Wow.

At my parents' house there is this picture of me on the fridge when I was approximately P's age. My brother thought it would be pretty clever to hang our Christmas card from this year below and send me the shot.

Yeah, I guess she's mine. :)

New 'Do

Parker's hair has been out of control lately! Her bangs are getting so long, but I don't really want to cut them since I would really love for her to be bang-less when her hair gets longer. So, we have been experimenting with different ways to hold her hair back. Barrettes sort of work, but in order for them to not look weird, they don't really hold the bangs back. (Her bangs are too short for that, but too long to hang! Ugh!) So, last weekend we tried pig tails. They worked pretty well, although they did fall out a few times during the day and Parker's not a big fan of getting them in!

Here are a couple of pics of P's new 'do!

On Saturday, the pig-tails won! They just kept moving closer and closer to the top of her head as they day went on! She really looks like a Baby Who now! (Still pretty cute though!)

"Parker"

I finally was able to catch it on video. Please don't mind the toys everywhere and the CRAZY hair.

Stuck

I am stuck. I'm not sure how to get un-stuck. Right now, things are good. I work, essentially, part-time but am still able to get insurance through work since they don't consider me a part-time employee. This situation will not be available to me next year. So, I have to decide what I'm going to do.

I would love to stay home. The problem being that then, I don't have any insurance. I have self-insured before, but that is costly - especially when you consider that I won't be bringing in any money. Plus, we want to start thinking about baby #2. This is definitely expensive - and impossible if I don't have any insurance (or am self-insuring!) So, if we want to have another baby, I have to be working full time so that I have insurance (and it would be helpful if I was bringing in money to pay for all the medical expenses that come along with us having a baby - let's remember that P cost us about $25,000 - not including hospital bills for her birth)

I guess, I don't really have an option on that one. So, the next question is where do I work? Do I try to stay in the district I am now or do I seek out other opportunities? I'm not entirely sure how it works coming off a job-share and wanting to go back full time. The wonderful thing about my current district is that they won't want to even talk about any of this until May-ish. Fantastic. It's not like I need to know or anything. I don't really feel up to looking hard core for a new job so I guess I will stay where I am and hope that they have something that I am remotely interested in for the fall.

I hate that I don't get to choose whether or not to stay home with our child because our society has decided that I can't be on Alicia's insurance. I'm sorry for whining, but it's just not fair.

Lazy

I'm blogging this mostly because I'm too lazy to get up and write it all in Parker's baby book. I'm hoping that when I actually get around to doing it, I can refer back to this post. I know you don't all REALLY care about Parker's new words, but I do and it's my blog! :)

cloth - yes, she now can quite clearly request her "snuggle cloth"

park - This is a girl who LOVES the park. She knows where it is and wants to go there all the time. We go for a walk and take a turn that doesn't lead to the park and she gets upset saying "park" over and over. We drive by the park in the car and she points and says "park!" We come home. She drags us to the door saying "PARK!" She was quite bummed that it was raining today.

Parker - Now admittedly, this is not perfected and only comes out when prompted, but she did repeat it at least twice this evening. I'm psyched!

fish - (sh) She just randomly busted this out at my sister's because she wanted the goldfish crackers on the counter

cake - of course, my daughter would learn to say cake early

cup - either empty or full, regular or sippy; she doesn't care!

Dog - The girl loves dogs. Too bad she's never getting one! lol

She is also a VERY good mimic and has repeated many things including please and thank you.

And as a last note - I LOVED it that tonight she and Alicia were singing "Old MacDonald" in the tub with Parker singing the "EIEIO's" and doing the animal noises!

My little girl is getting so big! (Now if only she would walk without screaming like we were pulling off her legs!)

Why I'm Not a Painter

Parker has been "talking" up a storm lately. Over the weekend, she just started saying LOTS of new things. Here are her new words:

Hi! - She will say this to anyone and everyone. I think she greeted every single person in the Wal-Mart and Kroger on Sunday morning and every student in the hallway of University this afternoon. She even greeted the assistant head of school, said good-bye to him and then clapped for herself.

Kitty! - As in "Kitty, I'm coming to get you." Or "Kitty, get off the counter!"

Car - Goodness knows I feel like we are always in the car, so why shouldn't she know this word?

G0 - This usually goes hand in hand with car

Moooooo - Previously, Parker's cows said "Mmmmmm" They now say "Moo," which is good since she is going to be a cow for Halloween

Ooh-Ooh - This is what a Monkey says

Cookie - Um, okay, I know this is not a surprise to anyone.

Na-na - This is what she calls our friend Nancy. She won't actually call her it, but when asked if she wants to see Nancy, she will say "Na-na"

Maxx - She doesn't quite have the "x" yet, but she is getting there and she does chase after him calling "Maa, Maa"

She is trying to say lots of other things including "cloth" (her snuggle cloth/blankie thing), "coat", "shoes," "socks," and I swear that on two separate occasions when the Smiths were staying with us this past weekend she said "Sadie."

Although she hasn't (yet) started reciting her own poetry, Parker loves to hear her Mom do it- she specifically loves "Why I'm Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara.

I think Alicia has died and gone to heaven.

Through the year

I have been very nostalgic about Parker turning 1. So, in that spirit here are some photos through the year.

Parker, at the hospital - still in the NICU - just a little over 12 hours old.
Parker at Christmas - 3 months
Parker - 6 months old!
P at 9 months
My big girl on her birthday. It's kind of amazing what a couple of barrettes and a little more hair will do to age a girl!
I love my big girl, but I miss my baby too! Will someone please say that it slows down a little (or at least doesn't get any faster?)