Carnival

We have been "carnival ing" it up lately.  Is that even a word carnivaling?  Anyway, both King School and Nielson School have had their spring PTO carnivals in the past two weeks.  I was so bummed when King had to have their carnival inside because that meant no duck pond...that would be the one game Parker would be really good at right now. 

However, I had hope because, tonight, a week later was Nielson's Carnival...

However, it is cold and blustery so they too, had to have their carnival inside :(

But, Fear NOT...beause, Nielson PTO allowed their duck pond to still take place!

Parker and Dad paying their 1 ticket to play.

hmmm...Which one do I want....here ducky ducky...

Gotcha! (with no help from dad, honest!)

"Hey, you look just like my bathtub friend."  "Now what?"

Parker won his very first carnival prize a small plastic ruler with stencil cut outs!  Oooh la la!

We look forward to many more years of cheap, plastic, Oriental Trading toys during carnival season! :)

Bob The Builder...or...Handy Manny?

20 days and counting.....

20 Days until my mom and dad are home for the summer!

Let's party Mon!!

Tag you're it!

I have been tagged by a close friend to tell 10 things about myself on the blog...sorry no Parker pictuers today.  Feel free to pass on this entry as I'm really not all that exciting!

1.) I've always said I need at least 8 hours of sleep...until Parker, now I can function on much less

2.) I'm terrible with names for instance I've had over 120 children in my classroom over the last 6 years and I could probably only name 50

3.) I love to plan trips...even if I can't go on them...my current "trip" is a winter vacation with Travis and Parker to Mexico. :)

4.) I love TV series that were set in "the old days"  for example, LOVE Dr. Quinn Medicine woman and Christy staring Kelly Martin

5.) Orange Soda or a cooler cold Pepsi is my favorite pop

6.)  I call carbinated beverages soda which makes Travis SOOOO mad...he thinks it should be called pop

7.)  I make life WAY too hard but I value the simple things...smell of rain, sleeping baby, quiet snowfall, smell of trees budding and fresh cut grass

8.) Karen Kingsbury, Nicholas Sparks, and Beverly Lewis are my favorite authors...back when I had time to read...pre-Parker :)

9.)  I think it would be AWESOME to live on an Amish Farm for a summer

10.)  I am addicted to Crystal Light Energy water packets...they have 120mg of caffinne in each packet!  Wild Strawberry! YUM (Avaliable at Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee and occasionally Wal-Greens)


TAG...You're IT!

Morning update from Grandma Stecher

"No morning nap for me", said Parker!

It's like Chuckie Cheese...only without the germs!

Who needs a formula bottle when you have an orange crib ball?

7 Months Old

Today Parker is 7 months old!  WOW! Where did the time go? 

At 7 months Parker:

Has an appreciation for PEZ...like Father like Son.

Hmmm...I think I want....That One!

At 7 months Parker can:

Hang out with his Buddy during a play date.

This is Carter and Parker "hugging".  Travis and I decided it was more like a manly chest bump!

Parker can do many other things at 7 months!  We are so lucky to have such a happy guy, we thank God for him daily!  We look forward to the next 7 months!

Parker's Help

I'll help you get caught up on the laundry mom and dad!

National Board Certification

Last year I decided to become Nationally Board Certified in Teaching.  It was a chore....then in November I found out I was 12 points away from passing...Grrr!  So I decided to "bank" my good scores and try again on 2 entries. 

I knew about this in December....however I am a procrastinator by nature. 

So I waited.

and waited.

and waited.

Until Spring Break and then I said..I'm going to have all this time I'll get it done.  However, Spring Break came and went and the entries didn't get done.

When is this project due you ask?  Are you getting worried for me?  Weeelllll... the due date is April 15th.  Yep today.  This crazy blue box had to be post marked today.

After a week of LATE nights, little time with Parker and Travis, and very little normal school/housework it's in the mail. 

Why then, are you still up at 11PM tonight you ask????

To work on cleaning up the messes I made all week long when crazily trying to get this thing done!

Now let's just hope I pass this year, I really don't want to do this again! I'm pretty sure Travis and Parker don't want me to either! ;)

6 month photos

Jodie McNally has done it again!  We had photos taken over break!  They are BEAUTIFUL!  We are so proud of the work she does!  So far she only has the "bathtub" photos up.  There will also be baseball and 'chick' photos eventually!  Check out the bathtub photos!  I think we need to find a way to contact Johnson & Johnson! :)

www.jodiemcnally.com/photography/parker6months

Helmet and Naps

Our goal over break was to get Parker into a better nap schedule.  There were days where he would only nap for a total of 20 minutes!  Crazy, I know!

So we've worked on it and much to our pleasure we have made much improvement on the schedule...is it perfect? Nope, but at least it's a start. 

This is Parker now.  He has been taking 2 naps a day one between 8:30 and 10 ish for about an hour and then an afternoon nap between 1 and 3 ish for anywhere from 1-2 hours. 

We've found that he likes sleeping on his belly which I know is a no-no with the doctors.  However, we tried laying him on his back and still do flip him to his back when we see him like this, but he almost instantly turns over to his belly.  There are even sometimes where he'll burry his head in the matress.  That we're not such a fan of but he is sleeping better on his belly.  He can fully lift his head up and roll from front to back and back to front so we're a little less anxious about the belly sleeping.  He'll fuss occasionally during a nap but with "a pacifier adjustment" as Travis calls it, he'll usually go back to sleep for awhile. 

Overall I'm pleased with the nap progress and excited to see if if continues when we go back to school in a few days!

On the helmet end of things.  Dr. Elwood examined Parker today and said there was such a slight discrepency he didn't feel the need for us to get a helmet for Parker!  Horray!  We were totally not opposed to a helmet and in fact have some friends who recently used one, and were ready to use it if needed, but we are glad that that's one less doctor visit Parker will need to continue to make.

My National Board Paper is due in less than a week and I have a LONG way to go before mailing it out, so I should be using this time to write, proof, something!  Enjoy the beautiful day!