Portrait sessions

Despite being a semi-professional photographer, I will admit that sometimes it is nice to have someone else take pictures of your kid so you can just sit back and try to make him smile for the camera. Well, that is just what Christen did over the last few weeks. The first two photos below are from a portrait session at Sears. Yeah, I know, but you can't argue with the results. Parker appears to be enjoying the spot light in both photos. The third in the series is from school. Although the props are a little cheesy, he does look cute... even if I say so myself. :)

Learning to eat with utensils

Parker has been working hard to learn to eat with utensils. He started with a spoon a few weeks ago and he just recently introduced the fork. Check out his wicked skills!

A visit to the aquarium

Parker loved seeing all the fish this past weekend at the Houston Downtown Aquarium. Check out some of the pictures of him in action, soaking it all in. :)

Here's my favorite one... of course, I am a little biased. ;)

Swimin' with the fishes

Well, we didn't exactly swim with the fishes, but Santa did. We had breakfast with Santa today at the Houston Aquarium. Check out Santa and his helper elf behind Parker and Ms. Claus. Parker loved looking at all the fish. He got to see sharks, stingrays, eels, and a bunch of other types of fish. We ate sausage, bananas, eggs, waffles, pancakes, chicken fried steak, and bacon. Boy was it good!

Sunday night videos

I wanted to post a couple of videos I thought were cute for those of you who don't get to see Parker as often as others do. The first video is of me waking Parker up one morning. He is so sweet when he sleeps. He is usually pretty groggy in the morning when he first wakes up. This video shows it a little, but some mornings are even worse. I try to take it slow in the morning to give him time to wake up before we do anything too exciting like play with the dog or toys.

This next video is of Parker walking in the grass in the back yard. That may not seem like much, but for the longest time he didn't like the grass because it gave under his feet and he didn't feel stable. Now he begs to go outside and walk in the grass. There is just so much to see and do out there. Check him out!

Love me some BBQ

After Gymboree today, Parker got his first taste of Spring Creek BBQ. He thought it was pretty good, especially the mac-n-cheese. But as you can see from the "after" photo, a lot of it ended up on his clothes.

Here is a blow up of some of the more obvious stains. :)

Santa photo op

Parker went to the Galleria mall today and got his picture taken with the big guy. He was pretty good... for a 16-month old. This image was the best of the lot. After we paid for the photo, we proceeded up stairs so Parker could run wild in the play area. He loves to climb on things. I took some great Polaroids that I will have to post later.

Happy Holidays!

A Spooktacular Halloween!

I have been swamped at work, so pardon me for the lack of postings last month. I meant to get these pictures up the weekend of Halloween, but with Grandpa in town, it just didn't get done.

Anyway, Parker had a lot of fun during Halloween. The fun started at school on Friday. Parker wore his costume and went trick-or-treating. He got a lot of goodies from the other class rooms. Below, Parker posed for a few photos near some of the decorations in the hallway.

Saturday, we all went to the Houston Zoo for ZooBoo. Parker got a stamp on his hand as you can see below.

In addition to getting some more goodies at various places in the zoo, Parker got to pick his own pumpkin and decorate it. As you might have guessed, Parker took his time picking out his pumpkin. He must have pulled out 20 of them before we decided on one as shown in the pictures below.

We ended the day at the zoo by taking a train ride around the grounds. Parker loves trains. He rides them at the malls around Houston all the time. This was a much bigger train and it was outside compared to just riding around inside the mall. Parker loved it.

On Monday, Parker, Grandpa, and I took a trip to see Great-Grandma Hogan in Beaumont. We arrived a little before noon and visited for a bit before going to lunch at Cheddars. Parker found some wooden apples on Great-Grandma Hogan's table and starting playing with them. He thought it was so much fun to take them all out and put them all back in again.

Parker visits Dewberry Farm

This past Saturday, Parker took his parents to Dewberry Farm, located a few miles north of Brookshire (about 20 minutes from the house). It is a neat farm-like place that has a bunch of fall activities mainly geared towards kids. Parker got to visit the petting zoo and see a lot of animals including bunnies, goats, cows, chickens, horses, and ducks.

Parker had a lot of fun riding on the "corn train", which was a series of 55 gallon drums on wheels pulled behind a tractor. It was dusty, but it was a blast. As you can see from the next three photos.

