Daddy's Little Girl

My first creation on iMovie. Rough around the edges but cute. The last video is Shannon's reaction to Eric coming home from work.

Soccer Star

I made a movie called "Daddy's Little Girl" but am unable to post it since it was on my laptop which is now drying in a basket of rice. So instead I'll show you a few clips from our fun Christmas.

Here she is with Grandpa Parrish this weekend. She's dancing, well sort of :-)

iMovie Creation

Just a fun little experiment. There will be more to come-I made this in 10 minutes on my phone!

iMovie Fun from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

New videos

Tickles from Daddy from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Waking up to Shany from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shoelaces, shoelaces! from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Balloon Girl from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

A Few Christmas Photos

Here we are trying to get a few good pictures. Boy are we hoping to get a new camera soon!

We love our friends

I love that Shannon gets to spend her mornings interacting with and watching Erin and Grady. Here they are leaving the rec center.

Deborah is amazing taking all three out to the store!

Eric's parents moved to Grand Junction (a 5 hour drive, but it's a lot closer than Georgia!) and we love having them visit. They were here last weekend and it was glorious being able to sleep in two days in a row. Shannon loved the attention and had a lot of fun. Here she is with grandpa. We were all feeling a little under the weather so unfortunately we didn't get many pictures. Next time for sure!

Grandpa Feeding Shannon from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Baby Bird. Eric finds it funny to "test" to see if she's hungry.

Baby Bird from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

For you Kathy!

We Elfed the Kids

Shannon & Daddy

Funny

Crawling?

Not sure if this counts as crawling but either way Shannon seems to get around just fine.

Crawling? from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

I thought she wanted the green cylinder but apparently the new scenery was more interesting. This is the first time she's explored this area of the house.

Rounded the Corner from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

For Grandma(s) & the nieces

A fun video of Shannon trying to crawl on the hardwood. Tough decisions!

Decisions! from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Turkey Day

We had a good Thanksgiving. Shannon even helped daddy grill the turkey. Here are some pictures, along with one from this week.

Shannon & Daddy

Sometimes after nap time Shannon goes to see daddy at work. Everyone there adores her and of course she loves seeing daddy. Here they are together.



Note how tall this little girl is. Those are 9 month pants and they are a little short. I'm excited to possibly have a tall point guard!
Shannon loves Erin. Here they are playing today.

Jumping Shannon & Erin the Entertainer from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Our Mornings

Here's what we wake up to each morning. In order to get some extra sleep each morning we put a few toys in the crib for her to entertain herself when she first wakes up. Totally brilliant idea! And you might notice all the pacifiers...got that idea for Deborah. In the middle of the night if she wakes up all she has to do is reach around and she's bound to find a pacifier to stick back in! Again, TOTALLY brilliant idea!

Shany in the Morning Part 2 from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon in the Morning Part 1 from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Being Young

I've done a lot of thinking about getting older. My knees hurt when I work out, keeping weight off requires eating a lot less these days, and the wrinkles and gray hair are starting to be noticeable. Each day I'm reminded how fast time really does go, as Shannon grows and changes. One day she can't reach the edge of the carpet, and the next day she's moving all over the room and sliding across the hardwood floor. I'm doing a decent job of living in the moment, enjoying each new thing she does and taking my time to cuddle with her after rocking her to sleep. Life really is good, no, great, right now.
I love having Erin and Grady over each week. Erin is almost 4 (going on 10) and Grady is 18 months. Grady and Shannon take afternoon naps but Erin is too old for that so we hang out. I could put a "novie" on and get some housework done, or even take a nap, but the one on one time with her is too precious for that. It reminds me of times with my niece, Sam, when I watched her years ago. I loved doing things with Sam, like going for walks, heading to the park, coloring, and any craft imaginable. The same is true with Erin, though I realized last week I didn't have much for a preschool age kid to do when the weather forced us indoors. It was forecast to snow so I improvised and got out some white paper, scissors, and crayons to cut snowflakes for Erin to color. It was quite a hit! That evening Shannon and I went to Michael's to buy the essentials- watercolor paint, paint brushes, construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue, kid scissors, craft sticks...oh, and a set of 100 cookie cutters.
This afternoon Erin and I made turkeys out of construction paper by tracing our hands. I remember doing that in school and added a few fun steps, such as tearing all colors of construction paper into little bits and gluing these "feathers" on all over the turkey. We also glued our birds on a craft stick to make a puppet of sorts. Of course the googly eye was the best part. After over an hour of craft time Erin says, "I think I need to have some rest time. I'm tired!" It was great.

Shannon usually wakes up at the end of our craft time and she LOVES watching whatever Erin is doing.


