One To Ten

Today Parker counted to ten on his own while he was eating breakfast!  He had a little pile of strawberries and he started sorting them.  As he pushed them around, he went, "Ooooone....  Twoooooo...  threeeeeee...." and then he paused for a second so I said, "Threeeeeeeee....!" and then he kept going!  I repeated every number after he said them and he made it all the way to ten!  He might just be a super baby genius.  I told April about it after she came home from work and I don't think she believed me........until he did it again at bath time!  Boo yah.

Sorting Colours

Here's a video of Parker sorting some colours into his foam "Teach My Toddler" thing that April picked up a while back.  He has one of colours, shapes, letters and numbers and they've been really helpful!  He now knows most of his letters, all of his numbers from 1 to 10, all of his shapes, and most of his colours!  Here he is putting brown into the foam board thing.  For some reason it seems like he says "up" instead of "red".  :)

Mini Vacation

We kind of took a spur-of-the-moment vacation over March Break!  We went to Shawnee Village in East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, even though we weren't 100% sure what it was.  We wanted to stay somewhere that could accomodate Parker with a second room, and April found this place online and it sounded good, so we booked it!  It turned out to be PERFECT -- we had an entire "house" to ourselves, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, living room, and dining room for about $100/night!  It was an off-season deal so I'm sure it's more expensive in the summer, but it was pretty sweet.  The houses are all over the place, and ours was on top of a hill backing onto a huge forest!  The weather was great, we saw deer hanging out, and I won a 3-point shooting contest at the gym.  Boo yah.

Here's our house, #124.  It's actually the one down the furthest path, so the back looks right out into the forest.

I went around to the side of the house for this shot to show the screened-in porch!  April is looking out going, "Wow!" while Parker is climbing a chair and going, "Chair!"

Living room.  The main building at Shawnee Village has DVDs to borrow, but it was nice to just relax and go to bed early!

Dining room.

Here's the kitchen.  We brought a bunch of our own food and saved a fortune on eating out.  We ate our breakfasts and dinners at home and had lunch on the road while we were doing stuff.  Mmmm....  peanut butter sandwiches....

This was Parker's room, which worked out really well!  He was able to go to bed at his normal time (around 7 pm) and we could hang out downstairs and not have to worry about him waking up because of loud neighbours and stuff.

Main bedroom (complete with old school phone).

Eating a delicious spaghetti dinner!

This photo makes me laugh.

The view from our living room.

Parker going to the car.  He probably forgot his keys or something.

Swimming at the pool in the main building.

Eating breakfast.  

We definitely want to go back!  It's a great spot for families, and about 15 minutes away from The Crossings Outlet Mall (which is huuuge).  And in the summer there's a zillion more things to do (petting zoos, lots of outdoor activities, there's a Sesame Street place nearby, the Crayola Factory, Hershey Factory, etc).  Hopefully we can make it back soon!  And possibly with friends!  Hooray!

Little Boy Comin' Atchoo!

The latest edition of the Parker-to-English dictionary:

daydins = raisins

ha-tat = high five

sim = swim

daydee doo = bathing suit

shishen = chicken

buhbuh braaaaaaa = peanut butter bread

Bobee = Brobee

bump bump = usually railroad tracks, but can be any bump in the road

Dita = Lita (Abuelita)

Peek-A-Boo And Cardboard Houses

My parents got me an awesome office chair for my birthday (for my newly renovated office!  Oooooo!) and we promptly converted its box into a house for Parker.  Here he is playing peek-a-boo with Mommy from inside the house!

:)

Mr. Giggles

Here's a video of us at lunch.  The only thing I'm doing to make Parker laugh so much is cover my eyes with my left hand and then reveal them every few seconds.  I guess I have funny eyes!

Spring Already? Not Quite.

Okay, so the snow is melted but it's not that warm out yet!  When Parker woke up from his nap I thought it would be a cool idea to take the new wagon he got from Nana and Papa for Christmas and head down to the swings to get some fresh air and have some fun!  Also, it seems like it's been a while since I've taken photos of Parker, so here are some photos of our journey:

Pre-park playing with his parking garage.

