13 months, Birthday Party Version 2

We finally had Connors 1st birthday party a few weeks ago. It turned out to be a great day, a lot of fun but pretty tiring. Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa White were visiting for a week around the party so we were able to have lots of help with the setup and watching Connor. We had beautiful weather for the entire week and spent quite a bit of time in the pool. Bob and I got some time out by ourselves and some good relaxation time while Grandma and Grandpa White got to spend quality time with Connor.

For the past few weeks Connor has really started doing more baby signing and its really cute and helpful. He knows the signs now for more, help, milk and all done and hes waving now to say goodbye. Unfortunately he doesnt always use the right sign at the right time. More is his favorite sign and he usually uses that for help and milk as well. We are working on it and hes definitely getting better and its cutting down quite a bit on his whining because he knows that we will help him once he does a sign and doesnt have to whine.

This last week its been really warm out and we have been spending alot of time in the big pool and little tuggy pool and Connor has been having fun running around naked outside at night. In fact he is having so much fun running around that he doesnt want to sit down and eat anymore, he only wants to eat on the go. His favorite food is grapes and he also loves peas, must be the round shape. He will sometimes try new foods but hes pretty picky for the most part.

Hes been sleeping in really good lately, till 8:30am pretty regularly. Mom and dad appreciate this alot and have been catching up on our sleep. Hes still waking up about twice a night but once he has a milk snack he falls right back to sleep without fuss.

Pictures below:

Connor at Hoyt Park

Connor and his friend Champ. They like all of the same toys.

Pictures from the first birthday cake. Thanks Jennifer for the awesome pics at the party. The cake was chocolate with raspberry filing and very yummy.

Dad serves up the cake to Connor

Mmm the frosting is the best part.

What a cute kid

With Grandma and Grandpa Black.

With mom and dad

And of course the cleanup afterwards

Picture with 2 sets of Grandparents, the Blacks and the Whites

Playing with friend Boldyn at the party

So far Connors favorite gift from the party. Still inflated almost 2 weeks later, pretty impressive for a balloon.

Playing with the grandparents in the pool.

Riding the new radio flyer trike from Grandpa

In the hot tub with Grandma and Grandpa White

12 Months Old, Walking, Sickness and a Cancelled Party

Connor is now over 12 months and its been a while since I wrote anything in the blog but there is so much to tell. On Tuesday July 5th Connor took his first steps on his own in the family room with Bob. A few days later on Thursday he started acting really fussy and I felt like he was getting sick as he was super hot. I took him to the doctor on friday and they said he was fine, he wasnt. We had his birthday party scheduled for the next day but I cancelled it because he was only sleeping and being incredibly fussy and when we took his temp it was all of the way up to 104. We thought about taking him to the emergency room but the books said 104 isnt to bad for a toddler. He kept getting worse and on monday we went back to the doctor and got a diagnosis of Roseola only after mentioning he looked like he had a rash. Doctors never seem to know what is wrong. It wasnt anything to serious but he got a rash all over his body, the high fever, wanted to sleep all of the time and just be held. It was a rough week or so. During that time he forgot how to walk again and also stopped eating any solids, thank goodness we were still breastfeeding since thats all he would eat for over a week. Now about 2 weeks after his sickness he is finally getting back to eating normally and walking all over the house and we've rescheduled his 1 year party for a few weeks from now.

We planned our first trip to Puerto Vallarta Mexico later this year with Connor and my parents. Before Connor we went on vacations every few months so we are definitely due for a break since we havent been except to see family since before Connor was born.


Connor has been super happy lately and seems to love his new found freedom with the ability to walk. He loves to carry around objects in both hands as he walks, especially a ball.

Playing with a toilet paper bracelet

Trying to get to the petzels

Playing in the baby pool



With dad in the big pool

With mom in the new pool float

Building a tower or blocks so we can knock it over.

Outside toys mom got off Craigslist for Connor. A pirate ship and a tugboat. Havent decided yet what to do with the tugboat, we can either fill it with balls, water or sand. I put them in the sideyard so we dont have to worry about the pool.

Bob is really getting into the guitar and now has 3 guitars to play on. Connor really loves to listen to dad play. We were watching Jace as well this day and he also loved the music.

Bob completed his first 10k run on July 4th. It started just on the corner from our house. Here he is after the race. Took him less than an hour to finish it.

Connors First Steps on July 5th

Connor walking just 2 weeks later, much improved

11 Months Old, Trip to Michigan and more

We just got back from our summer trip to Michigan a few weeks ago so we have lots of pictures to share. Connor is now just over 11 months old. Hes starting to cruise around everywhere with his little walker and holding onto my fingers. He loves climbing up and down anything including stairs, couches, pillows and me. Travel on the plane out there went really good he took a nice nap and then happily played in my lap but on the way back he was overtired and cried quite a bit and wouldnt go to sleep and mom and dad were exhausted.

Connor pushes his new shopping cart at Grandma and Grandpa Whites house. He also loved terrorizing the cat.


