Terrible Two's!

Oh my.  Parker had a "trial day" at a day care near our house on Friday to see how he did - and everything went GREAT except for the fact that he did NOT nap.  Well - needless to say - we experienced our first FULL BLOWN temper tantrum Friday evening.  Park went to bed with no dinner - no milk - and no kisses.   And not because we didn't try to feed him, hold him, kiss him and console him.  There was NO consoling this child.  He would ask for us - we'd come to him to hold and rock him - and he'd hit us away.  Then he'd want his "lovey" - which I'd give to him - and he'd hit it away.  He was absolutely out of his mind.  Well - I decided to video a few minutes of it - and he didn't like that too much either.  Figures.

He did have a great day at day care though! We are considering putting him in day care now that he's older - and we need to save some money to pay for my new eyes! :) Here is a quick picture I took of him with my phone when he first got there (he got there at snack time!) How cute is this...

 

Park @ the park

We took Parker to Poole's Mill Park last Saturday - he LOVED it!  He is getting to be so independent on the playground now - not really wanting my help with everything - and he honestly shocks us every time we go with the next new thing he can do by himself.  My baby's not a baby anymore! 

For some reason - he thinks it's necessary to sit on his bottom about 5 feet before the slide - and scootch over to the slide instead of walking to the slide and sitting down at it.  Not really sure why - but it's cute anyway.  :)

We haven't been to the park in quite some time - but he knew exactly where to go!  He loved running through the covered bridge.

 Checking out the water!

 Thinking about his future... what he'll accomplish in life...

 Loved having a fun Park day with Park!

 Running back through the bridge!

Oh Mr. Sun!

We have a children's CD that we play in the car whenever Park is fussy - and he loves it!  Well - out of the blue - he starts SINGING ALONG to one of the songs this weekend!  Chris and I just looked at each other like - "How in the world did he learn this song!"  I am guessing they sing it at school - but I just had to get a video of it this weekend before he stops doing it :)  He's so unpredictable in these toddler years!  So - we took this last night a few minutes before bedtime - probably not the best time - and he had been singing this with me for about an hour before we finally thought of taking the video - but I did capture it well enough to remember this precious memory!  Enjoy!  --Hillary

Ginch - Not Nice!

Our awesome neighbors, Jon and Robin, bought Parker "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" for Christmas!  Well - since the day he got the book - we've probably read it to him AT LEAST once a day.  NOT even kidding.  He LOVES that book.  He points out the "Ginch" on every page, Max the dog (he also got a stuffed Max dog from J and R) and he also points out little things like the trains (chains), dolls, snow, etc.  Some of his favorite things to say throughout the book are that the Grinch's heart is too small (Ginch, Hot, Mall) and that the Grinch's shoes are too tight (Ginch, Shooooo, Tot).  I got a few videos of Chris reading to him the other night - Chris wasn't too happy about it as you can pick up in some parts of the video - but it's ABSOLUTELY a memory that NEVER want to forget.  :)  Enjoy!

Pool Sledding @ Night!

I totally forgot I had these videos on my camera! I - of course - had to give them the same justice as the other snow videos! Enjoy!

DECORATED!

As soon as we got home from our Thanksgiving trip to Orlando - those posts will come this weekend - we began to decorate for Christmas! MY FAVORITE!

HOME! 

Yes - um - we have three Christmas trees this year!  All visible from the front of the house of course!

 Tree # 1 - Dining room

 Tree # 2 - Living room.

 Tree # 3 upstairs!

 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care!

So - I'm not personally a big fan of blow up things in the yard - but my goodness if it were up to Parker we'd have a million blow up Santas and Snowmen in our yard this year!  When it gets dark, he will stand at our front door windows and STARE at the blow up Santa in our neighbor's yard.  S-T-A-R-E!!!!!!!!  Its the cutest thing ever - he'd look outside and point at Santa for hours if we let him.  Sometimes we do :)

Busy Weekend Day 1.5 - Dada's little helper

My grandparents have 7 acres of land of nothing but trees and creeks so we were able to get some firewood from my Pop's land for free!  Yippee!  I was inside making dinner for a neighbor who just had a baby so I sent Parker out to help dada - little did I know - he actually helped!  I was sure I was going to get a knock at the window asking me to take P back insinde so Chris could get stuff done - but much to my surprise I went outside after awhile to find this precious little scene :)  See the bottom for a video. 

