This little man is the cutest, sweetest little ray of joy in our lives. I just love seeing what he's going to do next. Spontaneous hugs, please and thank yous, questions and observations, and of course a spirited mind of his own are all things that I enjoy about him every single day. And- I won't lie- he's got a bit of an evil streak too.
This kid is friendly. He says "HI!!" and "BYE!!!" to everybody and everything he runs across.
(more to come later)
My poor little baby, the second child, always kind of gets shortchanged when it comes to blog posts and pictures and all the things that you have time and energy for with only one child. With two, the good intentions are there but motivation is a little diminished. Especially because everything has always been so EASY with Parker, from pregnancy and birth, to everything up until this point. He's just a joy. Never had to worry about him for anything, and all we have had to do was enjoy him. Not like his brother who (bless his heart) has never been easy for anything, and left us worrying and studying milestone charts and wondering why he wasn't meeting age appropriate goals and stuff. So since the squeaky wheel (Drew) gets the grease, little Parker doesn't always get the internet attention. But believe me, this little pint sized tyrant is HUGE on personality and kind of comandeers the household.
It was at about 19 months that he started getting REALLY into the iPhone and iPad and playing all the apps and games. Just like Drew did. He's still kind of obsessed with it, and his little hands shake with anticipation when we hand it to him. He looooooves the Monkey Preschool series, Lunchbox and When I Grow Up. And he loves Angry Birds and spends a lot of time playing it, but he always shoots the birds in the wrong direction. But he doesn't care.
As a result of all the i apps and his PBS educational TV, he already knows most of his letters. When you ask him to find a certain letter, he gets it right probably 85% of the time. Driving around town, he's always looking at signs and yelling out letters and the sounds they make. When we read books, he doesn't care at all about the story or the pictures, he just wants to point at the letters and name them all and make letter sounds.
His language is coming right along. I'm still kind of in shock that a child this young can say words, but I have to remind myself that this is more normal. He doesn't have a ton of words, but he's got most recently this week: GO GO GO!, cracker ("ka-ka"), pen, duck, and established for some time now, ball, cat, hat, Da-Da, Mama, and a few others.
Drew continues to progress by leaps and bounds. He's absolutely loving school. It was only after a couple of weeks into the school year that we had a meeting with his teacher and the team and they amended his IEP by increasing his services to three days a week at school, which includs a 3rd session of speech therapy per week and also a session with a special educator. I think it's been a huge success, and made a big difference.
Everything about him has been changing, and it's so awesome to be able to have him talk about things that he observes. He's very vocal about what he sees, and describes what things are doing, and now that his vocabulary is growing it's pretty funny to hear. Most of what he talks about is reciting from tv shows, like Curious George and Caillou. But he generalizes the information very well, and applies the scenarios from the tv shows to what's going on around him. It's kind of weird, but at the same time we're just glad that he's talking so much, and even though it's kind of scripted, maybe it's just the gateway into his learning style right now.
One thing that strikes me about him is how thoughtful he is. We encourage him to share, and think of others to the extent that any parent would in their family, but he seems to take it to the next level all on his own. When Dave comes home, he runs to get him a Pepsi out of the fridge and wants to take him an ice pack, and whatever else he thinks he might need. When he asks me for a snack or a juice box, he makes sure I give him two, so he can go take some to Parker too. (he'll hand Parker a juice box but doesn't open him for him, so Parker just ends up sitting there clutching it tightly. LOL!) When we come home from school he always tells me that it's "time for Parker to take nap", which it is, and he's always looking out for what needs to be done and makes sure I don't forget anything. As in, he'll tell me "Mommy get dressed!" when there's 20 minutes left before we need to leave for school.
We're very close with his teachers, and exchange emails several times a week usually with his progress and what's going on with him. It's awesome to be that connected to them, and they're so great to answer any questions and keep us advised of what issues he might be having or what they're working on with him.
