The State of Connor

Connor is getting to be a whole lot of fun (well, even more than he already was).  He likes to "sing" several songs now, including Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and the alphabet, and to play along to a few songs like If You're Happy and You Know It, Shake Your Sillies Out, and Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  Here's a video where I caught one of his early renditions of the alphabet.

He still randomly selects some letters to subvocalize.  He also hasn't quite got down the "Next time won't you sing with me?" part.  He'll usually sing, "Now I know my ABC!  Now I know my... me!"

He can (mostly) count to 20, and he has enough words now to (usually) describe what he wants.  We're still trying to get him to understand that he can put words together, such as, "More strawberries please!"

Connor is always laughing at stuff.  Occasionally we have no idea what he's laughing at, which is always funny to me.  Lately he's been throwing his head back and laughing maniacally, kind of like he does here:

Connor immediately went mad with power when I turned the light off.  Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of it here.  I've never seen the Blair Witch Project, but I imagine it was something like this.

Connor's Due Date!

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the terrible tornados that hit the south.  It's also the anniversary of Connor's due date!  We're glad every day that we have him in our lives.  Patrick told me today that he didn't know how we would handle it if Eamon is as cute as Connor!

He's working very hard.

The weather has been pretty unpredictable, as spring usually is.  We've had to switch the thermostat from heat to AC and back at least two times.  Connor and I have been enjoying the weather when it's warm, or even hot!  We've been walking with some other women and their children a couple times a week and afterwards, Connor plays on the playground.  I would be happy to go back home when we're done walking but Connor has gotten better and better at knowing when we are getting close to the playground and will start begging to go "play!" and "slide!"  He loves going up and down the slide and I am trying to help him understand that he needs to take turns with the other kids.  Most of the time they are the same age as Connor and neither of them gets the concept of sharing or taking turns, so we parents just have to pick them up and force them :)

Connor has been really enjoying the PJs he gets to wear now that it's warmer.  He LOVES his airplane pajamas.  He always points out the many airplanes he sees in the sky, loud and emphatically.

The combination of this outfit cracks me up.

Rock!

Somehow, he lost a boot.

Connor loves how physical Patrick is with him.

Connor is hilarious.  I love to see him enjoy his toys and everything in our house.  He definitely has a zest for life!  Thanks for the sunglasses Jessica!  And for the hat Sani!

Occasionally, Connor and I will have movie mornings and I get him all ready with breakfast in front of the TV.  I thought he looked so cute with his bowls all tucked around him, still wearing his sleepsack (the news ones I've gotten him have feet holes!)

Last weekend we all went to my mom's and Patrick and I spent our first night away from Connor in honor of our anniversary.  Our anniversary is May 17th, but we will be on a Jemison family vacation that weekend, so this was the closest we could get.  My mom has a new puppy named Louie, and Louie thought Connor was the bee's knees.  Connor was more just tolerant of Louie, and tried to get away from him a lot of the time, but he was okay with him.

Our night away was great and now we're gearing up for Connor's birthday next weekend!  We're excited for our little man to turn 2!

Powerful Kicks

Eamon has been really active the past few weeks, kicking his mommy and letting her know he is doing well.  I love feeling his little kicks, and now I'm going to try to include him in our nightly prayer by speaking close to Becca's tummy (where Eamon can hear me).

At this point, Eamon is at 13.5", making him the size of this Green Lantern action figure (complete with zipper equipped removable boots).  Uncle Matt would approve.

We got some photos of Eamon's house the other day.  Connor didn't want to be left out.

Looking good, honey!

Hi Connor!  I think maybe you lost a boot.

A couple videos from my phone of Easter weekend

Connor hunting for eggs.

Out at dinner.  Connor thinks Lillian hung the moon,

so when she started singing, (as she often does) he joined in!

Since then we have have had many more songs out of him

and it is so wonderful.

Easter!

I'm not sure I will be able to think of Easter without hearing Connor say it in his sweet little voice.  We got him a book about Easter and it is one of his favorite books.  I think it's because it rhymes.

We got to spend Easter at my mom's house with Myers' family.  It was so great to see baby Arthur!  I had only seen him for an hour or so when he was brand new and Patrick hadn't been able to meet him yet.  This was the first trip that Myers and Laura had taken outside of town because Arthur is finally 6 months old and officially neutropenia free!

This picture makes Connor look really interested in Arthur.
Definitely not the case.

Feeding Daddy.

We did convince him to give Arthur a kiss though!

Lillian loved being able to order Connor around and jump on the trampoline with him.  Connor thought she was the best things ever.  We'll post some videos soon of them singing together!

Uncle Will was one of many adults coerced into jumping.

Granmar had fun watching the kids play.

Easter baskets for the littlies and Mom.  We got Henry to write
the cutest notes from the Easter bunny about how we were doing
the hunt a day early due to weather and that he had hidden
only yellow and orange eggs for Connor and purple
and pink for Lillian.

Uncle Will was Connor's basket holder.

Easter Sunday was a much nicer day than we anticipated.  Myers and Laura went with Patrick and me to Mass and Connor and Lillian got to participate in the hunt the church set up.  Connor got to eat his first piece of chocolate and LOVED it.

We had fun hanging out together on Easter Sunday.  There was some hanging out on devices, but not too much.

These Care Bears are a main attraction at Sani's house.

All babies love fire.

Arthur and Uncle Will.

Arthur and his cousin's Happah.

Poor buddy was teething and had a cold.

Lillian remembered that the last time she was with us at Sani's house, she took a bath with Connor.  So they took a bath together, and were total hams.  It was pretty goofy.

Somehow, we can't escape tragedy in our family.  While we were setting up the egg hunt, Oliver, my family's Westie, charged a car, as he often did.  Unfortunately, this time he was in a fatal accident.  We were all devastated, but poor Henry and my mom lived with him, and Henry slept with him.  We'll miss that sweet dog.