Let's Drive

Parker loves to drive. He makes a motor sound and moves his hand back and forth as if he is turning the steering wheel. He makes the "I want to drive now" sign from the moment he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep, and sometimes we can hear him making the sound in his crib at night. It is a cute obsession and I often joke that we have the next Jeff Gordon.

A good friend brought us the best gift for Parker - a motorized mustang. This "little" car travels at 7 miles an hour. Lucky for us, the battery works just enough to play the radio, but not enough to move the car.

Parker still loves to drive our cars, but he also loves his very own car. We can't wait until we can replace the battery and let Parker go!

Driving

Parker loves to drive! He wants to drive our cars. He wants to drive his mini cooper (he will take our keys and use it to start is small little plastic toy). And now, he wants to drive the battery powered jeep at Toys R Us. Yup. I can see we have a race car driver in our future.

Volunteer of the Year

I started this blog to chronicle Parker's adventures, but every now and then I like to do a post that gives you a peek into our lives. This month, I was recognized by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce as Volunteer of the Year. I received the honor with my good friend Michael Smith. We were recognized in front of more than 900 elected, business and communtiy leaders.

I love this picture of us. I refer to the photo as the Chris and Keri fancy pants photo. It felt wonderful to put on a fancy dress, spend some time on my make-up and go to a fun event filled with people I know and love.

So this picture is proof that I own something other than sweats, jeans and work clothes.

Too early.

Parker woke on Saturday at 4:30 a.m. and there was nothing I could do to get him to lay still let alone go back to sleep. He was standing at the side of his crib giving a good old fashioned whine, when he pointed to his big blanky. I gave him the blanky and he kept trying to put it on his head. I helped him and he walked around for an hour with his blanket on his head.

Just a list...

This is just a list of all fo the new things Parker is saying and doing...

• What does a duck say? "Bwack," which is his version of quack.
• Parker, where is your nose? Parker will point to his nose.
• Parker, where is your belly? Parker will lift his shirt and pat his belly. He will then want mommy, daddy or anyone near him to lift their shirt so he can poke the belly.
• Parker loves to drive our cars. He will make a sound and move his hand back and forth as if he is turning a steering wheel when he wants to drive. If we say no, he runs to the back door, tries the sound and hand motion one more time, and then dramatically falls to the floor.
• The sign for more translates to "I want it" in Parker language.
• He screams dad as he walks around the house and whines mama when he is sad.
• And finally, Parker loves to dance.

Tonight

I don't have a picture of our beautiful baby boy to accompany tonights post. As I was rocking Parker to sleep tonight, I looked down and realized his little body stretched the width of the chair. His legs hung over my legs. I realized he has been holding his bottle for the past nine months. I gain comfort in the fact that when I kiss his head he still smells like my baby. And when I close my eyes I can feel the little five pound, 13 ounce baby curled on my chest with his little infant legs in the froggy position.

Parker is growing so quickly. Tonight, I asked him to go and close the blinds in the living room; he looked at me, walked over and shut the blinds. Tonight I asked him to go and get his shoe; he walked over, picked up his shoe and pointed to his little foot. Tonight I asked him if he was tired; he grabbed his blanky and paci and laid down on the floor. I know he has been doing some of these things for a few weeks, but tonight I stopped and realized how much Parker has grown. How much he understands what I am saying. How much he is becoming a person with unbelievable determination. How much I love him...to the core.

Tonight my baby is one day older than last night.