A huge skill that he's mastered in the past couple of months is taking turns, and using people's names correctly. For the longest time if we'd say "Goodnight Drew," he would just repeat "Goodnight Drew." He never knew how to address people's names. But between some special attention at school, and reinforcements at home, he can now properly address people with their names. He can say "Good night, Dad!" "I love you, Mom!" "Thank you, Parker!" It's very exciting.
He's so polite with his please and thank yous, and his speech is now becoming more complete with articles like "a" and "the" and he can also use "my" and "me". All new and exciting things that he's just started using recently. Just this week he said to me, "I want some pretzels and milk, please!" Which kind of blew me away because not only was it a complete sentence, it also had a double request and also a please! That was the first time he'd ever said anything that complete.
From his most recent teacher update:
"I have been observing Drew during free and dramatic play time and have noticed
that he is showing much more interest in being with his friends and pretend
play. Yesterday there was a group of children cooking in the kitchen area
(Drew loves to play in the kitchen area but usually would leave when a
group of children joined him) and Drew stayed and was playing right along
with them! He was serving tea to one of the children at the table - so
cute!! "
It's exciting for us to see him making friends. Even though he has Parker, I think he needs more kids to be around on a regular basis, so it's great to see him becoming more comfortable. He's so affectionate, and loves to give hugs and always is asking me "Mommy sit!" to sit on the couch with him and snuggle. Sometimes when I tell him I can't right then, he understandly says "Mommy needs coffee." :) And when he cuts flowers outside with his safety scissors, he brings one to me and says, "Mom, this flower is for you. I love you, Mom!"
Yay! Our little sweetie is now a year and half old. Such a cute age. I'm a couple of months behind in his updates, but he's still growing and developing fast and furiously.
Height: 34 in (90th %tile)
Weight: 27 lbs 4 oz (70th %tile)
Head: 97th %tile
One thing he's enjoyed in the past couple of months is a juice box. He's always been CRAZY about drinking his drinks, and once he figured out how to hold a juice box he's been one happy kid. All I have to do is say "want a juice box?" and he runs to his high chair to get in it. And in fact he can CLIMB all the way up into it. It's crazy to watch but he is a great climber.
He's doing great with his walking, and now he runs everywhere. He can go down steps pretty well now, without crawling and just barely holding onto the wall. He just stands there and carefully steps down. He started dancing today also, which was so cute. He was watching tv and the characters were dancing so he started bopping up and down and clapping his hands (and yelling).
He has a few words that are distinct, but overall he just babbles and carries on. He'll look you right in the face and do this long speech of babbles and baby words and he looks completely intent like he's talking to you. So funny. I think his favorite thing to talk about is "birds". He's always saying BIRD!!! if he sees one flying, and loves to stand in the window and watch the yard crawling with crows, pointing and yelling "bird!!".
He's so friendly and outgoing and never met a stranger. He is always running up to people and smiling and babbling. Especially men, has always seemed to be really comfortable with men. He yells "hi!" and "bye" at people in the grocery store, and on Halloween night when we went to our next door neighbors' house for trick or treating he just ran right into their house. See ya.
We just love this little guy and enjoy all the new things he's doing every day. He's one funny kid, and I know once he starts talking, he is going to have so much to say.
Our little cutie is such a ball of sweetness and light. He's so smiley and fun all the time and is such a joy to have around. And those curls kill me!
He's doing great with his sign language and can do the sign for milk and eat now. He also tries to do "diaper" but hasn't quite coordinated his hands yet. But he knows what it is when we tell him it's time to change his diaper, and he starts doing his little sign for it and runs down the hall to his room. I swear I heard him say "da-pa" a couple of times too. He can still say juice, banana, Hi Drew "haidoo!", and uh-oh. He claps happily at lots of things, and also blows lots of kisses. And gives big kisses complete with a "MUAH!!" sound.
He's really into airplanes now, and when we hear them coming close he'll start looking at the sky and looking back at me, and at the sky, waiting for it to come over the treetops. And then when he finally sees it he points and yells and smiles.
