IT TASTE GOOD!

A few weeks ago, I was making the kids pancakes for breakfast and had everything set out on the counter (butter, syrup, pizza cutter for quickly cutting pancakes into kid-sized bites...). The pancakes were finished cooking, the burner was turned off and the hot pan was pushed back out of the reach of little fingers. The kids were happily eating their pancakes and I left the room to use the bathroom. I wasn't gone more than a minute and a half or so, and walked back into the kitchen just in time to see Connor stuff a huge glob of butter into his mouth, and slide back down to the floor (the little monkey climbs up a set of drawers in a kitchen like they're a ladder). I yelled out in surprise, "EW GROSS! CONNOR! SPIT THAT OUT!" He stops in his tracks, turns back towards me and yells (with a mouth of butter and buttery slobber), "IT TASTE GOOD!" and he takes off running. You can see in this picture how deeply he scooped into the butter with his finger (and if you're thinking that doesn't look too bad, keep in mind that it's a COSTCO SIZED TUB OF BUTTER and then notice that the finger scoop goes nearly the entire way across the width, not to mention how DEEP it goes).


And if that wasn't bad enough, I didn't learn my lesson that time, and left the butter unattended for a few seconds a few days ago, and came back in to see him helping himself to butter AGAIN!

sigh...

B is for BALL

From the time Connor was mobile enough to maneuver around the playroom to get to toys, he's been most drawn to balls. As a result, we've accumulated a lot of balls over the last two years or so, and even though it's truly a ridiculous amount of balls, they all seem to get played with at some point or another, on a fairly regular basis.

When it came to choosing just the right gift for Santa to bring Connor this year, the basketball hoop I found at Toys R Us seemed perfect. It adjusts from 4-6ft high, which makes it something all three kids can use, and something that will last several more years before they've outgrown it. We could barely get him to open his stocking or his presents because he kept getting up to shoot baskets. Yesterday (day after Christmas), he woke me up by coming into my room, putting both hands on my cheeks and telling me, "I pway baksetball now!" (and yes, he mixed the s and k up, that's not a typo!).





He also got a football toss game from my parents, which he thinks is GRAND FUN, but I don't have any pictures of him using it yet (I was cleaning up all the packaging garbage and organizing all the new stuff yesterday while Dan played with him with that game).

Connor talks about dinosaurs

In a recent videotaped conversation with Connor, he suddenly went off on a random tangent about "dininsaurs" and as you can hear by my dumb giggle, I found it pretty entertaining (mostly because it was soooooooooo off base from what we'd been talking about, and let's face it, his toddler style of talking is ADORABLY cute and funny). And please ignore pesty Emily; she apparently couldn't stand not being included and felt the need to shove a book in front of the camera at one point, and then stands off to the side jingling some little bells whispering to Connor about Santa... (punk! LOL)



PS That "nothing..." you heard him say is one of his new phrases the last week or so. And you know if he says it when you ask him, "What are you doing?", HE'S UP TO NO GOOD. And if you've had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with Connor, you know he's UP TO NO GOOD rather often. So you can guess how frequently I hear "Nothing..."

AWWWWWW!!!!!!!

I swear to you, he really said this to me, totally unprompted. I was getting dressed after my shower and he wandered in and said it, so I grabbed the video camera and had him repeat it, so I could share that sweet little voice with all of you! He repeats it on the video camera EXACTLY like he said it the first time. How adorable is he???

Quote of the Week

"Never underestimate a child's ability to get into more trouble."

~Martin Mull~

You'd think I'd have learned that by now, but Connor just keeps finding new ways to surprise me. The other day, Dan found him up on the counter, having gotten into the candy container in the cupboard, stuffing his face full of chocolate. When asked how he'd gotten up there in the first place, Connor showed Dan how he used the 1/2 depth of the drawer fronts (drawers closed) as toe holds and climbed up the four drawers to get onto the counter. Emily and Jared never even looked at those drawer fronts twice, let alone come up with the idea that the drawer fronts could make a good ladder, and then tested and perfected the idea. How do you "toddler-proof" that? LOL

Pink, Pink, You Stink

This isn't Connor's eye, but it's a pretty good representation of what BOTH of his eyes look like right now. UGH!


The pink started up partway through yesterday and got significantly worse by bedtime, but looks quite a bit better today. We'll see how things go as the day progresses. Em's had it twice and they say the most common form is viral, which isn't even treatable, so I don't know that we'll bother with the doctor, but it looks like we'll for sure be sticking close to home for awhile!

The Bruised Bunch

Here's the story, of a little baby, who was running and smacked into a bar. And his poor eye, got very swollen, the bruise spread pretty far...


