" HE'S TWO"

Well, we can't believe it...but our "baby" turned Two on March 31st! On his actual Birthday we were able to hang out as a family and enjoy the beautiful day outside! Parker LOVES being outside, and he had a great time playing on his new slide from Giggie and Poppy. I posted some pictures above from our backyard adventures that day! We also celebrated by having a Birthday party on March 30th with family and a few of his little friends. I tried not to go as overboard as I did last year, but of course got more carried away than I originally planned...oops! We did an "Elmo theme" since Parker is pretty obsessed with Elmo right now. My sis-in-law, Jessica, made his adorable (and yummy) Elmo cake! I wasn't sure how much Parker was going to understand this year about his Birthday. I kept telling him beforehand about his Birthday and turning 2, and he would look at me like I was crazy. He ended up really enjoying the party though, and I think he liked being the center of attention at times! He opened his first present, and decided he would rather just open that one and play with it and not mess with the rest of them! After convincing him that it would be fun to open the rest, he had a great time tearing into them all. He got some great things, and is officially spoiled rotten :) He really enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday, and even helped me blow out the candles at the end! It was such a fun day, and I think Parker enjoyed it as well!

Here is one of the recent things that Parker has learned since turning 2. When you ask him, "Parker, how old are you?" He holds up 3 or 4 fingers and says "TWO." It is the cutest thing ever. I guess he can't quite hold up just 2 fingers, so he just holds up however many he feels like and says he is 2!!

The past two years have gone by SO fast, and I can't imagine what the future years will be like! It has been so amazing to watch him grow and change. It seems like every day now he does or says something new, and he constantly keeps us laughing, smiling, and sometimes yelling...but hey...he's a 2 year old now, what do you expect?!?!?

Family matters...

Family is one of the most important things in life to me, and recently my mom got some very unexpected news. For those of you that do not know, my mom was recently diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. She has been suffering from severe headaches for the past year, and went in for an MRI for her headaches, and that is when they found the nodule on her thyroid. They told her they wanted to do a biopsy, but that 90% of the time they came back benign. Unfortunately, my mom fell in that other 10%. Last Friday, April 4th, she had thyroidectomy surgery. The surgery went very well, and they romved her entire thyroid as well as several lymphnodes surrounding it. She is at home recovering from the surgery now, and will meet with the doctor in about a month to discuss the next step in the process. More than likely she will have to have a radioactive iodine treatment sometime in May. This has obviously been a very hard time for my mom, and my entire family. We all love her so much, and we hope and pray every day that she fights this cancer and can get back to living her life again very soon! Here is the good news out of all of this...

1) Every doctor has told her that if you are going to have cancer, that this is the kind you want to have. While in my opinion, there is not a cancer out there that you "want" to have...it is still very encouraging to know that it has such a high cure rate. They are very optimistic about her treatment and full recovery!

2) My mom is one of the most loving and caring people I know. There is not a single doubt in my mind that she is an amazingly strong woman, and I know in my heart that she will get through this! She has a ton of family and friends rallying around her, and we are all here for her 100% of the way!

3) She is an amazing Grammy to Parker. Parker has now started calling her "Nanny" b/c he can't quite say Grammy. I don't think she cares what he calls her, as long as he calls her something :) He has become very attached to his Grammy lately. Whenever she leaves, he screams and cries "No, Nanny, Nanny." (keep in mind that he generally does not even do this for me and Anthony, he just waves to us and says "bye bye") The bottom line is that he loves his Nanny, and she loves him! No matter what is going on, Parker can always put a smile on her face, and that makes me happier than anything in this world!

I am attaching a recent picture of Parker with his Grammy. Please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers, and I will post updates as we know more!!!

Pooper and Parker

Yes, that says Pooper and Parker. Parker has decided that "Pooper" is a better name for the dog than "Cooper." He goes around all the time saying "Pooper, Pooper." He also tells him to "sit" and "go" most of the time, which I guess are two things that he hears us say a lot to Cooper. Lately, Parker has just become OBSESSED with Pooper and practically won't leave him alone. These pictures are a typical night of him rolling around on the floor and playing with Pooper. I have to say, Cooper is SO great with him, and just lays there and puts up with anything Parker throws his way. I think it is b/c Cooper knows that Parker will sneak him food whenever we are not looking :) We have been trying to teach Parker to be gentle and nice with Cooper, so he does not think he can roll around on every dog this way. So, now his new thing is to go up to Cooper and pet him and say "Nice, Nice." Which actually sounds a little bit more like "nass, nass" when he says it, but you get the point. Anyways...just thought I would share these pics! Check out the curly hair also. This was kind of a humid day, so it was out of control. He does not have a chance of having straight hair with me and Anthony as his parents!

