Parker Turns Nine!

Parker at 9 Years Old

Height: 52.0 in (39.8%)

Weight: 60.2 lb (33.8%)

Parker is nine years old and he'll soon be starting fourth grade! He is fun, inquisitive, and caring. This year's birthday celebrations were a bit limited due to COVID-19 social distancing, but Parker got really into planning the meals for his special day. For dinner he requested individual homemade pizzas, s'more bars for dessert, and then a partial viewing of Star Wars from 7:25 - 8:05. You can see a picture of the entire menu he made for the day below and here is a bit more about nine year old Parker. He...

• is constantly singing - sometimes a song he's heard and sometimes a tune he's made up. I don't think he even knows he's singing most of the time.
• has gotten lots of time to ride his bike lately (thanks COVID) and he loves jumps, wheelies, and riding up and down stairs.
• loves to tell people about things. Anyone who will listen is a potential audience. He also loves to ask questions and usually those questions have a pretty lengthy story of the rationale for why he's asking the question and his background knowledge about the topic. 
• is very silly and loves to make people laugh.
• has long been accused of lacking focus, but we've started to notice that this is usually an abundance of focus on whatever he's already chosen to focus on. So if he's already focused on or thinking about something else, good luck switching that focus. 
• has started taking piano lessons and he's loving it!
• loves egg salad sandwiches, burgers, quesadillas, raspberries, watermelon, and cherries. He does NOT like mushrooms, olives, squash, and asparagus.
• loves to look out for his little brothers and protect them.
• can be a pretty bossy big brother. We really have to watch what we say when we're parenting Parker because our words will likely come out of his own mouth as he's "parenting" his brothers. 
• loves to play rough and once he starts to go down that path he rarely pumps the brakes on his own. When the boys start rough housing, it inevitably ends with Conway (and sometimes Monroe) getting hurt by Parker.
• is pretty good about checking on his brothers when they're hurt. This usually consists of him saying he's sorry, asking if they're okay, and grabbing their face or trying to hug them. Surprisingly, when they're hurt, they don't usually want to be manhandled by Parker. 
• is still a lover of basically all sports. Basketball is his favorite sport to play and football is his favorite to watch.
• still loves his stuffed dog Fluff more than just about anything in the world. He and his brothers have some pretty amazing make believe play sessions with all their stuffies. He even typed up a very detailed agenda for "Stuffie Summer School". 
• continues to be a morning person and he's getting (a little bit) better about sneaking out of the room he shares with Conway in the morning to quietly read or draw so that Conway (who is NOT a morning person) can continue sleeping. 
• will still come up to me at seemingly random times, put his arm around me, and say "I just love you SO much". 💕 I want to bottle this memory up so I can keep it forever and ever. 

Parker has a heart of gold. He loves his family fiercely and he approaches life with gusto. We often encourage him to slow down, re-focus, and take deep breaths, but I hope he never loses his enthusiasm and zest for life.  

Happy 9th Birthday Parker!!

P.S. Parker Turns Eight