Parker is walking!

Parker started walking all over tonight. He's not just taking a few steps, he's walking across the apartment. He's quite proud of himself.

Week in Review

Speaking of the Week in Review, I read an article in The Atlantic this week about the New York Times and how it may be out of print sooner rather than later. Interesting read. There were also some interesting articles about the office of the President, among other things. I think I'll re-read it.


So what happened this week? Monday wasn't too thrilling, Tuesday we went bowling with friends, Wednesday we got to stay up until 11pm with the boys cleaning carpet because of a spill that occurred. I'll spare you the details, but it was horrible. Mindy came home from work and I had the boys in Cole's room playing because it was the only safe room in the apartment.


It rained all day on Thursday (a steady rain), and a little bit on Friday which means that next week everything will bloom. This is a beautiful time of year in Tucson. It is amazing how a little rain can make the whole desert come alive.


On Saturday we went to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum again. We saw the beavers, bighorn sheep, and birds this time.


Parker used the last of his formula on Friday morning so we made the switch to real milk with him, and Cole reached the end of his bottles. Parker is far less attached to his bottles than Cole. But it has been three nights now, and Cole is doing well. Parker likes the real milk, and we figure that in a week when he is used to the flavor we will switch him from bottles to sippy cups as well. We kept just a little formula to use as incentive to drink from cups, which we think will work since they both hate the taste of formula. The toughest part with Cole has been the loss of routine. He went to bed quite late on Friday and Saturday night, so today I took him for a long walk in the afternoon, about an hour and a half and another 45 minute walk after dinner. He went to bed at a decent hour tonight.


Below are some pictures from this week. If you want to see more, go to my facebook.com page and look at them there.

Tucson's Natural History Museum

Saturday we went to Tucson's natural history museum (International Wildlife Museum). The displays at the museum are great! It really puts the Las Vegas natural history museum to big time shame! Tuscon's NHM is small, but they have put a lot of time and effort into the exhibits. Cole and Parker especially loved the ferret tunnel (see pictures below) and Cole loved running around and around the legs of the giraffe. Cole was a bit of a monkey for much of it, but all-in-all we had a great time.

There were a few animals there that I had never seen before. One was the African Civet. I am determined to learn more about it and then bore all of you with a detailed report at some later date (fun for all of you!).

Cole running around and around the legs of the giraffe. There was this little ramp/walk way under the giraffe and through it's legs. Now and again Cole would stop and look up.


Here's Parker's turn with the giraffe!


Parker the crocodile slayer! There was also a lion for the kids to touch - but it looked more like the velveteen rabbit after a few bad washes and a few run ins with a cheetah! It's mane looked like a child had gotten hold of it with some scissors - but it was fun for the kids to see so up close and personal!


Cole in the ferret hole! I was getting dizzy with how many times he went around and through!


Parker in the ferret hole!

Okay, so it is high time that I begin writing on this blog again -

- I can't let Andrew have all the fun!

Here are a few funny things that happened this week:

• When Andrew went to pick up Cole from nursery yesterday, the new nursery leader said, with a bit of a relief and sneer in her voice, "Here's your child!". I think that Cole is throwing off her plans for a perfect nursery!

• For those that don't know, Cole is getting some help with his speech delay. Leading from that, the Speech Pathologist asked me to get Cole some different toys - like a doll house - since he is good at learning the names of what he plays with. So, I purchased a little doll house. I felt that all was going relatively well after the first night we had played with it: we had been using the little people and furnishings for pretend play, ringing the doorbell, riding in the cars, etc. After I got up to do some other things, I found Cole still playing with the doll house, but he had abandoned the little people and was using his Cars instead! I also found that he had put the little baby figurine in the toilet and was adamant about that being her place . . . not the crib! (Mind you, Cole knew that it was the toilet, seeing that it makes flushing noises when the lid is raised!) It made me laugh, what a true boy Cole is!

• We have really been working with Cole on his language and he has already been making strides; Cole has even begun using a few pronouns. For those that read an earlier post, you are aware that Cole prefers to call me "Nindy". Today, I was telling Cole that "I'm mommy" in which Cole replied by pointing to himself, "I'm mommy!". I then retorted with, can you guess, "No, I'm mommy!" and Cole again reiterated the same phrase. I decided to test him to see if he was simply echoing me, so I asked him, pointing at Parker, "who's that?". Cole smiled at me and said "mommy!". I thought this over for a moment, with a smile on my face, and asked whose that (pointing to a picture of Andrew) - Cole promptly told me "daddy" and then went on to say "outside, cycle". I laughed so hard! I guess we are making progress. Maybe Cole has generalized that the three of us who stay home are mommy's and then there is daddy who goes outside on his motorcycle for much of the day! We'll keep working!

• Parker is already our little comedian and ham! Not only does he love his kazoo, but his facial expressions with his vocalizations and hand movements are hilarious! Parker already has "na" down for "no" and frequently uses it when forced to do things he doesn't care for (i.e. diaper changes and nap/bedtime). Parker has also begun saying "what's that", although it sounds like a conglomerated "was-at". He has definitely picked this up from Cole's frequent usage of the phrase! Parker also loves the How Big is the Baby game and holds his hands, palms up, to let you know "all gone!". He is growing and changing so quickly!

