Almost Winter! Boo-urns.

Since there won't be many days left where we can play in the park without winter gear, here are some photos of us enjoying one of the last few fall days at Parker's favourite park (Fairfield).  It's kind of funny going back and looking at older photos of him on the swings because he was so little!  Now he's huge, and he leans his head back and laughs and kicks and sometimes even lets go of the chains to go hands-free!  He has n0 f33r.

Slides are awesome!

Here's Parker hanging upside-down on Mommy's lap while she tickles his tummy.

To get into the park he had to walk under a log fence post, which he thought was pretty funny.

Bring on the winter!  Well.......maybe not.

Hooray For Visitors!

Heather, one of our friends from University, was in town the other day and stopped by for a visit because she hasn't met Parker yet! And she brought gifts! He loves those stacking things (he plays with them at the Early Years Centre sometimes)! And he also has a cool new shirt to wear! Thanks Heather! There will be a photo of Parker in his new guitar hero shirt soon!

New Favourite Snacky Snack

Parker's newest favourite snack time foods are apples! He likes to go to the fridge and pull one out of the drawer (if he gets a chance). We have one of those apple slicer things that cuts them into little pieces, so Parker and I will often share an apple during the afternoon while we hang out and stack blocks, read books, or watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Here are some photos of Parker eating some apple slices, not unlike the way a small squirrel eats nuts:

There was some construction going on outside and Parker seemed really into the machines.

The best is when he brings the skins to me in a little pile in his hand. He goes, "Da-ddy!" and hands them off to me with a smile. Super cute.

Potty Time

Now that Parker is getting older we figured we'd try and get him used to that whole toilet thing. We weren't sure if we were going to get a stand-alone potty or one of those seat adapter things, and we went with the toilet seat adapter. It just seemed to make more sense to us to have him get used to a real toilet instead of a mini-one. Plus then we don't have to clean his poop. Yeah, I said it.

I've heard stories of kids being scared of the toilet or sitting on it or whatever, but Parker didn't mind at all. He didn't actually GO, but he didn't seem to mind sitting down and hanging out. He likes to point at the toilet and say, "Pee pee!", then flush it and say, "Bye pee pee!" so he kind-of-sort-of knows what's going on, which I guess is a good start! Is it wrong to post photos of your son on the toilet on the internet? Probably, but I'm going to do it anyways. Apologies in advance to any of Parker's future girlfriends.

Super Ninja Skills

Speaking of nunchuck skills, Parker showed off his advanced ninja training yesterday before his nap. I was downstairs and heard a gigantic thump so I flew up the stairs (actually I don't even think I touched the floor -- I was like a stone skipping across water) and found Parker sitting on the floor, outside of his crib, looking stunned. His blankets and stuffed animals were on the floor next to him in a big pile. I think he threw his stuff out of the crib and then did a flip over the railing trying to get to them. That's my theory anyways. He was totally fine, but definitely surprised. He does this thing where he scrambles to a sitting position if you wake him up, as if to show you that he's awake and not sleeping, and that's what I pictured him doing after he hit the floor. I picked him up and checked him out for any bumps or painful spots, but he was fine. Luckily babies are made out of rubber. I gave him some Tylenol (just in case he was sore), changed his diaper, put him back in his crib, and he went to sleep within a minute. Now that he's fallen out of his crib once I doubt he'll try it again! I'm just kind of surprised it didn't happen sooner! He's pretty fearless about climbing on things.

Seep Seep Seep!

One of Parker's words is sweep (which sounds a lot like seep).  He has a mild obsession with our broom and he always wants into the closet so he can get to it.  Here are some photos of him trying to sweep our floors!  As he sweeps he likes to narrate as he goes from room to room:  "Seep seep seep!  Seep seep!"  The best is how he does this freaky ninja bo-staff manoeuvre, putting the broom handle behind his back and spinning around.  Soon the young grasshopper will graduate to nunchucks.

Seep seep seep!  Seep seep seep!

Hallowe'en!

Here are some photos from Parker's second Hallowe'en ever!  And this one as considerably longer than his first one -- I think he wore his original costume for about thirty seconds.  Although his new costume started out kind of the same way............

"WHY, MOMMY?!?!?  WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!?!?!"

Luckily it was a nice night to wear a pumpkin costume!

After wearing it for a few minutes, he realized it wasn't actually toture and he didn't really mind.

Parker's REAL motivation for trick or treating?  Ringing peoples' doorbells.  

Here he is after visiting our neighbour Michelle!  

And here he is running away from our neighbour Michelle, all giddy-like!

Cute little pumpkin boy!

We did fairly well on the candy front, and one of our neighbours was giving away little jars of Play-Dough, which was pretty cool.  And I'm pretty sure we had more visitors at our house this year.  Only one little girl commented on our Brobee Pumpkin, though!  I thought it was pretty awesome:

Thanks to Emma's Mom on the WB boards for sending the link for the Brobee pattern!

Close Call

Parker and I have an awesome napping routine:

1) He eats his lunch and is happy.

2) I pick him up after he's done and blow all the food off his tummy while swinging him around through the air.

3) He giggles a lot.

4) We go upstairs, change his diaper, and pull down the shade.

5) I put him in his crib on his tummy and he sprawls out all comfy-like.

6) He positions his stuffed animals the way he likes and I put the blanket over him.

7) I go to leave the room but before I do I say, "Sleepy time, Parker!  Goodnight!" and then we blow each other kisses (in a masculine way).

8) He falls alseep almost instantaneously and stays that way for 2-3 hours.

Today, though, he didn't want to take a nap!  He stayed in his crib, talking to himself and moving things around for about 45 minutes but luckily he finally went to sleep.  I was THISCLOSE to getting him but luckily waited it out, because now he's sound asleep.  Yay for naps!

Some Parker Weirdness

Parker has always seemed to enjoy pushing a box of oatmeal around, but lately his new obsession is sticking his foot in the box.  For some reason it's really entertaining for him when he's standing there with one foot in the box and one foot on the floor.  And sometimes if he's feeling really crazy he'll put BOTH feet in the box.  Here he is with his box of oatmeal.

And here he is looking out the front window being tall.

Check out how tall he is!  He's almost as tall as the cupboard!

Strongest Little Boy In The World?

Check out Parker, flexing his muscles.  Big heavy boots?  NO PROBLEM.

And here he is making more silly faces in he mirror.