Playing Catch Up

Connor's First Bite of Real Food! Carrots, if you are wondering . . .

I'm just not so sure about this Mom & Dad . . .

Actually, I think I might like this!

I'm not really this messy, Mommy & Daddy did it to me!

So much to eat, I fell asleep in my high chair.

Me in the Baby Bjorn at Caleb's TBall Game.

I love to grab my feet!

Mommy's friend Karen and her son Chase. We meet them for lunch sometimes.

I was going upstairs and Connor was watching, so I had to get this one on film.

My little babies! This one is about a 4 pointer now.

Here they are - waiting for their dinner.

Our house in the summer time . . .

I love to go from laying to standing. So, one . . .

Two . . .

Three! Yay!!!

Me standing from the front. Man do I have a tiny waist!

Full length photo with Buddy in the background.

Caleb preparing to bat. That's his Dad (Uncle Ryan) behind him. He helped coach the team.

Caleb sliding into third base . . .

Catching a ball on first base. That is his brother, Jordan, in the background.

Caleb taking a swing . . .

Little Caleb! Hard to believe he is almost six!

It is unreal how much time flies when you have a baby! We've had lots going on since our last post, so I will try to catch you up.

Our friend Emily had her little girl, Remy, about 3 weeks ago. Connor & I went to visit them a couple weeks ago and I was just amazed at how little she is! She was about 8 lbs 5 oz and I thought to myself, really - Connor was that small once??? And it was only five and half months ago! Congrats to Emily & Jeremy and to little Zeke 'cause now he is a big brother!

Connor had physical therapy several weeks ago and she insists that he is just getting better all the time in terms of his torticollis. However . . . Kevin & I were still concerned about his head not rounding out in the back yet, so she suggested that we may want to start talks about him possibly wearing a helmet later down the road if it does not round out. Those of you who know me well know that this sent me into a panic. So, we made an appointment with the pediatrician whom we saw last week and she insists he is fine. She has seen far worse patients than Connor and they've never had to wear a helmet. And, in the 2 years she has been there, she has never referred a patient to a cranial facial specialist. That said, I still asked for a referral and we see the specialist Thursday at UNC to see what other suggestions he may have for helping his head to round out. We've implemented a few changes of our own and I can see some progress. It is slow going, but we do think it is working well.

Our little chunk is up to 18 lbs and 3 oz as of a week ago. This kid LOVES to eat. For big news - we started eating about 3 weeks ago! We've tried carrots, green beans, squash and this week sweet potatoes. Suprisingly, he seems to like the sweet potatoes the least. He loves the green beans though - just like Mommy! When you finish feeding him (regardless of the kind) and it is all gone, he gets very upset. Next week we'll be trying peas, which I think he might like. So far no allergies, which is good. Once we're through the veggies, it will be time for his 6 month well visit and they may allow us to start fruits. We'll keep you posted on that.

He's starting to babble more - loves to hear the sound of his voice. In the car he loves to go aaahhhh aaaahhhhh aaaaaahhhhh and his latest thing (past few days) is squeeling. He is so loud!! He's also rolling a good bit for and he likes to roll on his side and grab his toys. Martha is so good to him & works with him all the time. Noah always asks where Baby Connor is, so I know that when it comes time for Connor to go to preschool, we won't be the only ones heartbroken!

Speaking of, I went back to work full time this week and it is very sad. I'd love to be able to stay home with Connor, but know that preschool can offer so many things of benefit to him. Whoever would have thought that I would want to stay home with a baby?? Not me, that is for sure. But those little ones do change you. Martha will continue keeping Connor until August 24th and then he is off to preschool.

And in the most recent news . . . The Mazda just couldn't take it any more. We had to trade her in for a new car this past weekend. As much as I complained about Kevin handing her down to me, I do kind of miss her. We bought an 09 Honda Pilot and it has lots of room for little Connor! Big Big Thanks to Aunt Angela and Uncle Brian for all their help in trying to "revive" the Mazda and keeping our cars in line.

That's about all I can think of for now, but more to come next week (hopefully - this working thing is really eating up my time!). We should have more to report on the toritcollis and head rounding out issue then.

Road Trip!!!

Mom, Dad & Connor as we prepare to leave for our first road trip.

Mom did most of the driving . . .

Dad rode shotgun part of the time . . .

Krissy & Wes - our gracious hosts

Kevin & I at the Farmer's Market in Charleston, SC

Buddy & Chloe went to stay with Monica's Grandma.

Connor just chillin' before we leave for the trip.

Are we there yet??

Aunt Krissy & Connor - he loves to check out your hands!

Aunt Krissy, Uncle Wes & Connor had a great time together.

Uncle Wes and Connor having fun.

Cousin Calvin got a pony ride while Dad, Brian, walked with him.

Cousin Kayliegh also had a pony ride. Doesn't it look like fun???

Aunt Krissy, Cousin Calvin and his Mom, Karen (Kevin's cousin).

Kayleigh taking care of Connor - she has great maternal instincts!!

