Christmas Prep

There are many Christmas farms in the area we live, so it's fun & easy to go cut down your own tree.  (Well, it was fun for me, but I am not the one who had to do the actual cutting!)  We bring Otis along and used our backpack for Parker.  It was a gray, drizzly day, but not too cold.  Here is our splendid tree!

 

We finally worked on the lights yesterday and Parker was "helping" by holding the strands for us.  The ornaments will go on tonight and I am sure she will enjoy that just as much.  So far, Parker has been pretty much ignoring the tree, albeit running into it with her various push toys.

This weekend we ventured to the mall to get a few gifts and to torture our daughter by making her sit by a fat bearded man in a red suit.  We were pretty sure the whole scene would not go well and we were right.  I didn't even put her down on Santa's lap, she was too upset, so we just have some phone pics.

More fun at school

As previously mentioned, Parker's teachers frequently send pictures during the week of the fun things they do. Here are some from the last few weeks. 



they often take walks through the JCC facility, this time they stopped in the Director's office and decided to have a meeting

This was the day of their school pictures.  The teachers decided to try their own class photo and got them all to smile by putting a blanket over their heads and pulling it off...peek-a-boo!

Outside fun

We do not need a cozy coupe at home because Parker gets to play with this one at school all the time

painting with their feet

more feet painting, they do art projects frequently and hang them on bulletin boards in the rooms and hallways

Last week they started having the kids sleep on cots instead of in cribs, this is to prepare them for the move to their new room in a few weeks

They found paper hats, wore them for a bit, and then tore them apart!

 

A visit to the new room, the little ones particpated in the bigger kids circle time and even got to have instruments.  Parker looks a little confused here, what the heck is going on?

Basketball

Greg sometimes plays basketball on Friday nights and so the basketball itself has been floating around the house the last couple weeks.  Parker loves to roll it and try to bounce it.  In this video, she loved being chased by it!

Thanksgiving 2012

We drove to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with the Johnsons.  Papa G, Daddy, Parker, Otis, and I all piled in and drove down on Wednesday afternoon.  Parker napped for part of the drive and otherwise did great.

Parker had so much fun playing with her cousin Clare, as evident in these videos:

Catie is crawling all over the place now, I got a little video of her too

Some pictures of the girls together

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a gorgeous day and the food was delish!!  Not to mention the wonderful company we were in...

Cate's Baptism was the next day, followed by dinner at St. Claire Country Club:

Sign Language

Parker is learning more and more every day and one very obvious area of learning is her sign language.  She has been doing the sign for more for months, but her teachers taught their class to do more please.  In the last couple weeks, Parker has started doing more please when she wants more of anything, not just in food situations.  This video is a prime example.  It also shows the adorable version of please she has adopted.  Please is supposed to be a circular rub on the chest, Parker does a full body rub.

Her new favorite sign is milk. Parker also does food/eat, all done, and ball.

Fall Fun

We got a kid carrier/backpack for Parker's birthday and have used it a couple times since then.  Here is a picture from our first hiking adventure.

We went to Mendon Ponds Park.  This is a favorite because it is so large, has wonderful trails, and is only 15 minutes from home.  Here is a map of the park.  Parker loved being in the backpack.  Our second hike was this past weekend and she was lulled into a stupor by the gentle walking motion...we thought she had fallen alseep but she was just super relaxed.

We also had fun in some leaves a few weeks ago.  Here is a video and some photos:

Funny story about the leaves...we were out on the corner, Greg was raking while I was taking pictures of Parker.  We had recently had some work done on our chimney and the guy swung by to pick up his payment.  He told us he thought I was taking pictures of Greg raking because he hadn't noticed Parker on the ground when he drove by. 

Birthday Card

Aunt Gennie got Parker a singing birthday card.  While I always thought they were mildly entertaining, I never considered the entertainment factor for a 1 year-old.  Parker walked around the house opening & closing this card for weeks! 

Halloween 2012

One of Parker's new skills has been "roaring" like a lion.  She was doing it all time a couple weeks ago, whenever she would see a lion or you would ask her "What does a lion say?"  So we had the brilliant idea to have her dress up as a lion for Halloween!  But alas, in the tradition of children and their ever-changing habits, Parker decided last week to completely cease the roaring.  She still made a pretty cute lion though:

We left candy on the porch and walked around neighborhood with Parker and Otis for a while last night.  Turns out we have a pretty fun neighborhood for Halloween!  Lots of people put out extra decorations for the trick or treating and the sidewalks were full of kids and their parents.  Parker was happy just walking in the leaves with the little bit of candy banging away in her pumpkin bucket.

This is video is before we left the house.

Professional Photos - Fall 2012

The weekend before Parker's birthday we had some professional photos taken.  We asked the same photographer who did her 6 month photos, Kristen Koppers.  We were lucky enough to have her referred to us and have been so happy with her work.  She is mom to three little boys, so she is great with Parker. 

We went to Highland Park again, which is right near our neighborhood.  This time we went to the Sunken Garden.  It rained a bunch the day before so the ground was very wet but we had no rain that Saturday morning.

Here are some of our favorites.