Parker - 2 Years Old

Parker turned two yesterday and we had a fun time celebrating.  These pictures and video are from the morning.  We have been working on the "I'm two" thing, but she has trouble getting her hand to do that still.  The video below shows her attempt (albeit a little distracted because the TV was on).  

She did go to school (along with a special treat for her classmates) but Greg and I picked her up at 4:00 and took her to a local farm that has a bounce pillow.

Then Papa G, Sandy, Pryse, and his puppy, Karma, came over for dinner, gifts & cake.  

All in all, Parker is a happy little girl who follows direction well.  She does have her occasional toddler moments, but we just ignore or wait it out and she comes around pretty quickly.  We are starting to see more on independent streak.  A prime example is that she will not let us help her brush her teeth anymore and has to do it herself.  She is excited to do it, but I am pretty sure they don't get as good a scrubbing as when an adult brushes.  Last night we all brushed our teeth at the same time and Parker thought that was pretty cool.  

Her vocabulary has really exploded in the last few weeks, even her teachers at school have mentioned it.  Some of the most frequently heard phrases are "What doin'?" (for what are you doing?) and "Help you" (which really means Help Me).

She has been going to bed really well at night, but she has become more dependent on her white bear lovey.  The last few nights Parker has sung herself to sleep with her sweet renditions of ABC and Twinkle, Twinkle.  

She has also taken to counting things she sees.  For example, walking into Wegman's they have huge displays of pumpkins and Parker will say "1, 2, 3, 5 pumpkins!"

Parker still is loving bath time and lately has been having fun walking around like this afterwards:

She still loves to sit and be read to and we do at least two books before bed every night.  Parker has pretty much got the "thank you" nailed but does not say "please" very often unless prompted.  She is still eating great and eats whatever we eat for dinner every night.  The current obsession is with tomatoes, she can't get enough!

Parker loves to help out and has taken responsibility for making sure Otis gets fed his breakfast and lunch every day.  She then uses the bin we keep his dog food in as a stool to see on top of kitchen counters or pull things out of the pantry.

Every day we get to unveil a little more of her lively personality.  She's a smart kid but also starting to love to make us laugh.  She brightens every day of our lives!!