Summer is slipping away

Enjoying the water fights by swimming in his clothes!

Parker's language is still developing and nearly every day he will wake up from his nap with a new word. Parker surprised me when he pointed to the paint color & correctly identified the color orange. Why can't all fruits be named after the color? He is pretty accurately able to discriminate among his colors, even if he can't label them all. He also correctly identified the "llama" when we were at the Kenosha County Fair! Sheep are still referred to as "baa-baa" but the llama he knew by name!

Playing at the beach at home.

That would be sugar in my pan on the stairs....look at that face! Busted!

Parker still isn't a consistent night sleeper. He generally sleeps 8-9 hours & then finished the last hour or two in bed with us. One morning he woke at 5am & snuggled back to bed between us, but he struggled to fall back asleep. After 20 min of tossing & turning he said "all done" & tried to get down! There were a few tears when I told him no, but he did fall back asleep for another 2 hours. 

 

Coolest parade ever - they handed our "spatulas"!

Nana has found us some great garage sales. Both Tonka trucks ($5 each), a Power Wheels ($50) and a play grill ($10). He cooks on his grill non stop, but is still a little scared of the Power Wheels!

Note the sippy he put in the cup holder!

Enjoying the Kenosha County Fair:

Sweet taste of summer

I am saddened to report this is the end of July post, as it means back to the grind in just a few short weeks. Yesterday, Parker and I sat outside and relaxed, drinking my morning coffee. Parker sat across my lap and would talk, then put his head down and give me a big hug, then sit up and talk, and then lay down and hug ... and this went on for 15 minutes! I savored every moment, while knowing that it likely won't happen again. He is growing so fast and changing so much that I am sad to see time continuing to tick by.

Parker's 18 month doctor visit went well. He is 32 inches tall (grown two inches in the last three months) and weighs 23 pounds 8 ounces. He has gained very little weight over the months - he was 20 pounds at 6 months and almost 22 pounds at one year. He has finally caught up with his percentiles and he is perfectly rounded in the 35-40th percentiles for both height and weight (he was down in the 10th percentile for height at times).

It's amazing watching the language development as he speaks with full and clear words-as though this is how he has always spoke! I poured water into his sippy cup and he started to put the lid on it, then stopped and said "ice", asking for ice cubes too. He watched me washing the dishes and got so excited and started shouting "bubbles" as the water got sudsy. He is doing a great job with the "b" sound on many of his new words, but continues to use the "d" for some of the previously learned words (like "doom" for boom) or skips it all together, like "ai-ee" for bye. He was standing on the deck and very excitedly said "ba-ba". I asked him if he meant "baa-baa like a sheep" and he walked over, grabbed my hand and pulled me to the railing, where we watched a bunny hopping across the yard!

Shopping cart was a little big!

And then he found a place to "cook"...

... and then never left this spot!

He has demonstrated a working memory over these past few weeks. When we tried to use the oven, he started crying because he remembered how scared he was earlier. The smoke detector had gone off when we used the oven earlier. We were sorry to see him again scared, but impressed that he remembered and tied it all in together! He has been very skittish of loud noises lately, and will run to one of us when a loud car/motorcycle/truck comes barreling down the road. But he loves tractors! As we are driving, he will even shout out "tractor!" when a construction truck or tractor drives past.

Jeremy had Monster's Inc. on tv and Parker would watch for just a few minutes at a time (just as most cartoons). Toward the end, the little girl is very giggly and playing with the monster and Parker stopped to watch for a good 5-10 minutes. Then the monster has to say good bye and goes into the closet and closes the door behind him (a very sad part of the movie!). The little girl goes to check and sees that the monster is gone ... and Parker started crying! Apparently he is watching more than we thought!

Oh and these photos are from a trip to the Kohl's Children's Museum with the cousins (and Nana, too!).

18 months young

Parker and I had fun at the park last week. Here are some portraits at 18 months old. 

Mr. Independent

Fouth of July festivities! It was such a busy weekend that we paid for it with major meltdowns on Sunday! Note to self-stick to sleep schedules as much as possible!! On Friday, Parker, Kasey & I went to Antioch's parade. Parker figured out the candy situation very quickly!! He loved picking up the candy & putting it in the bag (even if didn't really care to eat any of it!). He took a short nap then we had a party at my mom's house, which he slept for nearly an hour when we got there. After dinner & some socializing, we packed up for the fireworks at the Navy base. Another amazing show, which our toddler somehow managed to sleep through the entire thing!! We had some fireworks at home & Parker sort of enjoyed them. He asked for "dada boom boom" (which always includes pushing his hand out in front) and sometimes "boom crackle crackle". But he is very scared of the loud noises & watches them all on my lap ... and then asks for more!

On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Fair. Parker managed to find a way to play "kitchen" even with Renaissance era toys!

