Florida

Greg's Dad, Larry, rented a house in Florida for the entire month of March.  He invited us to come spend a week and with extra bedrooms to spare, invited my family to join us.  The Clayton crew wasn't able to come, but my parents made the trip in from St. Louis for the entire week!  Greg's Mom, Rhonda, lives in New Port Richey, about 2.5 hours north of our location.  She and Bill made the trip to celebrate St. Patrck's Day with us and we swung by their house for lunch before catching our flight back out of Tampa.  Parker got to be with all four grandparents at once!  No doubt this occurence will be few and far between.

The house was in Rotunda West, a large, extraterrestrial-esque (look it up on a map and you will see what I mean) development south of Venice.  Unfortunately, we could not bring Otis with us and since his "home away from home" is Larry's house, we had to board him for the first time.  Some friends recommended Creekside Pet Resort and so Otis got to go to "camp".  I was very worried and we were sad about leaving him, but due to the amazing weather in Rochester while we were gone, Otis had a great time.  He got to play with other dogs and play fetch all day long.  The folks at Creekside even responded to my nervous email on day 1 and assured of that Otis was having a ball (literally). 

We had direct flights both ways and Parker did so great.  She handled all of new experiences wonderfully; we trapsed her around everywhere...out to many lunches and dinners (she has mastered the highchair), rented a boat for 4 hours, went to the beach two different days, lots of swimming in the pool at the house, and shopping with the girls.

Here are some photo & video highlights:
to see entire photo album click here



first time in the pool

so tall!

listening to the music with Papa G

our improvised sun protection, sticks & towels

boat ride

pretty girl

wacthing the sunset with Grandpa & Grandpa Lang



her set up for the week, chair cushions on the lanai

Happy St. Patty's Day



with Grandma G & Bill


swimming with Mommy:

laughing with Daddy:

picking Otis up from camp:

Bikini Time!

We are in Florida and Parker is loving the pool!  More to come, but here is a shot of Parker in her bikini.

Playtime

A couple videos of Parker trying to eat her toys and a nice shot of what happens after sitting by herself for a few minutes and one of Daddy making her laugh again...

New cousin!

On March 1, Catherine Clarke Johnson was welcomed into this world by Gennie, Eric, and big sister Clare.  This new little darling will be called Cate.  Parker and her are so close in age and will be best buddies, I just know it!  We have not gotten to meet her yet, but look forward to the day when we can cuddle our new niece.

New things

We finally upgraded Parker's bath tub from the infant kind, in which her feet touched the end, to a new ducky inflatable one.  It makes the entire bath process so much easier for everyone.  Parker has always loved the water and now she has more room to play around in it.

Avocado was on the menu last night!  We had some with our tacos and Parker had some too.  This was the first fruit/veggie that she has eaten without mixing in to cereal first, so I'd say a smashing success.  She must know how much her parents love Mexican food.  While I was feeding her the avocado, she sneezed and this was the result.

We have also upgraded from Bumbo feedings to using the real highchair.  Parker loves it.  We think she feels like a big shot up there.

And a tidbit on our other baby, Otis.  Here is a picture of him enjoying the snow over the weekend.  He is still being amazing with Parker and is starting to realize that she may have food on her face from time to time now that we started on the solid foods.  These two are going to be BFFs when she gets to finger foods!

A Whole New World

Yesterday was Parker's first day at the JCC childcare center and it was a success!  She took two good naps and was a very happy girl all day.  The teachers even sent me an email with her picture in the early afternoon, so that made ME a happy girl. 

All of this happiness was despite the fact that Parker has a double ear infection.  Sunday night, we noticed Parker rubbing her ears and so took her the doctor Monday morning and our suspicions were right.  She is on antibiotics and we are hoping for a speedy recovery before we have to get on an airplane next week.  Believe it or not, her Daddy has an ear infection as well!  It is not a surprise after a winter of cold after cold that one finally resulted in an ear infection.  We are hoping that this switch to the new daycare will help deter some of this sickness....better naps to boost that immune system and less germs due to less kids.

Not feeling well, hanging out in her swing

Random phone pics

hairdo after a bath last week

short walk on a sunny afternoon

Parker - 5 Months Old

Parker is 5 months old today!  Here are the shots from her monthly photo shoot:

Parker is getting more and more animated every day.  The sounds she makes sound more and more like words.  We are hearing more consonents sounds, lots of da-da-das the last couple days.  She still loves to blow rasberries and because of this is constantly wearing a bib because her shirt ends up soaking wet.  Parker can sit on her own for maybe a minute or so before ending up on her tummy or side.  She definitely enjoys sitting more than laying down now.  We got out this activity table from Papa G from Christmas that you can leave the legs off of and she loves to sit at this and hit all the buttons. 

She has also gotten the hang of her exersuacer and spends many evenings in it in the kitchen "helping" Mommy cook dinner.  Parker's go-to toy has been the infamous Sophie the giraffe...people were right about that toy, she just loves to chew on it (and then throw it on the ground). 

We are now giving Parker solid food twice a day, mid-morning and evening.  We are still mixing the veggies with cereal, but are using oatmeal now.  So far she has had sweet poatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots, and green beans.  I have been making food for her, but turns out the Baby Brezza does not blend that great.  You can set it to steam for a specified amount of time and then automatically blend right after, great idea!  However, the peas and green beans both ended up too chunky for a first veggie consistency.  The good old fashioned blender worked much better.  She is still drinking solely breastmilk.  My goal was 6 months and so far so good.  Unless something dramatically changes, we should make it longer than that. 

Parker is already demonstrating some independent qualities, i.e. almost every spoonful involves her holding your hand to guide the food to her mouth...she already wants to feed herself!  This is usually ends up resulting in even more food all over face.

The cloth diapers are working out great.  It has involved some trial and error, mostly on the right type of detergent and washing technique.  It's very important to make sure that no residue is left on the diapers after washing or it affects the absorbancy.  We are now using Charlie's Soap which I love because it works great and shares a name with our adorable nephew!  We use disposable diapers at night because Parker would wet right through a cloth diaper in the first 3 hours.  The girl is definitely never dehydrated.  The FuzziBunz are definitely the favorite because of the adjustable elastic in the legs.  They will fit her great for a long time to come.  And as for the yucky topic of baby poop, now that Parker is eating solid food, the poop is a different story than the breastmilk poop.  It is more solid and not water soluable.  The solution?  Liners!  They are flushable after handling a #2, but if it's just a wet diaper I wash along with everything and re-use.  These are a wonderful invention and eliminates the need for dunking diapers in the tiolet or using a sprayer.  Especially in our case since Parker is in daycare all day, the liners are the very best solution.

Parker starts at her new daycare at the Wolk Children's Center at the JCC on Monday!  We are hoping to see some better naps, which will result in a better rested baby and hopefully less colds.  All of these factors should help with the nightime sleeping habits, which are still in vast need of improvement.

Our growing girl is solidly fitting in her 6-9 month clothes.  In preparation for our coming trip to Florida, we bought some summery 9 month outfits and I think it's safe to say this week will be the only time she wears them...who knows what size she will be in this summer!  She hasn't lost any of her hair, it's just getting longer.  She has a lovely rat tail in the back, not sure if we should trim it or not.  Parker's hair is growing in a much lighter color, she has blonde roots.  It will be interesting to see what color her hair is when she is one year old.

And finally just some cute photos of this chick: