Congrats Auntie Claire & Uncle Shawn!

Aunt Claire and Uncle Shawn had their own little baby last night in Toronto! Kellen William Sinclair is a 6 pound, 6 ounce healthy baby boy! Congratulations! We're hoping to stop by for a quick visit tomorrow and maybe I can take a photo or two hundred.

Update: April, Parker and I were able to stop in at the hospital today on our way through Toronto to meet Kellen for the first time! He was pretty sleepy, but definitely cute. Here are some photos:

Best Show Ever

April and I stumbled across the greatest children's show ever the other day, totally by accident. She was flipping through the channels, and we came across this crazy song and couldn't change the channel. So far I have almost all of season 1 downloaded for when we let Parker watch more TV. Hopefully he likes it, because I think it's pretty cool. And how can a show with Frodo as a guest star NOT be cool? I mean, c'mon.


I guess I should mention the name of the show: Yo Gabba Gabba. And the old skool Atari font is awesome.

Magic Laundry Ride

The other morning while April and I were folding laundry, Parker was crawling around the floor and peeking into the laundry basket. We decided to put him in it and push him around really fast like a sled. He LOVED it! It was funny how he was holding onto the sides and laughing and screaming, like when you're on a roller coaster (but without the puking). Here are some photos of him riding in the laundry basket:






And here he is trying to eat a ball that my mom and dad got him for Christmas. He chases it all over the basement because even though he can grip it he always seems to fling it by accident.

And here he is scaling Mount Daddy.


And here he is hanging out, being a baby and stuff.

Parker's New Game

Now that Parker is so mobile, his newest favourite game is to crawl to a door and play with it by opening and closing it about a zillion times. It's super funny (to us anyways!) if you're in the room and he's peeking in from behind the door. Here are a few photos of him playing the other day.

Girls Only Want Boyfriends Who Have Great Skills

Parker has done really well trying and learning new things lately! He used to crawl around (or just stay in one spot on his hands and knees) and then not be able to get back into a sitting position. He would sort of lean on one leg, with his arm supporting the bulk of his weight, not unlike The Costanza:



Now he can go from crawling around to sitting in one spot, which is super cute when he finds something he wants to look at or play with. He LOVES turning the pages of books, so he'll crawl around, find a book, then sit down and open it up to "read". It's really funny. He also taught himself how to pull up on things, so now he can go from a crawling position up onto his knees and then feet. We have to lower his crib today so that he doesn't do ninja flips out of it. Bo hunting skills, nunchuck skills, and computer hacking skills come next.

Here he is riding one of his Christmas presents (with some help from mommy):

Is Parker A Hoosier?

I saw this during the Suns/Celtics game tonight. Jeff Van Gundy totally steals the show. If Parker Bear watched TV, we could watch Hoosiers together. :)

Great Uncle Byron Visit

Parker's Great Uncle Byron stopped by today on his way through town for a quick visit and to meet Parker! Here are some photos of them hanging out, talking about Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and life on movie sets.

Also, in case anyone has noticed, Parker only wears pajamas. Maybe some day we'll put real boy clothes on him again.

Parker Vs. The Gate

Since Parker is a bit more mobile than he used to be, we installed a baby gate leading down to our basement. So far Parker seems to like pulling on it, but the gate is winning. It's like he's in a little baby jail! Awwwwww!

Random Info and Photos

Here are some photos of April swinging Parker through the air like Superman. Even though it makes me queasy just watching, Parker really likes this for some reason.




And here's Parker giggling because I was breathing on his neck.



This one might be the funniest one. We don't let Parker watch TV very often because we're afraid it will turn his brain into mush (I tried to find a YouTube link to a Max Headroom blipvert, for those of you who actually remember that show, but oddly enough it doesn't exist) but every now and then he catches a glimpse. He totally goes into zombie mode if he sees the TV. I think April had the Treehouse channel on, and as you can see from the photo Parker was completely transfixed. This is why we don't let him watch a lot of TV. :)

Puking Is Scary!!!

Parker had his first REAL puke tonight and it was pretty nasty. He woke up, uncharacteristically, around 7:30 pm sort of moaning and crying so we went up to see what was wrong. It didn't sound like his normal cries or noises. When April picked him up and rocked him for a few seconds, he threw up a bucket of meat onto her robe and himself, which made him pretty scared. We dumped the pukey clothes into the bath tub and washed him off with warm wash clothes and soothed him the best we could, but it was pretty gross. It was like grown man puke. Like, as if your uncle came over and ate some bad stew, and then just blew chunks all over your living room... that's what this was. And the smell was terrible. Hopefully his tummy feels better and he can sleep through the night!

