The Ussery Update

Parker Holt, you are 18 months old - 1 1/2 years old.  Six months from now we'll be celebrating birthday #2!!  How is this possible?!  You are getting so big and growing so fast. Before we get to a few more current pictures and what you are up to at this stage of your life, let's take a trip back down memory lane and look at a few photos showing your growth. Three months old... Six months old... Nine months old... 12 months old... And what a difference TWO years makes.  Here is Mommy pregnant with you two years ago at this same time of year - late August 2011.  ( Note - I know this is a lot of write-up, but I want to document what Parker is up to these days) You will go to the doctor on September 4th for your 18 month check-up and shots (boo!).  I am anxious to see how much you weigh and how tall you are - it's been a while since we got your measurements.  The last time you were weighed was at the end of June...

It's a sad, sad day in the Ussery house.  We had to make the difficult decision to put our sweet, beloved Calvin to sleep today.  While we know he's now at peace, completely healed and much more comfortable, it's so hard to let him go.  The hardest part is that he has been a part of our little family from the beginning.  John and I got Calvin two months after we were married so except for a short time, he's been with us and a part of our life together.  He would have been 11 in January...we are so grateful for the 10 1/2 years we had with him.  For 9 of those years, he was our only child.  Through the years from being newly married to the years we had struggling to have a child, he was our "baby". He was definitely a spoiled little dog - he got lots of love!  We have countless wonderful memories of Calvin and so many things will remind us of him everyday.  Already as I look around ...

Oh blog - you have been very neglected - my apologies, but more on that later. For now...to the cute stuff! I snapped a few pictures of Parker early Monday morning.  He's is definitely like his Mommy in that when the day has dawned, he likes to get going and get busy - no time to waste. Our normal routine is to have a little playtime for about 30 minutes or so before we eat breakfast so these pictures were taken not too long after he woke up. This boy of ours LOVES books - he looks at them and we read them all throughout the day.  He definitely has his favorites so John and I practically have some of them memorized.  It's so neat because he's starting to point and name things in the books.  His vocabulary is really coming along and luckily we speak "Parker" so we can understand what he's trying to tell us.  It's so sweet to see him pick out a particular book and have him bring it to you.  Some of them he will give to you ...