Easter Pics

Here are a couple of pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt at my school where Parker got to meet the Easter Bunny! The other pic is Parker after eating too many chocolate eggs. :)

Hello my name is Par Par.

This weekend Parker started referring to himself by name. If you point to him and say "Who is this?" he points to his chest and says "Par Par." It is the sweetest thing you can imagine. He has also recently started saying "thank you" "I did it" "Go, Dog, Go!" and "there it is." He can also (sometimes) count to three. All this and he's not even a year and a half old! I can't believe how smart my little guy is.

We will be celebrating Parker's half-birthday in San Francisco in a couple of weeks! I can't remember... did I already blog about this? I'm going to a conference and Chris and Parker are coming along for fun! Chris also lined up a DJ gig that will more than pay for his plane ticket, so we get a free mini-vacation! Yay! I love San Fran and can't wait to eat some sourdough bread, sushi, and Thai food! Yummmmmmm. The conference hotel is the San Fran Hyatt, which I hear is really nice. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the flight, but we'll manage.

Easter was a lot of fun. We met up with some of my family members who were in town and went on a grand easter egg hunt. Parker thought this was the best thing ever! He has also discovered a new favorite treat- Peeps. He likes them so much he took a package of Peeps and hid in our walk-in closet where he proceeded to unwrap them all by himself. We caught him before he was able to stuff the 6 marshmallow "Birds" into his mouth, which was very upsetting to him. He followed us around mournfully sobbing "no, no, biiirds, no, no, biiirds." Don't worry- we gave him one for dessert an hour later. :)

As far as I know I don't have any plans this coming weekend, which is very exciting to me. I would love to have a couple of days to fiddle around in the yard and get the house in order, take Par Par to the Park, and then relax with a good book.

Have a great week!

-L

Happy Birthday, Buddha!

If we were waking up in some other countries around the world today, such as in Japan, we just might be taking the day off; for it is on this date, April 8, that many people celebrate the birthday of Buddha. What motivated a wealthy prince to renounce his worldly possessions and choose to live as a simple monk, teaching how to find happiness and to let go of suffering? Legend has it that Buddha was born around 560 BC, in a kingdom that was on the borders of present-day India and Nepal, and that his name was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. At age twelve, it was foretold that the prince would become a great spiritual teacher if he were allowed to see sickness, suffering and death, so his father, the king, did everything he could to shield his son from seeing the “real world.” However, at age thirty, the prince escaped, and after coming to the realization that all of his wealth and power could do nothing to stop the pain and suffering of the world, he came upon a monk who was calm and peaceful, despite his own many hardships. Filled with zeal and great compassion to help the world, the prince renounced his title, gave away his possessions and began devoting his life to discovering the way to eliminate human suffering. After years of study, meditation and sacrifice, legend has it that he found what is known as “Nirvana” (the cure to the ills of the world), and became the Buddha, or the “completely enlightened.” Buddha adopted the life of a religious teacher from the age of 35 until his death at the age of 80, and he attracted many followers. In the centuries following his death, Buddhism has become a very popular religion in many countries throughout the world, not just in Asia, and it all began with the young prince who advised his followers to teach this “triple truth” to all: “A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

Back from the dead...

Well, the Nicholson family has finally recovered from THE WORST STOMACH VIRUS EVER. My boss was home for a few days with it last week, where Parker picked it up, and in turn gave it to me and Chris. I will spare you all the gory details, but let me just tell you I would rather go through labor and delivery again than re-live the past 5 days. The bug caused Chris to cancel on his own birthday party, me to miss my own recruitment event at work, and for Parker and I to miss Christi's baby shower. Even worse, Chris had two friends visiting from Seattle who had to bear witness to the nastiness that was taking place and had nowhere to escape to! Sorry guys! Seriously bad timing!!!

Now that we're all back from the dead, Parker and I are going to celebrate by going to meet the Easter Bunny!!! Luck has it that the big EB is taking a break from preparing Easter baskets to make a visit to our campus. He will be hosting an egg hunt for all the little people at the campus Child Development Center (and Parker)! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day and I can't wait to see my little guy's face when he sees all the other little ones, lots of bright eggs, and, of course, a six foot bunny waving at him.

Parker is talking up a storm these days and knows more than 75 words, which really blows my mind. He's starting to string words together more as well. He's such a smartie! I'm determined to put in some work this weekend figuring out how to get the video clips of him doing cute stuff out of the video camera and into my computer. I am so pathetically low(no)-tech, but I'll do my best to figure it out. Sharing his horse whinny with you alone would make it worth my while. Prepare for hilarity!

For Easter this weekend we are meeting up with some of my family members here in Atlanta. My Dad's cousin's son recently bought a house here and is hosting a little get together. We will see Uncle Paul, Aunt Kathy, Cousin Jake, Second Cousins Helen and George, and their kids who I haven't met yet. It should be fun! I certainly never imagined I would be attending a family reunion in Atlanta- who knew!

Well, back to work for me. I hope you all have a fun and relaxing Easter weekend. Brooke, if you're reading this, I hope your sweet baby Audrey will arrive in time to enjoy Easter 2009 with you! We can't wait to meet her!

Hoppy Wednesday,
Laura