Sleepy Time

Parker had a HUGE nap this afternoon! He was sleeping so soundly that we could barely wake him up! Here are some photos of him in his deep sleep, probably dreaming about Dwight Howard's impressive performance in last night's Slam Dunk Contest. It's pretty cute how he has his little bum up in the air.





April tried to wake him up by rubbing his bum a bit but that didn't work.



So I tried to roll him over a bit but that didn't work either.

9 Months!

Happy 9-month birthday, Parker Bear!

Parker Crawling Slideshow

Parker's new favourite thing ever is to crawl around our basement floor, which is fairly open so it gives him plenty of room to explore. Sometimes we'll move the playpen into the middle of the room and hide behind it, and then Parker will giggle when he sees us and come after us. He always makes this really cute noise when he crawls that sounds a lot like, "Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....!!!!" but reading it doesn't have the same effect as hearing it. Here's a link to a slideshow of him getting his crawl on:

http://www.garrettelliott.com/parker_crawling


The slides are going to fly by pretty quickly (hopefully) so that it's kind of like a flip-book because I had my camera set to rapid fire. Who needs video?

Parker On The Town

We made a sort-of unplanned trip to the mall today and forgot our stroller, so we had to use the mall ones. It was actually pretty sweet, although I was pretty paranoid that it was covered in baby puke and feces, because I've heard that every baby who isn't ours somehow manages to get puke and feces on things. Luckily the staff wipes them down after every use, but it never hurts to bring along some disinfectant wipes or hand sanitizer......just in case. Anyways, here are photos of Parker gripping onto the Mall Stroller of Death for dear life.





And here's Parker not really enjoying the car ride, even though he gets to ride in a pretty swanky new seat. Those little mirrors are the best thing ever for driving!

Do We Ever Leave The House?

I was just joking with April the other day that the only Parker photos on the blog are ones that are taken in our house! So next time we go out to the grocery store or something I'll bring my camera for some quick shots. It's pretty cute when Parker rides in the cart, so I think those will make for some fun photos as long as the store owners don't throw me out for having a camera. Soon there will be photos of Parker in locations other than our house! Yay!

Exersaucer Fun

Parker Loves Roosters

Parker came home from Toronto with a new word: cock! It's pretty funny to see him crawling over the place going, "Cock! Cock................cock cock...........cock!" Hopefully he learns a new word soon! Haha! Here are some photos of him being a baby this morning.

Attack of the Giggles

Parker and I have been away in Toronto visiting Claire, Shawn, and my soon-to-arrive nephew. Parker and Abuelita were playing on the floor and she started to grumble some nonsense word and he could not control himself! He just started laughing and laughing, so my sister took this video. I had to post it so Daddy could get a Parker fix!

Baby Garrett

My mom has been looking for photos of me wearing a touque with little ear-flaps (because it was the template for the one she made for Parker recently) and she just found them! The photos are a bit faded and stuff, but still kind of funny to look at. Here's me, sometimes out of focus, sometimes blurry, but all the time cute. Well, that's what my mom said, anyways.





This one (below) actually looks a bit like Parker, I think.

Why No Posts?

Man, I haven't posted in a while! I think the last post was January 20-something, and now it's February 3rd (my birthday)! I've been super busy with photography stuff, traveling from Toronto to Connecticut and then to Ottawa and then home. Since it's been a while, here's an updated photo of Parker hanging out. He sure does change quickly!




Nah, I'm just kidding. That's just some random kid I found by doing a Google image search for "3 year old boy" (which I don't recommend you do, actually). But Parker IS getting bigger and doing more stuff! He says dada all the time in reference to me (at least I'm pretty sure it is) and he can finally crawl around on his own! We're also upgrading his car seat from the regular one that's like a carrier to a super deluxe throne that's nicer than any chair we have in our house. He really gets a kick out of peeking around things (chairs, walls, toys, whatever) to see you, which is always a fun game to play. April is taking Parker to Toronto tomorrow to go visit Aunt Claire and Uncle Shawn (and soon-to-be little cousin Sinclaire) so I'll post some new photos when they get back!

Oh! I also forgot that he turns the pages in his books by himself now, which is super cute. I don't know if he knows exactly why he's turning them, or if he recognizes the different content on the pages, but he knows that's what he's supposed to do. Cutest baby ever.