Hello my name is....

JR!

Sunny afternoon outside

Lucky for us, the sun came out yesterday afternoon, so we took advantage and had some fun in the yard! JR obliged a mini-photo shoot beween throwing, kicking, and hitting balls.

Zoo Atlanta

Train ride! (Or as JR would say "toot, toot")
Remsen and JR hanging with the monkeys and birds

JR doing his best scary lion impression

Hugs for the giraffe statue

Watching flamingos

Atlanta trip

The Martin Luther King, Jr holiday weekend found the Parrish family in Atlanta, Georgia to have fun as tourists! We headed down I-85 on Saturday afternoon in the rain, and we found a great hole in the wall barbeque restaurant called One Star Barbeque. Mmmm....it was tasty.

On Sunday we rode the MARTA south to Peachtree Street then walked to the World of Coca Cola Museum to take a tour. It was really neat, plus we sampled beverages from all over the world!



Next, we toured the Georgia Aquarium, with a ton of other people....it began to rain again and so it was a great indoor activity. JR loved the sting ray pool (he especially loved tasting the water--blach!), and he loved watching the divers swim with sharks and fish in the huge glass tank.

Sunday night we joined friends Adam and Kent Brannon at the delicious Brazilian restaurant Fogo de Chao. Bottomless meat + great conversation=fun evening! JR especially loved the meat tongs and dessert.

Best of all was Monday morning...we went to Zoo Atlanta! What a great experience. JR made animal sounds and fought to stay in the chimpanzee area to watching the wrestling brother chimps. ..see next blog for Zoo Atlanta pictures!

Trees, glorious trees

When I look out into our backyard, more often than not, this is what I see.It is beautiful and peaceful. I am so grateful to our backdoor neighbors who, like us, value the trees that make up this former WPA project pine tree farm turned-neighborhood.

I also love that across the street, SPACE has protected acres of land known as the Edwin M. Griffin Nature Preserve, home of Lawson's Fork Creek, miles of trails and you got it, even more trees. See what I mean at http://www.spartanburgconservation.org/

It is times like these that we are reminded of how amazing life is, with a nice cozy home in the trees!

Superman and the toilet paper caper

Uh-oh. The wicked, dasterdly toilet paper villan struck again!

Luckily, Superman came to the rescue to help roll the toilet paper back into place (and roll his magical Little Einsteins great shrinking ball).

We practice rolling and tackling!

This ball will help me learn to roll! Thanks Mommy!You deserve a kiss for being a good superhero!

My work is done. I'm outta here.

Cold doesn't stop the kid

I don't think little kids realize when it is cold outside. How is this possible? Are they just so energetic their little bodies stay warm? Is it how parents bundle them up (ala A Christmas Story, when the little brother has so many layers on that he can't put down his arms)? Do they just not notice outside conditions at this age?

Whatever the science, JR is bound and determined to play outside. Today I was up for it, because at least the sun was out.

Bring on the bubbles. I am not sure I have blogged about JR's love for the art of blowing bubbles, but it is the best and most joyous thing to watch. Even when he attempts to eat the wand...not even the slightest sour face with the taste of bubble juice. Uh-oh. The old "soap in the mouth for dirty words" trick might not work on JR in the future!

A lesson in cookies

Cookies are a univeral like. I have never met a soul that would turn one down. Martha Stewart made them "good things." They are tasty, the sweeter the better....and you can't frown when sprinkles are around!

We started a family tradition of baking cookies and decorating them on Christmas Eve (for Santa, of course....nevermind that we ate most of them!). Having just attended a cookie swap (with very tasty and highly praised homemade peppermint chocolate chip cookies), I decided to make sugar cookies (and icing) from scratch, rolling it out and cutting it into shapes. My stock of cookie cutters are weird...a star, a heart and umbrella (the strange one!). The stars ended up like bloated starfish, the hearts more like the Gaffney Peach, and the umbrellas looked a bit like mushrooms. No matter! They still tasted yummy and were perfect for decorating. Note, JR LOVED the red sprinkles, emptying almost a jar on one cookie.

Although not holiday-themed, the umbrellas made sense after all...it rained on Christmas!

Santa says, "Ho, ho, ho"

On Christmas Eve, JR finally got his "ho, ho, ho" down....just in time, too! We were so excited that we woke him up at 7am and led him into the toy-filled, present-stocked, living room (see evidence of the riduculous scene at left.)

His "big" gift was a play kitchen, which he LOVES. The burner and microwave make cooking noises, which leads us to agree that today's toys are WAY better than the toys of the 1970's and 80's! Note, that Santa also brought a very cool remote-control Publix truck. JR loves this because it is a "Vroom, vroom", and goes really fast! How did Santa know we love Publix so much? I don't think JR was able to mention this to the three Santas we saw, as he doesn't talk yet and became increasingly afraid of the bearded old man in a crazy red jumpsuit with each encounter.

We have lots more pictures to post from Christmas....stay tuned!

Great grands....

Christmas time found us yet again gathering at Remsen's grandmother's home in Easley for the Cousins Christmas celebration. We had an awesome time and enjoyed watching all of the great grandchildren play together and (barely) pause for this picture:

On the bench: Abby, Ella, and JR; Seated: Mackenzie and Groves

Oh, oh 2010

Mmmm....eatin' on cookies.

Before we know it, our little baby boy will turn 2! We can hardly believe the past two years have gone by so quickly, and as we embark on this New Year, we can wait to see what is in store for our family.





We are so excited that JR is turning into such a big boy! Still a bit slow to talk, he uses sign language and expressions, plus says typical words like mama, dad, dog, bird, tree, yes, no...you get the picture. We'll be fighting quite a battle when it comes time to say "adios" to his pacifier.





He is very funny and very physical. He throws and catches, and kicks balls like a pro. He tackles and understands football and basketball games. He loves to laugh and be silly. He remains short and stocky....come on, Daddy, where are those tall genes??





JR is a super sweet boy. He gives kisses and hugs and says hi and bye to everyone in a room (including inanimate objects). He LOVES to read, bath time, and sleeps with his most treasured Taggie ball.





JR sleeps and eats like a champ, although sometimes he is hit with a nightmare that really shakes him up (that happened this morning). He is more interested in figuring out how toys work that the toy itself, and he's never in trouble at school.





The next few months we'll watch him develop leaps and bounds with language, hopefully grow taller and move through year two with (fingers crossed) grace and good behavior.





Happy 2010!