Here's the story, of his older sister, who was flipping and fell down to the floor. And her bruised bum, is very tender, I can't say any more...

(can't show that picture, sorry!)

You would think my children must be very clutsy
That they were both injured, hours after lunch
And you wonder, about my inattentiveness
and how I'd let my kids become The Bruised Bunch

The Bruised Bunch, The Bruised Bunch

How I'd let my kids become The Bruised Bunch!!!!

(and I'll tell that story TOMORROW, so make you come back, ya hear???)

PS, quick shout out to my BFF Kaci, who so graciously stepped in to guest blog for me when my computer was refusing to cooperate. I'm dying to test out a peppermint mocha now (thanks a lot Kaci! LOL)

Startin' young

The boys and I met up with my cousin, Mirinda, yesterday for lunch at Subway. The boys were a little shy of Mir at first, but once we had our food, Connor seemed pretty content to sit next to Mir and started in on his lunch. After he had eaten a huge amount of food, he started being more mobile in his seat, and more talkative and whatnot. Mir was saying something to me at one point, and Connor was sitting next to her, peering at her rather intently, like he was truly following along with the conversation and giving her his undivided attention. He stood up and leaned around to be more in line with her face (so he was bracing himself against the table and leaning to be more in front of her, while his feet were on the seat next to her). Suddenly, he leaned way down and peeked right down the front of her shirt! He very casually straightened up and sat back down as if nothing happened and Mir and I had a good laugh. Mir looked over at him and said, "we're related you know. And I'm way too old for you." Connor stared at her and then said, "Mmm hmmm" in agreeance. I've NEVER seen him lean in and take a peek down someone's shirt before. Though in his defense, it was a low-cut shirt and he's certainly never seen ME in one like that before! It was pretty funny!!!!!!!!!

Another milestone met

Connor is now officially in the lower bunk of the bunk beds, and Jared is in the top bunk. All three of my kids are in "big kid" beds now. The toddler bed is going to my cousin for her son, as soon as she gets a chance to drive down here to pick it up. It's been almost two weeks, but it still feels weird to walk into the room to check on the boys, and to see little Connor in this huge bed (huge compared to HIM!). And short of climbing up the ladder and onto the upper bunk, I can't kiss Jared's forehead as he sleeps any longer when I check on him. (I'll also briefly mention that putting clean sheets on that upper bunk is a real pain in the bum!!!).

The boys are THRILLED with the new arrangements. Connor went straight to bed without a fuss, and I can count on one hand the number of times that's happened since moving him out of the crib into the toddler bed (nearly a year ago).




Jared navigates the ladder very well, even in the middle of the night, and Connor's only fallen out once (tough kid didn't even cry, and in the teeny bit of time it took me to jump out of bed to investigate the giant thud I'd heard, he'd already climbed back into bed on his own!).

Future NFL star

It's pretty much the general consensus with anyone who knows Connor that he's got football in his future, more than likely. He's broad, fearless, and loves to tackle. Just a few days ago, Jared was standing in front of me, minding his own business, completely unaware that wild-child Connor had put his sights on him from across the room. Before anyone knew what was going on, Connor charged out of nowhere, grabbed Jared from the side and down they went. But before Jared could even muster a sound of protest (and believe me, it was coming), Connor squeezed a little tighter and said, "Hug Jared. Love you Jared."


And so maybe he's a bit of a lover afterall?

Primate Pals

Dan the gorilla and Connor the monkey, hanging out together in front of the TV while waiting for the rest of us to be ready for the Halloween party my IL's had over the weekend


I'll post up better pics of Connor in his monkey costume in a few days (and I'll include pics of Em and J in their costumes as well). CJ's about the cutest little monkey you ever saw. I can't get enough of him in that costume

PS It's got a very padded tummy, and slightly padded backside and hips (soooo CUTE!), so I was poking at his padded tummy saying, "Look at your chubby monkey tummy!" He turned around, grabbed fistfulls of the backside and yells, "Chubby monkey butt!" (I don't condone the use of the word butt, but he picked it up from Dan and I can't get him to stop using it!!). Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious at the time. LOL!!!

You know a little boy had a GREAT DAY when...

The rest of him didn't look much better! ha!

