A Whole New World

The world has really opened up to Connor and me now that he's a walker. People always warned me, "Be careful what you wish for." They said that once your child walked, your life would be totally different and I got the sense that they meant that in a bad way. Maybe I haven't had much time with a walker, but I for one love his new found mobility and I love how much more we can do now.

For example, we went to an indoor playscape with my Mom's group and Connor normally doesn't get much out of playground type venues, but for the first time ever, he actually really enjoyed it. He walked all over the place and touched everything. He climbed on things and seemed to have a great time. It's just cool to think that we might actually be ready to start going to some of the playgrounds we walk by in our neighborhood every day, but I have always thought Connor was too young to get much out of.

Also, we went to another Mom's group event where we met at a splash pad, which is an open area with a lot of sprinklers basically. Unfortunately, the splash pad was not working, but because Connor is walking now, he didn't really seem to mind. He still loved walking around and just exploring with the other kiddos. If he was crawling, I think he would have gotten bored much sooner. Walking just seems to keep him entertained longer, because he can get places faster and walking itself is kind of fun.

Even after just a week of walking, he is already pretty quick and he actually doesn't fall that much. When he does fall, he almost always catches himself and doesn't seem too upset by it. He hasn't had a major hard fall yet. We've had a couple spills that have been tear inducing, but no bloody lips or anything...yet. He did skin his knee for the first time. That sort of feels like a milestone of sorts, especially for a boy.

The only problem is that he still can't stand up unassisted. He still needs to pull up on something, so for example if he falls down in the middle of an open area where there is nothing really to pull up on, you kind of have to walk over to him and help him back up to the standing position. He could crawl to something, but he usually just sits there kind of disappointed he fell, so he gets back in the game faster if you walk over and help him back up. He has started trying to stand up, so I think it's only a matter of time before he does that. He obviously has the balance for it. We'll see.

This week we also went to Connor's open house for Christ Church School. He'll have two teachers and 5 other classmates, so it's a great ratio of 2 teachers to 6 kids. He'll attend school every Tuesday and Thursday during the regular school year from 9:30 to 2pm. I will pack him a lunch and after lunch, they will put him down for a nap in a crib. Before lunch they play and learn. It seems like a nice, clean, educational, safe, loving, and happy place so I'm really excited to see if he starts to "advance" because of his experience.

This coming Tuesday is his first day, and I'm really nervous to leave him. I think I'll probably cry when I drop him off, even though I know he'll be totally fine. He luckily does not have hardly any separation anxiety, so that will make it a bit easier, but still just leaving my boy at all is always hard. I miss him any time I'm away from him. It just feels like the end of an era...the era of Connor and Mommy all day every day.

I'm also a bit nervous about packing his bag for school. I have never placed him in child care before, so I don't really know what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll do OK.

We also managed a quick trip to College Station this weekend to drop my Dad off at his house. He flew back from New York and we picked him up at the Houston airport Friday night and then we all drove him to College Station on Saturday. Jeff and my Dad golfed, while Connor napped and I relaxed by the pool and caught up on some reading. It felt so indulgent getting that quiet time to myself. I loved it!

After the guys got back from golf and Connor got up, we hung out in the pool for a while. Connor seemed to like it.

Then after that, we went to a BBQ kickoff tailgate party at the Miramont Country Club, which is where my parents built their house and had a delicious dinner and even some maroon beer in honor of the Texas Aggies. Connor had fun walking around and Jeff even had him checking out the putting green. He's teaching him the in's and out's of golf early.

Although Connor was doing great, it was almost an hour past his bedtime, so we needed to head back and get him to bed. After he was down we had a lovely evening chatting by the pool. It was hot during the day, but the weather was gorgeous outside at night.

Today has been mostly catching up on stuff once we got back from College Station, but we still managed to have some fun together as a family. Connor had a special treat tonight as he got his very first bowl of ice cream. What a lucky boy.

Well, here are some pics from our week. Enjoy!

Connor doing his best Michael Jordan impression walking around at the Sugar Creek Playscape.

