My Perfect Parker Valentine

Dear Parker,


Oh, Parker, you light up my life!  Did you know that you started smiling when you were just two weeks old?  At first I thought that maybe you were just a bit gassy, but no, the pediatrician confirmed that you were just one happy baby and the smiles have continued day after day.  Your laughter is so easily provoked that I am privileged to hear it often.  Even your baby sister knows you are the funny one.  No one can make her laugh like you can.  Even just saying a few words to her in a silly voice gets a giggle out of her while I nearly have to perform acrobatics to get the same result.

You are silly, it is true, but you are just as sweet.  You frequently express your love to me which is more than I feel I deserve. Empathy is not usually found in a five-year old, yet you have been concerned for other's feelings for years.  I remember watching Kung Fu Panda 2 with you.  There is a scene where the mother has to leave her baby and you burst into tears and hugged me so tight and I burst into tears and together we were a blubbering mess.  You are always energetically bouncing off the wall, yet you can be, and very often are, quietly thoughtful.  You are quite the contradiction.

You always want to know how everything works and have proudly declared that you will be a robot inventor.  You very well may be with your mechanical skill.  Your ability to understand things amazes me!  Your questions are very coherent and you listen well when I give you as scientifically accurate answers that I think are just slightly out of your ability to understand, but you surprise me often and understand anyway.  Your Daddy and I very impressed with your knowledge of energy conservation and your Lego-instruction-following ability.  I know your Daddy was just like you when you when he was younger.  You are both very silly/smart individuals with a great capacity for love.

Suffice it to say, I am very, very proud of you!

Love,
Your Mommy

Learn and Play: Wheeler Farm

Once a week, Parker joins a group of friends to learn something new. It is a "joy school" like group that me and the other moms put together. We rotate weeks to teach the alphabet and go on a field trip once a month. Parker looks forward to it every week...and so do I.

On May 5th, we went on a field trip to Wheeler farm. Parker is so enthusiastic about everything and ran from one animal to the next laughing.

New arrival!!

Thomas Alexander was born on February 24th at 2:49 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long. He is perfectly healthy and so am I. It is true what they say. Giving birth the second time around is much easier.

Everything goes faster the second time around. Like twice as fast. At my 36 week appointment, I was already 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced and I progressed every week. Since Parker was pretty big, late, and painful to get out, I decided to set a date to be induced 2 days before my due date which, ironically, was the same day as the science fair which I've been working on all school year.

I never went into labor like everyone predicted I would. I think my body just gets ready soon and does nothing about it until late. February 24th came and I was waiting for a phone call to tell me to come to the hospital. I was 6th on the list and the nurse said it would be around 10:00. I slept in to about 7:30 or 8:00, but couldn't sleep any longer, so I got ready. I couldn't handle just sitting around the house, so I decided to visit the school to see how the set up was going and to get a look at my students' final displays. Everyone at work thought I was crazy for coming in, but I was glad to help out a little right before I was going to abandon them for several weeks. I finally got the phone call and went to the hospital at 10:45. After I checked in, the nurse gave me pitocin (to strengthen the contractions) at 11:30. My doctor was going to break my water, but I decided I wanted the epidural before the contractions started hurting. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was busy, so I had to wait to 1:00 to get the epidural and the doctor broke my water around 1:30. That really got the contractions going and I quickly progressed to a 10 by 2:30ish and started pushing. I only had to push through 3 contractions and then another extra push to get him out. The pushed lasted around 15 minutes I would say (I had to push for over 3 hours to have Parker).

Everyone was surprised at how big he was. He was 3 oz heavier than Parker and a .5 in shorter. This surprised me because he was a week earlier. My doctor says I'm just programmed to have big babies. My mom had big babies too. In fact, I (the first) was 2 weeks late and weight 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was born through C section. The rest were all induced and I think that is what I'm going to be doing.

Little Tommy is so sweet. He doesn't cry much and he sleeps pretty well for only being a week old. He has huge feet and some dark hair, but not nearly as much hair as Parker. It will be interesting to see what color his hair will be in the end since Parker's hair color has changed so much.

Parker loves Tommy. He is always giving him kisses and trying to share toys. He calls him Thomas. I think he thinks he was named after Thomas the train. It has been hard for him to adjust to sharing his mommy. He now carries a blanket around and wants me to hold him while he is wrapped in it. He also wants to wear disposable diapers (I'm not using cloth on Tommy yet since he is so small and needs to be changed over 10 times a day) and Parker also doesn't want to wear pants, I guess because Tommy doesn't have pants on a lot. I think he is adjusting and that I am adjusting because at first Parker would cry if he wanted my attention, and say mama, and try to climb on top of me when I was feeding Tommy. Now Parker knows to wait until I'm done and I will give him my full attention. It has been more difficult than I thought it would be for Parker.

