All about Parker

As promised, here is a post bringing you up to date on Parker.

• Parker will be four in two weeks! Where has the time gone???We are still struggling a bit with potty training. He is 100% potty trained for number 1, and 0% potty trained for number 2. Parker even holds it when he really needs to go, causing it to hurt and making us not want to press the issue. Any and all advice is welcome.
• Parker no longer takes a nap most days. Bummer. He does sleep at least 12 hours at night, though.
• There have been no apparent  physical ill-effects of having his front two teeth pulled. He does say some thing that start with a "th" sound using an "f" sound instead. It's not always really obvious, and I'm hoping it's not something that we will need any kind of speech therapy to correct. Just the other day, he said "thru" but it sounded like "fru". I showed him how to say it and told him to repeat after me. He responded by saying"thhhhh-FRU". It was pretty funny.
• Parker LOVES to play the Nintendo Wii, and is surprisingly good at it for a three-almost-four-year-old.
• Parker talks non-stop. Seriously. Sometimes I just pray for silence. He will even start speaking gibberish sometimes because he doesn't stop talking long enough to think about what he is trying to say.
• Parker eats really well. I often hear parents talk about how hard it is to get their kids to eat things, and I am grateful that's a non-factor for us. Some of his favorite things to eat are any kind of chicken, cheese, fruit snacks, macaroni and cheese, applesauce, and cookies.
• Parker is extremely social and loves to be around other people, both kids and adults. He is constantly introducing himself to strangers at stores, restaurants, etc.
• Parker often spontaneously says things like "you're my best mom, dad, baby (for Sadie), friend, etc", like he's really trying to express himself and how he feels.
• He loves to talk on the phone, and would probably talk for hours if given the opportunity.
• We have had a lot of family visit lately, and Parker is very interested in figuring out how everyone is related.
• Parker loves to play with Sadie. They usually get along pretty well.
• Parker says so many things that totally crack us up. The other day, Parker was just walking around and suddenly said "What in my world!". Another time, he came down the stairs to where I was sitting in the living room and said "how's it been, Mom, how's it been?". A couple of day ago, I was making tater tot casserole and he was watching me line up the tater tots on the top of the dish. When I was done, I said "what do you think?" and he said "I think it's BEAUTIFUL!".
• A couple of months ago, we were driving and I told Parker about the stoplights and that "red means stop, green means go". Now EVERY time we come to a stoplight, he gives me a running commentary on what red and green mean and when it's time to go. If there's a large vehicle in front of us and we can't see the light, he's annoyed until traffic starts to move so he can see it.
• Anyone who knows Parker very well knows about Daddy Hippo. He is still as attached to Daddy Hippo as he's ever been.
• Parker loves to dance and lip-sync to music. He also loves airplanes, helicopters, dinosaurs, and playing sports.

In summary, Parker is a sweet, happy go-lucky, talkative little boy who makes us laugh. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of him taken lately.