Milestones

(This post was started a week ago.... so all the milestones are from two weeks ago. I'll add more when I can :).

So many milestones have happened this week, I thought I should blog about them.

Holding his own bottle
Earlier in the week, Connor's teacher (Ms Tanya) and I decided we should start forcing him to hold his own bottle. He's known how for a while now (since he was 2-3 months old), but definitely prefers the "full service" mode. He's not too happy about this either. As soon as I put the bottle in arms' reach, you can see his instinct kick in to grab the bottle. Then he decides he doesn't want to, because he wants me to hold it, so he gets frustrated and yells, or even cries (fake cry!) to see if I'll give in. what a booger!
(March 21)


Holding his own sippy
Mostly he likes to bang it around (isn't EVERYTHING a hammer when you're this age?). But, he does try to sip out of it every once in a while. If I push up his arms to make the water go back, he'll get a nice refreshing drink. :)
(March 24)



eating his own food
Connor has been holding his own spoon for a while now (though I admit I feed him more than I should because I just don't like the mess!). and now he's using the pincer grasp to grab little finger foods and eat them! He doesn't like bananas (just spits them right back out with an "eeewwww" face on). But he eats alot of other stuff... :)

April 10 -- right before he threw his bowl, 1/2 full of food on the floor


--And then the bath afterwards--


School lunch
since he's eating regular foods now, we decided to start school foods, as long as it's soft and mushy. He's doing pretty well, too! which means I don't have to bring food anymore, just bottles. YAY! He's had Pizza! green beans, oranges, muffin, cheerios, yogurt, SOUP, and tons more.

First teeth
We have been brushing his gums for 6 weeks now, to get him ready. And this weekend we had two pop through! They're still growing in, but you can definitely see them (and feel them!) now. :)
(March 18)


April 24 (He's whining because he wants out of the jumperoo, but I want a picture of his teeth first.... if you zoom all the way in, you can see them! :)


Pulling up to stand
When my mom was here over Easter week, she started putting Connor up against things to stand. I've tried it before but he wasn't really ready until now... He liked it so much, that now he tries to pull himself up on everything, like bath tubs, crib, coffee tables, toys. Some things work better than others...

Cruising
And now that he's pulling up to stand, he's starting to dance his feet around and even take a step or two. Not really ready to walk yet, but so cute!

Random Pictures (I know some of you are addicted!)

April 10 -- Daddy changing a diaper -- yes, men change diapers, too!


April 11
Ron looks like he swallowed the canary!


still plays himself to sleep


Lovin' the cat.


Look at those beautiful, multi-colored eyes. My best guess is Hazel, but they still change everyday. I've seen blue, green, brown, even yellow.... :P


April 13
I asked Ron to take Connor downstairs early one morning when Ronna and JR were still visiting (No worries, I'll post more about that visit soon). I didn't think there was any need to wake EVERYONE at 6am. And, I had taken him down the day before, so... Ron's turn! This is what I found when I went to find them....


Random Funny sounds he makes:

growls when he dislikes something
whistles through his gums when he's happy. well, not a *strong* whistle. More like a leaky pipe or something
sings a little "oooh" when he wants to say something
laughs and giggles super hard when I eat his stomache
He's been saying "baba" when he's hungry. Or when he's bored.
and, he has said "Yum" once. :)

Double Take

No, you're not seeing doubles! Connor's cousin Caitlynn is in his crib, sharing while her family is visiting us this week! We're already having a grand time, and it's only been a day. Can't wait for tomorrow. :)

Can you guess which one is him? :) they look the same, don't they? (I know, it's a small monitor, but I couldn't very well go in and snap a photo with flash.... )

Easter Weekend

We had a great, relaxing weekend for easter. We flew my parents out so my dad could go help Ron in Washington, and my mom could babysit while I was at work. It would have been cheaper to take him to day care, but oh, well. Anyway, Suday was also general conference, so we just lazed around. so nice! Then Ron and Dad went up to Brinnon and got alot done. Towards the end of the week, they went up to Seattle to see my brother, Wendel and Ashley and their new baby Oliver. He's an adorable baby!!! :)

Pictures Taken April 4

Eat, Bathe, Poop

I think th e pictures speak for themselves.... :)

(8 months old)























I'm retroactively adding this post because I came across this really cute series of photos that I didn't get a chance to post.

Lucy Liu -- er, I mean Miss Mary

In case you were wondering, the Petlink registration does, in fact, work! I just got a call, which I *almost* didn't pick up because caller ID said it was from "Druid City A NSW". huh? Anyway, it was from pet link, saying that someone had found Lucy! They asked me if I had her, and I said, "No she was lost in Brinnon". Then they told me that a nice woman had just taken her in to Woodside Animal Hospital in Port Orchard to have her spayed where they found she had a microchip! Port Orchard is 63 miles away from Brinnon by land. But, I bet she hopped in someone's boat and went across the water. Bremerton is directly across from Brinnon, and Port Orchard is just south of there...

Anyway, Petlink called Woodside, who then called the nice lady, and we were all going back and forth on the phone. (This is one of those rare times that it would have been nice to have a "party line"....). I guess Lucy was found in Bermerton in October, 2008 by someone who couldn't keep her. They then gave Lucy to this nice lady who has had her ever since. She named Lucy "Miss Mary", so I guess that's what her name is now. The nice lady just recently brought Miss Mary in to be spayed, and the vet noticed she already had a scar. So, they checked for microchips, and found ours! We didn't have her spayed, so she was obviously someone else's pet before ours. (I looked for 2 months and didn't find an owner). When they asked if we would like to be reunited with Lucy-Mary, all I could think was "we're going to be a FOUR cat family! YIKES!". I then asked if the nice lady would like to adopt her, because we would be OK with that. And, yes, indeed, the nice lady would like to, very much! So now she just has to send me her info and I will update pet link with HER info, so Lucy will have a permanent home.

