Connor's 1st vacation!

Well--as Connor's favorite, Dora, would say, "We Did it!" We survived our first vacation! We had our highs and lows, but way more highs than lows so it was successful! For a recap:

We got in Thursday around 4ish, the rooms were BEAUTIFUL (mom and I both agree we loved the Tommy Bahama decor and wanted to steal many decorative objects for our own homes), said hello to the fam, got settled in while Connor played on the floor, fed Connor dinner, ate our own dinner (hamburgers) around 8:00pm due to rainy grills that took a little while to get 'fired up', put Connor to bed for what I thought would be a long night (loud outside/new bed/new place/etc)...but he SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! It was miraculous and sooooo not expected!

Day 2: Connor woke up to see his Auntie Katie, took Connor down to the beach, ate lunch under his wonderful SPF beach tent (tried mac & cheese, mangos, & drank through straw of juice box for 1st time), tried the water on the beach (but was not excited about it...too cold and kinda rough), packed up and went to the pool instead (which he, of course, LOVED), tried out a new floatie, played with Auntie Nicole and Craig that evening, went for family walk, went out on a pier for the 1st time, enjoyed his bottle outside, had yummy pulled pork for dinner (big people, not Connor), then went to bed with Connor.

Day 3: Connor slept great again that night, lots up pulling up practice in his pack n play, Connor modeled his lobster swim suit from Auntie Nicole, played with Uncle Craig a little, went in the pool with the girls, played in the fun turtle fountain in the pool, went down to the beach with Papa and went into the water (this time enjoyed it!), went in the pool again with Grandma and Papa, tried his 1st real popsicle (orange)...was messy so we swimming afterwards again, watched "Dora" and was soo glued to the TV (must have missed her, since he hadn't watched her for a few days!), went for a family walk, took family pictures, enjoyed yummy cheesy potatoes for dinner, and then settled into bed (slept good again!)

Day 4: Lots of packing, walked down and met family at breakfast at Cafe on the beach, watched some more "Dora" while we loaded up the car, had fun airplane rides with Auntie Katie in the parking lot, got info on rooms for next year (with private pool, spa, and pier overlooking the bay...very exciting!), napped in the car on the way home (shortly), then Grandma entertained/fed Connor snacks the rest of the way, got unpacked, picked up Coopy from Rach's, and now...should be sleeping but I'm posting pictures.

It was so much work (trying to keep Connor on his schedule/packing/unpacking/finding everything once we got there/trying to see everyone while working around Connor's moods & schedule/packing to leave/ unpacking at home...), but we had a good time! Lots of pictures so enjoy!

Should be napping/packing but I'm posting...

Trying real sweet potatoes for the 1st time--
He LOVED them! Mr. Independent is only happy if he feeds himself now.


Best idea ever! Give child a whole peach, let him play and eat,
takes up a good 20 minutes and he LOVED it!


As Julia Roberts says in "Pretty Woman": "One slippery little sucker" : )

Connor's world has really opened up now that he can eat 'people food'. Last night we tried real sweet potatoes and a whole peach. It was such a happy dinner time for him! Connor is pretty much bored and refuses to eat baby food now. He has become coordinated enough to feed himself (although its rather messy..but hey, it was pretty messy when I fed him too!), so he is not completely happy unless he can feed himself. He was a giant sticky mess at the end of dinner and the bath had lots of sweet potato and peach debris floating around, but he got his fruits and veggies for dinner & enjoyed every moment of it! : ) We have also tried egg yolks (can't have the whites yet for allergy reasons), pancakes and toast. This morning, we had yogurt cups with his favorite, "Dora" on them...which he continued to smile at through out the whole meal : ). My little flirt!

Look who is pulling up now!

'Ahhh...now how do I get down?!'

More pulling up fun!

'Hey Mom!'

So now that Connor is officially mobile and crawls away in a flash, he is now brushing up on his pulling up skills. I try not to freak out when I see him pulling up...I want to give him space to learn, but don't want him to conk his head on a table, tumble down on the hard floor, etc. Mr. Strong Man is loving the view of the world from the floor and now up higher! He is too funny to watch his little determined face try and figure out how to get up and then...how to get down!

It's packing time!

