The Zoo

A cool, crisp autumn morning.  After a little breakfast, we decided to head to the zoo in our fleeces.

We checked out the Alligators, then the Pelican and ducks.  Parker makes a "gop gop gop" sound (quack) and makes a pincher motions with his fingers every time he sees anything remotely bird-like. So we heard a lot of those today.

Maia was eager to check out the penguins, which we did.  She did not care for the smell in the aquarium.  After a stop for a snack, and a visit to the frogs, we went to the petting zoo area.  

This turkey was pretty impressive.

Maia wasn't sure she wanted to pet the animals at first.  She ran from animal to animal almost, but not quite, touching them.  Until she saw you could brush them.

oooo, feels like a football!

Brushes? That changed every thing. 

Then she had to brush every one of them she could get her hands on.  Cows, goats, sheep.

 

Not the turkey.

 Parker and daddy watched from the side of the pen.

Parker was delighted to run down this woodsy path and play on this wooden train.   

 And Maia made new friends with every kid within 3 years of her age.

This time the monkeys were a lot more fun to watch, but by the time we got to them, we had one sleepy boy, and one hungry girl, and decided that the rest of the zoo would have to be seen another day.

Labor Day

Looking back again...

We had big plans for labor day.  We were going to go to a park with my parents and my sister's family, and have a cookout.  It was supposed to be drastically cooler than it had been on Saturday.

At home, we had our usual Saturday morning routine: all four of us watching Nick Jr, cuddling together in our bed.  I got my shower and was just taking Parker upstairs to change his poopy diaper when I was anointed with a stream of vomit. Sigh.  We waffled: Stay or Go? Split up: one of us takes Maia, the other stays home with Parker? We decided to go, but make the day short, and try to keep the cousins away from him.

We got there... and it was raining.  Well, drizzling.  We played for a while anyway.  It's always great fun having all these cousins to help push you on the swing...  And despite the warnings, Parker just wasn't acting sick, so it was just too hard to stay away from him!

After playing for a while, we went back to my folk's house to eat lunch. Parker was maintaining a good mood, but was getting hungry, thirsty and sleepy by then. He cuddled up on me and took a brief nap.  

It was a nice day, but unfortunately it was only the beginning of 5 days of sick kids... first one, then the other.  The illness and feeling awful was actually short lived... it was just a lingering low grade temp that prevented a return to daycare. 

Parker at 15 months

Oh boy, time is Just Flying.  I cannot believe that my baby is a toddler.  There are so many little details I haven't really gotten a chance go chronicle.  Milestones, every day stuff. Poor second child.

Just shy of his first birthday, he was known to walk on his knees, and even jump on them. Walking started a few weeks after his first birthday, and he made incredible progress while we were camping in July (13+ months). He's now trying to run.  In August, he made the transition from the infant room to the Toddler 1 (T1) room at daycare.  That meant leaving Ms. Kathy behind (his biggest fan, and the first person he ever left my arms out of preference to get to her!)  Moving up to T1 also meant a change from two naps a day to one... and a lot more independence.  The toddlers sit at teeny short tables to eat their meals (instead of high chairs), and go outside a lot more often, usually in a wagon.  They do get to play at some of the playgrounds - his favorite is "the bike playground" which is a large courtyard with an oval sidewalk.  The courtyard contains tricycles and several "cozy coupes" and other outdoor push and ride-on toys.  But they also walk to the duck pond and feed the ducks and swan.  He, like his sister, loves to be outside;  aht (out) is probably his second most common word, after bah (ball).  He adores books, but if you pull out a board book when he's got a paper book in his hand, he will grab the board book, shake his head nah! and throw it. He wants the big kid book. Or, rather, he thinks he does, because once you start reading, he'll announce ah dah! (all done) and head off for another one.  He will sit through most board books, though, and that's a favorite part of the bedtime routine.  He's starting to dance to music which is adorable.

Parker definitely goes through typical toddler food jags: Some days he'll eat a ton, others, not so much.  He loves to eat tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, steak, pasta, mac n cheese, hot dogs, burgers, asparagus, bell peppers, pickles, most fruits.
He does not care much for chicken or chicken nuggets. When given mixed vegetables, he will eat (in this order) green beans, peas, carrots, corn.