Smell my feet!

Quite possibly - Halloween night was one of my most favorite nights as a parent so far!  Seeing the JOY in Parker's face and eyes as we went door to door was absolutely amazing.  He didn't QUITE know what was going on, but he started to get the hang of it by the 3rd or 4th house.  Instead of saying "Trick or Treat" he would go up to houses and say "Beep Beep" and hold his bag out.  Every once in awhile, he'd hand his bag to the neighbor and instead grab their bowl of candy since it looked like they had a bit more than he did.  We borrowed this awesome costume from Parker's new friend from school, Davis, and got about 2 ba-jillion compliments on it.  Thanks Cone's! 

Here is Park and dada walking into Trunk or Treat at church - which we ended up not even staying at because it was moved inside due to the rain and it was a MAD HOUSE in there. 

 Amy and Sienna (Si Si as Parker calls her) and me and P-man at Trunk or Treat.

 The Friday before Halloween, Parker had a Fall Party at his school!  He and Davis sat next to each other for snack time - which Davis' mom, Kim, and I helped prepare for the kids. 

See the end of the post for a short video taken at the party!

On Halloween night, we had a pizza party at our neighborhood's empty lot and  Parker had a blast (after he had a few meltdowns)!  Nana and Hoppy had been watching him all weekend and allowed him to get into a habbit of NOT taking a nap (hence -they are on restriction from watching him for awhile) so he finally fell asleep at 4 - and we had to wake him up for the party at 5 - needless to say we had a very shy and grumpy Nemo for the first hour - but he only got better!  Here he and neighbor Cayden are before the party!

 Parker in his wagon - ready to hit the houses!

 CHEESE!

 Walking up to our neighbor's house for some candy!

 He started figuring it out!

 We stopped by Aunt Rena and Aunt Cait's house! 

 We ran into some competition at one house - Parker wasn't sure what to think about the cute pumpkin.

 We stopped by our Nanny Wenda's house, too!

 Totally freaked out by the singing ghost at the scary house in the neighborhood.

 While walking away from the house - he kept looking back at the ghost to make sure he wasn't following him!

 We ran into Camden - the competition - again!

We stopped by our neighbor's house to see Eshaan - the pumpkin!

During Parker's fall party - the teachers wanted to show the volunteer parents at the party some songs they sing and dance to during school - needless to say - NONE of the kids were really participating.  Only God knows what the cute cute kid in the green costuem was doing - I'm pretty sure he came and gave Parker a kiss at the beginning - oh well - VERY good entertainment!  :)

Basket Head

Again - this is for my nephew Jac who called me personally and asked for "Moe-ah T.V. of Pah-kuh on thuh com-poo-tuh".

Parker has a new found love for putting things on his head... well... the waste paper basket in our little office nook is his new head cover-er of choice!  Too cute not to video. 

Listen to what he's saying in the beginning of the video as he's walking up!  He sees the camera and automatically says, "CHEEEEEEEEEZE"!  I have trained him well! 

Oh - and please excuse Jack's butt hold he so proudly displays about 1/2 way through the video.  Lovely.

Bored out of his mind....

I took this on our way home from one of our million trips we took this past summer.... he was absolutely bored out of his mind.... but was really cute being bored :) Notice how he got a little camera shy when he realized my iPhone was running on full speed record during his precious bored rant... I think he even got a little embarrassed.  Is that spelled right? 

Playground from the eyes of a 1-year old :)

As a request to my nephew Jac who wants more "TV of Pah-Kuh on the com-poo-tuh" here is a video I took last month!

