First Week at School

Connor and Miss Yelena, his teacher from Russia (don't you love this new thing he is doing with tucking his lip??)

This is what Connor was doing when Mommy picked him up yesterday.

Ugh! They caught me chewing on my toys again.

OK, OK, I surrender!

I mean, really?? (Doesn't this sound & look like Aunt Rebekah?)

Daddy thought it would be cute to show my rump-a-licious hiney.

So happy watching my Baby Einstein vidoes.

Aunt Rebekah & Uncle Ryan (Mommy's youngest sister and husband).

Grandma, Uncle Brian and Aunt Angela (Mommy's oldest sister & her husband and my granny).

I know, I know! This is hilarious! Uncle Brian thought it would be nice to play with Ma's hair piece and she did not know she looked like this until after I took the picture. She may kill me for putting this on here, but I can't resist.

Connor, in swim gear, taking a nap on the way to the beach.

Mommy, Daddy and Me (I am not one of those women who look good with wind blown hair!)

Walking on the beach - that's Cousin Jordan way in the background by the water.

Little Baby Deer and Momma Deer eating dinner.

And, I got a good pic of my 4 pointer buck. This is about as close as they will let me get to them.

So, Connor started school!!! YAY! His first day was Monday of this week and Kevin and I both were there to see him off for his first day. Yeah, I admit, I cried a little bit once I got back outside to the car. But, I realize that it is just so beneficial for him and that erases some of the sadness. They do grow up very quickly. We just hit 7 months this week and I just can't get over the fact that 7 months ago I was 28 lbs heavier and carrying around an almost 8 lb baby inside of me. Crazy.

Connor wasn't supposed to go to school for another week or so, but my cousin Michael and his wife Martha (who kept Connor since he was 2 months old) got the approval for their adoption last Monday and had to fly out the following Monday! They are in the Ukraine now and hope to bring their daughter, Laurel, back with them when they return at the end of this month. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they travel and meet their new little girl.

Connor does enjoy school quite a bit - I think he likes seeing the other babies - but he sure does miss his Martha! He saw her before she left and he just grins so big when he sees her. I know it was just as hard for her and little Noah as it was for us and Connor to make this change, but it was time for it and it has worked out great for all of us. Martha and Mike - thank you again so much for all that you have done for us over the past six months. You were a great blessing to us and we are just so grateful that you were so willing to help us in our time of need.

Connor has two teacher - Miss Yelena, from Russia, and Miss Essence, who lives right in Raleigh. He seems to love both of them and enjoys playing with the other kids. He is smiling so much these days - his little personality is just shining through. His teachers say he has done great this week - no fussiness or anything. He is a very laid back baby and just as content as can be. He has enjoyed story time, music time and water play time! They play with buckets of water outside in their swim suits and Connor almost dunked himself with the bucket of water he is so strong. Miss Yelena calls him chubby white haired boy, which gives Daddy a good laugh. The school will send us pics from time to time and I will try to post those on here as well. Daddy will be the one to take Connor and pick him up, so it makes it a little easier on Mommy!

I also included some pictures from when we went to the beach with my family a couple weeks ago. We didn't stay in the sun too much, but Connor really enjoyed walking on the beach in the evenings. It was nice, cool, breezy weather - so that was nice. He did good on the car ride, too. I'm telling you - he is a trooper! He handles all kinds of changes so good.

Speaking of change . . . we're changing his feeding and sleeping schedule! I do this every so often to accommodate his age. So, at six months we decided that we would like to try taking him off of his acid reflux medicine, so we did and he is doing great without it. I think he has outgrown that issue. For those of you who don't know, babies with acid reflux have to be held upright for at least 25 mins after eating before you can put them down to nap. So for six months, Connor got used to be held and then put down to sleep. We had to teach him how to put himself to bed at night. And it took some time over several nights (one night until midnight) to get him to learn to put himself to bed and now he does it without any problem. It was hard to live thru that, but it is worth it now! He goes to bed at 9pm and sleeps til 7am. :)

He's also sitting up really good by himself now. He doesn't need much support at all. Rolling both ways of course and no teeth yet, though I can feel them through his gums. Any time now they'll be pushing on through. I can also feel the top ones too, so they won't be far behind the bottom two.

Other than that, not much else going on here. Some of Daddy's family - Uncle Tim, Aunt Krissy and Uncle Wes - are coming into town for the weekend. Uncle John and soon to be Aunt Sarah are having a bridal shower this weekend, so we'll be hanging out in Chapel Hill this weekend. We'll be sure to take lots of pics to post on the site!

Hope everyone has a great week!