If packing wasn't a pain before, try doing it with a little one that likes to pick up, unfold, and suck on clothes! I had many soggy outfits to pack in our suitcase this morning! Yesterday, I got Coop all packed (seems easy, but he has a lot of baggage!). This morning, I started to lay out Connor's stuff...which I may be over doing it but we have beach clothes, jammies, warm clothes (if the room is chilly), light weight clothes (if its hot), pants for crawling on tile, food bibs, drool bibs, back up everything in case we have a potty/poop/spit up incident, cute cozy clothes, cute big boy clothes, hats, a beach diaper bag (that can get sandy)....and the list goes on and on! I'm sure I will have more than enough, but have to plan for everything! So I am not quite done yet, but got a head start on it all. I have a feeling that Connor will be so together and looking so darn cute & I will probably be wearing the same outfit for 4 days! Today is clothes packing day, tomorrow is food prep, baking, laundry, and big item packing (stroller, entertainer, etc). I may need a vacation from this vacation, but we are still very excited! Can't wait for Connor to have non stop pool time, explore the beach, play with family, see Katie, and just get away for a few days!

Quite the boring post today, but this is all we will be up to for the next 2 days! : )

Oh, and a special Birthday wish for our wonderful Grammy today!! We hope you have a fabulous and relaxing day! We love you very much!! xoxox

4th of July

We had such a great 4th of July! Connor started the day off by NOT taking his morning nap, because he was too busy crawling all over the house! He just discovered that he can move farther than the living room, so he was busy busy busy discovering things like the blinds, sliding glass door, kitchen tile, and Coop's food bowls! So instead of our morning nap, we stayed up and did lunch, then loaded in the car (to hopefully fall asleep on the way), and headed down to Cape Harbour to see their 4th of July festivities. Connor fell asleep about 2 minutes into the car ride, so I found a good parking spot and let him sleep for about a 1/2 hour. We met Grandma and Papa down there and had a nice walk checking everything out. There wasn't anything too special, but we ran into some family friends (the Kelleys & Meyers), which was great! Connor was wonderful (especially considering it was 1000 degrees outside and he was running low on sleep). The highlight of the trip was finding a tupperware booth. We had just been talking about getting Connor tupperware sippy cups (just like the ones me, Craig, and Katie grew up on). They were prettier (upgraded from about 20 years ago), but the same concept. They are the perfect size cups for Connor to hold (likes that better than the cups with the handles). We got a few of those (which we tried out this morning and Connor LOVED it!).

After Cape Harbour, we headed back to Grandma and Papa's while they went to pick up Coop from the house. Connor crashed for about 2 minutes in the car and I guess that was his power nap, because he was all ready for the pool when we got there! Connor enjoyed a nice popsicle after being out in the heat and a swim in the pool with Papa. We had a great day and were finally able to get Connor down for a nap around 4:30pm. Connor and I both crashed 'til about 6pm...we both probably could have slept through the night, but luckily Grandma got me up, so we could get ready for supper and bed. Connor did great through all the firework sounds around the neighborhood (slept through it all!!...9pm-5:30am!!!), but poor Coopy was another story. He is terrified of fireworks and usually just sucks his little tail in and tries to find a cozy place to hide. We all survived the night & had a great night's sleep (all of us except poor Coopy).

I love the 4th of July! Always makes me think of my Grandma Beach and how wonderful she was! She always loved to get the family together and the 4th of July was the best way to do it! We would all stay down on Ft. Myers beach, hang out, watch the fireworks, and just enjoy our time together. It has now been 6 years since she's been gone, but everytime the 4th of July rolls around--she's the first thing that comes to mind! : )

It is just a few days away from our family beach trip next weekend. Let the packing and preparations begin (...actually 'continue'...I've been packing and preparing for the past week already!) Getting my things together, food packed, everything ready for Connor, Coop all packed up for a fun few days with wonderful Rachel and Gareth, and everything else involved is just a little overwhelming! Can't wait til next weekend though--Connor is going to love the beach! The pools! The family!

Crawling away and modeling his cute jammies from Auntie Nicole!

Getting ready for our morning walk...didn't realize his jammies were
red, white and blue too...so festive!

Connor talking to Cooper...about a few minutes before he
crawls into the kitchen and straight for Cooper's food bowls!


Our festive colors on the 4th of July at Cape Harbour




Couldn't you just squish those cheeks!!

We ran into our buddy, Aidan...but he was sleeping
(probably what Connor should have been doing!)

Our favorite, Pip!!


Cool guys with their caps on

Cooling off with his popsicle

Connor's favorite place in the whole world!

Had to get a few shots with his 4th of July bib!

Feeding himself finger foods! Such a big boy now!

SUPER CRAWLER!

The day has finally arrived! Connor has mastered his crawling skills and has figured out that he can get anywhere he'd like rather quickly. His first destination= Cooper's food bowls! Enjoy!

More Fun!

Connor had some fun playing with spaghetti noodles while we made dinner yesterday. He didn't really know what to think of them, but it was fun for him to have something new in his mouth. Grandma got a few good pics from their afternoon together while I was at work. Enjoy!