After riding the corn train twice, once with mommy and once with daddy; Parker wanted to take a break. We sat on the hay in some shade while we had a drink. Parker watched all the kids playing on the rope swings, wishing that he was just a little bigger so he could partake in the fun.

After doing some other fun stuff like riding a real pony and sliding down a tall slide with daddy, Parker took off in a corn maze. As you can see from the photo below, he fell a few times because the ground was quite uneven, but he didn't cry or get upset. He just got back up and kept on truckin'.

Baby proofing the house

Well, now that Parker is walking, he is getting into everything. As if he wasn't doing that before when he was crawling. But now it is slightly worse, because he can reach higher. Just this morning as I was moving the car seat from one car to the other, he proceeded to open the door to the garage and walk out into the driveway to see what I was doing. He is so curious. It's a little scary, but it is cute at the same time. Obviously, I don't want him to get hurt, but he just wanted to see what his daddy was doing. It makes my heart melt to see him so interested in what I am doing all the time. I love him so much!

So, that brings me to the point of this post. I spent some time a few weeks ago baby proofing some of the cabinets. It worked well. Some of the cabinets he used to open, like the one under the kitchen sink with all the cleaning supplies in it, is now locked from his little hands. He hasn't gotten too upset about it. He just tries to open the cabinet a few times and then moves on to something else when he can't do it.

Well, this past weekend I had to baby proof some doors. He knows how to open them as I mentioned in the opening paragraph. So, I put door locks on my office, the guest bathroom and the pantry. He isn't quite sure why he can't open those doors anymore, but like the cabinets, he just moves onto something else after he tries a few times. Below is a picture of the door locks I installed.

Parker is walking!

Here is some of the first video of Parker walking. Enjoy!

Parker loves pizza

Yesterday, Parker got to eat cheese pizza for the second time at his cousin's birthday party. The first time he tried it was at his 1st birthday party. He really likes it! Later that day, we went to Old Navy and I saw a Halloween costume that I just had to try on him. Check it out!




- Posted from my iPhone

Campbell's 4th Birthday

Happy birthday Campbell! We had a lot of fun at your party today. Parker enjoyed seeing everyone. He loves to eat pizza and he really enjoyed the cupcake for dessert! Thanks for inviting us. We hope you had a great day. Below is a sketch that of Parker and I that was created by one of the game machines. I think it turned out pretty good.

My cousin, the actor!

My cousin, Sara Lawler, was very busy with rehearsals in June. That's right, rehearsals. She had a part in the musical, Rent at the Smith Opera House in Geneva on July 15 - 18.

Rent is a Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning musical based upon Puccini’s opera La Boheme. It depicts the story of one year in the life of a group of young bohemian friends struggling to survive in the East Village of New York City. This group of beleaguered young artists and musicians contemplate the meaning of life, love and hope while dealing with issues of poverty, loss, drug addiction, and AIDS.

This powerful musical is headed up by a talented cast hailing from across the Finger Lakes and Rochester area and includes Mike Witter (Mark), Nick Faruch (Roger), Kyle Knapton (Collins), Sarah Mull (Mimi), Derrick Frenney (Angel), Chelsea Miller (Maureen), Sara Lawler (Joanne), Darius Greene (Benny). Ensemble cast members include: Kaleigh-Marie Fremouw, Abigail Adams, Sylvia Queener, Vinnie Loucks, Ben Raha, Justin Doyle and Jonathan Garcia. Rent is directed by Steve Duprey with Music Directors Bob Cowles and Deb Hodgeman and choreography by Caitlyn Schrader.

Below is an article from the Finger Lakes Times about her performance. Congratulations, Cuz! I wish I could have been there to see it. Maybe when you are on your national tour and stop off in Texas. I will definitely make it then. :)

Click on the image to see a larger view.

Lost video clips

I was going through my email and found a few video clips from a while ago that I wanted to post. The first one is of Parker learning to stand on his own. Of course, he is pro at that now and he is almost walking, but it's fun to watch him try so hard to support himself. The second video is of Parker on my lap. I just love his cute laugh. The third and final video is of Parker the other day with Tyson in the library. He grabbed Tyson's squeeze toy and had a blast making noise. Tyson was just watching to see what the little terror on two legs was going to do. Enjoy! :)

#1 Saints Fan

Thanks to Aunt Megan, Parker can show his spirit this football season. Parker and Dad will be watching a lot of Saints games this year I am sure.

