A return to normalcy...well...almost...

...and I say almost because things are still pretty hectic around here. We had Parker's 1st birthday party this past Saturday, and so amidst trying to get readjusted to leaving Parker in the care of another and the beginning of a new semester, I have been planning a birthday party. And although it wasn't anything extravagant, it sure did seem to occupy a lot of my time (and maybe a little bit of stress as well ;)). So yesterday was just a really nice family day at home. I didn't do any studying (which I am sort of regretting today) and we just hung out around the house and let Parker play with some of her new toys. It was so exciting to see her play with these new things, and to actually see how she has such a greater understanding of what is going on in the world around her than she did just a few weeks ago. She is becoming much more independent in her playing (however....she is mainly "independent" with her playing as long as I am sitting on the floor beside her...if I get up to do something (anything), she stops playing and must see what I am doing). I enjoy it though. We are really enjoying her at this age of 'discovery.'

Well...I don't have much time here right now (due to this whole exam thingie that I have to do on Wednesday morning), but I thought I'd share just a few of the darling moments we've captured over the last couple of days...

Parker was interested in wearing her sunglasses in the house on Sunday afternoon....she'd hand them to me to put them on her, take them off again, then hand them back to me... and she would just grin. Then she decided that she wanted to push around her new baby doll in her stroller.

We also took her for a ride in her new wagon yesterday after dinner. She seemed to enjoy it (then again, it was such a beautiful day yesterday).

Here is Parker helping me clean the floors. I got out the Swiffer floor cleaner for me and gave her her broom and she was off...

Does she look overworked, or what?

She also liked digging in her cleaning bucket...

This evening we took her outside for some bubbles....she liked looking at them and would reach for them occasionally, but the bubbles were kind of small, and there were some strong wind gusts that blew them away fairly quickly.

I did let her try to blow them herself because she kept acting like she wanted to. I knew she didn't understand the concept of blowing, but I did put it near her mouth and this is what she did. Too cute...

And in closing...

Tonight was bath night and Parker got a cute new baby doll to play with in the tub. After I cleaned her, we put the baby in with it's baby tub, and its baby-sized wash rag (how cute is that?). She did a great job washing her baby...

...and giving her kisses.... (aahhhhh..... )