I feel so blessed to have these two precious boys. I love being a mom!

I'm a big boy now!

Parker keeps life interesting. It is both sad and adorable that he is turning into such a big boy instead of the baby boy he once was.

He LOVES buzz lightyear. He found a little Buzz at my parents' house from when my little brother was small, back to the time of the first Toy Story and he hasn't let go since. He needs Buzz when we go in the car, when we go to church, and when he goes to bed. Funny thing is that he didn't even watch Toy Story when he became attached to the little buzz. When Matt and I showed him the movies, he went crazy. He loves them.

Parker also loves his kitty cat, the one he got for Halloween in 2009 from one of my students. He needs kitty every time he goes to bed. He has gotten so good at make believe. He pretends that the kitty meows and tucks him into bed. So cute!

Parker loves his friends. He especially loves Xander and Brayden - probably because they are boys, but he also loves his friends Sarah, Addi, and Cassidy. He gets so excited when the doorbell rings and immediately stops whatever he is doing and frantically runs to the door and looks out the window. I think he is looking for his friends.

Parker knows practically all his letters and is now learning their sounds. He does still get confused between N and M and some of the lowercase letters. We try not to watch too much TV, but his favorite TV show is Super Why. I think he learns a lot watching it. It is usually on when I am taking a shower. Thank goodness, or else I would probably be a lot smellier than I should be.

He is also learning to count things. He can recite his numbers up to ten really well and is now trying to go to twenty, but he gets stuck in the teens not knowing what is next. He loves 5 little monkey's jumping on the bed. I made little figures of the monkeys and it has really helped him learn how to count objects.

He is so loving and kisses and hugs Matt and I constantly. I know it is far away, but I will be so sad the day he stops kissing me and is too embarrassed to hug me. He will come up to me when I am doing something and ask "Whatcha doin'?" So cute. He also loves his aunts, uncles, and especially Grandpa (papa) and grandma.

He is such a good little boy. One time the nursery leaders came into Sunday school very concerned. They told me that he was crying and they didn't know why. They kept saying, "He never cries." He was just having a bad day because of an ear infection, but it is good to hear how well he does in nursery. He usually just runs into the room right after sacrament meeting. He loves it.

I could go on and on because I want to remember him at this age forever, but maybe I'll save it for my journal rather than bore all of you with the little things I find so cute

Potty training

This is Parker in his new underwear. I wanted to take a picture of him flexing his muscles, but
he just wanted to run in circles. over and over again.
I started getting serious about this potty training thing this weekend. I bought Parker some choo choo train and Buzz Lightyear underwear. The first two days I had moderate success. He only peed his pants once per day and was pretty upset when he did (He didn't wear underwear the whole day. He had a diaper during his nap and at the babysitters). Then today he peed himself 3 times already and it is only noon. I think it is because he was distracted since Daddy is home and Mommy was spending a lot of time cleaning instead of constantly asking him if he needs to go potty. I think I just need to be more diligent with him right now. The biggest problem is that he hasn't gone poo-poo in the potty yet. He goes in his underwear and then tells me about it whe it is too late or I smell it when it is too late. Does anyone have advice for me? Also, how do you transition to underwear when you go out? I don't think he is ready for underwear during naptime and nightime. He is peeing sitting down right now. How do I transition to standing up? ...great he just peed in the kitchen.

Parker is 2!!!

Parker is turning 2 this Saturday, but because of General Conference, we had his friend birthday party this past Saturday. It was a sports themed party, obviously. He had 8 friends over, so it got a little crazy, but we had fun.

This is what Parker has been up to lately:

• He sings his ABC and recognizes at least 8 letters (E, R, B, H, I, S, O, A).
• He can count to ten
• He has been going potty an average of 1 time a day
• He is loving and gives kisses and hugs freely
• He all of a sudden loves taking baths. He wants multiple ones a day.
• He loves, loves, loves to sing. His favorites are the Alphabet Song, Twinkle Twinkle (which he gets confused between the two songs), Once there was a snowman, and Old McDonald.
• He loves watching movies - I wish he didn't. His new favorite is Bolt.
• He loves stuffed animals. He sleeps with like 6 every night.
• He is starting to get pretty picky about what he eats
• He laughs LOUDLY especially at church during sacrament meeting
• I can't understand about 80% of what he is saying

For his party, I made a pinata shaped like a baseball. It took way too many hours, and my amazing husband helped me decorate it without even complaining.

