Option three, please!

Parker is running around David and Heather's house in my way-to-big-for-him-flip-flops...
Me: "Parker, you  have two options."
Parker: (stops running) "Okay?"
Me:  "I don't want you to get hurt, so you can either take off the shoes and keep running (don't judge me.... the kid needs to get his energy out!) or you can keep the shoes on and stop running."
Parker:  "I need three options!"

REALLY?!

While pointing to a picture of himself (he usually recognizes himself immediately), he turns to me as says, "Hey Moma, Hey Momma! Who is that man?"

Parker: rambling something while standing at the baby gate that is blocking the kitchen...

Me: Parker, I can't understand you. What do you want?

Parker: with his head tilted down, his eyes rolled up, and with a look of total annoyance he said "Bag. Meat."

He wanted beef jerkey.

Parker: rambling on to Grant and David about something

After a few seconds of them trying to figure out what he was saying....

Grant: What do you want?

Parker: A hoagie!

Of course. What kid doesn't want a hoagie?

While standing in front of the tv, watching America's Funnies Home Videos (some video of an animal... I don't really remember what) I hear Parker really loudly/almost yelling say, "Ohhh. (pause) myyyy. (pause) gosshhh."

Parker asks "what happened" ALL OF THE TIME! Once you answer, his reply is always "oh."

He also asks, "what's that" and replies with "oh" or "oh cool." He also say

He has learned a few new responses to questions. I wish I could catch him on video!

When I tell him to do something or that we are going somewhere, he looks up at me with his eyes rolled up, and says, "ooohhhh kaaayy!" in a way that sounds as if he is questioning what I am telling him, like as in, "okay, whatever you say." I wish I could explain the exact way he says it, so funny!

On weekday mornings, Parker usually wakes up sometime while Jerod is getting ready for work (usually while he is in the shower so Parker does not see him). He comes into my room, climbs into bed with me and snuggles up beside me for a few more minutes of rest/light sleep. Jerod usually finishes getting ready and whispers bye and sneaks out of the house. Lately though Parker has woken up (or decided not to go back to sleep at all) and demands hugs and kisses from his daddy. Jerod will be tip-toing out of the room and Parker will lift his head and say in the smallest and sweetest voice, "Daddy, tisses!" (yes "tisses") So jerod walks over, gives him kisses and then Parker will point to me and say, "Mommy tisses!" Jerod gives me a kiss and then Parker points to Porter's bassinet and says, "baby too!" Jerod kisses Porter and then it all starts over with, "Daddy big hugs!" as he sits up in bed with his arms out wide. So sweet :)

First tooth!

Porter cut his first tooth today! Well, technically he cut it yesterday, but it was just the tiniest little bit coming through (you could only feel it if he bit your knuckle realy hard). In fact, I had Jerod check it twice because I wasn't sure if I felt it or not, and both times he thought I was crazy. But this morning it was obvious! I had been wondering all week if he was teething because he has been a little fussy since this weekend, which isn't like him at all. Poor little guy!

So I just got on the blog to check which pictures of Porter I had already posted. I decided a long time ago to not be critical of my bad grammar or a few typos (otherwise it would take way too much time and effort and I would never post anything), but I should REALLY at least start reading through what I type before I post! I am blaming it on writing it in the middle of the night, but for the record, yes, I know squeal is not spelled squeele and I don't even remember how I spelled literally but I do know how to spell that too! And don't get me going on how many times I change tenses when I write... I am aware!

Oh Parker!

I started writing this several months ago, so some of these are pretty old!

After a few really good attempts to potty on the big boy potty, I rewarded Parker for attempting by saying, "Good try buddy! You can have a treat for trying!" Awhile later I came out of the bathroom and he said, "Good try (and patted me on the back)! Mommy treat?"

