Parker's First Day of Preschool!

...AKA Parker's first day of school EVER.  How crazy is that??  

We went to Sunnybrook on Tuesday so he could meet his teacher and get acquainted with his classroom, and he did really well.  We tried to back off and let him do his own thing, and for the most part, he did.  His classroom has EVERYTHING--cars, blocks, chalkboards, crayons, counting bears, markers, magnets, kitchens....you name it--they have it.  He hit almost every "station" in the 45 minutes we were there, so I'd say it was a success!

Today was the actual first full day of school.  Unfortunately, Ryan was out of town for work, so he couldn't be there to participate.  Parker "slept in" and got up at about 7:15.  I was in super-rush mode of course, and the first thing he said to me, which he has never asked before, was, "I want to snuggle with you in your room, Momma."  I could have melted right then and there into the carpet.  Here I was, all crazy and sweaty and nervous and anxious, and he just wanted to snuggle with me.  It was just what I needed at that time.  

We snuggled for just a few minutes, and then I got him dressed.  While I was getting him dressed, he said, "I don't want to go to Sunnybrook!"  I kind of ignored it because he is always very back and forth in what he says.  Audrey woke up almost right after that, so I fed her and got her dressed, too.  She was going to Honey's house today because I was taking my mom to her colonoscopy.  I had prepped almost all of their "stuff"the night before, so once we were all dressed, it was pretty much time to go.  I just had to make his waffle and blueberries to eat in the car on the way and grab a couple of last minute things.

Before we left the house, I had to take the obligatory "first day" pictures.  I was SO excited to do this, and I made a framed chalkboard to use for this morning and many more to come.  

Seriously--how sweet??  Also, check out the bruises on the legs.  It's super weird, but we think they are  mainly from when he comes out of his bed on his stomach like a crazy person during naptime and they hit the edge of the bed rail.

...and this is when I pretty much knew picture taking was done!  Haha.  Our neighbor walked over at this point, and I was able to get a couple more "regular" pictures thanks to her.

We left the house right after this and headed straight to the school.  When we were almost there, I said, "Where is your school?"  He answered back and said, "I'll show you, Momma."  He knows exactly where it is because we pass by it every time we go to Honey's house or church.  "When we got there, I had to take a picture in front of the school with his apple nametag on!

We walked to his classroom, and there were no children there!  His teacher was actually putting on lipstick when we walked up--haha. She teacher explained that before 8:30, he actually goes to a different classroom, so she showed us where to go.  He walked right in and there were LOTS of kids in there.  He seemed pretty excited, so I just gave him a kiss, told him I loved him, and left.  I was so nervous all morning, but I didn't shed one tear.  I was truly excited for him!  

When I picked him up this afternoon, he was in a different classroom again.  His "afternoon teacher" said he did really well today but had a hard time with naptime.  She said he wasn't bad but that he did not go to sleep.  He laid down and held puppy, and she sat with him and a couple of other kids.  He is really weird about naps, but I think he may get used to it and sleep there eventually.

My BIGGEST concern of the whole day was what would happen at lunch time.  Since he really only eats PBJ's, grilled cheese, and chicken nuggets, I wasn't sure about what to do with his lunch.  The school serves a varied menu, and today's items included sloppy joes, tater tots, green beans, and pineapple.  The only thing I thought he might eat would be the tater tots, but I didn't want to bring any extra food for him because I don't want him to get into the habit of having a lunch brought from home.  I felt like he would try new foods when he saw most of the other kids eating them and didn't want to be a picky eater enabler.  haha!  

When I asked him what he ate for lunch, he said beans, hamburger, and tater tots--all in line with the menu.  I asked him if he ate them, and he said that he did.  Then about five minutes later, he told me that he didn't.  About an hour after that, he told me that it was all in his belly.  We'll see.  The afternoon teacher wasn't with him at lunch, so she couldn't tell me.  If he starts eating different kinds of food, I will be SO happy!  I am looking forward to seeing how next week goes.  

He seemed like he had a good time and said he wants to go back again.  He has show and tell next week--seriously, how cute is that??  I am really looking forward to seeing his progress this year and having him tell me about each day!

Audrey is Three Months Old!

Audrey, you turned three months old last Wednesday! You are SUCH a little sweetie.  

Here's what's going on with you:

• You are wearing size One diapers.  We have also started doing cloth diapers most of the time and I love them!  You don't really care either way at this point.  You are set on a 2 in the waist and a 4 in the legs of the FuzziBunz on the tightest snaps.
• You are still wearing size three months in all of your clothes. It seems like they fit you pretty good and will last until the weather gets cool and you can start wearing your six month clothes.

• You smile at us all the time now!  It is so precious to see your face just light up. 
• You have definitely "found your hands" and love having them in your mouth often.  You chew on your knuckles.  You also drool and blow raspberries A LOT--if you were older, I would think you were teething.  I've felt around in there and haven't felt anything.....yet.
• I took a work trip to Atlanta this month and left you at home with Daddy and Parker.  You guys spent most of the time at Honey's house, but that's okay :) I pumped tons of milk before leaving and you did great drinking from the bottle consistently for the first time.

