A fun summer morning

Yesterday morning, Parker and I were up bright and early. We spent some time outside so Daddy could sleep in! He still loves being outside and will throw a fit if you don't take him out when he demands it! We played on the front porch for a while, and then we went for a nice, long walk around the neighborhood. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect morning with one of the loves of my life!

The new bear crawl

I took this one so I can remember how long his eyelashes are!

Dinosaur birthday bash!

Welcome to the dinosaur birthday bash!!

I got the banner idea from Sarah. She did this at Zane's 1st birthday party. It is a banner made up of his monthly pics.

The dinosaur cookies/party favors my mom and sister made.

The most amazing dinosaur cake! It was exactly what I had in my mind, and I was so excited that Cakery Affairs made it happen!

The table (minus the green punch)

He needed a little help figuring out how to eat the cake my mom and sister made.

He finally figured out that this was the most effective way to eat it!

We got lots of help from all the kiddos!

Shelby and AnaBella were very interested in the tractor! Phillip's dad made this from scratch! It is AMAZING!!!!

He finally fought off those stinky girls!

He's just as content to sit in a box.

His good buddy Truett even came!

The day ended with all the cousins playing with his new water table.

I don't want to forget...

Tonight we were eating dinner, and Parker signaled to us that he was done. I was still eating, so I asked Phillip to get him out of his highchair. Before he got him up, Phillip said, "Are you Mommy's boy or Daddy's boy?" (This is a game we play often.) I said, "Mama or Dada?" Parker responded with, "Ma, Ma, Mama!" It was too funny! Of course he didn't know what we were asking, but it was too cute!

He also has this cute new signal he's learned for birds. My mom taught it to him when she was here last week. He loves to watch our neighbor's bird house through the back window. There are usually tons of birds flying around, and my mom taught him how to put his fingers together with his thumb and open back and forth. He'll stand at the back window and when you say, "Do you see the birds?" he'll respond with, "Buh, Buh" (bird). Tonight at dinner I asked, "Did you see any birds today? Tweet-tweet?" and he immediately put his fingers together and made his bird sign. Wow! He's learning so much!

Happy 1st Birthday, Parker!

Please excuse all the birthday posts. We like to prolong birthday celebrations in our house!

Parker's birthday started off with his 1 year photo shoot! Look how excited he is to be turning one year old!! This is my all-time favorite picture of him! It really captures his personality and his 8 teeth!

Since we're not having his party until Saturday, we thought it only fair to go ahead and give him a birthday treat on his real birthday. Why make him wait until the party? We took him to Community Bakery (our favorite) and let him test some sugary goodness. He LOVED it! He was climbing out of the high chair begging for more!

Birthday Eve

As you can see from the pictures, his new favorite game is turning the water in the bathtub on and off. This provides at least 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted pleasure.

Please take note of the bed-head he's got going on in the first picture (to the right).

Parker will be one year old tomorrow. ONE YEAR OLD!! I am sure I will pretty much cry all day tomorrow, so I figure I'll go ahead and get some stuff recorded before I am crazy-emotional woman all day. It seems like he's changed so much over the past week. It's like I went to the hospital (for my surgery) with a baby at home and came back with a toddler.

Since I can't pick him up, I've been able to lay back and really watch him...watch his every move. I've learned a lot about him: he is very stubborn, he's very content to play by himself, but if a playmate is available, he's happy with that, too. He is very quick to learn things; he has this elephant that you push the leg and it walks and sings. He was getting very mad because he couldn't figure out how to turn it on, so I showed him maybe 5 or 6 times how to do it, and he figured it out. And it's a small button you push, but he gets his little pointer finger right on there! He's really a happy baby, easy to take care of, and overall just a fun, outgoing child. He's also at the best age to teach stuff. My mom taught him how to make this scrunched up face...it's so funny! I tried to get pictures of him doing it, but he wouldn't cooperate.

He's also talking a whole lot-he can say: Ta-Ta ("Tulip") da-tide ("outside"-he says this while pointing at the door and throwing a fit if we don't take him out), Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, he has said Gigi a couple of times (I think my mom went over that one a lot while she was here keeping him), and his new favorite word (thanks to Poppa) is Uh-Oh.

He does a two handed wave when you say "bye-bye"...he does this precious thing when he's laying on his stomach where he kicks one leg up and down...he stands by himself but hasn't taken a step yet...when you go in to get him up in the morning he likes to "hide" and crawl all over the bed....he still gives really good kisses....he's gotten to where he reaches for his bed when he's tired, so we lay him down and sing to him while he's getting snuggled up....I could go on and on.