I'm looking forward to many more winter afternoons making crafts and feeling younger.

Here are a few new videos of Shannon lately. There's just one word to describe her-fun.
Shannon LOVES being out and about. We are at the store and she was giggling at everything I picked up. She enjoyed looking at her reflection in this beverage bucket.

Giggle Girl from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Here's Erin and Shannon in action. I have a feeling Shannon will be cruising as soon as she figures out to sit up before reaching for items on the table. Shannon is reaching for the picture Erin painted with watercolor while Erin babbles in "Shany talk" admiring herself in the baby mirror. Too cute!

Watching Erin from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon went to her first basketball game tonight. She enjoyed the action but wasn't fond of the loud buzzer.

Friends

Going in circles from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Friends from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon Loves the Swing from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Here are our creations from Halloween. Mine is the ghost, Shannon's is the "Eek!", and Eric's is...well, I'll let you guess who that is. Hint, 80's music "hello..."

I rode my bike to the Bungalow and Eric brought Shannon and met me there to have coffee. She seemed to enjoy one of my favorite places.

Shannon got my crazy curly hair.

Shannon loves watching Erin play, and in this case, build a fort. Other than constantly hitting her head on the table it was a success.

Shannon loves watching Erin and Grady turn our living room into their playroom. We always have fun on Tuesday afternoons.

Bathtime Fun!

Shannon loves water. If I try to drink from a clear glass while I'm holding her she lunges toward the glass, fascinated with the water. We finally got the bathtub seat out so she could play in the water more and she had a great time.

Halloween 2010

More videos for Grandma Ginny

Here she is yet again, our happy little girl. Mom, I know you like the ones with balloons so these are especially for you.

Irish Horsey Ride from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Another giggle session from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon with another balloon from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Trees

Shannon loves trees. She watches them intently out the window and today, with the high winds, she even giggled a few times at the waving leaves. I remember her staring at the trees in RMNP on her first visit there at 2 months. I'm always wondering what she'll enjoy as she gets older so maybe it will be trees. I'm ok with that!
We've enjoyed the beautiful weather the last few days and took advantage of the amazing red color of our maples for a backdrop for some pictures.


Here's Shannon's view from our front window.




Shannon is enjoying solid food these day. As you can see, she has two teeth beginning to push through.


This is her "poo poo poo poo face" as Eric (aka "ShannonsDaddy" on Twitter) says. She's going to be angry at me someday when we are scrolling through pictures and we come to this one. It was a big one.

Fall in Colorado

I think fall is the most beautiful season here in Colorado. Today it was 70 degrees and sunny so we spent some time outside enjoying the leaves, grass, and sunshine. Shannon is growing everyday and is now wearing 12 month clothes, despite being 6 months old. She is long and lean which makes it easier for her to scoot around, crawl, and roll over. She's not keen on sitting up, though it's obvious she's capable. She'd much rather be on her belly scooting around to investigate the world around her. I think she loves nature.

Audrey & The Snowman

I'll write more about what's going on around here another time when I'm not so sleep deprived. Our little girl has decided to wake up at 3am lately.
Here's a fun video of Erin, Shannon, and what happened today.

Erin, Shannon, and the eating of the snowman from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Pumpkin Time

For those of you not on Facebook, here are some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch today. Shannon really enjoyed it!

Shannon Videos

It's been awhile but these are worth watching.
We discovered Shannon's love for balloons at Oktoberfest this year. We were at the store today and I couldn't resist getting some video of her reaction to a Halloween balloon.

Laughing at a Balloon from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon & Her Dog Part 1 from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Shannon & Her Dog Part 2 from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Beautiful

Our little girl cut her first tooth today! A big moment because now I can't call her Gumby. She tried and disliked avocados today, but we are going to keep trying. We spent some time this afternoon outside enjoying the perfect fall day.

6 Months Old

We are in awe that we've been parents for half a year. In that time we've learned how to function on little or no sleep, prioritize our worries so they don't consume us, and love deeper than we ever imagined. She is our life. The wonderful part of this is that I don't feel like we've "lost" ourselves as I once feared would happen. Instead we are becoming more compassionate, empathetic, tolerant, relaxed, and childlike. We love singing songs, playing peek-a-boo, and acting silly to make Shannon giggle.
Our little Shannon.
First real food and she loved it!

First real food- sweet potatoes (with apple) from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.

Hanging out on a blanket on a beautiful fall day after a stroll in the Chariot.


Trying on a possible Halloween costume to make sure it fits because Shannon is SO long.

Shannon & The Lion from Jennifer Parrish on Vimeo.