Let The Climbing Begin

This weekend, we turned the corner and found the little man doing this...

Luckily, we caught him at the bottom of the stairs. I'm sure we will receive the Bad Parent of the Year Award for letting him continue to crawl up them (and for grabbing the video camera to capture it). The scary part was this morning. After realizing it was eerily quiet, I rounded the corner to discover that he had moved my blockade of suitcases away from the bottom the stairs (unfortunately, the way our stairs are designed, a baby gate doesn't fit/work) and was sitting at the very top. Of course, he started giggling uncontrollably when he saw that I had discovered him. Needless to say, we have had to create a different, stronger baby blockade.

 

A Review In Pictures

Hello World, It's Parker. I am here to give you a review of what has been going on in our little corner of the world. Lately, we haven't been spending a lot of time in our little corner of the world and when we have, we've been staying super busy.

First of all, I am now crawling around like crazy. Mom finds me in all sorts of crazy places. I'm starting to figure out how to inch my way around while standing up as well. I don't think it will be long before I start walking, but I figure I'll give Mom a little break before I start tormenting her too much.

I turned 8 months old. Too bad I'm almost 9 months old by the time we're actually getting around to updating this blog. Mom says she can't believe how much I am changing and learning these past few months.

We made an unexpected trip to Kentucky because my Mom's grandmother (Farmor) fell and broke her hip. Mom and I made the trip up to Kentucky and stayed for almost 2 weeks to help my Morfar, while my Aunt Rachel and Dad took turns coming up for weekends. The first thing I noticed (and didn't like - don't let my face fool you) was the cold!! I don't understand these jacket things. They're quite bulky. And uncomfortable! I made sure Mom knew how much I hated them by screaming every time she tried to put one on me.

While we were there, I got to see 2, yes you heard it TWO, Murray State Racer basketball games. Mom told me I'm going to be a Racer one day. I'd be okay with that. The first game I got to watch with my Aunt Rachel and Morfar.

The next game I got to watch with my good friend, Wilson. This is the 2nd time Wilson and I have hung out. I think he's a pretty cool guy.

I also got to meet my Aunt Judi (my Morfar's sister) for the first time.

After we returned from Kentucky, I got to meet another celebrity (I'm a pretty lucky kid, ya know) - Winnie The Pooh! We're best friends now, just so ya know.

After my run in with the famous bear, I got to spend an entire week at Disney with my Morfar, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Josh, and Aunt Kim.

I also had my first sickness. For being 8 months old and never being sick, I'd say I'm doing pretty good. After 3 days of a high fever (104, never dropping below 101) and a few trips to the doctor, I ended up being diagnosed with Roseola. Despite the rash that engulfed my body, I felt fine once the fever finally broke.











That pretty much does it for my update. Pretty soon we'll post about our trip to Key West with Aunt Rachel. We had so much fun, we're already planning our next trip so Daddy can go with us!



First Swim

So, this is how I looked before my little body hit the water. Look at how happy I look. Look at how excited. This is how I looked after...

Quite the difference, huh? I did not like it. At. ALL. I thought it would be fun, like bath time, but I was WRONG! Maybe it was the fact that I was shocked introduced to this whole swimming experience by being held under a massive waterfall (okay, maybe now I'm being a bit dramatic).

 I did eventually warm up to the idea of swimming. I'm not going to say I liked it. I wouldn't go that far, YET. I'm just going to say I warmed up to the idea. It just doesn't seem natural to me. I mean, seriously, people, I'm a human, not an amphibian. Am I really supposed to be in the water this much????

I did find out that there are some fun parts of swimming. Not so much the swimming part, but the waterslide part.

The actual swimming part of swimming - yeah, not quite sure what to think of that yet. Seemed just a bit awkward. Again, I have arms, not fins. How exactly is this supposed to work? I did figure out if I sort of kicked my feet, I got somewhere. I'm sure it was because my Dad was moving me around. I like to think it was all me.

One lesson I did learn from swimming: it's EXHAUSTING!

Mom and Dad swear I will like it one day. I keep telling them that we'll just have to see about that. They then threatened me that they would take me to the pool every weekend if they have to. I will NOT be afraid of water. Again, we'll just have to see won't we. If I wasn't crazy about it, at least I looked pretty cute trying!

 

For now, I'll just stick to playing in the grass and not the water. 

 

My New Best Friends

Hello All! Parker again. So, Remember when I met this guy? Well, I have been lucky enough to meet someone else equally as famous. Some might argue even more famous. I have met THE Mickey Mouse, as well as the lovely Minnie Mouse! That's right. You heard what I said. Mom made sure I was prepared before our meeting. She bought  me my own set of Mickey ears, complete with my name.

I think I was more mesmerized by these two than the previous 2 celebrities I met (Santa and Mrs. Claus in case you forgot). It could be because I have never seen any mice bigger than me. Actually, I have never even seen mice in general. However, I like to think it's because they are so incredibly awesome.

It took me a minute to really warm up to them. I think I was in awe of their highly famous reputation. I actually had to touch their hands to make sure they were real. Once we established they did really exist, I was all about making some new friends.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year (A Little Late)

Yes, I know. My New Year's Resolution of doing a better job at keeping up with this blog has not exactly held up. Is there any surprise? How many new year's resolutions actually hold up? We had a wonderful holiday season, especially getting to experience it with Parker for the first time. We kept Christmas this year low key. We didn't buy much for Parker, but we made sure to fill it with all of our family traditions. We started Christmas Eve by picking oranges at a local grove, something we do every year.

Every year we comment on how blessed we feel to live in a place where we have the opportunity to pick oranges, wearing summer clothes, on Christmas Eve. I know many people feel as though they miss the cold weather around the holidays, but that is not us. We thrive on the heat. We love living in a place that allows us to rarely deal with the cold that seems to cut right through your bones. Days like Christmas Eve and traditions like picking oranges just remind us once again that God placed in a location that is absolutely perfect for us.

After picking oranges, we celebrated our usually tradition of Swedish dinner with Rachel and Morfar on Christmas Eve . This year, Rachel hosted Swedish dinner at her apartment and it was delicious as always. This was Parker's first experience with opening presents. He seemed more interested in eating tearing the wrapping paper than the actual present.

Christmas morning at our house went the same way. Before having Christmas lunch, we opened presents, which pretty much went the same way - lots of paper eating.

We ended the holiday season spending New Year's Eve weekend at Disney. Morfar was kind enough to give us some of his DVC points and we were able to stay at the Boardwalk Villas. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Boardwalk, it is within walking distance to Epcot and MGM, which proved to be so beneficial. We didn't have to mess with a bus or our car. We could just walk and enjoy the outdoors. The weather was beautiful all weekend long and with the crowd levels being extremely intense we were able to take it easy, take strolls to Epcot, as well as MGM, and just enjoy the NYE festivities. We spent actual NYE at Epcot. We enjoyed a tasty meal at the San Angel Inn (Mexico) before watching the fireworks (both Epcot and MGM) from the bridge in between the Boardwalk and Beach Club resorts. Naturally, we were pretty exhausted New Year's Day, so we decided to take it pretty easy and walk around Animal Kingdom, which happened to be Parker's first visit to the park. Overall, I'd say our first holiday season with Parker couldn't have been better!