• Parker is excited about his baseball pinata
  
  
  
  Matt, the amazing-pinata-making-dad, helping out at the party
  
  
  
  
  Can't have too many pictures of the pinata, can we?
  
  
  
  The kids playing with the new toys. Gosh, I still need to paint my front door.
  
  
  
  
  Parker was really happy about the cupcakes.
  
  
  
  He chose a basketball
  
  
  I love my (not so) little guy!
  

Life Update

• We have been landscaping our yard for the last couple of weekends. I am completely sick of picking up rocks.
• We should be able to close on our house this Wednesday!! and move in Thursday!!!!!!!!

{This is the most current pic I have of the house, but it is done now!}

• Matt and I just got back from a rained out Youth Conference. We were the goodly parents of 9 teenagers. If you thought it was cold last weekend in the Salt Lake valley, it was really cold up in the Uintahs.
  
• For the three months we lived in the Bluffdale First Ward, we were both called to be on the activities committee, substitute primary teachers, and asked to go to Youth Conference. Plus, as a parting gift, they asked us to speak in sacrament meeting last Sunday. I don't know why they decided to pick on us...Maybe because my dad is the ward clerk...perhaps he had something to do with it.
• Matt and I are running the Ragnar Wasatch Back this weekend. A team of 12 runs from Logan to Park City (188 miles).

Matt

• Matt just graduated from the University of Phoenix with his bachelor degree in Accounting. Yay!!
  
• He was accepted to the Weber State MBA program and will be starting this fall.
• Matt is training for the Ragnar relay race. Matt will be running three legs that equal 18 miles. And he will be doing it in these bad boys:

{these are not Matt's feet, but they are his funny-looking shoes}

Ashley

• I finished up the school year with AMES and I'm not sure what I'll be doing next year.
• I've gained 7 lbs living at my parents house. Good thing I'm moving this week.
• I decided last minute to join Matt's Ragnar team. I will be running a total of 13 miles as runner #4 (hopefully I don't die mid-stride). I haven't run much since the Marathon in September. In fact, I will only have 1 1/2 weeks of training for this weekend. Fortunately, it is one of the easiest legs.
  

Parker

• Basketball was so last month. Now, it's all about baseball.
• Parker LOVES to sing. He sings Hallelujah, ABCs, and his very first original song. It goes like this: mama (high), dada (low), mama (high), dada (low)
• He love the alphabet almost as much as he loves sports. Every time we drive anywhere and he sees building signs, he starts pointing at the letters and saying "A, O, B.." http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo

Singing Hallelujah

Parker has been really trying to immitate words lately. He was sort of a late bloomer when it came to talking. He was more interested in balls. Fittingly, his first word was ball. Later came his first sentence "it's a ball." Here he started saying hallejulah when we were watching a youtube video of american idol.

It's funny how this will probably mean nothing to anyone else, but as his mom I think it is the most adorable thing ever.



Oh, and my little sister was the camera-woman. She needs a little practice.

Inspiration for today

What an inspiration! Any complaint that I've ever had in life seems silly compared to the hardships that Stephanie has and continues to endure day to day.

I love how she said that motherhood and beauty are the same thing. I think, as a woman, I always want to be beautiful. I spend time, money, and energy trying my best to fit the world's definition of beauty and I'm never really satisfied. There is always something I would change about myself if I could, but when I look into Parker's eyes and when I feel his kisses I feel more beauty than any amount of money could buy or any amount of time could produce. I spend way too much time thinking of ways to improve myself, never quite living up to my expectations, but when I tickle Parker and hear his infectious laugh I don't think of inadequacies. I think about how blessed I am. I think about love. I think that is why motherhood is synonymous with beauty. Nothing is more beautiful.

Hey, I'm still alive in case you were wondering

So, yeah. I'm a failure at blogging. It's ok. I've accepted this. In fact, probably nobody is even going to read this because they forgot I exist since I haven't blogged in, like, forever. Well, just to set the record straight, I do still exist.

"So what has been going on in the last few months?" you ask. Or I'll ask myself since nobody will be reading this. The short answer is "a lot," but I was never good at short answers so...

Well, I've been working a lot unfortunately. Remember, I teach a class on Scientific Research at AMES high school. Honestly I love it. I help high school students with their science fair projects. So around the school science fair date I started doubling my hours and every week it got worse and worse. I worked more than 40 hours one week, which I guess is no big deal except I'm really supposed to be a full-time mom who teaches as a hobby. Poor Parker lost his mom. Sad. I probably won't work there next year even though I love teaching. Sad again. (side note: We had 17 projects entered into the regional fair. All except 2 placed in their category. One of the projects "The effect of localization on the stability of DNA duplexes..." is going to the international science fair! It was way over my head.)