Mom's group hanging at the playscape. I didn't get to talk to the other Mom's on this day though, since Connor was on the move so much.

I gave him some mandarin oranges and they were a little tart and he made the most hilarious faces. How funny!!

The kiddos and the parents with Ms. Cheryl (sitting on the right) one of Connor's teachers at Christ Church School (CCS) open house on Thursday. This will be his little classroom. There is also a separate room with cribs in it as well where they will nap.

Connor's other teacher, Ms. Hilary playing with bubbles. He seemed to adjust just fine. It's going to be a great experience for him I think.

Connor showing off his funky "sunscreen styled" hair at the water-free splash pad.

Connor looking cute sitting on the front step. He's probably contemplating how he's going to escape.

We had crazy storms Monday and Tuesday night and actually we lost power from 6pm until 1:30AM Monday night, just as I was getting Connor's dinner together and getting him ready for bed, so it was a bit tricky. Anyway, this picture is of sweet Maizey, because she was so scared of the loud thunder and strong winds that she took cover under Connor's high chair. It was really sweet. Connor seemed oblivious to the whole thing, including the power outage.

Connor loves walking around with something in his hand. The problem is that if he falls, it is harder to catch himself. Here he is showing off his snack cup.

Walking with my cup.

Just looking cute.

This is Connor's I'm-thinking-about-getting-into-trouble face. He was probably on his way to the garbage can or something.

Finally liking something I made for him at dinner. "This is good Mom."

Mommy and Son moment. I feel like we sort of look alike here.

On Saturday, we drove to College Station to bring my Dad to his house and to visit their place. Their designer had been busy while they were gone and the place looked awesome. I can't wait for my Mom to see it. I spoke to her yesterday and wouldn't give her any clues as to what has been done. She's so anxious to see it. She's driving back from New York right now. She'll be back tomorrow afternoon.

I just think Connor looks cute here. Can't a mother indulge in her son's cuteness from time to time. Hee hee.

Hanging out on the stairs, his favorite place.

He loved playing peak-a-boo with this waterfall. It was really cute.

Peak-a-boo!

We realized we didn't have a recent family picture and Connor needed one for his school, since "Family" is one of the first things they learn and they like having a family picture up in the room, so we did a little photo shoot. Here is one of my favorites.

Hanging out at the kickoff tailgate at Miramont Country Club.

Cheers with our maroon beers.

Connor checking out the flags on the putting green. Jeff was very happy he seemed to like the golf course.

Taking a walking break. He didn't take many, but this was a nice one.

Small baby, big clubhouse.

Connor was fascinated by the chefs. I think he liked their big hats.

Connor "helping" with the laundry today.

Baby attack!!!

A very lucky boy getting his first bowl of ice cream.

This stuff is yummy.

Yummmm.

"Wait...did you say it's all gone?"

That's OK. I'm still a happy guy.

Just a video of Connor climbing the stairs at my parent's house, because he just loves to do it so much. We had to watch him like a hawk, because he loves to climb them.

A Busy Week Back...and We've Got a Walker!!!!

Well, we're back and it has truly been quite a week. Connor turned 14 months on Thursday and it's as though a light went on in his baby brain that he needed to start growing up or something, because I swear this week has been a learning explosion and it's been soooo fun to watch.

In the last month he started waving and now he's really mastering it. We're pretty sure he even knows the word "wave" now, because you don't even have to be waving at him, you can just say "wave" and he'll do it. He is also clapping more, but that you have to show him. He doesn't spontaneously clap at exciting things. He still doesn't point, but I'm starting to work with him on that. The boy certainly lets me know when he wants things, so I know my pediatrician in the past hasn't really been too concerned about that, but I still would like to see my son point at something.

Onto more cool stuff though. He is starting to mimic us if we ask him to dance. He'll start doing this adorable little bop up and down. We call it the white boy bob. He's already got it down.

