I thought I’d better update this before I get too far behind. The past couple weeks have been rough. Jared and Parker were both sick last weekend. Parker had to stay home from school at the end of the week, so Jared had to stay with her. Then he got sick and they were both pretty miserable all weekend. I’ve had a lot of reading and studying to do so it’s been stressful around here. But now everyone is healthy and happy again:) We got a big snow the other night and in Charlotte that means the whole city shuts down. Schools are already closed for tomorrow even though it hasn’t snowed since yesterday and most of it melted today. The roads are awful since they aren’t prepared to clear them down here. It’s fun watching the cars try to get up the hill in front of our house…
The pictures on here are starting from 2 weeks ago. The scratches she has on her nose are from her tripping while running down our driveway and falling face-first into the road. (As always, she was fine, and it looked worse than it was). There is a good one in the beginning of her crying where you can really see her lonely molar she has–although I did feel 2 more poking through her gums tonight so it won’t be lonely for long.
There are some pictures of her in her adorable dress from Uncle Matt. Unfortunately she doesn’t have cute shoes to wear with it yet so she has only worn it around the house. It’s too cold for dresses right now anyway.
There are a few of her in a ridiculous outfit she had to wear when we ran out of clothes that weren’t covered in some sort of bodily fluid when she was really sick. I thought she looked cute:) Until she puked all over that shirt, too…
She really likes sitting on my lap and typing on her keyboard so I got a couple pictures of her doing that.
We finally got to bring some of her artwork from school home and I took pictures of a couple pieces. She’s so talented! ha
We put her out in the snow yesterday to play a little and took some pictures. There wasn’t much to do and we really don’t have the right clothes for her to wear in it so she didn’t really appreciate being taken out of the warm house full of all her toys to be thrown in the cold snow with nothing to do. But at least she got to experience it.
Then we were going stir crazy so we headed to the mall just to get out of the house. She had fun playing in the kids area. She even made a friend who liked to hug her and follow her everywhere she went. Parker got sick of her real quick but the girl just wouldn’t leave her alone.
Today we got Parker some new shoes and they look so HUGE compared to her little legs. She wasn’t wearing pants after spilling milk all over them at lunch and already looked ridiculous so Jared had the idea to take it a step further and add the shoes. She looked hilarious. Then she kept “writing” notes on a piece of paper all evening. When she kept losing the original sheet was using and getting upset, Jared wrote out a new one full of made up numbers for her to use. She kept carrying it around, stopping and writing something, carrying it to a different spot, then writing more. It was cute. It was like she thought she had written the letters and numbers. It kept her busy for a long time!
So things are great here. Parker is getting bigger and bigger every day and doing so many “kid” things and not “baby” things it’s crazy. She has a best friend at school and, according to her teachers, they hug eachother so much sometimes that they fall on the floor. She’s doing more sign language now, and easily follows any directions we give her. She has really found a love for books, playing the piano and her little drumset full of instruments, and even kicking a soccer ball around upstairs. Apparently she’s an artist, too, judging by the work we’ve seen!
Besides me starting classes, it was a pretty uneventful week. Parker is doing great at daycare and loves her little friends. School is going great for me. It is going to be a rough couple years but I really like it and like the people I’ve met.
On Friday afternoon I took Parker to Jackson’s for a playgroup. It was great to be able to see people again since we usually aren’t able to go to playgroups anymore. It was a really nice day out so we let the kids play outside for a little bit.
Parker has been learning lots of sign language. She’s been signing “all done” after she’s finished eating and now she’s added “more” to her skills. Sometimes she gets confused and starts doing them both at once and we just don’t know what she needs. She’s gotten really good at following directions and is able to put things away where we tell her to. Also, yesterday we were talking to the Jessops on Skype and Parker suddenly decided she was going to finally “blow kisses” when we tell her to. Then she wouldn’t stop doing it the rest of the night. Even when Jared was sitting with her upstairs settling her down to fall asleep he said she was just laying there blowing kisses to nobody. It’s very cute. It’s as if she’s really proud of herself and wants to keep doing it.
Well I think that’s about it for the week. We are enjoying our 3 day weekend!
