A couple quick videos

I've been super busy at work, so I haven't posted as much as I have wanted to. But here a couple of quick videos that I thought you might like. The first one is of Parker saying his alphabet.

The second video is of Parker reading to himself one night before bed. The book he is reading is Pet Shop Lullaby.

A father's very special book

Parker loves to read. To tell the truth, he loves to look through books and find pictures of apples. Then he points at them, smiles, and says "Appoo". He is so cute when he does that. But I digress...

On a flight from Houston to Seattle one day, I watched the free movie Despicable Me. I didn't expect it to be that great, but it had Steve Carell in it and I love him in The Office, so I figured I would give it a shot. It was actually kind of cute. But the main thing that I took away from it was that the main character didn't like all of the lame kids books that he was asked to read before bed each night. So he made one himself and read it to the kids. It made me cry.

That very week, while in Seattle, I began working on my own book for Parker. It took me quite a while, but I finally finished it last week. Here is the cover of the one-of-a-kind book I made for Parker. We read it for the first time last night and he loved it. He kept looking through it even after I tried to get him to read some other books with me.

I love my little boy!

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.