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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Little Stinker



Our little stinker has been a real handful this week! He was refusing to eat and was waking up three times a night. I'm pretty sure he was teething because he got a little better with Ibuprofen and Anbesol. Picture this: waking up to a inconsolable, screaming baby at 2:30am in the morning who is fighting you to put a q-tip in his mouth, doing the math to see if it's been 6 hours since the last dose of Ibuprofen, if so measure and fight baby to take medicine, rock baby to sleep, try to go back to sleep yourself, now repeat a couple of times a night for a few nights in a row! No surprise Chris ended up sick after a few days. He came home from work early and slept for three hours, had a little soup and Gatorade, and then we went to bed two hours early.

Of course you can't tell that anything was wrong from his pictures. He's turning into quite the little ham when the camera comes out. What I really don't understand is why it seems like Sam only has problems at night. We're going to the doctor tomorrow for his 12 month checkup, so we'll see what the doctor says.



Since Sam is over a year old and over 20 lbs, we were able to turn his car seat around last weekend. He got a big kick out of it. He kept laughing every time I'd look back at him. Of course he was asleep by the time we got to the gas station any way!



The car seat wasn't the only change we made this weekend. We dropped the bottle and the formula! That's right, big boy has a sippy cup and drinks milk. We went with the Nuby Silicone Spout after trying several other cups. All the other cups that we tried had these valve pieces to keep them from spilling which made it to hard to suck anything out of them. And if we removed the valve, we got a nice sprinkling, ok downpour, of milk every where. The Nuby is very similar to a bottle, so it seems like a good transition option. A nice bonus, is that we no longer have to mix bottles of formula to take to day care, since they provide milk for the kids at no additional cost. One other change (that I may be the only person intersted in) is that we also went from size 3 to size 4 diapers this weekend.



Here's a morning picture with Daddy in pajamas. They probably just got through making coffee, a favorite pastime of course. Sam loves the coffee making process so much that we got him a play coffee maker for his birthday. It's great! He fusses to play with the real one every morning and seems satisfied for now to pretend with his. I keep meaning to get video of it, but I'm usually trying to wake up then.



We went to Ian and Roya's for a yummy dinner Sunday night. They were dog sitting Lucky, so Sam got to play with a dog more his size. They really hit it off. Lucky made Sam giggle. Man, those cheeks are so pinchable! Sam got a big kick out of all the candles Roya had lit on the table. It was a good enough distraction to actually get him to eat a little. Sam also had fun climbing up their stairs. I tried to show him how to go back down backwards, but he couldn't quite get the hang of it.

Sam's appetite seems to have turned around in the last day or so. He actually ate Beefaroni without just chewing it up and spitting it out, so hopefully he's getting a break from whatever he was going through ... fingers crossed. We're trying to teach him some sign language to help communicate what he wants, especially at mealtime. Trying to teach him "more" is hard because he actually has to want "more" to teach "more." I think he learned "all done" the first day. There's a show on PBS called Signing Time to teach kids sign language. I had to email our local PBS to get the schedule for the show in Dallas, so check with your local station if the schedule for your area isn't listed on their web page. They don't teach the sign for "coffee" so we had to look that one up (ha!).

For our weekly motor skills report, Sam has learned how to stand up on his own. In other words, last week he would crawl over to something, pull up on it, and then take off walking. Now he can go directly to a standing position from any where. He's really walking every where and very rarely touches his walker. We can actually probably put that away now. He's also started "running errands." He'll go over to his wagon, get a block, and bring it to us. We say "thank you", he smiles or giggles, then goes over to get another block. He's started manipulating things with his hands with a lot more control. He got a set of nesting/stacking cups for his birthday. He loves to pour them out and put them back together in different combinations. He can't tell just by looking at one cup that its larger than and won't fit into another cup yet. He also got some soft blocks for his birthday, which he started stacking for the first time. He's had small hard blocks since Christmas which we would stack and he would knock over, so it's a big deal that he stacked them on his own. The blocks also have shapes that fit inside them. He loves to pull them out and try to put them back in. He can easily do the cylinder shape, but has a little trouble with the prism and box shapes.

We also want to say CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Brad, Jennifer, and Jackson on the newest addition to their family. Sofia was born on Tuesday. She was born about nine weeks early so she'll be in the NICU for a while, but she's doing great and is already breathing on her own. We can't wait to meet her!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Sam's First Birthday



I can't believe our little baby, excuse me -- BOY, is one year old. It seems like just yesterday that I held him for the first time and looked at that pretty red hair.

