Sunday, September 06, 2009

Happy Birthday Parker! (A warning about a long post with lots of pictures!)

Parker turned 8 today!  I remember the day Parker was born like it was yesterday.  I was SO ready to have him.  I was having contractions for a few days that just wouldn't "do their thing".  My doctor made an appointment for me to go to the hospital and be induced.  Finally!  My mom flew in from Arizona that afternoon.  We picked her up at the airport and drove straight to the hospital.  (I wanted my mommy with me! ;)  I arrived at the hospital at 1:30 p.m. and while they were "prepping" me for induction (drugs!) and such, (they had already broke my water and I was dilated to a measly 3.)  Anyway, while the nurse was getting machines and things ready to hook me up, I started shaking and complaining that I felt like pushing and when my mom saw me, she said that was definitely a sign that labor was imminent.  So we asked the nurse to check and see how things were going as I was panting through a contraction and really feeling it.  Since it had been such a short time since arriving, the nurse thought I was being a big baby and she (sort of joking, but sort of not) said "ahh, buck up you wimp."  Moments later, she finished what she was doing and "checked me" just to shut me up.  Then she said in quite a hyper tone,  "you're a 9, you're about to have this baby, we gotta get this room ready and get the doctor here!!"  I began a small version of freaking out while the nurses scurried to prep the room for a delivery.

Meanwhile, I just wanted to push the baby out and at the same time was pretty upset that I wasn't going to get any drugs or an epidural.  And where the heck was that doctor!?  They kept trying to tell me to wait and not push or do anything until the doctor arrived.  Well, guess what--I didn't really care  if the doctor was there!  He FINALLY arrived and then they tried to make me wait until he got his stupid booties on his shoes.  Whatever.  After that, I was screaming all through the super quick delivery of Parker, "I get NO drugs, nothing!"  They just kept assuring me I'd be okay.  I just had it in my mind that I was going to be induced with pitocin, sit there in the hospital "laboring" all day--with an epidural and all the sudden Parker was born, I'm not sure the doctor had even been there for 15 minutes and only about an hour after I arrived at the hospital--all 9 pounds 2 ounces of him, all natural childbirth, thank you.  Dadgum, that hurt like a sonofagun!!!  BUT--I felt so good afterwards, immediately after as well as days after.  I compare that birth to my first with Scott, where I labored for two days, went to the hospital at about 2 a.m., received an epidural, FINALLY pushed for about 2 hours 11:30 a.m. and Scott was born.  I felt like it took a lot longer to recover in the hospital AND at home.   (I dunno, maybe it was just because Scott was my first and everything about it was new to me.)  I said after that if I could always guarantee such a fast delivery, that I'd go natural over the lengthy drugged labor anytime.  And I'll have to conclude with Taylor and Sam's birth stories another time!

Back to Parker---Eight years old!  Woohoo.  He's been waiting for this one.  Parker is excited to be in Cub Scouts.  He actually couldn't wait, so much that we let him join a few months ago (since our troop is through our church, he is allowed to do it that way.)  Parker is very gung-ho about scouts--as soon as he got his book, he sat down and completed everything for his Bobcat that day!  Parker is a great kid with a desire to learn and do all he can and as fast as he can.  We love our Parkie Doodle/Park-n-bean!  (He will not be happy that I just put those names in there, ah, what the heck, he won't even know! ;)

Parker is also excited to get baptized into our church (LDS).  He will get baptized in two weeks when my parents will be here visiting.  We're pretty excited about their visit, too!

Parker had a birthday party scheduled on Saturday with his friends at the indoor swimming pool.  Friday night he went to bed not feeling very well.  In the middle of the night, he woke up feeling even worse (stomach issues!).  Saturday morning, he "let it all out".  We had to postpone his birthday party--I thought the swimming pool people and swimmers would appreciate that.  You're welcome!  By 9 a.m., Parker felt better.  'Sup with that?  By noon, we decided to go eat lunch as a family and go to the Topeka Zoo.  It was a fun afternoon and you would never have known that Parker didn't feel good that morning!

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"Parker, look out for that bear, he's going to eat you!"  We had a fun time at the zoo!

The birthday boy!

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The birthday loot.

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While I will admit that some of them are cute, especially and including this one Parker got today for his birthday, I just don't get the whole internet thing about Webkinz.  I find it kind of annoying, maybe it's moreso because a few years ago all three of the boys wanted one, so after much talk, we broke down and got them each one, then the computer-time fighting began.  Sigh!  Parker has been begging for a new Webkinz for quite some time now.  He wanted either a monkey or a mouse.  This monkey, which he has named George, is one of the big kind (I didn't even know they make them this big.)  It was the only monkey the toy store had. 

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Oh the anticipation!

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They are both pretty darn cute!

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Parker was so excited to get a box of diapers for his birthday!  So was Sam!  Okay, this is what was really in the diaper box.