One final cute story-tonight he played ball with Tulip. Seriously, he was throwing the ball to her, and she'd catch it and gently roll it back to him. I'm not making this up. When she quit participating, he would get the ball and shove it into her mouth. Dead serious. They played for a while, and I'm so glad we got it on video. Precious.

Happy, happy birthday eve sweet baby boy. This time one year ago I was FINALLY getting my epidural and wondering if you'd be born on the 19th or 20th. I love you doesn't seem enough.

First night away

I spent my first night away from Parker this past Friday night. I always imagined the first night away would be so I could do something fun or sleep in..you know, something I haven't gotten to do in, oh say a year? Well, not the case at all!

I actually had to have the left side of my thyroid removed on Friday. I've been having problems with it since January, and in April the dr.'s discovered a 5.8 cm nodule growing on the left side. Since the nodule was so large, they biopsied it-the original biopsy results were benign (90% accurate), but they will biopsy it again this week since they've taken it out-if it is malignant, they will go in and remove the right side. I do have a small nodule on my right side, and my ENT said it will have to come out eventually. However, it is less risk if they just remove the left side for now. So, we reported to the hospital at 5:30 am on Friday and came home yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Parker was in excellent hands with Gigi, Coco, Abby, Poppa, Marmee, and Granddad. Of course, he loved all the attention!

The first night away was not fun at all-probably because I was in the hospital. I was really ready to come see my baby. Phillip came home on Friday afternoon and watched him nap for a few minutes! The hard part now is that I can't lift him all week. I'm having to sit in the floor so he can get to me, or they're putting him in my lap so I can hold him. But..I'm home now and enjoying watching my sweet angel play-he's gotten attached to Mom and is now crying if she leaves the room. Hopefully I'll be up to par soon so I can get the rest of his birthday plans together!

Look who came to play!

Parker's friend, Cade Wright came to spend a couple of nights last week. The boys had a lot of fun together! Parker followed Cade around like he was the coolest kid ever, and Cade was very sweet to P-Man. He'd say, "Pah-kah". So sweet!!! We had so much fun visiting with Chris and Erin and wish we could see them more often.

Yes, they have on matching pjs!

The Donnells stopped by to visit. Thanks, Shelby, for putting up with those crazy little boys!

What a night

Parker,

Tonight was a very challenging night for us. I had a meeting after work, so I didn't get to Jordan's to pick you up until 4:45 pm. When I picked you up, you were happy, but you quickly became unhappy on the ride home; the sun was in your eyes. We ran home to get a bottle, and I planned on getting back out to run a few errands with you. Daddy is at work tonight, so it was just the two of us...well, you had other plans. You DID NOT want to get back out. I put you in your car seat and you literally were crawling out of it, crying. You were clinging to my shirt. I realized that we would not be getting an errands taken care of tonight and spent the next 45 minutes trying to find things to make you happy. We finally suffered through dinner, play time, etc. and I put you in the bathtub. That did the trick. After your bath, you settled down and played happily. Anyway, as I was trying not to get too frustrated with you, I started thinking about all the sweet, cute things you're up to now:

This captures your attitude before your bath..

I found the pictures Daddy took of you before you went to Ms. Jordan's (ignore the laundry on the couch). How can I get frustrated when you look soooo cute in your plaid shorts?

I couldn't resist putting this in here-Daddy is probably going to be mad, but I thought it was adorable that he took ya'lls picture together before ya'll left this morning. I found it on the camera :)

You've become very interested in our shelf in the kitchen. You like to take out all the cookbooks and "read" them. The first time you did it, Daddy said, "Why are you letting him do that?" My motto is if it doesn't hurt you or cause major damage, then it's ok. I figure you are exploring, and I refuse to be uptight about my house. I want you to explore your environment and learn to play with any type of object!

Here you are learning about the different cuts of beef in my Southern Living cookbook.

I also started thinking about how you have started to take my hands and try to make them do what you want them to. When we're playing Patty-Cake and I stop, you'll move my hands exactly like they're supposed to do. You won't do your hands for some reason, but you'll manipulate mine. You'll also try to move my hands when you're waiting to get in the bathtub. You like to stand at the edge and watch the tub fill with water; you'll grab my hands and try to make me put you in.

You're also starting to stand on your own. You did it repeatedly tonight, so maybe this is a step toward walking? We'll see...I'm in no hurry for you to walk!

I love you so much, buddy...even when you're upset and I can't figure out why!

-Mommy