Eight Months/Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen

Parker, you are now eight months old! Let's keep it real--you've been eight months old for almost a week now. It's been a busy week with your dad being out of town, so yeah, I'm a little late. You're still in your eighth month, though!

Okay, now that I feel better about my tardiness.....here's what you are up to lately!

• You are still in the size four Pamper's Baby Dry. Your new thing as of this week--leaking out of said diaper. It's horrible, and I think you're waking up a little earlier because of the leakage. Last night, I put you in a size five just to see if it would absorb more....it didn't. We will start trying overnight/extra absorbent diapers to help keep you dry!
• You are into size 12 months clothes now. I have still been buying random items, and you have a very good assortment of 12-18 and 18-24 months clothes to last you throughout the winter. You are such a big boy!
  
• As mentioned previously, you are now crawling. You are getting faster and faster every day. It is so scary! We have purchased a new playpen for you called the Joovy. We took your old playpen upstairs, and the Joovy, which is a bigger playpen, is downstairs. You really enjoy yourself and have such a good time playing in them!
• You now have four total teeth, and I'm constantly wondering when your next ones will come in. It's funny because now I can hardly imagine you when you had no teeth at all. They just seem to "make" you. Even though you bite me often when nursing, I am so glad that you have your sweet toofers.
• Your laugh is the absolute sweetest thing I have ever heard. You just giggle and squeal when you get excited or tickled, and I LOVE it. Just tonight, I was spinning around in one of Omi's chairs when Grammie tickled you unexpectedly. I don't know if you've ever laughed so loud. You are pretty ticklish on your sides and your "rib-bone."
  
• You now do "bye-bye's." Do you do it every time we say "bye-bye"? No. You do it almost every time, though! You take your little wrist and just move your hand up and down. It's amazing.
• You are desperately trying to pull yourself up into a standing position. You maneuver yourself in the playpen so that you're on your knees and grab for the side, but you're not quite there yet. I bet in a week--you'll be doing this. SUPER scary but exciting!
• In related news, we dropped your crib down to the lowest level two weeks ago. It's a good thing because if it was in the old position, you could probably throw yourself over the edge. Obviously, this would not be good.
  
• We will probably start giving you actual solid foods this week. Like, a taste of mashed potatoes here, a smashed up green bean there, etc. I think you're ready, and I think your Daddy isn't so sure. I'm sure that by the next time I do a monthly post, you'll be chomping on everything we are!
• We are starting to really notice your major temper. I'd say you got this from my side of the family because I have the same one. When we lay you down on the changing table to change your clothes or diaper, you often, but not always, freak out. You go into a full on grunt/scream thing that is kind of funny but also not. We try to talk you out of it, but you're usually making so much noise that you don't hear us. You will soon!

Happy First Halloween! You were the cutest giraffe I've ever seen. I promise we will go trick-or-treating to more than just the neighbors houses next year. Love you!!

Parker's First Overnight Trip

Friday we drove up to Charlottesville for a very quick family trip. We have gone for the past two years to visit historical sites, attend concerts, drink wine, and pick apples. This year, we decided to go again in conjunction with a work picnic that was happening in Hanover. Central Virginia is absolutely gorgeous at this time of year with the changing leaves on the mountains. It is also the best place to be for picking yummy Fuji apples.

For the past two years, we have gone to Carter Mountain Orchard to pick apples, have apple donuts, and enjoy the fall-ness that is an orchard. Since we have gone the last two years, and I am very big on tradition, AND (yeah I know there's not supposed to be three "ands"--whatevs) we have a child now, I felt that going apple picking at an orchard was pretty much a necessity. Now it will be a necessity for years to come--and I LOVE that!
This year, we (I) decided that we should go to Carter Mountain's sister Orchard, the Chiles Peach Orchard. This was our first stop. The difference is that Chiles is about 15 miles past Charlottesvile, in Crozet, and they have an actual pumpkin patch--not just pre-picked pumpkins.
When choosing between the two, I thought that it would be pretty neat to pick our own pumpkins and that the pictures to go along with the outing would turn out pretty good too.
I WAS RIGHT!

Although the patch was pretty picked over and trampled on, it was pretty fun and we got three perfect pumpkins. After we picked out our pumpkins, we walked about five minutes down the path to the apple trees to pick a bag of Fuji apples.
I used my new Ergo carrier for the first time and LOVED it. Thanks to my lovely BF, Amy, and another blog I read, I decided to get the Ergo to use for many different walking with child situations. I'm so glad I did and cannot wait to use it more!We tried a few apples to have some fresh fruity goodness, and WOW they were soooooooooooo good. I let Parker suck on mine a little bit, and he really seemed to enjoy it. It got a little close to being a choking hazard, but I monitored him closely to avoid that situation.
When we were done picking our fruits, we headed to a winery about two miles down the road, the King Family Vineyard. It was very close to closing time, but Ry was the only one doing the tasting, so he just ran into the tasting room real quick while I found a parking space and got Parker out of the car. This was one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen, and definitely the most beautiful winery we've ever been to. Because of this, we decided that this would be another excellent place to take pictures.