Jerod got up this morning at 4:00 to go hunting and accidentally woke Parker up. Jerod found him in his room, half asleep, fumbling around with an arm fool of books. After dropping them and picking them back up several times, he ran into our room, threw his books on the end of the bed and crawled into bed with me. He didn't even want to read them, I guess he just liked knowing that they were there! So sweet :) After falling back to sleep in my bed, he begins to sleep whisper (not talk, whisper) a long jumbled up string of words that didn't even go together! Just random names, toys, activities, etc. He mentioned Papa Dave and fishing a few times so he must have been dreaming about it.

Parker was being particular difficult when I was trying to get him to lay down for a nap. He kept crying for his puzzle. I thought he wanted to play with it (instead of take a nap) but after finally giving up and letting him down to go play with his puzzle, he retrieved it, crawled back into his bed, and cuddled up with it. Yes, a large cardboard box.

And for the record, I normally would not let him down during nap time but he was being REALLY stubborn!

I was going through some pictures on my computer and I left one of Parker from his birthday party up on the screen. I left the room for a second, and I hear Parker say, "Wow! A cowboy!" Ha! He never did realize it was a picture of himself.

Parker was in his high chair playing with play dough and whining about something.

Me: Parker, slow down and use your words. What do you want?

Parker: Ummm (as he rolls his eyes to look up while he thinks).... chocolate!

Chocolate was def. not what he was whining for, but I guess he figured he should go for the gold since I asked!

Parker: Bye Bye Momma! Love you! (then blows me a kiss) Go to Walmart?

Me: You are going to Walmart?

Parker: No! Momma go to walmart!

Me: Why am I going to Walmart?

Parker: Get suckers! (Thanks to his birthday party, suckers are his new FAVORITE treat... and I don't think there are any healthy alternatives, ugh!)

Parker: More juice!!!! More juice!!! Momma! Momma! More Juice! (all said in one breath)

Me: Patience Parker. Count to ten and you can have more juice.

Parker: Pauses for a second. One... Ten! and then holds out his juice cup.

These are a few I wrote back in October and never published:

Parker: "Mins! Mins! Mins!"

Me: "No Parker, you only get two vitamins a day and you ate them earlier."

Parker: "Just one! Pease" (while holding up one finger and nodding his head in assurance)

Where does he learn this stuff?!

After someone throws a ball or object and hits a target (in a basket, etc.)

Parker: "Nice!"

Yep!

Porter

Porter is such a sweet baby boy! He is snugly and calm and pretty much just smiles and coos all day long. He has really found his voice within the past few weeks and sometimes decides to squeal/scream all day. Luckily it is a happy scream! We couldn't ask for a better behaved baby. Although he still gets up every 2-4 hours during the night, he just gets his milk and goes back to sleep. He is so chunky! He is in the 80th percent in length and 75th in weight. He also seems to have a big head, but they didn't tell us his percentile. I imagine it was up there!

Sorry, that was alot of random info all squished together but here are a few pics we have taken over the past couple of days. Once again, I know these pics look the same to most of you but it is just too hard to pick the cutest faces, so I choose them all! It is much less time consuming that trying to pick just one! :P

He found his tongue when he was about 2 months old and has been playing with it ever since!

Have I mentioned that he literally smiles all day? I realized the other day that pretty much every pic we have of him is either smiling or playing with his tongue! I even tried to get one of him sleeping and he woke up and gave me a smile!

He rolled over from front to back for the first time on Saturday, January 14th and from back to front on Tuesday, January 24th. He has been strong enough and coordinated enough for a while now, but the poor kid just doesn't get a ton of tummy time because a certain big brother always comes and pesters him! We try to get it in as much as possible, but it is pretty difficult!

He is growing up WAY too fast. :( I need time to slow down a little!

Cookies for Santa

I will be posting several WAY OVERDUE posts over the next week or so! Here goes...

We had a great Christmas Eve! Parker made cookies for Santa, and has asked to do it again many times since then! We bought him his own baking set which is adorable! It has alligator handles on the rolling pin, a giraffe whisk, etc. He had a blast, especially once he figured out he was allowed to eat some of the dough and icing. Ha! Let's just say these cookies were made with a little extra love, as you can tell from the pictures. I can't wait till Porter can help him next year!

But then he realized the icing was way better than the cookies...

