Putting Baby to Bed

I rocked Parker to sleep a little while ago. We sat in the chair with one of his arms wrapped around me, and his favorite bear clutched in his hand, and I sang songs to him, mostly songs with words like this: "My baby, he loves a little black bear with a brown ribbon, little black bear with a brown ribbon, my baby, my baby, my baby." I sang "Eidelweiss" and "Dance to Your Daddy" to him as well, but it was the one I made up and repeated over and over again that I enjoyed the most. I've always enjoyed making up tunes that sound either jazzy or Celtic, and that seems to work well for Parker.

When I put him in his bed, he immediately rolls to his stomach and either tries to sit up or else pulls his bottom up into the air and goes to sleep. This is the cutest thing, and my mother tells me that her children often stuck their bottoms up the air when going to sleep. It's one of those little details of which you have to take a mental snapshot, because an actual camera would only ruin the affect.

I don't have a picture of Parker and his favorite bear. It's a picture I haven't taken yet. The bear is little and soft and filled with beans, and I am forever surprised that Parker hasn't ruined the little satin bow yet. He likes to carry the bear in his teethe by tag or bow. This is the bear he grabs when we go in to get him in the morning, and it is the one we make sure he has when it is time for him to go to sleep.

It's funny how he's had this bear for almost a year now (it was a gift from Michael's parents last Christmas), he's only been aware of it for the last couple of months, and now it is his best friend in all the world. Not long ago it was a little rubber lizard we thought that Parker had to have at all times. This little black bear with the brown satin bow will be the one that really is irreplaceable.

I mentioned above that Parker likes to walk around with a toy hanging by its tag from his mouth. This soccer ball is one of his favorites with which to do this.

Still not a picture of his favorite toy, this is another example of how you might encounter Parker walking around our house in the middle of the afternoon. These were both old photos from earlier this month.