Candace Parker is celebrating her son’s latest developmental milestone. The WNBA player shared pictures of her little one in honor of his six-month marker.
“Six months of pure, utter LOVE,” Candace said of her life as the mother of a son. “We adore you, Goose,” the doting mother continued. “Your giggles and laughs and slobber melt my soul,” Parker exclaimed. “Your personality is big and I love it! You are my sonshine (sic). I’m in love with being your Mommy.”
Candace Parker and her wife, Anna Petrakova, welcomed their son, Airr Larry Petrakov Parker, in February. The little one joined Candace’s daughter, Lailaa Nicole Williams, at home. Candace recently shared her parenting tacts, which differ between her daughter and son, with TIME.
“With my daughter, I’ve taken the sort of backseat approach,” Parker shared in reference to the idea of her kids playing basketball professionally. “If you want to play basketball, if it’s your passion, I want you to find your passion,” the celebrity mom said of broaching the subject with her daughter. “With my son, we’re just out of the gates, your name is Airr. There’s going to be pressure with that. If you shoot an Air Ball, it’s going to be a problem,” the star athlete admitted.
Candace Parker surprised her fans last year by revealing her marriage to Anna Petrakova. Many were not aware that the WNBA player was in a relationship with a woman after Candace divorced her husband, Shelden Williams in 2016.
“I always tell my daughter to be herself,” Parker shared with TIME. “I always tell my daughter to be proud of who she is. And I always tell my daughter to speak for herself and speak up for those that she loves. And I can’t say that to her if I’m not doing it myself,” the basketball player explained. “I don’t want her to ever think that I’m ashamed or not proud of our family,” Parker shared. “That was a step that we had to take. But we had to take it on our own terms.”
Candace met Anna in 2012. Her relationship, which began as a friendship, took a turn for intimacy after the two kissed. It took Candace and Petrakova three years to fully come to terms with the reality that they were more than just friends. The two wed in 2019.
“I was always against ‘coming out’ because I felt like in this society, in this day and age, you shouldn’t have to do that,” Candace shared with TIME. “Society had a way of putting this pressure on people to come out. And I don’t think it should be that way,” she further explained.
“We live in an oversharing world,” Parker continued. “You should be able to choose the parts of your life that you share and the parts you keep private. And I hope I was able to open up the door of conversations. And open up the door of how valuable it is to have support.”
Photo: Candace Parker/Instagram
