by Rachel | Family Life
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.
by Rachel | Family Life
Parker rolled over onto his belly for the first time almost exactly two months ago, but it wasn’t until this week that he showed any interest in rolling onto his back. While he was playing on his piano mat the other day, I noticed that he was attempting it, so of course I pulled out my phone in the hopes of catching him in action.
Talk about determination, right!? He definitely struggled the first couple times, but once he learned to get his arm out of the way, he was a rolling machine. Now anytime I lay him on his back, he flips over to his belly in the blink of an eye. Here’s a video I took of him this morning. Notice the progress since yesterday!
Diaper changes have become quite the challenge, because Parker doesn’t have time for laying on his back long enough to get a new diaper fastened. He got to show off his new skill today at baby group, although I think he is jealous of the babies who are already sitting up and starting to crawl. Those things are next on his list!
by Rachel | Family Life
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.
by Rachel | Family Life
Check out this little monkey! We weren’t sure how Parker would like being dressed up in his first Halloween costume, but he didn’t seem to mind one bit…not even the headpiece or giant feet.
He was a good sport for our photo shoot, and will have a couple more opportunities to wear his costume before the week is over: to the Halloween party at baby group on Wednesday, and on the big day Thursday when we take him “trick-or-treating” to some of our friends’ and families’ houses. I’ve never been a fan of Halloween, but I have to admit it’s fun dressing up an adorable baby!
by Rachel | Family Life
Remember last week when I went on and on about how well Parker was sleeping through the night? I totally jinxed myself by writing about it, because the very next night, we were up at least 4 times. The next couple of nights weren’t great, but there was a little improvement over the course of the week. I’m still waiting for that full night’s sleep, though…
We’re pretty convinced that the sleep troubles — as well as the crazy amounts of drool, fussiness, and desire to put EVERYTHING into his mouth — can be attributed to teething. But for the most part, he’s still our happy little guy, full of smiles and giggles.
Nothing too exciting happened this week; it was SO cold that we spent most of it at home, staying warm and cozy. We did go on a couple of walks before the the temps really dropped. I try to get as much use out of the Ergo as possible, because there is nothing better than having Parker snuggled up against me :)
We found out at baby group on Wednesday that Parker is finally up to 13 pounds! 13 pounds, 2 ounces to be exact. I’m not sure about his length since his last checkup, but it seems like he’s grown another 6 inches. This kid is sooooo long. His 3 month pants are starting to look a little short, but he still has a ways to go as far as filling them out.
We ended week 19 with a little pre-Halloween photo shoot of Parker in his costume. I wasn’t sure how he’d do wearing it, but he seemed to enjoy “monkeying around” in it. Pics to come!