- Oh, and please excuse all the dog hair all over his shirt. That's what happens when you roll all over a 100 lb Pooper.

Update from the fam

Just a quick update to let you all know what has been going on at the Collins house. Parker is getting adjusted to his new daycare, and so far it has been a MUCH better experience than the last. Morning drop-offs are still pretty hard on him, but he calms down really fast and is happy the rest of the day. They are so much better at communicating there, and it makes all the difference in the world. The past couple days he has started "talking" to his teachers, which makes me feel good. Parker will not have his little version of full blown conversations with just anyone, so that makes me think that he is getting more comfortable with them. I'm sure it will just continue to get better and better!

We are also 90% sure he is getting his 2 year molars, which has really not been fun. He was not a good teether with all of his first teeth, and this has been even worse. He is drooling again like he did when he is a baby. If he would keep a bib on now, I would have one on him 24/7. He is having a hard time eating, and can be very cranky. One minute he will be fine, and the next he is throwing a big fit. He will put his fingers in his mouth sometimes and say "ouch, ouch." Poor little guy! I am just ready for them to pop through!

His newest sentence is "I don't know." He will hold up his hands (like you would if you were acting all innocent), and says "I not know." You can ask him a question like, "Parker- Did you just do that?" Or- "Parker- Did you dump all of these toys out?" And the response is, "I not know." It is actually really cute, and funny how he uses it in the right context.

I can not believe that Parker will be 2 in a little over a month. I am still in denial I think. The past 2 years have just FLOWN by, and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us all! So, I guess that is about it for now. 0h- and Anthony and I are both doing fine. Not that you read this to find out about us or anything:) But, we are doing great as well!

The Big 3-0!!

So, Anthony turned the big 3-0 this month! For a little while longer, I get to rub it in that I am 28 and he is 30. He loves when I say that :) For his big day, I had a whole day planned out full of surprises. He got to sleep in that day, which is a treat all in itself. When he woke up, Parker and I had decorated downstairs with a bunch of 30th Birthday decor. He opened up his presents from Parker, and then we headed to The Jump Zone in Franklin. The Jump Zone is this indoor inflatable bounce type place, that has "open play" several days a week. We had never been there with Parker, and I was a little hesitant that he was still going to be a little too young. Well, as you can see from the pictures below...he LOVED it. We all had an absolute blast, and ended up staying for a couple of hours. We will go back for sure, and would recommend it to anyone with kids Parker's age or older. That afternoon, we took Parker out to my parents house so they could watch him for the night. Anthony and I had dinner at The Palm, which was amazing. We met up with some friends after that for a rare night out on the town (We never do that anymore). All in all, it was a wonderful day and Anthony was VERY surprised with everything. I just wanted to share a few pictures from the day with you all!




Getting warmed up!








Daddy had as much fun as Parker did...maybe more!




Getting ready to get dropped down the slide!




The rest of the pictures pretty much speak for themselves!

I've been tagged also...

So, I guess this "tagging" stuff is something that people do in the blogging world. Parker got tagged by his friend Calvin, so here it goes....
8 Things You Might Not Know About Parker

1. Although Parker still loves The Backyardigans, he does have another new love. Blue's Clues. He is becoming obsessed with this show, and constantly goes to the remote picks it up, and says "Blue Blue Blue!" There is a little song and dance they do in each episdode, and Parker practically does the whole thing. Anthony and I are not big fans of the show (we get pretty bored), but we love to watch him get so excited over it!

2. One of his favorite hobbies is SLEEPING! He sleeps from about 7:30 at night until 7:30 in the morning, and still naps anywhere from 2-3 hours a day! Most of the time this is a great thing, but if we are out and about and Parker gets tired, EVERYONE is going to know it. He gets totally cranky. He now goes to the bottom of our steps and says "night night" everytime he is ready to take a nap or go to bed.

3. He is a VERY stubborn eater. He has to use a fork now with everything he eats, refuses help from us most of the time, and only wants to eat what he wants to eat. It is almost impossible to even get him to try something new. He turns his nose up at it, and pushes it away. Let's just say that the kid eats the same things over and over! The one good thing is that he does love fruit. Veggies are a different story. He could eat fruit and cheese all day long and be happy though!

4. He is a very cautious little boy and loves to observe. He likes to take things in and really concentrate on what he is doing. He can be SO serious at times, and Anthony loves to imitate his "Mr. Serious" face. He can go from being Mr. Serious to Mr. Wild Man in a matter of seconds though. Once he takes it all in and figures out what he is about to do of course :)

5. He LOVES to dance. Anytime music comes on, he will stop what he is doing to show off his moves. Which primarily consist of spinning in circles, swaying back and forth and clapping his hands.