He is also trying out some animal sounds. Of course he is just mimicing me, but it is still just too adorable for words. I'll say, "Connor, what sound does a cow say? Mooooo." Then he'll respond, "Moo." Sometimes I have to repeat myself a couple of times, but usually he gets it. We do "cow" and "moo", "sheep" and "baaah", and "lion" and "roar." The "roar" is really cute. He's so tough.

I think I'll start working with him on identifying features on my face more now too. I think kids his age can start getting stuff like that, so we'll do that if I can get him to pay attention to me.

He is also starting to really enjoy those books that are interactive or touch and feel. He can't get enough of them right now, which is really neat. He turns the pages and finds the cool things to grab or touch. It's fun to watch him touch something fuzzy, then something rough and see what he does. Sometimes he just gets excited when there is something fuzzy on the page. It's just neat, because he just never really cared about these books before and now he loves them.

He also is starting to love climbing on things...anything. If you sit down with your legs out, chances are he will try to climb over your legs. Oh and stairs or steps of any kind, forget about it. This is kind of new, so what I need to do is start building him some obstacle course out of couch cushions. Stayed tuned, maybe next week. Anyway, it's just cool that he has become so mobile so fast. I mean, he didn't start crawling until he was 10 months old and now he's climbing! That's pretty impressive.

Speaking of mobility, this week has also been crazy in his walking progress. We got home on Saturday and at that point, Connor was mostly cruising and occasionally he would stand for a few seconds and he once or twice took a few steps from maybe the couch to a nearby table. Basically, he still seemed pretty far from walking. No worries. Well, wouldn't you know it, this kid decided to fast track his walking progress all this week. He went from that, to walking across the room without any prodding from me or Jeff in about a week. It's crazy.

It started on Tuesday, when I noticed him taking more and more steps from chairs and things to the coffee table and then slowly but surely he started walking a bit further and further and then with a little coaxing from me and Jeff, was walking across the room. Now today, you don't even have to ask him to walk, he'll just start doing it. He also will stop and start. Today, Jeff even saw him stop, turn around and walk the other way.

It's pretty amazing when you think about the progress in just one week. Wow, I for one am impressed. So I think it's safe to say we've got a full fledged walker on our hands. Sure, he'll still crawl to things occasionally and he isn't a pro yet, but I don't think there's any turning back now. Let the games begin.

As for the rest of Connor's world, it's mostly the same. He is still napping once a day for about 3 hours from 12:30 to 3:30 and going to bed around 7:15 or so and sleeping till 7AM (yes, he's a good sleeper).

He is also eating about the same too, although he's becoming a rather finicky eater. One day he chows down and the next day he doesn't and one day he likes something and the next day he doesn't. I have read that this is pretty typical for toddlers, but it's hard on a Mom who prepares a meal and then has to think on her feat and make something else, because her son is staring at his plate not eating a thing or better yet, throwing it on the floor. Yeah, he loves that trick. Ugh. I'm trying to nip this in the bud, but it's been really hard. The boy loves to throw his food, what can I tell you.

Besides just learning, we also had a lot of fun this week. Luckily, Connor adjusted to life in Texas quickly, so we went right back to our "old" life right away. We went to the grocery store, Target, Whole Foods, CVS and wherever else I needed to catch up on a few items and he was a trooper the whole time.

We also got to see our buddies. We had a fun play date with Connor's friend Jack and his Mom Jessica. I know we were only gone a month, but I swear it seems like they were playing together so much more. It's like they finally realized, "Hey, this other kid in the room is kind of fun and we can get into stuff together." It was just really neat seeing them interact and since I love hanging out with Jack's Mom Jessica, it is certainly a win-win.

Then on Thursday, we got another chance for Connor to play with his pals when we went to "open play" at Gymboree. For those that don't know, Gymboree is a little kids gym, with lots of things to climb on, climb through, and play with. They have structured gymnastic and music classes, but they also offer a couple hours where you can just come in and play with the stuff in an unstructured way. My Mom's group set it up so we'd all meet there and so there was probably 10 Moms with their kids and it was so fun.

