Saturday, July 30, 2011

Enjoying Each Day

Parker loves his car!


Parker is changing everyday! He is army crawling everywhere! He is super fast too. They say babies sometime skip crawling & go straight to walking, this will be Parker. He loves pulling himself up on things and just standing there watching the world. He has also learned to use his tongue more. It's weird, one day he just started sticking his tongue out more while he was chewing on things, like he was eating an ice-cream cone. Ray & I were dying laughing because he looked so funny!! So we then decided it was time to try giving him a Cherrio again (didn't go well last time, see older post) and he did great. We only gave hike one...we didn't want to push our luck.

Ray & I have been regrouping. What does that mean? We are trying to make sure we know what our long term goals are and have a plan to get there. One of our goals is to move back to Hilliard to be closer to our families. We also want to buy a smaller house on some land. To make sure we are working toward that goal we have been cleaning and purging. We need to live with less and get our house ready so when we are ready to make a move we will be prepared. We are getting ready for a garage sale next weekend and whatever doesn't sell will be donated. This has been a therapeutic process & has helped make our relationship even stronger!! Love you all!!

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Sunday, July 24, 2011

8 months old!

Parker is SO big! Happy 8 months!
(I put crying pics in so you know he isn't happy all the time!)


My brother has a waterproof camera so we had some fun in the water. He loves to pool and bath time. We also just got him a little raft for the pool. It's been too hot but we hope to use it soon.

Last but not least.... Parker got a new/old chair! :) The first picture on the left is my brother (Jim/Jimmy/James Mehl). My Grandpa & Grandma Mehl had this made for him when he was about 3 years old. My parents had the chair reupholstered for Parker! The picture in the top right is me!! My brother took this of me on my first Christmas. Great memories!! :)


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Winds of change...

Well, Parker is now 8 months old. Wow, time is flying by....

On his 8 month birthday I decided it was time to end his last breastfeeding session. This was the night time feeding. I am/was dreading the final weaning off because of having to go to work and be so full. Well it worked out that I will be home for 5 days in a row due to working from home and vacation days. SO we are jumping right in. It's a sad ending but also a new beginning. I haven't been too sad about certain things but I was emotional. Parker did fine but mommy was a little teary giving him a bottle. With the ending of one chapter means the beginning of a new...

I love you Parker and I am so glad I was able to breastfeed you as long as I did! You have had a great start and I hope I have set you up for success.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Diaper time

Well Parker had some diaper time tonight... He was spending time in his diaper because he doesn't like the texture of Cheerios...

YouTube Video

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Saturday, July 16, 2011

This is why...

we make sacrifices...



But when you are making a sacrifice for someone you love it's not really a sacrifice! :)

We love Parker so much! We are learning the meaning of unconditional love & so much more. Who couldn't love that face!?!? :)

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Sunday, July 10, 2011

First 4th of July

Parker's self portrait :)


Uncle Brad sharing his hat



Family Pic :)

Cry It Out & Weaning

Well, I decided to propose that we start letting Parker "cry it out" at bed time. He usually falls asleep nursing and sometimes would wake up in the middle of night. To try for a better routine I decided to try it. Ray was skeptical about it actually working. He had tried it many times at nap time but he was not following the method correctly... he would pick Parker up and then lay him back down. Ray was waiting to say.... I told you so... but it worked! Parker cried for 30 minutes and then he was OUT! He slept from 8:30pm-7am! Over the past 5 nights he has cried it out 3 of those nights and slept straight through the night and for at least 9.5 hours. We are all very happy!

Parker is also being weaned off breasfeeding. I am very happy & proud of myself for breastfeeding as long as I have. He will be 8 months old in a few weeks and by that time he will be weaned. We are very lucky that he was able to switch from bottle to breast with no problem. I was pumping at work twice a day and it was very challenging. Ray would feed him what I had pumped so he had breast milk the majority of the time. We were using formula as needed when we where out and about. That also has helped the transition. We have been SO lucky that it has been going so well and that he has been so healthy. I really have loved breastfeeding and bonding with Parker but I would be lying if I said I was going to miss it.

Here is to big changes and more to come every week! I will be posting some pics from the 4th of July! :) Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

We have teeth! (yes plural)!!

Parker finally let me take a picture of his TEETH!
He really didn't have a choice since he was strapped in his car seat riding around at Target.
Don't you love the look on his face!?!? Look how not straight those teeth are...
Guess we should start saving for braces now.

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