Friday, September 30, 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011

Bummer

I am majorly bummed out. One of Parker’s teachers, Sherry, let me know this morning that she will be switching daycares. She’s been with our daycare for eight years and is moving to a center that will let her move up the ladder, something that’s not possible in her current position. Many daycares experience high turnover rates; one of the reasons we picked our daycare is because they don’t have such turnover. I was totally blindsided by this news. I’m glad that Sherry is bettering herself, but selfishly I can’t help but to think how this will affect Parker. Both Parker and Sherry adore each other. When Sherry told me that she was leaving she started to tear up. She talked about Parker being one of her favorites and how dearly she would miss her.

I’m hoping that Parker copes well with this change. She is very comfortable with her other full time teacher and the few floaters but I can’t help but wonder if she will be confused when Ms. Sherry isn’t there to give her a big hug in the morning. Ugh. I feel like I’m going through a breakup or something!


Sunday, September 25, 2011

11 Months!

Here we are, entering the last full month where Parker is still a “baby.” Next she crosses into the wonderful world of being a toddler!
































This past month Parker has been very busy practicing walking. She uses everything that moves as a walker, whether or not that’s the intention of the toy—like her musical table. The purpose of the table is to allow babies to pull themselves up and play with the toys on it. However, Parker now uses it to get her from point A to point B. All the practice walking paid off because Parker took her first steps! Kris, Parker and I were out in the backyard playing. Parker stood up, took a few steps to me, then gave me a big hug! I was so proud and you could tell by the look on Parker’s face that she was just as psyched.

Parker is still the best little eater. She has three meals a day and one snack. The only food that she turns her head to is avocado. I have to be sneaky and mix it in with other food to get her to eat it. This past week she had it mixed with cream cheese on homemade organic Focaccia bread and she gobbled it right up. Another thing that she’s not a fan of is bottles. For the past month she’s only drank about 3oz of breast milk daily at daycare. When the teachers get out the bottle she pushes it away. So we switched over to breast milk in a sippy. She's not a huge fan but she's getting used to it. While she’s dropped her afternoon bottle/nursing session, she still nurses in the morning, before bed, and three to five plus times in the night.

I haven’t been the most stellar baby sign language mama but I have been doing the signs for nursing and food and Parker totally gets it! She hasn’t signed back to me yet, but when I do the signs she gets super excited because she knows good things are right ahead! It’s amazing to see how well we can communicate non-verbally. Parker is still gabbing away and now says dog. She also started saying Nana after my mom practiced with her while she was babysitting!

Parker has now mastered the art of opening cabinets and drawers. She loves all the cool things that she finds—strainers, baking pans, dish towels—and likes to pull it all out and throw it on the ground.

It’s hard to believe that next month I’ll be blogging about her birthday!


























Thursday, September 22, 2011

Oh So Curious

Yesterday I was thinking, hmmm, I should write a blog post since it’s probably been a few days since the last one. It hasn’t been a few days though—it’s been over a week! This last week has been crazy busy. The carpet is being installed in the basement tomorrow (squee!) so I’ve been helping Kris wrap everything up once Parker is in bed for the night. Plus I’m currently on a baking binge. I’m whipping up tons of yummy treats and handing them out at work. All of this in addition to the normal things means that I’ve been up until midnight-ish most nights. This might sound crazy but once I start something, like trying out new icing recipes, I get so engrossed it in that I have to get it perfected before I can hit the sheets. Nursing is a beautiful thing though because all the extra sweet calories I’m consuming get burned up rather than hanging around, uninvited and unwelcome, on my thighs!

Now onto Parker. This past weekend she celebrated her 11th month! I have a blog to post on her past month as soon as I get the pictures uploaded, so probably this weekend. About a month and a half ago Parker figured out how to opens drawers. Who knew that a coffee table with drawers could offer endless entertainment? But now she’s on to bigger and better things—the kitchen cabinets. In one of Dr. Sears books he talks about having a kitchen cabinet or drawer that is just for baby with things like bowls, dish towels, and any other baby safe things you can think of. I’ll get on that this weekend once I can clear out our cabinets and put things that I don’t use all that often in the basement. But for now, Parker gets to search around and play with really cool things, like oven mitts and cake pans.




Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Baby and Dog

There is a fine line between baby and dog.

Both beg for my food when I eat. Both get SUPER excited when we’re reunited after a day of work. Both have endless amounts of energy. Both are very cute (I’m not biased in the least bit). Both can be leashed around (though I give the side eye to those kids on leashes, especially when disguised as backpacks. I’m not fooled). Both enjoy each others toys. And apparently each others treats…

I could have done one of two things in this situation. Put the camera down as soon as Parker put the bone in her mouth or take a picture since the damage was already done. I like taking pictures.