Here are some cute pictures and videos from the week (nothing special this week, but I think the last video is pretty cute):
I am going to make this quick because I am trying to finish this while getting everything ready for my first day of class tomorrow and I have a LOT of reading to do.
Parker had a great birthday. The Jessops were here to celebrate with us and we had a big party with all of Parker’s friends. We got to celebrate another Christmas with the Jessops, too. Parker did great at her birthday party and loved every single one of her gifts. We have had 2 more birthday parties to go to since hers. All the babies are turning 1!
Last Monday Parker had her first day of daycare. She cried the first day but by the end of the week she was doing great. We get notes everyday of her daily activities and apparently her teachers have caught onto the ways to make her happy–like putting on music so she can dance. They said that she has dance-off with one of the other girls there. They first discovered it when they were sitting in a circle singing and when the music came on Parker got up and started clapping and bouncing. On Friday they sent her home with a “Happy Gram” which they give to the kids when they do something especially nice. It said Parker’s friend was crying that day and she went over and hugged her to make her feel better:)
On Thursday she had her 1 year check up at the doctor. Everything is great! She is 30.5 inches and 21.1 lbs.
New things she did this week were learning more sign language (has started signing “more” at school), shaking her head up and down for “yes” (which her teachers have fun with because she loves doing it so much that you can ask her any question in the world and the answer will always be “yes”), and she finally started drinking real whole milk.
There are a LOT of pictures and videos from the past 2 weeks and I also am posting the ones from the Jessops’ camera. They had pictures from all of December when the dogs were staying with them.
I don’t know how often I will be able to update this while I am taking classes, but I will keep it updated as often as I can!
Here are our videos plus 2 at the end from the Jessops (don’t forget to click on “Read the rest of this entry” after the first video to see the rest of them):
I can’t believe it was a year ago that we were just bringing Parker home from the hospital, getting ready for our first night home with her. It doesn’t seem possible that a year has passed. As we all know, I get a little camera-happy and take a LOT of pictures all the time. Well, I take a lot on my phone, too, especially while Jared is at work so I can send random Parker pictures to him during the day. So, in reflection of the past year that has flown by I decided to post all of our pictures from our phones for the past year. It’s crazy to watch her grow. Happy New Year to everyone! Hope it’s a happy and healthy one!
The first set of pictures are from my phone, the second are from Jared’s. In each set they are in the order in which they happened, but a few at the end are out of order.
By the way…I have sooo many pictures and videos from this past week that I just don’t have time to put them on here tonight. I have orientation for school all day tomorrow and need to get ready for that and am getting Parker’s things ready for her first day of daycare tomorrow *tear:-(* so I will just have to post all of them later in the week!! I actually had this blog ready to post on New Year’s Eve but I just couldn’t get my phone pictures to upload. With Parker’s birthday and party and family here I had to put it on hold and wait to try again tonight. It finally worked!!!!
Well I can’t believe our Arizona trip is over. It was a great week but it really flew by.
Parker did great on our flight to Houston, but then was sick of flying when we had to get on another plane to fly to Phoenix. She wasn’t too bad, though, and bothered us more than the other passengers.
We got out to my parents’ house late on Saturday night. Parker slept great through the night. On Sunday they had friends over and we got to see some we’d met and some new ones we hadn’t. There was a baby that came and Parker loooved to hug her:)
She had lots of fun in Sedona. She jumped right back into the swing of things and couldn’t get enough of Grammy. Jared kept sharing his candy canes with her and she LOVED that.
At one point she found a little bag of my mom’s and started carrying it around like a purse. She was cracking us up. Such a little girly-girl.
Jared and I were happy to be able to go to a breakfast restaurant that we’ve been looking forward to going back to since we were there in July. We got to go once on our own and then again with the whole family. Delicious!
On Tuesday we threw a little birthday party for Parker since none of my family will be in NC for her party next weekend. She got to blow out a candle and eat a little cake ball. She really enjoyed opening her presents. It was nice to be able to celebrate it a little bit with my family.
