Little Biter

Put the beginning of terrible two's and some molar teething together, and this is what you (or I) get:
I told Parker it was time to come inside from Gramma and Papa's backyard so we could go to the grocery store. Well, he bit down on my arm and wouldn't let go. I put Parker down and let him throw his little tantrum after I told him that we DO NOT bite.
He ran to Gramma, of course... and with little sympathy from her, started biting his shirt. I went to take a picture with my phone to show Garrett, and caught this little image in the background.

It seriously cracks me up! I know he didn't viciously bite me, because he will bite the closest thing to his mouth when teething. But still... it was a little intense!

Slacker

Wow... I haven't been posting at all lately!
We have been busy getting Hudson's room ready. So far all we've done is paint his room chocolate brown... it is SO cute! We need to build his crib, put Parker's furniture in there and then paint Parker's room and build his new furniture! That's hard for an 8 month pregnant girl and her one armed hubby to do!
There is so much to do and only about 8 weeks left!
I can't wait to post pictures as soon as it's all ready for our little guy :)

Parker has been having so much fun in his little pool we got him. He is such an outdoorsy baby. Here are some cute pictures of the little handsome munchkin:

Laughing while squirting daddy with the hose
What, mom?
He likes to give a cheesy smile now when we tell him to smile for the camera
Parker laughing at daddy on the "slip n slide"- or just a huge tarp daddy made into a slip n slide :)
Cutest boys ever

If you know Parker, you know that he LOVES his camo rain boots that Uncle Robbie and Auntie Jen got him for Christmas. He says "boots" every time we go to Gramma and Papa's and puts them on to go in their back yard. So we went to Farm Supply this weekend to get him some for our house.
Garrett and I were looking at some boots, when I looked over and Parker had put these on himself! He found the right size somehow and put them on. I asked if he wanted to take them home and he literally ran out the door! We had to chase him down before we all got arrested for stealing... and then we paid for them while they were still on his feet. He must have a thing for cowboy boots since Papa has some that he likes to try on :)

Dear Daddy

Dear Daddy,

I love you SO much! You are my favorite guy in the whole world.
I know I get sad every morning when I wake up and ask for you, and mommy tells me you're at work, but I know you are working hard just for us. So I can have nummies in my belly, cute clothes on my back, and fun tractors to play with.

I love:
Our weekend trips to the donut store in our pj's, and then eating them in bed with mommy or on the kitchen floor.
Our backhoe rides around our house.
Taking naps with you.
When you take me to special little parks that you know I will especially like.
Our weekend "ventures" we take as a family.
Our dance parties in the living room when you let me wear your hat and sunglasses.
When you share chocolate nummies with me and then tell me not to tell mom, even though I have chocolate all over my mouth.
When you chase me around the house and I can't stop giggling.
Yelling for you at the back door when you get home from work. "DADDY!!!"
How you kiss me all the time... it's my favorite thing.

I can't wait:
To go fishing with you.
Till you teach me how to drive the backhoe and excavator by myself.
To go camping with you, mommy, and Hudson.
For the rest of our lives together!

Daddy, I LUH LOO!!!!

Love,
Parker/Parkie/Lone Bug



Daddy,

I can't wait to meet you in 2 short months. I know you will love me just as much as you do Parker and mommy. :)

Love,
Hudson



Gare,

Thank you so much for being the best father I could ever ask for for our babies. I fall more in love with you every time I see you with Parker, and I can't wait to see you with Hudson.

I love you!

What's In A Name?

Oh, just everything.

We are having the roughest time trying to find a middle name that we love for Hudson. Parker's name just came so easily for us, and it flows so well.
We have a few names in mind, but none that are "the one"... yet anyway. We love Hudson Oliver, but is Oliver a little dorky? We like Hudson Cash, but does that make him sound like a little badass? We like Hudson Asher, but does that even flow? We like Hudson King, but is King a weird name?
We also like Hudson Ryan (Ryan after Garrett's middle name), but then why would we name our second son after his dad and not our first?

UGH! Poor little guy is going to have this name his whole life, and I just want to make sure that it is the right name for him.

We love fun/funky names that aren't too popular, but nothing too crazy either.

Feel free to leave comments with suggestions. We really are liking 1 or 3 syllable middle names the most. I have a feeling we are just going to have to name him when he gets here (in about 10 weeks or less!! Holy moly).

Oh, and I found out in the best couple of weeks that my cousins Lindsay, Noelle, and Corrie are all pregnant! Even though Noelle and Corrie don't live close by, it's still neat to have cousins all around the same age. Yay for baby booms :)

One more update...

