wide eyed little boy and other random things

For some reason I like this picture. 

Parker has always been such a wide-eyed little man ... taking in everything around him.

I've been single parenting it for the past couple days ... and it's not an easy task ... to say the least.

I always have respected single mothers ... but now I have a whole new respect.

I feel like I should serve and babysit for a single mother sometime ... because seriously when you're doing the parenting thing alone you have no time to yourself.

Parker has been great. He's such a fun little man. Smiling all the time ... especially in the mornings. I'm not a morning person, but mornings have become my favorite time with him.

He's also sleeping like a champ! He's been sleeping 10-11 hrs every night almost the past month. I am so so thankful. It's a strange new feeling to know that when I put him down at night, he's going to sleep until after the sun comes up :)

In other news ... work has been crazy busy for me lately. 

Since returning from leave, I've jumped right in and have begun working with several families. 

I feel refreshed lately. I do miss Parker each day I'm at work, but when I'm driving home, I often think about how much I love my job. I've been daydreaming lately of what it would be like to work in or start a private practice someday.

I know I haven't talked about home stuff much on here lately ... I've been a little consumed with feeding schedules, changing diapers, tummy time, naps, reading children's books, listening to Coldplay lullabies, and getting sleep at night.

But ... my mind has been full of thoughts about things I want to do to our house.

I blame it on Pinterest. I'm obsessed ... and the iPhone app makes my obsession even worse. 

I'm dying to build a deck. We have a major mud problem in our backyard - it's a combination of two crazy golden's, way too much shade, and poor care on our part. 

I deck would help tremendously. 

Other things I'd like to do:

make a collage wall in our hall

paint our living room and hall 

put in new countertops, backsplash, sink, faucet, lighting ... pretty much everything but floors and cabinets

tear out the nasty/weird shelves in our den and move our tv against the wall so we'll have space for another chair

Buy storage units at IKEA and put them in place of the useless armoire in our living room

I told you ... so many ideas floating around.

The deck will definitely be number one ... I think we're going to build it around October when it cools down a little. 

Inspiration for the deck

Next might be purchasing the storage units from IKEA. Eric wouldn't really consider this a "project" so I could probably convince him to do it. Eric despises projects. He'll probably get mad just reading my writing about projects :)

I pretty much want to copy this picture...

Ok, so I said that the deck would be number one ... but I lied. 

I think the collage wall will be because I already have a lot of the frames and pictures ready. I've been saving up for awhile now. I'm really excited to finally hang some of the pictures. I think it will help personalize our home. 

Anyways, sorry for the totally random post. 

Happy Friday night and enjoy your weekend!

I will definitely enjoy my time off with Parker and am really excited for Eric to come home :)

summertime at the park

2 month photoshoot

2 months old

Parker,

You're 2 months old and you ...

are getting a big belly and chubby thighs

love to play on your mat - you've even grabbed the little ring twice

love to listen to coldplays lullaby music

love to look at your mobile and listen to your glow worm

started daycare and have a fan club

are getting a little better at taking naps - still keep me guessing though

(my favorite) - you smile and laugh at me a lot 

smile a lot when you wake up

were visited by both of your grandma's and aunt's 

are sleeping through the night (ok ... maybe this one is my favorite)

are drinking your milk a lot faster

are on the go a lot - you've been lots of places (and you're always so good)

still need your reflux medicine - which still makes you constipated - so we still give you prune juice

love your pacifier 

love when I read to you - your eyes gets real big when you look at the pictures

love to sit in your boppy pillow and look out the window

only like tummy time for a couple minutes and then you fuss

are still so hard to burp

love to be swaddled, but you always break out - so now we double swaddle you 

(oh the things we do to get you to sleep)

I love you more and more each day ... and I love it when you smile back at me ... it let's me know that you love me too.

stella and parker

Parker has a new friend.

I think that Stella is pretty fond of him too.

