Wednesday, June 23, 2010

17 months and counting...

I can't believe how big my baby boy is getting. He's more of a toddler now, but to me, he'll always be my baby! :) He's got his own opinions, and you can't change his mind once it's set. He NEVER stops moving. He goes from one thing to the next in a matter of seconds. I'm surprised that I can keep up with him. He's such a happy little boy. He's always making anyone and everyone laugh.


A little about Connor...
Favorite Phrase: "Go Away"
Other words he says:
mama
daddy
Ya-Ya (my sister Bethany)
some form of Grandma
some form of Grandpa
balloon "boom"
ball
hi
doggy
more
bye-bye
"Mooo" for cow
quack quack
nose
eye
ear
hair
honk (when pressing your nose with his hand, lol)
night night
nice
I love you
thanks
go
yay!!!
(this is all I can think of right now)



17 Facts about Connor...

1. He knows what a dog and cow say... and sometimes a duck

2. He knows and points to his/someone else's hair, eyes, nose, teeth and ears

3. He LOVES to play outside in the backyard. He will stand at the back door screaming, trying to pry it open on his own. And every time we go somewhere in the car, he tries to make a mad dash to the backyard before getting in the car

4. He has to have all of his "softies" (little blanket things with stuffed animal heads attached) EVERYWHERE we go. He's got about 4-5 of them, and usually tries to carry all of them, with 1-2 of his big blankets. He gets mad when I make him leave some of them in the car when running errands

5. He LOVES "booms" (balloons). I buy one at dollar tree once a month now, just to make him happy, lol. He has one at my parents house, and as soon as he gets there, he will search the house until he finds it. I talk to my mom on Skype sometimes, and if he sees it in the background, he'll reach to the computer screen and start crying because he can't grab it out!

6. He's got 12 teeth finally all the way through... yay for those molars!

7. He still LOVES the Backyardigans and usually will sit for about 10 minutes to watch (yes, that's it... that's the longest he'll stay still). But for some reason, he THINKS he likes to watch TV. He constantly goes into the living room and finds a DVD (usually a kid one, because they're in his reach) and bring it to me. I'll put it on, and he'll sit for 2-3 minutes, and then get up and find something else to do. Sometimes he'll also watch Baby Einstein... but not often. We took him to Toy Story 3 today... he wasn't very happy about that. I ended up out in the lobby room with him, waiting til it was over.

8. He LOVES music. If he hears music anywhere, he starts dancing. I think that's why he likes Backyardigans so much... they're constantly singing!

9. He loves cell phones and is constantly finding mine somewhere and calling Aaron while he's at work. I usually don't even realize that he's done it, until Aaron calls me on his lunch and says that he's had 4-5 missed calls from Connor :) And he's figured out how to unlock it, so that won't help!

10. He loves his Grandpa (my dad) and will not even look at anyone else in the house (my mom and sister) when we go over. He goes straight to his Grandpa with a HUGE smile on his face!

11. He's still a great eater. He'll eat almost all fruits and veggies (both baby food form and normal form). He loves yogurt, cottage cheese, cream cheese, and normal cheese. He still is a bit picky when it goes to meats. They have to be very tender and easy to chew. Otherwise he'll just hold it in his mouth like a little chipmunk until I tell him to spit it out. He LOVES meatloaf though. That's his favorite.
On the other hand, he doesn't like Mac and cheese (I don't think I've ever met a kid who doesn't like it) or PB&J (well, soy butter & jelly, cuz he's allergic to peanuts)

12. He will constantly throw things in the trash for me. Sometimes it's not things I wanted in the trash. This morning as I went to take the trash out, I found a bowl, some of his Little People animals, and a little carrying case that he carries stuff in.