It proved to me again, just how much Connor loves to climb. There was this one set up with a foam wedge that led to foam steps that went to a slide and he climbed up (I'd have to get him down) over and over again. He loved it.

This weekend was great too. On Saturday, Connor got his first haircut. He was having some teething issues just before we were about to leave (yeah, more teeth, I know), but I guess the change of scenery made a huge difference, because he did so well. I was beaming with pride. He just sat there and let her cut his hair. We went to the place where I get my hair done, since I really like my lady, I know she has cut kids hair before, and I thought she'd get a kick out of meeting my son. I'm really glad we went with her. She was really excited and loved Connor.

Today was fun too. I got some new running shoes, so despite the 89 degree temps at 8:30AM, Connor, Maizey and I went for a jog. The shoes worked well, although Mom was panting just as much as Maizey was. After a refreshing shower, we headed to church. We had been pretty bad about going, because for a while Connor's napping schedule was smack dab in the middle of the church service, but now we can go again since he's down to one nap a day.

We also decided to drop him off at the nursery for the first time instead of trying to keep him quiet during the service. I knew it was only an hour, so it's not that big of a deal, but I was still a little nervous, because I have never left him with any type of "child care" before. Luckily, Connor doesn't have too much separation anxiety, so when we left, he seemed happy as a clam just playing with the cool new toys.

Then, when we came back to get him an hour or so later, the ladies just went on and on about how happy and good he was. They kept saying, it was as if he had been there before and he was used to it. They said, we needed to come back next week. Again, I was a very proud Momma.

We went to a fun lunch at a pizza place and then Connor was very ready for a nice long nap. While Connor napped, I went to a baby shower. When I got back we decided to all have dinner together. It was really fun eating dinner as a family and Connor seemed to do well. Jeff and I both agreed, that we'd try to do it a couple of times a week as we could.

Overall, it was an awesome first week back. Next week, we go to an open house for Connor's new "school" so we're really excited about that. I talked to Connor's new teacher for about 30 minutes this week, but I'll fill you in more on that after the open house. I think it's going to be a really wonderful experience for Connor.

Connor climbing through a tunnel at Gymboree.

Connor loved climbing over this balance beam, although after probably his tenth attempt he got too fast and missed a hand and knocked his face on it. He ended up with his very first black eye. It's not that easy to see in pictures, but you can see it if you look. Poor guy. He cried for a while, but soon enough he was climbing again.

"Gymboree is fun." Connor playing with one of his buddies.

Connor looking a little shaggy, but adorable, before bed and before his haircut Friday night.

Connor not so sure what is about to happen at the beginning of his haircut.

Looking slick with his wet hair. We're ready to cut.

And we're off. He doesn't seem to mind. Good boy.

Once he started getting curious about the scissors, we just gave him an occasional snack and showed him his book and he did just fine.

At the very end she used the clippers over his ear and he didn't even mind that. He had his comb. What a good boy.

After the haircut with stylist Michelle.

Looking handsome after his haircut.

Saturday night, despite the heat, it actually felt rather pleasant in the shade, so we let Connor eat outside.

Because he did so well at his haircut, Daddy Jeff thought he deserved a cookie. Connor clearly loved it.

We took this picture of Connor right after we dropped him off at the church nursery. He seems sooo distraught we're about to leave doesn't he...ha!

Now this is after when we are picking him up. The ladies loved him.

They have a pretty sophisticated sticker ID system and you need to pick him up with basically a "receipt." Here is Connor's tag.

I sort of forgot to mention this earlier but another change since we've been back is that Connor has been really interested in Maizey. I guess he really missed her, because he follows her around a lot. Poor girl. Maizey luckily is so patient with him. We are so glad. I mean, I've seen Connor poke her in the eye ball and Maizey just sort of moves her head and that's it. They are buddies, or at least Connor would like to think so.

Connor and Maizey, so happy together.

Wow, what a little tough guy.

Give me that camera!

Dining as a family. Pork, cous cous, and brussel sprouts.

A jolly little boy after dinner.

My sweet little man.

Connor showing off his walking skills.