Well it was a busy week with me going to school every night. The days seemed to be pretty busy as well.
2 more teeth officially have popped through this week bringing her total to 8!
We had fun at our weekly playgroup with all of our friends. She walked for everyone so that was nice for me since I’m feeling like a liar these days when she refuses to walk on command.
On Saturday we had a really good time at a Fall brunch with friends. Parker had a GREAT time with all her little buddies. Later that day we FINALLY got her a Halloween costume. She is going to be a “girl pirate.” It’s adorable seeing her in it. We took a few pictures of her trying it on.
On Sunday we drove to the Blue Ridge Mountains to go apple-picking. There are a few places closer (not many), but this one looked like it was the best. Coming from Michigan we’re a bit picky about our orchards… It ended up being really really fun. Parker thought it was sooo funny when we would pull an apple from a tree. We got to pick apples, see animals, play in a bamboo forest, go on a hayride, eat freshly made-to-order HOT donuts, and drink cider. It was a perfect day with beautiful weather. Parker was full of smiles. It will definitely have to be an annual trip. We were only about 30 minutes from Asheville so we decided to head there for a late lunch afterwards. We were all tired by the time we got home, but it was definitely a great time!
Because Pat is here, we have an extra amount of pictures. I am going to post pictures from our camera and then ones from hers:
Parker turned 9 months old this week! I can’t believe it! She has her 7th and 8th teeth coming in which has caused a LOT of drooling and a VERY runny nose. Other than that she’s had a great week. She is walking a little more, but is very inconsistent so we haven’t been able to get a good video of it.
At her 9 month check up we found out that she is 18.1 lbs and 29 in. She really shot up in length since her 6 mo check up. She is very healthy and she definitely shocked the doctor with how well she is walking.
At Jackson’s party last week we saw her dance for the first time! It’s so cute because she will stop what she is doing sometimes if there is music on and you can see her little knees start to bounce. I tried to get it on video this week but could only get her doing it very subtly.
Also, this week Jared and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We saved the top of our wedding cake and froze it to eat for our first anniversary. It was so good that we only at half and froze the rest for our 2nd anniversary. It was STILL really good so we froze some and saved it for this year. This year it was still really good again so we only ate a few bites and froze it to try it again next year. So… if you live in Michigan and are looking for a great cake, go to It’s A Matter Of Taste because it is GREAT quality!! There are a few pictures of Jared eating what is left of it.
There are also pictures of what Parker has been busying herself with while waiting for someone to get her out of her crib when she wakes up from her naps. The weather has been beautiful here so we took Parker and the dogs to our park yesterday to play. There are some cute pictures of Parker in a little sundress playing in the grass.
Today Grandma Jessop flew in to help us out for the next 2 weeks. I start a 4 week class tomorrow and will need help during the day with Parker. Parker is quickly warming up to her!
Here are the videos of the week (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):
Yep, I totally forgot to update this yesterday. I blame being a mom and having too many other things running through my head for my forgetfulness. But it’s good because now I get to add today’s big news: Parker took her first steps tonight! She’s been pushing her little lion toy all over the place and it’s helping her get steady on her legs. She was finally steady enough tonight to stand on her own. Then Jared sat a little ways away from her and she walked to him! We kept having her walk back and forth between us. She did great! Not perfectly stable but at one point she started walking to Jared, stopped, then started again. So she has control! Unfortunately she chose not to do it once we had the camera on. We tried to get videos, but she was pretty much done walking by the time we got the camera out.
Anyway, it was another good week. We had a playgroup earlier in the week. Parker and Jackson, of course, ended up off in the corner together. Best little buddies. Later in the week Parker and I went to Jackson’s house and the 2 of them played house together. On Saturday we went to Jackson’s first birthday party! I can’t believe how fast the babies are growing up. I think Parker is the next to turn 1 of all her little friends. We stayed late at the party and Parker got to help Jackson open some presents.
The videos are pretty self-explanatory (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):
Yep, the 3 new foods Parker tried this week were salmon, kiwi, and dog food. She loved them all! She’s crawling all over the place and sometimes it’s hard to keep up! I tried to fill up the dogs’ water bowl and left Parker on the floor a ways away from the food bowl. When I heard little hands slapping the ground getting closer to the food and then a bowl flipping over I ran to catch Parker and she already had a handful of dog food she was stuffing in her mouth. She didn’t seem to like it, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying again and again to eat more. The salmon and kiwi were given to her on purpose so it’s ok if she likes those.
