Shoes Shoes Shoes Shoes...

Here's a funny old video from the summer (he's wearing shorts!) of Parker trying to walk around in my slippers while singing this song about shoes from Sesame Street. He likes the part at about 1:11. Who knew Neil Patrick Harris was a singing machine? We did, that's who.

I like how, when he almost trips, he goes, "Whoa! Oof!" :D

"Who's That, Daddy?"

Another thing Parker has been doing recently is asking a lot of questions. It's super cute, because he always ends his question by saying Mommy or Daddy. So throughout the day, we'll go through a hundred different questions such as:

- Who's that, Daddy? *pointing to a guy in a book or in a store*

- What was that, Daddy? *after a loud noise*

- Where are we, Daddy? *while driving around*

- How are you, Daddy? *randomly throughout the day*

- What's that, Daddy? *pointing at random objects*

His little voice is so cute! Plus he never stops talking, so there's always plenty of stuff to talk about. The only time he's quiet is if we're in a new place with new people (then he's kind of tentative and shy). But when it's just us all day long he doesn't stop!

Parker Recommends....

"The Foot Book", a Dr. Seuss Classic.

Jack's First Birthday

A few weekends ago we were invited to Jack's first birthday party in Toronto! I used to live with Jack's dad back in the day so it was cool to get a chance to see everyone and meet the families now that we're old men with babies. Here are some photos of the party (but not too many because I don't want to splash all of Jack's stuff on the web without their permission).

Parker playing with a cool blue truck. That was me who wrote PARKER on the paper, not him.

Loot bags! Boo yah.

The most delicious cupcakes ever. Parker and I may have had three.

It was a busy party with lots of people to meet and stare at!

Joel rocked out some tunes for the babies on his guitar. Joel starred in a Queen's Players show that I played drums for. He sang "Song For The Dumped" by Ben Folds Five and it was awesome.

Parker taking a photo of himself.

Big rock n' roll finish!

Thanks again for the invite! We had a great time! And not only that, but Parker loooooved going under all the over-passes in Toronto. He thinks they're all bridges and they might be his favourite things ever. Well, besides mailboxes.

Papa Nana Playing A Game

Here's an older video of Parker singing the "Nana/Papa Playing A Game" song while he eats applesauce with his thumb. It's the only way to eat applesauce, really. I think this was maybe a month or so ago?

New Nana Hat!

Here's Parker sporting his new Nana hat! I think he likes it! :D Thanks, Nana!

Brrrr!

It's getting cold out!

But Lemoine Point is still pretty nice. :D

SPOON!

One thing we haven't been very strict about is the use of utensils. Parker usually has the option of using a fork or spoon, but 99% of the time he'll just pick stuff up with his hands and eat it. Lately he's been more interested in cutlery, I think mostly because his dexterity is a bit better so he can actually do it properly. Here he is using a spoon on some cereal.

Say Cheeeeese!

Here's Parker taking of photo of me taking a photo of him.

And here he is trying to find the image on the LCD. I think he might need a bit of an upgrade for that.

Edited to add: LOOK AT THOSE MITTS! Huuuuuge!

Wake Up, Papa! Wake Up!

My mom had a workshop at Wool Tyme so while she was working, Papa came for a visit! For some reason Parker thinks it's hilarious when people sleep, and he thinks it's even more hilarious when he wakes them up by yelling, "Wake up!!!" and jumping on them. Here's Papa fake sleeping and Parker jumping on him to wake him up. I'm pretty sure I used to do this when I was little, too. Do all kids think this is funny? Actually, it kind of is. :D

Playing At The Thomas Store

Need an easy way to fill in time? Go to Chapters where they have a Thomas train table in the kids' section. If we don't have anything planned and feel like getting out of the house, we'll go check out The Thomas Store (as Parker calls it) and hang out for an hour, playing with the train table and reading books. Parker didn't feel like napping today so we went out in the afternoon before dinner. Here's some video of Parker playing with the trains:

Pointing out the two octagon shapes (stop signs) and also informing everyone that Thomas and James are coming.

Lots of trains end up going backwards.

All the trains end up going over two amazing bridges (he kind of mumbles, "amazing bridge!" towards the end).

Turn Left! Turn Right!

Since we go out a lot in the mornings, we've been working on the difference between turning left and turning right. So for the last few days Parker has been walking around the house going, "Turn left! Turn right! Turn left!" as he goes around corners. He's also really into construction because there's a lot of it happening in town right now. There are some new houses going up down the street and there's a Shoppers Drug Mart going up down town. When we're looking to kill time, we just hang out and watch the big machines working. Parker calls them "boom booms" because of the sound they make, so he's always going, "Huuuuuge boom booms!" He's also really into this song (although we listen to the Raffi version, but it's pretty much the same):

No More Frain Fracks!

Parker has an obsession with train tracks, but for the longest time he wasn't pronouncing the T-sound properly and it would always come out as, "frain fracks". The other day he randomly decided it was time to pronounce them properly. Goodbye frain fracks, hello train tracks!

Also, Parker has some weird quirks and strange habits that are probably almost entirely our fault. One of them that's kind of funny is to sing a naked song when we take his clothes off to get changed or go in the bath. It's basically this song about mangos but replace the word mango with naked. And imagine a little boy doing a funny dance while singing it.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Here are some photos from Parker's adventures trick or treating tonight! It was a short trip to just a few of the neighbours' houses, but he really liked ringing their door bells and yelling, "TRICK OR TREAT!!!" in their faces. After he put his shoes on, he sat on the step (which seems to be his new thing) to pose for some photos.

I had to ask him to stand up because he kept wanting to sit.

Checking out the stash of Play-Doh that we had on hand for other trick or treaters.

Walking to the neighbours' steps.

Walking away from the neighbours' steps.

Even though it rained all morning and some of the afternoon, it ended up being a fairly nice night! A bit windy, but good for Hallowe'en.

Parker has a mild obsession with mailboxes. So when he realized we were headed in that direction, he thought it would be a great idea to offer the mailbox a treat. He kept holding it out and saying, "Here you go, mailbox!"

And here he is, visiting his friend.

Special thanks to Dustin for hooking Parker up with a Rice Krispie square, one of his favourites! As soon as we got home he was digging in his bag to find it so he could eat it in his mouth, as he likes to say.

All in all it was a super Hallowe'en! Har har.