Parker has quite the set of lovies we take in & out of the crib lately. He has his pillow, his superman stuffed pillow, his superman blankie & crotchet blanket, super teddy, pink Easter bunny, night light turtle, the large teddy & large superman, & the little people batman!

He has added a few words to his vocabulary, including car & truck. He asked me for "the ball" & has quite the repertoire of animal noises-cat, dog, pig, duck, chicken, bird, woodpecker, rooster, bear, seal....there might be a few more! He loves to pick out his animal books and read them over & over!

We met Jeremy for lunch one afternoon in Lake Geneva, as he was working on a job nearby. Always fun to visit the town we got married in! Trying to keep everyone busy & active, we also went to the Wauconda rodeo. It was warm & Parker had a difficult time sitting still in the stands. He enjoyed walking along the fence watching the animals and collecting rocks! There was a small petting zoo so he could get up close to some farm animals.

Summer days are here again!

Flying a kite with Dada

We have easily transitioned into our summer schedule. Parker has been sleeping from 9pm-7:00/7:30 most mornings. One morning we slept in til 9am! It was heavenly! We also take 2 1/2-3 hour naps each afternoon. It's amazing what I can get done around the house with a 3 hour nap! We have swim lessons on Wednesdays and music class on Thursdays. The rest of the week is busy with play dates, swimming at nana's, playing at the park, bike rides, etc. 

Loves his sandbox!

Had to be up close to his train set! Note the water on the
floor - apparently planned on staying for awhile!

Enjoying the view in his forward facing carseat

Parker had a friend come over for the day. He is usually good about sharing at the sitter's or nana's house, but I wasn't sure how he would do sharing his own toys all day long. He did such a great job for most of the day! He would bring something to Jack, and when Jack accepted it, Parker would look at me with the biggest, cheesiest smile & then give me a high five! It's like he was saying, look mom, I did a good job! Then at nap time, Jack was snuggled up on the sofa with his blankie, which was a hand made crocheted blanket. Parker took off into his room & came back a few minutes later with his blanket-not his superman blankie that he brings with him to the sitter, but the crocheted blanket that keeps him warm at night. I have never seen him take that blanket out of the crib, but he apparently wanted to be just like Jack! Parker then snuggled up in his chair with his blanket. ... And then the boys woke up from their naps & clearly were all finished with the play date. Neither wanted to share or play with each or other! There was even some hitting, but ended with Parker giggling so apparently they weren't that upset at each other!

It is definitely evident that Parker watches everything we do. When I have a mixed drink (or iced coffee-I swear I don't drink that often!), I use the straw to stir up the ice...anytime Parker has a cup with ice, he uses the straw to mix it up! We did teach him to "cheers" with his glass so I guess it's only fitting!! He also watches me use a nasal spray when I'm getting ready in the morning...and so anything that has a pointy end, Parker pretends it's nasal spray! So things like nail polish & the empty caulk tube, he pretends to sniff it & so it looks like he's huffing! Can only imagine what the sitter thinks when he does that when he is with her! He is also trying to smack the mosquitos off of us...or he is just using that as an excuse to come up and start hitting! He literally came up to me (inside) and smacked me on the side of the head, arm and shoulder...then ran off to continue playing!

Parker got his third hair cut and did a great job sitting nicely (Thanks to Becca at Kid Snips). He had to sit on my lap but not a tear out of him, which is so much better than the last hair cut! He looks like such a different kid with his short, stylish hair. But those curls are still there and starting to show up again now that the hair cut is a few weeks grown out.

He continues to love to play with his kitchen set and pretend food. Lately he loves to "cut cut" & grabs at the steak knives & kitchen scissors! He has some cut apart food that we play with and I bought a play doh set with scissors so he have some child safe scissors to practice with. He loves his play doh and will sit on the floor and try to make shapes with the cookie cutters. 

His language sure has expanded in these few weeks since I have been home. You really have to keep it in context, but frequently can understand what he is trying to say. "Par-pa" for Parker, hi-ee & by-ee along with a wave. Has also said bubbles, and called the cat by her name, Charlie. These words were all on his own, not repeating after me. On the back porch, he paused and then said "hear that", as he could hear music being played loudly down the street. He tries so hard to mimic my words and answer my questions. He loves singing Wheels on the Bus and will tell me what verse to do next (beep the horn or "shh" like the mamas). He also enjoys pointing out his body parts (where are your eyes? where is your belly?). He has learned to plug his nose and once when I was changing him, I glance at his face to see he is holding his nose close! He is even starting to make animal sounds and has enjoyed two trips to the zoo this month. We have a few animal books that we read over and over and over again. But it's cute to see him identify the animal on the next page by the sound it makes (cheep cheep for the chicks and snorting for the piggies). 

Checking out the monkeys

Note the gorilla at the glass behind him.

Watching the giraffes

Again watching the monkeys!

Chasing after the birds