Super Immunity

April has been SUPER sick with a really bad cold for the last few days, but the good news is that Parker hasn't had any signs of illness at all! Yay for immunity! We've been pretty lucky so far to have avoided any major illnesses or catastrophes for almost an entire year! I'm sure that will change when we actually let him hang out with other babies and stuff. For now he pretty much lives in a bubble with us 24/7, and with the long winter we've all been hiding inside for the last few months. Hopefully when April goes back to work Parker can still keep up his healthy streak!

Elmo Makes Music!

We took Parker to the brand new K-Rock Centre today to see Elmo Makes Music! We weren't sure if he would like it or not, because there was definitely potential for nightmarish monster costumes and loud scary noises, but Parker made it through the whole 90 minute show! At first he was a bit leery of everything, and he wanted lots of hugs to stay safe from all the singing and dancing (choreographed dance routines can be very intimidating). After a bit, though, he really warmed up and even started to bust a move to the Cookie Crumba-Rumba and Jenny's Sesame Street Band. The plot revolved around a music teacher named Jenny who just moved to Sesame Street, but her instruments were lost on a truck somewhere. The Sesame Street monsters (all of whom I recognized except for "Roxie Marie", who seemed strangely depressed for much of the show) were pretty entertaining and the music was catchy. I think Parker kind of liked it, even if he was a bit confused by the whole thing. Here are some photos.

Some pre-show table-climbing.

Okay, so this is a cheesy cardboard cut-out of Sesame Street characters that's actually an ad for some sort of vacation. But everyone was taking photos there and we wanted to be cool.

Here's Parker getting the lay of the land when we first got to our seats.

Me and the Bear in front of cheesy vacation sign.

Prairie Dawn rocking it out like there's no tomorrow. That's Jenny, the music teacher, making a wacky face in the background. Oscar The Grouch didn't get a lot of face time in the show.

Parker during intermission, clapping on mommy's shoulder.

Looking pensive, wondering why Jenny didn't obtain a tracking number or some sort of contact number for the truck carrying thousands of dollars of expensive musical equipment.

Visiting Kellen

April and Parker have gone on a road trip today to visit Claire and little cousin Kellen today! But before they left, I took a few photos of Parker crawling around and sporting his new jacket from great grandma and great grandpa W! Thanks! It's a little boy jacket!

I asked April to stand Parker up and hold his hands for a shot of his new jacket, and he decided to start walking! Not on his own, but if you hold his little hands he'll take off like a small turtle. It's pretty cute because he's a bit wobbly and uneasy, but he's definitely getting more confidence in his bipedal abilitles.

He also does a thing now where he'll spin his arms around in circles in front of him, which makes it particularly difficult to feed him if he's doing it in his high chair. Feeding him a snack yesterday was like trying to refuel a moving airplane with both propellers spinning in your face. Or, since I was on an Indiana Jones kick yesterday (must be the new movie), it was kind of like this.

Also, Parker has GIANT MITTS for hands. It's like he's wearing baseball gloves or something. Check out photo 2 and 3. Maybe he'll be 6'7" and have Chris Webber hands! Hooray for being able to palm a basketball and dunk!

Fling!

Today for his afternoon nap, Parker was kind of making some little noises and stuff so April went up to check on him (assuming he had pooped). Sure enough, he had pooped. When ever he takes longer than 15 minutes or so to fall asleep, there's usually feces involved. When she went into his room, though, he had done something totally new -- he flung his two blankets and two toys over the edge of the crib onto the floor. And he was laying on his back, with his legs up against the side rails pointing up! He so crazy.

German Baby

Our baby knows German! Every time he eats, he always goes, "Nein! Nein! Nein!" Hopefully he doesn't try to steal the lost Ark from Indy.

Grrrr...

You know how when you go to a restaurant and someone has a crying baby, it's all weird and awkward and kind of annoying? Before we had a baby, I was the grumpy guy that would always be muttering, "What's up with that baby? Why don't they pack up and leave if all their baby is going to do is cry? Clearly their baby isn't ready for a restaurant."

Today we went out for lunch with two other couples (one of whom is expecting a baby in October!) and we brought Parker along. He was a superstar champion awesome baby, sitting quietly in his little high chair, eating his little smorgasbord of pasta bits, peas, cheerios, and beans, and generally being very pleasant and nice to everyone around. He was smiling and doing his victory-arm-thing, and being super cute and everyone was having a great time!

Then a couple came in with a little baby, maybe 3 months old, and they sat right next to us. Their baby wasn't really crying per se, but the noises this baby was making might as well have been cries. Or yelps. Or something. Every time the other baby made a noise, Parker would do a pouty lip and then start crying too. Now, as a parent instead of a spectator, you just want to get your crying baby out of the public eye, but I don't think it's really as bad as you think (unless pre-parent me is sitting at a table next to you). We were pretty embarrassed because of the crying, but everyone was like, "Oh, he's fine! He's so cute when he's sad and crying!" I guess people love babies even when they cry, but I wish that other couple and their loud baby would have sat further away. Grr.

