Winter is my least favorite season. I can’t stand the cold and snow, so I leave the house as little as possible from January to March. Luckily now I have the perfect excuse to hibernate, thanks to my little bear.
(I should make it clear that I was not present when this photo was taken; Zach and his cousin Matt took Parker out into the snow for 5 minutes so he could have his first experience in it. I was happy to stay nice and warm at home.)
We were lucky enough to escape winter and celebrate the New Year in south Florida, where it was 80 degrees and sunny. We stayed with my grandma in Naples for the first part of the trip, and she got to spend some quality time with Parker for the second time since he was born. He’s changed just a little bit since we were last there in August!
We left Naples and met Dustin and Kristin and their adorable new baby, Jackson, for brunch. It was so much fun getting to meet him and hang out with both our babies. After that we headed to Deerfield Beach, where we stayed with Sally (one of my best friends from college) and her husband, Enrique. They have two little boys, Ricky and baby Donny, who’s only 3 months old. We had a wonderful time during our short stay, which included a trip to the beach and a nature center.
We ended our whirlwind trip and got home juuuust in time for a huge blizzard and polar vortex…so, that was awesome. More hibernating before getting back into the swing of things with work starting back up. That’s always a little difficult after 2+ weeks off for the holidays, but it was nice to get back into a routine.
And of course, part of that routine is taking Parker’s weekly photos. He is getting so big; he has completely mastered sitting up on his own, and can even pull up into sitting position all by himself. He loves to stand most of all, and we practice his “walking” all the time. He has the backwards crawl down, but is still working on going forward.