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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mmm..mmm...sand...

After dinner tonight, we decided to take Parker back outside to play in her sand and water cart so that Geoff could see her playing. This is what happened....we laughed so hard watching it over a few times. (oh...and sorry about the poor filming on my part...I was trying to actually watch her instead of looking through the screen because it is sometimes hard to see, so it ended up being very bumpy and not centered...)

A morning with the sand cart...

Parker received this sand and water cart for her birthday from my mom and stepdad. We have let her play with it before with only water, and she seemed to enjoy it pretty well. But last night, we decided to go ahead and get the sand since it was getting cooler outside, and when she plays with the water... it tends to get all over her! (one day I will be really brave and put the sand and water in the cart at the same time like you are supposed to do!) So we put the sand in last night after she went to bed, and this morning we tried it out. She seemed to really enjoy herself. It kept her entertained for about 30 minutes! And she didn't even get very messy, to my surprise! This first picture is her face when she touched sand for the very first time in her life...

Her cute little hand...


Who can resist this face? Don't you just want to kiss those squishy cheeks???

And then there's the pointing....
...her new favorite thing these days. She first started pointing at things about 2 months ago, and she would do it just to do it, and then sometimes she would do it to let us know that she wanted something. But over the past week, we have reached a new level of pointingness. She points at the dog and says "Dah!, Dah!" ....over and over again. She points at her sippy cup and food when she wants that. She points at her "lovey" on the floor immediately when we walk into her room in the mornings to get her, because she has thrown it on the floor and wants us to get it for her. She points at the plate, the knife, the scissors, our cups, etc, etc, etc.... It is really neat and exciting because it is helpful at times to let us know what she wants. On the flip side, almost 80% of the things she wants, she cannot have.....:)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Milk...it does a body good...

We gave Parker milk for the first time this week. I think she's still trying to get used to the new taste. We have still been giving her formula for the mere fact that we have some left over and I refuse to throw it away. So I think that it kind of throws her off going between the two. On days that she has more milk than formula, she seems to like the milk better. This first try with milk, I let her try it in two different kinds of cups to see which she preferred. Looking back... I'm not really sure why I did this, but I guess I was thinking somewhere along the lines that milk is thicker than formula and it may be harder to get out of the sippy cup(???)....but....she can drink it from her sippy just fine!

Look who's facing foward in the car now! We got her new car seat last weekend. Geoff and I were so excited when we got it (I know it is a bit corny), that we didn't even wait until we got home to install it. Geoff put it in the car while we were in the parking lot of Babies R Us. (haha!) She seems to like the facing forward all right, BUT....it is a huge ordeal getting her into the car seat....she knows just how to arch her back and flail her arms to keep us from getting her in! So now we are in that stage where she acts pretty good in public, but I dread taking her anywhere because it is so difficult just getting her in the car!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

This is just a cute picture I took of her yesterday. I wish the face in the mirror wasn't so blurry, but it is cute nonetheless...

Today we went to the Galleria for some shopping. We made it a "family day" because Parker is getting to the age where I feel like we can start doing more with her that she will actually enjoy. They have a pretty nice play yard there (that we had been to once before with Jodie) but then she was not walking yet. She had a pretty good time. At first she just stood there watching all of the kids around her. But by the end, she was walking around thinking she was "cooler than school" (as Geoff sometimes says).
(and yes....the bruise on her forehead is the one still healing from last week!)

And we did it...today was Parker's first taste of McDonald's! We brought her fruit and milk, and she had their (supposed) white meat chicken nuggets. She loved them, to say the least....however, in this picture, she is ready to go!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

...a loooong day...

...but it was a good day. Today was my first Labor & Delivery clinical experience at Parkland Hospital. I left the house at 5:15 this morning, and did not return until 6:45 this evening. BUT, I did see two births...and I put in a foley catheter!! I still have so much to learn, but definitely know that I want to do some kind of nursing in women's health/newborn nursery, etc... and I want nothing to with medical-surgical nursing. Aside from my L&D clinical, I also have a rotation on a pulmonary unit at another hospital one day a week, and I am not so into that (to say the least)....but I guess I have to learn it all to pass the exam at the end!

And I'll be honest....it's been a rough month...just trying to balance everything. I know it can be done (it has been done before by many, and even done by me last semester). But I feel guilty when I am studying and not spending time with Parker... yet I feel guilty when I am spending time with Parker and not studying! So this is neverending and probably just one of those things that comes with the territory of motherhood. So that is that, and I just have to remind myself that this will all pay off in the end. (And also...I am lucky to have a dear, sweet husband that puts up with/supports me during these extremely stressful times!)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

A year in review...

I had the best of intentions of posting this on Parker's birthday, but due to a lack of time...was unable to do so. This is just a little slideshow of various pictures throughout her first year...

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Happy birthday, Parker!

