May: 6 months old!

Sabertooth Parker. That's what I started calling my son this month as his first tooth arrived. Bottom teeth have started sprouting. This explains the fussy attitude, puddles of drool, interruptions in sleep and ear pulling lately.

Some fun things that happened this month:
Parker went to work with his dad. He apparently enjoyed playing under his desk most of the time.

We had Cinqo De Mayo at the Potucek's where he had his first kiss with Brea, the cougar.

At the beginning of the month Parker started babbling b sounds, "ba ba ba". Then he switched to d sounds, "de de de de".

It was really warm around Mother's Day weekend. Parker and I went to Sehmel park with the Parnells. Parker was warn out after!

To beat the hot weather, we got a kiddie pool for the backyard. Parker loved it!

Our friend, David Hunt came over to meet Parker. Since he lives in Texas, it is always great spending time with him and catching up on life!

On Mother's Day, Parker and Justin got me a bouquet of flowers, two gorgeous hanging baskets for our front porch, and a framed picture of Parker. We took Parker to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. He enjoyed the aquarium probably the most because of the colors. Parker liked banging on the glass too. We finished the night with a salmon barbeque and relaxing evening at home. Icing on the cake: Parker got his first tooth! It popped through on the bottom right. What an amazing first Mother's Day! I am one lucky mom!

My parents sold their house in Sammamish and moved down to Gig Harbor. It was sad to say goodbye to the house I grew up in, but we are excited to have my parents closer!

Parker had his first boat ride! He got to drive and showed his excitement by chewing on the steering wheel.

For awhile Parker has been close to crawling, rocking back and forth on his hands and knees or hands and feet. Finally, it came together on the 21st. The Vreeburgs got Parker a book called If I Were a Duck for Easter. He absolutely loves it. In fact, he will touch each page and listen to me read the book several times in a row. Parker saw the book across the room and crawled to it! Not bad for 6 months!

A few days later, I went to get Parker after a nap. When I walked in his room I was shocked to see that Parker had pulled himself up and was standing in his crib! He had the best "I'm busted" expression on his face! We lowered the mattress that night.

Due to Parker's new found skills, nap time is totally inconsistent. Even though he's tired, he will play in his crib, crawling, standing and pulling down the monitor for quite awhile before actually sleeping. This means he doesn't always fall asleep on his back. Often we find him sleeping in a sitting position or in a ball. It can't be comfortable!

note the monitor that he pulled down

Parker turned 7 months on the 28th. That same day, he got his second tooth on the bottom left. Needless to say, he's been enjoying a lot of Tylenol, teething gel and cold teething rings.

The last day of the month, our good friend, Trevor Pike came up from San Diego. Parker loves Trevor, especially the beard! We had a fabulous time. We visited, went to Pikes Place Market and even dragged him to a graduation! Love this guy!

Parker passed out on Trev

Parker saw his first horse

No trip to Seattle is complete without flying fish

Two Men and a Baby

Outfit from Missy and Blaine

Pushups with Dad

Standing

April

April started out with a cold. For all three of us. Justin and I were down and out with aches, runny noses and fatigue. Parker had a seriously runny nose, but still managed to be his mellow, happy-go-lucky self. That guy is a trooper. I'm glad his first cold waited 5 months to come. It's a little crazy as a first time parent. He busted out the humidifier, raised up the head of his mattress slightly, used saline drops and the dreaded aspirator (which Park absolutely despised). It lasted about a week, so we spend the first part of April at home for the most part. It was rainy anyways.
Then came Easter.
Easter weekend was really fun this year because our brothers Ian and Curtis were here. We had both over on Friday the 6th for a visit. Parker loves his uncles, that's for sure! He also loved the beverages they were holding. Parker wouldn't take his eyes off the beer bottles. This either means that he enjoys the sparkle of the glass, the art of micro-brews or if we have a future frat boy...I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The next morning, the sun was out for the first time in a long time.  In fact, I think it may have been Parker's first experience with true sun.  Justin, Parker and I took a stroll up to Proctor for coffee at Starbucks and to look around the farmer's market. We ran into our friends, the Lees which was special treat. We pulled Parker out of his stroller to say hi for about 5 minutes. Later I realized that he had too much sun exposure, as he was a super light shade of pink. Now I'm going to be another one of those sunblock-Nazi moms I swore I'd never be. Poor kid.

After our walk, we headed to the Holmes' for dinner. Ian and Justin relived their childhood and I think used every piece of sporting equipment they could find. Perhaps the most entertaining was they shooting baskets from the rooftop.  Parker showed off by sitting up unassisted for about 2 minutes. Pretty exciting! (Before that, he has only done it for a few seconds). It was fun that his grandparents got to witness it.

On Easter morning, we drove up to Sammamish to meet family for church. Parker decided he really liked it and started yelling in excitement. That meant him and Dad spent the service in the foyer rather than seated with the family. :) After a great service, we headed to Tim & Maggie's for brunch. It was wonderful seeing family. The weather was wonderful, so we spent a lot of the afternoon outside. The ladies decided to make Parker the center of an Easter photo shoot. Of course, he decided to show off by sitting up the whole time! 5 months isn't too shabby for sitting up!

Another fun activity this month was Parker's first baseball game. My dad ended up scoring a suite at the opening series of the Mariner's game against Oakland.  So fun! It was great seeing the game from the suite. Parker likes to do things in style. The service was awesome. They took photos of Parker and gave him a certificate to commemorate his first game.  Uncle Curtis also got him a super cute Ms hat and socks. Love!

Justin and I went to the Coldplay concert with Ian, Ryan & Heidi in Portland while Parker visited with my cousin, Kelly. What a great show! The next day we drove to Bend, OR for a vacation with Justin's family. It was great to spend a few days walking the trails along the Deschutes River, relaxing, and eating good food. Parker enjoyed all the attention! He did a great job on vacation. He hardly fussed at all, slept well and didn't mind being off his schedule.

 He turned 6 months old on the 28th. It's hard to believe he's getting close to a year!

At 6 months, Parker loves eating solid foods.
Loves: bananas, Baby Mum Mums (rice teething crackers), carrots
Likes: sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli
Dislikes: avacados, plain rice cereal

Want a Kiss?

Parker had his 6 month checkup and vaccinations. He enjoyed tearing up the paper on the patient table, grabbing the cords from the wall, and chewing on tongue depressors.  While he found the oral vaccination tasty, Parker found the two shots in the thigh pretty rough.  Poor kid! He had a quick cry, but once I picked him up and popped a pacifier in his mouth, he was fine.  Extra bonus: he got a board book from Dr. Clapper. Parker is 17.12 pounds, has a 16 inch head circumference and is 26 inches long.

Some other favorites this month:

Don't Make Fun of My Milk Mustache

First Time in a Swing

Helping Mom Shop

Last Time on the Counter Due to Splashing