Also, I promise that I will be back soon with Parker's 2 month pictures.

I really need to take his two month pictures before he's three months old!

sweetness

it's all in the details

Hello Bloggers! Hope your 4th of July weekends are going well.

Eric, Parker, and I have spent the day recovering from a trip up to Ohio for my cousins wedding. It was great seeing lots of family and having them meet baby P for the first time.

The trip must have really worn Parker out because he came home and slept through the night for the first time!! 

I know there are a million different definitions of sleeping through the night ... so when I say that I mean he slept from his last feeding (9:00 last night because we were at the wedding) until 6:00 am. We got home from the wedding around midnight and I had 6 hrs of uninterrupted sleep. It was glorious. It is the best feeling in the world to wake up to his baby noises and also hear birds chirping :) 

I never thought that I'd be so happy about getting up at 6:00 am!

I'm hoping that last night is a preview of things to come.

If I can brag on P a little bit more ... 

He turned 2 months old today!!!

and took 2 naps today (both over an hr) ... this is a big deal over here at our house.

I'm so so proud of my little boy.

I'd say that being a parent is the closest thing that I've come experiencing unconditional love ... but if I'm honest ... I love him even more when he sleeps well :)

On a slightly different note ... 

I took all of these pictures before Parker was born.

They've been saved as a draft post for months now. 

I figured I'd go ahead and finally share a little more of the details from his nursery.

From here on ... this post might be all over the place ... but stick with me!

This buffet is the first thing we purchased for the nursery.

We purchased it from our neighbor Jack.

I love the curvy details. I also loved that I didn't have to sand it.

While we were doing the board and batten in Parker's room, our living room looked like this.

Eric stained the buffet a rich, dark brown.

Finished board and batten. 

This seemed like it took forever to complete, but I am so thankful that we did it. It definitely adds a lot of character to an otherwise plain room. It really brightens things up a lot too!

I purchased the lamp and tray (I don't think it's called a tray, but my mind is blank on what else to call it) at our Peddler's Mall. I purchased the changing pad from our church's consignment sale.

We left the same chandelier (that I bought at our local Habitat for Humanity store) and spray painted it red. We also spray painted the lamp red and added a new white shade (from Target).

The navy swivel glider is also from the Peddler's Mall and I landed it for only $15!!

The pillows are made by Anna at For the Love of Joy

Repurposed old window.

Vintage Old Maid cards given to us from a friend.

Vintage wooden US puzzle pieces I bought on etsy ... and turned them into magnets.

Parker's closet ... full of his itty bitty clothes.

Some of these he's already outgrown ... sad.

This closet used to be mine. 

Now Eric and I share the closet in our bedroom ... that is also this size. 

Impressive I know. Less is more, right?

Plant from my office.

Calendar from my wonderful friend Jen. 

I try to write a memory on each day's card, but I'm not very consistent :(

Diaper and wipes caddy.

Airplane mobile that was a gift from the Ryders.

The mobile and industrial metal P are both from Restoration Hardware

Socks the Fox!

I can't wait for Parker to cuddle Socks someday. Eric bought Socks as Valentines Day gift for me ... for Parker :) I bought him a Coldplay lullaby cd.

Can you tell that I love BlaBla dolls?

We purchased Mr. Watson during our babymoon in Charleston SC.

I wanted some vintage airplane prints, but the only ones I could fine were from Pottery Barn and I wasn't willing to shell out the money for them. 

So ... I made my own!

Jen found a vintage WW2 aircraft book during one of our trips to the peddler's mall. The book was FULL of pictures of vintage planes.

Poms in the shape of the sun and clouds. 

The little airplanes covered in maps were decorations from my baby shower.

Storage for blankets, burp cloths, and toys.

Quote from The Chronicles of Narnia.

Red hooks were on clearance at Anthro

I think that's about it! Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

I hope you all enjoy your holiday off tomorrow.

Night!