She has traded in her army crawl for a real hands and knees crawl. So she’s on the move even more than before. She is soooo happy now that she has so much freedom. She still definitely prefers walking but at least now she has realized an acceptable way to get around on her own. She figured out how to get into the cabinet under our tv where we keep a bunch of toys. It was cute at first, but now she just does it all the time. It’s nice that it keeps her occupied for a long time and I know she isn’t getting into anything dangerous.
The new things this week that she is amazing us with are climbing up the stairs-we, fortunately, have a gate up so the dogs can’t get up so she won’t be going up unless we are right there with her-and she can stand on her own for about 5 seconds at a time without holding onto anything. If she’s standing there and leans too far one way she will just start walking in that direction. It’s sort of her “first steps” except for the fact that she falls immediately. But she’s getting there!
Here are the pictures of the week. A lot of them are very similar. Most of them are of her playing in the toy cabinet. There are a couple from when we met Jared for lunch downtown. Today we went to Target and I had to get some pictures of her in the shopping cart. She was being so funny and did NOT want to face forward in the seat. There are also some ridiculous pictures of Nibbler thrown in there, too.
Here are the videos from the past week. Like I said, she has been extra happy lately and seems to find everything hilarious. She’s always laughing all day long. I tried to get it on film a couple times: (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)
Last week was a crazy week. The beginning of the week was normal, just us doing regular everyday things. Then on Friday morning Parker and I left to visit Matt in Minneapolis.
Parker did GREAT on the plane. I was nervous to fly alone with her, but of course I had nothing to worry about. Everyone complimented us on how great of a flyer she is. She did well the whole weekend. We had fun seeing Uncle Matt and meeting some of his friends. We got to see a bunch of lakes and saw where he works. It was a great trip! On the way home Parker and I got seated in First Class so that was nice! I even had an open seat next to me so we just stretched out and enjoyed the pampering. She did great on that flight as well. That flight resulted in lots and lots of compliments from the other passengers as well.
Here are pictures from the week. There are some regular ones of her doing her usual stuff. The ones of Parker and Jackson are from when we were playing at his house and they decided to swap pacifiers. I tried taking some of her holding a sign for my friend’s birthday, but she didn’t cooperate so none of the pictures worked out:( There are a bunch from Minnesota. The ones of her in a little “fort” are from a “crib” that Matt made for her to sleep in for her naps. It worked really well! The last pictures are from when we got home and were playing around last night with daddy.
Here are the videos of the week (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):
Parker still seems to be growing a little too fast for my comfort. But the older and bigger she gets, the more fun things she is doing. Except for her new fun habit of biting me every time she nurses…
She still prefers walking over crawling and is easily pulling herself up to stand using anything in front of her for support. The only problem is that with standing comes tearing everything off tables now that everything is within her reach. She is getting into the stage where she likes to see what happens when she drops things on the floor (as you can see in one of the videos). We really need to get our cluttered coffee table cleaned off since everything ends up on the floor by the end of each day.
Earlier in the week we went to a playgroup at Lauren and Jackson’s. There are pictures and videos of where we found Jackson and Parker hiding out by themselves. All the babies and moms were in the living room and the 2 little buddies made their way down the hallway to the front door to play together. It was really cute. They always seem to gravitate towards eachother!
There are also some pictures of Matthew feeding cheese puff baby food to Jackson and Parker and you can see how addictive these things are to the babies. We went to a friend’s 30th birthday party on Friday and there are pictures of Parker playing with her friends there. She chose to play with the monster truck out of all the toys so I’m sure that will make Uncle Justin proud.
Today we took Parker to the outlet mall for her to go on her first carousel ride. As soon as I put her up on the zebra she grabbed onto the pole and had a huge smile on her face. She knew just what to do! She loved it until I think she started to get a little dizzy and her smile faded. Then she was just hanging on for dear life looking like she was going to throw up. It was fun to see her reaction to the ride. I think she’s almost ready for Cedar Point!
Here are the videos of the week (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):
All Parker ever wants to do these days is pull herself up and walk around (not quite on her own yet, though). So Jared keeps taking everything in the living room that is the right height and placing each of them just far enough away from each other to make a sort of “obstacle course” for Parker to walk around from one thing to the next. She loves it! She is getting so awesome at pulling herself right up and walking all over the place. I can’t believe how fast she’s doing everything! Pretty soon she’ll be running around the house. She still pretty much sticks to an army crawl when she doesn’t have something to hold onto but I have seen her do a “real” crawl up on her hands a knees a few times.
