Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

I can't believe my baby boy is TWO! It has been such a joy in every way to have Parker as a member of our family - we truly can't imagine our lives without him. He is so much FUN and has truly been a tremendous blessing to us. What started out as our little red haired peanut has blossomed into a little white blonde firecracker - full of energy, good humor, what seems to be an exceptionally high IQ (says his parents), silly antics, and a bit of sass.

Here are 24 things I want to remember about Parker at 24 months:

(Sorry for the long post!)

1. Has turned into a chatter box over the last couple of months

2. He loves music and LOVES to dance - has quite the collection of dance moves

3. He love love loves to be outside!

4. His "babies" that he sleeps with are: Nemo, Mickey, and "Me-me"

5. He mostly just drinks milk and water, but he LOVES "choco" milk

6. He loves to play with balls

7. He is a good sleeper these days, taking at least an hour nap in the afternoon and sleeps through the night - 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

8. His once red hair has turned almost white blonde with maybe a TINGE of strawberry to it

9. He loves the TV show "Little Einsteins", which he calls "Pat Pat" (because they pat-pat to take off in the rocket ship)

10. He isn't a great eater - but good enough as the Dr. says...He'll eat any fruits, yogurt, scrambled eggs, waffles, taquitos, carrots, mac and cheese, parmesan noodles, apples with peanut butter, cereal... those are the staples these days.

11. He loves to show off how he knows his shapes and colors

12. He loves to follow me around and "help" me clean the house... if I have a clorox wipe, he isn't content until he has one to clean with too (I try to trick him and give him a baby wipe instead...)

13. We're working on counting but does pretty good up to #5 but after that he skips around a bit

14. He loves to read books - recent favorites are: "The Best Nest", "Russell the Sheep", and "What Dad's Can't Do"

15. He loves to take his nightly baths & I swear he'd stay in there an hour if I let him

16. We have a pretty set routine that we do our best to stick to. He likes the repetition and he does much better when it is followed than when we have to deviate from it

17. He continues to torture the poor dog, but he loves her and likes to have her nearby

18. He still gets rocked to sleep for both his nap and bedtime (For bedtime - just until he's sleepy)

19. He has a funny sense of humor and likes to tease

20. He loves ALL of his grandparents and his aunts and uncles and gets excited to visit them

21. He LOVES popcorn!

22. The only movie he really watches these days is Finding Nemo, but he for some reason gets mesmerized by the Sound of Music and will sit and watch all those nuns...must be the music.

23. He's very coordinated and catches on surprisingly quick when I teach him something new

24. He pretty much understands whatever I say and is great at following directions. If I ask him where something is or to go and get something, he always finds it and follows through. He LOVES to be a helper!

I could go on and on.... but to wrap things up, this little boy is the best thing to enter our lives! Each day he is doing something new and life seems to always be an adventure with him in our home. We love you and adore you, Parker!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!!!

Below is a slideshow of his first two years. I'm sure it's way longer than you have to sit and view it, but it was so fun for me to look back and reminisce on all these pictures! What a journey this last two years has been!