Fall with Connor

So far this fall with Connor has been so much fun!  He likes going outside and playing in the leaves, and really likes the pumpkins I bought when we went to a local pumpkins farm.

Pretty pumpkins.

Did you know there are pumpkins shaped like mushrooms?  Yes!

Recently, when we (and by we I mean Patrick) raked some leaves, I kept Connor entertained on the front yard (which means I kept him from running into the road or messing up Patrick's piles too much). He was so cute!  I took a lot of pictures.

 

Patrick put a leaf on my head to try and get
Connor to laugh and Connor tried to copy me.

Welcome Catherine!

Yesterday, Connor had a new cousin born to his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Matt.  Her name is Catherine Faye Runyan.  She was born at 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and every ounce adorable.

Connor can already say her name!  He is going to love seeing her in December!

Connor welcomes Catherine

Congratulations to Matt and Jessica on their new baby girl!

Love My Jemison Family

When we were in Chattanooga, we got to see Megan, Ed and Marie for a little while on Friday.  Connor loves his Jemison family!  I'm pretty sure they think he is delightful too.

Megan and Marie went to the Fall Hodgepodge with us and Connor had fun seeing his "Memen."  She fed him caramel kettle corn too, so what's not to love?

After Connor's nap we spent a little time at the Pumpkin Patch with Happah, Nana, and Sani before going to my 5 year Bryan reunion.  Connor ignored almost everything until he saw the water fountains.  He started yelling "WATA!" and had us hold him up to the water to play with, taste, and soak himself.

My Happah always does what I ask.

Day in Chattanooga with Connor

We got back to Chattanooga on Wednesday night and I normally would have gone back to Huntsville the next morning, but my 5 year college reunion was on Friday night, and my favorite art and crafts fair was on Friday during the day, so I decided to stick around until Saturday. After all the driving we had done in the previous days, I felt a little silly taking Connor out on Thursday.  But I also didn't want to entertain him by myself all day at my mom's.  So we went to the TN Aquarium in the morning, then Connor had a nap at my mom's, and we went to the Creative Discovery museum in the afternoon.

Connor had a blast splashing in the ray and shark tank.

Silly bird!

I couldn't get any good picture of it, since I was trying to watch him and make sure he didn't dash into the habitat, but he really enjoyed the butterfly exhibit.  He kept looking up at the ceiling and laughing with joy.

Mommy is silly.  Right outside the butterfly exhibit.

Last time we went to the aquarium with Britni and her boys, Connor was kind of out of it and didn't really care.  This time he was much more interested in the fishies and we both had a good time.

You can see in this picture how soaked he got himself.

After Connor's nap we got some of the toys at my mom's house, and Connor found his favorite baby.  He loves it so much!  He rocked it in his arms, gave it kisses and pats on the back.  He has such a nurturing heart.

Kisses.

We then went to the Creative Discovery museum!  I love having access to it, and all the other great children's museums across the country.  Totally worth the money.

Connor loves the toddler area, which is called the Little Yellow House, and this time I got him interested in the music area.  He really liked the piano and the harp/music box thing.

While we were there, there was a couple with their 19-month-old daughter who thought I was the coolest.  She and Connor were interested in the same things, so even though we left each part of the museum at different times, we kept running into each other.  She and Connor played a wonderful duet on the piano.

Whoever wrote this was a mom.

At the piano.

He was really into this harp.

The next morning Connor had the best treat: Dada!  Patrick went on a very short business trip from Tuesday to Thursday, and he drove up to Chattanooga Thursday night so we could all be together.  We had a good time at the Hodgepodge on Friday morning, and I had a lot of fun seeing my classmates up at Bryan College for dinner Friday night.  There might have been as many babies present as adults!  Saturday we were all really ready to get home.  We stopped by the Jemisons' to see Happah and Nana, and then we stopped by Granmar's to visit with her.  Then we drove home, and it is so good to be here!