Daddy had his surgery on Tuesday, and it went great!
They took out his metal plate and all 11 screws (which he got to take home) :)
Immediately after his surgery he was able to straighten it and bend it... with the help of the anesthesia. He is very sore now, and doesn't feel that great, but we can definitely tell that the surgery did the trick. He should be able to get his range of motion back very quickly with some physical therapy.

Oh, and the first thing he asked for when he woke up was me. The nurse came to get me and told me that Garrett was asking for me, even though he wasn't making sense with anything else he was saying. So sweet :)

Recovery

Parker has been doing so well recovering from his surgery! Occasionally he'll grab his diaper and say "owie" which is heartbreaking, but it's nothing that a little Motrin hasn't helped. The hardest thing for him is not being able to play with any of his ride on toys. He has to stay off anything that makes him "straddle" for a month (including our hips!). We have to carry him like a little baby so we don't put pressure on his wounds.

He has also slept through the night 5 out of 6 nights this week! And the only night he didn't was the night he had surgery, and even then he only wanted a drink of water. He is doing so well since we took away his bottles. I really think after 19 months, he has the hang of sleeping!!

How cute is he in that picture? Daddy always goes and gets us donuts every weekend, and we always eat them together (in bed, on the kitchen floor), but always somewhere fun.
Parker couldn't decide between chocolate and sprinkles, so daddy gave him one of each. He has been a little extra spoiled this week... which I think he deserves :)

Garrett has surgery tomorrow to get his metal plate removed from his elbow. PLEASE keep him in your prayers. We just pray that this will help him start to feel better and get back to normal a little bit. My poor guys!

Surgery is over!

Parker's surgery is over! It went better than expected. His surgery was scheduled for 1:00, but to our surprise we got a call this morning saying we could come in a little earlier (11 instead of 11:30 to check in). We took what we could take, since Parker wasn't able to eat, we wanted him in there as soon as possible. He did SO well. He never once cried for food or water (trust me, he's made up for the no eating thing...).

They gave him some "relaxing" medicine before they took him back to surgery so he would be relaxed, and not cry when he had to leave us.
This made him super flirty and silly, as you can see :) He was giggling at his anesthesiologist, and acting completely hilarious. He didn't even notice we were gone when they took him to surgery.



Parker was pretty uncomfortable when he woke up from the anesthesia. He just wanted to snuggle, and he desperately wanted his IV out. He chugged his water (shocking huh?) and we were free to go.And he watched Open Season on the way home on his new DVD player we got him as a little surgery present. He loves that thing! We stopped at Wendy's and he insisted on eating daddy's double cheeseburger, along with some chicken nuggets and fries. He was so hungry, poor little guy. Oh, and he got a bunch of chocolate when he got home- rules don't apply today :)

Overall he is pretty happy, but you can tell his is pretty sore and achey. He keeps trying to stand up, and just ends up in tears because he is in pain :( It is so sad. He is fine when he's just sitting with us on the couch though, so I think tomorrow is going to be a movie and snuggle day.

We go back in September for his post op appointment, and hopefully never have to go back there again!! And weird... we are going to have a couple week old baby then. Yay!

Thank you SO much for all the prayers/texts/calls/Facebook messages. It means the world to us to have so much love and support. <3

Just a little surgery update

We just got a call from Stanford saying that Parker's surgery is scheduled for 1:00 tomorrow. We have to be there at 11:30, and he can't have anything to eat or drink (besides jello, water, and gatorade) after midnight tonight. Poor little guy is going to be starving. :(

Please be thinking and praying about him during this time, and we'll let you know how it goes!

Today he had his pre op appointment with a nurse, and he was not having it. I think he is scarred by hospitals/doctors offices, since he has been in them way too many times, because he cried when they weighed him, took his temperature, checked his ears, listened to his chest, took his blood pressure...
Poor thing! His nurse asked if he wanted to go buh bye and go get a sticker, and he said "okay" in the sweetest little voice. Then she was his best bud. He gave her smiles and a high five :)

Oh, and he weighed 31 lbs. at his last check up about a month ago, and today he only weighed 28 lbs. I think since we took him off the bottle and he refuses to drink milk out of anything else, he is losing a little bit of weight. Good thing he started eating cheese like a mad man, so hopefully that will give him the extra fat he needs.
I guess we need to send him to Grandma DeDe's to plump him up :)

He had SO much fun today swimming. We had the pool all to ourselves, and I layed out and tried to get rid of my ghostly whiteness while the boys went in the pool.
Here are my guys having fun:

Add Daddy to the list...

Garrett just got scheduled for surgery next Tuesday to get his metal plate and screws taken out. They have been keeping him from fully recovering through physical therapy, and you can actually see the screws through his skin (ouchie!). So we are hoping that this will help, and he can move on and heal properly.

My poor boys!
Just call me Nurse Ashlee...