Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Parker. We started the holidays off by driving down to Ohio to see family and oh my, did we see family! In a little over 48 hours we went from Kris' parents to his Grandparents to my parents and then to my grandma's. It was great to see everyone and we were especially thankful to be able to have Parker meet her Great Grandparents. We don't make it to Ohio often so we wanted to make sure that everyone got to meet our little girl.

Here's four generations :) My Dad, me, my Grandma Eva, and Parker.
































Parker absolutely loved her Great Grandma. She sat in her lap for the longest time and was so content.



Parker also loved her other Great Grandma! I don't think she cried once while being rocked.



Parker was on the brink of freaking out here, but we wanted to get a picture of her with her cousin, Caroline. They are only a couple months apart. It's going to be a lot of fun having them grow up together!
































Parker decided to show us a new trick during the car rides...she held onto Sophie the Giraffe and brought her up to her mouth to suck on! She hasn't put anything in her mouth yet by herself so we were excited by this new skill!





















































Yep, I did that all by myself.






Sleeping peacefully with her giraffe. Usually Parker loves the car seat and sleeps in it the entire time we're out and about, but not on this trip! The naps were very infrequent!



At my parents on Christmas Eve



Up on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought for us!



Even though Parker got a lot of new gifts, she still likes her trusty old Octopus!



Kris reading "Animal Noises" to Parker



I think she was very excited by this book! So cute!





Check out that Christmas outfit :) I had to get a picture of her in her outfit next to her stocking. She's so tiny that she could practically fit in it!








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Sleepy babe...as she should be after a very exciting first Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Happy 2 Months!

2 months old and growing! Parker is now 12lb 3oz (75th percentile) and 23 1/2 inches long (90th percentile). I think she is going to be tall like her Mommy and Daddy!


































Parker has changed a lot this past month. She has always had a strong neck, but she is really showing off now! She will use every chance she gets to move her neck around--when she's on her tummy, when she's laying tummy-to-tummy on me or Kris, when we're walking with her...it's great to see her getting more neck control! It's not to the point yet where we can carry her without supporting her neck but we're getting there!







Parker also loves standing and sitting up now (with our assistance!) and looking all around. She especially enjoys pictures on shirts like Rufus the Bobcat. I think we have an OU girl on our hands!






Parker's enjoying toys that light up and make noise which is a lot of fun. She has also learned a new trick of how to put herself to sleep! She doesn't do this often, but a few times she has just fallen asleep on her own. Usually Kris and I have to soothe her to sleep--typically by running around the house with her in our arms, great workout by the way :)-- but every once in a while she will be hanging out in her swing or rock-n-play and then she's asleep! And on the subject of sleep, she is now sleeping through the night every night! But perhaps the greatest change this month has been the baby smiles and coos. She's smiling and talking all the time! It just melts my heart!

Eight Weeks Old

Parker turned eight weeks old this past Sunday and she decided to celebrate by doing two amazing things--(1) falling asleep in her swing and (2) sleeping through the entire night!!

Up until this past weekend Parker hated her swing. We would put her in it and about one minute later she would be screaming for us to pick her up. On Friday I sat her in it and she was in love! No crying, no screaming, she just looked contently up at the mobile and enjoyed the swaying motion. When Kris sat her in the swing later that night she even fell asleep in it! Up until this point Parker could only fall asleep on our chests so you can believe how amazed we are by her new liking to the swing!

Parker has been pretty good with sleeping since about five weeks or so. She would fall asleep around 9pm, would wake around 4am to play, then would be out again around 5am for another hour or so, but on Saturday and Sunday night she slept from 10pm to 8am! Of course I had to wake to feed her a couple times but she fell right back asleep. I was so shocked both mornings when I looked at the clock! She's been more active during the day so she's got to be exhausted by bed time. I'm hoping that she keeps sleeping this way!

Ahhh, what a sweet sight!




















































































Parker has also gotten a lot bigger!

Here I am rocking her when she was one week old...
































And at 6 1/2 weeks. It's incredible seeing how much she has changed in just a few weeks.
































And here are a few more pictures from the past couple weeks...

Hanging out nakey on her activity mat. This girl usually hates being naked but she doesn't seem to mind at this moment in between an outfit change!



Snoozing on Kris :)













































































Another comparison picture. Parker at four days old...
































And at seven weeks.



Hanging out in her bouncy chair, making silly faces

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's finally December and we've had a few flurries of snow which can only mean that Christmas is right around the corner! This past weekend we took Parker out on our first Christmas family tradition to see the Christmas lights in downtown Rochester. Each year the businesses on Main Street are lit up with LED lights and it's really neat to see. Kris and I usually go out and walk to see the lights but this year we stayed in the cozy heated car and drove up and down the street. Parker absolutely loves looking at lights but she was taking a nap in her carseat the entire time :)





We also took Parker to see Santa this past weekend. The mall that we took her to for her pictures with Santa has a great system--you make reservations on a first come first serve basis and don't have to wait in line! We got there at 9:00am and were scheduled to see Santa at 11:15am so we strolled around the mall and got some Christmas shopping done. Parker absolutely loved the mall (I see many mother-daughter shopping trips in our future!) and all the noise from the music and people really muffled the sound when she screamed really loud :) Other than one loud cry, she was an angel baby the entire time, even when she sat on Santa's lap! Kris and I were sure that she would freak out the minute that she saw Santa but she would not take her eyes off of him! It was the cutest thing. We joked with Santa that he could just hold Parker all day rather than seeing all the other kids since she was being so good. So next time Parker is fussy we will just head over to the mall to see Santa again ;)

This is right when Kris sat Parker down on Santa's lap. I think she was surprised to see who was holding her!











Parker is starting to smile at Santa here! He was probably telling her that she is on the "Nice List."





Parker looks so tiny in comparison to Santa!