• You started rolling over this month!  You roll from your back to your stomach and then get kind of "stuck."  This happens sometimes at night while you're swaddled and you get really, really mad because you can't flip back over yet.  This has resulted in more wake ups an night!  Not cool, my dear. 
• You are starting to "talk" to us more and more.  You coo and make high pitched squealing noises and blow your raspberries.  These are the sweetest noises!

This entire outfit was made for you by Linda Walters, a woman that we have known and gone to church with for a long time.  It is absolutely beautiful--I love it!  I would never think to put a bonnet on you or even buy one, but I have to say that you looked pretty darn cute wearing it today.

• You love to watch TV.  I definitely don't do this often, but in the mornings when I'm getting ready, I can let Parker lay in our bed and lay you on the floor.  You are pretty mesmerized by Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street--just like your brother!
• I know that they can still change, but your eyes are pretty much blue and gorgeous!  They seem to just shine, and we love them.  It's interesting to see them change from grey-blue to true blue.  

You are just gorgeous!

Comparison shot.  You are getting so big.

Comparison shot with your brother at the same age.  My little sweeties.

I am SUPER sad because I will no longer have you with me all day every day starting this week.  You will go to Ms. Donna's house for the first time on Tuesday and then go to Honey's house on Thursday for a while.  Next week I will start back to work three days per week, so I will definitely be missing you bad.  I am fortunate to have Mondays and Fridays off, though, so I will look forward to my time with you (and your brother) on those days even more!  

You get more and more beautiful each day, and we can't wait to see what the next month holds.

My Baby Boy...

Parker has been saying tons of cute stuff lately.  I have been trying very hard to type this cuteness into my phone as he says them so I can post them on here!  

My helper.

• I talked before about Parker asking, "Sissy hungy?" when he came into our room and saw me laying in the bed with my boob hanging out.  It's a common scene with the frequent nursing of Miss Audrey.  He has now started asking me to "close that up, Momma."  Haha!
• He has a Mickey laptop that his Aunt Lisa bought for him for his birthday this year.  He plays with it in the car sometimes and often says, "I gotta look up a recipe."  I have to look up recipes really quick on my computer all the time and e-mail them to my phone to use while cooking.  Children really do listen ALL.THE.TIME!

He loves the "big carts" at the grocery store, Wal-Mart, and Target.

• Audrey sits in a bouncy seat on our kitchen table all the time when we're in the kitchen.  One of the seats that we use is made by Baby Bjorn.  Parker looked at it last week and said, "B-A-B-Y-B-J-O-R-N spells 'bouncy seat'!'  So sweet.
• A frequent phrase that comes out of his mouth is "I'm are" in place of "I am."  
• Mom, Renee and I went to Williamsburg a few weeks ago with the kids.  We were eating lunch and Parker said, "I hear a toot!"  We just kind of looked at him trying not to laugh, and I was about to remind him that if he tooted, he needs to say excuse me.  Before I could tell him, he blurted out, "It's coming from my butt!"  At that point, we couldn't hold in the laughter anymore. 

Have you ever seen a cuter baker?

• We were driving home from Ryan's parents' house one day and the sun was really bright in Parker's eyes.  He said, "Please go away, Mr. Sun!" 
• When we are trying to get out of the house, he'll sometimes say, "Come on, people--let's roll!"  After saying this a few different times, he somehow decided to tell his milk at breakfast one morning, "Come on milk, let's rock and roll!" 

Trying on LuLu's shoes.

Tricycle Ride

Parker rode a tricycle for the first time on August 22nd.  I've actually had it in our office closet for at least six months, and I was thinking of making it part of his Christmas present, but he saw it after I moved it from the office to the garage.  Ryan put it together quickly and Parker took it for a spin. 

Pedaling with help from Daddy.

 

Wait--that isn't right...

After a few minutes, he didn't want to use the pedals anymore and decided to scoot instead.

My sweetie.  He wears a five-year old helmet!

More help from Daddy in the street.  Love these boys!

Sunny Day, Sweepin' the Clouds Away....

Just wanted to share a few pictures of my sweet boy visiting with his Sesame Street friends at Busch Gardens.  We went on July 19th with my mom and sister while Ryan was out of town.  It was awesome!  It was also super hot, but what else would you expect in the middle of July?  They have an area of the park that is Sesame Street themed and has rides for little kids.  It also has a "splash park" with lots of water that the kids can run around and use to cool off!  Parker LOVED IT.  Seeing his face while we were there and hearing the things he was saying made me so happy.  He was so sweet! 

They had an area where you could take pictures with the whole gang, and we were able to get a picture with Elmo, Grover, and Big Bird.  We missed Bert and Ernie (they were "sleeping"--haha), which was unfortunate because we love them!  Maybe next time.  They had photographers that took pictures for you, but I took pictures with my camera instead to save some money!  

Elmo was first.  I think Parker was in awe!