13. He's learning to pick up his toys when he's done playing with them. He has a playpen that is now more of a toy corral. I kept making him pick his stuff up, over and over, every time he was done playing. It only took about a week, but now when he's done, he'll take it over to the pen and throw it in there, and then clap and say "yay!!" And if he doesn't do it on his own, I ask him to, and he does it right away :)

14. He's obsessed with shoes. And not putting them on himself... but he finds everyones shoes and brings them to us. If we don't want them on and say no, he will grab our feet and try his hardest to lift them up and put them into the shoe.

15. If you say the word "stink" in any form... "eww, what's so stinky?", "well that stinks", etc... he sits down and lifts his feet to his nose and smells them

16. If you say "get dizzy Connor!" he'll spin around in circles, laughing at himself, and then stop and fall over

17. He loves to sing! And whether he has music or not, he's always singing. He usually makes up his own random songs, which for the most part, we can't understand a bit. The other day he was humming and singing and dancing and I heard "singing some random nothingness..... 'Go away'... humming some more....'Go away'... singing some more babbles.... 'Go away'....."
He's already writing his own lyrics!


I guess that's it for now. He's the funniest little guy I've ever known, and he's a joy to be around! We love having our little monkey in our lives and couldn't imagine it without him!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day Weekend

We had a fantastic weekend. My mother-in-law, father-in-law, and brother-in-law all came from Arizona to visit for the weekend. We haven't seen them in 4 months, so it was great to catch up again! :) They got in late Friday evening and we were able to hang out a little. Then on Saturday, we all decided to take a trip to Newport Beach (minus Aaron, who had to work... but he met us there in the evening). I didn't really want to bring my camera to the beach, because my last camera broke while at the beach because of the sand, and I was a little freaked out about bringing my good one there. But Bethany brought hers, so when I get those pictures from her, I'll post them.

Then Sunday we went to church (normal stuff) and then everyone came over to my house for dinner and games and stuff. Sadly, I didn't take that many pictures, because with all the people there, Connor was a little anxious and was attached to my hip, and it's a bit hard to focus, set settings, and shoot with one hand :) But here are the few that I got...
Connor and Aaron's favorite thing to do together is to go outside and take care of the yard. They've been doing it for about a year now together. It's Connor's favorite time of the day. So I thought it would be great to get a stepping stone for their garden. I found a very cute kit, and Connor and I made the stone. It has Connor's feet print on it and it says "Daddy and Connor's Garden." Of course Aaron loved it, and it even made him cry :)



Connor got Grandpa a picture of him in a frame (love having children... presents are SO much easier for grandparents/parents, lol) and I gave my dad The Dress. This dress has been going around for about 10 years now. It was given to me when I was about 16. I was given a bag of hand me downs. So it wasn't new. But I didn't like it. And so I threw it away. Well my dad thought it was pretty and so he wanted me to keep it. I said no. So that night when I went to bed, I found it on my pillow (he'd taken it OUT of the trash). I started laughing, but threw it away again. And the next morning, it was hanging up in my closet. So this went on for quite some time, and I could NEVER get rid of it. So, it's become the traveling dress. It goes back and forth from me to my dad, and we try to give it to each other in a way that is surprising, and fun. I lived in PA for 3 years and I often got it shipped to me there, and I'd return it when I came home to visit for holidays. It's gone back and forth between me and my dad for just about 10 years now. For some reason, it was put in my closet, and it hasn't been passed for about 2 years. Well, 2 weeks ago, I was looking through my closet, trying to find something to wear, and I came across it (maybe he put it in there... I'm not sure, lol... cuz I didn't even know that I had it). So I thought that Father's Day would be the PERFECT day to give it back. He didn't expect it at all :) :) :)


Connor also gave Aaron a picture of him dressed up in Aaron's tie and standing in his shoes. I had that idea before Connor was even born. But last year he was only 5 months, so he couldn't quite stand in his shoes. So this year we did it. I think I might do this every year as a Father's Day picture tradition. I think it would be so cute to see all the pictures from every year, when he's all grown up :) (maybe I'll scan the pictures and put them on here after I'm done with this post)