That night we went to “Red Rock Fantasy” where a bunch of yards are decorated for the holidays with all different themes. It was really cool to see and Parker looked extra cute bundled up in her stroller. While we were there it actually started snowing. It was more of a “real” snow than the one we had gotten here in NC. Ours was more icy than actual good packing snow. The next morning when we woke up the view was BEAUTIFUL. The snow on the mountains was such a nice sight to wake up to. We went to the Grand Canyon that day and saw even more snow. I’m not sure Parker cared at all that we were there but it was fun to take her for her first experience (and Jared’s).
On Thursday night we went to the Christmas Eve church service. Parker actually did great. At one point she crawled under our seats and up into the lap of a lady sitting behind us. She is just a little social butterfly. Jared ended up in the “crying room” with her at the back and she fell asleep.
On Christmas morning we were all so excited for Parker to open all of her presents. But, of course, she couldn’t care less about any of it. She wanted her oranges and then wanted to play with her toys from home. Eventually all of her gifts were opened and was able to enjoy her new stuff.
We came home yesterday and she did great again on the flights. She made little friends on each of our flights home (one to Memphis, then one to Charlotte). She kept everyone smiling on the plane with her funny faces and big grins. She waved to everyone she saw.
Today we went to the Melting Pot to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was delicious!! Parker had fun running around with Jackson and Eddie.
Once home we opened a couple more gifts from my parents. There are some pictures and videos of Parker trying to open them.
It was a great week and now this week it’s time to work on Parker’s party and get ready for the Jessops to come! We’ll miss Grammy, Grandpa, and Uncle Matt and can’t wait to see them all again!
For some reason a lot of the thumbnails for the pictures won’t load correctly. I’ve tried a few times to fix it, but nothing is working and instead of taking so much time trying to fix that I’m just giving up and working on getting this page up. You should be able to click on the pictures to see the large view even though the thumbnails don’t work.
I thought I would put some pictures up today from this week since I won’t be able to do more until we get back from Arizona a week from tomorrow. I tried to take a picture of the picture of Parker with Santa…didn’t come out perfect, but without a scanner it’s as good as it’s gonna get. Then she was being cute one day so I took some pictures of her walking around.
We got her a new snack cup that is supposed to be spill-proof but Parker figured out how to stick her hand in to widen the opening so she can pour her cheerios all over the floor. Then she realized that if you step on the cheerios they crunch. So that was a really fun mess to clean up. I got some pictures of her trying to eat them off the floor before the crunching started.
I watched Griffin Riggleman yesterday and once Parker got over the shock of waking up from her nap and seeing a baby in the house, she got along with him great. She kept trying to share all of her toys with him, but then always wanted what he was already holding in return. He kept reaching for her and she would go over and squeeze him (gently). She is very good with other babies!
Our neighbor is fostering 4 puppies for the weekend so Parker and I went over to play with them. They wanted to follow her around everywhere. They were adorable. Parker just wanted to play with all of their toys.
Then today it actually snowed! It was more like ice, but it made everything white! I took some pictures when it started then took some of Parker “playing” in it. She really didn’t have any interest in it. She just stood there for a while then reached for me to pick her up. It was pretty cold so I think she just wasn’t interested in being outside in general. We don’t get cold weather so we don’t have many warm clothes! I just hope this clears up and melts away by the time our plane leaves tomorrow. We can’t wait to get to Arizona!
Everyone have a happy holiday!
Parker got to meet Santa today! We walked through a Polar Express set and walked through a snow globe (where we had fake snow pouring on us just before getting pictures with Santa) then got to meet the big guy. Parker had fun and looked beautiful in her little Christmas dress. As soon as I set her on Santa’s lap, though, she freaked out and started screaming. We got a cute screaming picture of her:)
The first picture here is of Parker waiting in her “spot” for daddy to come home from work. Then there are some showing the messes Parker makes that I have to clean up over and over again all day long…. It’s a never ending cycle. On Friday Parker and I met up with April and Flannery to make some Christmas pottery at Meg Art. The girls had fun playing in the play area for a little bit, then both of them were standing at the door screaming for us to come get them. Later that day I was feeding Parker some spaghetti and she wouldn’t stop smiling really big. I got some cute pictures and videos of that. There are some of her just playing around the house and hanging out with Jared today. After the Santa ones there are some of her holding her monkey. Her favorite monkey, Bongo, was upstairs so we had to give her a replacement and she carried him all over giving him big squeezes here and there.