Words (in addition to these) have been increasing, too.
buh-boo: bubbles
mah: more
aht: eat
aht: out (meaning outside)
nih-nih: night-night
ahp: up
dah: down

baba: sippy or a paci: anything he sucks on
shoos: shoes
dut: duck
gop gop gop: what a duck (or most any animal) says
dah: dog, or cat... most things with 4 legs
oofff: what a dog says
maaaaah: what a cow says
duh-dee: thirsty
buut or buuk: book
pees: please
dih-do: thank you
uh-kuh: you're welcome
mai: mine
see?: self-explanatory, accompanied by pointing
ah-woah: hello
bee-bee: baby
miuk: milk

Today I was actually floored when he put three words together as we got in the car to go to the doctor's office:   Mah.... buut.... pees? He was reaching for a texture book about dogs, and also doing his version of the please sign.

He loves to imitate:

And it's so great that he can participate in some of Maia's favorite activities too.

 

He's definitely realized he has an opinion of his own, and we currently live in the land of "Nah!" It is the answer to everything, even if he really means yessch.   But he's a happy, sociable kid.  This week both the pediatrician and his teacher (who previously taught Maia) have commented on that.  His teacher also commented on how he has a similar angry reaction to his big sister: balled up fists, he starts to shake, he turns red/purple and starts to scream!  Apparently some mannerisms between the two are also similar, but why wouldn't they be? They have the same models!

I can't believe you put me on this girlie pink tricycle, mom!

Fortunately, his tantrums are generally short lived, at the moment... and they're at the point where they're pretty funny to the observing adult. Oh, you want me to walk across the room and pick up that paci that is literally 2 inches from your hand so that you don't have to get it yourself or you're going to scream and turn purple. Okay. Let me know when you're done. 


There's so much more I could say about Parker... but it'd probably be better if I just blogged a little more frequently.  Here are the stats:
24.1 lbs, which is the 44th percentile
30 1/2 ", which is about the 30th percentile.  That also supposedly means he hasn't gotten any taller since his 12 month exam. Or they may have measured him a little long at the 12 month, and he's only grown 1/4-1/2."  I think the latter scenario more likely.  That said, 1/4-1/2" isn't much, so I'm expecting we'll see a little growth spurt here, soon.
Clothes: 18 months (although pants are a bit long at the moment)
Shoes: 4 infant/toddler
Teeth: 12; 4 front up, 4 front down, 4 molars. Eye teeth are coming soon!
Hair: Straight as a pin and red. Also in need of a cut!
Eyes: blue
Ears: still healthy with tubes in place, functioning and clear. Yay!
Paci: Addicted. One in the mouth, upside down. One in the hand at bedtime. Not being first time parents, and having a dreaded finger sucker in the family already... we have opted to let the paci go... for the time being. He's not ready to get rid of it.  We're not ready to deal with him without it.
Smile: Contagious.

Swimming

Labor Day weekend started out beautifully warm. A last summer hurrah.  

We had been invited to swim at the house of my dad's friend.  What a great opportunity for us.  Unfortunately , the timing wasn't fantastic, and Parker was due for a nap, having fallen asleep in the car just after we exited the highway.   Then he was pretty whiny when it came to putting him in the water.  Maia was more excited, and was happy to cling to someone and float around a little bit.

Parker continued to be miserable until it occurred to me to take his life jacket off.  Then it was a whole new world.  He was relaxed and enjoying the water.  So we took Maia's off too, and gave her some other ways to explore the water.   After just some time with me, Papa, Grandma and my dad's friends... Kath, Emily, Adrian and Lydia arrived.

 Adrian and Lydia had been here before, and in no time, most (if not all) of the pool toys were out and Maia wanted to try them all.

 We had some lunch and swam some more.  It was fun for the grandparents to see how Parker can seriously put food away, these days.

It was a great way to cap off summer.  Maia thoroughly enjoyed herself, and was telling me we needed to go back tomorrow, or maybe after nap.  Parker however... he was snoozing before we reached the end of the street!