He's totally into cuddling in his bed (actually this started in his 14th month, I think). He has a soft pillow in his bed and he totally cuddles up on it, and snugs with his white teddy bear. He looks up at me and wants me to rub his back. What a little stinker!!
And he has commandeered the chair in the living room as his own. He loves to lounge in that chair. He needs help to get up on it, but he'll just sit back in the cushions (usually with a drink cup in hand) and settle back and watch Curious George cartoons. Here he is on Drew's Moby's little chair. I think we're going to have to get him his own for Christmas. They will be fighting over this thing for sure.
He is our little eating champ. He makes up in ALLLLLL ways for Drew's picky eating. Parker will eat just about anything. He loves fruits, most veggies, pastas, all kinds of things. He especially seems to love meat (after grapes and blueberries).
I'm sooooo behind on blogging and can't seem to get time to do it. I totally had to forego Parker's 14 month old post, so I'm going to consolidate it here with his 15 month.
14 Months Old!
In his 13th month, he had only been walking for a short time when we started having him wear shoes outside and it took him a few days but he caught on pretty quick and loved it! He also learned how to get into a standing position without pulling up on something, and could also bend down to pick something up without falling.
He phased out his 2nd nap and now just takes one nap. It was kind of a rough transition for a few weeks when two naps was too many but one wasn't nearly enough........ but then it all sort of leveled out after awhile.
And! Very exciting! he made his first sign which was for "more". At first he only did it imitatively when we showed him how to do it. Then he could do it just by the verbal cue. and finally he could do it spontaneously when he was trying to tell us something! Very cool.
June 20, 2010: 13 months old
At 15 Months Old!
During his 14th month he can say "juice" and sort of do the sign for it. He's NUTS about OJ and will bring me his empty cup and hiss "juice! juice" when he wants a refill. He also has just started doing the sign for milk, too.
He can now do the signs for "more" and "all done" which is very helpful at mealtimes because I can ask him, and he can tell me which he wants. He knows exactly when he's had enough and he'll let me know if he's all done. I'm currently teaching him the signs for milk, cat, eat, and shoes.
He's pretty much running now, although it's kind of like a tipsy speedwalking. He's getting better about not falling when he's trying to go so fast. And he always wants to go outside. He carries around his shoes all day in the house, waiting for somebody to put them on him and take him out. When he goes out, he wants to ride in his wagon, ride on his bus, throw acorns, play in the sandbox and water table, or kick balls around. He loves everything! He also likes the sprinkler. He outgrew his size 4 shoes and now is wearing size 5. And it's a good thing I have a whole bag full of shoes in increasing sizes from Drew...... kids this age go up in shoe sizes about every couple of months, seems like.
He can draw with chalk on the driveway, stir a spoon in the pot for pretend cooking, and shake spices in it, put on sunglasses, give kisses, and is still always driving his little cars all over the floors. I guess that one never gets old. He watches Drew play his letters and numbers games on his computer all the time and tries to point at the screen and make it do stuff. He also rips the keys off the keyboard.
Around 8am this morning I sat at the table feeding Parker his breakfast, and Drew was in the living room watching Curious George and I was thinking that at this exact moment 3 years ago I was strapped to the table in the OR getting a c-section. I was VERY happy to be sitting right where I was. Then I went in the living room and held Drew for a minute and got all weepy. Sweet memories, but I'm so glad those days are long behind us.
Since Drew's party isn't for a couple of weeks, I still had to get him his own cupcake. He doesn't understand anything about a birthday, all he knows is that it means birthday cake. In recent weeks we've been to two birthday parties (one of which was Parker's) and they had cake, so that's what a birthday is, right? I told him that he was now THREE, and held up three fingers. And he did the same, but kept on counting. "three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, six minutes!!" I let him have it.
