23 months old!

Parker is now 23 months old!  (And of course he has been for nearly two weeks, but whatever!)


I've decided after next month, I'm not going to try every month (or even every other month) to take pictures in this chair with the bear and bunny.  Why?  Because the boy will not sit still and it is quite apparently his mission in life to make taking a good photo of him as difficult as possible and frankly, I don't need the stress!  I love him dearly, but I don't enjoy fighting with him to take these pictures (all the while he is laughing his little head off, by the way).  But anyway, back to the update!

Our little mischief maker is nearly two.  I cannot believe it!


Before I write an update each month, I go back and first read what I wrote about Thomas at the same age.  It helps remind me what to include and it's also interesting to compare.  Thomas at this age could recognize almost all letters of the alphabet and was "starting" to say his ABCs.  Parker has been saying his ABCs for quite some time, but cannot seem to gain much interest in actually learning the letters.  Everything is usually "M" to him.  On the other hand, I feel he is much further along, verbally, than Thomas was at this age.  It's so interesting to see how children truly develop at their own pace. 

Parker talks quite a lot and he says, many, many words.  He is starting to form sentences more and more (usually 2-3 words at a time).  Many nights lately it takes him awhile to fall asleep and I so enjoy listening to him chatter in his bed.  Tonight part of it went something like this: "Daddy work.  Parker Charleston.  Mommy here.  Thomas here."  *SNEEZE*  "Bless you." *giggle* "Go walking. Thomas bicycle.  Hi Mommy.  Hi Thomas.  Hi Park-Park. Hi Jack.  Hi Griffin. Hi Carly.  Go see 'em."  (Jack, Carly & Griffin are our neighbors)  Needless to say, he cracks me up. 

Parker loves to look at books and he loves for us to read to him.  However, the books can't be too long or involved or he will lose interest very quickly!  His favorites are Jamberry, any of his Gossie books, Elmo books and other books about cars, trucks or buses.  He frequently will finish my sentences as I am reading a familiar book, or he'll say something about something on the page I'm about to open before I turn it.  For example, yesterday before I turned one page he said, "Coffee," and I had no idea what he meant until I turned the page and he pointed out a woman holding a coffee cup. 

Parker is still very independent.  He frequently tells us "Self!" when he wants to do something on his own.  He doesn't really like to be made to do anything and he will pitch a total fit when we do.  He can be extremely defiant and strongwilled, but he usually is smiling as he does it.  He's a mess!

Two weeks ago, Thomas had a rough week and accidents seemed to find him everywhere.  This past week it has been Parker's turn.  He has scrapes all over his body and each one represents a different incident.  In this picture you can see where he busted his lip on the stairs, and later that day he had added a scrape between his eyes and another on his temple.  


Right now he also has a pretty nasty scrape from falling on the sidewalk on his knee.  And another on his arm.  Hopefully I can get both these boys healed for at least a little while!  

It's hard to contain him though.  The other morning I put him in his crib while I tried to get ready.  He attempted to crawl out (which Thomas has shown him to do before) and I caught him (thanks to the video monitor).  So I set up the pack n' play in his room and it took him about 10 minutes before he crawled out of that!

Speaking of the crib, sleeping has become a bit of a challenge.  For the first two months of his life, Parker slept ALL of the time.  Like 20 hours a day. And then at nine weeks he started sleeping through the night.  Not long after that we could put him down at 6:45 and not hear a peep from him for the next 12 hours, or more.  Then he battled a variety of ailments last month and ever since, there have been VERY few nights of uninterrupted sleep.  He cries out quite frequently.  Sometimes I ignore him and he quickly goes back to sleep.  Sometimes I go in his room and can see he is sleeping, but crying out, and I rub his hair and back and he quiets down and goes back to sleep.  Sometimes he stands up and starts asking for food (sometimes he'll say something like "LUNCH!" or "Cheese toast!").  And less frequently lately, he wants his wet diaper changed.  Some nights I am up 5-6 times a night (and he wakes me up at least that much..even when I don't go to him).  I really don't know what is going on.  My bright ideas have run the gamut from possible ear infection (ruled out), to nightmares, to growing pains.  I wish I could figure it out so we could all sleep a lttle easier!

He has definitely been growing.  I can't wait to get his measurements, but he seems SO MUCH bigger (though his foot is smaller than Thomas' at this age, I feel that Parker is taller and definitely heavier).  He wears size 5 diapers and mostly 2T (or larger) clothes.  Though for as much as he seems to be growing, his appetite is definitely hit and miss.  Some days he wants to eat and eat, other days I can hardly get him to eat much at all.  He always keeps us guessing!

Enough chatter, here are the rest of the best I could manage with our photo session.  I think they capture a good bit of his personality.

Here he is, thinking of trouble:


And here is trouble.  Also a good shot of why we need to get an SLR camera because nothing else is quick enough to get a non-blurry shot of this child. :)


And here he is, quite annoyed when I tried to force him to sit for a picture:


And now, calming down and letting me know that he is over this photo thing.

(He still sucks his right thumb while he twirls his hair with his left hand.  His hair is his security blanket.)



Speaking of his hair, he has actually had two or three haircuts. But we don't cut it too short!


For all the times his defiance drives me nuts, there are 100 times his sweetness warms my heart.  My mom and dad say that his behavior reminds them a lot of me as a child.  I guess what goes around, comes around, right?  :)

I cannot believe he is almost two!