Christmas! Hooray!

Merry Christmas! We had a busy few weeks of traveling and Christmases so there haven't been many updates, but here's one from our Christmas after we arrived home! I have more videos and photos from our little point and shoot camera that I brought to Brockville and Dresden, so I'll make a separate post to go through those as well.

The one thing Parker said he wanted from Santa was an orange, so when he woke up there was a little trail of clementines leading from his bedroom, down the stairs, and into the main room where the tree and presents were. Here he is making a pit stop at the oranges.

Mmmmm... citrusy....

Counting the orange pieces.

He loved reaching into his stocking.

Yay!

Thomas trains! Hooray!

New underpants! Hooray!

Parker's big present was a kitchen play set and we put it together the night before so it would be ready to go! But we weren't really sure how to wrap it so we just threw a big sheet over it with a note from Santa. I don't think Parker even noticed it was sitting there!

Here comes Percy!

We finally took the sheet off and yelled, "Surprise! It's a kitchen!" so now when ever Parker see it he goes, "Surprise kitchen!" Here he is checking out what's in the cupboards.

Cooking some broccoli on the stove.

The kitchen even has a little light that he can turn on and off, which he thoroughly enjoys.

Calling Papa on the phone.

Parker got a train set from Lita and Grandpa and a train table from Nana and Papa! So we put them together the night before and brought him down to check it out.

"Under the bridge! Around the corner! Here comes Thomas and James!"

"That's So Funny, Daddy!"

Today was kind of a boring day at home. I was waiting for a package to arrive from UPS so we read every book in the house, played every game, tried every puzzle, made some forts, built some bridges, ate some snacks, and watched some TV. Parker really likes Toopy and Binoo, so he was pretty psyched when I came across an episode today at around 11 am. If you're not familiar with Toopy and Binoo, here's a synopsis of the episode:

Toopy, a gigantic talking mouse with ADHD, decided he needed to wake up Binoo in the middle of night to go to some sort of event requiring formal wear and fancy shoes. Binoo, a little white cat who doesn't speak, happily jumps out of bed at what I assume is approximately 3 am, and tries on all kinds of wacky shoes that aren't really shoes until they find the right pair.

For some reason, Parker thought this was HILARIOUS. He really cracked up when Binoo tried on two cakes for shoes. Are cakes shoes? Nooooo! Do cakes go on your feet? NOOOO! Parker laughed and laughed, and even afterwards when I brought it up, he'd start giggling. Who knew cakes on your feet could be so funny? It's hilarious when he laughs at stuff on his own, though. It's also super cute when he says stuff like, "That's SOOO funny, Daddy!"

Light Up The Season + Santa

Today was Amherstview's annual Light Up The Season event, so we brought Parker to meet Santa! We've been talking about Santa for the last few weeks, so he kind of knows what's going on I think. He gets pretty excited about Christmas lights and snowmen. Here he is waiting patiently in line:

"Hi Daddy!"

Meeting Santa and whispering hi to him.

When you ask Parker what he wants Santa to bring for him, he answers, "An orange." Santa thought that was nice.

Christmas Tree

We finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree! Here are some photos (along with other random ones from the last few days):

Sitting on the floor playing with stickers from his sticker box while wearing some warm, fleecy dinosaur jammies. It's getting cold out! It snowed for the first time yesterday!

Hanging bulbs on the tree with mommy.

He is pleased with the placement of that ornament.

Christmas tree! Hooray!

And here he is sporting the little shirt and penguin vest that April got for him while she was away last month. He likes to point out that there's a little penguin on his shirt.

Ready to eat some lunch in his little penguin shirt. Luckily he's a really neat eater so I wasn't worried about stuff getting on the shirt.

"Push the button?"

Mooooore Videos

One of Parker's favourite songs is "Spaceman" by The Killers, which he calls "Oh Oh Oh" because of the intro. Here he is dangerously busting a move on top of a step-ladder by the kitchen sink. I'm sure there are probably knives, open flames, and poisonous spiders around him, too. This version of "Spaceman" is from their live CD/DVD, which is really cool.

Sometimes toddlers just have really strange thoughts. Watch as he goes from moving the bulldozer thing to suddenly shouting, "Dirty cloth!!!" (which is from an episode of Toopy & Binoo), to wanting to push the button on the camera, to saying, "Great idea!"

Parker seemed really interested in putting these little elastic things on top of the box lid and flinging them off with the button. He did this for about 10 minutes.

