9 Month Update

I am definitely behind in updating the blog, but I wanted to post an update of all of the new things that Conner is doing lately. His 9 Month birthday evening (Saturday 11/28) was spent in the Children's Hospital ER, our first visit but I am sure it won't be the last if Conner is anything like I was as a kid. Conner had a fever since Friday morning and it was not improving any with Baby Motrin. He was an overall miserable baby, not wanting to move from my chest and acting like any movement was too much effort. What started us worrying is the shallow rapid breathing that he had, I had never heard him do that before, so I called his pediatrician's office and they put me in contact with the nurse at Children's. After hearing his symptoms the nurse asked us to bring him in due to the breathing. My mom and I packed Conner’s diaper bag and piled in the car. I called Andrew on the way and he met us at the ER. They are so amazing at Children's, they called us right back and we met with the Resident and then the Doctor. After speaking with them both, as well as a chest X-Ray, it was determined that Conner was fighting some sort of Viral Infection, but that if his breathing worsened to bring him back in. Of course when the doctors came to look at him he perked right up and was smiling and giggling like he was the healthiest baby ever, that’s my baby!

By Monday he was feeling a little better, and we had our regular scheduled 9 month check in with his pediatrician. Conner weighed in at 22lbs moving down to the 50-75th percentile for height and weight but staying in the 95th percentile for head circumference. Everything checked out great and the only shot he received was the Seasonal Flu booster.

Milestones that Conner has mastered:

*Pulling to a stand
*Crawling
*Cruising
*Clapping
*Indian Call
*Eating finger foods (he no longer likes baby food, and wants to feed himself)
*Using his Sippy cup on his own
*throwing all toys out of his crib when he is done with his nap, and then crying that all the toys are out of his crib
*Finding his binky and putting it in his mouth, my mouth, the dogs mouth, and trying to catch the cats to give the binky to them (he likes to share)

Milestones that Conner has started:

*Waving
*Standing without holding on
*Climbing onto everything; he has successfully mastered climbing on anything as tall as 1 foot, working on everything taller
*Saying Mama and Dada, he has said them but I am not ready to call them his first words yet
*Pointing to Mama and Daddy when asked where they are
*throwing his ball
*Tantrums when he does not get to do something he wants
*Following directions (placing a ball in a bucket, giving a toy to me)

Shortly before Thansgiving we took our Family Christmas photos!

I gave Conner a present at Thansgiving (it was a snow globe) so that he could practice opening presents for Christmas. He was confused at first, but really liked the paper once I showed him how to do it.

Swimming Class

Conner's grandpa came to swimming class this last Sunday and was able to take some good pictures of Conner having fun in the water. He loves swimming class and especially splashing the other babies. The one aspect of class he is not so sure about is going under water, but he is getting used to it and will be a pro in no time at all!

Dare Devil Conner

Conner's grandmother found a very fun chair that he loves. It lights up and sings to him when he presses the seat or the lamp. Conner has now discovered how to climb up on and stand on the seat. He thinks this is great fun, I think it is a recipe for hitting one's head. We have decided to disagree on this subject and he climbs onto the seat every chance he gets - usually while singing and dancing to the music. Here is a little clip of him in action.

More Pictures

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Conner, his Grandpa and I went to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins and take some pictures. Conner was very unsure why I was putting him in the dirt and taking his picture and was even more unsure of the prickly pumpkin stems and large orange plants that surrounded him. Towards the end we did get some smiles out of him for the camera. We ended up taking home 5 pumpkins of varying sizes, but never got around to carving them this year. Next year when Conner can participate more we will definitely carve pumpkins. I love the holidays and Halloween is the start of the holiday season for me!

Conner had a Halloween party for all of his friends (and my friends too). It was so much fun to have all of the little kids over dressed up in their costumes. Conner was in the middle of breaking through 2 more teeth, so he was a little grumpy for the party, but he still had a lot of fun! Here is a picture of Conner dressed as a dragon!

Crawling and Catch

Conner is officially crawling now and finally I have video to prove it!



He also is starting to play catch!

New Video just for Conner's Grandma

By Request, here is some more recent video of Conner. Its not too exciting, just of him playing with his toys over the last two evenings.