His present this year is a sandbox! Big fun! It was an instant hit. It actually keeps him interested for almost an hour or more at a time. It's one place where he can dig freely instead of in mom's garden. Dave got him some little miniature dogs and he LOVED that, kept placing them around in the sandbox and saying "Dog show day!" like the episode of Curious George. He loves him some dogs. He would cuddle them in his hands and say "ooohhhhh it's so cute!"
His actual birthday day was kind of lame, but we're going to have a cool party for him later so he'll have additional birthday fun.
Where do I begin to describe this little guy and who he is becoming?
He has an amazing memory and can remember the tiniest little details. Anytime we go to Target he still always asks me "go see two dogs?" because that's where we were when I first told him we were going to visit Karen's dogs. So now he thinks that first we go to Target, and then we go to Karen's. LOL.
One time we went to BJ's and as we went in I told him (mostly talking to myself) that we were here to get baby wipes and sausages. So we picked up the baby wipes, and then he goes "sausage!!" And pointed to the other side of the store where they keep them. Which was very helpful to me because I get amnesia the second I step into a store and forget why I'm there. And we can never leave a store without him reminding me to get Pepsi, which Dad is very thankful about.
He's getting easier to take places because he's more flexible about doing things. I used to never take him to the grocery store for the longest time because he would scream about wanting to go look at this or that, and nothing else. But now as long as I give him enough time to look at the lobster tank, and go around and look at all the fruits & veggies, he's fairly well content to ride around the rest of the store and let me do my thing.
One thing is for sure: he is obedient. He may not LIKE it, and he may whine and fling himself on the floor for a second or two, but that kid will do whatever we ask him to do. Like I always tell him, "you don't have to like it, you just have to DO it." He knows when he does something wrong, knows when he's gotten caught, and a couple of times even put himself in time out, which is soooo funny and all we can do not to laugh or let him see us giggling.
We've started an unhurried potty training routine, and ever since early April he goes to pee in the potty right before bed, and before he gets in the bathtub. A few times he's actually asked us "go pee!" and he runs over and goes on his own. But it's pretty sporadic and inconsistent. I guess we'll get there eventually. :) This summer I suppose we should start getting serious about it, but we're perfectly happy with him in diapers. LOL So much easier.
Another thing we may as well get around to is getting him out of his crib! He's still in his crib, and doesn't know any differently. We have the toddler rail ready to put on his bed and convert it into the toddler bed. But MAN do we not want to do that. I dread having him wandering around his room all night. Hopefully that obedience thing I mentioned will come into play and he'll stay in bed. I have just been enjoying sleeping through the night for a while now and am NOT ready to give it up again!
He's still pretty good with Parker although he doesn't really interact with him much at all. They fight over toys a lot of times, but that's about it. I think Drew has adopted a "you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone" policy with him.
We're so excited for him to start preschool! It's really going to help his socialization more than anything else. He knows all his letters (and their sounds), numbers, colors, shapes, body parts, animals, foods, etc. I think once he gets used to it, he's going to have a blast. Can't wait to shop for a little backpack for him!
What a big month for the little man! He is just so cute and his personality just keeps coming out as he gets older. What strikes me the most is how friendly he is. As soon as he sees anybody, one little hand goes up in the air in a wave and he says "Hi Da!" Everybody is called dad apparently. We go shopping, and everybody we pass gets a big wave and "HI DA!" We go walking around the neighborhood, and if we see a random person, he's all craning his neck and waving at them. SO funny. And it's so foreign to me. I always think to myself, "oh I have one of those kids....." I have seen this type before. But never imagined I'd have one! So I have one child who goes nuts waving at strangers, and my other child at that age would have burst into tears if anybody so much as looked at him...... sheesh!!!
His biggest accomplishment is obviously that he's walking now. It was at about 12 months and 3 weeks. So cute. One day he just started crab-crawling on feet and hands and it was like he was done with the knees. From here on out, feet only (and hands optional!)
