Parker & Uncle Kurty

Uncle Kurty has been helping out a lot with Parker! They like to hang out in the garage together most of the time. Kurt will fix things, lift weights, wash the cars, help Michael with the yard, etc... and Parker likes to sit in his jogging stroller and watch. When Parker gets fussy at any time, Uncle Kurty takes Parker outside and instantly he calms down and turns to giggles, squeals and babbling. I think he'll be just like his Uncle when he gets older and really enjoy the outdoors!

This picture was taken while Parker hung out with Uncle Kurty as the two of them, along with Michael and Uncle Cliffy, watched the final four games this Saturday night.

Teething...again!

Parker's top two front teeth have been trying to come in for quite some time now and they have finally started their decent! They have just been sitting there barely sticking out and now they are very visible. As Michael and I were trying to get a good look at them we noticed another tooth on the bottom next to the bottom teeth he already has. We were very excited! Now he has been knocking his teeth together and biting on his tongue...well, I think he has learned to stick his tongue out...but that's just me!

The teething hasn't disrupted his sleeping though. Thank goodness! He has continued to sleep through the night for about 2 weeks now (minus one small episode early in the night about a week ago).

Sleeping

Michael and I have always said that when Parker turned 6 months we would try to work on teaching him to sleep through the night by learning to fall asleep on his own and sooth himself. We have a ton of baby books and all of the advice in the world from family and friends. We decided to follow the 'Ferber Method' we read about in our Baby 411 book. IT WORKS! It has only been a few days however so far it's been working. For example, last night around 9pm we laid Parker down in his crib (without his pacifier, but gave him a little stuffed soft doggy..similar to mommy's!). He cried for about 5 minutes, we went in the room told him we loved him and closed the door again. He fell asleep within about 10 minutes. He slept until about 3:30am at which point he began to cry. We waited 5 minutes, Michael went in his room, told him we loved him and that everything was going to be ok and closed the door. We set the timer for 10 minutes (that's part of the method). We didn't even make it to 10 minutes. He fell back asleep within about 7 minutes and slept until 7:30am. We are hoping that by Sunday night he sleeps all the way through the night. Each night since we started this he has slept more and more and is learning to sooth himself rather than mommy and daddy coming in to rock him back to sleep or pop the pacifier back in his mouth. It's been a challenge for me especially because I hate hearing him cry and I enjoy rocking him to sleep but I know this is only helping everyone to get a better night's sleep and helping Parker learn new things.

The picture here is of him taking a nap holding his doggy. He has had 2 naps today and both times we laid him down in the crib, he grabbed for his doggy, rolled over on his side and fell fast asleep.

St. Patrick's Day & 6 months

Parker celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day and his 6 month birthday all in one day! He wore a green shirt that said 'I can't help it I'm awesome' that he got from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Darryl and shorts to school. However, when he came home, the school wanted to make sure he still had his green on so they put a clean onsie on him over his green shirt. This was the best picture we took with his St. Patty's Day shirt on!

We still can't believe he's 6 months old already. It seems like yesterday that Michael, Grandma Carol and I woke up around 4am, hit the road to the hospital around 5:15am and Parker made his debut at 8:05am . WOW how time fly's!

Sitting

SITTING: Parker can sit up like a big boy all by himself now...he plays with all of his toys sitting up (most of the time) rather than laying down. He has slowly gotten stronger (at first, of course, he would sit up for a few seconds and then fall over, now he falls over when he's ready to lay down and play or is tired).

Parker has been blessed...

On Saturday,March 7th Parker was baptized at the church that Michael and I met at. Grandma Cindy, Grandpa Darryl and Uncle Clif were there along with friends, Philip (Michael's best friend), Zandy (Christie's mom) and Christie and James (Parker's Godparents and in the picture). Grandma Carol and Grandpa Ken, while not able to join us, made sure Parker was dressed for the occasion.

It was a very nice, private ceremony and Parker was perfect...no fussiness...however he felt the need to dirty his diaper during the ceremony but the Reverend made fun of the situation. It truly was a time that we will not forget.

Parker and his big boy seat

Parker is really enjoying eating in his big boy high chair he got from his Uncle Clif. He has been eating gerber food by the spoon (no more feeding bottle!) and today we tried 'graduates' crackers. It took him some time to figure them out but eventually he acted like he was chewing them (they dissolve in his mouth). He also tried to put the crackers in the front of his mouth to chew with his teeth...but each time the cracker would just fall out of his mouth. We are also moving up the gerber ladder and have moved on to stage 2 foods. Very exciting! He also holds his own bottle now...as long as it's not a big bottle and loves juice. We took note that he doesn't like the juice they make specifically for babies so we have been buying 100% apple juice and he loves it (Grandma Carol was the one who introduced him to real juice).