Shoes Shoes Shoes Shoes...

Here's a funny old video from the summer (he's wearing shorts!) of Parker trying to walk around in my slippers while singing this song about shoes from Sesame Street. He likes the part at about 1:11. Who knew Neil Patrick Harris was a singing machine? We did, that's who.

I like how, when he almost trips, he goes, "Whoa! Oof!" :D

"Who's That, Daddy?"

Another thing Parker has been doing recently is asking a lot of questions. It's super cute, because he always ends his question by saying Mommy or Daddy. So throughout the day, we'll go through a hundred different questions such as:

- Who's that, Daddy? *pointing to a guy in a book or in a store*

- What was that, Daddy? *after a loud noise*

- Where are we, Daddy? *while driving around*

- How are you, Daddy? *randomly throughout the day*

- What's that, Daddy? *pointing at random objects*

His little voice is so cute! Plus he never stops talking, so there's always plenty of stuff to talk about. The only time he's quiet is if we're in a new place with new people (then he's kind of tentative and shy). But when it's just us all day long he doesn't stop!

Parker Recommends....

"The Foot Book", a Dr. Seuss Classic.

Jack's First Birthday

A few weekends ago we were invited to Jack's first birthday party in Toronto! I used to live with Jack's dad back in the day so it was cool to get a chance to see everyone and meet the families now that we're old men with babies. Here are some photos of the party (but not too many because I don't want to splash all of Jack's stuff on the web without their permission).

Parker playing with a cool blue truck. That was me who wrote PARKER on the paper, not him.

Loot bags! Boo yah.

The most delicious cupcakes ever. Parker and I may have had three.

It was a busy party with lots of people to meet and stare at!

Joel rocked out some tunes for the babies on his guitar. Joel starred in a Queen's Players show that I played drums for. He sang "Song For The Dumped" by Ben Folds Five and it was awesome.

Parker taking a photo of himself.

Big rock n' roll finish!

Thanks again for the invite! We had a great time! And not only that, but Parker loooooved going under all the over-passes in Toronto. He thinks they're all bridges and they might be his favourite things ever. Well, besides mailboxes.

Papa Nana Playing A Game

Here's an older video of Parker singing the "Nana/Papa Playing A Game" song while he eats applesauce with his thumb. It's the only way to eat applesauce, really. I think this was maybe a month or so ago?

New Nana Hat!

Here's Parker sporting his new Nana hat! I think he likes it! :D Thanks, Nana!

Brrrr!

It's getting cold out!

But Lemoine Point is still pretty nice. :D

SPOON!

One thing we haven't been very strict about is the use of utensils. Parker usually has the option of using a fork or spoon, but 99% of the time he'll just pick stuff up with his hands and eat it. Lately he's been more interested in cutlery, I think mostly because his dexterity is a bit better so he can actually do it properly. Here he is using a spoon on some cereal.

Say Cheeeeese!

Here's Parker taking of photo of me taking a photo of him.

And here he is trying to find the image on the LCD. I think he might need a bit of an upgrade for that.

Edited to add: LOOK AT THOSE MITTS! Huuuuuge!

Wake Up, Papa! Wake Up!

My mom had a workshop at Wool Tyme so while she was working, Papa came for a visit! For some reason Parker thinks it's hilarious when people sleep, and he thinks it's even more hilarious when he wakes them up by yelling, "Wake up!!!" and jumping on them. Here's Papa fake sleeping and Parker jumping on him to wake him up. I'm pretty sure I used to do this when I was little, too. Do all kids think this is funny? Actually, it kind of is. :D

Playing At The Thomas Store

Need an easy way to fill in time? Go to Chapters where they have a Thomas train table in the kids' section. If we don't have anything planned and feel like getting out of the house, we'll go check out The Thomas Store (as Parker calls it) and hang out for an hour, playing with the train table and reading books. Parker didn't feel like napping today so we went out in the afternoon before dinner. Here's some video of Parker playing with the trains:

Pointing out the two octagon shapes (stop signs) and also informing everyone that Thomas and James are coming.

Lots of trains end up going backwards.

All the trains end up going over two amazing bridges (he kind of mumbles, "amazing bridge!" towards the end).

Turn Left! Turn Right!