Crazy Ladies (And Connor) Trip Continued

We arrived in Harrisonburg in the afternoon on Friday.  Lillian was over at Myers' and Laura's friend's house and we were really happy to see her!  We were happy to see Myers the next morning too.  We arranged for Sarah to take Lillian to a birthday party while Connor napped and then we all got to go to the hospital!  We were worried about putting Connor in the car yet again, but he's always happy to watch his favorite movie, My Neighbor Totoro!  Lillian tried really hard to watch it too, but since her car seat is forward facing and Connor's is rear-facing, she had to crane her neck to see it!  It is about an hour and 15 minutes to the hospital, but unfortunately took us a bit longer since we got lost thanks to game day redirection of traffic.  We were glad when we finally got there to see our new nephew!

Arthur's hospital bed, exactly like Gwen's.

Aunt Sassy and her new nephew.

We were all tired, but so happy to be all together!  Sarah and I took turns holding Arthur and we all spent a lot of time trying to keep Connor from getting into everything.  He was a little wired.

While trying to look at a book on the computer, I was force fed a carrot.

Myers and 2 of his sweet children.

Best picture of Lillian.

Best picture without Lillian.

Sweet fairy.

Connor was not doing the best almost the whole time we were there.  It was really sad to me.  He was just tired and had been too many different places and seen too many different people.

You wouldn't be able to tell by this picture though.

Connor wasn't Myers' biggest fan.  I wasn't sure if it was that Myers was a tad too aggressive in the beginning, that he was a new person, or that he has a beard. He was warming up to him the last day we were there, which made me sad.  But Myers got to see Connor dance like a little maniac.

Connor trying to save Lillian from Myers.

We got to Skype with Patrick a couple times, and talked to him on the phone a couple times a day.

Skyping with Daddy, eating applesauce.

Connor ate a lot on this trip (comparatively) and he discovered something at Myers's and Laura's that he LOVED: fruit strips!  Next time I got to Target, I'm going to get him a lot of these.  He gobbled them up!

I have no idea how he balances.

After the first day of going to the hospital, I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea for Connor to go back.  It was stressful for him to be in the car and to get to a place where he was constantly being corralled and called down.  So, after breakfast with Myers on Sunday, (see picture above) he, Sarah, and Lillian went to the hospital and Connor and I stayed at the house.

On Monday, we decided Lillian should go back to school and keep as much of a normal life as possible.  Myers dropped her off and headed to the hospital, and Sarah picked her up.  We all hung out until Connor's nap was over and then they played outside, despite the rain.

Making spice soup.

Some very nice people brought us dinners while we were there, which helped a lot in the stress and planning departments.  Connor got to try a lot of fun foods.

Connor eating dinner after a cousin bath.

It took Lillian a couple days to get used to Connor being there and playing with her toys, but onces she figured out how to play with him (mostly giving him something to distract him from the toys she didn't want him to play with) they were pretty happy.

Lillian building Connor towers to knock down.

Tuesday was really similar to Monday, except that one of my room mates from college, who lives a half hour from Myers and Laura, came over with her 4 year old daughter and hung out with me for a couple hours.  I'm sad I didn't take any pictures with you Jenny!

Wednesday morning we had to leave because Sarah had to work on Thursday.  We were both really sad and relieved to leave.  I was ready to get Connor to a place he would feel more comfortable, but I wish we could have spent a lot more time with both Parks and Myers.

Crazy Ladies (and Connor) Trip

When we found out when our nephew's due date was, Sarah and I started planning a crazy road trip to go visit both our brothers.  We knew it would be a ton of driving, but neither of us had to been to Parks' house for almost 3 years and I hadn't been to Myers' house for almost 4 years.  It's hard to live so far away from your family!

Because we weren't completely sure when Arthur was going to come, we planned to visit Myers and Laura second.  We started our trip on Tuesday night and drove about 6.5 hours until Sarah couldn't drive anymore.  We spent the night in a nice Best Western, and Connor actually made the transition from his restless sleep in the car to the sleep tent in the hotel room pretty well.  It was a shock for Sarah though, since she hadn't shared a room with a baby in a long time!

The next morning we had a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel and drove the rest of the over 2 hours to Parks's and Liz's house in Wilmington, NC.  We got home while they were out and put Connor down for his nap right away.  He slept really well, and when he woke up, there were cousins!

