Parker And Daddy's Excellent Adventure

Parker and I are out of town shooting a wedding this weekend, so here is a little photo diary of our trip from Kingston to Dresden today.

Parker and I, fresh and ready to go at 8:30 in the morning! Although I look more ready to go than Parker does.

He still looks unsure, but he had a nice ride, and the timing worked out really well. He ate breakfast at our house at 8, then we hopped in the car.

We pulled over at around 10 to have a quick snack and walk around a bit. What better place to pull over than The Big Apple? Here's Parker in front of it. It's actually pretty big, but I didn't want to leave him close to the apple for scale. He's just a little boy and one of the many tourists could have scooped him up and ran away with him.

Here's Parker enjoying a llama.

Here is the llama to be enjoyed.

Parker thought the llama was super funny, and he also enjoyed the dirty, rusty chain on the fence! We'll be going for tetanus shots later on.

Toronto! Yay!

We pulled over at 11:30 to go to Parker's favourite restaurant ever: Swiss Chalet. He loves the chicken and mashed potatoes.

Here's Parker messing with his place mat. This photo was actually taken post-meal, but Parker spent some time earlier colouring on the back of the place mat and smiling at all of the waitresses. He loves waitresses.

Here he is reading some trivia on the place mat. You can see where we were colouring earlier.

After lunch, we hit the road again. Parker tried to stay awake but he couldn't! He fell asleep at about 1 pm and slept until we pulled off the highway!

Dresden! Yay!

Parker Vs. The Vacuum

Parker has a love/hate relationship with our vacuum.  On one hand, he thinks it's kind of big and loud scary, but on the other hand, it makes him laugh when we push it around.  A lot of times when I vacuum I'll put him in his playpen so he can just sort of stand there and watch, but here he is on the loose while April vacuumed the main floor the other day.  Parker is sporting his new jammies, too!  He's a bit young for the military, though.

"Greetings, fellow traveler!  Have you come to join me for some ale?"

"Forsooth, what kind of sorcery is this?"

"Perhaps I should investigate further."

"Eh, it's not so bad."

Rainy Day

It's been rainy and gloomy all morning so we had an indoor today (well, mostly indoors -- we made a quick trip to the post office earlier on). Here are some photos.


Parker loves looking outside through this window to see what's going on in the neighbourhood. Sometimes he'll see a woof woof (dog), sometimes he'll see a caaaaaah (car). I'm glad our window goes all the way to the floor! On some of the other house designs for our neighbourhood it only goes halfway down.

Parker found a hidden stash of books in the bottom of the closet and seemed quite pleased with himself.

Here I am using sneaky ninja photography skills to capture Parker in a super quiet, candid moment playing with his shoes. I really like this photo.

He has a mild obsession with his shoes. But he's getting really good at understanding what you're saying. I'll say, "Let's go outside, Parker! Get your shoes!" and he'll respond by saying, "SHOES!!!!" and then he gets them and brings them to me so I can put them on. So cute.

A closeup of his new Stride-Rite runner.

A blurry photo of Parker as he spun around to see what I was doing.

Parker was in super nerd book mode this morning. We must have read 100 books ("Five Fish" was a favourite). And if I would go to do something, I'd find him sitting quietly reading by himself. Smartest little boy ever? Probably.

Wondering why I keep taking photos of him.

We were listening to a live, acoustic Radiohead album and when the crowd starting applauding after a delightful rendition of Paranoid Android, Parker decided to join in. He's so polite like that.

Yo Gabba Gabba - I Found Love

Parker and I went to CostCo this afternoon and then stopped by April's school for a visit at 4 pm!  Then when we arrived home Parker was kind of tired and hungry so I made a little plate of croissants and cheese and gave him a sippy cup of milk and we sat down to watch Yo Gabba Gabba at 4:30.  Best afternoon ever.  

And now here's Jumpy Jump Jump.  So catchy.

It's Gotta Be The (New) Shoes!

Every time Parker has any shoes on I always name the post that old Nike catch-phrase. Here are some photos of him trying out the new ones this morning!

Parker Weirdness

Here's an example of Parker's weirdness. Today while he was messing around with our shoes, he decided to do this:

He stacked them in a weird pattern on the stairs with his diaper bag and Cheerios tupperware thing. We all know what THAT leads to................

Mmmmm... mashed potatoes.....

First Day With Daddy (Again)!

April went back to work today so it was a Daddy and Parker morning! We left at about 8:45 to go do stuff, and here are some photos of our travels:

Stop 1: The Bank. Here's a photo of Parker and bank guy Andrew after we opened his first account. Hooray for money! Parker looks indifferent to bank fees and marketing emails.


Stop 2: After the bank we headed over to Kiddie Kobbler, to buy some new shoes. His old ones are a bit tight, so it's time for an upgrade. We bought an awesome pair of cool blue running shoes, but I didn't take any photos. Maybe tomorrow he can run around the house in them and I'll fire away.

Stop 3: Here's Parker in a familiar locale: CostCo! We're in the battery aisle because I was looking for a super battery charger that will charge about 20 batteries to a near-nuclear state. Unfortunately we didn't find one, but Parker DID find...........................

Funny lights on the ceiling!

Stop 4: Foodland. Here's Parker buckled in and ready to head to the grocery store to buy a whole chicken. We like to split one for lunch. It's what we do.

Stop 5: Home! After his chicken-lunch Parker thought it would be a good idea to be happy and cute.

My mom is actually staying with us for a week while April adjusts to being back at work and I finish up some wedding shoots, so it will actually be a Nana and Parker week!

Last Day Of Summer

Since April had to go back to work today, we went down to Fairfield Park yesterday to enjoy the last day of summer! We left our house at around 9:30 am when it was nice and cool, but by 11 am it was about 300 degrees. Luckily Fairfield Park is just down the street from our house! It's weird living near the lake because we have seagulls flying around our neighbourhood all the time. That's strange to me. Here are some photos:

Parker loves the swings, which bodes well for the fact that he didn't get motion sickness from me! Yay!




Parker also seemed to really love the slide. At first he was leery, probably wondering why we were propping him up on million-degree plastic for his hot, sweaty thighs to stick to.

But as he slid down his smile got bigger and bigger. He ended up climbing back up the slide (which seemed like a ride for him in and of itself) and going down a few more times. He even went down head first a few times just because he's a boy like that.

How did this photo of Daddy get in here?!?!?! We're reading about Mr. Brown's ability to moo.

Mommy tickling Parker.


For some reason he thinks sunglasses are HILARIOUS. Like, funnier than Futurama and Family Guy combined. So April held his hands back (because you can't get near his face with sunglasses without him giggling and grabbing them) and I stuck them on his face.


"It's-a me!"

Here's Parker in the morning before going to the park in his big boy jammies. Two pieces! When he heard Mommy at the top of the stairs he almost burst into flames because he was so excited!

Parker at the park enjoying a delicious snack of Cheerios.

Mommy and Parker reading about how cows say moooooo and sheep say baaaaaaa!

He randomly figured out how to drink through a straw. Weird.

Hallowe'en Already?

Okay, so it's not quite Hallowe'en yet, but April picked up a costume for Parker the other day. Here's a photo of him trying it on to see how it fits. He doesn't look convinced yet....