8 Months Tomorrow!

School and volleyball have been keeping me on my toes this fall. So far we are undefeated; and I might add that no one has came close! Since last time I wrote we played in a tournament in Buhler and Parker got to come and watch the girls take first place. Grandma Lisa came to watch him during the games; he did a great job being patient all day! Personally I think he just likes to flirt with all the older chicks on the team. He sure does get a lot of attention from those girls! The weekend of the 13th was supposed to be another tournament, but Friday was the day of the "Kansas Monsoon." It started raining Friday morning and by the time it was done Friday afternoon we had about 10 inches of rain. Thanks a lot Hurrican Ike! It rained so much that they even let school out at noon. They canceled the volleyball tournament because rain got onto the gym floors. It was nice to have a weekend off to hang out with my boys! And it worked out perfect...I had wanted to surprise Kevin with a night out; just the two of us. With the tournament off and no other plans, I took Parker over to Grandma Lisa's house late afternoon on Saturday. I dropped him off for the night (first sleepover!!) and Kevin and I went downtown. We ate at Heros and then went to Mosley Street Melodramas. It was a great time; great adult time that is!! Of course all we did was talk about Parker and how much we missed him, but the no crying, no feeding, no worries was much needed! After the melodrama, we headed over to the Loft where it was Kevin's 10 year reunion. He orginally didn't plan on going (the whole thing was not well handled. No invitations were sent out, just posted on MySpace, and the whole reunion was at a bar. It would have been nice to meet everyone's families!), but he was glad that he went. We stayed out WAY past our bed time, but it was fun to see everyone again. Lots of old faces, old and new stories to tell, and new spouses to meet. The next morning I picked Parker up at church; it was so nice to see his smiling face again!

Parker has been seeing an audiologist as a precaution. Kevin and I have just been trying to stay on top of it because of some hearing problems on his side of the family. We have seen two different audiologists and both have been saying the same thing. There is fluid in his ear and he is not hearing quite like they would like him to be. It is nothing serious yet, but as his speech develops, we don't want that to fall behind. He has been on a couple different medications and we have another appointment coming up in the next month. He must not be having too much problems because this week he started saying "da da." No, he doesn't know what it means, but he loves to repeat it over and over again. He is pretty proud of himself!

And I need to get some more pictures of Parker going on, but he just so quick, it is hard to catch him! He is crawling like crazy and loving every moment of it. He will follow us around the house and play beek-a-boo around corners. Kevin got all the cabinets secured and the baby gate put up just in the knick of time. Parker likes to push the TV remote around on the wood floors in the kitchen. It is his evening workout as I'm cooking dinner. He also does a great job of pulling himself up on chairs, the coffee table, and anything else that will support him. He is really showing off his personality - so far not scared of anything!

Kevin got some exciting news last week for him and Grandpa Tom's lawncare business. They put a bid in to maintain the grounds for the Maize schools and THEY GOT IT! YEA!! They will be mowing for 8 schools and in doing so will double their business. The contract is for 3 years! Very exciting news for the M&M Lawncare business...congrads to Tom and Kevin!

In the last week, we have had several birthday celebrations. Grandma Lisa turned 49 on the 20th, Bryan Shields turned 60 on the 21st, and Aunt Cassie celebrated her 24th birthday. On the 20th, we had Grandma Lisa over along with Aunt Loni - Uncle Eric was out of town for an umpire clinic and Aunt Cassie had to work :( - and ate LeMonde's and watched What Happens in Vegas. Pretty low key night, but gotta have one of those every once in a while. Bryan's birthday party was held at Players. It was a lot of the Fox Lake crew, but we got to see the whole Meirowsky gang - Uncle Jason, Aunt Denise, counsins Brittany, DeShawn, Miles, Brileigh, Jase, Lily, Aunt Jenny, (little cousin "bun in the oven"), Uncle JD, and Grandma Chris and Grandpa Tom. Parker enjoyed the evening, especially sitting out on the patio watching the ducks. Then we didn't get to join the fun for Aunt Cassie's birthday. I had conferences at school that night; so we missed everyone at Emerson Biggins.

Lastly, I have a warning for all. PLEASE always back up for photos!! Last weekend, Grandma Lisa took engagement pictures of my friend Megan and Layton - who is getting married in May. Grandma took her camera and I brought mine as well that Great Grandma bought for us. To make a long story short, I somehow misplaced the camera bag and it disappeared. I was so MAD at myself! The bad news was that the flash drive of our family photos was in the bag (still gets my blood boiling!); the good news was I still had the important thing - the camera. And I had all my photos backed up on Walgreens website as well as another flash drive. Thank goodness!! So all in all, it was okay, but I'm still mad that I made that mistake!

And sorry, lots of words this time and not very many pictures. Next time I will do better!

CRAWLING!!

Parker is on the move!! As of last Tuesday, Parker is a mobile baby.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And here is proof that Parker is a lady's man...

This is Eric's sister's daughter, Riley. Isn't she cute!!

And check out these little socks...they look like the real deal, but their not!

