Can it really be? Summer in April?

This past week I was introduced to something entirely new. It is still April, yet summer has arrived! As a child, I had heard that this phenomenon happened in some parts of the world, but the blistering cold winds of Idaho must have convinced me that it was not possible. The idea of summer so early was very exciting, until one day when I walked out of the office and was instantly smothered with the hot sticky humidity that accompanies an early summer in Arkansas. Summer or not, however, I have also been forced to face the fact that it really doesn't matter. I am stuck in my office for more then 80% of the daylight hours of each day anyway. Never before in my life have weekends been so priceless!

This Wood Pecker is building anew home in our backyard

Parker likes going fishing. He even likes fish. I happened to snap the picture at t bad time. I bet if I could catch a bigger Bass Parker would be more interested. I better keep trying!

Um . . . Shawn in holding a fish I caught. ;)

Parker's new toy box!

The only time Parker likes more than bath time is Popsicle time!

Scary Garage Door

It hasn't been long since my last post, but I couldn't wait to post this new video of Parker. Yesterday, Parker and I were out front looking at the flowers and he decided to run to the other side of the drive way. When he was half way across the driveway, Laura opened the garage door from inside the house. Since we have moved here Parker has been a little uneasy about how loud the garage door is, but this time, it caught him completely off guard. You can see his surprise in the video as he takes off running as fast as he can. I barely caught up with him at the end of the driveway before he went out to the road!

Enjoy!

Development Milestone

Parker has always seemed to grow up so fast that I cannot keep up with all of the new things he is capable of. These past few weeks, however, it seems that he has made leaps and bounds in development. His speech is where it is most evident. He has used baby sign for almost a year now, and has been able to say common words like Da da and Ma ma, but recently he seems to want to say everything Laura and I say. For example, one afternoon he and Laura were out in the front yard when a school bus drove by. The driver waved to Parker, and Laura explained to him what a school bus was. Then next day, after lunch, Laura noticed that he spent a lot of time standing at the window looking out and repeating over and over, "School bus . . . school bus". Anyway along with talking all the time, Parker has decided that he wants to learn how to jump. Here are some videos of him dancing and at the end of one video he tries a jump.

Getting Settled

A lot has happened since our last post. Here is the executive summary:

We spent the longest week of my life looking for a car (I'd rather go to the dentist then car shop...or get pulled over by a cop which really did happen during the process because a dealer forgot to give us the plates) and finally bought a 2002 Toyota Tacoma.

I started my job at Wal-Mart as a Macro Space Analyst in the Store Layout Department. This past week has been rather boring as I went through orientation and all that other stuff that comes along with starting a new job; however, I think that I will really start to like the job in the future.

Parker used the big boy potty for the first time. I think that it was more an incident of lucky timing on Laura's part then a purposeful act by Parker, but whatever is was, Parker was pretty surprised he was capable of such a weird thing. Since then, he's never been able to look at the potty the same way again.

Finally, we also survived our first and second tornado capable thunder storms. It was actually quite a bit scarier then I expected. I have never seen a storm so violent hit so quickly, and I was surprised by how serious the locals took the warnings.

So, there it is in a nut shell. Now, onto the pictures.

This is my new Truck!

Parker will be starting Drivers Ed next week. So in celebration, we got him a new car.

Parker on his potty. (Don't worry. The surprise is inside, not in his hand. That is his potty candy!)

Hail the size of a Quarter. I'm glad we have a garage!