I’m backdating this, but the truth is I have fallen so far off the blogging wagon, I can’t really see the wagon ahead of me in the distance…but I’m going to try. Parker is now three years old!
Three years since we had this sweet not-so-little (8 lbs, 8 oz) baby boy looking so innocent in the hospital room.
My how that spikey dark hair has changed!
I have a hard time thinking that first picture is Parker at all, but with that pout-face in the second picture, I can tell that is Parker!
He was such a good little baby. He slept through the night at nine weeks and was content to be the happy-go-lucky second baby. He never really would take a bottle, but he went to bed easily and made life not too hard on us. When he started smiling, he did so with gusto. His whole face smiles when he is happy. Here he was at six months:
All his hair fell out and it took awhile to come back substantially. But it did. Here he was at about one year old:
By the time he was 18 months, it was time to give that curly mop a trim…and he was still all smiles.
Before we knew it, he was two!
Then six more months passed and he was two and a half…
And now he is THREE! THREE YEARS OLD! I cannot believe it!
Where do I start to talk about Parker!? He is a troublemaker! He loves to laugh and he laughs the hardest when he knows he is doing something he should not do. He thinks he is quite hilarious when he is being mischievous!
But while he likes to have fun and be funny, he also does not like to disappoint you or make you sad. I’ve worried sometimes that I’m setting him up for some lifelong issues because when he will not listen and do what I ask, I will tell him, “Parker, you are making Mommy sad. Do you want to make me sad?” He will say no and then vow to do whatever it is he needs to do to make me happy. If I pretend to cry, he will bawl and promise to behave. He has a great heart. He does not like to see anyone sad or hurt; if he does, he expresses concern and wants to help.
He loves to give love. He still loves for me to hold him and if he really doesn’t want me to let him go, he still wraps his legs around me like a monkey and squeezes tight. He is still my little Monkey. Other nicknames I call him are Monkey-doodle, Doodlebop, Parkie and Park-Park. He also is still an avid…thumbsucker. 
Parker thoroughly enjoyed his first year of school. He wanted to go on days when he did not and he eagerly looked forward to the days he did go (Tuesday and Thursday mornings). He loved his friends and teachers dearly and gets SO excited when we see his friends outside of school. His teachers said he was delightful and loving. Developmentally, they said that despite the fact he was the second youngest in his class (and a boy), he was developmentally on track with all the other children in his class.
The only area in which he might lag is potty training. We are working on it, but I think I need to get serious and throw out the pull-ups and institute a potty boot camp around here. Strangely enough, he does great with one aspect of potty training (#2), but not with the other. Go figure. He must be potty trained by mid-July when he is scheduled to attend camp at his school, and I think it will happen. I’m pretty sure his love of school will help when we tell him he cannot go unless he can successfully wear underwear!
Parker is a talker. I understand what he is saying most of the time and he has tremendously improved his speech. He makes a conscious effort to properly pronounce words that begin with two consonants and now it’s starting to come naturally enough that he doesn’t have to try so hard (words like “speed” were “peed,” but now he can say it right!). He still has a bit of a problem with the letter “R” sounding like a “W,” but he is trying. It’s funny though because today he was wearing his “Robin” costume (of Batman & Robin). He said I needed to call him “Robin” (but it sounded like “Wobbin” when he said it to me). I said, “Ok, Wobbin.” He said “NOOOOOOO!!! Wobbin!!!” I said, “Wobbin?” He said, “NO! WOBBIN!” And I said, “Oh, ROBIN!” And then he confirmed, “YES!!! WOBBIN!” So he KNOWS what it should sound like, but he just can’t quite say it yet. Otherwise, his vocabulary is great and he knows all of his letters and numbers (the basics).
Parker is still an independent child. He likes to do things by himself and he will let you know that he is perfectly capable of doing just that! He enjoys being outside and got a bike for his birthday. He loves riding it, but gets a little nervous if he starts going too fast!
In terms of sleeping, it’s funny that he was such a good sleeper as a baby because he is not such a sound sleeper now. When he was about 18 months he got several ear infections in a row over the course of about four or five months. These infections disrupted his sleep and he started learning that if he cried at night, his Mommy would come eventually. Around that time he also seemed to start having more frequent bad dreams that caused him to cry out at night, even though he is usually still asleep. This has continued for the past 1.5 years. Sometimes he is crying out and it wakes me, but when I come to him, he is not really even awake. Or he’ll be crying about something and I can’t understand what he is saying. When he truly wakes up (after I calm him), he can’t ever remember what was making him upset. Also, Thomas will sleep through a bad thunderstorm…Parker will not. He also does not like fireworks or any loud noises.
At three he is a decent eater, but he would prefer to eat fruit all the time if he could. When we go to Chick-Fil-A, I have to beg him to eat the chicken nuggets, but he would gladly eat three or more bowls of fruit. Frequently I have to make him eat his meat first and then his fruit/veggie. His favorite place to eat out would probably be either Moe’s (he likes a burrito with rice, chicken and black beans) or Jason’s Deli (chicken and cheese wrap).
His favorite person HAS to be his big brother. He loves Thomas and wants to always know where he is. They fight with each other sometimes, but they also love each other dearly. I love watching their relationship grow.
He also has other friends and he loves to spend time with all of them. His teacher told me that he got along with all of the friends in his class and everyone loved to play with him. He did tell me one day that his best school girlfriend told another little girl one day that Parker could not be her (the other girl) friend because Parker was all hers.
In looking for pictures for this post, I saw this old picture of Parker and his first friend, Sarah Ellen.
And here they were a few months ago:
It is so crazy how quickly time passes! I cannot believe our baby boy is three. It’s hard to think of him as a baby since he weighs 40 pounds now. Yeah, our little boy who was born weighing in the 90-something percentile, then dropped to the 40th percentile for quite some time, is now exceeding the 97th percentile. He is a BIG baby boy…and he is, sadly, THREE!
Slow it down, please!
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