Big Boy

It's still so hard to believe that we are starting the second year of Parker's life.  He'll be 13 months old next week and still changing daily and constantly doing new things.

I entitled this "Big Boy" because these pictures represent ways that Parker is transitioning into a little boy. 

Parker is starting to wear more shirts and pants rather than just onesies or onesies with pants.  He still wears a good amount of onesies, especially if we are staying at home all day, but he's starting to transition into more top and bottom outfits.  They make him look more grown up.  These pictures were taken on the Tuesday and Wednesday after his birthday.  As you can see, he enjoyed playing with his birthday balloons after the big day.   

Parker's also starting to have favorite shows and characters that he likes. One of which is a cute cartoon called "Bubble Guppies" (which he is watching below). He got a DVD of episodes for his birthday. Either on TV or if we are in a store, some of the characters he recognizes and "names" are "Dora", "Elmo", the "Bubble Guppies" and "Max and Ruby" to name a few. Just yesterday at Wal-Mart he pointed to a Sesame Street toy and said "Melmo".

Yesterday was a BIG day because Parker got to ride in his car seat facing forward for the first time and he LOVED it!  His feet were starting to press against the back of the seat when facing backward, since his legs are so long, so we decided it was time to make the flip.  John got the seats installed facing forward over the weekend, but yesterday was the first day he got to ride in it.  We went to buy groceries and do a little shopping yesterday and everywhere we went he was in awe and looked around all over.  He was so amazed - as if his little brain was saying "WOW".  I tried talking to him and interacting with him as I usually do in the car and it was like he didn't even hear me.  He was in another world and had so much fun.  

And last, but not least, Parker is officially a walker!  About two weeks ago, he started talking a few steps and would fall down, get back up and take a few more and then fall down again.  Then he got to where he could take more steps at one time, but was still pretty wobbly.  As of today, he still has moments where he has to check his balance and might fall down from time to time, but for the most part he walks all over the house...and boy can he move - man, he is fast!  Again, he loves it so much.  I think he feels such freedom to be able to stand up and walk anywhere he wants to in the house and he does.  We thought keeping up with a crawler was a lot of work. 

Something new Parker is doing, just over the past couple of days, is he will hold up an item or point to something and want you to tell him what it is and describe it a bit.  He'll hold up some of his animals and want to hear the name and what sound they make...or he might hold up a shape block and want to know the color and shape...or he'll point to things in books and want a name and description.  Last night, he emptied his entire toy basket in the living room wanting me to tell him about everything in it.  It's so neat to see him interested in learning about new things.

He's getting really good too at remembering things we have told him or shown him.  He has a chunky wooden puzzle with different trucks and one of them is a firetruck and everytime I say, "Parker, where is the firetruck?", he will go to his puzzle and pick up that piece.  I can also ask him, "Parker where are the snakes? (or flamingos...or penguins...etc) and he'll find his book with those animals and point to them.  We get such a kick out of him knowing and remembering what we have tried to teach him. 

Always something new and fun with our little Big Boy!

Until we meet again...
Riley