Father's Day shananigans

Our Father's Day consisted of lots of water, family, giggles & love :)

I think Papa did more work than should be permitted on Father's Day, but he had quite the little helper through out the day. Connor & Papa helped wash cars, wash the "boap" (aka boat), and worked out swimming lessons in between. Connor could not get enough of his Auntie "Tee Tee" and was also very excited to see his "Unc Egg" (aka Uncle Craig) and "Pole" (aka Auntie Nicole) as well as a special visit from Uncle Pete! Nana made a wonderful family lunch and the day was pretty much perfect :)

Connor is one brave little guy in the water. He's getting better and better at staying afloat!








I've never seen one child so obsessed with the hose!


Connor wasn't quite strong enough to spray the hose by himself, but figured out that if you toss the hose just right at the ground, it sprays...and boy was that FUNNY! Big giggles from my water boy...

This Father's Day...

This Father's Day I am grateful...

For the male figures in Connor's life...

Thank you for being there for him...

I can't thank you enough...

We love you all dearly!

It's POTTY time!

We've had a potty chair for about 6 months. We've had a potty seat for about 2 months. Connor didn't want to have anything to do with either of them until yesterday. You couldn't BRIBE him to sit on either of them for more than 2 seconds without wanting "up, up."

With the help of books, letter crackers, and singing songs like the alphabet, I was able to get Connor to sit on the potty long enough to go POTTY yesterday! I, of course, must sit on the big potty and go at the same time as a strange form of encouragement, but WHATEVER WORKS! As Connor was going potty, he looked down with a strange, confused look, then turned his "hose" toward him to see what was going on. He, of course, managed to spray his MAMA in the mean time! Ever tried to cheer for your child and fake smile while being showered by urine?!?!?!! After a small puddle clean up and change of clothes for mwah, Connor had jumped his first hurdle of going on the potty! We busted out his big boy underwear (he opted for Cookie Monster this time around) and we played while Mom kept a close watch on the clock to make sure we would make it to the potty again without an accident. I asked Connor every 10 minutes if we should go try the potty again and he became more and more frustrated & said "NOPE!" While I was busy sending out photo text messages of my big boy in his underwear & receiving text messages back, Connor managed to slip around the corner for a second to come right back to me & say "Uh oh, Mama"...as he took me by the hand to bring me to the scene of the crime where a nice puddle of urine was found. That very moment was a giant flashback to when I was house breaking Cooper...

We cleaned up, cleaned the carpet, changed clothes & slipped his diaper back on, so we could play outside for a bit. Connor was growing annoyed and tired of my constant potty reminder while he was playing, so I knew we weren't quite ready to sit nicely on the potty to go into potty training at full force. We tried again after supper, but Connor was too focused on wanting to go "pedal" on his bike outside.

We will continue to try and emphasize that the potty is what the cool kids do ;)

Here's Mr. Big man as he was all curious poking and prodding at 'places' while sitting on his frog potty. His potty splash guard has a dual purpose of a cup holder apparently...

We were cheering about wearing his big boy undies at this point...


After a successful urine deposit, it was time to model his briefs :). Cute as can be!

Wish us luck on our future potty adventures!

A boy and his wagon...

A wagon was collecting dust in Connor's closet for about a year...

Then one day Connor found a use for his wagon and...

This wagon hasn't been left unattended ever since...

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Happy Memorial Day from one cool kid!

We've had a wonderful weekend dancing to live music, swimming until we were "pruney", and playing to the point of physical exhaustion.

We kept Connor occupied (while Connor entertained the crowd down at Cape Harbour) while we listened to the band last Friday. Connor's latest fascination is jumping off of anything and everything, so he decided to make the curb his jumping ground & made Matt join in on the fun!

We also decided to pack Connor's ever-so-favorite wagon full of his Winnie the Pooh figures that he is currently obsessed with. At any given time during the day, Connor will ask about "TiggerEeyorePooh" as if they are all one creature! He loves to pull them out one by one, name them, stand them up, then pull them away & do it all over again. Sometimes Connor is so hard to please, but there are certain simple activities that can occupy him for hours! He pulled that wagon around the street circle a good 10000000 times that night!

At the end of the night, the drummer from the band thanked Connor for his appreciation for their music by giving Connor his drum sticks! Mama was ever so grateful!! ;) Connor was pretty pumped about his new toys! Whenever we'd see the band, I'd tell Connor to dance. When the band would take a short break, Connor would point to the unoccupied instruments & say "dance," implying that each band was called "Dance." Pretty cute :).

Here's my little drummer boy watching the band in awe.

We spent the next few days living like fish in the water! It took Connor up until about a week ago to realize you get "pruney" from staying in the pool a long time. He likes to swim, randomly look at his hands & says "Oops." We then giggle at eachother and I ask if he's pruney yet and he says with a giant grin--"ooney."

