17 Months!

Our little guy is 17 months today!  I can't believe it, he's growing so fast.

Some fun things about Parker at this point:

After months & months of training with Daddy, Parker has finally mastered the "fist bump".  Daddy is about ready to bust open in pride.

Parker currently has 10-ish teeth.  He's still working on that 10th one, and he's not always so willing to let Mama stick her finger in his mouth to check the progress (not that he has any trouble putting his fingers in Mama's mouth).  He has six teeth in front and four(-ish) molars.

Parker has recently taken to running around the house saying: "Appy, appy, appy!", and making a hand signal vaguely similar to the sign for happy.  I can't tell if he's actually happy (seems like a high concept for a 17-month old), or if he just likes the sound, or possibly he wants apple sauce.

Parker has also recently learned the sign for "thank you", and even uses it in context, occasionally without prompting.  We're still working on "please" but it's coming.  I have a feeling it will be a long time before he actually says either of these.

For months, I've been so frustrated since Parker runs around all day saying "Daddy, daddy, daddy" with nary a "Mama", until Daddy actually gets home and then all he wants is "Mamamamamamamama!"  But recently, when his cry changed from "Daddy, daddy, daddy" to "daddy, daddy, woof woof", I realized, he's actually been saying "doggie", not Daddy.  Sad blow to the ego for Keith, but it made me feel better.  Now, he'll answer "Woof woof" when you ask him what a Doggie says.

Parker loves putting things in and taking things out.  He has taken over our rolling kitchen cart.  He spends most of his time emptying out the contents of the cart (onto the floor), and then emptying the contents of the Tupperware drawer into the rolling cart.  I think I might have to just accept this & re-organize the kitchen for the time being.

We are half-heartedly trying to wean Parker off the binky.  This means we (theoretically) restrict binky access to bedtime.  Which is why you occasionally see Parker with binky in-mouth, and jammies trailing along after.

We are starting to see signs of the rebellious 2-year-old inside.  Our ever-agreeable baby that used to answer every question with and enthusiastic "Yeah", now answers every question with "No" (even as he stuffs his mouth with the food he just said no to).

What a fun little guy, we are so enjoying this stage in Parker's life, and looking forward to seeing what he does & learns next.

I feel like I should apologize…

I’m sorry I skipped your Christmas party.

I’m sorry I forgot your birthday.

I’m sorry I skipped your open-house and left your New Year’s party before it was dark out.

Sorry that when you come to our door, you have to navigate a pathway through all of Parker’s earthly belongings because I don’t have the energy to: 1. pick them up or 2. keep Parker from throwing them down the stairs in the first place.

I’m sorry we’ve had to re-schedule your birthday dinner…twice.

Sorry I haven’t cleaned the house since Thanksgiving.

Or cooked anything since, well, Thanksgiving.

I’m sorry I was a total Grinch the entire month of December.
I'm sorry we didn't do a SINGLE thing on Parker's advent calendar.

I’m sorry I called you in a panic to watch Parker (right now!) for a last-minute Dr’s appt with no explanation until now.

If I didn’t seem very excited about your cute-kid story, I apologize.

If I left the dinner table mid-meal and in the middle of a conversation, my apologies.

I apologize that your kid’s Christmas present is still half-finished, but if it makes you feel better, Parker’s aren’t even started.

I’m sorry we had a snow week last week and I couldn’t drink cocoa by the fire since I have an aversion to milk and hot liquids.

I’m sorry I’ve been a truly lousy Mama and we’ve barely made it out of the house for weeks.

I can’t even remember the last time I went to the grocery store…sorry.

Really, I'm just generally sorry... 

BUT, I have a good excuse:

This little monster has been making it’s Mama pretty darn miserable.  But now I’m 12-weeks along, and every day brings a new hope for the start of that miraculous 2^nd trimester (it hasn’t happened yet, but they promise it will…eventually).  Today, I got to see the baby wiggling, hiccuping, waving it's hands, and generally moving the opposite direction of where the Ultrasound Technician would have liked.

