Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

I put Parker down in the middle of his blanket while I made my lunch.  I came back a few minutes later and found him here:

The funny thing is I've only ever seen him roll onto his tummy once or twice.  It would appear that he reserves the best rolling for when Mama's not around.  That does not bode well for the future as he increases his mobility.

Cute Baby

Parker is starting to outgrow his 3-6 month clothes, so I've started pulling out his 6-9 month clothes.  I found this great suit in the box:

Isn't he the cutest ever?  Nearly all Parker's clothes are hand-me-downs from Isaiah, good thing Isaiah had such cute clothes.

I love the little ears!

And just in-time for "Storm Watch 2011!"

Wet Bags

I'm trying to make a stronger effort to use cloth diapers when we're out & about, rather than just at home.  So, I needed more wet bags (plus, JoAnne's came out with cute new prints that I had to try).  I've bought this PU lined fabric before, and it was extremely hard to work with, so I came up with a new design that would reduce the amount of sewing I'd need to do on the face side of the fabric.    The French seams may have been overkill, but I really don't want these leaking in the diaper bag!  Turns out that this new fabric is much stiffer than the stuff I used before, so it was much easier to sew on, hopefully it won't turn out too stiff to be a usable wet bag.

In all, I made one large and three small bags for $21.21 (with one 40% off coupon), which would have cost me $56 (+tax) at Birth & Beyond...but I think next time I'll leave it to the professionals & buy the cute pink ones at B&B.

Sleepy Baby

Parker & I took Darcy for a walk down to the dog park.  Parks fell asleep on the way home, isn't he the cutest thing ever?  We got the hat from some of my work friends, it's way too big, but his head's growing so fast he's out-growing all his old hats.

New Foods

Parker's been trying all sorts of new foods lately.

I was really excited to try him on banana.  We have this handy mesh feeder that you can put the food in and he can feed himself. 

 I thought he'd be super excited about it since he puts everything else in his mouth.

Turns out he didn't really care for it.

For the most part I had to hold onto it while he half-heartedly sucked on the mesh.  But he did spend a fair amount of time gnawing on the plastic handle.

He much preferred the avocado (served in a spoon) 

Broccoli

Parker is LOVING his solid foods.  I introduced him to broccoli on Wednesday.  He just about came out of his skin when I pulled out the spoon, he was so excited.  He calmed down a little bit when he discovered broccoli, rather than rice cereal, in his mouth, but he still seemed to like it.

Looks yummy, huh?

He's getting ready for the food.  He loves to hold onto the spoon and stick it in his mouth (with or without food on it).  This is before the food came out, I'm not crazy enough to do it without a bib.

Best. Purchase. Ever.

Parker came down with a cold this weekend (I'm blaming our stint in the nursery at MOPS).  I know we've been lucky to make it this far without any colds, but I think we made up for it Sunday night.  Parker managed to cry the entire night.  He'd wake up screaming, we'd feed him or rock him to sleep, put him down, and he'd stay asleep just long enough for me to climb back into bed, and he'd wake up and start the whole process over again.  The only sleep he got the entire night was 1 1/2 hours between 2 & 4 when we gave up & brought him to bed with us.

Unfortunately, the only trick that's usually a sure-fire way to get him to fall & stay asleep (his bouncy seat) kicked the bucket a few weeks ago.  If there had been a Babies 'R Us open ANYWHERE at 2am, I totally would have been there.  As it was, Monday morning I bundled my sick little baby into the car in the search for a new bouncy seat.  Now, I understand that bouncy seats are mostly for small infants, and Parker will have outgrown this thing by next week, but it was totally worth it.  I know that we'll probably use it about three times, making our cost-per-use insanely high, but we would have paid any amount of money to give our little guy a little relief.

Ironically, this is pretty much the only baby-gear that we've bought new for Parker (our car-seat/stroller was a gift).  Everything else is borrowed or bought used, but with less than two hours of sleep and a sick baby, I wasn't interested in driving around town for the best deal.

...and it worked like a charm.  I'm convinced that Parker started feeling better the instant it was assembled.  This thing was worth every penny.

Parker is now feeling much better, he's just a little sniffley, and he's actually started sleeping 4-5 hours at a time, so maybe something good came out of this whole ordeal.

Happy Birthday Piper!

Today is Piper's birthday.  So, the family met at the zoo yesterday to celebrate.

Parker got in some good Grandma time.

Last week, when we saw the giraffe, I told Parker, "look Parker, a giraffe, just like Sophie".  The man next to us turns, points to his little girl, and says "that's what she just said".  Everyone loves Sophie!

The girls went on the carousel with Keith & Janet.

After the zoo we went to the Needs for hamburgers & cake.

The best part about visiting other people's houses, you get to try out new toys!

Keith had a great time driving Parker around the house in the aero-plane.

Solids!

We started Parker on solids today.  I'd been planning to wait until he was 6 months, but he seemed ready, and I didn't have any good reason to wait except that he wasn't yet 6-months, so we went for it.

His first bite: 

He LOVED it!  As soon as he took his first bite, he grabbed the spoon & tried to shove it back in his mouth.

This is one of those videos that only a Grandma will love, so don't feel compelled to watch it.

All done!

It's impossible to know exactly how much ended up in his tummy, but compared to other babies I've seen eating solids, I think he got a surprising amount in.  I'm not entirely sure if he just likes sucking on his bib, or if he's actually trying to suck the last bits of cereal off the bib.

Five Months!

Although it doesn't always feel like it, Parker is growing!

His hands, feet, and head seem to be growing at an exponential rate.  He's almost too long for all his 3-6month onesies, and I think he's almost out-grown these 0-3 overalls (finally):

2 Weeks:

2 Months:

5 Months:

Silly Daddy!

Every weekend, Keith wins the Super Daddy award and takes 8-10am shift with Parker so I can sleep in a little.  It is wonderful to have a little time to be lazy in bed without worrying when the baby will wake up.

Of course, this shift usually means that Keith picks out Parker's outfit for the day.  So, this morning, when I went to get Parker up from his first nap of the morning, I found him dressed like this:

When Keith heard me laughing, he asked, "don't the snaps go in the front?"  Well, yes, sometimes the snaps can be considered decorative, but probably not when the other side of the shirt looks like this:

Silly Daddy!

Still, I'll willingly sacrifice a backwards tee shirt for a few more hours in bed.