Connor LOVES to crawl over and flip on his Fish Tank toy when he wakes up!
He reminds me of a man watching tv : ).

Fresh faced after a good, long nap.

Disregard my goofy face- was cracking up at Connor as we
were trying to get an action shot of him playing with a noodle &
all he did was stop playing and 'Cheese' for the camera!

I think he would have liked the noodle WITH sauce...kinda bland

We had a wonderful afternoon visit with Auntie Nicole and Uncle Craig today! It's been awhile since we've seen them, so it was fun to show off Connor's latest 'tricks'---crawling, raspberries (I was hoping he'd do that while Craig was here : )), and my favorite trick, the 'CHEESE' face every time you pull out the camera. And I just want to take a moment to say that Nicole is the most generous person EVER! She is so giving and always has lots of adorable clothes for Connor. It was so not like me to not take pictures, but I think I was distracted since they brought their camera. So...no pictures to post, but I'm sure we will get plenty with them during our Annual Grandma Beach Memorial beach trip next weekend!! We are so excited. Connor would have loved his Great Great Grandma Beach and boy, would she have loved Connor! This is my first vacation with Connor, so I've been doing lots of preparation lists and packing already. It is amazing at how much equipment is needed for such a small person! Makes packing for myself seem like a breeze! So stay tuned for great pictures to come (and I'm sure I will have plenty of Connor tomorrow for the his first 4th of July). Hope everyone has a great 4th!!

Now that Connor is wearing mostly 9-12 mos clothes, he needs to stock up on 18-24 mos clothes already! I remember filling his closet after my Baby Shower and thinking...this will work great- by the time he's in his 12 mos clothes, it'll be right around his birthday & Christmas. BUT...since it is just July and we are in 12 mos clothes, it didn't work out quite as I had thought! We heard there was a huge sale at the Carter's Outlet, so had a great time shopping yesterday! Shopping for Connor + Great sale= Happy Mom!

Connor is moving along great now. He crawls anywhere he needs to go, but hasn't figured out that he can take off yet. He just recently mastered crawling and pulling to sitting position, so he usually just keeps practicing that...which keeps him from speed crawling anywhere! It's only a matter of time (probably sooner than later) that he will be cruising all over the place. We had our first crawling injury yesterday though : (. We were playing in the guest room and Connor was practicing crawling then trying to pull up on the bed. Well, the bedskirt covers the metal bed frame corner--so as Connor crawled head first toward the bed, he conked his forehead on the hidden corner. It was rather traumatic for both of us (probably more for me than him). Got a tiny bruise, but not as bad as I thought.

This is the best picture I got of Connor in his jammies yesterday. I found his jammies (size 12 mos) toward the back of his closet & thought he could fit into them now. HA- had to squeeze his thighs into them! He usually wears cozy onesies to bed since he's usually a hot child, but these were light weight and super cute : ). He got them from his wonderful Great Aunt Kris! I wanted to just eat him up in these-he was so cuddly. Got a good night's sleep in them too (only up once), so looks like they will be washed and worn again soon!

Had a rough morning this morning...Cooper's fault, not Connor's! Apparently Cooper thinks its fun to dig his holes up after a good rain, when the already messy dirt has become even messier mud. So- Cooper and I got to enjoy a shower together this morning (Cooper HATES getting wet), so I got a clean dog out of it and Cooper got his punishment. That dog just kills me sometimes...but of course, I still love him!

Trouble is his middle name...well, Scott-Trouble : )

Now that Connor can get where he wants to go then sit up when he'd like, he seems to be getting a little more mischievous! This picture was taken while I was at work yesterday. Looks like Mr. smarty pants has figured out how to untie the bumpers on his crib. When Grandma found him, he was talking and sucking on the tiny strings that hold the bumper up! I just love how when you catch him, he just looks up at you and gives a big grin.

Last night, Connor slept much better. For about the past week, Connor has not been wanting to sleep much at night! He only got up once last night (around 2:30am). I heard him fussing on the monitor, then got kinda quiet but I knew he was still awake. About 15 seconds later, I heard the music of his fish tank toy on the side of his crib and random babbling. He sat in there for a good 20 minutes just watching his fish tank. He looks so funny when you poke your head in his room to see the top of his head popped up over his crib staring straight at this illuminating light (his fish tank toy lights up and plays music). He didn't go back to sleep on his own, as he sometimes gets too tired to move from the sitting position to laying down again. Although I didn't sleep as much since I was watching this little man play in his crib around 3am, I still consider last night somewhat of a successful night's sleep!