So, the details: According to today's ultrasound Baby Kruger #2 is due August 5^th.  According to the ultrasound three weeks ago, it's due the 6th, we're going with that date.  That would be 3 weeks before Parker’s 2^nd birthday.  But, assuming this baby is as eager as it’s older brother to be born, I’m expecting their birthdays to be more like 1-2 weeks apart.  You know what this means…joint pool parties for every birthday!  Seriously, couldn’t have planned it better.  Although it does also mean that Parker’s 2^nd birthday party will probably be quite a bit more mellow than his first, we’ll make up for it next year.

We’re really hoping for a girl this time, but a boy would be totally awesome as well since, well, Parker’s pretty darn awesome, and we’d save a lot more money on clothes and other girly-stuff.  As I told Keith, I'm hoping for a girl, but if it's a boy I will be much, much less disappointed than I was the first time (and a little relieved).  But we'll have to wait & see.

We're both really excited for this new little addition, but we'll be even more excited in a few weeks when I start to feel better.  Parker, however, has no idea what he's in for.

Beans

If you haven't heard, it's been snowing in Seattle this week.

By the end of the week, I think everyone had a touch of cabin fever.  I tried to take Parker to the coffee shop down the street on Friday.  But since he refused to either walk in the snow, or ride in the backpack, we ended up staying home.

So, I thought I'd try a new activity.  I pulled out a box & filled it with black beans for him to play with.  Of course, I actually bought these beans for cooking, so Parker ended up playing with Organic sustainably-harvested black beans that I'd made a special trip to Central Market for.  But these are the sacrifices you make during a blizzard.

I put the smaller box of beans inside a larger Rubbermaid box in the hopes of containing the beans.  Of course, that didn't work, Parker spent 20 minutes throwing the beans across the kitchen.  I only wish I'd first swept the kitchen floor, since the beans now also contain all the pine needles we've accumulated in the past week.

But, he LOVED it, and put up quite a fuss when I finally cleaned up & put the lid back on the box.

The aftermath:

'appy sauce

Parker love his apple sauce.  The larger spoon was the one he stole from his Mama's cereal bowl.  He was shoveling it in with both hands.

A few more snow day pictures

Snow Day!

It's a snow day!

The snow started coming down around 8:30, and didn't let-up until about noon.  Parker loves it!

We decided to head outside & check the snow out for ourselves.

Our attempt at making a snow angel...it didn't go well.

After the snow angel, Parker pretty much looked like this the rest of the morning.  I guess he's not quite ready to be a snow bunny yet.

Darcy, however, loves it.

Out front-yard at 9:30:

And three hours later:

Rachel's wedding!

I do have to start this post with a disclaimer, I barely took any photos the whole weekend...lousy photographer.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Port Townsend for Rachel's wedding.  About half-an-hour before Keith's folks arrived to pick-up Parker, it started snowing.  We were a little nervous about how this would affect our travel plans, so we headed out an hour & a half early to make the 15-minute trek to Edmonds.

Of course, by the time we were out of our driveway, the snow was gone & we got to the ferry terminal four minutes after the previous ferry left, so we had a bit of a wait.  You'd never know it had snowed!

By the time we made it to Pt. Townsend, the weather was beautiful, clear and cold.

It was an amazing wedding, not that you can tell from my lousy photos (sorry).  That's a snow-globe up on the stage, if you were wondering, everyone got their pictures taken in the snow globe.

We headed home early Sunday morning, since we were hosting a luncheon after church.

...at least we were, until we realized that it was still snowing in the city.  You'd never have guessed it for how the weather was on the Peninsula.

Right after church, we headed South to pick Parker up from Grandma & Grandpa's.

Don't worry Parker, Mama's coming!

It's a miracle!

For the first time ever, Parker actually put a shoe ON the shelve, rather than pulling it off.

