Inventive Play

I remember as a kid all the things I came up with as far as playing "pretend," but Parker's play just cracks me up because I'm not sure where he gets his ideas.

As you've seen before, he still enjoys lining up his cars and trucks. Here are the latest pictures from that type of play.





You've also seen before how he plays with my hot curlers. Well he's invented yet another way to play with them. He takes the pins and lines them sticking up out of the carpet. Reminds me of croquet... which I know he's not familiar with in the least. ;)


And then there's the "glasses" or "goo-goo goggles," as he likes to call them, that he played with for several days before I finally had the heart to throw them out. In case you are wondering, I had gotten a new Ralphs Club card and that is the frame for the card cut-outs. As you can see, I was thrilled to have to wear them, too, as Parker and Dada took a picture.

Look at my hair! Can you tell it was long day?

Parker plays with his "glasses" while Carly is her usual vocal self:

I'm not sure why he decided to do this, but this last video pretty much speaks for itself, silly boy:

Parker eating like a doggy:

Pumpkin Patch Day!

A couple of weeks ago we took Parker to the Laguna Hills Mall Pumpkin Patch. We mostly stuck to the free things, but we couldn't help ourselves when it came to the choo-choo train and chucked out $4 for one ride. Parker was very anxious to get on the train, but mostly rode kicking back and holding on tight without cracking a single smile. Afterward, he wanted to go again, but luckily there was so much to see that he was easily distracted. The tractor and the bubbles were really big hits, too!

Beach day with Kristin and Tucker

We finally got a chance to get together with Kristin and Tucker, whom we hadn't seen since May! We had a fun time catching up at a beach near the pier in Huntington. Parker was loving Tucker's sand trucks and Tucker was really nice about sharing them. Kristin is in her second trimester with baby #2 - a boy whom they plan to name Colton! Kristin and I enjoyed the shade from Kristin's beach umbrella while the "boys" played in the sand.

In Honor of Grandpa Dick

My grandfather died peacefully last week from kidney failure after fighting a long battle with PKD (polycystic kidney disease). He is now buried on top of my grandmother in a military cemetery in San Antonio. I wanted to post some pictures in memory of him (thank you to my sis Sarah for providing a lot of these). His new wife, Grandma Timi, has been a constant companion to him after my Grandma Shirley died and she took care of him so well until the very end. It brought me a lot of peace knowing he had found more love in his life and he didn't die alone. I love you and miss you, Grandpa (and Grandma Shirley, too)!

Walking Aunt Barbi down the aisle

Dancing with Aunt Karen

Grandpa, Dad and Brother Richie


Grandma Shirley and brother Richie


Grandma Shirley and Me

RV traveling days

Grandpa, catching some much needed z's

(after my Grandma Shirley's passing)

Aunt Karen, Aunt Barbi, Dad and Grandpa

Grandpa's three monsters

My dad, being silly as usual
(where'd you think I got it?)

Grandpa meets Parker, May 2007

Grandma Timi and Parker

Military Honors at Grandpa's funeral

Grandma's gravestone

This Week's Adventures: Part II

So, on with the rest of this past week's adventures as promised...

We've been hanging out a lot with our neighbors this past week. Our little friend Carly (10 going on 11 soon) is a burst of sunshine energy on even our most mundane days. Sometimes serious Parker doesn't quite get this giggly high-strung girl, but he tolerates her on his grumpy days and has a blast with her on his own high-energy days.






Parker LOVES going to Carly's soccer games. He's been to two so far (last Saturday and yesterday). He watches the girls play and imitates the coach and yells nonsense at them very sternly. There's also a park with sand attached to the soccer field, so Parker is all about that.



Parker also sometimes plays with his other neighbor, Liam. They are funny together because they're both kind of serious guys. Although he doesn't look like it, Liam is almost 5 months younger than Parker. I think Parker realizes it because he tries to show Liam how to do things (his way). And he tries to bribe Liam with his toys so he can get a hold of Liam's toys.


Parker also had fun visiting his friend Ethan's house for the first time this week. Parker was in awe of all the fun toys Ethan had. It was almost like being in Toys R Us! (Just teasing, Morgan, but I thought Parker had a lot of toys until I saw Ethan's stash)!

Parker is a lucky dude and got a new addition to his "toy" collection this week. We had ordered some potty training items online and the company accidentally sent us these really nice alphabet foam blocks (TWO sets of them). After inquiring with the company, they said we could keep them (a $60 value) for free! Parker loves them and has been impressing us this week with his knowledge of the alphabet (you can see bits of them in the pics above playing with Carly). He has quite a few alphabet books, but these have seemed to make a bigger impression on him. He knows almost all the names of the letters now!

We also took a short trip to the beach this week since it was really hot most days and Parker enjoyed feeding the seagulls. The last time we did this at this beach we got chewed out by a few locals, but this time the beach was practically empty so we escaped hearing any nasty comments. That's the OC for ya, I suppose. We left sooner than expected because Parker rubbed sand in his eyes and decided he'd had enough of the beach, thank you very much!




The last thing to note is that Parker has been singing a lot lately, and he always has to have a "microphone."

Rocking Out to U2

This Week's Adventures: Part 1

We've been keeping busy this week, starting it off with Parker's appointment with the Urologist on Monday. Fortunately, it looks like unless Parker starts having bladder infections, we won't have to do any further testing. The doc said that the next time Parker has an unexplained fever or a suspected ear infection, to make sure his doctor gets a urine sample as well, just to rule it out. Otherwise, the swelling is in an area that doesn't concern the doctor too much and if all goes well we'll just get another ultrasound in about a year to follow up.

Parker has been teething really badly this week (his 2 year molars are coming in already), and it's been affecting his naps, but we decided to try Ibuprofen again (it used to really upset his tummy) and it's been helping A LOT! So has Orajel and, strangely enough, one of his old toothbrushes. Most teethers can't reach in the back so I decided one day to give him an old toothbrush that is more rubbery than hard and it does bring him some relief. We just decided to buy The Teethifier, and we're hoping he'll like that, too. He hasn't used pacifiers in a long time, so it's hard to say for sure.

Parker's newest words: taco, black, purple, green, yellow, orange, apple, uh-oh, crackers, ball, chocolate, water, yummy, loco, wow (he's already been saying ow for a long time, so this wasn't a real stretch), bum-bum (our word for his butt). Speaking of bum-bum, there are some words that I completely forgot that he's been saying for a long time: Ears, eyes, nose, toes, and penis (sorry, but it's true). He's also been learning his alphabet and these are the letters he remembers the most and will point to and say without coaxing: "D," "N" (this is his favorite lately), "M", "O", "X", and "Z." In any case, Parker's language is really blossoming and we don't feel like he should need speech therapy. Whew! One less thing to have to schedule and worry about.

Anyone who has visited our place knows that Parker loves to color (he's working on filling up all our empty wall space with his pictures), but this week he has been hard core about it since I bought him washable markers. He thinks they are WAY cooler than crayons. Here are just a couple of his masterpieces from this week:

This one is crayon - done solo

This one is (obviously) marker
(a group effort from Parker, Mama and Dada)

This week's adventures part II to follow soon (once we get pics/videos uploaded from our camera) :)