He's one!

A year ago...

Today, on his first birthday!
Happy Birthday, Will! We love you so much!

Saturday at the camp

R & A swinging on the porch at Robert's parent's cabin

Aubrey's first canoe ride at the camp

Hiking through the woods together

Checking out the campfire.

We went to the camp where Robert's parents spend a lot of time volunteering this weekend while they were helping out with a retreat. Both the kids loved being outside and exploring all the rocks and sticks they could find. Aubrey also had a big first for her -- her first night to spend the night away from home without me or Robert! She stayed with Robert's parents Saturday night and they brought her back to us Sunday morning. The only other time I'd been away from her overnight was when I was in the hospital after Will was born & my mom stayed with her at home. All in all, she did great and had fun roasting marshmallows and playing with Grandma Pam & Grandpa Isaac!

Since A only naps once or twice a week these days, this is how I often find her room after her hour of "rest time" or "quiet play time" -- she loves to take everything out of her shelf and set up a zoo or school all over her floor.

Aubrey wrote "Will" all by herself!

Making a napkin hat at dinner

Love the mohawk!

The Zoo

We went to the zoo last weekend for a friend's 5th birthday. We hadn't been back to the zoo since A was 1.5, so she really enjoyed it...

Climbing the gate with the goat in the petting zoo area. She loved feeding the animals and didn't mind them nibbling at her fingers.

Riding the zoo train with her good buddy, John.

Admiring a peacock

Favorites

Will is showing his likes (& dislikes) so much more lately and I'm really enjoying watching his personality grow & develop more & more each day. I just wanted to record some of the things he likes and what he's up to, so I don't forget!

-After being fed for so long, Will now loves to feed me food off of his tray. After eating a few cheerios or whatever, he'll start holding them out for me to eat.

-He loves bringing me things I ask for -- if I ask him to get a diaper, he'll go get it & bring it to me. Also, if he finds Robert's glasses, he'll bring them to him & try to put them back on. Or if he finds one of Aubrey's bows around, he'll try to put it on her head like "Hey, I know where this goes".

-If I ask him to point at my eyes, nose or mouth, he gets it right! But when he points to my eyes, he keeps trying to stick his fingers right on my eyeballs, which isn't very comfortable...

-He definitely prefers real food now over baby food. His favorites are lasagna, grilled chicken, pasta & cheese. He's still a great eater and eats all his fruits & veggies, too. He likes to say "mmmm" while eating and "ahhh" after taking a sip of his water.

He always wants to go outside! He likes to play in the gravel, sand box, swing, peek-a-boo in the play house, etc... If we get anywhere near the back door, he'll start saying "out" and pointing outside.

-Some of his new words are "eat", "ruff" or "woof" for dog, "upt" (combination of up & out he sometimes uses), & the funniest new one is "aa-A-oo-ya", which is "Alleluia". We sing "The Doxology" a lot and after we sing the Alleluia part, he'll start saying it over and over again!

Will loves the stacker now that he has mastered it! Working hard to get the ring on...

He did it!

His other favorite toy is the ball popper -- he'll drop the balls in over & over & over again...

Banging on things that make noise is still a hit -- the AC vent is still his fav!

Poor baby's had a fever virus for the last couple days, but thankfully, it hardly slowed him down. He's still been eating, playing, smiling and pretty much his normal, happy self. His fever has been lower today, so I'm hopeful that he'll be over it tomorrow and we can enjoy our weekend more. Right now, Aubrey & Robert are on a Daddy/Daughter date to dinner & the first RR Express game (with fireworks -- Aubrey's favorite). All winter, she's been asking to go to the baseball game to see Spike (the mascot), so she was super excited that she finally got to go! I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Fun weekend

We had a great time with some good friends who came to visit from Louisiana last weekend! Here are the girls enjoying some ice cream after dinner on Friday night.

Pretending to drive a bus at the park on Saturday.

Playing dress-up and listening to music at home.

We just ordered pizza on Sunday night and ate outside while the kids ran around & played. These are 5 of the 7 kids -- the other 2 are only 5 and 7 months old, so they weren't in on the Barbie Jeep rides...

Park pics

11 months

Peeking out of the door of the play house

Pointing at the "sky light" in his stroller and saying, "dight" -- one of his first words.

Tickle time

Will has been starting to use several words this months besides "Mama", "Dada" and lots of babbling.

-"uh-oh"- This was his first word as he dropped his cup off the tray of his high chair. He also loves to throw food off his try and say this.

-"up" - if he wants out of his car seat, high chair or crib

-"Hi"- or lots of times it sounds like"eye" while waving to anyone he'll see while we're out & about

-"Daddy" - he likes to yell this with the same inflection Aubrey uses to call Daddy from another room

-"hat" for any object on your head, an actual hat, a towel, sunglasses or a bow, etc...

-"Dight" as I mentioned earlier, is probably his favorite word right now. He loves pointing to any lamp or ceiling light and saying it as he walks into a new room.

He's growing up so fast and is literally almost running around the house. Don't remind me that it is April and he'll be turning 1 at the end of the month. I'm not ready for that yet. I'm going to enjoy his last month as a baby to the fullest.

