1. his big cold bottle of soy milk.  I realize that he is old enough where he could ditch the bottle but I have done some reading up on this and I'm not worried.  Stewart ditched the bottle when he was ready and it wasn't like he was still sucking it past 3.  The bottle is very much a comfort thing for both of them and 99% of the reading I have been doing about bottles say that it is often not work the misery for both us and the baby to ditch the bottle before they are ready.
2. Balls. Parker loves balls. This is one of the first words he learned to say, "BALL!"  He loves kicking them, trying to throw them, pushing them, rolling them, throwing them down the stairs.  He especially loves our gigantic stability balls.  the big cage full of balls in Wal-Mart always elicits a "BALL!" from Parker's little mouth.
3. Independence - if he could change his own diaper, i think he would.  He doesn't want you to do anything for him.  He won't eat bites unless he scooped it up himself.  He wants to carry his blanket, his ball, and anything else his little heart desires as he tries to make his way down the stairs.  He wants to use the potty by himself.  He's cute about it.
4. SHOES - Parker loves shoes.  He has quite the little shoe fettish.  Actually, both Parker and Stewart have quite the little shoe fettish.  It's another cute word that he says, "shouss."He likes to try to put the shoe on his foot, when he can't do it he walks up to you and says "shouss." He sits down and lets you put the shoes on and then he kicks them off and starts all over again.   At first, it's cute and it gets obnoxious very quickly.
5. his blanket - Parker has about 20 blankets (I got a little excited when I was buying the layette alright!) and his favorite blanket is the fleecy blanket that I picked up at walmart.  That particular trip, it started raining and I didn't have anything with me to cover him up in the carrier, so i bought this cheap blanket to throw over it as I went out to the car.  Well, it's his favorite blanket.  Luckily, I had the foresight to buy another one.
   
6. Books - he loves looking at books.  He likes the same books that Stewart did when he was that age.  He likes to flip through the pages and bark at the dogs or say "APPLE" really loud and proud.  his favorite book is the DOG book from his Aunt Kristin. The little doggies wag their tails and their heads, and one dog even lifts his leg to pee.
7. Water Bottle - we have this big $.97 water sprayer bottle that we got for Stewart from Home Depot.  They both love it.  Parker really likes to run up on you and spray your legs with really cold water.
8. the body parts game- I need to get this on video because it's really cute.  If you ask him where his hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hands, tummy and feet are - he shows you - in his cute little baby way.  it's precious.  I love it when he pulls his shirt up and pats his tummy.
9. to dance to music - it usually just involves him bobbing or waving his head from side to side - but Parker likes to dance.  sometimes he will spin around and shake his body.  I think he gets it from Stewart.
10. PARKER LOVES HIS BROTHER - On the weekends, "Brother" or "Bobo" is the first word out of his mouth.  And if I tell him, "Go get your brother" he will waddle into Stewart's room and wake him up.  Sometimes they sit in Stewart's bed and laugh and giggle and sometimes they come in and snuggle.  Parker likes to follow Stewart around and he wants to do anything and everything that Stewart does.  Stewart doesn't mind it right now - but I'm sure the day will come when he finds it annoying.

I took these this morning.  I have silly kids.

I couldn't get him to give me his "good" smile.  Goofball!

1. Spinning class is addictive.  It's the longest, most painful, sweaty, suckish hour of my day - but i keep coming back for more.  I got a heart rate monitor - also addictive.  I know I'm working hard in the class but the HRM tells me how much calories I have burned - which is never as high as I think it should be.
2. I'm at a weird phase in my life where I don't feel like a kid anymore.  I know that sounds ridiculous - but the other day at lunch, I was sitting there with 2 co-workers and we were all talking about work and it kinda dawned on me that these women see me as a co-worker, not as someone considerable younger than them.  I feel like I should know about stuff that I don't really pay attention to - like politics, religion, etc.  I guess I need to be more on the up and up and pay attention to adult things.
3. I'm trying to have a new perspective on work.  While it's frustrating I keep reminding myself that I could be the roadkill cleaner upper or the guy that has to empty the porta potties. 
4. My Little Parker is growing up so fast.  He watches the world go by him and he wants so much to get up and be a part of the action.  He is doing great sleeping in his bed.  Ocassionaly he will get up after he has been laid down for the night or for a nap.  You always hear his diaper swishing around and then I see his little smiling face peek around the corner.  And he toddles into our room with his blanket draped over his shoulder and his bottle in his other hand.  He stands there smiling - he knows he isn't supposed to get up but if he just looks cute enough he thinks he might get away with it.
5. Stewart - my big first grader.  He is such a funny little boy.  He got the class clown award at his summer camp - no surprise there.  He is so sweet.  He is the best big brother.  He helps without complaining, he does sweet things for Parker and he is always looking out for him.  Sunday, Parker woke up and went straight into Stewart's room.  Sometimes he will come stand next to my side of the bed (if he gets up.  most of the time he lies in bed crying.)  But yesterday morning, he got up, walked himself into Stewart's room, woke up Stewart and then they sat in Stewart's bed laughing and giggling.  It was cute.  If Stewart is sitting in the chair or on the couch, Parker wants to climb up and sit with him, in his lap if Stewart will let him.  It's cute.  i knew he would be a good big brother but i didn't anticipate his tolerance and patience.

Parker - who will be 17th months on the 30th - just peed in his little boys potty.  I took off his diaper and sat it on the edge of the tub.  He sat down on his potty.  Parker reached up and grabbed the diaper and shoved it in the bowl underneath him.  (I thought it was very smart of him.  He understood that his diaper and the little potty are for the same thing!)  He sat there for a little bit and then he did it!  He peed in his potty!

Mommy is so proud of her little boy.

Yesterday was a busy day.  I had another Sunday afternoon cooking marathon - which could have been more fun had I not had a ton of homework hanging over my head.  After almost 4 hours of cooking, I sent the boys to the basement and I locked myself in the office.  I needed to write an assignment on Faust (which I didn't read) and I needed to do 4 other little assignments and one big assignment for my middle childhood development class.  Procrastination is not my friend.

I'm sitting in the office and I'm cranking out work when Bill pokes his head in the office and apologizes for disturbing me but says I need to come out and see something.  I get up and walk out of the office and he goes around the corner and is standing by the front door facing our empty formal living room.  And he looks back at me and says, "Stewart caged Parker.  And for some reason he is naked."

This is what I see - Stewart is breathless from running around acting like a crazy man making Parker laugh.  Parker is lying on his back in the pack N play - totally naked.  He is laughing and giggling and rolling around.  He has his ripped off diaper in his hand and he is waving it in the air like he is surrendering.  Parker's jumper is in a pile on the floor, right next to the pack N play.

Bill and I aren't exactly sure how Parker's outfit came off - but I know as soon as it did, Parker ripped his diaper off.  He's been doing that a lot lately.  They were having so much fun doing their own thing.  I don't know what it was but Stewart was running around and Parker thought it was the funniest. 

Look at him all stretched out in his bed!  He is doing awesome sleeping in it - now that it isn't really a crib anymore.  He has only gotten up about 5 times (not bad for almost 3 weeks) and he fell out once.  Last night actually.  Bill and I were watching TV when I heard the loud heartbreaking THUD followed by the crying.  I ran into his room and scooped him up off the floor.  As I was trying to comfort hime, I recognized the stench of a muddy diaper.  I wonder if he was trying to squirm around because he had poop in his diaper or if the fall made him poop!  Poor baby.