He accepted no more nursing like it didn't even bother him. I think he was as done with it as I was. Now he drinks milk happily, and we have three different kinds of milk in the fridge at all times. Whole for Parker, 2% for Drew, and skim for me and Dave. It's ridiculous. But now at bedtime we read Goodnight Moon, and he's starting to get the idea of looking at books and turning pages. Shamefully I haven't read to him nearly as much as I did Drew at his age. But he gets lots more interaction in other ways that Drew didn't get so I guess it all works out. Here he is pointing to the red balloon.
Too bad he's still trying to kill himself at every opportunity. In addition to the new walking, as if that isn't dangerous enough, he's also climbing. Onto anything that will hold still. In about 2 seconds he can be up into any chair, on any box, stand on any bench, hang onto any window ledge..... I am constantly running. I leave the room for 3 minutes and I come back and he's standing up on a wobbly bench, reaching up with arms outstretched to swing on the blinds. Great. If he makes it to see his 2nd birthday I will be shocked. Right now we have every chair in the house turned onto its side so he can't get up on it. Even his stoller is on its side in the floor because he will just climb right up in it.
His speech seems to be on track as far as we can tell. He seems to be making all the "normal" sounds and babbling. After Drew's speech issues we're a little more sensitive to these things, but Parker is already making more sounds and words than Drew ever did until MUCH later so we think he might be developing normally. He can say dad, hi, fish, banana "nana", Mom. We shall see. We are prepared! We know sign language!
He eats pretty much everything. We love this kid. He loves bananas, watermelon, grapes, waffles, sausage, crackers, goldfish, hummus and pita, hot dogs, bread, pastas, cheese, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There have been very few things that he refused. He was absolutely done with baby food after he hit about 12 months. He would have no more of it. We tried to get him to eat some more of it, since it is a great source of veggies and stuff, but he saw us coming with it and started throwing arms and turning away from it. LOL.
He still sleeps great at night, but is really starting to hate his two naps. When I carry him into his room he starts bucking and kicking and yelling. He knows what's coming. But he's still a great napper too. I've never been able to complain about this kid's sleeping, he's been great all along. He goes to bed around 7:30 at night and wakes up around 6 or 6:30. I can't complain. He coos and plays and looks at his mobile until I can stumble in there and give him his orange juice. He loves his drinks. He can be mad as hell but if you just give him a drink all is well.
He's such an emotional kid, and we're starting to see the beginnings of temper tantrums. At this point it's still pretty funny when it's coming from a 23-lb ball of cute fury. :)
and a sweet little baby profile.....
The little dude has survived his first year! Some days I think it's a miracle.
It looks like he may be permanently blue eyed. We've seen no signs whatsoever of his eyes turning hazel like Drew's did and they've stayed a clear blue so it looks like he's taking after his dad for that. It's just yet another way that he and Drew are completely different.
He's just about weaned so we're pushing the liquids. His favorite by far is still our usual diluted orange juice but he's also liking water if it's ice cold. He doesn't like milk much right now but I'm determined to make him accept it so he'll be getting a lot of that.
He's still cruising around on everything he can hold onto, and is more and more reaching out for things and letting go, maybe even taking a shaky step or two. He's been known to stand for a few seconds if he doesn't think about it. Favorite activites are: driving the hot wheels cars all along the floor, crashing through all the pots and pans in the cabinet and pulling aaaaalllll of the plastic containers out. He loves pretty much anything with wheels that he can drive around. Pulling the cats' tails is a big enjoyment and going around to pull all the cords out of the plugs is a favorite pastime (unless I can get there first to stop him.) He loves to play with the telephone because it beeps and lights up, and he presses it to his ear. He also tries to put hats on his head, and sunglasses on my face. Too cute.
He's discovered the outdoors, and will crawl madly around the driveway until his feet and knees are scraped up. He'll even go into the grass although it tickles and feels weird, but he'll do it if it means he can chase a soccer ball. He loves to ride around in the 2-seater wagon with Drew, and go for walks with Mom in the stroller.