And Connor also gave Grandpa Robert a picture of himself, lol. Like I said, pictures are the way to go when you have kids!! :) For Grandpa, we had the "Musician Connor" look, with a piano and guitar. It was so cute. And my favorite part (and I think Robert's too) was the bag we gave it to him in :) :)
Thank you all for coming and we hope you had a great time! Happy Father's Day!! :)

Yummy Yogurt

Let me just start off my saying that I HATE that you can't change the order of the pictures on blogger once you've loaded them (well, you can, but then they remain small and you can't click on them to enlarge them... well at least that's what I thought, unless someone knows something I don't know?!) So, these pictures are a bit out of order. So, we'll start with the bath...


Now, can anyone guess why Connor needed a bath (besides the obvious of just his daily thing)??
This is why...
Connor's been VERY independent lately, and wants to use a fork and spoon with EVERY meal, and he wants to feed himself. So, he'd already been pretty good and ate about 3/4 of his yogurt, so I let him finish the rest off on his own.
and don't you know that yogurt is meant to go in your hair, not your mouth...
yum....

and don't you know that fingers are so much better to use, rather than a spoon?

He was happy, so what did it hurt... right? :)

A day at the park

My sister Bethany wanted me to take her pictures because we haven't done them for a long time, so we all took a trip to the park to have them done. While we were there, I tried to get a few shots of Connor. He was totally not into it, and thought it was more fun to run away from me, and also to climb the steps of the gazebo. I got a few cute ones though, I think :)
If you can see his finger, he's actually eating dirt in this one... yuck!





Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Cow says "Moo!"

Today I was at my mom's house, and Connor was flipping through pages of his animal book. There's about 25-30 different animals in there. He came to a page, and said what I thought was "Moo" (which of course he's never done before). Surprised, and not sure I heard him right, I said "Connor, what does a cow say?" and he said "Moooooooooo!!!" and laughed! He just learned what a dog says 2-3 days ago, but I had no idea he knew cow! And then I realized that he knew what a cow looked like too, because it was when he came to the cow in the book is when he said it. Just to see if that was correct, I shut the book and said "find me the cow" and he flipped through the pages, one by one, and stopped when he got to the cow page, giggled and said "Moooooo!!!"

I'm going to try to catch it on video tomorrow. He's so big and he's getting so smart!!! I can't believe my baby isn't a baby anymore!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Our Little Waterboy!

Connor and I were home alone and bored. We'd played with all the toys, we'd read books, took a nap, watched Backyardigans.... all the normal stuff. So, I decided to take him outside and fill up his little pool for him to play in (I didn't want to venture into the big pool in our community without Aaron or my sister with me). He LOVES going outside. He would live outside if I let him. He'll find the infant front carrier (which he still fits in) in the house, and pick it up and take it to Aaron, whining... meaning he wants to go outside and water the plants (which is what they do a LOT, and have done since he was about 5-6 months old).

And so all I said to him was "you want to go outside?" and before I could get my shoes on, he was at the back store, crying and trying to pry the door open... he's VERY impatient!

I was going to get hot water from inside and mix it with cold hose water from outside, because I knew it would be too cold with just the outside water. But, he wasn't patient enough for me to get the inside water, and as it turns out,the hose is 100 times more fun to play with than the pool! He wouldn't even go into the pool, but he spent 1.5 hours playing with the hose. Silly boy!!




Of course he filled up his pool, but wouldn't step into it...


here he's looking at the VERY large dog next door. He's intrigued by it, but still not so sure of whether he likes it or not...



Can you see the water dripping off his face??

this is when he realized that when he sticks his finger into the hose, it sprays far... here, he had just tried to spray me!

and then he realized the hard way that putting your finger into it and pointing the hose upwards resulted in this...

he learned the second time around to turn his face when he did it...

decided to take a little drink...



