Parker Lately

Very soon I should have a little baby, and I don't know how much I'll be updating about Parker, so I decided I would try to put something up here about him and throw out a few random pictures while I can still focus a little bit.

Talking: Parker has a pretty good vocabulary and wants to share all of his thoughts with us, but he is still a little young to work with full sentences; instead we get a string of words together to understand what Parker is thinking.
For example I was going up the stairs with Parker and I told him it was nap-time. He started saying "potty-potty" since he knows we go potty right before nap. While on the potty he pointed to the bathroom light said "off, dark", pointed to his room and said "fan, prayer, blanket, sleep". He was telling me that he knew that we were going to turn off the bathroom light (making it dark) go turn on his fan, say a prayer and go to sleep with his blanket.
And again, this morning Parker saw his church clothes sitting out and he pointed to them and said "church", then he mimed coloring and said "colors", then he folded his arms, bowed his head and said "prayer", then said "water, sing, snacks" I thought it was super cute! He knew that we were going to church, where he prays, colors, sings, drinks water and eats snacks.
I'm glad he can communicate with me so well, and I often find it funny the little things that he thinks are important enough to remember or share with me.

Best Friends: Parker loves his Panda stuffed animal and one of his beanie-baby bears. He treats them like little people. When he gets milk, he gives them drinks, he puts the cup up to their face and says "drink" when they are done drinking he goes "aaahh" since they can't make this noise themselves. He will give them kisses before bed and before nap most days. He has them dance and spin and jump. And he has even spent a little bit of time potty training both the bear and the panda.

Talking, part 2: We have reached the 'broken record' stage of toddler-hood. Parker will choose a word and say it over and over and over. The most common word that he does this with is "ice" he loves when I put an ice cube or two into his water cup. When he sees that there is ice in his cup he will simply say "ice, ice, ice, ice, ice, ice, ice" until I want to bang my head on the table. I've seen other toddlers do this, and it's kind of funny when it is someone else's child, but it's really, really hard to find the humor in it when I have to hear Parker say cook 100 times in a row while I am cooking lunch for us, and then hear it another 100 times while I'm cooking dinner later that day.

Helper: Parker loves to be a helper. Nothing makes him happier then "helping" daddy put on his socks, or helping unload the dishwasher. This is perfect when we go grocery shopping, because he hates sitting in the shopping cart (sitting in the cart seat is actually used as punishment when he doesn't listen.) Anyway, he helps push the shopping cart around the store and LOVES when he can pull stuff off of the shelf for me and drop it in the cart. He truly enjoys helping me clean around the house, he gets an extra rag or broom or towel and follows me saying "clean, clean, spray, clean"