And we also got to visit Great Grandma last week too. She had just gotten back from a month's vacation in Colorado. They started their retreat started a little rocky - they didn't have any water for about a week, but overall it ended up okay!

Labor Day @ Fox Lake

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! I'll work my way backwards...

We just got back yesterday from another great weekend at Fox Lake in Cassody for Labor Day. We left Saturday morning when Parker woke up and arrived right around noon to find everyone making their way over to the horseshoe pit for their daily dose of shoes. We quickly fed Parker lunch - yummy pears and peas! - and headed over to join them. JD - there will be no comment made on how shoes came out day 1! (Day 2 was more successful!) But meanwhile it was great to catch up with Grandma Chris, Grandpa Tom, Aunt Jenny (who find out in 2 weeks - boy or girl!!), Uncle JD, and tons of family friends! Early afternoon Parker wanted a nap so Kevin, Parker and myself headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa's camper for some AC. And when Parker woke up he found his cousins had arrived! Aunt Denise, Uncle Jason, and cousins Brileigh, Jase, and Lily had made their way over and joined our campsite. We had some speghetti and garlic bread for dinner and afterward played some volleyball. Parker loved all the entertainment all around and we enjoyed him entertaining us!

We pitched a tent and tried to call it a night. Parker had a different idea! At first he was okay, but then as the night went on he kept waking up. I think he just didn't know where he was. I don't think we ever had any full out screams - thank goodness because it would have waken up all the other "tenters," but I had to keep picking him up. As soon as he was in my arms he was fine, but heaven forbid I put him down. Kevin ended up taking over the morning "shift" for me so I could get some sleep. Don't think Parker is quite the camper yet.
Sunday morning Grandma Chris made us some biscuits and gravy (WAY GOOD STUFF). And thanks goodness Parker was game for a nap, because both Kevin and I needed one! So curled up and took on and then later joined everyone at the horseshoe pit. Jeremy and Gina, Shannon and Steve (planning a wedding in about a month), Phil and Trina all took their turns passing Parker around, but then we had to head home. We ran into some rain coming home, but once again there is no place like home.

And we got our first swing ride at the Lake. The first day we did it, he was all smiles and loved it. The second time (and the day I had the camera), it was a little too close to lunch time to have too much fun...

One of the neighbors caught a fish, so Parker had his first encounter. Not for sure what he thought about that one...

Uncle Jason even brought his kite out and flew it awhile.

Then, last Thursday was Uncle Eric's birthday, but we celebrated it on Friday night with some cake and ice cream (plus we got to check out their new carpet - super nice!!!). Eric's sister Ashley was over with her family - husband Brian and most adorable little daughter Riley. Riley is 2 and was trying to teach Parker to crawl, super cute! Basically it was love at first sight. They were caught smooching on several occasions though out the evening. It was caught on film...I will have to post later!

Big Truck Night was last Tuesday evening. It is put on by the parent group that Parker and I are apart of - Parents as Teachers. They had ambulances, fire engines, tractors, motorcycles, and just about any big truck that you can think of. Swan's Ice Cream was giving away popcycles - too bad Parker is too young for that!! And they had a guy dressed up in a dog costume (poor guy, don't know how he did that - it was only 100 degrees out!). We thought we would see if Parker would be scared of him, but obviously not - he reached right out for a hug. He is not scared of anything yet!

After Big Truck Night, since we were in Maize we decided to drop by Grandpa Kirk's house. We got to play with Mario (the dog) and then some football.

So to keep you up to date of Parker progress, once again I'm typing that he is SO close to crawling. His legs do the right thing crawling forward, but he hasn't figured out how to move his arms in the right fashion just yet. Therefore we get a lot of face plants! Kevin and I were predicting by the end of Labor Day weekend...we better get on that, we only have a couple more hours!

Then his new fun "face" is to make a fish face. He sucks in the sides of his mouth when he is eating...silly goose. And he is definitely learning the cause and effect thing. He loves to throw things over the side of the high chair and watch them fall to make a loud bang. Or maybe he is not learning cause and effect...maybe he just likes to make mom and dad fetch!

We have graduated Parker to a big boy car seat. He was using the one that came with the stroller that just attached to a base, but he outgrew that. He likes the new one now because he can sit up more and see outside better. It is still facing the back and it is not a comfortable for him to sleep in, but naps are becoming less and less.

Obviously he is loving food. He does just about any type of fruit and veggie and we have tried animal crackers and saltines. Bananas and sweet potatoes are still number 1. And this weekend tooth number 4 broke through. They are so pearly white! I've tried to get a picture, but he must think they are pretty sacred because he doesn't show them much.

Grandma Lisa came over the other day and we were watching some funny animal videos on YouTube. Parker is so smart...he was laughing at just the right parts. This is the video that he thought was so funny.

And he still does that funny noise when he gets excited. The one that I taped when he was sitting in his high chair. Parker definitely keeps me going! When I'm at school and need a pick-me-up I can play that video and it helps me get though my day! He also shakes his head no to mimic us too. He thinks he is tough stuff!