19 and 20 months

I'm a little behind on this since he will be 21 months in a week.  We were having too much fun celebrating the holidays, spending time with family, and playing with our new toys.  Parker has slowly gotten away from being ball obsessed and turned into loving anything with wheels.  We love "Polar Express" because of the choo-choo and we love "Cars" because of "Mae-Mae" aka Mator.  We have watched those movies over and over.

Other things he is up to:

• Loves Milk and will hardly drink anything else
• Loves Peanut butter, crackers, avocado, bananas, cheese, and puree fruit/veggie pouches
• Favorite words: cup-cup, Mae-mae (Mator), cars, momma, dada, Gaga (Grandad), Papa, Dede, tank-to (thank-you),
• Loves playing with cars on the floor
• Wears size 4 diapers
• Sleeps 8pm-7am give or take some hours
• Takes a nap from 12-2 most days
• Loves for everyone to be in the same room and to all play together
• Still loves to dance
• Can make sounds of a cow, horse, monkey, dog, and lion

So talented

Helping daddy with the 4wheeler

With Dede, watching Britt Britt perform

At the hospital waiting to meet our new cousin!

Silly Grandma

Posing in my new chair from Cousin Ryleigh

He loves to play with his hair and this is the aftermath
the next morning

Daddy doesn't play fair...

Daddy and Parker took a trip to the grocery store one day while Mommy was at work.  Daddy thought he would be cool and let Parker ride in a car grocery cart.  Believe me Parker thought it was the coolest because guess who demands a car grocery cart every time we go shopping?  Do you know how hard those things are to maneuver while getting the long list of groceries when daddy was probably just getting milk and goldfish.   Thanks daddy, thanks for being the cool parent and letting me be the bad guy....

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a great Thanksgiving because we didn't pack it with a bunch of acitivities and kept it low key, not even one ounce of shopping!  We spent a couple of nights at Papa and Dede's house and Parker had a great time getting spoiled by them.  This was Parker's first trip that he got some good one-on-one time with Papa and they both loved it.  It was so sweet to see them bonding.  Parker knows how to bring the silliness out in adults.
 
   On Saturday, we traveled to Fort Smith to celebrate with Brad's family and spoil our new nephew.  It was a good change from tradition since it was the first without Gram.  I have to say the boys really stepped up their game and made Thanksgiving dinner a success.  It takes an army of people to do what Gram did.  I love watching Parker get so excited when he sees his family.  Days after we have hung out with family he will still continually say their name.  It wasn't an easy day for the boys but we are thankful for God's grace.

 

Halloween 2012

Parker decided to dress up as a monkey for Halloween this year.  Mommy wanted him to be a garden gnome but he decided otherwise.  We couldn't keep the hat a beard on him so we quickly had to improvise.  We already had the monkey hat from Portland trip so we bought a brown shirt and glued a tan wash cloth to his belly and a monkey we created.  We went to a couple of neighbor's houses then came back home to pass out candy.  He quickly got the hang of knocking on doors and receiving candy and he loved it!

Original idea

Portland, Pumpkins, and Pink Pony PJs

Parker took his first plane ride to go see his cousin Ryleigh, Uncle David, and Aunt Z and we had a blast! It was quite a journey getting there, but nothing was going to hold us back.  We had a flight cancelled, rerouted to another airline, and lost luggage (of course it was Parker's and mommy's stuff).  Parker was a trooper through it all and didn't have that many melt downs.  The hum of the plane was just what he needed to take some good naps. 

 Parker came into their house like the Tasmanian Devil and Ryleigh wasn't sure what to think of him but it didn't take long for them to warm up to each other.  It was so much fun to see them play together and really made me wish we lived closer.  Ryleigh was sweet enough to let Parker borrow her Pink Pony PJs the first night. 

We had the perfect trip.  We visited the Zoo, shopped, and went to a pumpkin patch.  We didn't jam our days with lots of stuff which was good for the kids and kept the adults sane.  The standing joke that week was everything was only 20 minutes away.  Like everything: the zoo, Columbia store, pumpkin patch, Melting Pot. 

 Ryleigh's daycare kept the kids Friday night so the adults could have a grown-up dinner at the Melting Pot and it was so yummy!  The next morning we went to pick pumpkins and unfortunately it was raining so we made a trip short and didn't get any pictures of it.  But Aunt Z did get the kids some cool Potato head kits to decorate their pumpkins with.

Uncle David, Aunt Z, and Ryleigh, thanks for being great hostesses!  We had such a great time with you guys as always!

Waiting patiently at LR Airport

Two minutes into the flight



Wearing his cousin's pink PJ's proudly

"Really mom, how many pictures are you going
to get of me these PJ's"


 

                                                                   

Our little giraffe

Silly Uncle David

 

Escaped Monkey

 

 

The only easy time to get the two of them still and together

 

Aunt Z taking us for a ride

Silly Uncle Dave again

Hard core Rockers



Worn out Babies



 

 



Parker,
   We had such a great time taking you to visit family.  It makes me sad that we can't see them more often but we will make the most of the time we have.  It was so sweet seeing you and Ryleigh play well together.  I pray that someday you will be as good of a big brother that your Uncle David is to me.  He has such a caring and protective heart and I pray that you do too.  We love you "this much backwards" and our pride and love for you keeps growing!