Sad and pathetic

Connor had a ROUGH night Friday night. Lots of coughing (terrible, gagging, barking-sounding coughs), very labored breathing. Three separate times I was convinced we needed to rush to the ER and then he'd settle back into a better pattern (still very labored, but not to the point where I was panicking, you know?) and then I'd opt to stay home. We went to the Urgent Care in our area right as it opened Saturday morning and they got him started on a nebulizer after checking his vitals and listening to his lungs. They didn't hear anything his lungs, so whatever it was, was focused in his throat. They wrote us an Rx for albuteral and the nebulizer machine, which we had to go to two separate pharmacies before we found a place that had the machines in stock. The doc and the pharmacist made it sound like we should see some significant improvement after the first at-home breathing treatment, but two hours later, he was still wheezing BADLY, so I called to question if that was okay, and they said him bring him back in immediately. When we arrived, an x-ray tech was waiting at the door and rushed us back to do some chest x-rays (which ended up coming back clear). They gave us an Rx for an oral steroid hoping that, on top of the albuterol, would get him breathing better. They checked his temp several times (normal), checked his pulse several times (a little fast), checked his oxygen levels MANY times (within normal ranges every time). The doc said based on how he SOUNDED, they should be sending us straight to the ER, but since he wasn't blue in his lips and his oxygen levels were good, the doc said he'd probably be more comfortable at home, but we were to keep a very close eye on him (sleep next to him, etc). We did the albuterol every four hours during the waking hours, the oral steroid twice a day, and cough meds every six hours during the waking hours, and he's SLIGHTLY better today. The wheeze isn't as loud, he isn't coughing nearly as much, but he's clearly still wheezing. Today is his last day of the oral steroids, and we have a few more days of the albuterol. Their best guess, in the end, is that it was/is croup, except he never had any cold or flu symptoms AT ALL (and normally croup is associated with either a cold or the flu). He's hardly eaten a thing all weekend (I think, all together since Saturday morning, he's had a half a banana, a half a slice of cheese, 2-3 grapes, a few bites of toast, 4oz of hot cocoa, 5oz water, and a few peanuts.), but seems perky enough despite not eating and not breathing well.

How sad and pathetic is this??

How much is that doggy in the window?

I beg you, please, pretty please, IGNORE my singing and focus instead on the adorable little "arf" from Connor. It was too sweet not to share, but I couldn't get him to do it unless I sang!

As a friend, I though you should know...

Um, Dan? You've got a little something there on your nose... Yeah, and a little something on your forhead, too. Oh, and can you feel that thing in your eye? Okay good, you might want to take care of that...

He's destined for clown school

Honestly, one of the most common sights around this house would be Connor dressed in something funky, riding a bike or trike (or scooter, even!)

Notice the lack of pants, the purple tutu, the backpack of "Mommy and Me" items, and the bare feet


Now notice the lack of most of his clothing, and the fact that he's wearing rubber boots

Do these gloves make my hands look big?

(more children's museum fun)


So pretty much, it was about the most hysterical thing EVER watching Connor try to pick things up with those giant gloves on. He must have spent a full two minutes trying to pick up one of the building sticks, and was refusing all help from me, so I sat back and giggled and clicked away with the camera. LOL!!

My little "fighterfighter" boys

On a recent trip to a somewhat local children's museum, the boys had a grand time playing "fighterfighter" (as Jared calls it) and driving the pretend fire truck.

Hello Gorgeous!

In case I haven't mentioned it, Connor has turned into quite the little mimic lately. It was rather cute and hilarious, all at the same time, the night we were watching Alvin and the Chipmunks and Connor was mimicing different lines from the movie...

Good Ol' Toby

A few weeks ago, I took the kids to the public library and let them each grab up a few books to check out. We read a few each day, and one day, got to the book Toby, Who Are You? Connor LOVED IT. Made us read it over and over and over again. He wandered around the house with it, hunted it down if he couldn't find it, chattered non-stop about TOBY TOBY TOBY. A week before it was due, I got the brilliant idea to get onto Amazon.com to try to find the book. I found a new copy for $6 something or other and then s&h, but it only came to $10 something or other for a brand new, hardback book, and Connor is in HEAVEN.



Interestingly enough, in my search for the Toby book, I discovered there are two other Toby books as well (Toby, What Are You? and Toby, Where Are You?). I ordered them as well thinking I was going to be mom of the year in my child's eyes. Um...well...he's happy perusing the pages of the other two books HIMSELF, but don't bother trying to read them to him. He walks off, or gets mad and takes the book away from you. But read the original one? I think he'd sit for hours. EVERY NIGHT, when it's time to read books before bed, "Toby book? Toby!" And no, we don't read Toby every night. And yes, Toby has found himself hidden a few times thus far...LOL

And if anyone can research what kind of animal Toby is in the book, I'd greatly appreciate it, because at the moment, just about any furry creature we see on TV or in books, or even in real life, gets dubbed, "Toby!" And we have no idea what to tell him Toby really is (my best guess is a monkey/lemur something or other?).