Memorial Day Weekend

The Holden family had a wonderful, jam-packed holiday weekend!  If only every week involved a 3-day weekend.  We spent Saturday morning at the Little Gym.  It was Carter's last class for the year and he took full advantage.  He played on every apparatus but his favorite time was bubble time!

While Carter was busy with the bubbles,Parker was chatting up the ladies...

Carter finished with the bubble and raced over to see his brother...

From the looks of it, he missed his bro!

After gym class, we hit up the Farmer's market where Carter took full advantage of the bouncy house/slide.

We spent the afternoon downtown.  Carter checked out the new exhibit at the Children's Museum.  The boy can drive a mean trike.

He had fun climbing and exploring...

but his favorite activity was hanging out with little Parker in the water bed.

After the Museum, we took a quick trip over to Centennial Park to check out the park and fountains.

With those rosy cheeks, it was definitely time to head home.  We enjoyed a nice dinner outside before everyone took a nice, long rest.  Sunday morning was the perfect temperature outside to take the boys to the pool!  Carter really wanted Parker to ride in the wagon with him so tucked him in with some towels and off we went (Parker was definitely confused at first!).

[Side Note: Carter use to always climb in the rear facing seat in the wagon.  Now that we switched his car seat to face forward, he has started climbing in the front facing seat.  Too funny!]

The boys had a blast at the pool!

But Carter still had some energy in him so we had him take Brie for a walk around the block!

We spent the rest of the weekend at a birthday party, playing with the neighborhood kids and meeting up with some friends for a memorial day cookout.  It was a great long weekend and it was wonderful to get to spend so much quality time with the kids!

Weekly Update

Parker (6 months)
This week was a big one for Parker and definitely evidence that he is now closer to being 1 than a newborn.  Parker is no longer content to just lay on his back and watch the world.  He wants to be part of it!

Parker is continuing to improve his sitting skills.  He will fall over when he tries to reach for something but he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Parker won't stay on his back for long (which makes diaper changing fun!).  He starts twisting from side to side the moment you lay him down.  He actually rolled across the floor this week.  He will usually come to a rest of his tummy so he can grab and chew everything around him.  He also started doing the frog leg push.  He will pull his feet up close to his belly and push them backwards lifting his tush in the air.  He is definitely showing some really early pre-crawling moves.

Despite his interest in crawling, Parker's favorite position these days is upright.  He loves to bounce.  Mom and dad are getting quite the upper body workout from lifting him up and down all day.

All this moving has made Parker quite tired!

That's a little wishful thinking.  He actually slept 13 hours straight two nights in a row this week.  Unfortunately he went back to waking up several times for the next few nights.  Hopefully he'll get back to the 13 hour stretches soon!

Carter (2 years)
Carter all of a sudden seems so much older than just a few weeks ago.  He is extremely active and is loving being outside playing with the neighborhood kids.  He is also an adorable big brother.

Parker adores his big brother.  This weekend, he was in a particularly playful mood and laughed every time Carter talked at him.  Mom/Dad asked Carter to tell Parker a story to see what happened.  So Carter started yelling "Story" and "School bus" at Parker.  Parker just laughed and laughed.  It was an amazing sight.  We grabbed a video at the end of the episode.  Carter is enjoying dinner 'al fresco' in the baby chair!

Weekly Update

Parker (6 months)
Sweet little Parker is getting so big!  He is chomping on everything this week (including mom's hair) so we have added breakfast to his eating routine.  It's just in time because he has been chomping on mom's hair and there isn't much nutrition in that!

All that food has given Parker some new energy and he has used it to find his voice.  He is shrieking and experimenting with all sort so new vocal sounds.

At school, Parker moved into the older infant room.  The kids all seem so much older than out littlest guy... the sit up, stand up, hold their own bottles and say a few words!  Hopefully Parker will pick up some new skills.

Here are a few adorable Parker pictures from this week:

Smiley Post-Shots!

Trying Avocado - his first finger food

Whose Adorable???

This Guy!!!

Taking eating finger foods very seriously

Confused at to why most finger foods end up on his shirt and not in his lap

Carter (24 months)
Carter has been a dancing fool this week.  He likes to put on little shows for us at random times during the day.  Sometimes we have music playing, other times he grooves to the music in his head!

He has a few new sayings this week.  He has started saying "Oh Gosh" often.  We have no idea where that came from.  I'm pretty sure neither of us say that.  He had also started calling us Mommy and Daddy.  He is particularly attached to using our new names when he wants our attention.

Here are a few Carter pictures from this week:

Reliving his glory days in the old highchair

All smiles after washing the dishes

Just being Cute!

Marietta Greek Festival

If there is a festival in our area, the Holden's will find it.  And today was no exception.  We hit up the Greek festival for some games, music and gyros!  Carter ate his first hotdog and loved it!

Even better was the live music and dancing while he ate.  Carter clapped along in between bites.

Mom made the boys take a family picture and Carter nussled his head with Parker.  How cute?

Here is another version.  As you can tell both boys were distracted by all the fun and ready to get moving.

So dad grabbed all the boys (yes - all the boys!)...

And our tower of Holden men were off!

We spent a lot of time watching the dancing.  It was obviously a popular place to be!

We had a great evening get in touch with our inner-Greek selves...

and dancing!

Carter even shared his water with one of the guitar players.

It was a fun evening!  The boys even got mom a new necklace for our anniversary (Copper for 7 years).  Carter decided he wanted to wear it all night.  And I think he looked adorable!

A New View

Today we decided it was finally time to flip Carter's carseat around.  He was pretty surprised when he got in the car and could walk in front of his seat.

And he got really excited when dad put him in his seat.

Looking like a big boy!

Here's what the inside of the minivan looks like now.  It won't be long before we have two forward facing boys in the car!

A Visit with the Ducks

After his gym class success, we took a quick trip to visit the duck pond.  Carter loves to sit and watch all the animals.

It seems that the animals are pretty interested in Carter too.

Yep... Carter definitely has LOTS of animal friends.

He had a blast feeding all the ducks and geese.  But after a while he wanted to go find the turtles.

So we were off to the dock where Carter saved his last bread pieces for his turtle friends.

Since we were out of bread and it was lunch time, we headed home.  Bye duck pond friends.  I'm sure we'll see you all soon!

Carter's First Graduation

Today was a big day for Carter.  It was his graduation from gym class.  Dad had a golf tournament so Grandmommy (now called MeMama by Carter) and Parker came to watch.  We started out with our floor exercise and then moved onto the parachute.  Carter likes to hold mom's hand during this part, it's really sweet.

After a grueling floor routine, Carter decided to take a load off for a bit.

But soon he was back in action showing off his skills on the high beam...

He even through in a little dance routine at the end... the little show off!

Then it was off to the bars.

Carter passed each apparatus with flying colors and earned his Little Gym metal.

which immediately went into his mouth (molars are still popping through).

MeMama and Parker were very proud!

Carter was very proud of his first metal!

It was bittersweet to see gym class end and say goodbye to his new friends...

but we're sure this won't be Carter's last metal or gym class.  And fortunately he gets to see Silas (pictured above executing a perfect no-arm hug) at daycare on Monday! 

We're very proud of our little guy and can't wait to see what shows up in his trophy case next!