Parker's
sitting so nicely in his pajamas, enjoying a Granny Smith apple.
We discovered that he not only likes apples (because of the applesauce
we fed him from jars) but also can bite into hard fruit like apples.
With those chipmunk-like teeth, he can eat a good part of one apple.
However, before you get too excited, this particular apple was started
by his mother, and then it was handed over to him.
Parker
is at his Grandma and Grandpa's house (my mother and stepfather).
At least once a month, they take him for a weekend, giving us parents a
night or two out. They set up a box for him to keep all his toys,
but, as you can see, it also doubles as a chair. Parker is playing
his old game of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," stopping always at
the "Head" part and not going further. If you get a chance to see
his Birthday pictures, you will see him playing this game with a slight
twist.
Christmas Day at my
Dad's saw my sister and her husband from Chicagoland staying for
a few days, and the Callahans three staying overnight. My sister Carol
and husband Jon used an extra suitcase to carry our presents on the flight
to Pittsburgh. When "Gift Opening" time came, Jon brought the suitcase
down, and Parker found it to be another place to play in. Carol and
Jon said they would zip up the bag with him in it and carry him back to
Chicago.
Parker's wearing my hat!!! I
got a hat for Christmas which has folding flaps for covering my ears.
It looks a bit dorky, but it is very warm on a cold windy day. If
I have my hat on and Parker is in my arms, he tries to take it off
and put it back on my head. On this day, I decided he should wear
it, and with the aid of those folding flaps it fit him well. Whenever
Parker tries to take off my hat, I will put it on his head. Sometimes
he likes it, and other times he will take it off and try to place it back
on my head.
This
evening I put the hat on Parker's head, and he walked away from me with
it still on! He walked back and forth in the living room, played
with his toys in the corner, ran back and forth in the kitchen, and not
once did he try to take off the hat. Tamara and I had a good laugh watching this! He looks like Charlie
Chaplin's young sidekick from the movie "The Tramp". (Or maybe he
looks more like one of the Little Rascals. Spanky, perhaps?!?)
And, now, Parker is sporting the Moe Fine
(from the Three Stooges) haircut, cut by his own Father. Parker
loves to sit in our laps and to read a book. Remarkably, he knows
when the book is upside-down (he will turn it around), and he knows when
each page is finished (actually if it runs too long, he will flip the page
himself). This book is one of his favorites, Mother Goose Tales,
which include those classic stories you knew as a child: Rock-a-bye Baby,
The Old Woman in a Shoe, Humpty Dumpty, and others. You know, when
you think about it, those stories are quite pathetic and scary. How
many children have nightmares, because Mommy and Daddy just read them a
wonderful story about boughs breaking and babies falling out of trees,
about Jack breaking his head open after fetching water, about Three Mice
enduring amputations, and about an Egg falling off a wall and becoming
the next morning's breakfast. (By the way, how did the Old Woman
have SO MANY KIDS at such an old age without a "Mr. Old Man"?)