• Cole met his match yesterday . . . in the form of a girl! We had some friends from the ward over last night and they brought with them their 2 1/2 year old niece. Cole and Madi had a great time together! At one point, Cole decided that he wanted the toy that Madi had - as he grabbed it from her, Madi let out this bloodcurdling scream three inches from Cole's face. Madi was promptly removed from the situation by our friends, as Cole, after wearing though the shock, turned to Andrew and sobbed! We were all trying to hold back the laughter as Cole finally met his match!

I love my boys! . . . especially the big one most of you refer to as Andrew!

Word of the Week:

grandiloquence

· \gran-ˈdi-lə-kwən(t)s\ · (noun)

1 : a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language


(Citation: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/wordofday/20090105.html)

Two videos of the boys

The first one is of Cole playing the drums on the sofa pillows. He gets into it.

Here the boys are chasing each other and wrestling. Parker takes it well.

Cole the hefter of gates

So yesterday morning I was chatting with Dad online and Cole ran over to the gate ot the kitchen behind me. He grabbed the movable portion of the gate, lifted it (so it was unlatched), opened the gate to the kitchen, retrieved a toy and left. I was impressed. Up to this point I had thought the gate was pretty secure. I've attached some photos of the gate latch, not that any of you care. We have one other gate and it is one of those old-school wood gates. Cole has found that he can push it over if necessary.

Kazoo-playing 10 month-old

While the rest of you are freezing your rear ends off, we're enjoying what for someone in Maine is a mid-summer day. Yes, you have read correctly, while you shiver through -21 or whatever it is, we have been enjoying 75 degree highs. I anticipate getting some feedback on this, but that is only if your Internet (spellcheck told me this should be capitalized, that doesn't seem correct. Comments?) connections haven't frozen solid. Speaking of that, if you haven't seen "Day After Tomorrow" which came out a few years ago, don't! I'm pretty sure Al Gore, who, thank goodness has fallen off the media map recently, was the executive producer and somehow some storms collide and the northern hemisphere re-enters an ice age and everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line tries to flee to Mexico.

Back to the intended subject of this.

Parker, our adorable, kind-of-little (compared to Brandon Stephens or other people who could play in the NFL), 10 month-old has discovered that he can play the kazoo. After Cole goes to bed and Parker can safely roam around the place he really comes alive. He will crawl around chasing the cats, scrambling over us and playing his kazoo. He will talk, sing and burp through it. He loves the attention so we have gotten some good video of him doing this. Sometimes he will play it when Cole is awake and Cole thinks it is pretty funny. The interesting part of it all is that while Cole tries to blow through it and only occasionally gets it to work, Parker has figured out that he has to make noise for it to function.

Meanwhile, Cole is getting faster. A couple of weeks ago he hurdled a curb. It was pretty cool looking and he was quite proud of himself. Yesterday he helped me move the car before and after working on the motorcycle, which he also wanted to be involved in and was heartbroken when he was brought inside, and had a blast driving.

Maybe a little later I'll get some videos of Parker playing the kazoo uploaded.

Well, it is time to get going. We're off to one of the museums today. Jack said he can't wait for us to leave so he can sleep in peace.

One last thing. We don't know what the cats have been eating lately, but they've been nuts. Maya has actually been playing with Jack. She chases him around, bites him and pounces on him. One of the funniest things she does is jump straight up with all four legs about 12-18" and then run off. Sometimes Jack will just sit and look at her like she's nuts. She is, and that is why she fits in around here.

(There were some minor errors that needed fixing, so that is the reason for the re-post.)

Quick Note

Maybe I'll write more later, but for now, here it is. First off, it is lovely here in Tucson. I thought Maryanne was exaggerating about a high of 8 in Pittsburgh tomorrow. She was not. So I looked at some temperatures around the mid-west. Its rather cold out there. A part of me thinks that would be just a little fun. The truth of the matter is that it is probably just a huge bother and expense.

Parker continues to crawl, although his method of crawling has changed. He now crawls on his hands and knees to what he wants to stand next to and then walks along or pushes those objects around. This makes for some exciting times since his center of gravity is higher and it is easier for Cole to push him over. He also wants to play with all of Cole's toys. This too makes for exciting times.

Meanwhile, Cole continues to grow. Last week he pushed me over twice. He came up to me, wrapped his arms around my legs and pushed until I fell over. He was quite proud of himself and thought it was funny. He has also started to pet the cats. They're really quite brave since he also thinks it is fun to carry Jack around. At least now we know that Jack's head is securely attached to the rest of him, after watching Cole essentially try to pick Jack up by his head. But Jack keeps coming back for more. Maya will sleep in the chair in the living room while the boys are playing, but as soon as one of them looks at her, she heads over the gate to safety.

I'm down to one typing hand now, so that's all folks.

11 days of January.... missing

This was started on the 11th. I never finished it and so here it is.

Alright, so its been a while since I posted anything. I put a bunch of photos on Facebook and even managed to get a bunch of smart-alecky comments out of my siblings regarding the same. Since the 27th.... we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum which was really neat. It was more of a zoo/botanical garden/wildlife sanctuary. We got the annual pass since one more trip back and it will pay for itself. It will really pay for itself if we sell the three guest passes to guests at full value.

Question

Does anyone even look at this anymore?

Parker Tooth #2

Parker now has a second bottom front tooth and is busy playing with it with his tongue.