Out to dinner with the White family including Great Grandma


Connor swings at a park in Grand Blanc with Grandma and Grandpa White. I guess Grandma and Grandpa White are camera shy cause we somehow didnt get any pictures of Connor with them?


At the beach with mom and dad mid diaper change


Playing with Grandma Whipple at the beach


He even sat down in the water and played when none of the rest of us would. He looks so old here I cant get over it.

First day spent at Grandma and Grandpa Blacks all day by himself. He came home exhausted and I got alot done. To bad they dont live a little bit closer, its a long round trip drive. Watch out with that cell phone Grandpa, he knows how to make it call people now!

We've started swimming at home quite a bit lately and going to a local kiddie pool with friends Boldyn (15 months) and Jace (9 months)

Nursing, climbing stairs and mothers day

Today Connor is 10 months and 2 days old. Hard to believe its been so long already. Hes getting so big, I weighed him today with his clothes and diaper on and he was about 19.5 pounds.

Lately we have been working with Connor on taking a bottle and trying to go to bed without always nursing. Last night I attempted to stay at volleyball and have Bob put Connor down without me. It didnt go so well. Connor wouldn't stop crying and I ended up coming home to nurse him. But today he went a record 9 hours in between nursings during the day. He woke at 6:30am and nursed and then Bob watched him in the morning and Grandma Black watched him in the middle of the day. He took 2 long naps, took 2 bottles, and woke up at 4pm and I fed him. This is a big step for him. Prior to this the longest he had gone without nursing was just a couple hours. So he can go practically all day without nursing and was just missing his before sleep nurse last night. We plan to continue working on the nighttime nursing and trying to disassociate that from going to bed at night and we will try again in a few weeks. We will see how it goes. I will not be weaning him and don't want to do so anytime soon, I love breastfeeding. I just would like to be able to let someone else put him to sleep without me needing to be there.

Connor is getting very obstinate lately, he objects when things are taken away from him and he knows what he wants, which includes anything that mom or dad has.

We had a nice weekend, went to the wild animal park, got into a semi-heated hot tub and he climbed the stairs 3 times. I also had a great first mothers day which was celebrated with my 2 favorite guys bringing me breakfast in bed and letting me sleep in and have a nice lazy day and a really nice card.

Connor in his swim diaper, playing with the doggie water jug again.


In his new pool float, he doesn't like it, prefers mom and dads arms in the pool


Connor climbs the stairs, this is the first day he has done this and he did it 3 times.

Weekend of Firsts

The three of us had a really nice weekend and some gorgeous weather. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather and Connor spent his time investigating everything outside. He loves to smack his hand on the pool water (of course with mom holding onto him), play with the doggie water, and play in the dirt. Anything new is very exciting to him. We got into the solar heated hot tub twice this weekend with Connor. We put Connor into the baby swings at the park and gave him some little pushes, this is the first time that he really liked it, before he was always a bit scared.

I got the rest of the house a little bit more baby proofed, put covers on nearly all of the outlet plugs, got rid of some of the hanging wires, and made a drawer for Connor in the kitchen filled with his toys.

Connor is all over the place now, crawling fast, pushing his little walker and getting into everything. He isn't walking yet but hes taken a step or two moving from one support to the next without holding onto something.

My mom and I went out to breakfast and a pedicure on Saturday for an early mothers day. It was very relaxing and nice to have some time with just the girls.

We have been having some trouble getting Connor to sleep but the issue now seems to be resolved. We put up blackout shades so that even though its light out it wont bother him, bought a sound machine to help cover up the outside sounds, and moved his bedtime and hour earlier. Now instead of it taking me over an hour to put him to sleep it takes only a few minutes. That is a huge improvement.

Some photos from this weekend below.


Connor plays with the doggie water jug. Lots of fun.


Connor tries to get dads beer. He is very persistent.

The Spa

We put Connor into the spa this weekend, it was actually his 2nd time but the first time was last summer when he was only a few months old. The pool isn't warm enough yet but the weather outside was great so we heated up the spa to about 95 and got in.

He's very into buttons and controls lately. He loves the remote, the phone and the knobs on the doors. In the spa he was fascinated by the little button controls and that was about all he could concentrate on once he found it.

He's getting more into solid food lately and hes been very good every time we go out to eat. He just sits and eats his food and looks around the restaurant.

I had to put up some blackout shades in his room otherwise even if hes tired he wouldn't sleep at night when its still light out. This was causing a bit of a problem because its getting lighter later and later and he can't stay up that long. It seems to of helped quite a bit.

We just started using a new convertible (big kids) car seat and he seems to like it, we couldn't really carry him in the infant seat anymore anyway hes getting to heavy.

Blueberries, clapping and waving

Connor is very into blueberries lately, they are just the right size and melt right in the mouth. Today we went to Olive Garden and Connor actually waved at the hostess after she waved at him. Then later he waved at Bob. The other day I was watching Biggest Loser and the contestants were clapping and Connor also started clapping. I have not been able to get him to clap since though. No pictures in this post.