Parker and I went to play at our neighborhood playground and it was like he became a new child I had not met yet when we strolled up.  He hopped out of his stroller like he knew exactly what to do and went to town on this playground.  Here is a quick (2 minute) video I took following him around.  I had a little trouble a few times but we worked it out :)  Sorry - it's taken with my iPhone and it may make you a little sick if you have a weak stomach!

Another Video...

I can't help myself :)

Happy Parker!

I couldn't let the previous post be my last post up there - too, too sad!  Here are 2 videos we took this weekend - prooving we really are good parents that do everything possible to make our sweet son laugh!  Warning - these videos are OVER LOADED with precious Parker-ness! 

6 Month Doctor Visit

Not really sure what to think - he can faintly remember seeing that dumb lion on the wall before - but really can't remember how he remembers the lion.....

Poor Parker had to spend his day of being a 6 month and 1 day old baby at the doctor!  His check-up went well - he was pretty happy the entire time.  He had lots of very important conversations with "the lion" on the wall and showed all his awesome (and not so awesome) personality traits to Dr. Furr.  This included talking candidly on cue - being INCREDIBLY cute - giggling for her when she tickled him.... as well as spitting up all over the floor and on my 'dry clean only' pants.  Parker has this very special ability - you see.  He can SPOT 'dry clean only' clothes!  It's amazing.  He sees someone has a 'dry clean only' peice of clothing and IMMEDIATELY begins to spit up all over it!  It's really amazing.  I have learned a great trick of leaning forward a few inches when I see the half digested food coming back up and his spit up splatters all over the floor - sometimes onto my feet/shoes and the person standing near me shoes/feet as well.  But - it's better than spending $100 a month on dry cleaning! 

He was starting to remember what happened the last time he saw Mr. Lion and he grabs his best friends - his feet - for some quick relief in hopes that he mean lady won't come and poke him again!

Anyway - he showed all of these awesome abilities to our doc!  She was very impressed with him and answered about 2 million questions we had about the flu shot and the H1N1 shot.  She was awesome and patiently answered them all but I could SEE behind her sweet smile that she had probably been explaining these answers to about 20,000 different mommies and daddies in the past few weeks.  I finally decided to stop asking and I just trusted that God had led us to the right doctor (basically just using the same doctor my sister Whitney and her husband Doug had decided on after several pediatrician interviews over several week nights they set apart before their Kayley was born.... this is something we never took the time to do and just decided we would do what I so often do - and do what big sis Whit does!) and that we would trust Him and her to take care of our little boy. 

Mommy's view.

Looking up the lion for some support.....

Here are a few videos of Precious Parker - the first is of him before he knew the shots were coming.  The second - is very sad - but for some reason I really wanted to document it.  Some may think it's so mean to document such a terrible time in a precious child's life but I love seeing Parker's eyes look up at his daddy right before he gets his shots.  There is SUCH an amazing trust behind those eyes.  Parker just always trusts his mommy and daddy to always do the right thing - to always make him feel better - and he always knows we are there for him.  Seeing him look into his daddy's eyes - hearing his cry - hearing his daddy's soothing voice over him - seeing his daddy hurt for him - and then seeing his daddy scoop him up off the table make him feel all better.  Amazing. 

Of course while taking this picture I realized I was possibly the worst mommy out there - and that I had to be the cruelest mommy in the world for making my son be in any pain what-so-ever!  Another thought in my head was - my child is SO INCREDIBLY HANDSOME and I think he is looking a little more like his mommy every day :)  If I do say so myself....

Very last update...

Not so perfect Parker... Papa has nick names for his two grandsons - Griffin the Great and Perfect Parker.... well... Parker is NOT so perfect all the time... This is for all of you who imagine our life is as perfect as it shows in all our cute-sie videos and pretty pictures. IT IS like that sometimes... but NOT all the time.

This was taken one night during dinner... Parker was DETERMINED to be in a bad mood and nothing we did helped.  We moved him to five different locations, gave him 5 million different toys, burped him, held him... nothing.  He was just mad at the world... so we just let him after awhile. 

