10 Months and growing...

Parker is now 10 months old and I have to pinch myself.  I can hardly believe he is going to be 1 in just a couple of months!  I am absolutely amazed at how quickly the time passes, where in the world is my baby boy?! 

I was trying rather hard to get a shot of all of Parker's teeth but could only get his top 4 so, of course, Grant wanted me to take a picture of his teeth too, silly boy!

Look at that wild and curly hair on top, Frank is threatening a haircut!  I think we'll wait until we're in Iowa and let Randy have a chance at it for his first haircut just like we did with Grant.

Last week  Parker started saying, "ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga!" and it is music to my ears.  I, of course, am trying to get him to say, "Ma, ma, ma, ma!"  He is eating more "people" food, bagels, bread, grilled cheese, animal crackers, goldfish, bits of grapes & fruit, chocolate chip cookies (thanks to your Dad!), and more and more of a variety each day. 

I still consider you to be a great sleeper but teething has bothered you and gotten you up occasionally at night.  You take a morning and afternoon nap, 1 hour and 15 minutes a piece and almost always that length.

You LOVE to stand and walk while holding our fingers.  If we are anywhere near you while you're sitting on the floor you get really noisy letting us know you want some attention.  You still love to play and watch your brother.  Grant isn't too great at sharing his toys and you are already giving him a run for his money as you become more and more mobile and grabby of his things!

We love you Parker, you are pure sunshine little bear!

playing dice

Grant and I were looking at photos on my phone this afternoon and Grant saw a picture of Great-Grandma Sophia and asked to talk to her.  I told him that I badly wanted to talk to her too but that she was in heaven now.  He said, "She's playing games."  I asked him what he meant and he said, "She's in heaven playing dice."  Here is his last memory of his time with Great-Grandma Sophia over Christmas and you know, I believe he is right, she's probably up in heaven playing dice having a grand time!

randomness

Here are just a few random snapshots from the past week or so of the boys and our happenings.

Grant likes to burrow into our ottoman to watch his "shows!"  He's such a little turkey!

Here are a few phone pictures...Grant wanted me to take this of his fireman shirt, he has asked to wear it everyday since it was made :)  And, for whatever reason, he likes to have his mouth wide-open when I take his picture?!

The rain came back today so we had to go for a little walk around the block with our rain gear.

Here's the bird mobile I made and hung over Parker's crib, quite simple, it's made with a tree branch from our yard.  I'd also like to note it was hung for approximately 24 hours and then took down because he seemed to dislike it in a very, very strong way.

Here's our Bear swinging, swinging, swinging at the park last week.

currently

Grant has thoroughly enjoyed his Tumble Tots class this winter/spring and Grandpa and Grandma O got to join us while they were here.

Here he has just found the Bear while going on a bear hunt!

After class he and his best bud, Jack, debriefed with Parker, too cute!

Grant & Jack having some "fishies" and "suns" on his new picnic table from Grandpa and Grandma R. for his birthday!

On Saturday, the weather actually cooperated, and we volunteered to help assemble the new playground equipment at our neighborhood park.  Frank describes it as putting IKEA furniture together but with pictures only and NO order of assembly!  It was fun for our whole family and we trust our kids will all play on it for years to come!

Happy Mother's Day

It is always special to have my Mom visiting on Mother's Day and since Grant's birthday is May 10, we usually are fortunate to spend them together.  Thanks Mom for making the trip, we love you!

And we now have a 3 year old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We celebrated Grant's birthday a few days early so we could have his birthday party at the fire station over the weekend!  He woke up Saturday morning to this in the living room, WOW was he excited to start his weekend! 

Grandpa and Grandma O came for a week to help us celebrate our little boy's special day!  Thanks so much to Grandpa & Grandma for making the trip!

This was party prep stages...melting crayons to make fire engine crayons for fun party favors!

Here we are at the fire station getting the tour, Grant was in heaven...and being led around by his cousin Olivia and friend Grace, he didn't seem to mind all of the attention ;)

Here he is inside of the fire engine

Here we are at the park right next to the fire station for cupcakes & present opening.  Our prayers were answered, the firemen were at the fire station and NOT at a fire when we got there and the rain stopped just long enough for us to play and have fun at the park!

There was a friendly goat next to the park and the kids enjoyed feeding it pretzels through the fence, ha!

The cousins, minus Parker

This was the sight when we got home.  Poor Grant had run out of steam, he decided to just lay down on the kitchen floor with his fire engine crayon and color there, too funny!

God's work

We had the pleasure of working alongside our care group family, a couple of weekends ago, to serve our community.  We did God's work (Grant liked to say that!) at a single mom's farm which consisted primarily of yard work, weeding, planting, moss removal, etc. 

My little farmer ;)

Grant working with his buddy Lucas...lots of weed killing by those two :)

Parker Bear had to sit on the sidelines for most of the afternoon but he stole the hearts of many with his little grins and giggles!

Grant made friends with a hen that wouldn't leave us alone

And then there were the sheep which he wouldn't leave alone either!

Grant and a few of his girlfriends, Abby, Grace & Juliet

Music Debut

Grant made his music debut at our bible study, CBS, their Spring Program was a few weeks ago.  He did great, little actual singing on his part, but great none-the-less!

Yes, at this point in the program (which lasted probably a total of about 5 minutes), Grant was the only one sitting on the bottom step, while everyone else was standing, ha! 

Parker much prefers to be standing these days and here the boys are playing at our ottoman, I love this sight....there is hope that they may actually entertain each other someday! 

We made our first "nice weather" trip to the zoo a few weekends ago, hopefully this will be the first of many over the course of the coming months!  Grant's two favorites, the drums in Africa and the elephants.

Grant at the zoo with his good friend Juliet.