Tea Party

 

The boys (with the creative direction led and strictly enforced by Parker) decided to have a tea party on our kitchen floor for us and the important stuffies in our household. Besides Parker, Conway, and myself, in attendance was Brown Dog, Teddy, Mama's Cuddle Dog, Papa's Cuddle Dog, Mama Doggy, and Parker's Teddy. And yes, all of those specific names have been given to specific stuffies and therefore are in fact proper nouns in need of capitalization. :-) 

Be Back

{"Be Back"}

 

One of my favorite things that Conway does right now is that while we're playing he will seemingly out of the blue stop, look right at you, and announce that he'll "Be Back". He then turns around, runs out of the room, and shortly thereafter returns with something new to add to the play. He's actually been doing this for quite some time now and it's just been next to impossible to get the exchange captured on photo. As you can see from these pictures I still wasn't able to get any quality shots, but I just decided to use what I could get in order to document the moment.

 

{Off he goes...}

 

{...with lion happily in his hands as he returns}

And He's Off!

 

Yep, Parker has taken to riding a big kid bike and there's no stopping him now! He can even get going on his own if the ground is relatively level. He's working on using the brakes to stop instead of just putting his feet down like he did with the balance bike, the one downside to the transition, but that's starting to click too. Other than that it's been a seamless transition - one day he was still on the balance bike and the next he was pedaling along without any help. The cutest thing about the day he pedaled on his own a good distance for the first time was when he said, "I can't wait to tell Papa! He's going to be so proud of me!"

 

And a big thank you to cousin Philip for passing along his bike to Parker. I think Parker is just as excited about the bike coming from Philip and the picture of Dusty the airplane on the bike as he is about actually riding it. :-) Check out THIS VIDEO from day two of Parker's adventure in bike riding, if you're interested.

 

And this exciting development means that Conway gets the balance bike, which he was super excited about. At this point he's standing over it and walking S-L-O-W-L-Y, just as Parker did when he first started, but he too is awfully proud of himself.

 

Monster Jam

 

Monster Jam was quite a show! Conway stayed home with a sitter by himself for the first time and Parker got both his Mama and Papa to himself. It was an evening of firsts and learning experiences for all of us. 

 

Takeaway #1: David and I should have brought earplugs too because those trucks are seriously loud.

 

Takeaway #2: Parker was both super excited and incredibly sad when trucks did crazy things and wrecked - a real rollercoaster of emotions for that guy.

 

Takeaway #3 - There are a lot of adults who are just as into monster trucks as Parker.