This is a small section of the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair at the Rice Eccles Stadium.

I wanted to post a picture of some of my students, but then I thought that would be a little creepy. "Hey, did

you hear? Mrs. Budd posted a picture of me on her blog. Sick."

Next big news: We're building a house!!! We sold our condo in West Valley and are building a house on the other side of West Valley. I know what you are thinking. West Valley? But honestly I have always felt safe there and I love being surrounding by such great diversity. I felt like Matt and I were service missionaries in our last ward. Now our new location isn't so inner-city. We are on a quarter-acre lot in a cul-de-sac in the middle of a nice brand new neighborhood just a couple of houses down from a large park which is connected to miles of a paved park trail system. I'm really excited. It should be done mid-june or so (who knows with this crappy weather).

Parker has grown up. He is no longer a baby. Now he thinks he is such a big boy.

He loves basketball. "Loves" is too weak of a word. He is OBSESSED with basketball. Yeah, he is only 18 months, but he loves shooting basketballs, watching basketball, and just walking next to basketball hoops. It is little weird, but extremely cute. Vids to come.

Action figure Phobia

I have no idea why, but Parker has developed this fear of action figures. I mean, he is seriously freaked out when he sees those things. We have this little GI Joe we found doing some geocaching some time ago. It was just sitting on my desk minding its own business. Parker spots it and starts pointing (as he always does) at it. Matt thought, "Oh, he wants to play with it." But Parker was thinking, "What in the crap is that freaky thing!!" Matt, being the good father he is, went and got it for Parker and Parker flipped out. He started shaking in fear. Literally shaking!

It doesn't stop there. Parker also had a melt down at Old Navy. The culprit: Scary friendly-looking mannequins. His Aunt Rachel was introducing him to these giant-sized action figures and he started crying! When ever he sees an action figure, he will look away from it and hold me as tightly as possible.

I know I must be a bad mom, but I find this hilarious.

Well, some time has past and Parker has made amends with the GI Joe. They're friends now. Next stop: Old Navy.

Treasure Hunt

I know some of you have been dying to hear this story since I gave a little teaser of it in my Halloween post. Lets see...where to start....

Parker and I were hanging out on my bed because he was as little sick and I was a little tired, so I broke my rule (as I occasionally do) and we were watching cartoons. (My favorite, by the way, is Super Why. It is repetitive and predictable, but the characters are so darn cute.)

Parker always wants to get into things that he shouldn't and at this point he was going for the lamp on my nightstand. He has the weird fascination with lights. Whenever one turns on, he freaks out and points as hard as he can. When he starts to cry, sometimes I carry him over to a light switch and let him turn on the lights. He is happy in no time. No joke. Ok, Back to the story: He crawls over to my messy, messy nightstand and he successfully attempts to get into everything. I literally pull him back to the center of the bed and I notice he grabbed the lid from my deodorant (I have everything but the kitchen sink on my nightstand). "Meh," I think and I let him play with it.

When Parker is really tired or sick he sort of just collapses into a lump of chubby goodness. He was in his collapsing mode so I layed him down in the center of the bed. The next thing I know, he was choking. It was possibly the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I didn't know what he was choking on, but he would go a little without breathing while he was gagging and it would then be interrupted by short bouts of crying hysterics. I was glad when he cried because I at least knew he could breath. Some more gagging, then some more crying, a bit of praying on my part and then a few gulps to finish it off.

I realized he had swallowed something, but I had no idea what...sure my nightstand was covered with catalogs, hair accessories, pens, pencils, markers, pretty much any type of writing utensil, deodorant, candles, etc. etc. but surely there was nothing chokable there. Then I looked around and I thought, "uh, oh." I looked at my finger, looked back at the nightstand and realized that my wedding ring was not where I last put it. Crap. That can't be good. I searched and searched, but to no avail. "It must be in Parker's stomach."

I called the doctor's office and told them the situation. After a little chuckle, the nurse asked,"Are you serious?" Yes, unfortunately I was. They fit me in as soon as possible and we got an X-ray that confirmed my suspicion. After the doctor looked at the X-ray, he asked me, "Does your ring have several diamonds along the band?" You could see the ring perfectly, sitting in his little stomach just below his tiny ribs. "Just check the poop." That's the only advice his doctor gave me.

The next day we put Parker's lovely poops in a Ziploc bag. I gave it one squish and found my beautiful ring covered in feces. Matt, for some reason, volunteered to get it out of the bag-o-fun. He really is the best husband. I scrubbed it a little, ok, a lot, and now good as new. Actually just the week before I was commenting about how I needed to clean my ring. I procrastinated. Well, I definitely had a reason to clean it now.