Quick edit: April read this post and said it sounded like I was annoyed with Parker crying, but that's not the case at all -- he's the best baby ever. We would take him away from the other crying baby and he was totally cool and happy again. But then we'd bring him back to the table and the other baby just wouldn't stop making crying noises, and Parker would get rattled again. So the fact that the other baby was so loud and kept freaking out our baby was what annoyed me. Whew.

The Prophecy Has Come True

My last post about Not The Mama has totally come true! This morning while I was feeding Parker breakfast he would look at me and smile and say, "Mama!" and I'd go, "Nooooo, Dada!" He'd look away for a second, eat some food, then look back up and go, "Mama?" Here are some photos of him in his Dino Rampage outfit, goofing around before a nap. And Superman, who used to be so big compared to Parker, is now reduced to being eaten because he's so small and chewable.

Not the Mama!

Parker pretty much officially said mama tonight when April was doing his bath! She held a washcloth over her face and said, "Where's mommy?" and Parker yanked the cloth down and said, "Ma...ma!" Hopefully he calls me daddy instead of "Not The Mama". He's the baby! Gotta love him!

Mad Skillz, Yo

I tried to get photos of Parker showing off his new skills (raising his arms over his head like he just won first place in a marathon, clapping, and making his powering up face). I don't know if the photos quite do them justice, though. Especially the powering up face -- it works better in person. So here's a tour of Parker's faces and arm-moving abilities:

Regular Parker:


Victory! He does this randomly and it always makes me laugh.


A rare combination: victory...........WITH A POWERING UP FACE!!!!!


Clappy McClaperson:

More Photos

Some more random photos of Parker playing yesterday. He just woke up from a nap and you can see the little pillow tattoos on his cheek still. His top two teeth have finally busted their way through his gums, too. And it looks like he might have two more on the way as well. It's weird how different he looks with teeth! And I think he smiles differently now, too. Like he's self-concious about the teeth or something. The shape of his mouth is a bit different, but he's still super cute.

Oh, I Forgot To Mention...

Parker figured out how to walk today! He took a stroll around the basement and then we went for a walk to the store. And he also said his first words: "Battlestar Galactica"! Season 4 starts this Friday.































April Fools. Parker didn't do any of those things. Mwahahahaha.

PARKER COMIN' TO GETCHOO (now with Ducky)!!!!!

A Day In The Life

Here's what Parker's day usually looks like:

Wake up: Usually any time between 6:30 am and 7:30 am. He's an early riser. April and I are not.

Breakfast: We usually have a breakfast of mushy cereal, Cheerios, some sort of fruit, and some water from his sippy cup about an hour after he wakes up, so this is any where from 7:30 to 8:30 am. April always tells me to give him a bottle before feeding him breakfast......but sometimes I forget. Don't tell her that, though.

Super Awesome Happy Fun Play Time: When he's not eating breakfast in the morning, we read books (well, flip through the pages), chase each other around the basement, knock things over, pull things off shelves, and climb on things. He loves music, so we usually play his CDs (Hi-5, Raffi) and he can dance around and be happy and stuff.

Nappy Nap Time: Parker is awesome at sleeping, which is great for us! We usually put him down for a nap 2 or 3 hours after he wakes up in the morning. So I usually put him in his crib at around 9:30. He plays with Superman for a bit by himself, makes some cute noises, climbs around his crib, and then he just goes to sleep without any fuss. April swore by the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and it must have worked.

More Super Awesome Happy Fun Play Time: Depending on how he feels, Parker will usually sleep for an hour or two and then wake up at 11 or so. We'll goof around in the kitchen or whatever and then it's time for....

Snacky Snack time: Usually some yogurt, or apple sauce, or some peas or cheese or beans or avocado.

Lunch: We try to have lunch as close to noon as we can, but depending on his naps and when he gets up, it can be tough. Lately he's been sleeping in, so everything is pushed back a bit. Sometimes we won't have lunch until 1 or 1:30. We used to feed him Mother Hen stuff for every meal, but now he likes to feed himself a lot more so we give him lots of little finger foods.

Afternoon Nappy Nap Time: Then Parker goes down for another nap in the afternoon, usually after his lunch and he'll sleep until 2:30 or 3. Sometimes he doesn't actually want to sleep, so we'll go and get him. He's pretty good about not being a grumpus maximus if he doesn't get two naps, so this is usually a good time to do errands or take him places (like Home Depot). He likes riding in the car and going places, and he looooves riding in carts at the stores! If we don't go out, we'll just play more in the basement, give him another snack around 3 or 3:30 pm, and then just relax.

Dinner time: We usually try to give him dinner by around 5 or 5:30. More finger foods and healthy stuff for him. April does his bed time routine 99.9999% of the time while I usually clean stuff up in the kitchen.