Monkey Talk

More video of Conner. This time of him talking to his friend Max the Monkey.

Recent Video

Posting some recent video of Conner just for his grandparents who are on vacation and miss him!

Pulling to a stand

Conner continues to surprise me. Tonight while in the bath tub he reached and grabbed the side of the tub and then pulled himself to a stand. He has been working on crawling for a couple of weeks now, but I definitely did not expect him to stand on his own anytime soon. Tomorrow we go in for our 6 month appt, so I should have an update soon with his new weight and measurements as well as any other fun facts that we learn at the doctor.

Circle of Fun - Activity Center

I was watching some old videos of Conner and wanted to post an example of his first time in his activity center and a more recent video of him in the same activity center.

Solid Food!

My plan was to wait until Conner was 6 months until we started introducing solids. Conner on the other hand decided that was not the best plan for him. He got his first teeth at 4 months, and at the same time seemed to be hungry all the time. He started waking up in the middle of the night (multiple times) to eat again, when we had just gotten him to sleep for 7 hours straight without a feeding. He also started dive bombing any and all food that was around him. All of that coupled with sitting unassisted - I gave in and we started introducing solids a little after he turned 5 months. Conner was delighted and now I can not fill the spoon fast enough. Here is the video of his first reactions!

Baby Friends

I have been delinquent in posting lately and I have a couple of updates I need to add, including Conner's 6 month birthday coming up and his reaction to solid food. But I will get to those later. In the mean time here are some pictures of Conner and his girl-friend Sierra before one of their swim classes. Sierra is a little over 2 months older than Conner and has a slight advantage of being able to crawl, but they love to sit together and discuss baby matters of great importance.

5 Months Old!

Conner is growing so fast lately and hitting so many milestones. He is no longer my little baby but quickly approaching a crawler and almost just as soon a toddler. He has such a great personality and is described by most people who meet him as the happiest baby in the world as he just loves to smile, giggle and coo at everyone who holds him or is even in the vicinity. He now can role from tummy to back and from his back to his tummy. He has taken lately to even sleeping on his stomach (we put him to sleep on his back and find him on his stomach).

He is starting to be mobile as well. His mode of moving forward on his stomach includes pushing his face into the ground and kicking his feet so that he can move an inch or two in the direction that he chooses. He is also a very accomplished sitter and can sit and play with his toys unassisted for long stretches of time until he sees something he can't reach and some how falls in slow motion forward and onto his stomach and pushes his head into the ground once more. He is getting ready to crawl very soon which means that I need to start child proofing our house now!
He has now graduated from his baby bath to a inflated tub that fits into our bathtub. He probably outgrew his baby bath a long time ago but he was not ready for the next tub until he could sit up on his own. He loves his new tub and gets an instant grin as soon as he sees it. He has learned that when he takes his toys and throws them outside the tub they make a really loud sound. And does it over and over again.

He has slept through the night a few nights so far, but recently seems to be on a sleep strike and hates going to bed at night. I can tell he is so tired, rubbing his eyes and shutting them briefly, but as soon as he sees his crib he gets wide awake and wants to play. If I dare put him in his crib he starts crying and it only gets louder the longer I wait. I am not ready to let him cry it out so I have only left him in there for about 4-5 minutes at the longest and boy is he mad at that point. I think he is training us, not the other way around, but we are working on it.

With the recent 100 degree weather my heat sensitive baby has not fared too well. When we are at home he is fine as we luckily have air conditioning, but if we try and venture out anywhere he just melts and is miserable.

Here are a couple of pictures from the last month!

Swim Lessons!

Today Conner started swim lessons with his friend Sierra. He loved the pool environment, but was a little unsure once he hit the water. He preferred to sit back and watch the other kids. Which is exactly how I expected him to react. He definitely is a little observer and likes to study situations before he decides if he likes it or not. After the class was over and we were able to have a little free swim he definitely warmed up and started smiling and laughing. Andrew was able to come and take video of the class for us. Here is a little bit of Conner and Sierra in the water.