Since we go out a lot in the mornings, we've been working on the difference between turning left and turning right. So for the last few days Parker has been walking around the house going, "Turn left! Turn right! Turn left!" as he goes around corners. He's also really into construction because there's a lot of it happening in town right now. There are some new houses going up down the street and there's a Shoppers Drug Mart going up down town. When we're looking to kill time, we just hang out and watch the big machines working. Parker calls them "boom booms" because of the sound they make, so he's always going, "Huuuuuge boom booms!" He's also really into this song (although we listen to the Raffi version, but it's pretty much the same):

No More Frain Fracks!

Parker has an obsession with train tracks, but for the longest time he wasn't pronouncing the T-sound properly and it would always come out as, "frain fracks". The other day he randomly decided it was time to pronounce them properly. Goodbye frain fracks, hello train tracks!

Also, Parker has some weird quirks and strange habits that are probably almost entirely our fault. One of them that's kind of funny is to sing a naked song when we take his clothes off to get changed or go in the bath. It's basically this song about mangos but replace the word mango with naked. And imagine a little boy doing a funny dance while singing it.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Here are some photos from Parker's adventures trick or treating tonight! It was a short trip to just a few of the neighbours' houses, but he really liked ringing their door bells and yelling, "TRICK OR TREAT!!!" in their faces. After he put his shoes on, he sat on the step (which seems to be his new thing) to pose for some photos.

I had to ask him to stand up because he kept wanting to sit.

Checking out the stash of Play-Doh that we had on hand for other trick or treaters.

Walking to the neighbours' steps.

Walking away from the neighbours' steps.

Even though it rained all morning and some of the afternoon, it ended up being a fairly nice night! A bit windy, but good for Hallowe'en.

Parker has a mild obsession with mailboxes. So when he realized we were headed in that direction, he thought it would be a great idea to offer the mailbox a treat. He kept holding it out and saying, "Here you go, mailbox!"

And here he is, visiting his friend.

Special thanks to Dustin for hooking Parker up with a Rice Krispie square, one of his favourites! As soon as we got home he was digging in his bag to find it so he could eat it in his mouth, as he likes to say.

All in all it was a super Hallowe'en! Har har.

Crawling Through A Fort

I finally copied a million old videos from our camera to the computer, so here's a quick sample before I go to bed. It's Parker crawling through a fort in the basement while Mommy chases him!

Lemoine Point

I had a shoot at Lemoine Point this morning so April and Parker came to meet me for a hike when I was finished! It was crazy nice outside considering it's the end of October, so luckily we were able to get a good hour or so of hiking in before the weather gets worse. Here are some photos:

Parker running around in the big, open fields.

"Come on, Daddy!"

Parker has grown a lot in the last few months (he's about 3 feet tall now) but when you see him outside in the open you realize how tiny he still is! Can you find him in this photo?

We told him there were ducks so he kept saying, "Where'd the ducks go? Ducks? Find the ducks!"

"I SAID NO COMMENT!"

Overlooking Collins Bay.

The elusive ducks!

A lot of the leaves have fallen but it's still really scenic!

Parker is really into bridges right now, so when April said we were walking under a bridge of leaves and trees he thought that was the best thing ever.

There were tonnes of friendly birds, including this guy.

Taking a pit stop to pose for a bench photo.

The birds are so friendly, they'll come and eat food right out of your hands!

Parker riding on my shoulders and eating a "Meow Meow Bar". There's a cat on the wrapper so that's what he calls them.

Hooray for fall colours!

Feeding more birds! We actually ran into Scott, Gemma, and Milo who were also out for a walk and feeding the birds (along with Nate, Laura, and new baby Oliver)! It was a good day for a hike.

Here's Parker being cute while waiting for birds to land on his hand and eat.

Playtrium Playdate With Gemma & Milo!

Gemma and Milo invited us to the Playtrium today for a playdate! It was their first time going, and our millionth. For the first time ever, Parker crawled across these weird net tunnel things all by himself! The entire time he was doing it he kept saying, "I can do this! I can do this!" and when he got to the other side he exclaimed, "I did it! Hooray!" So cute. :D Here are some photos of some toddler section action!

He looks like an angry celebrity with paparazzi in his face. "I SAID NO COMMENT!!!!!"

The other day he dropped one of the little pumpkins down the stairs and broke the stem. Now he likes to point out that it's broken in a sad voice while pointing at it.

Parker and Milo riding on the spinning machine of death!

Parker looooves these things. Staples of doctors' offices and other waiting rooms, the beads-on-bendy-wires never get old. The last time we were at the Playtrium I think he probably played with it for 20 minutes straight.