Almost finished updating :)

Saturday morning started with a EARLY walk around the neighborhood!  We had such a fun time.  Chris and I were both up and at 'em at 6:30 Saturday morning (Chris was up an hour earlier due to our awesome Buddie issues we are dealing with) so after Parker ate his morning meal, we went on a walk!  We ventured over to our neighborhood "tot lot" and let Parker "play" on the playground.  Here we are going down the slide together..... as you can see he thought it was awesome! 

Later on Saturday, AUNT JESSICA came to visit! We had such a fun time hanging out and catching up!  And of course STUFFING ourselves with FIVE GUYS cheeseburgers for lunch.  YUMMMMMM!  Here are some sweet pix of Aunt Jess and Parker at our house.

Ha ha - Parker decided to spit up some of his 5 Guys Cheeseburger right when we took this picture!  Yes - that is spit up trailing all the way down his NICE CLEAN Georgia Tech onesie.

Saturday night, we went to Aunt Whitney's and Uncle Doug's. I had PLANNED to make a cake after dinner but seeing as we didn't even get over there for dinner until nearly 9 pm, making a cake was not feasible.  So - we packed up the cake supplies on our way out and Parker was quite fond of being the designated cake ingredients holder :)  I may send this in to Betty Crocker....  future Betty Crocker model on our hands?

I think so!

After church on Sunday, Chris was finishing up his brick wall around our tree bed in our front yard that he's been "working on" for 2 months now!   Park and I were bored so we brought a blanket outside to watch dada work.  We had so much fun playing outside.  Our neighbor drove up and commented that we were a picture perfect All American family :)  I think I may have to agree....

Here is possibly the fattest face picture Parker has ever taken!

Buddie hanging out with us outside.

Precious Parker practicing his sitting up skills while playing with a toy we stole from Aunt Whitney's house.

HEY MOM!  His lips seem to always be sucked in on the bottom - he is constantly sucking his constant slobber back in... love these teething days!

Mama and Parker playing outside in the front yard.

Monday night, we were trying to get some last minute energy out of Buddie and decided to let him chase his laser around the house for awhile.  I had just finished up feeding Parkster so he was fully awake and alert - he LOVED watching Buddie run around the house.  Watch his head go back and forth watching Buddie run around.  We thought it was presh!

Random stuff... that you probably don't care about but we do!

NEW NEIGHBORS!  YAY!  Jon and Robin moved in 2 doors down and we are so excited!  We have awesome neighbors that I fully take advantage of as much as possible.  During the game on Saturday, I oh so casually dropped in our neighbors Jim and Ana's house to see a few minutes of the game and oh so casually had to go start dinner a few minutes afterwards and oh so casually just left Parker in Ana's lap for 30 minutes while I got dinner together at my house!  And yesterday - not even a week after Jon and Robin moved in - I asked them to go over to our house to let Jack and Buddie out since I wouldn't be home til later than usual.  And Buddie even left a pile of pee on the floor for Jon who cleaned it up for us! 

WOW - our neighbors are SURE lucky to have us!  :)

Dada and Parker - I have so many picutres like this but I love them.  Seeing dada and Parker cuddle after bathtime is so sweet :)

DOUBLE STROLLER!  We finally found the double stroller we've been wanting.. it's normally like $300 new but we found one on Craigslist for MUCH less than half of that price so we grabbed it!  If only it wasn't 15 degrees cooler in early October than it normally was, we may actually be able to use it...  (Oh - and Kayley doesn't normally get in the stroller mostly naked - but I had just brought the double stroller over for the first time and Kayley was literally about to get in the bathtub but she still had her socks and diaper on!  So we went with it!  We strolled them around the house for a few minutes to see if they liked it so we could justify our purchase!)

I took this video a few weeks ago in Waycross when dada and Parker were napping together.  We always joke that when Parker smiles in his sleep, that he is just dreaming of a sea of a million "mommy milk makers".  This is proof.

A bushel and a peck...

Parker loves my singing :)

Parker and Mama playing in Mimi and Papa's Pool

Griffin and Parker video!