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

This boy can COUNT! :)

This video was created a few weeks ago, so pronunciation has become clearer since then. I love to hear words flow from his mouth with his precious little lisp. We can count to twenty (with thirteen thru nineteen all sounding remotely similar). He can also count down from ten to one. This Mama right here is proud! :)

Buddies

Here are just a few random shots of Connor hanging with his buddies :)

Connor may not get to see his Auntie "Tee-Tee" very often, but when he does...he adores her! Here they are sharing a little cuddle time watching "Buzzzz" (aka Toy Story 3).

Although I was unable to catch all the "C" boys together (Connor, Carter, and Cameron), I was able to get a picture of Connor on the cool banana floatie in their pool.

Rub a dub dub, three munchkins in the tub! Connor always has a good time hanging with Austin & Kaylee. They're so cute together :)

Life's simple pleasures

Some days feel like a challenge when it comes to thinking up new, inexpensive ways to entertain a two year old. I think Matt & I did a pretty good job though this past week. I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Fun Stop #1: Water playground

Fun stop #2:
Nana & Papa's pool

I need to mention that this is the last day Connor used his swimmies as he believes he's Mr. Independent & can do without them now! I am so proud to watch him during his swimming lessons with Papa. Connor's pretty much treading water & doing some pretty impressive kicking. We're working on getting him to use his arms now... ;) Connor holds ZERO fear of the water, so you have to be EXTRA EXTRA careful with him near any body of water.

Fun Stop #2: Cape Harbour Live Music

It is the perfect set up for kiddies (and parents). Nice live music, a circle area for kids to run around, a bar nearby, and a beautiful view of the sunset. Connor had a blast dancing to the jazz music & running laps around the circle :) It was probably the closest thing to a date night with a 2 year old in tow! Matt & I will definitely do this again.

This hilarious true-to-life photo was captured by Matt. A little explanation...

Connor was sitting in front of the band clapping and busting out his latest dance moves when he suddenly decided to make a run for the drums. Matt was trying to catch Connor during his first instrumental contribution to the band, but managed to snap a shot of me in mid Mommy panic trot! No damage was done and the band members were great sports about it! Connor was a hoot!

We took a break from the dancing to check out a text pic from Nana & Papa. Papa was posing with one of Connor's favorite pals in Orlando--Woody from Toy Story. Needless to say, Connor was thrilled to see "Papa....Booby (aka Woody)." :)

Connor was excellent and our evening out was fun for everyone!

Fun stop #3: Pet Store

Who needs the zoo when you have an awesome pet store near by! We spent a good chunk of time wandering around the pet store checking out the tweet-tweets (birds), eee-eee (monkeys), turr-tul (turtle), and ish (fish). Connor was cute as can be when I asked him what animals he wanted to see at the pet store before we got there....he paused then replied with "Hippos." So precious!

This photo was snapped a good 1/2 second before I screamed "Noooooo" as Connor's little pudge finger headed straight toward Mr. Iguana's mouth. The lady that worked at the pet store was walking by & reassured me that the iguana wouldn't hurt him. My lovely phobia of lizzards made me think otherwise. Ewww....

The "turr-tul" was strolling free in the store & Connor had a great time petting his shell, touching his "toes", and even gave him a kiss on the shell when we had to leave. I tried to ignore the fact that my child's mouth was probably infested with tortoise germies.

It was nice to be a stay at home Mom again last week. I could easily get used to spending all that time with my munchkin :)

Flash back day

Katie & Craig might appreciate our little 'flash back' day recently. We pulled out a few of my childhood favorites & recreated the fun with Connor.

Item #1: big red rent.
*This tent spent a lot of time popped up on top of our beds when we were kids. We'd 'camp out' and sleep in our tent. Papa & I had fun trying to put this together while Connor was jumping in & out of it!

Item #2: "Dumbo" on VHS.
*Papa spent some time firing up the old VCR to get "Dumbo" up and running. Connor got to enjoy his first bowl of popcorn while cuddled up with Nana watching one of Mama's favorite childhood videos.

It was fun to flash back. It was even more fun to watch the 20-some year old commercials on the VHS tape of "Dumbo." We got a glimpse of weather man, Jim Farrell, before he was grey and 'aged.' I enjoyed the ads for 1988 Buick vehicles and the jingles for the McBLT served in styrofoam sandwich containers at McDonald's. :)

Beach boy

Pictures from the last few weeks...

Post #1: When Mama works on a Sunday morning, Connor gets to take trips to the beach with his favorite people- Nana and Papa.

Chillin...


Connor & his sweet sweet Nana.


Preparing for his fishing days with Papa & Uncle Craig.


Just keep swimming...


Does this look spell beach boy or what?!

Sneak Peak...

I have oodles and oodles of pictures to post & I just haven't had a chance to sit down since Easter to blog...

I'm not at my computer right now with access to all my photos, but here is a sneak peak :)

More to come...