And of course he snuck over to steal a cookie once we left them by the fireplace for Santa! It was Christmas, however, so we let him indulge! :)

Birthday Boy

Parker turned two on Thursday and we celebrated by giving him a few small trinkets and a mini cake with a candle to blow out. I thought he was going to LOVE digging into the cakes since he doesn't get eat it much, but instead he just wanted to blow out the candle a hundred times! I don't think he took one bite of the cake. We have pretty much blown out candles for fun every day since! I figured it was okay since we wouldn't be celebrating with his Party until Saturday anyway.

After a few times of re-lighting the candle, Jerod busted out the trick candles! What a good dad :) Parker LOVED them!

He was trying so hard in this one! Ha! Darn those trick candles!

Intently studying the smoke...

We had a small-ish party at our house on Saturday. We figured we would do a smaller party since we did a pretty big one for his first birthday. It was just family and our close friends from Huntsville. We had a lot of fun that day!

He started off his day by opening his present from Mimi and Papa. He was getting ready to get his bath, so they wanted him to open his before getting in the tub! Parker LOVES to watch Nemo so they got him the movie and a bath toy as part of his gift. They Nemo fish actually swims in the tub! Even I was impressed by it :). v love the look on his face in this picture!

Next it was party time! I am pretty sure Parker's favorite part was chasing his little friend Lauren around! Parker had a difficult time remembering her name (which is weird because he has never had this problem before), so he affectionately referred to her as "that girl" and Kesie" in addition to her real name! We have been learning the names of his cousins (Kelsey and Lauren) from their Christmas card picture, so I guess in his little mind he assumed this Lauren was the same as his cousin... despite the BIG difference in age and appearance. And then on top of that, I guess he got Kelsey and Lauren confused too! It took us a little while to figure out why he kept saying "Kesie" but it all made since when we figured it out (and yes, he pronounces it with no "l")!

Parker again had no interest in the cake that day, and instead ate about a dozen mini blow pops! In fact, several times while opening presents, he would run to the table where the blow pops were, climb up in the chair, get two suckers, climb down, take one to his Lauren and then open his and put it in his mouth before resuming to the gifts!

We had a pretty good turnout of kiddos! There were not really old enough to do the whole kid games and party favors (Lauren was the only one old enough to participate), but maybe next year!

His party theme this year was cowboys since he loves his boots so much! Here are a few of the party details...

Jerod was pretty exhausted after the party and decided that after we plan Porter's first birthday (which he agrees should be special) we are doing all parties at places like Jump-To-It, The Little Gym and Chuck-E-Cheese. I think the thinks this will simplify things and keep me from spending all day baking and decorating cakes (and cleaning up a kitchen covered in icing), planning menus, shopping for decorations, etc. What he doesn't realize that will NEVER happen! :) I might agree to pizza and juice boxes and having it somewhere else, but I LOVE the rest of it! If only I had an unlimited budget and could actually do all of my ideas... ha!

Our long-time friends Chris and Jaimie drove down from Tullahoma with their 6 week old baby Kiley! We have joked that her and Porter will get married one day, so we went ahead and set up their first of many dates to come! We figured this will be a good picture to display at their wedding... ha! Porter even tried to hold her hand! Also, if you notice in the picture above with all of the kids on the couch, Porter kept turning his head to stare at her! I am pretty sure he already has a crush. :)

And here are a couple of other cute pics we caught of Porter that day...

It was a great day and we really appreciate everyone who came! It really meant a lot to us! Parker had a blast, and even skipped his nap that day! For the first time EVER (I might be exaggerating a little, but not by much!) he slept more than 8 hours that night! He ended up going home with his Mimi and Papa and pretty much slept from 8:30 - 8:30! Holy cow! This is from a kid who we have to force to sleep 8 hours! That is by FAR the longest he has ever slept. This made me re-consider his nap during the day, but I know on a normal day that skipping it would only lead to a complete meltdown :P.

Nationwide is on your side!

Parker just finished the nationwide commercial by singing "on your side!" at the appropriate time during the commercal... ha!