I don't know that it's a trend yet, but it's promising.  (You'll notice there are still plenty of shoes on the floor, where he last left them)

Parker's new toy

He's still under-foot, but at least he's occupied.

A day in the life - at 9 weeks

In the past, I’ve seen some people do “a day in the life” posts about what their typical stay-at-home-Mom days look like.  Often they start around 6:30am with their quiet time and end about 11:30pm as they finish their crafty project they started the day before.  Personally, I think they’re possibly exaggerating, just a little bit.  So, in the interest of truth-in-reporting, here’s my typical day as a 9-week pregnant stay-at-home-Mom:

6:30-ish – Keith leaves for work, I wake up enough to mumble something about having a good day, then roll over and back to sleep.

9:00 – Parker (and so therefore, I) wake up and get out of bed.  Normally, Parker wakes up closer to 7:30 or 8, but this late-sleeping Parker has been God’s provision to get me through these nasty 1^st trimester weeks.  I know it’s just for my benefit, since he still wakes up at 7:30 on the weekends when Daddy’s in-charge.

10:00 – After breakfast, Parker & I head off to the gym.  Technically, I’m not supposed to go, Dr. Joki has me on a fairly strict no-exercise regimen at the moment due to a little bleeding scare a few weeks ago.  But, Parker needs to get out of the house, and I need to spend an hour sitting on the bike & watching Martha Stewart (and taking a shower), so I think it’s okay.

11:30 – We get home from the gym, and it’s time for lunch.  Parker eats whatever left-overs I can find in the house, and I eat a tuna sandwich or chicken & rice soup.  They are the only things that sound good, unfortunately, I’m only allowed tuna twice a week, so it’s a lot of chicken & rice.

Noon-ish – Parker goes down for a nap.

Noon:05-ish – Mama goes down for a nap.

2:00 – Parker gets up from his nap, dragging his Mama with him.

2:00-4:30 – Parker tears the house apart, while I lay on the floor watching, but unable to do anything about it.

4:30 – Parker starts to get really cranky, and Mama decides it’s time for another nap.  This late-afternoon nap is certainly not part of our normal routine, however he’s done it 4 out of the last 5 days, so what do I know about routine.  This is yet another pregnancy blessing, since I’m about ready to die at this point.

5:45 – Daddy gets home and the whole house wakes up from it’s nap.  From here on out, Keith’s in-charge and I lay on the couch doing absolutely nothing until it’s time to go to bed (around 9, it would be earlier, but it’s too much effort to crawl to the bedroom).

So, there you have it, a (truthful) day in my life.

How did you spend your New Year's Holiday?

I re-organized our file cabinets.

Laugh all you like, but it's fantastic, there's a place for everything, so hopefully we won't feel the need to cover our desk in random paperwork.  Ahh, a clean desk.

Cabin

Keith took of the week between the holidays, so we headed up to the cabin for Tuesday-Saturday.

The weather was fairly crummy, it was pouring down rain when we got there, so we had a fairly soggy trek into the cabin.

It also rained constantly for the first few days, so we didn't get outside much, but we did manage to fit in some sledding:

The rest of the time we spent reading books, watching movies, and being all-around lazy.

We borrowed a hiking back-pack from a co-worker of Keith's.  Parker loved it, we'd just sit it out in the living room & he'd sit in it talking to us.

Thursday & Friday had better weather, so Keith & Parker went out in the snow for a while.

Parker's not a huge fan of the cold, but all bundled-up, he did a pretty good job.

Parker loves giving smooches!

We came home Saturday afternoon.  We made pretty good time skiing out, and then spent an hour and a half digging, pushing, and pulling the car out of our parking space.  In the end, Keith had to put the chains on, just to get the car out.  The one downfall of going up to the cabin this week is that they ALWAYS plow the road before the New Year's weekend, so it's always an adventure digging your way out.

After that, we headed over to our friend's house for a New Year's party, but we barely made it past 8pm and had to go home.  As it is, I think we still sucked every available moment out of the year.