His birthday party was on Sunday and we had a great time with that. My mom came up to visit us and to be here for his birthday, and Dave's parents came over and we had a great supper from Luisa's and then cake and presents afterwards. What a great day for it, it was 85 degrees--on May 2nd! I could hardly have the cake out on the screened porch before it started sweating. I sure hated to cut that cake, it was just SO awesome. But luckily we did, because it was delicious too! Yellow cake with lemon filling--absolutely yummy.
Parker was so awesome with his cake. He actually dove right in and ate it all, and smeared it all over himself. LOL. Just like a normal baby! haha! We are still laughing about how Drew puked at the very sight of his little cupcake, so it was a lot of fun to see a baby have fun with his cake and enjoy it.
He needed a little help from big brother with blowing out his candle.....
There's nothing like a good cake smash.....
Drew is less than three months away from his third birthday, and I am loving this age that he's at now. It is SO cute. We can communicate better with each other now, he's understanding more about what goes on, and his imaginative play is really taking off and I'm loving to see the kinds of things he comes up with.He's always playing with his trains and creating all these tracks and tunnels for them to go on.
His speech therapy is still going well and he has over 350 words in his vocabulary. He keeps adding new 2-word and sometimes 3-word phrases and will repeat just about anything that we ask him to say. He can talk about all kinds of things and some that he says regularly now are "all done" "Moby runs" "down stairs" "kick ball" "Hi Moby!", and "try again", just as an example.
We have an upcoming series of meetings, evaluations, and testing to start getting him ready for preschool this summer, after his birthday. As part of his ongoing speech therapy, he'll be attending the special ed program in the Goffstown school. We'll have to sadly say goodbye to Annie, his speech therapist for the past year, as he heads into the 3-year old program and we as parents won't be as involved in his therapy since he'll be getting it in his new classroom. But it sounds like SO MUCH FUN for him and I know once he gets used to it, he's going to love that kind of environment and will really benefit from socializing with other kids and teachers. They use a combination of verbal, sign language, and pictures to develop his communication.
He is finally sleeping in his crib like a semi-normal kid! We got him a soft and warm blanket about a month before Christmas, and while he liked it immediately, he just slept on top of it for a while. And then we got him a little pillow and he started using that right away. And finally, now he loves to be tucked in, with his head on his pillow, and mostly stays under the blanket. In fact he is always talking about his "soft blankets" and "two blankets" (because he liked the one so much that we got him two). But he's still in the crib with all four sides. He's never tried to climb out and I think still doesn't realize that he could get out if he tried. We have his toddler rail ready and waiting for when he does figure it out.
He can count to 20 and loves to count everything he sees. And he's still spelling everything, and reading letters. He's becoming more descriptive about things he observes, like "black cow" and "fast car." He loves when Dave makes waffles for breakfast. All we have to do is say "waffles!" and he runs to the pantry and gets out the Bisquick and vegetable oil, and puts it on the counter. Then runs to get his step stool so he can pull it up to the counter and help measure out the mix. Coloring with markers is a big favorite right now, too. He likes to scribble wildly, and is also starting to color inside the pictures in his coloring book. When he races his hot wheels down the track he places the car at the top and goes "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 GO!!!" and sends it down, and then yells "WOOHOO!!"
He likes to watch different things on TV now, other than Super Why. He asks for Curious George by name all the time (it sounds like Hey George!), and in the afternoon can some days sit mesmerized by Caillou and Thomas and Friends. His nap is only a sometimes thing these days. He will take his nap maybe 50% of the time. Every day I put him in his bed according to routine and give him the opportunity to sleep, but he just isn't interested a lot of the time. It's way frustrating for me, because that's my one chance for a rest during the day, and when he doesn't sleep it's a loooong day for me.
He's been one happy kid since winter ended and now we can go outside more. He loves to freaking RUN and RUN and RUN and kick the ball around. He's amazing with that soccer ball, he can dribble all around the yard, kick it really far, and even kick it backwards with his heel like daddy does. He is also obsessed with puddles and bodies of water that he can chuck rocks and sticks into. He could do that all day long if we let him.