I got great news this week that I was accepted into nursing school! I’m so excited! At the same time, though, I’m terrified to leave Parker now that I’m used to being with her every day all day and being able to see every little milestone:( It’s going to be a very hard couple of years but, if I can make it through, it will all pay off in the end.
This past week was a fun week with friends. On Monday we watched Gunnar all day and Parker had fun playing with him. Later in the week Jackson came over and he and Parker got to hang out. We also had a playgroup this week with all of Parker’s little friends. Then on Friday Parker and I visited April and Flannery at their house. Tonight Parker is wearing her new pajamas that I picked out so there are a few pictures of her wearing them on here:)
I haven’t been able to update this for a while because we’ve been so busy. We drove up to Michigan last weekend to surprise Pat at her surprise birthday party. She was very shocked to see us. I think she liked getting Parker for a birthday present! We came home on Monday and Bob, Pat, and Justin got here Tuesday (they didn’t know we were coming up there so they made plans to come down here). We had a fun week with them. I know Parker really enjoyed spending time with her family:)
While in Michigan we got to take Parker to her first Tigers game at Comerica. She seemed to have a great time even though it was so hot that we were all sweating like crazy. Luckily we had a ticket to be able to sit inside and eat in the Tiger Club and watch the game in the air conditioning when our regular seats got to be unbearable.
Parker has been pretty happy during the day lately but a mess at night. While up until a week or two ago she would always sleep through the night, she suddenly is up screaming as early as 9:30pm. I just assumed it was because her schedule was all off after being on a roadtrip and then having company and a screwed-up schedule. Then I happened to see inside her mouth yesterday morning during one of her screaming fits and noticed a new tooth had popped out and a few more are bulging through her gums! So that explains a lot… The poor thing has been in pain:( She is such a good baby, though, and I’m glad she handles teething as well as she does. She stays pretty happy:)
Here are some pictures we took 2 weeks ago and some from Pat’s camera. We finally reached the limit on our camera’s memory card (it still had all pics and videos from back when I was in labor all the way until now) and we wanted to make sure we had them not only saved on the computer, but also backed up on DVDs before we deleted them. We were so busy that it didn’t get done until the end of this week. Fortunately Pat was taking pictures throughout their visit so I still have something to show for the week.
We were so excited to finally have my friend, Kristin, come to visit and meet Parker. It was a fun week:) Plus, Parker did a bunch of “grown up” things this week, too, so it was extra fun.
In the beginning of the week Parker learned to feed herself and tried using a sippy cup for the first time (and did great!) I guess I just needed to let her try. She picked it right up.
Also, she started out slow and frustrated but by the end of the week she was crawling! It’s more of an army crawl on her stomach, but she’s definitely mobile now. That’s a scary thought….
Here are pictures of all that plus some of her eating black beans, swinging with Jackson, playing with bubbles, listening to music at Birkdale, and Jared’s great paint job in the dining room.
I can’t believe Parker is 7 months old!!!!!!!!
This past week started rough with her still feeling sick and having a fever. She was miserable:( But then she got right back into the swing of things by Friday and was pretty much back to normal. The doctor said it looks like she has a lot of teeth ready to poke through in her upper gums. I hope she deals with those as well as she did her bottom 2.
In the beginning of the week we had a rug delivered for our “dining room” that we don’t use as a dining room. We have decided to turn it into more of an entertainment room. I put some before and after pictures on here. In the pictures you can sort of see the paint color we are going to use. We painted a little bit of a test spot behind the piano. There are some pictures of her sitting with Jared on the couch. It’s so cute because she was still really sick at that point and had been really fussy, but she was enjoying herself hanging out with daddy. There are a whoooole bunch of pictures and videos of Parker on the floor in the dining room. She was being so cute and talking and almost crawling so I just kept taking pictures. Of course I never actually caught much of it on film since she seems to stop doing it all once the camera points at her. On Saturday morning we went to her friend, Eddie’s, birthday party. He turned 1 today! There are a bunch of pictures and a video from that. Parker had fun playing with all of her friends. Our friends, Stefanie and Ronnie, came over last night for a bit and I got some cute pictures of Ronnie holding Parker. It’s rare that other people can hold her without her crying these days. She’s getting into the *FUN* seperation anxiety phase… The last few pictures show my little art projects I’ve done that we finally put up in her room today.
Some of these videos get repetitive and long (like the ones of her on the new rug). But I can’t leave any out!
(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)
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