I apologize to anyone who received the picture text from Matt of the Poop Bag with the ring. No one should have to see that.

PS The picture is not Parker's X-ray. It is of an adult. I'm going to try and get a copy of the actual X-ray.

Happy Birthday Baby

My little baby is growing up. Parker turned one year old on October 3, 2009. Yes, I know it is cliche, but they grow up so fast.

Parker was spoiled with two birthday parties on his big day with a jungle theme. I took my hand at cake decorating and made this alligator cupcake cake. Fearsome, I know.

The first party was in the park with his neighborhood friends. I had this great idea to have the kids go "fishing" for tub toys using magnets, but the toys were too heavy so it didn't work as perfectly as I had imagined. But the kids still had fun playing in the water and on the playground and Parker got some sweet gifts. Thanks friends!


Later that evening we had hamburgers with the family at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Parker was super spoiled by everyone's attention and took this opportunity to show off his new skill of walking. I love watching him waddle everywhere. Such a cutie!



He was a little frightened when the lights were turned off and everyone surrounded him singing in unison while an open flame sat in front of him. Fortunately, he forgot all about it once he started eating his cake.

Kelli reminded me to share his stats. Despite his chubby cheeks, Parker is a little guy. At 12 months he weighed 21 lbs. 13 oz (33%) and is 29 in (20%). But he has a big head compared to the rest of him at 47 cm (66%). He has slimmed up a lot since he was 2 months at the 95 %tile for both height and weight, but he is adorable either way.

Halloween

I love halloween. It's just fun. We had a family "Toy Story" theme this year. Matt was woody, I was Bo Peep, and Parker was Buzz Lightyear.

I don't sew very often, but this year I sewed my entire costume including the hat. It was so hard. Sewing is not as easy as it seems. Fortunately, my mother in law is like a genius at sewing so we altered a pattern from some size 16 '80's prom dress pattern.

What a cute family!

As a side note, Grandma Budd gave Parker a peanut butter sandwich on Halloween. Next thing I know, half his face has swollen up. You can kinda see the puffy eye in this picture. So, off to the doctor again to check for allergies. Poor kid. Earlier in the week he swallowed my wedding ring (story to come) and now this.

Swimming

Last weekend we went swimming at Matt's parent's pool in Saratoga Springs. It was Parker's second time. I didn't want to take him the first time we went. I knew that Parker was tired and it was starting to get cold since the sun was going down, but everyone else was super excited to see Parker in the pool for the first time...so I gave in and Parker did not enjoy himself. It wasn't too bad, but he was a little temperamental.

This time was different. At first he was a little apprehensive. I think that he was a little freaked out by the fact that his feet weren't touching anything and he was just floating about. Once I showed him what it was all about and we saw other kids playing, he seemed to enjoy himself more. He really loved going over on the steps where he could stand up in the water. He was getting so excited and started splashing around (He got his mommy very wet).

Parker isn't so happy yet


He's having a good time now!


Just like his daddy



Having fun playing on the steps



He kept his hat on most of the time

Here's Matt's dad doing a front flip off the diving board

Smartest Baby in the WORLD

Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but in my defense, he is pretty darn smart. The other day he used a spoon. I didn't even teach him how to do it. He stole the spoon out of my hand, dipped it in applesauce and then put it in his mouth (and a little on his face). I couldn't believe it, but as to assure me that he really did know what he was doing, he did it again and again. All in all, I think he took a good 5 bites on his own. I even had time to tell Matt to go get the camera. So here is one of his attempts (a little messy, but hey, he is only 9 months old). Sorry about the lack of sound. I had a problem converting the files, but if you must know, the audio went something like this, "ok, dip it in the apple sauce. Good job! You are so smart. Ok, you have some. Now put it in your mouth. You are doing so well. Oh, close enough."




It is amazing what babies learn just from watching their parents. Parker also puts cell phones up to his ear. Actually he puts anything that resembles a cell phone up to his ear: TV remote, Baby monitor, camera. It always amazes me how much kids understand. They are constantly learning.

Clark Planetarium

Matt asked me what I wanted to do last weekend and I told him what I often tell him in answer to such a question. I wanted to go to the planetarium. I usually do. It is the science geek in me. I did teach astronomy after all.

So this was Parker's first trip and, as the curious kid that he is, he loved to see everything.

Parker and Daddy on the moon

Parker doesn't know what he thinks about
crawling around on Mars all by himself

Parker looking at the thing with all the balls that roll
everywhere. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Ever since he got his first tooth, he likes to bite his upper lip.