Pre-park lying on the floor and being goofy.  One of his new things, for some reason, seems to be randomly lying on his back.  He'll lay on the floor, giggling, then start to get up only to lay on his back again.  And today when he woke up from his nap he was pretty quiet about it, but I could tell he was up so I snuck upstairs and watched him for a bit.  He was just lying on his back, with one knee bent and the other leg crossed over it (like a guy would sit if he was in a chair reading a newspaper) looking at the clock on the wall, occasionally playing with his toes, and sometimes saying random words quietly.  

Some more driving his car up and down the ramps.  He loves those little cars so much.

Here we are in the wagon outside for the first time ever!  We've puttered around the basement just for fun but the wheels have officially touched earth now.  Hooray!

It looked nice enough out.....

Lots of construction in our neighbourhood still.

Time for swings!  Weeeeee!

Parker's boots were too big to go through the swing holes!  Probably a sign that, if you're still wearing winter boots, you probably shouldn't be playing on the swings in the first place.  Oh well.  :D

Yay!

Whoa!

It was pretty cold so we headed back home after a brief swing!  But hopefully it keeps getting warmer so that we can leave the touque and boots behind next time!

10 Things Parker Likes

Things added by Garrett:
1) Broccoli.

2) "Baby", the stuffed sheep puppet that he sleeps with and carries around the house sometimes.

3) Toy Cars.

4) Music. Specifically Snacktime, music from Yo Gabba Gabba, "Change Your Mind" by The Killers, "Last Romantic Day" by The Rentals, pretty much anything by Raffi (but he really likes 5 Green And Speckled Frogs), and Rainbow Connection by...um...Kermit.

5) Being spun around in circles.

6) Peek-a-boo.

7) Hiding in the closet.

8) Running around naked before and after bath time.

9) Chasing you (or being chased) around the main floor of our house.

10) Saying hi to everything. "Hi blog!"

Things added by April:

1) Hugs (hugging Andy, especially)

2) Getting the mail.

3) Jumping.

4) Asking random things, "Where Are Yoooooou?" (It actually sounds like, "Are yooooou?")

5) Sorting shapes into his shape sorter.

6) Sorting colours, letters, and numbers into his foamy puzzles from Teach My Toddler.

7) Books!

8) Ming-Ming.

9) Laughing.

10) Being ultra-cute :)

Random Older Stuff

Here are some older random photos that I just didn't get around to posting at the time.

We took a walk at Lemoine Point but it was almost totally covered in ice!

Parker in our basement.

Parker laying on my back!  How did he get up there?

Here's a video of me hiding behind a corner and Parker racing over to see what's going on.

Kellen's First Birthday!

We had a busy, birthday-filled few days!  Here are some photos from Kellen's first birthday party!  What's with all of these babies being so old?  You can check out the slideshow here.

Connor's Second Birthday!

Here's a slideshow from Connor's second birthday on the weekend!  It's hard to believe he's 2 already!  He can do so many cool things, and he's so independent!  April and I were blown away by the way he talks and sits at the table by himself to eat dinner with a fork and spoon.  We still spoonfeed Parker!  He might grow up to be the only 19-year old in the world who still has to have his parents feed him with utensils.

Little Boy At Nana and Papa's!

We had a quick visit to Nana and Papa's house because we were going to cousin Connor's birthday party and here are some photos of Parker in the morning.

Hiding in the closet like he does at home, but this time without the pooping.  Also of note: we forgot Parker's winter coat at my parents' place.  Nice.

After eating some scrambled eggs.

Mugging it up for the camera, Parker style!

Super Brain Growth

April and I think Parker had a mini brain explosion in the past few days.  He's now able to string a few more words together (on the weekend he was saying, "Hi NanaPapa!" when he saw my mom and dad, which was pretty funny), and we also noticed that he has memorized all of the CDs we always play for him in the car!  He knows a lot of the melodies and beats to Yo Gabba Gabba songs and "Snacktime" by the Barenaked Ladies!  And he knows the words to a bunch of them too!  It's really cute when you're driving along and all of a sudden you hear a little boy singing in the back seat.  He's also learning more and more random words every day, and his manual dexterity is getting really good.  Instead of just cramming his shape pieces into the puzzle board, he now tries to find the edge and align it so the piece fits in smoothly.  And he's also a dance machine from the planet Funkatron.

Ahhh Yuuuuh Uuuuuu!

Here's a video of Parker saying I love you and bye bye to Mommy in the morning as she leaves for work!