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Here's Parker's birthday cake.  I learned some things about how I'd go about this one next time, and there will be a next time.  You MUST go see Emily's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake!  Emily is just about the cutest, young gal you'll ever see and she is so flippin' talented when it comes to coming up with ideas, executing them and making some de-licious goodies!  She recently shared (on her blog, Visions of Sugar Plum) this delightful creation.  What did I learn?  Freeze the ice cream on each layer one layer at a time.  I tried (time constraint) to just quickly layer it all after softening up the ice cream a bit too much.  Therefore, the ice cream melted all over.  Never you mind, this is a great, TASTY dessert!  It begins with a 9 inch chocolate chip cookie, then ice cream, then a chocolate cake layer, and more ice cream, then more cookie, MORE ice cream, another cake layer and is topped with a chocolate ganache.  (Parker doesn't like dark chocolate, so I made the ganache with milk chocolate, which seemed a bit more runny, even after freezing it again (for a short time).  This was fun and gives lots of ideas for doing it again.  Thanks, Emily!! You rock.  (Her browned butter chocolate chip cookie recipe is great for sure!)

So here we are with quite the melty pictures.  We lit the candles quickly and sang fast!

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That ice cream you see there on the tray is actually re-frozen.  It melted and ran after I'd put it back in the freezer!  It just couldn't take the pressure! ;)

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I'm serious, this is good.  But go see Emily's pictures after looking at the rest of this one! ;)

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16 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday!!!
Flor (floreshayes@gmail.com)
hkpanda.freetzi.com

Anonymous said...

Wow! My kids (turning 20 and 23!!!!) both have birthdays a week apart in September. We celebrated one last week and the next one is this week. I was thinking of making a giant chocolate chip cookie. I did this once when my daughter was younger. I think she'd still like it in her twenties! We're going to an outdoor event though so we'll have to skip the ice cream.
Happy Birthday to Parker!
Sue

♥peachkins♥ said...

Happy Birthday Parker! What fun photos!

Anne said...

Congrats on Parker turning 8 and his baptism! That's such an exciting age (especially since they finally get to start cubs!) I loved the birth stories. Sounds exciting but that's how it always is, right? I'm glad you were smarter than the nurse and she had to kind of eat her words!

I can't wait to try the cookies below, by the way- yum!

noble pig said...

Happy Birthday young man!! Beautiful photos and good times!

Fallon said...

What an awesome birthday cake!! The chocolate chip cookie layer, very clever. My mouth is watering right now. haha

Looks like your son definitely had a great birthday!

Megan said...

What a fun post. Loved seeing the monkeys. Both of them! :)
The cake looks delicious.

Valerie said...

He looks like a happy guy! Birthdays are so fun. Thanks for the link to the other blog too. I just can't get enough recipes. :)

The Sugar Fiend said...

Thanks for sharing such a special birthday with us all, and I loved your story (I was a big baby too, and very late, and my mother had a similarly hilarious/uncomfortable hospital story--fortunately, she never held it against me)!

I love your prezzies and 'treat boxes' for your boys, as well as your truly spectacular cake--you look great btw, as if you've been working out, in the picture you showed of yourself. Or maybe just running after the kids?

eatme_delicious said...

That cake looks SO good! Lucky son! Sorry to hear the snickerdoodle bars didn't turn out that well for you. Hope they do the next time you try them!

Unknown said...

Happy birthday, mr. Parker!!! Looks like he had a good day. that cake looks wonderful...I saw it on Emily's page and thought it was quite fun.

Megan said...

Aww - great pictures and what a cute boy! Happy birthday to Parker!

I don't get the whole Webkinz thing either - but then again, we aren't 8, are we? :)

I am going to check out the cake - that looks so good!

Emily said...

Happy birthday, Parker! Looks like he had a good time at the zoo and got some sweet gifts. Ah, to be eight again. :)
I enjoyed the labor story. I'm so glad it was quick and easy. If I ever have a kid, I'm going to use drugs for sure.

I'm glad you liked the cake! I really liked it, too. I had melty-ice cream problems also. Maybe I should change the directions and advise people to freeze the layers, like in twenty minute intervals? I dunno. I hate to make the recipe seem too complicated.

Thanks for trying it! I always get nervous when people make something I made. LOVE your blog. Love it to death.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Parker!! Looks like he had an amazing time! With amazing cake! I'm sure it must have tasted great, though that picture with all thw flowing re-frozen ice cream in the tray just makes me laugh!!

Amy Franklin said...

Ahh...Webkinz. My kids were obsessed with them but are kind of over it now. But the fighting over the computer is not over...now it's to check email and make blog posts (they each have an email acct.-great for chatting with long distance family and the twins have a private blog each). So much fun. You look great by the way--especially with all the baking you do!! I am off to make your banana snickerdoodles and I am worried I'll eat all the dough before they're even baked!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Parker! He looks so happy!