Fourth of July

Andrew, Conner and I had a great Fourth of July. We started out at the Kirkland Parade right outside of Time Out with a bunch of friends. Conner was a little young this year for the parade, but I am sure that he will love it next year!

After the parade we went to my parent's house to go swimming and Conner had his first chance to go in the lake with his baby floaty that my mom has. He wasn't too sure about the water being cold, but I think he will start to get used to it especially with his swim classes that are starting in a couple of weeks.

After the lake we went over to Kate and Matt's house for a BBQ and some fireworks (we didn't stay for the fireworks as both Conner and Andrew were exhausted).

Over all we had a great day and a lot of firsts for Conner!

Conner has Teeth!!

Last night while playing with Conner he started chewing on my finger like he does quite often and there was something sharp in there. As I looked in his mouth I noticed that he has two little bottom teeth that have poked through his gums! I got so excited I called to Andrew (who I am sure thought something terrible had just happened with the sense of urgency that I called with). Apparently he has had those two little teeth since Monday and I just had not noticed, oh well, I am sure this won't be the last milestone that I don't get to see first, but I am still so proud of my little baby! He has been a little fussy and sleeping a little more over the last week or so, but overall he has just been his usual happy self.

I don't have any pictures of his new teeth yet - but will be trying in the next couple of days. In the mean time here are some great pictures my dad took on Monday evening when they had Conner!

4 Month Update and Stats

Conner turned 4 months on Sunday and had his well baby check-up on Tuesday. He is officially 17lbs 10 oz, 26in long and his head circumference is 44cm. He is in the 90th percentile for every category, so definitely a big boy with a big head (just like his daddy)!

The doctor said he is looking great and right on track with development. He doesn't roll over yet but with him being as chubby as he is, I don't think he will give that a try for another month or so. He has great head control, makes eye contact and can find his parents or grandparents across a room. He definitely can follow an object that he is interested in and reach and grab for it. He will sit and study an object for long periods of time just inspecting it and trying to figure it out. He will be my little scientist one day I bet! He definitely contemplates a situation before he acts, but loves to laugh and talk to everyone, especially woman and girls. We have a lot of drool lately - he can soak an outfit in five minutes flat which means I need to buy more bibs! He prefers to sit up now than lay down and is trying to hold himself up independently for longer stretches of time. He is starting to sleep better at night, sleeping 8-9 hour stretches, getting up to eat and then sleeping for another 1-2 hours. Hopefully we can keep this up.

He also received his second set of shots on Tuesday and they went much better than the first round. His only side effect this time was sleeping a little more than usual. That is so much better than the non-stop crying for 3 hours that we had last time. He was not too pleased with the actual shot but calmed down really quickly in my arms afterwards.

Conner started daycare on Monday and it has been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I have been back to work for almost 6 weeks now and Conner has been with my Mom in the morning and Andrew in the afternoons. We knew this would only be a temporary situation as both Andrew and my Mom have work that needs to be done during the day and as Conner gets older he is not as easily portable or willing to go on errands all day long. We have a great daycare situation with a friend of my mom's who lives within walking distance of our house and has a daycare out of her house. She is great with the kids and it is great for Conner to have other kids to play with during the day. But as a mom it is harder on me than it is on him to leave him with someone who is not family. In our situation I think it is harder on Me, Andrew, my Mom and my Dad as they have all gotten so attached to him and used to having him around every day. I know my parent's miss him as now they don't get to see him every day and Andrew misses him as well as he now gets him at 3pm everyday instead of at noon. My parent's will still have Conner on Fridays and now Monday evenings when Andrew and I have soccer, but I think we will have to start splitting time with him as 2 days a week is just not enough!

We are really looking forward to the fourth of July coming up and will post pictures very soon. Conner will get to see his first parade and fireworks (if he is awake which I am guessing he won't be).

More Photos

Conner has been so cute lately I have so many photos that I just love. Here are a couple of my favorites from this week!

And my new absolute favorite!

Almost hit some milestones

So Conner has been practicing some of his milestones and he is almost there. He can almost roll over from his back to his front he gets most of the way to his stomach and then rolls right back to his back.

He also can sit up unassisted for almost a minute until he will slowly slide off to the side.