I can’t believe how soon Christmas is coming. We leave for Arizona on Saturday to spend Christmas out there. We went shopping this weekend to stock up on snacks and some new little toys to try to keep Parker happy on the plane. I’m a little nervous to see how she will do now that she is so mobile and not wanting to sit in one place anymore. She’s always done fine no matter how far our trip is or whether we are on a plane or in a car so I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. If I don’t get a chance to update this before we go I might not be able to do it until we get home the weekend after Christmas. In case I’m not on here until then, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!
We got our pictures back from Becky, the photographer that spent an afternoon with us taking Parker’s pictures last month!! They are all sooo cute. I picked out some of my favorites to post on here:) The other little girl in some of the pictures is Flannery.
If anyone in the Charlotte area needs a photographer I recommend her!!
Lots of Christmas stuff going on! Earlier in the week Parker and I went downtown to meet Jared for some coffee. They have a LOT of Christmas singing bears down there in one of the buildings. Parker had spurts of liking them mixed with spurts of running around, staring at people eating lunch, and trying to run into a clothing store. We also went to see a life-size Gingerbread house in the new Ritz Carlton hotel while down there.
I tried to put Parker in her Jumperoo again to see how much she has outgrown it. Even on the highest height setting, she still was way too tall for it. It’s funny how fast she’s grown. It seems like just yesterday we were laughing at how funny it was that her feet were nowhere near touching the floor in the lowest setting. She actually liked being in it for a while! I was surprised. Then she realized she couldn’t really move much and wanted out.
Later in the week Parker and I met some friends at Birkdale for coffee. We went to see the Christmas bears there again. We also went and played in an area where they put a huge Christmas tree every year. Parker had fun running around with Tripp. It was FREEZING. Luckily Tripp and Jack shared their gloves with Parker. She had so many layers on that it was hard for her to move around and, as you can see in one of the videos, if she fell she couldn’t get herself back up very easily. She kept trying to dance and that was making her fall a lot.
Saturday night we went out and bought a Christmas tree and then put it up yesterday. We were going to put it up while Parker was napping, but she decided not to nap until 1:30 (which is the time she is normally going down for her SECOND nap) so we just did it with her there. She was actually very good about it. I thought we were going to have to be constantly trying to get her out of the way and telling her to move. But she was so amazed and curious about the whole thing that she really didn’t get in the way. She watched quietly the whole time. You can see in the pictures that the tree looks a little weird since we had to keep the bottom 1/3 of the tree bare. She is trying as hard as she can to reach up to the ornaments and grab them off. She has her own string of lights to play with for now so she stays away from the ones on the tree. She really has no idea what is going on haha. Grandma Jessop got her a book that Parker can open and hear Grandma’s voice reading to her. I keep playing it for her to get her into the Christmas spirit. She just sits there in amazement when she hears Grandma’s voice. It’s very cute.
Another great week! The first pictures here are from laundry day when all of Parker’s warm pajamas weren’t dry yet and we had to improvise to make sure she was warm enough for bed. We don’t always dress her in ridiculous clothes…. There are some pictures of her with Jackson and then her with Kiernan.
Jared’s family came Wednesday night. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, though Parker didn’t seem to enjoy any of the food except the cranberries. We were dogsitting for our friends’ dog, Marley, so that added even more craziness to our full house.
On Friday we went to Birkdale to walk around and Parker met some Great Danes. Then Saturday we went to Parker’s friend, Tripp’s, 2nd birthday party. She was the only girl and it didn’t seem to bother her one bit:)
The Jessops left Sunday and took Milhouse and Nibbler for the month. The house is soooo quiet and strange without them here. I’m positive I will easily get used to not having to juggle a baby plus 2 leashes everytime the dogs need to go out. But Jared and I miss them already:( Parker had just started to realize how fun it can be to chase Nibbler around and try to pick her up. Good thing grandma got her a monkey, Bongo, so she has someone to carry around while Nibbler is gone.
First are our pictures and then I’ve added the Jessops’ pictures:
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