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:
This week we had a playgroup at our house. The other moms tried putting bows in Parker’s hair and it actually worked! It looked ridiculous, but it’s exciting that she actually has enough hair for them to stay in.
She decided this week that she likes to crawl into the drawer under the oven, pull beer bottles out of the fridge, and she mastered holding a sippy cup up high enough for drinks to come out!
We went to visit our friends Stefanie and Ronnie and while we were there Parker bonded with their little puppy, Coco. She was afraid of her last time we saw her but this time they were able to bond. By the time we left, Coco was following Parker everywhere she went. Parker even crawled into her crate to sit and hang out. Very cute.
My parents and aunt Joanne and uncle Bill came to visit us at the end of the week. We had a lot of fun with them here. We went down to South Park and Parker had fun playing in the fountain at the mall. On Saturday we went to Birkdale and Parker liked watching the singing Christmas bears. Then while we were waiting for our table at Brixx Santa himself came walking down the street and into the restaurant to fill up his water. No matter how hard we tried we couldn’t get Parker to leave her rocks and pay attention to him. Then Lauren, Matthew, and Jackson came up and the kids got to play together. Surprise surprise they played with rocks the whole time.
Anyway, it was a great week and it was sad to see family leave. Today I had my state exam and I PASSED so the week ended on a good note:)
This week Parker discovered a really fun drawer in the kitchen full of envelopes and Sharpies. So now she likes to see how many markers she can hold in each hand and then circles the house with her hands full. She and I have been playing chasing games around the house and then we play peek-a-boo around the corners of the walls. It’s fun now that she can play games!
We watched Gunnar one day this week so there are some pictures here of Parker watching him play video games.
On Friday morning Parker and I headed to Ohio to visit some old friends and go to Corn’s baby shower. Parker did pretty well on the 7 1/2 hour drive, but she seems to be teething so she was a little fussier than normal. We had a lot of fun in Columbus. It was awesome to see everyone again. It was fun being able to introduce all my old college friends to Parker. On Sunday she and I drove back and because we got back so late I wasn’t able to get started on this at all. It was a great weekend!
So we are on our own again. I don’t remember how I did this on my own before our moms were here to help. Chasing Parker around all day is a lot of work! Now she is walking like crazy all over the place. Even harder is now she has decided to climb on EVERYTHING. She climbs into the coffee table, under the TV, onto the platform under the kitchen table, up the stairs (she figured out how to open the gate and get up), and onto anything she sees in stores. And she is FAST so I can’t take my eyes off of her for a second.
Today we took her to a park in Charlotte to get some pictures taken. We got some adorable outfits for her yesterday to wear today, and then it ended up being really hot out and the outfits were more for cold weather. We tried to put her in them just for the sake of some cute photos anyway. The photographer is a friend of a good friend of mine. She did great! April, Jeremy, and Flannery came, too, and we got some cute shots of everyone. I can’t wait to see how the pictures come out!
We actually didn’t take many pictures with our own camera this week. Just a few of her playing around, some of her climbing into the coffee table, and then entertaining everyone at a “puppy shower” my friend had for her new puppy last night.
This was my last week of classes. We took my mom to the airport yesterday and now we are on our own again. Back to having no help around the house… It was so nice having the company everyday. We had fun while it lasted!
This week Parker started waving goodbye, holding remotes and blocks up to her ear to “talk” on the phone, playing peekaboo more, walking more, and shaking her head “no” even more. She even has started to feed herself with a spoon! We still have a long way to go on that one…
Yesterday we dressed Parker up in her pirate costume and went to a Halloween party in the afternoon. It was so cute seeing lots of little kids dressed up. At night we went over to Lauren and Matthews for trick or treating. We took the kids to a few houses–mostly just to show them off. It ended up being really humid and warm out. Then we got rained on and had to come back. Parker had a great time going from house to house. She has a new fascination with leaves and since the sidewalks are all covered in them she was in heaven. She didn’t want to go up to the houses as much as she wanted to just walk around and pick up leaves off the ground. As long as she was having fun, though, right?
Today she leaves the single digits and turns 10 months old!! I can never believe it each month when her “birthday” comes around.
Here are our pictures from the week:
Here are our videos and then the last 2 are mom’s (make sure to click on the link that says “Read the rest of this entry” after the first video so you can see all of them):
Due to my busy schedule and the ridiculous amount of videos this week, I’m a little late getting this up….. Sorry!
This week was fun getting adjusted to having Grammy here. Parker is walking more and more everyday. She’s getting very brave. Jared finally got a video of her standing up and taking a few steps!! She also has started shaking her head “no” a lot and we were able to get some videos of her doing that.
On Saturday we took Parker to Monkey Joe’s to play. Jackson and his family met us there. At first she wasn’t real sure about the place but then she started having fun. It didn’t take long for her to get tired, though, and then she pretty much hated everything about the place. Later that day we took her to the Lexington BBQ Festival with Jackson and Brody and their families. It was a lot of fried food and not much BBQ. It was something different for us all to do with the babies but it wasn’t quite what we expected.
On Sunday we took Parker to pick her first pumpkin. We went to Carrigan Farms and went on a hayride to a petting zoo first. Parker liked touching and feeding the animals. Then the hayride took us to a pumpkin patch where we each got to pick a pumpkin. Parker thought the pumpkins were really funny. Unfortunately we didn’t realize how cold it was going to be and we didn’t bring Parker a jacket or sweater so we had to try to keep her wrapped in a blanket. Mostly she looked like she was freezing. We ran into Jackson and his fam on the way out and got some cute pictures of the kids.
We came home Sunday night and Jared and I carved our pumpkins. Parker got to get her hands all dirty playing with the “pumpkin guts.” Then Jared and I got to go on a date! We went to dinner and a movie. It was nice to get away:)
Here are our pictures and then Grammy’s pictures from the week:
Jared had Monday off this week so we got to spend an extra day with him. We went to Babies R Us and got Parker her new “big kid” car seat. Her old one was getting too small and now this one makes her look so little. Now Parker uses the big box from the new one for her little fort.
Last week Parker and I took Pat to a ceramic place to make a plate for a “thank you” for coming to help out. I was able to pick it up this week and it turned out really cute!
On Saturday we dropped Pat off at the airport and then picked my mom up a few hours later. To try and not let Parker get too confused we decided to call mom “grammy” instead of grandma. I don’t know how she’d react if all of a sudden we had a new person in the house with the same name as the person who has been taking care of her for 2 weeks. I wanted to make sure she knows they are 2 different people and grandma Jessop isn’t being replaced! We had a great time with Pat here and Parker loooooved playing with her. Good luck going back to work, Pat, and we’ll see you next month for Thanksgiving!
Yesterday we took Parker to the cheap photography place to get some pictures of her in her halloween costume. She did pretty horrible. She was tired and cranky and cried the whole time. She was walking a LOT, though. I would stand her up to get some pictures and she’d just start walking all around the picture area. It was cute. We didn’t get a single smile out of her:( But we got a couple cute shots anyway.
Parker has started singing this week. She found that one of her toys has a working microphone and likes to sing into it. Grandma taught her to play “pat-a-cake” with her blocks so she likes to do that a lot, too. We were able to catch some of it on video.
Here are our pictures from the week and then Pat’s:
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