Dear Parker (Our Eleventh Month)

Dear Padawan,

I cannot wait to sit and watch all the Star Wars movies with your to teach you what a Padawan is. Right now, you still look at me confused when I try to get your attention by calling you that instead of Parker. My baby, I cannot believe how old you are.

Your eleventh month was a month of zoos and exploring. You went to the Phoenix Zoo or Wildlife World Zoo every weekend and enjoyed it more and more each time. The monkeys were your biggest fans. How could they not be? You are their size and just stare and smile the whole time. They will walk right up to you and stare at you. It is a hilarious sight. You also got to play with so many animals! Giraffes, turtles, stingrays, camels, deer, and pigmy goats. The best part of every trip is the carousal ride at the end. You take it very serious. You hold on for dear life, but smile and wave. You are getting too big.

I wish I have more photos from Thanksgiving, but there are priorities and I cannot take photos and have a fork and knife in each hand. You sure did enjoy it though. You ate everything on your plate and managed to snag some dessert off of everyone’s plate. Those eyes and that goofy, five tooth smile can get people to give you anything. We went with the baby led weaning method for you, so you’ve been eating solids for about six months and the mushy food was never your thing. My point to this is, you’ve become a master eater. I occasionally get a look or two from other mothers at restaurants, or even your grandma and grandpa say something for my lack of cutting things up, but you handle your food. You do not stuff your face until you have no more room in your mouth. When I give you a small cube of cheese, you take perfectly portioned bites until it is gone. Thank you, love, for being responsible since birth. It is really quite cute to see you with a whole carrot (I mean the whole, nearly foot long carrot) and your little nibbles at the end.

You took your first real steps. Honestly, we thought you’d be walking at nine months, considering you were crawling at 3.5. You are a speed demon when it comes to crawling, so you just drop to your knees and crawl to where you need to be. I am always buying you jeans. That is the only reason I want you to walk. You’ve ruined your light grey skinnies, tan cords, and half a dozen denim jeans.  Other than that, please, please, take your time walking. It seems so much safer to have you so close to the ground.

We were able to take you to play with snow! You were a little hesitant, but, ultimately, you did enjoy it. It was daddy and I throwing little snowballs, and you trying hard to figure out what it was and then eat it. You got to do a lot of things you loved that day! You sat on daddy’s shoulders and he danced around, you slept during the boring stuff, and then you got to hang out with all of your cousins to put together grandma’s giant Christmas town.

 I can’t believe my next post will be rounding out my first year of being blessed with you. It is insane. This month you also loved wagon rides, sloppy kisses, spaghetti, your cousins, your puppies, walking with walkers, pots and pans, the rose garden, and anything that makes music. I love you to the moon and back, Parkman.