Our little boy...(4-6 months)

Unfortunately the 80's song "Schools Out For Summer" can no longer be our anthem at the Nagelkirk residence...sad day! We are back in the swing of things with the school year and the busyness of life just went up another notch! Joel is having a hard time being away from Parker (and I like to think myself as well!) every day, but as soon as the bell rings either Joel heads home or Parker and I head to school to watch the sporting events happening at ZCS and spend time with Joel. We have been blessed with such amazing weather the past few months and we have been taking advantage of every moment possible...soccer games, long walks, afternoon hikes, raking leaves and sitting on blankets outside.

Parker has learned several new things these past 2 months too! He is now sitting up almost 100% of his awake time actively reaching and playing with toys! (5 1/2 months)

After MUCH drooling (changing his shirt several times a day!) Parker got his 2 bottom teeth! We thought potentially more were on their way to making an entrance into this world too, but he stopped at 2 for now. It was a bit of a struggle while they broke through...he appeared to be a little uncomfortable and a little crabby at times. (5 1/2 months)

Parker is still trying to get a hang of sleeping straight through the night...he is only waking up 1 time now to eat around 4-5am. We realized that not having bumpers on the crib was causing him to wake up all the time because his arms and legs kept getting caught in the bars! We moved him to the pack and play for a while and that seemed to do the trick, but took up way too much room in his bedroom so we bought breathable bumpers for the crib and they are working fabulously. While peeking in on him during nap time I witnessed him pulling the bumpers down and peering over the top...very funny!

Parker's 6 month check-up went fabulous! He weighed in at 17 lbs 11.9 ozs (50th%) and 27 1/2 inches (75th%).  He had to get a few more shots and those were a little rough!  The needles looked like they were going to go through his leg they were so long!  He was giving the nurse a flirty smile and then it was all over after she poked him!

A few other accomplishments these past 2 months...

Parker is starting to show a little bit of his personality!
Giggles easily
Babbles constantly
Makes funny faces
Smiles the most adorable smile ever that can melt hearts
Messy eater
Constant mover
Picks up toys (everything for that matter) and puts them in his mouth
Started peeing while his diaper is off...again!
Splashes water big time in the tub...had to move his little tub into the big tub because we were getting so wet and had to change our clothes after every bath. He loves to play with bath toys too!

I think Parker is wondering if this keyboard is his toy or daddy's toy.  A $1 garage sale find has become the talk of the Nagelkirk household.  Joel is constantly found stealing the keyboard from Parker and practicing a variety of CRC hymns!  I am getting a glimpse of what it would be like for our kids to take piano lessons..."Guess what song I am playing"?

A Spooktacular Halloween...

The Kuipers threw a Halloween party this year and everyone there wondered "Where's Waldo"?!  Goodwill proved to be a good place to get cheap costumes this year for us! 

Halloween came so quickly and I had in mind that Parker would be an adorable mummy, but Joel voiced (at the last minute!) that he didn't want Parker to be a dead person...he wanted him to be something cute like a dinosaur! A dinosaur?! Don't those eat people?!? Is that cute?! Ha! A few days before Halloween Old Navy was having a sale on baby costumes so we headed there after work one night. They had ONE outfit left and it happened to be in Parker's size...so...Parker was a HAMBURGER!!  Joel was not sold on the costume right away, but it was only $5.00 so I felt we couldn't go wrong! Joel's first comment was..."you don't even like meat"! Ha!  I loved meat on Halloween night though! Parker was adorable and he appeared to enjoy going to a few of our neighbors' houses. At one house they let him reach in and pick out a piece of candy and he grabbed a sucker by the stick and then put it directly into his mouth...obviously a Nagelkirk! Joel and I enjoyed the candy Parker got Trick or Treating...definitely a perk of having children!

 

Grandpa and Grandma Nagelkirk stopped by to see Parker all dressed up and they decided to get dressed up too!

Parker loved to play with his candy!  Not sure if it was because the wrappers made noises or the hope of getting what was inside!

Birch Run Girls' Weekend...

"How do you know you've found your best friends? When you are ready to talk to them about anything, even though they know everything about you already."

I am realizing the more I talk with other people that good friends are hard to come by. God has blessed me with the most amazing group of Godly women as friends who have been by my side for years and who would be there for me at the drop of a hat in good times and in bad. The above quote speaks so true to me and my group of friends.

This weekend us girls left behind our husbands, kids, family, work and busy lives to have girl time! We laughed, cried, shared stories about life, celebrated successes, discussed life with kids and marriage, ate good food, shopped till we dropped, were honest about how clothes looked, wisely spent our limited clothing budgets, stayed up late, slept in late (8:30am is now late to most of us!), and just had the most fun trip we have had together to date!

It looks like we planned on dressing the same, but we didn't!

Fall photo shoot...

Raking leaves one day ended up being a fun photo-op for Parker.  He loved the leaves...especially eating them!  Joel was shocked I was letting him put them in his mouth...they are so dirty!

Tiger's World Series...

We got a call one night from the DeWitt's (Joel's student's parents) asking us if we would like to have their 4 tickets to the Detroit Tiger's World Series game...hmmmm...YES!  We quickly lined up my parents to watch Parker and jumped around with glee!  You would have thought we won the lotto!  What an amazing opportunity!  I guess being a teacher does have a few perks!  Joel decided to take his dad, brother and me (I was worried for a moment that I wasn't going to be invited!).

We headed out after work to get to the game just in time.  It was a nice evening, not too cold or raining.  We were told the tickets were in the 6th row behind the dugout so we walk down that direction like we owned the place!  We were stopped by an usher and kindly told that are seats actually were not as close as we thought!  We were a little bummed at first, but our seats ended up being fabulous anyways.  We were in the Tiger's Den with cushioned seats, lots of room, a table and our own personal waitress!  The seats got even better when Aretha Franklin sat down by us after singing the National Anthem!

The game was so much fun and the Tigers pulled out a victory!  They went on to not win the series, but at least our game was fun!  We got home around 3am and even a week later are still trying to recover from lack of sleep!  For some reason Parker has no sympathy for us staying up late...he still gets up nice and early!

We later found out from Mrs. DeWitt that their season tickets actually were in the 6th row behind the dugout, but for the World Series they got moved!  She felt so terrible, but we didn't care!  It still was one of the coolest things we've been able to attend!