Snack

Got a good picture of Conor enjoying his granola bar and apple cider.

A Girl Who Loves Shoes

If Riley's playtime is any indication of the things she will enjoy in her future years, she will give Imelda Marcos a run for her money. She is always over by the front door playing with the shoes!! However, she just likes to play with them (and chew on them if we don't stop her in time), but she hates to wear them...closet full of unworn shoes ahead??

PJ Party

Conor and I had another special outing through the park district the first Friday in March. They sponsored a 1 1/2 hour Mom and Son Pajama Party, complete with food and a DJ. There was dancing, coloring, and balloons. We had a fun time. Conor even got his picture in the local newspaper!!

Spaghetti

Every kid has to get their picture taken with their first spaghetti experience (or two, in this case)!! This kid LOVES to eat.

RSV

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, Riley developed a fever and was very clingy and definitely not as active as usual. So after they left on Monday, Adam took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with RSV, a virus that is like a cold, but can make certain age groups (i.e. babies and the elderly) very sick. She had a fever for about 5 days and we had to give her nebulizer treatments four times a day. She was a trooper and thought she hated that mask at first, it didn't usually take long to settle her down and she fell asleep every time. She was back to her normal self after about 1 1/2 or 2 weeks.

Conor loved to help use the thermometer to take her temperature. He loved to push the button to turn it on and off and to read the numbers. After hearing us read it in thermometer "lingo"--like 101-point-2 degrees, he tried to read it the same way but got a little mixed up--he would say 101-and-2-points.

Barney Live

Conor loves Barney...that big purple dinosaur that sings a lot and can get on Mom and Dad's nerves after a while. But because he loves it so much, when we learned that Barney was coming in person for a show at NIU--Daddy's alma mater--we just couldn't resist. Mom and Conor had a special date, complete with the McDonald's happy meal he had been requesting for weeks! We got to get his picture taken with Barney and even had front row seats. Conor was the first kid up on the jumbo-tron screen at the beginning of the show. Don't think he quite knew how to feel about that. He was a bit overwhelmed and apprehensive at first, and covered his ears at the loud parts. One of the characters came down in front of us and gave me a high five, but Conor was too nervous to put his hand out. He was tired by the end but seemed to really have a great time. Here are some photos of the day:

Before the show begins
Watching for Barney to come in for the photo session.

Mom and Conor with Barney

Conor and Barney

So happy to be here

Posing with the stage in the background...Mom, are we done taking pictures yet? I'm tired of smiling.

The characters on stage

Playing with the confetti. The show was all about a birthday party for Barney.

Tying his sweater around his neck to look like a bowtie since Barney was wearing one

Waving at Barney and covering his ears because he thought it was too loud

Grandma and Grandpa's visit

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit to celebrate mommy's birthday at the end of February. We got to hang out, go out to eat, read books, do puzzles, and get some help with a few repairs and cleaning around the house. Thanks Mom and Dad!! Come back again soon!

Darn it

Every night before bed, we make Conor try to go potty to hopefully avoid an overnight bed-wetting accident. Even if he just peed after dinner or before his bath, we always make him try once more right before turning off the light. When he tells me he just went and doesn't have to go, I tell him to just try pushing a few times to make sure. Within the last few weeks, he started asking how many times he should push. I would pick some arbitrary number like 3 or 7 and he would patiently count with each push. Then he started to just push one extended time while counting really fast to the assigned number. Usually he would not go, just like he said, and tell me there was no potty in there....until tonight. He told me he didn't have to go (but I knew it had been a while) so I told him to just go try. When he asked how many times, I said 12. I stayed in his room and heard him counting really fast, and when he got to about 10, I heard the pee hit the toilet water while Conor simultaneously said "Darn it"!...like it was a race to try to count to 12 before he actually peed. It was funnier when it happened than it is when I reread this paragraph, (maybe you had to be there) but if nothing else, I'll look back on this story and remember how much this kid cracks me up!

Conor's Latest

Since Daddy has been working on fitness and healthy living, Conor is starting to follow suit. Here he is "working out" along with a short yoga program on TV. He is actually pretty good at some of the poses, though it can be quite entertaining to watch him try to balance during some of the tougher ones. He also has been very much into mittens lately. He has always been a hot-blooded kid, sweating in his sleep no matter the temperature ever since he was a baby, and he does not have cold hands, he just likes to wear gloves, mittens....socks on his hands...batting gloves...slippers on his hands...whatever it may be. This night I caught him sleeping with them on!

Some more fun Conor facts and phrases over the last few months:

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Some of his favorite Christmas songs, which we heard well until February included:

"The First Snowell", and Grandpa's favorite, "Feliz Nabidab". In addition to Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, and The 12 Days of Christmas, his all-time favorite this year was Mary's Boy Child". Who would have ever thought we'd be happy to hear Yankee Doodle and Wheels on the Bus again after hearing those Christmas songs for four months? He also especially enjoyed watching the Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen, although he didn't like "Jack Froze" (Jack Frost) in the third one because he was mean.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When we have pancakes, he doesn't necessarily want syrup, he always asks for the "Aunt Schjkemima" (Gimme a break, it's hard to spell a mispronunciation. Just try to sound it out.)

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Mom: "Conor, it's cold. I think you should wear a sweatshirt today, or at least long sleeves." Conor: "I don't WANT long sleeves 'cuz I don't have long hands!"

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When disciplining Conor for not doing something he should have done and teaching him to apologize and make amends, I told him to say, "I will try to do that from now on." He retorted, "I will try to do that on now."

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Mom: "Conor, did you toot?" (our endearing family term for passing gas)

Conor: "Why? Does it stink?"

Mom: "Yep, it sure does."

Conor: "Well, then I guess I did."

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Conor has been fascinated by the panel in our car that displays temperature and direction. He is asking lots of questions and always updates us when we turn to let us know we are going north, south, east, or west. He always tells us when the temperature changes one degree as well. When he first started doing this, he said "Mom, it says 29 degrees!" I nonchalantly answered "Awesome", as in "Good job. I'm proud of you for reading that out loud correctly," but was reprimanded when he said, "Mom, why'd you say awesome? That's COLD!"

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He is also always asking how many miles between destinations or until the next turn and whether it will be on the right or the left. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why he was so interested until one day we were going somewhere we had gone a hundred times before and he asked the same questions, and when I told him the answers, he said, "But how do you know that mom, when you don't have the lady's voice to tell you?" .... I didn't have the GPS system with me that day!! Nothing gets by this kid.

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One night, when Daddy got home, I said casually "Look what the cat dragged in." Conor replied, "He's not a cat-drag."

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We drove past a little smart car one day, and I pointed it out to Conor and said "Hey, look at that mini car." I don't know whether he actually saw the car or not, but as big fans of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse around here (and having just recently seen an episode titled Minnie's Bow-tique), he didn't pause a moment before responding, "Maybe we could put a Minnie Bow on it."

Valentine's Day

Adam and I had decided not to really do gifts for Valentine's Day and neither of us even bought the other a card. But after dinner, Adam and Conor went out to get haircuts and when they came back all handsome and neatly trimmed, they had stopped to bring me home one white rose (which has always been the type of flower Adam has bought for me). It was so sweet and touching and Conor was so proud to be able to bring a flower home for Mommy.
He was a little tired, though, when I tried to take his picture.