September

Right now Parker is saying: "hi dad", "hi kitty", "no" and "all done".  He mimics some of our words like, "oh no", and "night night" but doesn't use them on his own yet. He signs and makes many gestures such as: wave, more, high five, no, all done, food, milk, night night. Most of these he does with prompting only. It's fun to see Parker develop language and it is so helpful to know what he wants. I'm sure it cuts down on his frustration as well.

Parker love the stairs! When we're in the kitchen and take our eyes off him, before we know it, we hear squealing and laughter and thumping as he's climbing up. I think he mostly gets pleasure out of us chasing after him.  Once at the top, Parker likes to swing the gate open and closed. He would do it for and hour if we'd let him.  One thing that is not working so well is going down. Parker is not interested.  He might go down one or two stairs before he gets bored and tries to jump off.  Yikes. We're trying to use Cheerios as bate for practice. We'll see how it goes.

This month Parker discovered the slide. We started going to Kandle Park, near our house, and it is fabulous because it has a big kid area along with tot-structure that babies can climb on complete with baby-sized slides. Parker goes down all by himself and squeals the whole way.  It's a lot of fun to see him lighting up with excitement.

The biggest accomplishment of the month was walking! Parker was taking steps in August but at the beginning of September was able to walk across most of the room. By the end of the month, Parker got fast and pretty sure on his feet! He definitely still falls often, but it is neat to see how fast he's gotten the hang of it.

Justin has a yearly work conference in San Diego. This year, I'm not working so Parker and I decided to invite ourselves along. Justin is so sweet for letting us join him. I'm sure it added a little stress to the beginning of his trip, but it worked out well. Parker was perfect on the plane ride down. He slept on Justin's lap most of the way, and we were able to entertain him with a book, snack and the iPad the rest of the way. The first two days Justin had meetings and events most of the time so Parker and I kept busy around the hotel. We went swimming, walked around downtown, Seaport Village and San Diego State University.  When Justin's conference wrapped up, we switched to a hotel on Mission Bay. This allowed us to be closer to the beach and where we lived while in college. We met up with friends, played in the sand, road bikes on the boardwalk and swam in the pool. Perhaps the best day was when we went to Sea World. Parker loved the Shamu Show. He liked the splashing. Parker was also able to touch starfish and bat rays. I think he mostly liked to put his hands in the cold water and try to lick it. Our kid is gross. The plane ride home wasn't as easy as the first one. Parker was grumpy for a good 40 minutes before we got him to go to sleep, but once he did, he slept the remainder of the flight.All in all, it was a fantastic family trip. San Diego is one of our favorite places and it was fun to share it with our son.

Checking out the view

San Diego State University

Rachel and Scott Putting Parker to Bed

Parker's food dislikes: cantaloupe
Favorites this month: Cheerios, cheese, blueberries, Eggo Waffles, pasta, deli meat, chicken breast, green beans
If Parker is hungry, he signs "food" with his fingers to his lips.  When he gets full, Parker drops his food on the floor, which Roscoe loves.  He also often signs "all done". 

Parker is still a handful in the bathroom while we are getting ready. Parker thinks its fun to open the shower door, take things out of the drawers and lately has been putting his hand in the toilet. Needless to say, our showers have been very short. 

 Roscoe (and most cats) bumps his head on people to show affection. Parker obviously was paying attention because every time he sees the cat, he bumps him with his forehead. Parker has transferred this to all fuzzy things. He head bumps stuffed animals, blankets, Mom & Dad, and other children that he meets.  We went to a baby music class at the library and Parker chased down the teacher's hand puppet to head bump it in front of the group.  Hopefully people find it cute rather than creepy.  

Our son is all boy.  He loves playing in the dirt. In fact, he will often walk directly to a dirt bed and sit down right in the middle. Parker doesn't mind getting messy. He does, however, like to eat rocks.  We have to keep a close eye on the little guy!

Parker is getting slightly more clingy to Justin and I. I doesn't cry when we leave him with other people, but he is starting to be more shy. At the church child care, Parker often wants to be held the entire time. He doesn't seem to care that the ladies have to take care of other children too. Hopefully this will pass fairly soon.

Parker continues to have a even, mellow temperament. He is an observer. This is a comment we hear a lot from strangers. He is always looking around, taking in new sites, sounds.  Parker is usually shy at first in new situations, but quickly warms up. He knows what he wants, but at the same time he isn't stubborn if he doesn't get his way. Parker is starting to be more silly. He knows when he is being funny and likes making us laugh with silly faces, dancing or sounds.  He's pretty entertaining. Who needs TV?

Our big boy has outgrown his infant seat. His little legs were hanging over the edge so we decided it was time to move to a convertible car seat. It is still rear facing, and will be until he is about 2. Parker seems to like sitting more upright because he gets a better view.

Parker has transitioned to 2 naps. He still sleeps from 8pm-8am each night. Around 9:30 Parker is ready for his first nap which lasts 45 minutes to an hour. He goes down again around 2 for another hour or hour and a half. His nap times are constantly changing depending on what we are doing that day. We are lucky that Parker is good at being flexible.

Justin is working on getting his son to the major leagues by exposing him to lots of baseball early on.  We went to a Mariner's game early in the month with our friend, Allison.  Parker enjoyed watching the crowd and hearing everyone cheer.  We were lucky to be there for an event were kids got to run the bases after the game. At that point, Parker was just walking, so he was able to participate. Justin helped him walk the whole way around. He loved it! He has a huge smile and especially loved high-fiving the crew as he crossed home plate. Parker even made it on the Jumbotron!

At the end of the month, we got invited to a batting practice at the Tacoma Rainier's Stadium.  It was fun to watch Justin pitch and hit. He's still got it! Parker loved playing with the balls and bats. We are excited for him to join little league in a few years!