2.5 years old

So its been FOREVER since I've made a post here. I have lots of excuses but mainly it just kept seeming like a huge job because I was thinking I should make all of the missing posts to from the last so many months. Finally decided I should just update it with whats current and continue otherwise it's never going to get updated.

So what have we been up to. Well a lot has happened since my last post but some of the big things are..

• We went to Michigan to visit family
• Grandma and Grandpa White came to visit
• Grandma Whipple came to visit for about 10 days to help out.
• We went to Hawaii with Grandma and Grandpa Black
• We went to Disneyland twice, we have annual passes there
• Went to Knotts Berry Farm once
• Jen and Dan came to visit twice and they brought cousin Ava once
• And of course we did LOTS of train activities
• Connor started preschool 2 days a week, one day with Grandma Black and one day with Auntie D'Arbra so mom can get more work done
• Grandma and Grandpa Black also come to play with Connor usually once a week and he really looks forward to their visits.

Connor is talking like crazy now. He will ask you questions constantly if you let him, whats that, and whats that and what are you doing, and how are you etc. He still loves trains and wants to ride them, play with them, read about them, etc all of the time. He knows so much about them to since we are always reading train books. I never thought I would know so much about trains to. Terms like semaphore, and cow catcher and tanker car etc are part of his normal vocabulary. He likes to sing and dance and his favorite songs are the abcs, twinkle twinkle, and ba ba black sleep. He loves to play hide and seek and monster but he's not a very good hider, once you come to find him him he jumps out and says here I am. We take walks around the neighborhood now and he can make the full circle around the neighborhood without his stroller and even runs part of the way, it seems like he has endless energy. He loves puzzles and between them and trains thats about 90% of what he loves to do.

I've uploaded some videos to Picassa you can see them at this link
Videos

and some pictures as well, we have been bad about pictures lately guess it was because our battery was dying (a charge lasted all of about 5 mins for a while there) but now that we have a new one I hope to be much better about it.
Pictures

21 Months Old

Connor is developing into quite the little man. Hes getting more independent all of the time. He is talking all of the time and learning so many new words. Hes like a little parrot that repeats whatever you say. Hes learning his colors and can usually know what is blue and green. He will sometimes try to count with us and says two, three and sometimes four. He's still very into cooking but it has definitely slowed down so he doesn't want to cook all of the time now. He is trying to learn how to jump but so far he just cant get those 2 feet off the ground at the same time. He has the occasional melt down now because he doesnt get what he wants but for the most part hes a very happy boy. He seems to like it when I cook new foods, guess we eat to much chicken. The first chance he got to try pork and beef he ate like crazy. His favorite foods are oatmeal, fruit, yogurt and now string cheese as well.

He loves the hippos and could spend all day by them at the zoo if we let him. He loves the zoo in general and just looking at all of the animals. He is happy to go to sleep at night and somewhat at nap time, mostly because he is looking forward to sleeping with his good friend George the monkey. Books are still fun to read but now at nighttime he prefers to skip the book and go straight to bed.

Uncle Rick came to visit us and spend some time with dad in Vegas. Connor had a lot of fun playing with his uncle and getting to spend some time with him.
He loves his weekly visits with Gigi and Papa and can hardly stand the wait once I tell him that they are coming.

I wrote this over a month ago and meant to post it but never got around to it. So the title is a bit off on the date posted. The post was written on 4/11.

Mom, Dad and Connor

Uncle Rick plays with Connor

The sungrubbies.com photoshoot. All of our playgroup friends in their sun outfits.

At Legoland aquarium in Carlsbad with our friends


Playing guitar with dad

The Elmo Flying Fish Ride at SeaWorld. First ever ride for Connor and he liked it.

Meeting the Sesame Street characters.

Riding the Merry Go Round in Mission Beach with Grandma

Visiting the hippos at the zoo

19 Months Old, Hawaii

We just got back from a great trip to Maui. We found a great deal for a 10 night trip with a direct flight from San Diego and a hotel right on the beach. Connor did great on the flight both ways, we loaded up Bobs laptop with Sesame Street shows for Connor.

We got to Hawaii and made a quick stop at Walmart to pickup some baby essentials and then off to the hotel. They offered us an upgrade to an oceanfront cottage for a great price so we jumped at the offer. We spent most of our days on the beach and in the pool. We bought groceries to eat in our hotel room for breakfast and lunch and went out to some nice dinners. My parents also came for a few days for their own vacation and helped us out by watching Connor while we relaxed. Bob and I went on a whale watching tour one day and went snorkeling 2 different days. The snorkeling was not quite as good as I remember when I was a kid We saw several turtles one morning when we were snorkeling.