Bedtime routine: After dinner, Parker goes upstairs (with help from mommy), gets nekkid, and has a bath. After his bath, he gets a little massage with some powder, has some relaxing quiet time, listens to his mobile play a lullaby song, and drinks a bottle. Mommy puts him in his jammies and he goes to sleep on his tummy by 6:30 pm usually. Yay!

Late Easter Visit

April's parents came over for a nice lunch yesterday and got to spend some time with Parker! Here are some photos:





And here's Parker mugging it up for the camera a whole bunch. Here's a shot of his crazy long eyelashes.

And here's his face being happy.

And here he is doing little baby squats to pick up a coaster. If only he'd vacuum as well.


Here he is jumping around in his Fortress of Solitude (also known as his "crib").

Powering Up

Parker does this funny thing where he'll be sitting in his high chair, eating lunch or whatever, and he'll suddenly flex all of his muscles really hard, bug out his eyes, and stick out his lower jaw, and vibrate a little bit. It's pretty funny to see because he does it out of the blue. And then if you do it back at him, he giggles. Every time it happens, it reminds me of Goku from Dragonball Z powering up to a power level of 120,000 or so. Hopefully Parker doesn't uppercut me into the moon one of these times!

Testing Video

Just testing a video (no sound) that I made earlier today. It kind of looks like old security camera footage, because the frame rate is really slow and there's even some weird distortion built in. I almost expect Parker to rob a convenience store and make a hasty getaway at the end of the video (after reading "My Pretty Kitten" and "My Goldfish Wish", of course).

Little Boy Clothes & Smorgasbord

Here's Parker wearing some of his Christmas clothes (they're still a bit big on him) but it's nice to see him without pajamas on. At least for a day anyways. Parker is getting more mobile all the time, and now that his legs are stronger he can do little baby squats -- he'll be standing, holding onto the coffee table, and then he'll squat down to pick something up and then stand back up without ever sitting on the floor! He has also been doing a lot of dancing (he looooves Hi-5!), so I'm going to try and get some video of it soon.





Here's Parker with his little smorgasbord of foods. He's eating some avocado, cheese, peas, and beans. He followed that up with some apple sauce and a big sippy cup full of cold water. Mmmm! While he was eating the avocado, I started to sing the tune to Frère Jacques, only with the lyrics, "avocado, avocado, yum yum yum, yum yum yum, you like avocado, you like avocado, yum yum yum, yum yum yum," and he seemed to get a kick out of it. Or he thinks my singing is laughable. One of the two.

Parker And Daddy

Here are some photos of Parker and I before we went out for a walk yesterday afternoon! It was actually colder than we thought because of the wind, so we didn't stay out too long, but it's always nice to get some sun and fresh air. Parker is sporting his newly-altered Nana Hat and mittens. April's going to put me out of business with her mad photo skillz.

And if you had a chance to listen to Robot Number One by Hi-5, does the tune remind you of anything? Are Seth Green and I the only ones who remember those old commercials?

If You're Happy And You Know It...

We finally taught Parker how to clap! It's super cute! He just figured it out yesterday morning while we were eating breakfast, and then he did it a bunch of times (on purpose!) today. I think it's the music. He's got the soul.

Speed Demon

Here's Parker having a blast on the scooter-thing he got for Christmas! He doesn't push himself, but I think he has more fun when April and I push him anyways. Plus, we make it go light speed and he seems to really like that.



And here he is being attacked by mommy and giggling.


Here's Parker after a bath wearing a dinosaur towel. He kind of looks like the monster from Cloverfield, but cuter.



He loves to pull on the toilet paper roll and mess it all up. I think all babies like doing that for some reason.

Parker Loves Music

Ever since Parker was a cute fetus we've had music playing in our house. Now that he's a bit bigger and actually has a bit of balance and co-ordination, one of his favourite new things is to bust a move when catchy music comes on. Currently in our CD rotation:

Raffi: Singable Songs For The Very Young

Name Your Tune

And Parker's (and by "Parker" I mean "Garrett, April, and Parker") newest favourite, the greatest children's singing group ever:

Jump and Jive With Hi-5

Parker and I found Hi-5 by accident one morning when he was cruising around the basement and I was flipping through the channels trying to find basketball highlights from the night before. Channel 17 is TheScore, but channel 16 is TLC, so on my way up to 17, I saw a clip of their show on TLC. They have the catchiest songs EVER. We just got the CD a few days ago, and they're already burned into our brains. I woke up this morning and as soon as I opened my eyes I was like, "HIDE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO TEN!!! READY OR NOT, I'M GONNA FIND YOU AGAIN!!!!" When Parker hears their music, he always shakes his little bum and it's super cute. He can be sitting "reading" a book, or in the middle of crawling around, and he'll stop and break it down. Here are some of their songs so you, too, can have them etched into your brain:

Ready Or Not

Robot Number One

Move Your Body

Dragon Sance (songlet)