First Hair Cut

On Friday the 21st Bennett turned 9 months old and got his first hair cut. It was tough for me to admit it, but the time had come...his hair was beginning to look quite scraggly, growing well over his ears and overlapping the collar of his shirt. We took him to a place that specializes in kids cuts and Jeff and I were amazed at how well he did.

Bennett loved sitting in the firetruck and Miss Sandy who cut his hair was very kind and patient with his squirminess. She even allowed him to continually steal her combs. He would grab one out of her hand and she'd just get a new one. Again. And again. Bennett enjoyed that little game.

I know it is silly but I was just so proud of him sitting there and having his hair cut without a fit. I always brace myself for the worst but time and time again Jeff and I come away from new experiences with Bennett saying "he did so great!". I guess we should be used to his easygoing nature by now, but I'm afraid the moment I start to expect him to be amenable in every situation he'll throw me for a loop. Better to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised, right?

Bennett, thrilled to be at the wheel. I didn't know he was old enough to enjoy this yet!

With one of the coveted combs.

Who took my baby and left a big boy in his place??

Family Christmas: Take One

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with the Jackson family in Fort Worth because Grandmama and Granddaddy were visiting from Alabama. I love that Bennett is getting to know his great-grandparents and that they have a chance to enjoy him. We all delighted in our time together eating, talking by the fire, laughing and playing lots of card games. I think my favorite part of the visit was Lisa, Mom and I learning to make my grandmother's traditional Christmas candies under her watchful tutelage.

Bennett got to open his first present...books!

My parents got a new camera recently and my mom and I had fun playing photographer with the B-boy. He was a good sport,

Keeping Us On Our Toes

Bennett is certainly not an infant anymore and he reminds me of this fact every time I think it is ok to step away for "just a second". He is endlessly fascinated by doors and drawers - including their contents, anything electronic, anything dangerous and, of course, the shiny Christmas tree and pretty gifts. It is so fun (and also exhausting) to watch him grow and learn!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks of our Mr. B exploring his world.

Oops! This plant table has found a new home now.

The is the "baby friendly" cabinet where Bennett plays when I'm in the kitchen.

During a visit to Nanny and Papa's house we discovered that Bennett can climb. Look at him go!

I can't look at this picture without thinking "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be".

Gran was smart to put only plastic ornament near the bottom of her tree.

Notice that he is surrounded by colorful, made-for-baby toys and yet chooses to eschew those and partake of a little light reading.

This is the B-boy this morning getting an up-close look at our movie collection.

This Blog Made Possible By...

I want to give a shout-out to our friends Alli and David Penuel who designed our awesome blog header (that's the picture and title at the top of our page here). A few of you have asked how our blog got to be so cute and they get all the credit!

As you might know I'm not remarkably artistic or creative so I needed some help to get this thing looking decent. Happily, our friends recently started a company to design and sell headers, logos and other custom graphics. They are so talented! If you are interested in getting one for yourself or just checking out their work go to loudmouthlogos.com (click the "blogheader template galary" on the left to see the entire collection). I chose one of the more simple designs but they have everything from sweet and cutesy to quirky and funky.

The Penuels are dear friends of ours and their son Chapman is one of Bennett's favorite buddies. We are blessed to have them in our lives and are excited to support them in their new business venture!

Flashback #1

After a trip to the mall in early October I sat down and wrote down the following story of my day's adventures. I imagined that one day I would look back on the experience and laugh so today I will share it with you.

Without further ado, I offer a glimpse back in time to October 1, 2007:

Sit back, relax and let me tell you a tale of my shopping trip. It began innocently enough with a nice afternoon, a well rested and fed baby and $75 worth of gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. So I decide to head to the nearest mall. Now this mall is in a well to-do area of town and is mostly full of stores that I dare not enter because I would blow our entire clothing budget on a pair of socks or a belt. But some odd soul gave me a gift card to Neiman Marcus and this mall does have a babyGap so off I go!

Upon entering Neiman’s I notice immediately that I stick out like blue flamingo with my ponytail, flip-flops, and Target pullover. Fortunately for me, most of the pointy-toed shoe wearing, What Not To Wear graduates perusing the store are distracted by my smiling, cooing baby and fail to notice how out of place I look. I’ve never been in the store so I wander around aimlessly looking to see if there is anything I might be able to purchase with my $50 gift card. What was I thinking? I see nothing that will fit in with my current wardrobe of jeans and cotton tops. After discreetly peeking at a few price tags I’m too intimidated to look at any more.

Looking for the exit, I wind up in the kids area and decide to make a last ditch effort to spend some money and see if there is anything cute for the little one. By the way, did you know that they make Juicy Couture stuff for babies?? Including a little girl’s onesie that says “Give me my Juicy!”?? Ridiculous! But I digress. The sales lady in the baby section is not enamored with Mr. B and does not seem exceedingly interested in helping me so I move on. I finally ask for help to find my way out of the self-esteem-crushing store but I don’t make it before beginning to feel very, very low about my sloppy, un-trendy self (and this on a day in which I showered and even applied lip gloss – a good day for me!).

Of course the babyGap is on the complete opposite side of the mall but I decide to have a good attitude about it and count my swift walk as a quasi-workout. I stop by the Anthropologie store because I like to check out their home décor items – you never know when you’ll find a good deal on a cute gift. Bennett is not nearly as interested in the knick-knacks as I and soon starts fussing. Of course I’ve forgotten his paci so I hurry on to spend my Gap money.

