Parker's Room

Do you remember Parker's old room?

No more living in a closet for this little nugglet! He'd like to take you on a tour.





Where's Parker??

This is the view from his window. We spend a lot of time at that pool!

Also, please note these awesome blackout curtains that I made:
Here's a picture when the curtains are drawn. It's actually not as dark as this picture makes it out to be, but it still blocks out a lot of light which has been very helpful for naps and sleeping in past 6:00am.

It's Hot!

I've become a softie- anything above 90 degrees makes me melt. At our old apartment we had central AC and discounted utilities, so we had no problem keeping the thermostat set at a comfortable 74 degrees. Aah... those were the good old days! Now we have a wall unit that only cools down the front room, and I think that even if we ran it all day, the temperature in our apartment wouldn't fall below 78. At least we're in a downstairs unit. Most of the time we just leave the AC off and hope that the fans will provide enough relief. We are adapting, though, and have closed off the entrance to the kitchen (which has a big window facing the sun) with our shower curtain and we keep the bathroom door closed too. It helps, but I'm certainly looking forward to cooler days.

Here's Parker beating the heat at one of the local splash pads:

Beach Day

This week Huntington Beach hosted the US Open of Surf and this morning we went to go check out the action. We've been in the past, but always on Saturdays, and it's always been so crowded. Lucky for us, this year we got to go on a Friday (since Paul has Fridays off) and we got front row seats on the beach to watch the surfers. Also lucky for us, we got to see Kelly Slater surf and Paul and Parker got their picture taken with Rob Machado.

Afterward, we went back to our apartment to meet up with our friends Nate and Brittany and then went to Surfside Beach where Nate and Paul caught some waves of their own while Brittany, Parker and I played on the beach.

OC Fair

The moms in our ward have dubbed Wednesdays as the "Boredom Buster" day. It was apparently started at the beginning of the summer for older children who are on summer break and each week one mom hosts a field trip. Some of the activities are beyond Parker's appreciation, but last Wednesday we joined the group at a park with a splash pad and yesterday we went to the OC Fair. I'm not sure how it worked with the older kids, but for the younger ones, we all just showed up after naptime. Unfortunately we didn't see any other kids from the ward... or maybe we just didn't recognize them- we're still getting to know people, but it was still lots of fun! Kids under 5 are free and I got in free with some clothes donations. All we had to pay for was parking. Score!

We started at the petting zoo. You could buy food to feed the animals for $5, which we opted not to do... obviously. I'm not spending five bucks on a handful of stinky little hay pellets. Plus, Parker wouldn't know what to do with them anyway. Well, when a little old grandma offered some to Parker, I was sure he'd eat them himself or just throw them on the ground. I was so surprised to see that after he watched some other little kids feeding the animals, Parker knew what to do with those pellets. Granted, he was too scared to actually open up his little hand and we left without the food being eaten, but it was cute nonetheless.

We then made our way to the other animals- camels, birds, goats and Clydesdales. Then we stumbled upon the arts and crafts tent and next the food competition tent. It was so awesome! We saw everything from quilts and paintings to cookies and cakes. We were there about two hours and Parker was so good! No crying and he didn't even get antsy from being in his stroller for such a long time.

Parker Likes Dogs

Our neighbor has two little yappy dogs and several other people in the complex have small dogs too. Whenever Parker hears them he gets so excited and starts either woofing at them or talking to them in a high pitched voice. It's so cute to see and I've always sworn that I'd never get a dog, or any pet for that matter, but seeing how much Parker loves them might someday make me change my mind. The other day we showed Parker a YouTube video of a dog to see how he'd react...