Two and a Half

To my spirited, active, funny, athletic, stubborn, loveable, and energetic Parker:

You turn two and a half today!

What energy and spunk you bring to our family! Life would be so boring without you in our lives. You keep us on our toes and there is never a dull moment when you are around. Things are either really good or really not-so-good in your life...there is no in between. You are in "go" mode from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. The only time you slow down is when you are sleeping. You bring a smile to my face and I am so thankful that God chose me to be your mom.
Parker, you are very active and had developed a love for any sport that uses a ball. You not only love to play with balls, but also enjoy watching sports on TV with daddy. You enjoy football, baseball, basketball, golf, and soccer. You play with balls at home, during Sunday school and at preschool. Everytime I pick you up from school on Thursdays, the preschool director always tells me how much you loved playing with the balls during your gym time. I have a feeling we will be very involved in team sports once you are old enough to participate in them.
You also love to read books with me or Granna. It sometimes takes us a while to get you interested, but once we start reading, it's hard to get you to stop. Some of your current favorites are Biscuit books, Spot books, Brown Bear Brown Bear, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, and your book of bible stories, which you call The Jesus Book.

Parker, you are very technologically savvy. You love to play games on the computer and can now control the computer mouse on your own. This has given you a lot of freedom because you can chose your own games and play them independently, without my help.

Your newest discovery is Granna's iPhone. You love to play games that she has downloaded on her phone, and as a result, can now identify all of your letters and numbers. You even know most of the letter sounds, too. As a reading teacher, I would love to take credit for you already knowing your alphabet, but unfortunately I have to give all of the credit to the computer and the iPhone!

You also love to watch TV. You are one of those kids who would literally watch TV all day long if I would let you. I really have to monitor how much TV you watch every day and often have to endure crying fits when I turn it off. Right now your favorites are Little Einsteins, The Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer.

Your favorite food is "sabeghi", otherwise known as spaghetti. You can pack away two or sometimes even 3 helpings whenever I make it. You also love macaroni and cheese and any type of fruit, but will not touch vegetables. I continue to offer them to you and am hopeful that one day you will actually put one in your mouth and like it! You have recently learned that you have to eat whatever is offered to you and that mommy is not going to make something special just for you. That sometimes means that you eat only grapes for dinner (like last night!).
Parker, we worried for so long that you were never going to learn to talk, but over the past 3 months you have proven us wrong. You are learning new words and phrases every day and continue to amaze us with some of things you can now say. You have also started singing a lot over the past week. I am not always sure what song you are singing but it sure sounds sweet!
You continue to be a great sleeper and sleep around 12 hours at night as well as a 2 hour nap every afternoon. You turn into quite a cranky boy if you don't get enough sleep, so we keep you on a pretty rigid schedule. You currently sleep with 2 blankets (one blue and one striped), a stuffed Barney, a stuffed Cat in the Hat, and a bear lovey. You also sometimes try to sneak in other animals when I'm not looking.
You love to play outside and one of your favorite things to do is go throw rocks in the pond with daddy. You also love to ride your tricycle or play in the water table.
Parker, you are such a loveable boy (when you want to be!). You give great hugs and one of my favorite times of day is rocking and snuggling with you before I put you in bed at night. I can't believe you are already 2 1/2. You are growing so fast...I often just want to put a brick on your head and make you stay this age forever. I thank God for you every day and look forward to seeing what the next 6 months has in store for you. Thank you for letting me be your mommy. I love you so much!