So glad to have a happy ending! (and it looks like all the previous "sightings" were false alarms! :). In any case, it's nice to have closure!

We're in trouble!

So, when I picked Connor up yesterday from baby school, his teacher had a "funny" anecdote about Connor. Apparently there is a new girl in his class, a few months younger, named Ella. And, Apparently, she is very pretty! At least to Connor, because as soon as he saw her across the room, he got very excited and made a V-Line towards her (army-crawl style). He even climed over the teacher sitting on the floor to get there! Later as they were both sitting there playing, he would giggle at every coo or grunt she made... He is very smitten! and such a flirt!! It's so funny to see him interact with girls in such a different way than he interacts with boys -- every time!! How does he know the difference??? that's what I want to know. You think I'm seeing things skewed based on my own interpretation? No, because I have tested my theory on many occasions. He really interacts with girls differently, much more flirty! It happened at the home show we went to (even though she was obviously 2 years older), at church, at the grocery store, or anywhere he sees another girl. Even with adults sometimes. We are definitely in trouble.... So cute, though. My little man!

I found this ticker on babygaga and really like it. :) I also put it on my blog header and it will update real-time to show you how old Connor is. :)


Also, yesterday was April Fool's day so I decided to play a prank on Ron. He is always pranking his engineers at work on April Fool's, thinking it is so funny. So, I waited until the evening after he got home when he was good and tired and wouldn't catch on. And I told him, "I need to tell you something." "You're pregnant! haha" (pause) "Yes." "What? I was kidding." "Well, the pee-stick came back positive". "You're kidding!" "No, not kidding. Are you excited?" "What? You're joking!" "No, Ron, why would I joke about something like that?" "Really? Are you serious?" "Yes. Are you happy about it?" "Are you serious? Really?" "Yes." "Really?" "Yes. Are you excited?" "Are you kidding?" etc. etc. After 10 minutes of this banter, I thought the poor boy was going to explode, so I decided to let him off the hook. "Why would I kid about something like this? ..... Unless it was April Fool's..." HAHAHAHA "Oh, man! I can't believe you would do that to me! Why would you do that? I can't believe it" and on and on it went for the next 30 minutes. I think he was really surprised. twice. I'm still giggling about it. :) hehe

Family in town

JR came into town for work a couple of weeks in a row. One night we had him over for takeout and invited M & A to come over with Ryan. It was a fun night...


(Ron looks like the Hulk breaking out of the floor...)


JR catching some baby time with Connor.


Aaron and family are happy! on the couch! (Rare footage of Ryan smiling in a picture :).


I love this picture of Adrianne. She looks like she's in purry land...

Diane flew to CA for spring break to spend some time with her new boyfriend. She seems to favor the long-distance relationships... We flew Joe to Portland to help us with the property, and they ended up on the same flight -- there and back! Since Diane had a 2 hour layover, we had lunch at the airport. It was so nice of her to go through security twice for us!! :) Thanks Diane! It was good to see you! And Thanks to Joe for coming out and helping Ron. He needs all the help he can get!






Paul came in about 10 minutes after Diane had boarded her plane. Too bad they missed each other. We flew Paul out to help Ron also. From what I hear, they're getting alot done!

After I picked up Paul and Joe, we went to see the Tram in downtown portland. It's a cable car that goes from the waterfront up to the OHSU hospital on the hill. It's a great scenic view and a fun ~5 minute ride up and another 5 down. (or vice versa). At the top, there's this fun little veranda that you can see everything from. Well, everything that isn't covered by clouds. Imagine on a clear day... It was still a great view!








After the little tour downtown, we went to Costco to buy some food for the week. We take Connor's friends into the store with us to keep him occupied. It's funny because he's not much bigger than they are!


I made three mistakes: 1) I didn't stop by the house to drop off luggage/stroller first, 2) I decided to stock up on coupon items since I wasn't sure if I'd be back that week (diapers and wipes are on coupon!! you have to stock up while you can!), and 3) I bought way too much food. I'm not a Costco Rookie, so this shouldn't have happened... but it did. As we were checking out, Joe assured me "It'll fit, no problem". I wasn't so sure, so I surveyed the situation, trying to visualize the room in the back seat and in the way back of the truck. I determined I could do it. After we paid and got out to the car, I opened the back and heard this from Joe: "S***! It won't fit!" (He made a little rhyme :). "I can do it" I said. So I set to work stacking and piling and puzzling things together. All the while, Paul is volunteering to stay at Costco with the loot while I dropped stuff off and came back. "No, No, I can do it!" We even tried calling Ron, but he couldn't get off early -- even though he was going to try. 1/2 hour later, this is what we ended up with. It fit!! :) I ROCK.





I told Joe he could put the paper towels on top of the box in the middle, but he insisted it was more comfy on his lap.


Paul didn' thave it too bad... we could have fit more! :)


Paul went to church with us on Sunday. Joe decided to stay home. He's actually snapping the shot of us together, but I think he was still asleep.... :)




We have more family coming in a couple of weeks, so I'll keep posting pics. Check back later!