WE WERE RIGHT! :)

Once we left the vineyard, we traveled to our final destination, Waynesboro, to check into the hotel and have dinner at a local place called Cracker Barrel. HAHA! It was so good. There's nothing like down-home-bad-for-you-cooking when you've been traveling and walking and carrying around 23-pound children all day.This was Parker's first time staying in a hotel room. We were able to book the suite in this picture. We moved the sofa up so that the packnplay would fit behind it in the corner (yeah, we put baby in the corner.....) It worked out really well, and he slept all night. Success!
It is amazing how much stuff you pack when traveling with a child. The trunk was full, the back seat was full, and I had stuff down by my feet. I love it, though--everything seemed ten times more fun with Parker there!

Saturday we made our way home. We had the work picnic to go to at 12, so we stopped at Short Pump on the way to kill some time. Once the picnic was over, we headed back to VB for Ryan and Bryan's 30th Birthday celebration with his family. Ryan's mom, who we call Honey, fixed dinner ((THANK YOU! :)). We had yummy lasagna and salad for dinner, and one of the best cakes I've ever had with, my favorite, buttercream icing for dessert.We had a great trip but were SO SO glad to be home sleeping in our own beds again. I am looking forward to taking many more trips together as a family and making new memories!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Crawler!

Yes, it's true. I'm typing it out now to have the correct timing for posterity's sake.

PARKER IS CRAWLING!

Literally crawling toward the camera in this picture.

The exclamation point is one of excitement, as in, "My sweet baby is advancing in mobility at an appropriate speed," but also one of, "OMG--he's crawling. My baby is getting super big and a trip to Wal-Mart is in order to buy hundreds of dollars worth of baby safety stuff." Wow--time has flown!

The teeth, or "toofers."

It started off with a mini-crawl that consisted of moving one knee forward and then lunging with "the head" toward whatever object or person he was trying to get to. He's been doing that for a couple of weeks now. Over the weekend, he went into full-force crawling. Like...hand and knee on the right then hand and knee on the left. He's not going lightning speed yet and still a little wobbly, but he's going quick enough. Ryan was out of town from Sunday until today and could not believe the difference in just a couple of days. I'm sure by the weekend, he'll be able to participate in baby crawling marathons, if they exist, and win.


Let the baby-proofing begin!

Parker's Baptism

Not sure why, but when I started writing this, it sounded better in letter form....

Parker,

On 10/10/10, you were baptized at our church, Lynnhaven United Methodist. We decided to do this now because we wanted to dedicate your life now to the Lord. We hope that as you grow, you will grow strong in your faith and that it will guide you to be a better person and help you through the hard times in your life. We are excited to have you grow up "in the church."



Overall, you did so good! Our whole (local) family attended as well as our family friends. Here is a list of those that were there:

-Grammie, Granddaddy and Auntie Renee
-Omi and Opa
-Honey and Granddad
-Uncle Bry and Aunt Lace
-Aunt Lisa, Uncle Frank, Haley and Ian
-Unkie Paul and Unkie Eric
-Aunt Amy, Miss Beth, and Wyatt
-Aunt Jamane and Jaidyn (and future Baby Schroeder :)



You are DEFINITELY loved!

About ten minutes into the service, Pastor Ralph asked Ryan and I to come up with you. He held you for a minute and then gave you back to me. He read through the baptism ceremony wording in the hymnal, and you were waving your hand around and making noises. When he took you back, you reached for Pastor Ralph's glasses and pulled the foam part off of his microphone!



He baptized you and then walked you up and down the aisle while the entire congregation sang Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Jewels. You did not cry once and just looked around like you were saying, "What are all these people looking at me for?" When he was done, Pastor Ralph gave you back to us and we sat down. I took you to the Nursery immediately afterwards because you started "talking" as soon as we sat in the pew.

After church, everyone came over to our house for a reception. Auntie Ashley and Miss Nella also joined us. We had a TON of food that was sooooooooo good. It was the first time we've had a party at our house, and I think it went pretty well. We had cupcakes from Just Cupcakes that were very yummy--you couldn't eat any, but at your birthday I promise I'll let you have some cake! You slept during almost the entire party. It was the longest nap you've ever taken--about two and a half hours! All that attention must have worn you out.

Omi, Honey, and Miss Nella
Granddad and Daddy
Me (Momma) and Grams

We are looking forward to celebrating many more special occasions at our home with our family and friends. Your baptism was the perfect celebration to start with! I can't say it enough--we love you so much. More than you know!

Naps

Prepare for some sweetness.


Parker usually takes two to three good naps per day. On the days that I have him, this is the time when I really get things done. He sleeps pretty deep and usually each nap lasts at least an hour long. I love to go in and check on him and just watch him sleep. I think there is truly nothing as innocent and sweet as watching a child, especially your own child, sleep. I could just crawl into the crib with him and snuggle right up next to him. Here are a couple of pictures I took during his nap today.

I just love him so much.

Hat and Snack

This evening, I had to wait a while to eat dinner with Ryan because he was painting. We ate a wonderful dinner that I brought home from Omi's--soup and chicken salad sandwiches. I made our sandwiches and then cleaned up a little in the kitchen and played with Parker while waiting. He started getting a little "restless," so I decided to make him a hat to wear.

He actually didn't pull it off until he had worn it for about two minutes. I was surprised! After the excitement of the hat wore off, I had to feed him. I fed him squash and an apple/banana/strawberry combination (SO yummy bytheway), and then it was finally time for Ry and me to eat. Usually, we eat and then we feed Parker. Since he had already eaten, he was sitting in his high chair with nothing to do. I had some grapes in the fridge, so I put some in a toy he has that you use for him to chew on food but not choke. He enjoyed that for a couple of minutes and was then over it. I think he was just ready for bed! ......as I am now.