Happy 3rd Birthday Parker!!

 

Parker at 3 Years Old

Height: 38 in (57.4%)

Weight: 30.3lb (33%)

That's right, Parker Jackson Totten turned 3 years old yesterday! We think he had a pretty good day. Oatmeal and apples for breakfast, presents, play time with his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins, PBJ, carrots, and blueberries for lunch, a trip to the Little Howe playground and wading pool, chicken nuggets, pasta and carrots by request for dinner (cucumbers and pea pods were also requested but not on hand), and rides back and forth in the house on his new scooter before bed. All in all, not too bad - some of his favorite foods and pastimes.

Parker has become such a grown up boy and yet it also seems like just yesterday that we made that frantic trip to the hospital for his birth. Some of our favorite and/or most notable things about Parker right now are:

- He says, "I love you bunches and bunches". The words seriously just melt your heart.
- We thought we'd side-stepped the whole "no" phase, but unfortunately it's his new favorite word. When told that he isn't to tell us no, though, he changes it to "no thank you". At least it sounds more polite.
- He likes to answer questions with "sure".
- For the most part he can be trusted to play on his own at the playground without us walking behind him and intervening too much. He pretty much knows what he's capable of and what he isn't ready for yet. He definitely still starts off his time at the playground by observing the other kids and what they're doing for a few minutes before he dives in. Then he's a madman...running, looking for others to play chase (although he doesn't actually ask them), climbing, going down the slide, and playing in the sandbox. The swings don't really seem to appeal to him anymore.
- When telling us his plans (such as "I'm going to put my red car, and police car, and yellow treat car, and race car in my room"), he ends it with "okay?"
-At bed time he has started to say he doesn't want to go night-night. That happened for the first time about week ago. He's still a pretty good sleeper, though.
- He's slept until 7:30am pretty frequently lately and close to 8:00am a few times. Yay!
- His vocabulary is through the roof! And a good portion of what he says is intelligible. He will repeat anything and everything you say (good or bad). That hasn't backfired too badly yet, but when we're in the car at a stop sign he does say "Go People!" Apparently Mama needs to work on her patience while driving.
- He loves his little brother a little too much sometimes. The word "gentle" is heard in our house a lot.
- It's pretty sweet when he shares his cars with Conway by parking them next to him. It's even sweeter when he shares Brown Dog, his most prized possession.
- Potty training commenced about a week ago and he has done really well going pee in the toilet. #2 is another story and we've seen a lot of what Dr. Hall calls "the poop dance". It looks a lot like a ballerina dancing or someone tip-toeing around. He just doesn't want to do it. Poor guy.
- Parker sings.... all the time.  He sings at lunch time, he sings putting his cars away, he sings on a run with Papa, he sings with 30 people over at the house - and he just makes up the words to the same song he sings over and over and over again.
- If he wants a kiss, he now just tells you to "pay the toll" like Papa has told him for the past three years.
- He has a strong opinion about when he's asked to do something he's not such a fan of.  But, if you just tell him to do whatever that activity is "fast, go as fast as you can" he basically thinks he's playing chase by himself and he magically does it.  It's amazing!
- He loves to cuddle during his snack time... wants to sit on our lap and frequently turns around and gives the best hugs and kisses.
- He can have a very sweet smile and often tilts his head to the side at the same time for added effect. When smiling on command, though, it usually looks more like he's squinting into the sun. Obviously we're biased, but this kid is pretty much the cutest.

Happy Birthday Parker! We love you!