Conner turns 1! Prt. 1

I can't see the pictures while I am writing this, but I can see them when I preview, so I am just going to write everything before the picures and hopefully the issue will be resolved before the next post. Conner got to have three birthday parties for his first birthday; one over Labor Day weekend, one on the 18th, and one on his actual birthday on the 22nd. This post is about his party over Labor Day weekend when we actually celebrated three birthdays - Conner's, Grandpa's, and Steve's. Grammy and Grandpa came down on Saturday. The first order of business was to put together Conner's new car. I don't know if Conner was more excited about holding (sucking on) the screwdriver or getting a ride in his car. The car has a floor in it so his feet wouldn't drag while getting pushed. This week though Conner is able to use his own feet to drive the car, although it is only backwards. He also likes to get behind it and push it around the yard. On Sunday we all went to the zoo to see the new 2 week old baby chimp that made national news because the mom is 56 (or 80 years old in human years)! They had some feeding demonstrations of different animals so the kids got to see the chimps, monkeys, and sea otters eat. The highlight for Kaylee, as always, was feeding the ducks and goats. Conner preferred to look at the goats from a ways back. Sunday night we had a supper to celebrate all the birthdays with ribs on the grill and cake. The Boggs family came over also for supper and to visit. Conner got his first taste of cake and loved it! Even tried licking (eating?) the plate.

Water Play Fun!

Like most kids, these two LOVE water! Conner can hear the bath water start from the other side of the house and then he is off as fast as he can crawl, and that is pretty fast. There is no stopping him from getting in the water once he knows that it is there.

After bath, Kaylee was still in the tub and Conner was on his way back.

They love taking their baths together and we love only have to do bathtime once a night!

The kids were all ready to play in the pool, but out of nowhere it started to rain so they got to play in the rain instead.

Last year Kaylee hated getting her hair or face wet. This year she thought it was so funny when she got her hair wet and wasn't afraid of the sprinkler either. Conner just wanted to crawl in and out of the water or drink it. We actually made it to the local splash park quite a few times this year. Last year Kaylee wasn't too excited about it because the water just squirts up so randomly. But, this year she couldn't get enough. She won't go through the rings (on the left) yet, but maybe next year. Conner had fun just sitting by the water and trying to catch it when it squirted up.

Kaylee with her friends Sophia and Max at the splash park. Our good friends, Don and Rosemary, have a pool in the neighborhood and Rosemary invited us to go swimming a couple times this summer. It was neat to watch Kaylee get braver and braver each time we went. By the last time that we went swimming she would jump to us from the side of the pool without holding on to our hands when she jumped. That was a BIG step for her! Next year we are going to get her in swim lessons and hopefully she will learn how to put her face in the water. It will be better to have someone else, besides me, to teach her how.

Eating and Brushing Teeth....

Well this isn't the most awesome post, but the pictures are still pretty cute. They are some random ones taken from May to August. Most of them are of Conner trying to master his feeding skills. Just this week he is starting to use his spoon and can actually use it quite. We believe he is going to be left handed since that is the hand that he usually uses to eat will.

See...left hand.

Hmmm....wonder what happened here????

Drinking with left hand.

Brushing teeth with his left hand.

Kaylee eating her breakfast. It can sometimes take her awhile to wake up and she can be pretty crabby. (Wonder where she got that!) The pictures before this she was showing how cranky she was and then she just stopped her attitude to take the final picture.

More left handed eating.

Is there something on my face? So big! Cottage cheese. Yum!

Kaylee's visit to Grammy and Papa's house

Last week Kaylee got the opportunity to stay 5 whole days at my parents house (Grammy and Papa) in Minnesota. This was the first time that she has been away from us (I have only been away from her for one night, the night I was in the hospital when Conner was born), so it was a little hard to say goodbye to her. We met my parents and Mary in Omaha on Sunday at the Pizza Machine and after eating and playing a few games it was time to pack her things the their car and say goodbye. Man that was hard and it was so strange how quiet it was on the way home. But we survived and Kaylee had so much fun and made many great memories. Here are some pictures of their fun and proof that they did more than just watch cartoons!

Here she is helping Uncle Corey at work on the diary farm and at his house.

Travis and Kaylee reading

Swinging with a kitty on the tire swing that Papa made just for her! Not quite sure what she is doing here to Uncle Corey, but I bet it was cute!

Aha, there is some proof that she did watch cartoons! HAHA

Posing with Great Aunt Mary after a busy day of going to the Sioux Falls Zoo and visiting the butterfly house.

Mom said as soon as she woke up she wanted to go outside to play with the kitties. We are working on Steve to get her one, but I don't see that happening in the near future. :)

She still talks about Travis combing her hair. Guess he did a good job. Hmmm...Maybe a new profession?!?

Trying something new here with a collage. I believe you can click on it to make it larger but I'm not positive. Anyway, here are some pictures of their fun at the zoo, butterfly house, and the Slayton fair.

She had so much fun and Steve and I got a lot done here after Conner went to bed that we might consider letting her stay away again. But not for a little while, the transition back home was quite difficult for her and she had many a tantrum.

Can it be true?!

That we have a 10 month old (okay he's almost 11 months by now, but it's been a busy couple weeks) already! Two more months and we have a 1 year old! Conner is learning so much and it is so fun to see him growing (and a little sad)!

Some new things the Conner is doing............

- eating all table food, he usually eats what we eat with very few exceptions. It is so nice to not have to buy or make the baby food and serve two seperate meals. Conner loves to EAT!!! He eats just about anything. Somethings take a couple servings to get him to eat it but he hasn't really turned anything away. Some of his favorite foods are toast (cut into quaters), bananas, any meat, potatoes, GRAPES, and of course cheerios.

- he drinks from only a sippy cup. He has been doing this since the beginning of July and it wasn't a problem at all getting him to give up his bottles. With both kids we made sure to do it early so they didn't get too attached to the bottle and didn't make a big deal about it. He also made the switch to formula at this time. He did notice something was different but since he eats about anything he didn't refuse it. :)

- he has two teeth on the bottom with about four more on top trying to break through. The ones on top have been trying to break through for a long time now and we thought by now they would have but still nothing.

- he is able to stand by himself with great control and even clap while standing. He can squat up and down without holding on to anything, but won't take a step yet. He is so fast crawling that we think he just prefers that for now. But I can't wait for him to start walking so he isn't so dirty all the time and isn't finding all those crumbs, or dirt, leftover from the kids.

- he is starting to have favorite toys and right now it seems to be a potatoe masher (I think that is what it is?). I've never personally used it so I put it downstairs in the play kitchen things and he found and will carry it around while he is crawling. I think he likes things that have long handles on them because tonight he found a K-State clapper of Kaylee's and crawled around with that and cried at bedtime when I had to take it away from him. Poor kid.

- at his 9 month appointment he was just shy of 20 lbs. so we are pretty sure he is there now.

- is hair has one little curl in it so far, right behind his ear. So I'm pretty sure he will have some curls!

- I know there is so much more that he is doing, but it's been a very long week!

I'll leave you with pictures of Conner from when he was born, 5 months old, and 10 months old. (You can click on the pictures to view them bigger)

Doesn't he look like Steve in the last one?