Parker's 2nd Birthday

It has been an amazing two years watching Parker grow so quickly and observe how his personalty has developed. He is most definitely his own little person but several of his characteristics make it undeniable he has a little of his mamma and dadda in him.

Some ways he is like his parents:

Daddy:
*Likes music--Nick always plays his music for Parker and they snuggle or dance. Parker loves to play instruments, sing and dance.
*Easy going--much like Nick parker just goes with the flow and does not seem to be bothered by too many things. If his nap or meal schedule is different because we are busy doing something he just goes with it and does not seem to care. When we are with other kids he does not have much interest in fighting over toys and if we ask him to share or give the toy up for someone else he does without any drama.
*Athletic--He quickly understand the concepts of the new sports we introduce him to and seems to be very coordinated like daddy. I am not allowed to throw Parker baseball pitches because i don't get the ball very close to him
*Good eater--there are not many foods that Nick does not like or will not try and Parker is a lot like that. I started him early with a wide variety and flavors of home made baby foods and he surprises us with the different things he will eat. He can also put away food like his mamma.

Mommy:
*Busy Body-- he is always on the go like I am and seems to enjoy all the activities i have him involved in
*Loud--it is hard to talk on the phone with him in the room, he has a big mouth for a little man. The volume is amplified when he is signing.
*Social--it does not take him long to jump right into a crowd of kids and interact with them. he is not shy at all, probably from being exposed to a lot of different things. He waves and says hi and bye to almost anyone he sees.
*Chatter Box--his mouth is always running even though we don't understand most of what comes out of
*Likes photography--He says cheese every time he sees the camera and even has his own camera now that he pretends to take pictures with

A Few Other Things About Parker:
*Independent, strong willed and stubborn which is to be expected because his mamma and dadda are just like that.
*A very kind child and takes notice when other kids are hurt or upset. He likes to help kids out and often makes the effort to hold their hands.
*He knows his manners and says please and thank you even if we still have to remind him
*Knows the primary colors
*knows basic shapes
*Knows about half the states so far
*Says "I do" when he wants to do something himself
*Very cautious and seems to evaluate the situation he is in.
*He is still in the 5%-10% percentile for height/weight and 50% head size

Parkers bday party, easter, my moms visit

My mom came for a four day weekend to celebrate Parkers bday party and easter. Friday night we went to see the easter bunny and like normal Parker was not thrilled with him. He waved to the bunny from a distance and barley sat on my lap for the picture.

That evening we decorated easter eggs. Parker had a great time and wanted to do it all by himself. We broke several eggs but it was not that bad considering a toddler did a lot of egg handling. He also got to put stickers on several of them.

He is holding it half way in just like mamma did

He was loving it when Grandma took pictures of him and he got to see them on her phone and help her send texts

For Parkers birthday we reserved a room at the play center in Focus on the Family. His theme was Handy Manny. several of his friends came to celebrate and everyone did a photo scavenger hunt around the center.

Parker was surrounded by little kids when he was trying to open his gifts. At one point he grabbed his gift and said "mine". That was the first time I have heard him be like that and it was cute he was defending his goodies because normally he does not fight much or at all for what he has.

It snowed on Easter

For Parkers egg hunt we put a string through the house for him to follow. He picked up on the idea that there were eggs for him and had a great time looking for goodies.

Putting easter money from his eggs into his piggy bank

Last week I visited toys r us for Parkers bday experience. He had a blast wearing his hat and carrying his balloon all around the store. He was very proud

We gave him an old computer so he can play on it with now worries of it getting destroyed. He was very excited about it and loves to just type or play some educational cd's

Parker got my old broken camera and takes pretend pictures of chance while saying cheese and he will even get down on his knees to get a better angle...too cute

This is the video of Parker sledding in Winter Parker

Singing and dancing. Parker loves music and sings on his fake mic, dances and plays his guitar and air drums and air guitar

Parker learning his states and getting ready for the big 2

We had some professional pictures taken for Parkers 2nd birthday. It was a very windy day resulting in some wind blown pictures but we tried to make the best of it.

Parker loves memorization activities so I started introducing him to learning the US states. He loves the "map". I started with a few states and just keep adding a few at time once he learns them all. He started trying to put the states in there is place on his own after he watched me put the states on the map.

This is him picking the states I ask for