8 Months

At 8 months, Parker is as adorable as ever, if not more. he continues to be easy going and a happy baby full of smiles when he's fed and rested. i am truly treasuring my time with him as much as possible while he's still just a little baby, because low and behold, he's already 8 months! sigh..

Parker has crossed a few milestones at 8 months. he is confidently sitting and can be left alone while i run around and do things. he plays perfectly well on his own with his toys and easily plays with pretty much any toy. an exciting milestone is that parker is getting his first tooth, it is the bottom left tooth! today, he started blowing raspberries! he is able to fall asleep on his own (fingers-crossed it continues to be this way). 

In terms of food, he tried beets today and i am not sure if he loved it, but he ate it, alone and blended with sweet potatoes. he's tried spinach, cauliflower, tofu, chicken, and yogurt at this point. this 2nd time around, i am finding it much less stressful when it comes to everything involved with food. i do a little bit of research on what vegetables, meat, and fruits go well together and then i just cook/steam/sautéed them and puree. i remember with preston, i was cooking up a bit complicated recipes and then it was frustrating because he wouldn't eat it. i wish i still have the patience and time to make special baby food for parker because he appreciates it..sigh...it's the 2nd child syndrome, poor guy. i can see how having more kids may continue to get easier now, ha!

7 Months

At a little over 7 months old, Parker went to Disneyworld! we took a family vacation to the happiest place on earth December 9th - 14th. The kids fared pretty well on the flight, and was overall, good on the trip. preston enjoyed it the most with lots of rides and shows, especially at Animal Kingdom because it wasn't as crowded. he loved the Dinosaurs ride and the Rapid water ride the most. Jack let him drive a race car on the Speedway track, which i am sure he loved as well.

Parker had a good time watching the Lion King show, but slept through the Indiana Jones show, but frankly, it was a bit boring, just really loud and with lots of explosions. we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride together, and he enjoyed that too. Unbelievably, the Small World ride, he didn't get to try because the line was 30 minutes wait, a tad long for that one. oh well, next time...

So at 7 months, parker is sitting very well now, and he's almost getting into the crawling position. he is eating a lot, that boy loves food, which could not make us any happier. if you give him food too slowly, he'll grab it from your hand and shove it in his own mouth. this happened one morning when i was feeding him bun at our hotel room and he just grabbed it from me because i was giving him little tiny pieces at a time. it surprised me and frankly, cracked preston and i up! it was the cutest thing. parkers eating steamed eggs for breakfast these days,  avocado, puree sweet potato or butternut squash for lunch and dinner. tonight, i made tofu and broccoli puree with a little soy sauce, and he ate that too. he ate turkey during thanksgiving this year, mashed potato, bread. we've given him pizza dough, bananas, boiled eggs, carrot puree, there hasn't been anything that he doesn't really like. we love it! 

parker will also pretty much play with anything, such a good kid. i didn't bring him any toys from home on our trip, so poor guy played with plastic cups in the bath tub and during meals, but he was perfectly happy doing so. we did buy him a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy for him on our last day and a Mickey t-shirt. he just loves everything, gives the best heart warming smiles to us on a daily basis. the brothers could not be more different, thank goodness because it's a great balance, we cannot handle preston x 2. 

parker loves reading, flipping through books. his favorite these day is Where's Dave, he used to love Baby Colors and Baby Animals. when you bring him close to the bookshelf, he will lean in and grab his favorite book to read, he knows exactly which one he likes. 

for example, preston has not been eating so well on his own during dinner. it is very painful to get him to finish his food, thus, he has lost a little bit of weight recently. he is having a lot of trouble getting to 35 lbs and going pass it. it is very frustrating for us, the only solution would be to hand feed him, but he's almost 5 and i refuse to baby him. he just doesn't get that hungry, but you can feel his body getting skinner, ugh! the good news is that i finally got him booster seats for the car, so preston is now moving out of his convertible chairs!