Milo on the move! He's a crawling machine!

Weeeee!

Milo on the move again!

"Here comes Parker!"

Gemma and Parker goofing around before we had to leave for lunch!

Mmmm.... zippers....

We went swimming this afternoon. Even though he hates his swimming class, he had a great time at the open swim today, strangely enough. When we got home, Parker and I took this goofy self-portrait on the couch and then we watched this awesome Sesame Street video.

Pumpkins Hallow'een!

Parker seems really psyched about Hallowe'en, even though I'm mostly sure that he has no idea what it is. But when we mention pumpkins he always says, "Pumpkins....Hallowe'en!" Today was really nice out (kind of chilly, but nice) so we went to Fruition Berry Farm just outside of Kingston on highway 15 to check out their pumpkins and corn maze! The entire drive there Parker kept saying, "Picking pumpkins! Picking pumpkins!" and although we weren't quite sure what to expect (April heard about the farm from a co-worker), the pumpkins did not disappoint. And the corn maze was pretty sweet, too. Here are some photos of us in action:

Before we left, Parker sitting on the stairs while Mommy put his shoes on. He was pleased to be wearing his ketchup and french fries "What A Team!" shirt.

Doing up the coat -- zip zip zip!

Looking mildly stunned in his hat and coat.

I was inside the passenger seat and Parker was outside the car trying to peak into the window while going, "Daaaaaaaddy! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddy!"

Fruition Berry Farm! Well, the corn maze, anyways.

Looking for pumpkins.

Found them!

Parker really likes lifting heavy things, so he tried to lift a bunch of the pumpkins. April kept asking him to pick one out for Daddy, so he'd run from pumpkin to pumpkin saying, "Pumpkin for Daddy!"

Using the pumpkin as a small chair to rest his weary pumpkin-lifting legs. The dude working in the back ground does not seem impressed.

Mommy and Parker (but he was distracted by some airplanes or something).

zomg a rare photo of Daddy and Parker!

Exploring the awesome (but kind of muddy) corn maze.

Taking a brief hiatus to pet some corn.

Parker really seemed to like navigating. Every time we'd get to a cross-roads we'd say, "Which way do you want to go now?" and with 100% certainty he'd say, "Turn left!" or, "Turn right!" or, "That way!" We ended up fairly lost. :D

After the farm, we tried to go to downtown our favourite Chinese restaurant ever (Silver Wok) but they were closed. So we checked out Lee Garden Buffet instead since Parker wanted Chinese for lunch. Here he is taking a refreshing gulp of milk.

Pointing to something (I think the cat statue on the wall).

Eating some traditional Chinese watermelon. Funny story: the waitresses kept coming over to Parker and saying how cute and awesome he was, which was really nice. But then he yelled, "CHINESE!!!!!" in her face once and we were so embarrassed! Haha! It was pretty funny, but pretty awkward. Another lady came over and she was like, "No, I'm Canadian!" and Parker would say, "CHINESE!!!!" because he was so excited to eat the food, not comment on their ethnicity. Woops.

A fun morning was had by all! The afternoon was spent napping, and then I cut the lawn for (hopefully) the last time this year while April and Parker went for a HUGE walk to feed some apples to some horses.

Happy Thanksgiving And Random Stuff

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some photos from our weekend (although I was pretty busy shooting a wedding on Saturday and then two other shoots on Monday). Here's Parker rocking out with Darryl at the kitchen table.

Although it looks like he's in pain, Parker is actually trying to sing along.

Here he is, happy to be eating some corn and salmon. Mmmm... traditional Thanksgiving salmon.....

Potty training update: Parker is pretty much having zero accidents and can go for about 2 hours or so before we have to put him on the potty (but we still do it about every hour and a half). He's now also starting to tell us when he needs to go, which is really helpful. Still no poop on the potty, but he seems to be really getting it now.

Talking update: Parker never stops talking. Like, ever. He talked pretty much the entire drive to Brockville, and then the entire drive home. He describes everything he sees and also random things he thinks about. He sings songs constantly and he also really seems to be getting the whole language/communication thing. This is also really helpful.

Tonight we had our first tough guy parenting move! Parker was eating spaghetti on a plate that was on his tray, and he flung the whole plate on the floor. We made him pick it up even though he didn't really want to (he wanted hugs because he knew he was in trouble) but he did it. April and I high-fived.

C Is For Cookie....

Om nom nom nom nom....