This is definitely going to be a tradition this summer! He's such a busy boy, and NEVER stays in one place for more than 30 seconds. It was nice that he stayed in a 20 ft. square for an hour and a half... and VERY much entertained!!!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Bethany is Home... :) :) :)

My little sister, Bethany, has been in St. Petersburg, Russia for a little over 4 months, teaching English to children. She flew out of Utah in January, and then was arriving in Utah after the trip. So my mom and I were going to drive up there to get her and bring her back home to CA. But that ended up being a lot more money than we'd planned on (rental car, gas, hotel, food, etc.) and it ended up being a lot cheaper for me to fly up there, and then fly back with her. But of course I wasn't going to just fly there and back, so I decided to make a mini vacation out of it :)

This was Connor's very first plane ride, and I was REALLY nervous about how he'd be. Now that he walks, he NEVER sits still. He's always on the move! So I brought a million snacks and new toys and even a travel DVD player. He probably ended up using/needing only about 10% of what I brought, lol. But that's ok... better safe than sorry.

Here he is, while we were waiting to board the plane...


Here he's watching the planes...

And we finally boarded the plane... waiting to take off...
and here he is, about 30 seconds before take off...

He ended up sleeping through the first flight, and stayed asleep getting off the plane, walking to our next plane (we had a layover in Phoenix, AZ) and stayed alseep until about 10 minutes before we boarded our second plane. During the second flight, he was VERY good too. He sat on my lap and only tried to get down once, but was very easily disracted with snacks! :)


While we were there, we stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. The last time that Connor saw them, he was only 2.5 months old. So he was basically meeting them all over again. We had lots of fun while visiting with them. Connor LOVED playing in their front and back yards, and had a blast playing "fetch" with Abbey :)

They put the balls that he was chasing after on his shoulders to make him look like a football player :)

Connor with his great-aunt Kim (my mom's sister)

While I was there, we had a little photo shoot with Valerie and Abbey. I tried to get a picture of them with Connor. He wasn't cooperating very well, as always...

Connor loved his great-uncle Rick... almost as much as Rick loved Connor!! :)

playing in the dirt and woodchips were Connor's favorite things to do...


After our visit with relatives, we were able to visit with a family who I love and adore!! The Tolen's used to live in Glendora (where I grew up) and I babysat for them all the time. They moved away about 10 years ago (5 years in Illinois and 5 years in Utah). The last time I saw them, Connor was only 8 days old. So it was fun to catch up, and I wish we could have visited longer!!

Here's Connor and Joey...

For some reason, EVERYONE thought that Connor needed junk food while on vacation. Every time I turned around, someone was giving him something sugary!
He had Moon Pies, donuts, marshmallows, and chocolate(pictured below)...

Connor had SO much fun playing with Izzy and Joey!!!

Joey was taking pictures of Connor with his Nintendo DSi
(Heather told me that the next day, after we left... Joey was looking at his photos of Connor on his DSi and kept asking when we were going to come back. :)

Izzy was SOOOO good with Connor. She even gave him a bath for me after dinner, because he was VERY dirty after playing outside and also from food all over him!
It's crazy to think that I have known Izzy since she was Connor's age and I was about her age! I used to change her diapers and now she's changing my son's diapers. Weird!!!

After Heather dropped us off at the airport, we had about a 30 minute wait for Bethany.

Here is a VERY tired Connor at 12:30am...

And then he got bored...

so he entertained himself with making phone calls....
and trying out all the airport chairs...



And then Bethany arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(after a VERY long and annoying trip, for both Beth and me! First off... she was supposed to arrive at 10:30pm. After literally 20 time changes, she ended up arriving at 1:00am. And the poor girl was already exhaused with almost 40 hours of traveling and layovers! And after she arrived, we still had to wait at the airport for another 6 hours before our plane took off back to CA!!!)

Connor was a little upset with her. He hasn't forgiven her yet for leaving him for 4 months!!!
She's laughing... he's not! :)


I had such a fun time with family and friends, and can't wait to visit again!!