Parker's first haircut

On Saturday, we took Parker to get his first official haircut. Technically, I had given him a few haircuts prior to Saturday, but they weren't full haircuts. Instead, they just entailed trimming over the ears and eyes.

For the most part, he did really well. He did cry and fight a little bit, but he was also happy and still part of the time. Of course, we had to distract him almost the whole time with bubbles. Parker loves bubbles.

We took him to a place called Pigtails and Crewcuts. He got to sit in the fire engine chair. Below are some of the best photos of this milestone event.

The finished product! :) Doesn't he look different? He looks so grown up with his hair cut. Although the curls are cute, I do think he looks more like a little boy now. He is growing up so fast!

The nighttime routine

Parker is definitely a creature of habit. I guess all babies are. Everyone tells you to get on a routine and stay there. It doesn't really matter so much exactly what it is. Each baby is different, so each routine can vary. The most important thing is that it is predictable and repeatable.

The routine for us is that Parker gets a bath every night around 8:00 pm. He used to get his bath in a hammock type thing. Then he graduated to a chair that sits in the bathtub. Now he sits in the tub all by himself and I sit on the side with one foot in the water and one out.

After his bath, he gets dried off and dressed in his pj's. We then play for a little bit in his room on the floor. Sometimes he chases the dog around the room. Other times he moves from one toy to the next as if he is on a game show and only has 5 minutes to play with every toy he owns.

Once he starts to rub his eyes and yawn, it's time to sit in his chair and read a book before getting his milk. He always gets a bottle before going to bed. Normally, he lays there still and drinks his milk as the music is playing with the lights turned down low. Usually, before he finishes the bottle, he is fast asleep. Then it is just a matter of gently walking him over to his crib and laying him down without waking him up. Believe it or not, most of the time this goes off without a hitch.

So that is our routine. Parker is usually in bed by 9:00 pm. Below are a series of pictures I took a few weeks ago after Parker had his bath, while he was playing and getting ready to read a book before bedtime.

Parker's 1st Birthday

Well, I know it's been more than a month since the P-man's 1st birthday, but I am finally getting around to posting some pictures from the event. So, let's get right to it...

Sure it wasn't made by the Cake Boss, but Megan and I tried really hard to make Parker's first cake memorable AND tasty. I think we achieved both goals!

A pretty nice spread for a 1-year old. Heck, he didn't even know what was going on, but I bet he will be impressed when it gets older and sees these pictures or reads this blog.

Before we lit the candles on the cake and opened the presents, we all enjoyed some pizza. Parker had never had pizza before and he wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

After cutting it up into more manageable pieces, he tried it. Once he got over the initial shock of having a different textured food in his mouth, he really liked it. Of course, what food doesn't he like? :)

After pizza, we lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday, and cut the cake. Once again, Parker wasn't quite sure what to do with it. He just sat there and stared at it for about a minute.

Then we gave him a spoon to use. Although he doesn't know how to use it properly, sometimes putting a little food on it (in this case cake) and putting it in his mouth, helps to get him going. He didn't eat much of the cake, in part because a good portion of it ended up on his face.

Then it was time to open presents. This is the tunnel that Great Aunt Susan got him. He loves tunnels. We play in them all the time at Gymboree. When he was younger, he was scared of tunnels, but now they are so much fun and he really likes the one he got for his birthday. Thanks!

Aunt Megan gave Parker a wagon that contained big legos. Parker loves to play with the legos. He mostly destroys the creations his dad makes, but that it ok. We like to play build and destroy before bed sometimes. Thanks Aunt Megan!

Once everyone left, we got cleaned up and Parker put on his Batman outfit. We got this when we visited Six Flags in San Antonio over the Memorial Day weekend. Doesn't he look like a superhero?

Finally, the morning after Parker's first birthday, we all got up and made breakfast. You can see here that Parker was a good helper for his dad. He offered to shake the pancake mix while the skillet was heating up.

So, all-in-all it was a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who came over and shared it with us. Thanks for all the wonderful gifts. Parker really loves everything he got. We hope to see you all again really soon. Lots of love!