he doesn't stop asking to listen to the answer. He's a typical almost-2 year old...running, jumping, climbing, falling and fearless. He's a very social little man and I get regular comments about what a great personality he has. There is a little stinker inside him too...he's a toddler - he doesn't share well, he cries when he is told "no," and he is constantly pushing boundaries. This is all part of his development and up to me to be consistent and teach him how to be a civilized person. That sounds so simple when you type it out. Ha ha! :) All of you moms out there know how "easy" that is.

Jon is working hard at Stratas still and has taken on managing new projects and delegating a lot of the day-to-day work. It takes lots of long hours, but he makes it a point to be home w/ me and P on the weekends. We need to schedule a vacation to get away from all of the stress and relax...much over due!

Overall, life is good here - no complaints right now. I'm ready for some warmer weather, but know that the hot summer months will be here all too soon. I'm making a commitment now to update this blog more often, so stay tuned and remind me if I fall behind!

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.

12 Month Check Up

Parker had his 12 month check up with his Pediatrician today. He is right on track for weight, height and head circumference. There are not any concerns right now about his other developmental areas - he is not walking yet, but is "cruising," which is acceptable at 12 months. I think he'll take off walking in the next 2-3 months...and the doctor agreed that was fine. We do have some homework - getting rid of the morning bottle before solid foods. Parker has protested eating breakfast before his bottle...he always eats Cheerios or something similar after his bottle, but since he's had all of that formula he's not very hungry so he only eats a handful of Cheerios. So, we are going to offer up food with a sippy of milk for breakfast every morning and quit the morning bottle cold turkey. I'm sure it will be a few days of protest, but he'll catch on quickly. We're going to keep the before bed bottle for now and work on getting rid of it in a month or so - I'm in no hurry to take his bottles away if he needs the comfort of one to go to bed at night.

This leads me to my next challenge - getting rid of the pacifier. Parker uses his pacifier to go to sleep, but usually spits it out while sleeping and doesn't seem to care about it any other time. It doesn't interfere with his sleep, meaning he doesn't wake up crying because if fell out of his mouth, so I'm not too anxious to get rid of it, but I know it has to be done sooner rather than later.

It's hard to believe my baby boy is now techincally considered a "toddler"...WOW how 1 year went by quickly.