Parker at the Office

I was doing some work on the computer in our office, so Parker set up his own office next to me!

Apple Pickin'

We did take Parker apple picking a few weeks back with some friends. This is where we learned that Parker likes apples as long as we don't treat him like a child by cutting them up or peeling them. Now we know he likes them just as they are, straight off the tree.

Big, Fluffy Teddy Bear

Is it a bear in our front yard?

No, it's our adorable Parker!

We went to a Harvest Party at our church. Parker was still a little too small to participate in much, but he did love the apple bobbing. Unfortunately, he didn't want the candy or toys inside the plastic apples, he wanted to take the actual apples and cried when we had to return them to their proper owner.

With all of Parker's allergies, we don't have to decide if we're going to let him have any of the candy. It's really not an option, but we did let him have a sucker (peanut/dairy/egg white free!), and he was more than happy for the night.

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago, we went to the pumpkin patch with the Kims, and Parker loved it. It was the simple things like the fence around the animals, the gravel in the parking lot, the leftover hay in the wagons...they are the things that make him smile. He's easily entertained, so you throw large, round pumpkins into the mix, and it's a good day. It was a beautiful fall day to spend with friends.

The Red Tractor

I signed up for Keeping Up With My Blog 101 with my friend Amy. Fortunately, she sent me these pictures from her house to get me going! They have a cool tractor at their house right now that Parker just loved. It has buttons and gadgets all over it, just like he likes. He explored it for awhile before Craig took him for a ride. He cried at first, maybe because of the noise, but was smiling and giggling by the end. He cried again when Dale drove the tractor away from him. Unfortunately, it is not a long term toy of his.

Carsyn was kind enough to give him a tour of the buttons-- most importantly, the horn.

Some of Parker's Favorite Things

Parker loves his baseball...


Parker loves to chew on his baseball...

Parker loves the front seat of the car with the wheel and all of the buttons. We don't drive with him like this, so don't go making any phone calls! He loves buttons in any capacity, including light switches, remote controls, phones, the garage door opener, the dishwasher, etc. I know that's normal, but it's almost an obsession of his.

This is our new red truck, given to us by Craig's dad. We are so thankful for it, as it has allowed us to pick up all the building materials for the basement! Maybe we shouldn't be advertising this. People with trucks tend to be called on for favors, or so we've heard....

Parker loves to read.
He loves running water.

Belated Little Rock Fun

I've tried twice to put up pictures of the fun things we did in Little Rock ages ago, but twice, blogger has failed me. I'm not patient enough to keep retrying to upload pictures. So....if you really want to see them, you can check out the Dillard blog http://www.thedillards123.blogspot.com/. The pictures are several entries down, entitled "Walseth Weekend." Heather keeps up with her blog much more than I; in fact, she started ours... We took Parker on the wave runner. We all had a Southern boil meal out on the lake. We went to see the ducks march down the red carpet at the Peabody Hotel and rode the trolley downtown. Lots of fun things for the boys. They were great to host us for our now annual anniversary trip. Since then, they've stayed with us twice. August was a nice month for Dillard time. We're sad they live so far away :(

Caleb, their oldest, loves Parker (and Parker now loves him, after learning to share his personal space!). Caleb also loves crackers. While in Little Rock, he kept saying "Cracker," so we kept handing him crackers. He looked at us funny, but then ate the crackers as any 2-year-old would. It took us days to realize that he was pointing to Parker, and he really wasn't dying for a cracker. After their two visits, it's turned more into "Corker," but it still sounds an awful lot like "cracker." Corker/Cracker misses you, too. Caleb!

HCM Part 2

Heather's Camera Magic Part 1

We went to visit our good friends the Dillards on what has become our annual anniversary trip. We have now been married 4 years, by the way. We had a ton of fun, and thanks to Heather's amazing photography abilities, a load of pictures. She took some great shots of Parker throughout the week and also did some family pictures of us that we'll post later. We think she's a fantastic photographer, and we are pleased to post her work on our blog. This particular day, we took the kids outside to play in the water, and Parker had a blast with their water-shooting ring. He was catching the drops in his mouth, dipping his pacifier in for that cold, refreshing taste, and laughing with delight.

Parker crawling

Parker has been crawling for over a month now, and he's now much better at it, but this is a video of the first night he showed off for us. We had him working hard. Now he's close to walking, but it's still cute to watch him crawl.

The Cards Game

As usual, we are posting old pictures, but I'm going to attempt to catch up. Several weeks ago, we were able to take Parker to his first Cardinal game. Fortunately, Parker will not be growing up in the Chicago area like Craig, so I will be able to get him rooting for the Cards early on in his life. He loved it! He didn't watch a lot of the game, but we think that he thought everyone was cheering for him. He looked around the crowd so proudly, as if all of the applause was for his latest tricks. He laughed and entertained everyone, even the Royals fan sitting next to us that offered any foul balls to him. There were none, however, even though we were sitting right behind home plate. That would have been amazing...



It happened to be Lou Brock's birthday! He was sitting in the box right above us, so we could see him blow out his candles with Fredbird. Parker clapped a lot, but again, we think it's because he thought everyone was cheering for him.

Parker and Micah in the Pool