We actually decided to go have some professional portraits made of Sam for his first birthday. We took a few days off work for his birthday and we didn't want to spend all of our time setting up for and taking pictures. We went to Portrait Innovations. I would really recommend them for your everyday portraits. I don't think they are as good as someone like Lamb Photography though. It was a 30 minute sitting, followed by 30 minutes of picking out photos, and then 20 minutes to print them, so we had our photos that day. Here is a photo montage of some of our favorites.



Friday was Sam's first birthday!!! We went to the Heard Wildlife Sanctuary which is only a few miles from our house. There is also a nature museum there, but we only had a few hours before we were going to go pick my mom up from the airport. Sam really liked being in the backpack, which isn't surprising considering how much he loved the front carrier. It was an absolutely beautiful day! We've been getting a lot of rain lately and the temperatures have mostly been in the 70's and 80's. It's hard to believe that it was 104 degrees when we brought Sam home last year.



We opened presents from family on Friday and had chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting. Sam liked the cupcake a lot better than the cake we got for his portraits. I think the main reason he had more fun was because Cleo was there to help him out.



Saturday was Sam's birthday party. It was an Elmo themed party with red, yellow, and blue balloons and streamers.



I even made an Elmo cake.



Here's a video of Sam "blowing out his candle" and "eating his cake."



We had a great time at Sam's party. I was very glad that he didn't get scared with all the excitement around singing Happy Birthday. I think he was a little used to hearing it since I started singing it to him as soon as he woke up on Friday.



Sam and the fam.



Go to http://share.adoramapix.com/connerfamily/sam-first-birthday for more pictures of Sam's birthday party.



Here's Grandma Mary Lou helping Sam learn how to walk.



Sunday was Hagen's birthday party. It was a construction theme and Hagen had a t-shirt that said "I dig being 1." He had a blast eating meatballs and digging into his cake. He was really excited that he got a big Tonka truck to push around the house. Sam was in a really bad mood that morning so we were late to the party and we were scared that we might have to leave early. But he had a blast as soon as we got there. There was so much excitement and so many toys that there was no way he could stay in a bad mood. We were also concerned that Sam might think it was another party for him after three straight days of parties and cakes. There was a 10 month old boy there named Sam who took his first steps at the party. Our Sam must have viewed that as a challenge because he started walking -- on his own -- no walker!!!



He's been scootin' around the house ever since. I think I even caught him trying to run this evening.

Sam loved all the toys he got for his birthday, but the biggest was a tent full of stuffed animals from Ian and Roya. He loves to crawl in there and hug all of them.



Here's Sam getting a big hug from Aunt Andrea. My two favorite red heads!



This is a photo of my Mother's Day mom's-night-out with my mom's group. We had a blast and it was nice to get away for an evening. It was the first time in a long time that Chris got to feed Sam his dinner. It was definitely the first time that he had to do the whole bedtime routine on his own. He did a great job and even got to spend a quiet evening at home alone.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Mother's Day



Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies. I barely missed having my first Mother's Day last year, so this year was the first. We had a very nice weekend. I "helped" Sam practice saying "mama", but I mostly got "dada" and "baba".



We went to the Dallas Farmer's Market Sunday morning. I've been wanting to go for a while, but it's in downtown Dallas, so it takes a little planning to get down there with a baby.



They had lots of fresh produce, meat, seafood, and plants -- but no green tomatoes or boiled peanuts. I was a little disappointed that the parking was actually in the middle of all the stands. There was just too much traffic, and the sidewalks were too crowded to comfortably navigate a stroller. There are a couple of smaller farmers' markets in Plano that we'll stick to, but I was glad we made the trip.



Chris took this picture of an International Harvester Farmall Cub tractor. His family had one when he was growing up.



All of the pictures and video that I'm posting today were taken with my Mother's Day present, a Canon SD800 IS. So you're probably thinking that I didn't need another camera, and that may be true. But, I WANTED another camera. I wanted a camera that I could just put in the diaper bag for every day pictures. It's kinda hard to take the DSLR and the video camera every where we go (and please don't question my slightly insane need to document everything we do). I LOVE this camera. It has an image stabilized lens, face recognition focusing, and takes great video. Plus, it's super tiny.



I actually opened my present on Saturday because Chris thought I'd enjoy playing with the camera all weekend, so I even got to take it to Home Depot. Here's Sam in the car cart. He was a little puzzled at what I was doing with a camera in Home Depot.



Here's a shot of a snotty, slobbery Sam playing with his toy.




Here's a video of Sam playing in the tupperware cabinet. He's started actually crawling into the cabinet so he can pull absolutely everything out onto the floor.



This is a video of Sam playing with a salsa bowl at a Mexican restaurant next to the farmer's market. It's just a sample of the fun games we get to play.



