A year with Connor!

This has been a fabulous year! We love having Connor with us -- wouldn't trade it for the world. Here he is, growing up his first year:

4 days:


9 days:


6 weeks


2 months:


3 months:


4 months:


5 months:


6 months:


7 months:


8 months:


9 months:


10 months:


11 months:


12 months:


We love you Connor, and can't wait to spend many more years with you!!!

OK, here's what he's up to lately:
* He is currently 32" tall, and weighs 23 lbs, 10 oz (at least he did for his 1 year checkup)
* He is walking everywhere! He took his first steps at 10 months, but like everything else, decided to wait until fully implementing. But now, he's so proud of himself when he walks across the room, he just beams!
* He even likes to jump! He'll be in the middle of the family room and instead of taking some steps, will jump up high! and then laugh. he loves it!
* He likes to dance to whatever music is playing. He's got the moves!
* He is signing "sleep" when he's tired and says "done" when he's done eating. He also has his own sign for "done eating" that he made up. It's so cute (you can see it in his cake picture above). He waves his hands as if to brush me off. "I'm done". He does other signs when he's watching Baby Signing Times videos, but not in real life yet
* He jibber-jabbers the rest of the time which is SO CUTE.
* His little 'tude is starting to blossom. He lets me know QUICKLY when he is not happy. And I let him know just as quickly that I don't appreciate the "tone"... :)
* He loves to cuddle, it is SO FUN. Sometimes I give him his milk in a bottle, even though he takes sippy cups, just so I can cuddle him some more. I don't want to lose my baby!!!
* He doesn't like "icky" things. Like grass on his feet, Frosting on his face or hands. He even takes to "wiping" his hands in his hair when he eats. Maybe I should give him a napkin... :)
* He loves to give us a "high five". He'll just laugh and laugh.
* He loves to be a trickster. He'll do something silly and laugh laugh laugh. SO CUTE! For instance, he'll make a noise that he expects me to repeat (I know this because it's a wierd noise and then he looks at me patiently). When I repeat it he bursts into peels of laughter. or, he'll hide something and look at me and laugh. Or, when he takes something from me, he'll laugh about it. I guess bottom line is that he loves to laugh ("ha-ha-ha-ha, long and loud and clear!")
* He snuggles with his teddy bear and his cozy dog when he goes to sleep. He loves to pull the blanket around him, too. It's kind of like a sleep switch. When I put him in bed, he'll sit or stand until I lay him down with his cozies.
* He loves the Baby Signing Times videos. Most TV (like sesame street or other cartoons) he doesn't care for. Not that we put him in front of it alot, but when it's just me getting us both ready, I need some shower time!). But BST, he just sits mesmerized until it's over. I think he has a crush on one of the baby actresses...
* He still loves to flirt with girls. I still don't know how he knows the difference, but he'll smile and reach out and touch their arm. So cute!!
* He can open everything from cabinets to drawers to doors with pull handles. He opens his snack cups (sometimes with his teeth -- how do I tell him not to ruin his teeth???), the cheap-o sippy cuts with the snap-down lid. He even opened the pressure relief valve on the air compressor when we were in Washington. I probably shouldn't broadcast that one, but it was an accident and no one got hurt. Except he was really scared of it afterward - go figure!
* He unfortunately has started biting, especially when he's unhappy. Hopefully that will go away when he learns to communicate.
* He LOVES his busy gears toy that I got him for his birthday. That will literally entertain him for hours (well, with intervals). I knew he would because he loves to play with the gears on his box toy thing that has the bead maze on top.... But these gears move and you can take them off and stack them! so much more fun!
* He also loves bubbles (from the bubble machine that I also got him). Even I love to play with this one!
* He is a great eater. He'll eat pretty much anything you give him until he's full and then lets you know he's done.
* Connor is very easy-going, in spite of the temper that is starting to blossom. He's usually pretty good about whatever he's doing. We get comments all the time that he's such a good baby and a well-behaved child! That is, of course, as long as we are meeting his needs. Otherwise he becomes a very opinionated and loud child! :)
* He loves to mimic mom. last week, he was eating soup (without the broth) with saltines, and a few pieces of cracker had fallen off his plate. I picked up the big piece and put it on his plate (kind of with a "push"). He picked up the smaller piece and put it on his plate with the same "push". adorable!
* He loves to crawl through "tunnels", meaning chairs, under the coffee table (where he has to duck his head), under my legs when I'm sitting down, or through actual tunnels that we have in his playroom
* The other day I was loading the dishwasher. He came over to help me and proceeded to take out two "fishy" plate (plastic plates in the shape of fish). He played with them while I continued to load. After ~5 minutes, he laid the plates back in the dishwasher and went to find something else to play. He often helps me clean up his toys, too, by putting stuff in the drawers when he sees me do it. :)
* I was giving him a bath and had forgotten to bring his towel with me. I had just finished scrubbing him with soap and he was playing with his tub toys. I ran to his room (*just* across the hall) to grab his towel. By the time I came back, 10 seconds later, he had already slithered out of the tub to follow me and was crawling wet and naked through the door... I still don't know how he got out of the tub!

What else can I say? He's an awesome kid! We love to have him around.