Well- it's official....Parker is no longer an infant, but now a toddler! My how the time flies!!! At 10:24pm this evening, Parker will be exactly 366 days old (since it was leap year this year!). We did make it to the dr this morning for her 12 month check-up. Everything looked pretty good with the exception of this week's trials and tribulations on her pretty little face (and leg...this morning she got her leg stuck between the crib rails and needed help getting unstuck, thus leaving a red mark). Bless her heart! We did hold out on the immunizations for today because she seems to have a little bit of a cold, and although she is acting fairly normal with no temperature, I just decided to wait one more week to be sure. She now weighs 20lbs, 10oz (50th percentile) and is 27.75 inches long (75th percentile). We were going to try whole milk today, but when we bought some the other day (on Sunday), we didn't check the expiration date and it was this past Tuesday (bummer!).....so I just haven't had time to make it back to the store. So this will probably just wait until tomorrow.

I haven't taken any new pictures today , but thought I'd post some pictures of her eating her giant cupcake!

Giant cupake BEFORE


Giant Cupcake AFTER








Wednesday, September 17, 2008

They say things come in threes...

I don't know who "they" are, but I have heard this for as long as I can remember. Well....I am here to tell you, that sometimes this just may be true. I am embarrassed to report, that on Tuesday, Parker was walking around the house with a plastic cup...she bit into it (I was 6 inches behind her) and I immediately took it from her. Only there was a piece missing. Yes, a little piece... a little sharp piece. We found some pieces on the floor, but there was still some we couldn't find and so we had to assume that she could have swallowed some. I was worried and very upset, to say the least. I even called Geoff and asked him to come home in case we needed to take her to the emergency room. Luckily, all of that was not the necessary. I called the pediatrician's office and the nurse was so nice. After asking many questions and assessing the situation, she told me that she thought she would be fine and gave me some things to do (like make sure she ate lots of fruits and juices) and to check her dirty diapers (fun) until we found it. Sooooo, onto Wednesday.... I picked her up as soon as I was done with school, and not 5 minutes after being home, Parker lost her balance and fell forward...bumping her head on the corner of the door trim, which immediately swelled up and began bruising. Poor baby! The good thing is, she only cried for less than a minute and then she was fine. I attempted to put ice on it, but that was a challenge. She, of course, had to have her own ice pack as a distractionary measure so that I could put one on the huge bump forming!

So last night was talking to Geoff about how things come in threes and that I hope that nothing else would happen to Parker. I mean...surely nothing else would happen to her? But...tonight...Geoff had run to the store for a minute, and I took her into her room to change her diaper and put on her pj's. She began playing around and opened her clothes drawer...pulled out a pair of pants and began walking around with them around her neck as she always does. When she got back to the side of the drawer, she lost her balance again...this time plunging forward and hitting right beneath her right eye on the metal part of the drawer hardware that the rollers roll on (I'm not that technical so I don't know what they are really called). I am so thankful it didn't bleed! So...I again tried to apply ice. Her eye looks like it may become black and it is already a little swollen. We did give her some infant ibuprofen to hopefully help with the swelling. Geeeez! Well...I guess we can say her last 3 days under the age of one were....I guess....adventuresome???

The huge bump is above her right eye (from yesterday) and the scratch is under her right eye (from tonight). And p.s....I believe that the rest of the plastic piece has been found....

Monday, September 15, 2008

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..... )

Thursday, September 11, 2008

TGTIF.

Thank Goodness Tomorrow Is Friday!!! I still have 5 videos to watch tonight on IV fluids, tracheostomy care, and some other fun stuff that I will have a skills check-off for tomorrow, and I have to finish this list of drugs and all there is to know about them. But the thing that gets me through is knowing that tomorrow is Friday! Next week will be the 4th week of school and I will have my first exam (uuughhhhhh). But it will also be the first week that I will have my normal schedule. I will only be in class on Wednesday and then have my clinical on Friday. These past few weeks have just been inundated with skills labs and clinical orientations and blablabla... that I have not been able to get my bearings straight!

So nothing really new has been going on here. Just busy, busy, busy...as I am sure that many of you can relate. I haven't even taken any new pictures of Parker this week! :-( I know...it is sad. But I will make up for it this weekend!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Giddy-up horsey...

My Papaw was a great carpenter. He could build most anything. Luckily, we are fortunate enough to have a few pieces of furniture that he built, to pass onto Parker. One of those things was this rocking horse. When I first did her nursery, I 'fit' this piece of furniture into her room. But after a few months of living in the wall to wall furniture, I decided to move some things into the garage that she was too little for, until she was actually able to use them. Tonight, for some reason (I know it was only a couple of hours ago, but Geoff and I can honestly not remember what made us do this), we got this rocking horse out. She loved it! (If you can't tell by the pictures...)






P.S. Do you think that Parker's outfit brought The Boys good luck tonight??? ;-)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Ready for Game Day...

Geoff was out of town for work this past week (he got home yesterday), but while he was away, I received an e-mail from him asking me to order this 'outfit' for Parker to wear when the Cowboy's play (he also informed me that when picking out a size, I needed to try to make sure it would fit through January). We got it today and I let her try it on. It's a little big, so there's definitely some room to grow!



(I'm discovering that it is getting harder and harder to get a good picture of Parker. She's so busy and into everything, and definitely not into smiling when I pull the camera out!)

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