What Parker Does

He embarrasses us sometimes.

• He went up to a girl at the park, who was Latino, and pointed and said "Dora! Dora!"
• He saw a bearded man at Sweet Tomatoes and shouted, "Jesus!"
• He announces his bodily functions... toots, burps, and thinks fake sneezing is hilarious and will say ah-ah-aH....ah-choo! over and over. We were at Red Lobster on my birthday and he projected loudly, "Mommy, I fart!"

He loves animals.

• I took him to a park with lots of trees and we saw lots of squirrels. He chased them and would shout, “Squirrel, come here!” He'd point at them up in the trees and follow them. He'd get a little whiny because they would not come to him.

He loves to see them temple.

• We drive past the Portland LDS temple everyday and he points to it and says, "Tembull!" in a whiny voice because he wants to go there.
• If he sees any temple or even a castle, he shouts, "Tembull."
  

He loves people.

• We can’t talk about either grandma without him whining that he wants her.
• He loves his friend from daycare, Zach. When we take the exit to Tualatin, he knows we are getting close to his house and gets excited.
• At the ward's Trunk or Treat Halloween activity, Parker gave his friend, Sophie handfuls of candy from our bowl.
• He says, "Sorry" lots... really, he overuses it. If a kid at the park runs too closely to him, he says sorry. He shows compassion to others and if he hurts us somehow will pat us or hug or kiss us.
• He does get nervous around lots of people, especially at my school when Grant and Parker visit on Mondays and everyone is saying, "Hi Parker!", but he ends up giving high fives and fist bumps.
• He does well with other kids at nursery and his day care. Sometimes he is good at sharing; sometimes he's not.
• "Daddy, where are youuu?" and "Mommy, come here" are come commonly spoken phrases. He is saying more and more complete phrases and sentences.
• He must have my sense of direction. If we are heading in the direction of home and within a mile, he will announce, "HOME!"
  

He loves all vehicles.

• Because he loves vehicles SO much, we look for opportunities to expose him to them. We have taken the bus to downtown Portland and taken the Light Rail several blocks. We have run around the Bus Transit Center. Parker and I have taken the train down to Albany to see airplanes and hot air balloons. We have been out to PDX and to the Hillsboro airport.
• He is fascinated with anything that moves. From the car, he will call out everything he sees, “Car, car, TRUCK, digger, train, car, flag, hamburger (when he sees McDonalds).

He loves to read.

• His favorites right now are “Goodnight Moon,” “Are you my mother?,” the "David" series, and anything about vehicles.
  
• He reads to me. Here is how "Are you my mother?" goes: "Egg, jump, jump, drop. Cat. Mother?... NO! Chicken. Mother... NO! Dog. Mother?... NO! Cow. Mother?... NO! Digger. Mother?... NO! Nest. MOTHER!" He is really comprehending and looking at context clues. I think he will be an early reader. :)
  

Other cute things about Parker

• Whenever he sees a picture of a big cat- lion, tiger, etc., he says “Tiger!” and puts out his hands and roars.
• He will answer the question, “What’s your name?” and sounds so cute as he says “Park-er!”
• Sleeps with his stuffed monkey and Sesame Street Blanket every night.
• Says, "Mommy......I Me Mew", which I interpret to mean I love you.
• He can say "Happy Birthday!"
• He loves to sing and often hums along to hyms at church too.

We love our little boy. He will be 2 November 7th. I can't believe it. He is as big as many 3 year olds, but is still our baby boy.

Pumpkin Patch

He LOVED the calves. The greyish tan one was only 4 days old and part of the umbilical cord was still attached. They were so cute and weren't afraid of Parker at all.
Staring down the Mamma pig. He was nervous around her. She was huge and protective of her babies.
He had a good time with the chicks and wanted to climb in their pen with them.



Climbing up to the rafters. I'm really glad he came down by himself. I really didn't want to go up there.

He fed the cows hay and would tell them, "Eat, cow!"


On his first horse, Scout.

He did not want to pose for pictures and would not look at the camera for anything. How do people get nice pictures of their 2 year olds?!
He loved that the stem came right off!
He counted the pumpkins.

"Mommy, more bubbles"

Parker loves taking his nightly bubble bath. He says over and over in the sweetest voice, "Mommy..... more bubbles."

He is so serious as he plays with the bubbles and pours out the water.

This isn't his favorite part. This picture makes me laugh though.

Parker counts

Well, he does much better than this now. He does count 1-13 perfectly, but then skips to number 20. He counts every step when going upstairs; loves to count wheels; number of cars he sees, etc.

Grant's century ride & our outings

Grant has been training for a long bike ride for awhile and he completed the Century Harvest ride in October. It was actually a 104 mile bike ride. I am so proud of him. He averaged about 16 miles per hour. It was a very windy day, but the weather was nice. He rode with Nic from church. His wife and I are in the primary presidency together. We coordinated a cheering effort, which really inspired our riders.

Parker was so upset that Daddy didn't stop!

They had quite a ways to go still, so we went to an Apple Farm.

Parker liked seeing the pigs, but they were really wild at first and it scared him a bit.

My sweet boy!

He loved this hay maze. He wouldn't leave it and would just go back and forth.
He loved going to a dead end and saying, "Nooooo!"

We took a hay ride out through the apple orchard and sat up front so we had a good few of the tractor.

Inspecting the tired piggies.

He made it! At the finish line.

Looking proud.

I start school & Parker and Grant go to the beach

At first he hesitates because he is getting dirty.

Then he starts to dig in.

Then he slides down dunes and ends up COMPLETELY covered in sand. It stuck everywhere sunscreen was. The bottom of the bathtub that night was covered. Watch the video.

Sealions in Newport Bay.

His reaction to the sea lions.

While Grant and Parker played at the beach, I was at school. NOT FAIR! I wish I had a 4 day schedule too (except I wouldn't want to start work at 6am). I must say I have one of the best classes I've ever had. 26 students compared to the 32 I had last year. Nice, respectful students. I also have a student teacher.