So sweet with Grover!

Big Bird was pretty tall.  To take pictures with your own camera, you were not allowed to enter the actual picture area.  I couldn't get all of Big Bird in the frame because he was SO TALL.  Seriously...he had to be at least eight feet tall.  Talk about being in awe!  I couldn't believe how tall he was, and I think Parker was a little surprised, too.  

We are already looking forward to our next trip!  Parker loved all of the rides and has talked several times about riding the roller coaster again.  I am thinking a fall trip when the weather is a little cooler may be in order.  Woohoo!

Movin' On Up...

I just want to state for the record that I am upset with myself for not blogging more regularly.  There--I said it (again).

Last week, Parker and Audrey both "moved up" to their respective bigger beds.  I only got a little sad and didn't cry, which surprised me!  I was excited to see Parker so excited, and knew that it was going to be more comfortable for Audrey.  She had been sleeping in the cradle next to our bed since she was born and was starting to scoot down each night and get kind of crammed into the end.  

Parker started sleeping in his "big boy bed" on August 3rd, a Friday.  We talked about it for a few days prior, and that day, I took him to K-Mart and bought some Mickey sheets.  He was excited about them!  We were actually thinking about changing his bed on Saturday, but at about 6:30, I said, "Let's just go ahead and change it."  Renee was there with us, so I knew she could help in some capacity.  Ryan finished strapping down furniture, while I started to take the crib apart.  

Last pictures of Parker in his crib.  Clearly, he needed the crib tent!  

All we had to do was take out the "middle" parts of the crib and attach the rails to turn it into a full-size bed.  The hardest part was taking apart the crib because the screws were kind of hard to get out.  Once we had that done, the rails snapped on easy, Ryan screwed down the slats to hold the mattress, and we had a bed for Parker!  The last things we needed were the sheets.  I had washed them and put them in the dryer before we started taking the crib apart.  When I went  downstairs to grab them out of the dryer, they were STILL WET.  The dryer had been running but not blowing any heat!  I couldn't believe it and thought it might be a disaster because we couldn't put his Mickey sheets on the bed.  At this point, the bed was put together, so there was no turning back.  I put some of our sheets on the bed and hoped he wouldn't even remember the sheets.  

He did not even notice that they weren't there and crawled right up in the bed.  We tucked him in, said our goodnights, and left him in there.  He seemed a little apprehensive about the whole thing, but actually went to sleep pretty well.  He cried for a couple minutes (not unusual for him) at the end of the bed, and then got quiet, crawled up to the pillows, and fell asleep!  It was unbelievable.  We were prepared for at least an hour of him crying and trying to get out of his room.  

Since then, he has done pretty well in the bed.  For about the last four nights, he has gone right to sleep with no crying at all.  Before that, he would cry or get out of the bed a couple of times, but didn't give us any major problems.  He has only had to take two naps here since then.  During one, he cried and carried on for about an hour.  He kept saying, "get me out of here!"  Haha.  I had to go in there and tell him it was "bedtime, not playtime" and put him back in the bed a few times.  He finally fell asleep and stayed asleep for over two hours!  For the second nap, he never did go to sleep.  I am hoping that he does better tomorrow since he's been doing so good at night time.  

Love the pose--haha!

Something funny is that he wakes up pretty early each morning and gets out of the bed to call for us.  He doesn't actually scream out for us though.  He goes to his door and stands there talking and whining a little.  We can hear him saying, "where are they?  where are Momma and Daddy?".  Ryan went to get him the other day, and as soon as he opened the door, Parker had a stack of books and said, "I got some books, Daddy!"  It was so cute.  Overall, he has really done great!  

Miss Audrey made a smooth transition from cradle to crib.  I wasn't expecting anything crazy since it's not a big difference for her.  She started sleeping in her crib on August 7th.  

Last picture of Audrey in her cradle.  This was actually on August 4th--the night we were originally going to put her in the crib.  It just didn't work out!  

She's slept pretty much the same in the crib as she did in the cradle, although she does have a lot more room to move around in the crib.  

The picture on the left is her position when I laid her down, and the picture on the right is how I found her in the morning!

Last night, she woke up at about 2:00 and was fussing.  I went in to see what the problem was and found her on her stomach at the side of the crib.  Since she was fussing, her head was hitting the side of the crib, which was making her even more mad!  I ended up feeding her and putting her back in there.  Hopefully the fact that she can roll over will not become a major problem in her wonderful sleep habits!  

Pool Time!

We went to Omi's on Sunday (as we always do), and Parker had a really fun time in the pool.  He LOVES it and loves his new floatie-thing.  We got to Omi's super early and stayed in the pool for about two hours.  It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with him without miss Audrey around so that I could focus solely on him and have some fun.  

We also did some bubble blowing.

He loves his bubbles!

I didn't even notice he was doing this until I was looking at the pictures on the computer.  So cute!

He realized he could put on Omi's hat...

...and looked pretty cute.

He decided to put on another one and looked pretty good in that one, too.

Love this boy!