6. Parker has his own language called "Jibber Jabber." He will have complete conversations with you in his own language. He will tell stories over and over using the same "words" and gets frustrated at times if you don't know what he is saying. He throws the "real words" that he knows in the middle of these stories, so we just read between the lines and try and figure out what he is saying or wanting. He is really starting to talk (real talk) a lot more now too! It seems like every day he is saying a new word or two. We think once all of his "jibber jabber" turns into 100% real words, that we aren't going to be able to get him to be quiet!

7. His first sentence was "Elmo, Elmo, I need dat. I need dat." Needless to say, he got the Elmo b/c we thought it was so cute. We hear "I need dat and I want dat and I like dat" quite a bit now!

8. He started his new daycare last week also. He will be going there on Tues. and Wed. and will be with my mom on Thursdays. He did MUCH better than we were expecting, so we are all optimistic that this go around is going to be a much better experience for all of us. He has gotten attached to the blanket we had to send from home. This is funny b/c he never carries a blanket around here. They said that he did not want it to leave his side last week at daycare. I know it must just be a security thing b/c it reminds him of home, and I'm sure he will eventually drop the blanket and feel comfortable. I was just happy to know that he didn't scream all day long!

So, there you have it. 8 things you might not have know about Parker...but, actually most of you probably did. I had trouble coming up with anything that was top secret that no one knew :)

I am going to "tag" anyone else who reads this, has a blog, and wants to play along. (maybe xander and jackson????)

Christmas Festivities...

Once again, Christmas was a success at the Collins house! Parker had a WONDERFUL 2nd Christmas and was spoiled rotten by all :) We were busy going to all of our different celebrations, but it was so much fun this year doing it all with Parker. We celebrated with my mom's side of the family before Christmas at Mere and Grandaddy's new house. This was the 1st Christmas since they have moved down here, and it was really nice to have them so close and start a new Christmas tradition in their new home! We did our tradition of going to Christmas Eve Service at church, and then came back to our house this year for our yearly crab leg dinner! (yes, we are strange...but we like that about ourselves). We woke up Christmas morning to do Santa with just the 3 of us. Parker got to the top of our steps and looked down and kept saying "Oooooh!" His big item from Santa was his kitchen set, which he LOVED. He immediately started playing with it when he got downstairs, and we had a hard time getting him to stop long enough to open some more presents. He would open a present, go play in the kitchen, open a present, go play in the kitchen, etc. etc. After were were done opening Santa gifts, we headed over to my parent's for Christmas with them. His favorite thing from his Grammy and Paw Paw was his new Backyardigans bike. We took him out to go up and down the sidewalks, and he DID NOT want to come back inside. He pitched one of his major tantrums when we did. We took him out again later, and he did the same thing. Needless to say, he LOVES that bike!

We did not get to celebrate with Anthony's family until after Christmas, since MIL and FIL were in Ohio over Christmas. (that's what I call my mother-in-law and father-in-law in case you were curious...get it, it's the initials?) We hated not being able to see them over Christmas, but still had a great time once they got back! My adorable niece Mayoree was here then also, and it is always so great to see her! We had another big Christmas over there, and Parker's favorite thing was his "race car set." Him and Anthony like to race the cars on our hardwood floors, and Parker just thinks it is so funny. Anthony will send the cars off, and Parker will go run after them and chase them. Sometimes I'm not sure who has more fun with them :) We had Anthony's family over here the following night for dinner, and that was really fun also!

Anthony, Parker and I headed to my parents lake house on New Years Eve to spend a couple of days there. My parents and Mere and Grandaddy were there, so we rang in the New Year with those that managed to stay awake until midnight! It is always so nice and relaxing to go there, and we enjoyed "getting away" for a couple of days! SO, that pretty much sums up the Christmas festivities from 2007! Now it is 2008, and I can't believe it! Enjoy the Christmas pics!

One last important note here before I end this blog. One of my close friends from my college sorority (and beyond) is pregnant, and recently found out she has breast cancer. She has already had surgery to remove the cancer and several lymph nodes. She will be having her baby in 2 weeks (at 36 weeks pregnant) and will start chemo about a week after having him. I was able to see her this weekend and help throw a baby shower for her, which I was so excited about. Her positive attitude and optimism is incredible, and I respect and admire her so much for that. I know she is in my CONSTANT thoughts and prayers, but I just ask for you all to please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers as well. THANKS!!!!