Our Big Boy

(Connor's first sucker, courtesy of Grandpa Robert)

I can't believe how big our baby boy is. He just turned 13 months yesterday, and I can't get over it. No worries, I'm not going to still make monthly posts like I did his first year, but he's just changed a lot over the month, I wanted to post what's been going on.

He's still not walking. He's scared, I think that's the problem. He can walk if he doesn't think about it. He's taken 5+ steps at a time, but only if he doesn't realize that he's doing it. If he thinks about it, he just sits down and starts crawling. I keep thinking that any day now he'll be walking, but it just isn't happening.

He's got such a funny personality. Everyone is just always laughing and giggling with him. He growls at you, just to get you to growl back at him. He plays peek-a-boo at church, with the people sitting behind me, just to get them to laugh. He had someone busting up during Sunday School this past Sunday, to the point of her then apologizing to me for egging him on and that it was just "too hard to resist"

My little sister Bethany has moved to St. Petersburg, Russia for 5 months, so teach children English. Connor and Bethany had a special bond that can't be broken. He absolutely adores her. Not that he doesn't love his other aunts, but he just has a bond with Bethany. For the first couple of weeks she was gone, I had talked to her on the phone, but every time I hand the phone to Connor, he just eats it, lol, so he hadn't really talked to her. But last week, I was over at my parents when Bethany called through Skype (a webcam, video chat). Connor was able to see her, and as soon as he looked at the screen, he started giggling, and trying to get close to her and yelling out "Ya-Ya" (which is what he calls her). He was SOOO happy to see her. And since then, he's been talking about her all week. Not sure what he's saying, but he's be mumbling something and I hear "Ya-Ya" in the middle of all his sentences.

While in Arizona, his Grandpa Robert taught him to put his hands on his head, and Robert was saying "oh no." Connor wasn't saying anything, but kept putting his hands on his head, to egg him on. When we got home from Arizona, I was driving somewhere with Connor in the back, and I heard what I thought he said"oh no." I turned back around to look at him, and he was laughing with both hands on his head. And since then, he does it ALL the time!

Connor has a special blanket we call "Softies." He can't sleep without it, and he usually carries it all through the house. Whenever I can't find it, I walk around the house saying/singing "Softies.... Where are you???" until we find it. So last night, we were in his room and I couldn't find it. So I said "Softies..." and Connor said/sang "where are you?" (of course more mumbled and in baby talk) I was shocked, I couldn't believe he said it. I thought I was going crazy, so I said it again, and he said it again too :-) Then today I was at my mom's and I said "Grandma..." and he said "where are you?" It's so cute!!!

Some of the other things that Connor says:

dada, mama, grandpa, hi, doggy, bye bye, night night, & what's that?

He's eating lots of new foods. He's still eating baby food. I figured, why stop if he's eating fruit and vegetables and he enjoys eating them. So I just give him that with some "finger foods" and his meals are complete :-) He still won't drink milk, but he likes water a lot more now. Before the only way to drink water was to give him 1/4 juice to 3/4 water... but now he'll drink just plain water. He tried spaghetti for the first time and LOVED it!!!

I just can't believe how he changes, even day to day. I feel like I blink and he's different. We love him so much, and enjoy every moment with him!

Our Arizona Trip

Aarons parents (Dad & Stepmom and Mom & Stepdad) all live in Arizona, about an hour from each other, so we decided to make a trip out there, so Connor could see his 4 grandparents again. We hadn't been there since Connor was 4 months old (which is when we had our car stolen, and I was a little worried to go back). We had fun visiting and seeing Connor bond with everyone. He's had major stranger anxiety the past 6 or so months, but within the past 2-3 weeks (since he turned 1) it's been getting a lot better. So I was really hoping that he'd be okay with everyone, especially since he hadn't seen the one set of grandparents since he was 4 months (the other ones have come to CA a couple of times, and I know he remembers them). But he was GREAT. He was such a happy baby while we were there (so not like him, lol) and he was just melting everyone's hearts!! :-)

Aaron's dad and step-mom have about 10 or so chickens, and Connor LOVED them. I sat him down on the ground and he was pointing to them, while talking to them, like he was teaching them a lecture!

