Weekly Recap

It was an abnormal week at the Holden House.  Dad went out of town for a good part of the week with his co-workers.  So mom and the boys were on their own.  Fortunately everyone survived!

The week started out extremely cold so we decided that Monday was going to be a pajama day.  It was extra fun because dad had put Carter in his Christmas pjs Sunday evening.

Luckily the weather improved and we were able to spend some time outdoors with the neighborhood kids.  Carter and his "Best Friend" Hailey had a blast playing Lion in our front yard.

And his buddy Brody has been teaching him to climb trees.

We also had fun with meal time this week.  We had a pizza picnic with some neighbors who were also "dad-less" one night.  And we had an indoor picnic as well.

We even had lunch at a local park were the boys could watch cars while both swinging.

And in a reminder that Halloween is just around the corner, our house was spooked!

Here is what else the boys are up to:

Parker (11 months)
Parker has completely given up the army crawl and is only on all fours now.

He loves to pull up and stand anytime he can.

His favorite toys lately are balls.  He likes to crawl after them and practice throwing/catching.  He also loves Carter's model train.  Specifically he loves knocking it off the track.  Carter refers to him as Baby-Zilla.

On the food front, Parker is pretty much completely eating solids.  He had lots of new foods this week including spaghetti, broccoli and salmon.  We tried rice which wasn't a hit but spaghetti was!

He also had another first this week... milk!  He grabbed Carter's sippy during our picnic dinner and went to town.  I guess he is ready to transition.

Parker also mixed up his nap/sleep schedule a bit this week.  He started taking a super long morning nap with a cat nap in the afternoon.  This let to a long 13 hour stretch at night.  This schedule would be nice except it doesn't allow us much time out of the house between all the naps and it makes it very hard for mom to get any work done during the day.  The few evenings where Parker took a long afternoon nap as well, he was a night owl!

Lastly, Parker seemed to have a hard time with mom/dad being gone last weekend.  He showed signs of separation anxiety, particularly in the beginning of the week.  He would cry immediately when mom/dad left his sight and he wanted to be help all the time.  It seemed to subside some by the end of the week so hopefully it's just a temporary thing.

Carter (2 years, 5 months)
Carter is talking up a storm these days.  I don't think his mouth is quiet unless he is eating or sleeping.  He has also mixed up his sleep routine a bit.  He is now using a pillow and blanket in his crib.  And he can't fall asleep unless he has several books, a cup of water and his various nighlights in bed with him so he can read himself to sleep.

Here are a few pictures of Carter from this week.