Easter Week 2008

We've had a busy & fun-filled week! On Wednesday, we had our church playgroup over for an Egg Hunt in the back yard. Thursday, Grandma Pam & Grandpa Isaac came to visit and spend the night. Friday, Gigi came to visit and spend the night! Saturday, Aubrey got to go to her good friend's rainbow birthday party. Then today we celebrated Easter with church in the morning followed by a big lunch with some friends. We had a great time and the kids did really well, aside from no naps & lots of sugar and a little spilled nail polish (that I accidentally left upstairs last night -- oops!). They had fun running around outside, hunting for eggs and especially liked it when Robert turned the leaf blower on them after playing in the sandbox. I hope you all had a wonderful day as well, celebrating Christ's resurrection!

Finally, some pictures...

Will's favorite sleeping position, bottom in the air

Will climbed on top of this tray with the swiffer-duster in hand, that's pretty coordinated if you ask me! Also, notice the one sock on his foot.

Carrying around one of Aubrey's shirts, once again, one sock

Pushing a tire swing at a new park we went to recently. Will also loved playing with the mulch and tried to taste it several times.

We're alive and well after a week of us all being sick and another week to recover. We still stayed home that second week because I wanted to make sure we didn't spread our germs to anyone else. Whatever we had was highly contagious b/c all 4 of us got it within a few days and then we also gave it to Robert's mom, who gave it to her husband. Anyway, I'm glad we're all better and that the kids finally have their appetites back. Will has been eating non-stop in the past few days! He also decided to give up crawling completely while he was sick. He walks everywhere now and loves to walk around the house carrying random objects in each hand -- like a shoe in one hand and a swiffer duster in the other. He's also started sharing his opinions with me more and protesting when he doesn't like something. Like when I open the front door, he'll start crying the second I close it because he wants to go outside. Other exciting stuff over the last week or two:
-our computer hard drive is still in the (hopefully) capable hands of the Geek Squad's national headquarters in Kentucky. We hope to have some news on it in the next day or two and get it set back up soon. So, I still can't post pictures until we get it back...
-Aubrey had her first dentist appointment and did great! She was a little timid at first, but warmed up quickly and got a good report from the hygenist & dentist, no cavities!
-Even though A has been potty-trained since she was 2.5, we're finally done with Pull-ups at night, yay!
-TV- This is the first season we've watched American Idol from the beginning and I've gotten really into it. When you're kids go to bed early and it's on 3 nights a week, it's hard not to watch it... I love David Archuleta, he's definitely my favorite so far. Also, I'm so excited that Friday Night Lights will be on for a third season -- If you haven't watched it, you need to! Life is thrilling at the Parker household lately, huh?

Rough Week

Sweet Will came down with his first illness on Monday night -- a stomach virus. By Wednesday, the rest of us had it, too. This is the first time we've all been sick at the same time and let me tell you, it is not pleasant. Thankfully, I think everyone is done throwing up, but Aubrey & Will still seem pretty low on energy and don't have their appetites back all the way yet. Also, we had some kind of software glitch on our new computer and our hard drive crashed and we lost all our pictures and everything. We've sent away our hard drive, so hopefully they can retrieve all the lost files. Also, my grandfather had open heart surgery and we were planning to go to Dallas to visit him before we all got sick. So, all that to say, I haven't spent much time calling, emailing or blogging lately. I may not post for a while because I'm not sure when our computer will be fixed. Right now, I'm using Robert's work laptop, which I will be able to use sometimes when he's home. Anyway, if you think about us, please pray that Aubrey & Will are back to themselves quickly and that my grandfather recovers from his surgery well. Thanks!

Here's my first try at posting some video... Just a few little snippets of Will taking some steps as well as a little clapping & peek-a-boo after dinner the other night. Please excuse our annoying high pitched voices and/or baby talk. Enjoy the cuteness!

Sesame Street Live

Aubrey's friend, Kendra, got front row tickets for the show... Aubrey loved every minute of it! This was her first live performance of any kind and she got really into applauding at the end of each song and actually starting clapping on her own several times when no one else was, very cute! During the 15 minute intermission, she asked me when it was going to start about 50 times.

Almost show time...

Lots of the characters on stage -- Aubrey got her words mixed up and has been calling them the "Sesame Street Live 'customers'" instead of "characters"

The "customers" would come off the stage and shake hands with the kids and Aubrey was thrilled that Ernie shook her hand. It has been almost a week since we went and A can't atop talking about it or asking if we're going again tomorrow. We've also been acting it out daily and she keeps assigning roles to herslef, me & Will through out the day -- she's usually baby Ernie, I'm Bert & Will is Grover. I had a great time at the show, too b/c I loved watching Aubrey enjoy herself so much. That's one of the best parts of being a mom -- getting to experience life through your children's eyes. Robert's mom was in town and watched Will, so it was fun for us to have some one on one time together, as well.

Playing with shaving cream & food coloring...

... and chocolate pudding

Windy day the the new park

Action shot of A jumping off a dinosaur bone