We're still working on walking and eating. I've seen Sam walk as far as five feet, but he'll only do it if he's walking between Chris and me. If he's walking to something, he usually takes a few steps then starts crawling.

We actually had our first meal with Sam where he was eating everything we were eating. We had pulled pork, field peas, and mac and cheese. He liked the pork, but he mostly still chews everything and spits it out. At day care they mush everything up and feed it to him. At home he throws a fit if I don't let him feed himself. So he has a tray full of finger food to play with (and feed Cleo), while I try to feed him jarred food. That's worked for a few weeks, but he's getting wise to what's going on and now he wants his own spoon. Which would be fine, except that he want to put his spoon in the jar too. Which would also be fine, except that when he gets the food on his spoon, he just slings it off -- on the floor, on me, on Cleo -- whatever -- just not in his mouth!



These are some pictures of Sam and Hagen playing from a few weeks ago. We had a lot of fun watching them play together.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Parks, Butterflies, and Flowers - Oh My!



Sam cut his upper left molar last week. We could tell that it happened before we even looked in his mouth based on how well he slept through the night. Since he was feeling so much better, I picked him early from day care on Friday to take him to the park. We went to Celebration Park in Allen. There was a group of little kids age 18mos to 4yr playing on this climbing wall. Sam saw them and pulled me over to them. He got in the middle of them and watched them climb with wide eyes. When they were gone he grabbed the chain and started shaking it and yelling. I was starting to wonder if he was actually going to try to climb it.



Celebration Park is very neat. It has a great play area with lots of slides. It doesn't have many swings, but that's ok because Sam doesn't seem to like them very much yet.



I started out sliding down the bigger slides with Sam in my lap. As soon as we got to the bottom he'd try to reach around me to go back up. So, I went over to one of the smaller slides and let him slide down on his own. When he got to the bottom, he turned around and climbed to the top. That made me very nervous. I had no idea he could do that.



Of course it was hard to take pictures. I was scared he was going to just jump over the edge at any moment. Someone please tell me how soon that feeling will go away!



Sam and I went to Willowbend Mall on Saturday while Chris and Ian installed surround sound in our living room. It was a rainy day, and the Kiwanis Club was sponsoring a butterfly exhibit at the mall. Sam fell asleep on the way there, so I let him nap in the car for an hour before we went in. I actually enjoyed just sitting there! We had lunch in the food court and Sam got to try some Cheetos.



The butterfly exhibit was neat. The butterflies were attracted to bright colors and pieces of canteloupe that they were handing out. This little boy was covered in butterflies. Sam's eyes got really wide when he saw them. I felt bad because he wanted to grab them, but I didn't want him to hurt them. I let him touch a few, but he lost most of his interest when he figured out that he wasn't going to be able to really hold them. Here's a wider shot of the enclosure.



Next we went to the Apple store. I figured that Sam could pound on a keyboard and mouse in the kids area. I actually found some cool software. It's called Giggles Computer Funtime for Babies. It makes things happen on screen for any keystroke, mouse movement, or mouse click. That's a lot better than the blank screen he's been getting!



Before we left, we went to the indoor play area at Willowbend. There were a lot of kids there which I think Sam really likes. I wasn't sure if he'd be comfortable getting in the middle of them to play, but he didn't hesitate. He even came over to me and gave me a big hug, as if to say, "Wow this is fun!"



Sam still doesn't want to walk without his walker or without holding our hand. He'll take a few steps, and he can take more steps than last week. But, it's definitely not his preference. He loves his walker so much that it's the first thing he asks for in the morning. He calls it "daht". I think it's because we kept asking him, "Do you want that?" instead of "Do you want your walker?" That'll teach us to use pronouns. His other two words are "dah" for dog/Cleo and "dah dah" or "dah dee" for Daddy. You're probably recognizing a pattern with these "d" words, and maybe you're thinking that its really just one word, but I swear you can tell a difference.



I tried to snap this shot really quick of Sam lifting the walker over his head, but it focused on the countertop. You know if he has enough balance to do this, he has enough balance to walk without it.



Here's Daddy and Sam playing with the monster puppet. Sam also loves to crawl around on the couch. He stands up on it and looks over the edge. He rolls around with the pillow and bites them. He really likes it when we lay on the couch with him and pretend that we are going to roll over on him -- it really makes him laugh. He stopped getting the hiccups at the slightest giggle, so he giggles a lot now, but if we really make him laugh hard he still gets them.



Sam decided that he wanted to take his monster for a ride. He's been doing that with his toys lately -- either that or he just uses it to bulldoze them.



Yep, it's still there ...



