CicLAvia

For one glorious day each year, LA closes nearly eight miles of downtown streets for pedestrians, cyclestrians, and the like. What a neat experience to enjoy LA without cars! If only it was always like this...

Quarter of a Century

A couple weeks ago I turned the big 2-5! I was thoroughly spoiled and loved every moment. Paul woke up early with Parker, made crepes, and set out the flowers he'd been hiding since the previous night all before I woke up. That evening we went out to dinner and got a pizza and a pizookie! Yuuuuuummmmmm!


Paul insisted that I have a birthday cake too, so the next day he made an almond cake with raspberry sauce and whipped cream per my request.

4th Anniversary

Our anniversary was on August 25th, but we celebrated it a couple weeks later by going to Catalina Island. Trudy came down and watched Parker for the day so we could explore the island baby-free. We were able to sit in a private cabin on the ferry ride over where they brought us drinks and snacks and provided blankets and magazines. We felt very posh. We brought our bikes on the ferry, which made seeing all we wanted of the island possible. Most of the locals get around via golf carts. Once we docked it was non-stop excitement! We took a bike ride towards the center of the island to the botanical gardens. The bike ride back into town was so fun and soooo fast- we got up to almost 25 mph! Then we rented kayaks and made our way over to Frog Rock. The water was so clear we could see to the bottom and saw lots of fish swimming about. Then it was on to snorkeling at Lover's Cove- how perfect for celebrating our anniversary! Lover's Cove is a protected research area where the fish are well fed and not afraid of humans- they'll come right up to your face and say hello. It was such a fun day! Many thanks to Trudy for watching the lil' Parkster and my dad for buying our ferry tickets.

Solid

We fed Parker solid food for the first time last week. He seems to do okay with the rice cereal although at times he seems a little confused. We decided to get really wild and let him try peaches. Boy, was he in for a surprise!













Definitely love at first bite.

6-month-old Parkito

I'm amazed at how Parker grows and changes every day. I feel like I say that a lot, but it's true. It was only a month and a half ago that he first grabbed at something. Since then he reaches for things, passes objects between hands, and puts everything in his mouth. He is most interested in things that Paul and I are holding- cell phones, drinks, food, books, remotes, the computer, you get the idea.

He hasn't started on solids yet, but I think we'll start soon.

Paul's convinced that he's teething, but nothing has popped through his gums yet.

He still tripods sometimes, but now he can sit up without the support of his arms. When he falls over, it's usually a slow fall and doesn't hit the ground very hard. (A big relief for me. Darn our cement flooring covered with cheap industrial carpet!)

He can roll from front to back if provoked long enough, but it happens rarely. He can roll from back to side, but I haven't seen him roll all the way to his front yet and I'm really not in any rush to have him roll around, so where's he's at right now is just fine with me.

I think his hair is getting lighter- all except the little tuft in the back we affectionately call his "mud flap." It's right below his bald spot and is dark brown.

His eyes are still sparkling blue! Yay! I thought they might change color, but now that we've hit the six month mark, I think they might be here to stay. The first comment strangers have about Parker is always about his big, beautiful eyes. I have to agree with them, his eyes are big and beautiful.

Parker knows when we're talking jibberish and he'll laugh and laugh. He also likes to be tickled. His favorite tickle spots are his chunky thighs and neck/shoulders.

After all our travels Parker's sleep habits were all messed up. We had to let him cry it out for two straight nights (worst thing ever!) but he got right back on track. The time has come when his nap times are consistent. Woohoo! I've been waiting for this! He wakes us around 7:30 and takes three naps and then goes to bed around 6:00 or 7:00. I've found that his naps are longer if I swaddle him, so I do. I didn't want him to become swaddle-dependent, so I tried to break him of the habit, but his naps were shorter and he was so cranky. I guess we'll be swaddling until he moves out of the house! :)

We went to the beach last Saturday and Parker got to play in the waves.



I love being Parker's mama for the most part, but there are just a few things that I'm having difficulty adjusting to. The biggest is that I sometimes feel trapped at home. The opportunities to go out are so short. Once he wakes up from a nap, eats and goes potty, we usually only have an hour or so to run a few quick errands. I rarely accomplish more than one errand at a time before we have to come back home. And forget about going anywhere more than five miles away; in LA five miles can translate to 45 minutes of sitting in traffic. And while that 6:00 bedtime sounds great (I know I shouldn't complain, it's mostly awesome), it means that we are home-bound before the sun sets. I often have church obligations after 6:00, so Paul and I try to work it out that on those days he'll come home from school promptly after his last patient to watch Parker, but sometimes he gets held up in the clinic and on several occasions I've had to wake Parker up to come along with me. It would be great if he could continue sleeping in his carseat, but no such luck. Invariably when this happens, he wakes up a lot during the night. For some reason it's been really hard to find babysitters. I guess the problem is mostly mine- I feel guilty asking people to babysit even though all they would have to do is watch tv and make sure the house doesn't burn down. A wise father of mine reminded me that this is part of the sacrifice that comes with having children. So true...

Here's Parker on his six-month-old celebration day (can you call it a six month birthday?). One smile like that melts my heart and I forgive him for being such a good sleeper.

The Great Tripod

These milestones are so exciting! I was going to post a movie of the first time Parker rolled over, but it's pretty sad to watch; he basically cries for four minutes and then in a mad desperation throws his weight in order to get off of his stomach. Just trust me on this one, he can do it.
Sitting is a much happier milestone.

Boy Meets Girl

We've been busy bees lately and I'll probably post more about all our adventures later, but I just had to post this movie now. Jenni and I met in elementary school when I lived in Orem. I remember the first time I went to her house in second grade (or was it third grade?) and she showed me a magic trick, but she wouldn't tell me how it was done! Thank goodness for those counseling sessions that enabled me to get past that so we could be friends today. For the most part Jenni and I try to be the same person. Her birthday is four months before mine, but I always feel like I'm whatever age she is. On her birthday it's always, "I can't believe we're (insert age)!" Jenni and Jacob got married a few months after Paul and I. Jenni's baby girl Scarlett was born two weeks after Parker, but her due date was two days before. (We didn't even know the other couple was trying to get preggo!) To make it even more interesting, both our babies were breech, so we both had c-sections. To give you some perspective, only 5% of babies are breech at term.

We have obviously decided that our babies must wed. This movie is of their first date. In true Sadie Hawkins fashion, Scarlett bought Parker a matching outfit.