Free Download: “Little Red Apples”

This might be my favorite weekly photo yet. I know I’m 100% biased, but this baby is quite possibly the cutest creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. My heart seriously leaps every morning when I pick him up out of his crib.

Not a bad way to start my day. Occasionally Parker will wake up crying, but most mornings he’ll entertain himself for quite a while…babbling, blowing bubbles, rolling around. I love watching and listening to him on the monitor, but it’s that smile on his face when I walk in that gets me every. single. time.

Morning playtime is the best, because now that he is sleeping so well, he is always in such a good mood. We usually lay on a blanket and play with toys, though now that he is rolling so much, he’s off the blanket in a matter of minutes.

I made a bigger effort to get out and about this week, mostly because it’s easy to go stir crazy spending so much time cooped up at home. Last weekend was gorgeous, so we made two trips to Washington Park. The first one was on Saturday, when we met up with Grandpa Alan and Grandma Jill.

On Sunday, we went on a walk with my friend Jen and her baby Ellie — Parker and I are going to miss those walks now that it’s getting so cold. Speaking of cold, it legitimately snowed on Monday. SNOWED. In November. Not cool, Mother Nature, not cool. I keep it nice and toasty inside so Parker can be comfortable in just a onesie, but we bundle the heck up to leave the house.

We found a few reasons to get out and brave the elements this week: shopping at Target, baby group (as always), getting my oil changed, and other random errands. Grandma Betsy came to babysit on Thursday morning while I visited a kindergarten classroom for a singalong, which ended up being lots of fun. I did a lot more of that kind of thing pre-baby, so it’s extra special when I have the chance nowadays.

As great as it is to get out, I think Parker is happiest when we’re just hanging out together at home. He usually chills in his swing while I vacuum the house, but he is enjoying it less and less now that he prefers being upright all the time. Can’t you tell by the look he’s giving me? The jumperoo is his apparatus of choice these days.

This is all probably very mundane to read, but I’m learning that I have to find joy and excitement in the routine. Next week we are off to Florida for my music therapy conference, so that will provide some much-needed adventure! No matter what is happening in our lives, it’s all good because, this.

Guess who is 5 months old?! Parker is becoming quite the mature little man — getting older, gaining weight (almost up to 14 pounds), rolling all over the place, and working on sitting up by himself.

But lucky for me, despite getting bigger he still loves snuggling up in the Ergo whether it’s to go grocery shopping, walk to grandma’s house, or just do some work around the house (as pictured above). I read this blog post about a mom’s last time wearing her baby, and it made me so sad to think about that time coming for me. It’s not happening in the near future, though, so I’ll just keep enjoying the snuggles.

Each time I sit down to write these updates, the past week seems like a blur. The days fly by, and I have a hard time remembering exactly how they were spent. We have our weekly happenings, like going to baby group every Wednesday and doing a bank/Starbucks run every couple of days, but other than that, my memory is a jumble of tummy time, jumperoo’ing, nursing, reading stories, impromptu photo shoots, and trying to fit in a little work here and there.

That’s the story of my life, now that I’m a stay-at-home/working mom hybrid (which, in itself, is a whole other blog post for a different day). With lots of travel, holidays, and other fun things coming up, these blog posts will hopefully be a bit more interesting! Until then, I’ll leave you with an adorable photo of Parker sound asleep in his new coat with ears on the hood.

The first thing I noticed when I looked at Parker’s 20 week photo was how chunky those thighs are getting! He’s nowhere near a “chunky monkey” but it seems like he adds a new little roll every day. Yay!

This week has been a big improvement over last — mostly because Parker (and therefore, all of us) slept much better. Not only are our nights more restful, but Parker has been either sleeping in or going back to bed after an early morning feeding, which has given me some time to work or be productive around the house.

This is a pretty typical snapshot of Parker playing in the morning after he wakes up. Hanging out in his footie pajamas, wishing his feet were bare so he could snack on them. What a goofball.

We kicked off the week with a day trip to Peoria, since Josh and Jeni (my brother and sister-in-law) were in town. They moved to Denver over the summer and hadn’t seen Parker since he was brand new. The funny thing about this picture is that the baby had just spit up all over Josh’s sleeve, so I wiped it up with a paper towel and kept taking photos until I got a keeper. Needless to say, Josh was ready to hand Parker back over at that point.

Poor, poor Sadie. On top of having to deal with a new baby these last few months, she’s had TERRIBLE allergies since August. After several trips to the vet and different treatments, she finally got an allergy shot this week that seems to have done the trick. But that hasn’t stopped her from being a big couch potato every night.

Recently I put together Parker’s high chair, and it has been awesome letting him sit in it while I do things in the kitchen. He will entertain himself with toys for a good 20 minutes or so, and I’ll pull him up to the kitchen counter with me while I eat lunch. He looks like such a big boy sitting in it!

Parker celebrated his first Halloween this week, and of course, he had an outfit dedicated to this occasion. He also had no fewer than 3 “My 1st Halloween” bibs, courtesy of Grandma Libby. With all the drool he has been producing, we actually did make use of all 3 over the course of the day.

Lately Parker has wanted NOTHING to do with laying down. He is a BIG boy, and wants to sit up like one. Unfortunately he can’t do it on his own yet, which is what Mommy and his Bumbo seat are for.

As I was going through my photos, I realized that I only have a handful of Parker and I together. Mostly I just have a million of him all by himself. These aren’t the best quality since I took them myself, but I like them because Parker looks so darn cute :)

Last but not least, here’s a quick video I took of Parker reacting to me singing his favorite song, “A Bushel and a Peck”. I have sung tons and tons of songs to him, but this is the one that always makes him smile and cheers him up when he’s crying. If we are in the car and he gets fussy, I play the version I recorded on my iPhone over the speakers and he instantly calms down.