Later on Sunday, we went to a wildflower field in Jack Carter Park which is next to the dog park. There are a lot of wildflowers around the Plano/Richardson area. There is an annual Wildflower Festival, but it falls on Sam's birthday this year, so we probably won't go.




It didn't take him long to realize that he was in the middle of the flowers all on his own, and he wanted to be picked up.



He was slightly more intrigued after he got used to the idea -- especially after he realized that he could touch them.



We went for a dip in the hot tub after we got home from the park. Sam loves the water. He likes to go in the backyard and walk around the pool with his walker. He'll throw a fit if we don't take him out when he wants to go. He gets his way about half the time, so we've been getting a lot of fits lately.



After swimming, I thought we would let Sam try some SpaghettiOs. He was very interested in them because he could put his finger through them. He would put the pasta and the meatballs in his mouth, but he spit them back out. He's still not liking the texture or the feeling of table food in his mouth. Cleo was very happy to help him clean his plate though.



Here are some pictures of the before and after on our front door. We decided to get a new front door because the old one was not very energy efficient and it was hung poorly. You could actually see light all the way around the door. We got a door with a half-light, and it really lights up the entry. We got a new door knob and lock too because you could barely turn the key in the old one. We think it's very pretty.

Before:



After:

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Big Weekend



We went to Owens Spring Creek Farm this weekend. It's not very far from our house and they have baby animals that you can pet. This is a picture of Sam playing under a tree after we saw the animals. He likes to stand and claps when he does it. He can't go from the ground to a standing position on his own yet. He is still pulling up or reaches up for us to stand him up. He'll take a few steps, but he usually doesn't like to walk without his walker. (That might be changing though ... he was different when he came home from day care today. He's usually so cautious when he goes from standing to sitting, but he was just plopping down this evening. He was even letting go of the walker and taking a few steps unprompted.)



When we got to the farm, we went straight to the pens with the newborns and their moms. Sam got a big smile on his face and started laughing. He wasn't sure if he wanted to pet them yet. The goats were very playful.



Next we were off to see the horses. They had some beautiful and enormous draft horses. They were eating so only one of them was interested in coming to say hello.



There was one mamma hen with a bunch of baby chicks. Sam wanted to stick his finger in the cage, but Daddy held him back.



The goats and sheep in the outdoor pen are used to being fed by the visitors so the adults were very aggressive. Sam wasn't ready to give them any love and wanted Mommy to protect him.



We went to a less busy corner of the pen, and Sam made friends with a scared little lamb.



We went to the last Water Babies class Saturday morning. The water was very cold even for us, so Sam did not want to be there. We just went around the "river" a few times and tried to practice blowing bubbles. Sam still just laughs at us.



He loves our swimming pool though. We warmed up the hot tub on Sunday and took a quick dip. Sam wanted to get in the actual pool, but that's not warm enough yet.



Sam figured out how to put the balls in the dinosaur to make it light up and make sounds. He started by putting them in where they come out. He'd stuff them in there until no more would fit. Then he changed to putting them in the "right" places. Next he started trying to put his blocks and other shapes in there. I walked by one day and he all sorts of stuff crammed in the holes.



His favorite game to play right now is "throw the ball and then chase after it." He's so cute. He sits up, stretches his arms high over his head, and then throws the ball. Sometimes he lets go before his arms are in front of him so the ball goes behind him. He'll also sit down with us and roll the ball back and forth between us.



We put these stick-ups in his bathtub for decoration. It didn't take him long to figure out how to pull them off the wall, but now he tries to put them back.



Chris went on a business trip last week so it was the first time that I was at home alone with Sam. It was challenging, but we made out ok. Sam always waves at Daddy every morning as we drive off to go to day care. He waved every morning even when Daddy wasn't there. It seemed like he was looking around the house for him too. And he really knew something was up when I was giving him his bath. He was very excited when we came home from day care on Thursday and Daddy was there waiting for him.



This is a video of Sam taking some first steps with Daddy.



Cleo went on one of her hot air balloon tirades Sunday morning. Sam thought it was hilarious.



The day before Chris left for his business trip, we were taking a walk around the neighborhood, and Cleo was attacked by another dog. The dog either broke out of his fence or their kids left the gate open. It was a very vicious attack. I picked up the stroller with Sam in it to protect him. Chris was trying to separate the dogs. Cleo did a good job fighting back, but she was still recovering from the surgery on her back foot. In the end, she had a puncture wound over her eye and on her cheek and a bad bite on one of her back legs. I took her to the vet the next day. The vet gave us some ointment and antibiotics and said she would be fine. She honestly never even seemed phased by the whole even. It bothered us way more than her. Sam was very worried about her and kept checking on her and patting her when we got home.