The Second Year (and a Half) With Connor!
At 2 1/2, Connor measured 38" tall. If you believe the old tales, that means he'll be 6'4" as an adult. I think he'll be tall, but I'm curious to see how accurate this is. He is such a smart kid, I'm also anxious to see what his interests are and where he excels.
* talking: Connor is a little jabber box! He was speaking full sentences when he was two, but we didn't realize it until Diane pointed it out to us. (She has more experience understanding kids than we do...). He often processes things by repeating what we say in the form of a question. Then we say "yup!" and he says "Oh! OK!" It's pretty cute! :)
* ABC's: Connor could sing the entire alphabet by the time he was two, and now he recognizes all the letters and their sounds. He loves to watch "Super Why" and answers all of the letter questions correctly. He can draw a "C" but that's usually by accident. (He's still proud of himself when he does, though!)
* 123's: Connor can count up to 20. (He made it up to 14 by the time he was 2, mostly because that's how many stairs we have in our house). For a while he was counting backwards from 10, but hasn't done that lately. We've started some basic math, and he seems pretty good at it. (i.e. If you have 3 crackers and I take one away, how many do you have left? He'll answer "TWO!") Connor's favorite number is three, to the point where he believes he IS three. We can't convince him he's two, so when people ask how old he is, we told him to say "Three in August". Which he does. We think he likes three because alot of his friends at school are already three, and he wants to be, too!
* Singing/Music: Connor LOVES music. Last time Gma and Gpa Schultz were here, they gave him a couple of harmonicas. He jumped around with those for hours. He has a play piano that he likes to play and sing along, and he sings in the car all the time! Ron and I really want to start actual piano lessons when he turns three. I'm sure he'll really take off.
* dancing: This kid has the cutest happy dance I've ever seen. He gets his whole body into it, including his head, and just wiggles and giggles. He often comes up to me, grabs my hands, and says, "Dance, mommy! Dance with Connor" (He refers to himself in third person). So I get up and we dance together, even when there's no music.
* gymnastics: We signed him up for gymnastics at OGA when he was 20 months old. He was already doing somersaults, so we figured he would be good at it. He LOVES it. He immediately started teaching his classmates at school his new moves from gymnastics, and he practices at home whenever he can. He does bear walks on the parallel bars (3 ft high), log rolls, somersaults (still working on the backwards somersault), walks the low beam without help, plays on the uneven bars, and loves the trampoline. At hall-o-ween he even got to wear his elmo costume to gymanastics! :)
* trains: Connor LOVES trains. He could play trains all day if you let him. He especially likes it when mom and dad play with him. His job is to move track around and let me know when the track is broken. Then, I come in and fix it so his trains can move forward. We have all kinds of tracks and buildings and engines and cranes. It's endless fun!
* Tricycles: Connor is definitely a full-service kind of kid. He knows how to peddle his trike, but he refuses to, since he knows there is a push bar on the back. He won't move until one of us is pushing him along. He loves his wagon (that he got for Christmas) even more because he can kick back and relax. The last time we went to the zoo, he got to ride his wagon almost the whole time. He didn't even want to get out to look at the animals. "No, dad, Connor's in the wagon!"
* Silly kid: Connor loves to make people laugh. When I pick him up from school, he'll be doing silly things for his friends to make them laugh. He has this walk that we call the "waddle walk"where he walks down the hall, kicking his legs out and bouncing his head side to side. He says, "Mom, I'm doing the waddle walk!" and I laugh. Sometimes in the car, I'll look back at him and he'll smile, so I smile, then he laughs, then I'll laugh, and we just sit and laugh together for a long time. He's always making funny faces at the people sitting behind us at church. And, sometimes he makes people laugh without intending to. Ron was trying to keep him from running up the isle during Sacrament Meeting, so he grabbed him around the middle to pull him back. Connor shouted at the top of his lungs, "HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I know EVERYONE heard that one... and many were laughing.