Connor is learning so many words these days he practically parrots everything that we say now. In Hawaii he learned to say things like boat, Hawaii, beach, sand, pool, fork, knife, spoon, pig, whale, rake, nut, stick, leaf, shovel, rake and many more. He seems to be understanding almost everything that we say these days. I can ask him to go take something to dad or put something in the garbage and he goes and does it. Hes been getting taller and taller but not gaining much weight lately. We have cut down to only nursing about 3 times a day now but he still wishes that he could nurse more often. He loves being outside and is always going to the door and saying outside.

Connor has just started going down slides by himself. Before this he would always want to hold my hand when he went down. Now he will climb up the stairs and get onto the slide and then flip over quickly to him stomach and go down backwards, its very cute.

Posing before the Luau


Connor fascinated with the pig pit area he would not leave it


Connor and mom on the beach


Connor and dad in the pool


Our beachfront cottage

17.5 Months Old

Connor has changed so much since my last post, sorry its been so long. He has gotten really talkative in the past few weeks. He can now say dog, ball, balloon, mom, daddy, grandma, grandpa, up, more, milk, wuf wuf and banana. He understands what we are saying and is learning new words all of the time. He also does several signs for things like milk, more, hat, etc and knows where some of his body parts are like, head, belly button, toes, ears, nose, eyes and so on. He has gotten really good at mimicking everything that mom and dad do and its really cute to watch. He has also started getting much more independent and can play on his own for a while now and prefers to walk around on his own instead of being carried most of the time.

Yesterday was Christmas, we had 2 sets of grandparents with us to help celebrate. The Blacks came over for the day and the Whipples have been here visiting for a few weeks. We had a nice Christmas dinner and Connor received so many fun toys including, a toy guitar, mega blocks, a powerwheels quad, a vtech alphabet train, an aquadoodle, a remote control car, and see and say.

We just got back from a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This was our first real vacation since having Connor. We went to the Dreams resort with Grandma and Grandpa Black and spent all of our time on the beach and eating. Connor did great, he stayed on his schedule, did wonderful at all of the restaurants and had a blast in the pool and on the beach. Grandpa kept digging holes for Connor to climb into in the sand.

For Halloween Connor dressed up like a Giraffe and we went to a party with all of our playgroup friends. A few days before Halloween we went to the Bates Nut Farm which has a hay ride, a straw maze and a HUGE pumpkin patch. Connor loved the pumpkins and could of spent all day playing on them.


Going through the straw maze, Bates Nut Farm


On the hay ride


Playing with the pumpkins


Halloween party with the playgroup, yes the kids did have fun they just didnt like having their picture taken




Swallowed by the shark at the aquarium


Decorating the tree


Playing in the water in Mexico







Present from the Whites


At the Wild Animal Park with the Whipples


Decorating cookies on Christmas Eve


Our Gingerbread house


Opening presents on Christmas Day

15 Months Old

My sister just reminded me that its been a LONG time since we have posted anything about Connor. Its been a busy couple of months here but I wanted to post an update with all that has been going on. Connor is getting really cute, he has learned how to crawl up onto the couch and back off. He has started to stand and spin around. He is learning new signs and wanting to climb on just about everything. He wants to mimic us and do everything that we are doing. He is very attached to silverware and likes to carry a spoon just about everywhere around the house. He has really grown quite a bit in the past few weeks and all of the sudden all of his pants are to short. Hes been sleeping pretty good lately, waking up only once or twice at night and sleeping in on the mornings. On October 12th he spent his first night at Grandma and Grandpa Blacks house. They said that he did really good. Enjoy the pictures below.

Pictures taken by my friend Jen of Connor at the park.

In pitching stance.

At Overlook Park with the playgroup

He was having fun, just caught in a serious moment

All of our playgroup friends, from L-R, Nanda, Jace, Liam, Boldyn and Connor

Connor dancing with one of his favorite toys, the pool noodle

Mom and Dad and Connor out to eat


Connor walking into the restaurant, hes such a big boy

Aunt Jen came to visit


More of Jens visit

We all went to Sea World, Connor really likes the fish

Connor is starting to want to mimic everything mom and dad do

He climbed into the drivers seat of the tugboat all on his own



All of the babies wanted to be on my lap, but Connor does NOT like sharing. Connor, Liam and Devin