Connor found a toy he was really into.

If only Connor's face was halfway decent.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Lily Kate loves Connor.

Wednesday night we decided to have a picnic dinner at the beach!  How great is that, to go to the beach at the end of September?  We all made sandwich and packed snacks.  The kids all had a blast with Aunt Sarah and she let Parks, Liz and I sit.  I didn't even have to go into the water!

Hadley, midstride.

Connor's ridiculous and cute get up.  He loved the shells.

These two spent a long time hanging out, getting fed snacks.
Connor dipped one chip, and his hand, into the salsa repeatedly.

On Thursday Parks took the day off and we went to the children's museum.  Since I have a membership to my local one, Sarah and I got in free.  Connor and Hadley spent a long time playing with cups while Charlotte when to cooking class.

Hey, try this!

Sweet daddy moment.

We hung out in the toddler room for a little while, which Connor and Hadley really liked.  Charlotte was very silly, as she always is.

Char-bear! 

Chill-axing.

After going the children's museum, we decided to try a restaurant that is owned by Keith Rhodes, who was a chef on one of Parks, Liz, and my favorite shows, Top Chef.  It was really good, but not very child friendly.  We got there before they opened, so we went to a cupcake place a block down and had dessert appetizers.  Those cupcakes were great!

Connor ate so much on this trip!  I knew it would happen because he gets too distracted to nurse and when we're out with other people, he get exposed to a lot of new foods, but he FINALLY started eating bananas!  I have to keep the peel on, but he likes them and that makes me happy.

He loves lounging.

It was nice to spend time with all our nieces, but we really spent the longest with Charlotte since Hadley naps and Lily Kate was in school.  She is so pretty and smart and wonderful.  All of my nieces are!

When Sarah, Connor, and I were in the middle of our trip, which was to be 3 days in Wilmington with Parks' family, and then up to Harrisonburg to spend 3 days with Myers' family, Myers called us to tell us the news about Arthur being in the hospital.  Because Myers needed us to help with Lillian, we drove to Harrisonburg on Friday instead of Saturday.  Let's just say that after 6 hours in the car on Tuesday, 2.5 on Wednesday, and almost 7 more on Friday, we were all heartily sick of the car!  We were so happy that we were in the position to help Myers and Laura when they needed some one there.  I'll post about the rest of our trip soon!

Arthur Kirkland Winship Carpenter

On September 24, Connor's first Carpenter boy cousin was born!  Sweet baby Arthur was born at 12:10.  He was 7 lbs, 9 oz, and a little bit more than 20 inches long.

Because of his family history of heart defects, and his older sister dying right before she turned 2 months old, Arthur's parents, Myers and Laura, had the nurses and doctors do a complete blood work up on him.  Unfortunately, it did not come out as we all would have liked.  His blood showed that he has almost no neutrophils, a white blood cell responsible for attacking bacteria.  This condition is called alloimmune neutropina.  The reason he doesn't have any white blood cells is that antibodies from Laura's body crossed the placenta and they are attacking the neutrophils.  Basically, he has no defense against any sort of bacterial infection.  They thought, okay fine, we'll just keep him at home and limit visitors for the first two months, at which point the antibodies should die off and his immune system would become normal.  Unfortunately, a couple days after being home, Arthur developed a bellybutton infection, which landed Laura and him in the hospital.

I'll write about our trip up there later, for for now, know that Arthur's infection is clearing up well, but his neutrophils are still horribly low, and treatment is getting complicated, mostly because of the lack of knowledge about this disorder.  It is very rare, and treatment of it is even more rare.

You can keep up with what's going on with Arthur on his blog, at arthurcarpenter.com.

Please pray for this family and all of us.  We all pray that this will be over in just a few weeks.

Please God, help Arthur's body to work correctly.  Help him fight off this infection, help his neutrophils to overcome the attack of the antibodies, and help the antibodies to die quickly and not reproduce.  Help Laura to take care of herself and both Laura and Myers to be strong, but also to grieve the loss of these first precious days of being a family under one roof, and all the knowledge this discovery of Arthur's condition is giving them into the death of our sweet Gwen.