Aunt Krissy and Connor, hanging out.

Blitzen - Aunt Krissy and Uncle Wes's dog.

LENNY!! Krissy & Wes were dogsitting him for some friends.

On the left is Sandy and the right is Cubby - Karen, Brian, Kayleigh & Calvin's dogs.

Connor loves to play with this apple (and put it in his mouth of course) while in the Bumbo.

Cousin Kayleigh hanging out with Connor in the bumbo chair.

Kevin with Kayleigh - isn't she just so sweet??

Me & Calvin and Kayleigh & Connor watching TV.

Well, we took our very first road trip with Connor. We went down to Charleston, SC to visit Kevin's sister Krissy and her husband Wes for the weekend. It could not have gone better! Connor was great on the car ride there and back (about a four hour drive). We did have to stop to feed him once on the way there and once on the way back, but he happily got back into his car seat and on we went. We had a great time visiting with Krissy and Wes and also with Kevin's cousin Karen and her family - Brian (husband), Kayleigh (their 4 year old daughter) and Calvin (their 2 year old son). They are so adorable - as you can see from the pictures!

Thanks to Krissy and Wes for inviting us and to Karen and Brian for having us over for a cookout. We had a great time and can't wait to see all of you again soon!

Other than our road trip, not much else going on here. We're just enjoying watching Connor grow. It is so exciting to see him develop! The other night we heard him on the baby monitor in the middle of the night and Kevin went to check on him & he was trying his best to roll from his back to his tummy and was trying to grab onto the bumper of the crib to help him roll over. We're not ready for that quite yet! He sleeps in a sleep positioner which is supposed to help keep him from rolling over, but this little guy uses his feet to scoot himself further up in the crib towards the uppermost corner - and out of that positioner! He can roll from his tummy to his back pretty easily (when he wants to) but not yet from his back to his tummy.

He has also really taken to holding his toys or if you lay him on his tummy, he now reaches out with his hands to grab something in front of him. He holds on to everything now - your shirt, hair, ear - whatever he can find. We went to AC Moore yesterday to pick up some stuff and he was in the Baby Bjorn - facing outwards and when I went to pay you use those little pens at the credit card machine to enter your PIN number and he grabbed the pen! That caused me to enter too many numbers for the PIN and we had to try again. He's so much fun!!

He is also babbling away. I think he likes to hear the sound of his own voice! He just goes ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh A WHOLE LOT now. He wasn't much of a coo-er so we are surprised he is doing all this noise making. :)

The therapist said that from about 4 to 8 months it is like something new happens every week and I think she is right. We'll get some more pics and videos up soon to show any other new developments he has made. Hope everyone has a great week!

Slow Down! You are growing way too fast . . .

Connor and Chloe

Enjoying a spring afternoon on the back porch

Yet another new toy for me to play with

Mmmmmmm . . . Rice Cereal!

Mommy feeding me rice cereal

Me & Mommy swinging - one of our favorite things to do!

Farmer in the dell, the Farmer in the dell . . .

Mommy's little pets - you can see three in this pic

The Lone Deer - she always comes first & then the others follow

Sleeping Beauty - in his own room!

Really guys? Not another picture!

I love to stand, so this is becoming a favorite play thing

Baby Connor's First Rice Cereal Feeding

It has been an exciting month of changes for Connor! We had our 4 month well visit and Connor is in the 75 percentile for height, weight and head circumference. He is now 25 and a half inches long and weighs 15 pounds 9 ounces. He is a our little chub-a-lub. The doctor said he was doing fabulous and seemed to be a very easy going baby. We'd have to agree, of course!

She also gave the green light on trying rice cereal. We've attached a video of his first feeding. Hope you guys enjoy it. We also changed his feeding from 6 fize ounce bottle feedings to 5 six ounce bottle feedings. Either way he gets 30 ounces a day, but now he gets it in five feedings instead of six. We also moved him to his crib! He's been sleeping in his own room now for about a week and he's doing great! His only problem is that he is a back scooter! We get up in the morning to find he has pushed himself into the uppermost corner of the crib! He's a little rascal this one. One other change is that we now no longer wake him at 5am for a feeding. We let him sleep. New sleeping times are from about 10pm to 7am! What a good sleeper!!

We also saw the therapist last week and she also had good news. His torticollis is pretty much non-existant now and we're just working on strengthing his neck with some new excercises. She'll continue to meet with us every so often just to make sure it doesn't come back when he starts new phases like crawling, walking, etc.

Other than that, we're just hanging in here, keeping things pretty low key. We went & saw AJ's new place this weekend. For those of you who don't know, AJ is Aunt Jennifer. She just closed on her place in Durham. CONGRATS JENN!! This coming weekend we're taking our first road trip to Charleston to see Aunt Krissy and Uncle Wes and we're also going to visit Kevin's cousin Karen and her family while we are there. Pictures of that coming soon!

Also in good news - we got Mommy her very own camera! Now we don't have to wait so long to post things!

Hope everyone is doing well. More to come after our adventure next weekend!!