He is Officially a Crawler!

Parker had been perfectly content scooting around for months, but on Friday he suddenly decided crawling was easier...and a lot faster! 

Oh, and the reason the dogs are so excited when Parker crawls up to the gate is because he had just finished eating/squishing bananas between his fingers and they wanted to finish cleaning him up!

Got Beets?

Parker is 9 Months Old!

Parker's current stats:
Weight: 17.9 lbs. (25%)
Height: 28.5 in. (75%)
Head: 44.5 cm (25%)

Newly acquired Skills:
waving
kissing
pulling himself into a standing position
standing for extended periods of time
can steady himself and sometimes regain balance when he starts to fall
walking 2-5 steps while holding on to something
can say da-dee and ma-ma, ma-ma and possibly hi
has bopped the dogs in the nose a few times when they lick him in the face 

Two steps forward, one step back: Parker is suddenly refusing to eat solids, I think it is because I tried to slip in a bit of texture on two occasions, and now he won't even open his mouth when we offer a spoon. We are trying a few things to get him to eat and we have managed to get him to take a few bites, but progress is very slow. I'm hoping he gets over this fear of food soon so we can get some more meat on his bones!

My Ode to Cloth Diapers!

     Today was the mother of all diaper blowouts, a full body wetsuit could not have contained this!  At one point I debated throwing Parker's sleeper and cloth diaper away. He was such a mess I had to hose him off with the diaper sprayer before I could scrub him down in the tub! After all this I love cloth diapers even more! 

That's right, I LOVE CLOTH DIAPERS!

     [Caution: I'm starting to climb up on my soapbox]

     At 9 months and 1 day, this was Parker's FIRST blowout in a cloth diaper.  He has had several blowouts in disposables, which we use at night and when we leave the house for more than a few days.  Before Parker was born we invested in a set of 24 BumGenius AIO (all in one) cloth diapers and have never looked back. Including a few necessary accessories we spent around $400.00.  These diapers will fit him until he is potty trained and can and will be used for multiple children.  So not only are Parker and his future siblings' diapers not going to clog up the local landfills for the next bajillion years, but we won't have to shell out thousands of dollars to disposable diaper companies.  To me, buying disposables is like shitting on your money, then throwing it away!
     Now I will admit, sometimes the last thing I want to do is wash a load of diapers, but its not like I'm scrubbing them by hand. I just toss them in the washing machine and let it do all the dirty work. You may think washing diapers in a washing machine is disgusting, but newer machines are more efficient and clean better, and its not like we are throwing turd filled diapers in there, we hose them off first using a sprayer attached to the toilet.  If you think handling and cleaning dirty cloth diapers is gross, I rarely come in contact with poop. Imagine how much poop I would have to deal with while cleaning up multiple disposable diaper blowouts!
[Now that I have dismounted from my soapbox, stay tuned for P's 9 month pictures and latest stats]

Big Brain Theory

Thanks to tip from his Aunt Tammy, Parker has been dining on avocado for the past few weeks. With all of his new milestones, which now include waving, I began thinking maybe avocado really is "brain food" and has boosted his coordination and cognition. Then I turned around and saw Parker trying to chew on Ike's bone. So much for that theory.

Milestones a Plenty!

It has been a week of major milestones!

Parker is officially eating solid foods. This was the second try,

it took almost two weeks but it appears that his little digestive system is back on track.



Parker loves looking at himself in the mirror, but the bathroom counter is too slippery for him to stand on, so I installed a Parker heighth mirror in his room.  He loves it! 

He stands in front of it playing patty-cake



and trying to kiss the baby in the mirror.



Damn non-skid footy pajamas!  When I walked into Parker's room this morning,
I was shocked to see him standing up in his crib for the first time. 



Parker took his first steps (with assistance) this week

And.....

Parker's first word was "da-dee!"  I think he might also be saying mama but it comes out "ma-ma-ma-ma" so I'm not counting it quite yet. 

If he keeps up this pace he'll be starting college in September.