I’m thinking surely I’ll find some good summer clothes on sale to tide us over until it starts to actually get cool around here. Bennett is bigger than I expected him to be at this age and most everything I have that fits him now is long-sleeved – but it is still getting into the 90s each day. Lo and behold they are having a great sale at the Gap! BUT even the clearance items are thermals and heavy jackets. Don’t they realize this is Texas...no one will be wearing that stuff for at least another month! Grr…

Bennett is getting fussy so I get him out of the stroller, determined not to leave without spending some free money. He begins to ratchet up the whining and so I stupidly hand him my cup of ice to rattle as I skim through the sale rack. In record time he has the top off and has spilled ice water all over himself. Now he’s screaming.

I’m directed to a restroom with a changing table and discover a blow-out diaper to go with the cold, soaked onesie. Good thing I brought a change of clothes today! As I’m strapping him to the table I get one of those post-labor urgent signals that my Dr. Pepper has made its way through my system and is ready to exit – NOW! Usually if I’m walking around or something I can wait, but as I stand there deciding if I can hold it long enough to change the screaming baby the answer is undeniable.

No. There is not enough time. I am leaking.

I wrangle the red-faced, wailing child who is dirty, soaked and half undressed off the changing table, rush into a stall, undo my jeans with one hand and finish leaking into the toilet. But the damage has been done.

I trash my underwear, hang my jeans over the hand air-dryer and stand bare-tooshied in the bathroom to complete the clean-up and redressing of my little one. Fortunately, my cheap-o Target shirt is nice and long. A lovely young sales girl enters the bathroom and I can only manage to smile and offer no explanation for the strange scene.

Finally, we are both somewhat dry and decently dressed so I hunker down and speed out of that evil place. One afternoon gone…no purchases made.

Maybe I’ll try again next week.

Winter

I'm not one to get excited about cold weather. I love wearing summer clothes. Flip flops, tank tops and sun dresses make me want to skip and play whereas sweaters and coats seem stifling and itchy. I prefer to feel the sun on my shoulders and a warm breeze in my hair to facing biting winds and gray, dreary days where the sun disappears by 6:30.

But around the holidays I'm willing to stand some cooler temperatures. It seems that a bit of a chill in the air adds to the festivity of the season. I just have a hard time singing "Jingle Bells" or wrapping Christmas gifts while running the air conditioner. Alas, we have had quite unseasonably warm weather in early December. This is Bennett playing outside on Friday, December 7.



What a difference two days makes! Winter weather finally decided to arrive with a cold front on 9th. Yeah! Here is Bennett Sunday. We went for a walk so we could get some use out of his winter coat. He enjoyed the ride.



I'm not keeping my fingers crossed for a white Christmas or anything, but I'll enjoy the frosty weather while it lasts. Or at least I'll stay inside where its warm, snuggled in my blanket and drinking hot chocolate. Maybe a little bit of winter isn't so bad after all.

Learning About Domains

For not updating in the past week I apologize to all our loyal readers (all 3 or 4 of you). Jeff and I bought a domain name and it has taken me this long to figure out how to get our blog to show up when you type in www.learningaswego.com. In the process I rendered the entire thing completely unfindable. For days I was getting nothing but a page of ads for godaddy.com or a "sever not found" error when trying to access our blog. It was quite frustrating.

I certainly knew ahead of time that I'm not exactly web-savvy, but I thought that I had the patience and brains to figure out this seemingly straightforward task. I don't. But a with a quick call to customer service I was able to undo the mess I made and get our blog up and running again. Turns out it was quite a simple fix.

All this to say, have no fear, we will continue to blog and regale you with tales of our fascinating life and pictures of our adorable son. So, dear readers (er...Mom, Dad, maybe Tricia?), thank you for your patience and loyalty. We are much obliged.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Here at the Parker household we have flung ourselves full force into the Christmas Season. This weekend we bought and decorated our tree, wrapped gifts, attended Forney's "Hometown Christmas" celebration and visited Santa! It's too bad we have to keep the air going because of the spring-like weather we've been having. Oh well, I guess we can hang snowflakes on the tree and imagine that there's a chill in the air.

Helping Daddy find the perfect tree.

Our tree!

Here is the final product after I spent many hours over two days putting on the lights and Jeff made two trips to the store to buy MORE lights. Honestly, I'm slightly obsessive about the lights. I think I might have a problem.

Outside of my nutty lighting issues Jeff and I really enjoy doing our tree each year. We make hot chocolate, watch our favorite Christmas movies (always Christmas Vacation first then one or more of the following: Elf, Love Actually, Family Man). We collect ornaments from the different places we travel and like to spend time recalling our trips as we decorate.

It is our last Christmas in our Dallas condo. Kind of sad. Next year I'll share with you the our adventures in outdoor lighting!

Forney's Hometown Christmas is a fun Saturday in early December where the whole town (and then some) turns out to visit Santa, watch the kids perform dance routines or Christmas carols, purchase gifts made by local tradespeople, check out the petting zoo, and more. Even though the streets are swarming with people there is a great friendly, small-town feel to the event. We had a good time visiting with Jeff's family and getting in the Christmas spirit.

Waiting for Daddy

My beautiful boy is pulling up at every opportunity these days. Thursday we had a good time watching out the window for Jeff to come home.