One Year Old

Dearest Parker,


   this has been a solid year of laughter, joy, smiles, and surprises. We love you! You are important to our family. You add peace, calmness, and simplified emotions. Your sister loves being involved with you and helping you. Your dad loves playing with you and making you laugh. Your mom loves snuggling you and hearing you play with Emma and Daddy.


You are still small. We have your one year check up soon so we'll have to update your weight and height later.

You have 2 teeth on the bottom.

You love meat! You eat just about anything the family is eating. If sister is at the table you want to be in your highchair with food in front of you too. Bread, noodles, rice, peas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and any meat are your staples.

You're drinking cow milk with no problems (count our blessings to be done with expensive formula)!

You were army crawling, well 'wounded' army crawling (just using your arms and one leg) for a week or two. Two days ago you started rocking on your knees and have finally ventured into crawling. Mom has put child locks on all cupboard doors. I also have to put the cat food in the window sill.

You can manipulate yourself into a sitting position from your tummy. This new found freedom of bodily control brings you great happiness!

You have pulled yourself onto your knees (not standing position yet) from the coffee table maybe 3 or 4 times. You're highly motivated to practice this movement when there are leftover cups or papers on said coffee table.

You're obsessed with getting into the pantry. Most likely because I forget to close the pantry door often and it's easier to crawl and scootch on the kitchen floor vs. carpet.

You're a talker, you babble often. I hear a lot of bah, and yah; but you are capable of saying: Hi, Dada, Mama, see (sister). You still gesture most of the time but you make your needs and wants clear [outside, milk, food, no jacket, play room, sister, bath etc].

Music makes you happy, I don't think you have a favorite song; you just dance and wave your arms or start singing along whenever there is music. Emma likes to sing to you when you get upset and start yelling. She chooses ABC's most often. You'll stop yelling to stare at her while she sings sometimes.

You have an interest in books, not the same way that Emma did at your age but an interest none-the-less. You also enjoy movies. You're attracted to shows with live people. For example, you have a terrible cold this week and last night you couldn't sleep. Close to midnight Mommy was exhausted and put on that 'Dugger' show (I think it's called 17 kids and counting) for you. You calmed down, leaned against Mom and plopped in you binky and watched those kids and people while Mom closed her eyes.

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

November 19th: 12 Months

Sick with a cold but still happy and cute!

We'll blog the rest of your birthday later.

You are what you eat

Super hero cape+ mouth= Happy Super Baby

Emma-ism

I picked Emma up from school today and this is what she told me:

"Mom, when I get bigger like a grown up, I want to marry Joshua. I love him and when he goes to his house and I go to my house I miss him." 

I very calmly told her that when she is older we will have to see if she still feels the same! My 4 year old can keep me on my toes-YIKES!

The Buzz

I forgot about this:

until a few days ago.

First, the photographed event consists of Shane. He asked me to tape up any seams and openings in his clothes while he climbed under the house to take care of an overlarge wasp nest! This was back in late August-so you can bet it was close to 90 degrees in the sun.

Second, the UPS truck has been making regular stops at my house while I get ready for Christmas, Birthdays, and the Halloween Carnival that recently happened...one of these stops we noticed the UPS guy was staring at our lawn. So Shane went out to see what was the matter. Turns out some of our wasp friends are still around looking for a place to make a home, so they have burrowed in the dirt of our front yard! They are making tunnels and nests just like they were ants!! CRAZY

Sounds like Shane will have to get more wasp killer.

Halloween

Well this was Mr. Man's first Halloween and he was happy and well behaved. Emma was involved and excited. Shane didn't get called out, which was nice, and I was helping with the Halloween Carnival hosted by the neighborhood watch association but supported by our church.

Emma was a kitty cat, Parker was a giraffe, and I was the Oldfield Zoo maintenance worker...

Shane's gonna kill me for this one, but this was at a friend's house. Shane dressed as me, and I dressed as him. I'm happy to say I stayed nice and warm in his pilot suit and he froze in my skirt.

Livestock Festival

This here is the ultimate redneck post!

 I decided to stop my regular wednesday posts because I was getting to know too many people in the community and neighborhood...before long they would end up seeing my blog and may not have taken kindly to my interpretations of their yard etc.

Anyway, back to redneck city: there is an annual festival celebrating our agricultural heritage here in Southern Utah. This was a 2 day event with parades, dutch oven cook offs, livestock contests, cowboy poetry, and tractor pulls (yes they literally judged who's tractor could pull the most weight-and they had sub-categories).

 Not gonna lie, this event made my day! The town was alive with happiness and laughter. There were balloons everywhere, a petting zoo for the kids, face painting, and artisan booths...

Here are some photos of the Parade:

My favorite part was the antique tractor parade.

Look closely, that's a hair flower on the sheep!

Loving it! Probably looking at a horse.

Yup, stopped traffic and herded thousands of sheep down Main street.

Emma convinced us to "have a family date and get ice cream!"

Parker got cheerios instead of ice cream and couldn't have cared less.

Behind the Scenes of Parker's Monthly Photos

I spend each month trying to remember to take pictures and take mental notes of what Parker is up to. I have one month left before making these monthly posts into a physical 'baby book'. As imperfect as these posts may be it's the best effort I can make to save my growing baby's memories. Now, behind the scenes can be just as jolly as the actual post:

Mom! Take my picture too. 

Week 43: There's always something I forget. I put all the effort into taking photos and don't always remember to add them to the post.

Often I have several photos of the same event, I can't choose just one (it's a problem)!

Deciding when to stop a potentially hazardous activity, or let it continue for a fun photo op is a common occurrence.

Try as you might, you can't always get your photo subjects to do as you wish.

Emma won't let me take a picture of Parker without snapping one or two of her-I don't see the problem in this :) 

He is a happy boy for sure, but he can throw a tantrum with the best of them!

This silly blanket photo is not easily done. Sometimes I need timed assistance.

Sometimes even timed assistance won't get the job done. When an Oldfield doesn't want to do something, they let you know it!