At Aaron's Mom and Stepdad's place, they have a volleyball court in the common area in their apartments, and Connor LOVED the sand. It was a monster sandbox for him. He's never really played in sand, but he had a blast and I'm even getting him a sandbox at home soon, because I saw how much he loved it. I thought he'd eat the sand, which he did put a little in his mouth at first, but then realized it didn't taste too good, and never did it again.

Connor has been such a daddy's boy recently, and just LOVES to give Daddy hugs whenever he sees him :-)

We had lots of fun in Arizona & hope to go back soon!

Montoya Family Portraits 2010

A good friend of mine, Lauren, who I have known since we were 1-2 years old, has just started her own photography business, and agreed to take our family pictures. They turned out so awesome!! :-)

Our Baby Boy is ONE!!!

When Connor was born, I decided that on the 22nd of every month (he was born Jan. 22nd), I was going to take a picture of him with just a diaper, on a black background. That way when he turned one, I could put them all together and see how much he changed...

We were VERY surprised to wake up on his birthday to find that it had snowed that night. This was the first snowfall at our house. Of course Connor was WAY to into the snow to actually look at me while taking his picture, but that's okay :-)

Connor's hair has been getting really really long lately, and I've wanted to cut it, but EVERYONE tells me not to, that it's so cute. Well normally he just looks like he's got bedhead all the time, lol... but I guess his hair cooperated because it was his day, and it looked so cute with his little curl

We decided to go out to breakfast at Denny's for his birthday, which he LOVES doing.

We also went to get Connor's 1st Birthday pictures done, but that didn't go over very well (thank you JC Penny's) so we might be doing his pictures some time this week instead.

That night we had just a little family get together for cake and ice cream.

Connor tried ice cream, which he wasn't too sure about. I think he wasn't very happy about the cold fingers, and just cried that it was on his tray...

On Saturday, we had Connor's Pirate Party. We just invited some close family and friends to celebrate. I had lots of fun making the cupcakes (with the help of Aaron and his mom).

For some weird reason, Connor has decided that he needs to make this face ALL the time. When he's happy, when he's crying... whenever. Not so sure about it, lol...

Connor loves people, and he smiles and everyone... but when there's too many people, he gets a little scared. That with the fact that he's teething right now and a little cranky from that, makes for an uphappy party goer. He was clinging to me, Aaron, or my sister the whole night, and was not smiling at anyone. But... for some reason he LOVED watching my sister and dad play pool (which he's never seen anyone play before) and was busting up laughing every time they took a shot, hence the reason for him looking down in the next few pictures...

Connor LOVED his birthday cake.. eating and playing in it...

We had lots of fun over the weekend, and we can't believe that our baby is already one year old.

My new job

I found a new job. The past few months I've been working at Riley's Farm, but it was a seasonal job, and once December came, I had no job. So I've been trying to find something to bring in money, especially since Aaron lost his job too, and hasn't been able to find anything yet. He's out all the time job hunting and interviewing, so we hope and pray that he can find something soon. I've been doing photography on the side, which is what I want to eventually ONLY be doing, but until then, I found a babysitting job. I was so excited about it, because it's for a 1 year old girl, and they live only about 15-20 minutes from me, AND I get to bring Connor with me. Sadly it's only part time (about 16-20 hours a week), and it's only temporary because they're moving in Hawaii in about 6 months. But at least it's something for a little while :-)

The little girl that I'm watching, Riley, it exactly one month older than Connor, but it's very funny because she's big for her age, and he's small for his age...

Connor has never really been around babies his age, so I was a little worried at how he'd act around her. But surprisingly, they play VERY well together. The first day we were there, she kept walking up to him, kissing and hugging him, and he was looking at her like "what the heck are you doing?" but by the end of the day, he was hugging and kissing her back :-)