Look Who's ONE!

Yes, it's true, this big boy turned one, um, 20 days ago! Never too late for a birthday post. His birthday was on a Sunday so we just had some family over for cake in the back yard. Parker pretty much loved the cake and opening presents and everyone else loved oogling at him.

I was just going to make a lemon cake (hey, he got cake, didn't he? Do we have to jump right to chocolate?) but Michael suggested doing a Jell-O poke cake with strawberry Jell-O inside. Yummalicious! Tasted like strawberry lemonade. Parker was hysterical. After poking his own finger in it, he just picked it up and shoved it right in. This is one guy who is not shy with his food.

Wasn't shy with the wrapping paper, either. You'd think he'd seen it done before or something. He was just really fun to watch opening his presents (yes, the Christmas tree paper is from us. Lame, I know.).

Yeah, I'm pretty much in love with this picture. Other kids kept grabbing his new toy and he was getting crazy about it. Here he is telling Maren to give the stinkin' ball back!

And I guess you can't really tell in this picture, but when it was all stacked up he was ecstatic. His arms were pumping so hard. That's a happy birthday kid.

Now on to the interesting Parker facts:

At Parker's one year appointment he weighed 21 pounds! That is a Bybee record. We have never had a baby even get to 20 pounds by their birthday. It was fun to know that we could legally turn him around in the car. That still only puts him in the 30th percentile but, hey, that's okay. He was 29 inches long, 35th percentile. And then that great big noggin was in the 75th percentile. My boys and their big heads!

Parker is everywhere these days! He's not walking on his own yet but he cruises around everywhere and he can pretty much crawl as fast as I walk around the house. The times that he has taken steps on his own I have caught him doing it out of the corner of my eye. He works on it during his alone time, which I think is hysterical. Aren't most babies motivated by walking to their parents or to get a toy or something? Not this one. He'll be by himself, standing up. He'll let go, think about it, take a few steps and plop down. It'll be any day now.

Parker loves food and thank goodness for those five teeth he's got to help him eat whatever the heck he wants. I love that his front two teeth have a little gap in between them. Goes right along with his dimple chin and long lashes. Cute!

He loves to say dada...all the time. I still get no love but that's okay by me. I think there have been a couple of times in the last week when he's been trying to tell me no, too! Of course it sounds like "na-na" in a kind of loud, angry voice, but still. He's getting his point across. He knows quite a few signs and uses them if he can't get his way by screeching and pointing. Ha! When he's really excited about something, he'll point to it and say "oo-oo-oo" just like a monkey with the cutest pursed lips you've ever seen. He's highly excitable.

His loves are bananas, potato salad (discovered this just recently), balls, Evan, Maren, Michael, and getting into random things that I'd rather he not get into. Michael and I both teach the second hour of church so we swap taking him. When he has to come to my class, I am amazed at how well he does. Yes, he's a distraction. And, no, I can't teach the whole lesson without taking care of something. But I'm actually able to give the lesson and that's something. He's a good boy.

Most importantly, he is loved like crazy by his family. I'm being completely honest here when I say that in every single one of Evan's prayers he says, "we're thankful for Parker". Every one. I've wondered several times when he'll stop saying that but I've come to realize that it may be never. Evan just loves Parker that much. We all do. Our family just wouldn't be complete without our big 1-year-old Parker!!