Whenever Conor says something cute or funny, I try to grab a piece of scrap paper or--my dad's favorite ;) --a post-it note to write it down, then I put the random papers in a pile, which usually ends up buried somewhere until one of my late-night clean and purge sessions when I find the pile and update the blog with a whole stack of Conor stories! I hope my notes are good enough to help me remember, some of these are quite old (like months ago). It's about that time again...
We were listening to a new nursery rhyme CD in the car and I wasn't paying much attention to it, but was aware enough to know it was "Jack and Jill". I didn't think much of it since the kids were listening and dancing in their car seats quietly. But once the song was over Conor said "I hope Jack doesn't have to go to the hospital!" I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You know, because he got hurt when he fell down."
Grandpa was joking around about wearing Conor's shoes one day and Conor turned to the rest of us and said, "If Grandpa was a little kid, he could wear them, but he's a big kid." (I wonder if he knows how true that really is.) :)
Adam has been doing a great job of getting himself back into shape and is trying to teach Conor the importance of exercise and healthy choices. So one day they were doing a short kids exercise video on TV and Adam said, "Thanks for working out with me," to which Conor responded, "It was no problem."
We were making a snack with celery one evening and Conor wasn't so sure about it. He has disliked it in the past, but this time we tried it with peanut butter. That must be the trick to get him to eat it because he announced: "I can't even smell the taste of it!"
One day we were talking about Adam's previous life and job in the military and Conor said, "Was I born when you were in the Army?" Adam said, "No sir." So Conor figured, "It was a very long time ago then?"
I was messing with Conor, plugging his nose and making honking sounds and he said, "Stop it. That makes me unsmell stuff."
I couldn't figure out what song he wanted me to sing before bed one night when he adamantly and repeatedly requested "This Is My Light". I had never sung anything called that before, so I had to rack my brain of my lullaby repertoire and realized he wanted me to sing "This Little Light of Mine."
While watching baseball one day, Conor informed me that "they usually wear baseball gloves so they don't have to wash their hands when they get dirty."
I was playing with the kids when Riley came up to me and I said "Hi Sweet Pea."
Conor repeated "Hi Sweet Pea."
Me: "Hey, that's what I call her. What should your nickname be?"
Conor: "Sweetie Dee."
Me: "Ok, hi, Sweetie Dee. What are you doing?"
Conor: "Don't call me my nickname right now."
We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and the meatballs were so big that we cut them into smaller pieces on Conor's plate but the sizes were a bit uneven. He had a medium sized one and two smaller ones and I commented how that could be like a Mommy meatball and a Conor meatball and a Riley meatball. Conor giggled, so I asked him, "But where's the Daddy meatball?"
He answered, "I don't know. I guess he's gotta go to work."
Some of our favorite mispronunciations:
exercise = extercise
remember = renember
spectacular = spintacular
Hope you got a few laughs. Bed time for me now. I will finish cleaning up the rest of those piles tomorrow.
With his birthday friend, Elizabeth, who is exactly one year and five days younger.
Fancy homemade birthday cupcake...good job Daddy!
A popular gift was this combination sleeping bag and teddy bear pillow, which he has named Beary Bear Lazy Bear.
Loving his new bean bag too!
We drove on post and saw the fancy new brick barracks had replaced the old World War II era barracks Adam used to live in. Even some of the streets had changed or were gone altogether.
We stopped by the 82nd Airborne Division Museum, a place we had gone for a date at least once many years ago. Things were a little different this time, in that it had been updated to included information about the war on terror. And sadly, there was a new memorial built, which included names of soldiers that we knew, including a close friend of Adam's. You will never be forgotten, Travis.
Mary Ellen was one of my dear friends from college, responsible for introducing me to Adam. She is living in Fayetteville now.
Jamie, the other half responsible for Adam and I meeting, is still stationed at Fort Bragg, now as a member of Special Forces. We were able to meet him for a quick lunch before we headed back home. Thanks for your service Jamie.
The ride home was not without more adventure. After we lost our way a little due to a new roadway that wasn't showing up on our GPS, I got pulled over for speeding in West Virginia. Luckily, I did not get a ticket. Adam says it's because I'm a girl, I'm convinced that it's because he noticed the Sour Patch Kids on the backseat and he said he is a big fan too. Then when we were starting to feel like we were in the homestretch, driving down the freeway in Indiana at 1:30am, we got a flat tire. Adam changed it quickly, but since we had to drive a little slower on the spare, we didn't get home until 4am. Thanks mom, for staying and extra day so we could get a little rest.
We were also able to have dinner and spend the night with a family that has grown very special to us since I babysat Luc when he was just one year old. He was the ring bearer in our wedding. He has since had a younger brother Will and we had a wonderful time getting to reconnect with them. Thanks for your hospitality!!
On Sunday, we met up with a few friends for brunch. Then, Adam and Mike and Daniel and I headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway for a nice Sunday drive. We stopped off at Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, and did a little hiking and sightseeing. Adam and I hiked a little beyond the others and as it was getting late and dark we picked up the pace. What the sign said we should be able to make in 1 hr, we did in 26 minutes...and I'm not training for a marathon like Adam!! When we finished, we met back up with the others for dinner at a restaurant partway up the mountains, and watched clouds float by the floor-to-ceiling windows while we ate good old Southern food...barbecued pork, cornbread, sweet tea, and fried okra, among other things.
You can really see why they're called the Blue Ridge Mountains!!
Then on Friday morning, he chose french toast for his birthday breakfast. Grandma started to make it and I thought I would be all creative and cut it like a 4, but Conor was so disappointed that it wasn't like the kind he got at school. Guess he would have been happy with the sticks from the freezer section. Thanks anyway, Grandma!
Next he got to open presents....lots of good stuff, but the big ticket item was a new Transformers bike.
They had made him a crown at school earlier in the week and he wore it all day...in the house and running errands! Thanks Ms. Gail.
Conor has been asking for weeks if he could have his birthday lunch at the McDonald's playland...so we did! Then he came home for his dessert...he wanted brownies with frosting instead of cake this year...yummy!
Dear Conor,
Conor trying the long jump
Playing in a boat
Super excited about the wind tunnel
Building something in the construction area
Mommy's attempts at cool photography
Happy 4th Birthday Conor!!
Cute pigtails
Summer smiles
Riley was really tired and a bit moody, but was easily amused by playing with a glass bottle...does that make me a bad mom??
We hope these kids will be friends for life!!...they will if we have any say in it :)
Stick out your tongues!!
Finally asleep. When she finally let us lay her down in this makeshift shade, her right foot rolled onto the hot sand, so she found a way to keep it cool without waking up.
Owen hanging with the dads
Slept right through the ice cream stop on the way home
