Connor

(See Eli in 2 posts below)

This baby has my heart.  As you can see he is Mr. Smiley.  He LOVES to be looked at and laughed at and is very easy to smile and respond.  I'm really glad he's so happy all the time because he has been a real challenge in the sleep department.  He had really bad acid reflux and still has it, but luckily we have medication for him now.  He used to wake up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and was nearly impossible to soothe.  He has always been hard to feed - eating is not very soothing to him.  He eats in about 5 minutes tops and has never been one to nurse for comfort or cuddling.  :(  The sleep is getting a little better - no more long periods of screams, but he still wakes up about 3 times a night, sometimes more, very rarely less, to nurse and go back to sleep. :)

BUT...there is more to Connor then a bad sleeper!  (And don't worry - I still adore him and love him a ton.  I've actually adjusted to no sleep and although I am tired all the time, it's not that burning barely-keep-my-eyes open kind of tired like it used to be.  Lovely.)  Moving on...so Connor is a mover!  I think he'll be crawling really soon.  He's been rolling all over the place for a long time and a few weeks ago he started the army crawl/scoot thing and that usually gets him wherever he wants to go.  He can also get up on all fours and rock back and forth so crawling is just a step away!  He loves to play with everything, especially Eli's toys (hehe) and does this cute little open/close his hand thing to grab things.  He just opens and closes his hand over and over.  Often this just pushes the object away, but it's cute.

Connor is starting to eat foods which is fun.  He enjoys squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, green beans, pears, apricots, peaches, oatmeal, and now barley.  For awhile he would only eat purees and would pull all sorts of awesome faces when I tried to give him anything more solid.  But he recently started eating Cheerios and as of yesterday banana, so I think he's starting to adjust.  I think it's nice when they are able to eat a few finger foods for when you're out and about.  He still makes a funny face, but then he wants more!  He's also started to become very messy when he eats since he tries to grab the spoon over and over...the fun begins!

(And yes, he has 2 bottom teeth, which he modeled so well in the picture!)

Even though the nights sleeping is not progressing too well, Connor has been on more of a schedule during the day which is really nice.  He takes a morning and afternoon nap and occasionally another somewhere if we're out running errands.  His afternoon nap almost always coincides with some or all of Eli's nap which is WONDERFUL!  That saves me every day. :)

Connor also LOVES music.  Ever since he was a newborn, he would love it when we would sing or play music.  He would just stop and stare with his big beautiful blue eyes and it is so sweet.  He recently started dancing and it is so cute!  We managed to get a video of it and it's pretty adorable.  Also in the video, you'll see him kicking and moving his hands in circles over and over - he does this whenever he gets really excited or agitated or hungry...so he does it a lot. :)  Cute!

Overall, Connor is just a happy sweet kid.  He loves Eli and loves to be on the floor doing whatever he's doing. He loves to be looked at and held of course and loves to smile.  He is pudgy and squishy and kissable and every good thing a baby should be. :)  We're so glad he's in our family!  

 Oh, and he started doing this funny face where he sucks in one side of his bottom lip and the other side sticks out.  What a cutie.

 

Video of Connor dancing (just ignore our awesome singing)

2 more things

I thought of 2 more things as we drove to the airport to pick up Jeremy tonight.  Eli says "ya" like "I picked this up for ya".  Not exactly our finest example of grammar, but it's pretty funny to hear.  He also has an impeccable sense of direction.  He knows which bridge takes us toward which store and which tunnel is which.  There are lot of tunnels and bridges in this hilly city, so it's really amazing to hear him say "Homestead Grays (or gways) Bridge", "Fort Pitt Tunnel", "Squirrel Hill Tunnel", etc.  That's all!  I'll get Connor up in the next couple days...

These Boys, starting with Eli

I've been wanting to document everything that the boys are up to at this stage of life, but I keep putting it off, afraid I'll forget something or not have enough time to do them justice.  But let's be honest, even documenting a little is better than nothing at all.  So enough procrastinating!  Here's what Eli is up to these days. (warning: very long)

Ah, Eli.  I love this kid.  He is so wonderful and so crazy 2-year-old-I-want-to-go-berserk all at the same time. :)  He loves to run down the hall while yelling at the top of his lungs in his low manly way (he has a very unusually low voice and it's quite entertaining).  He also has recently learned how to jump and likes to jump on and off of everything...we're working on that.  He loves to "swing the bat!" and practice baseball - a bat usually being a water bottle or pencil or something. :) (We're getting him a real bat for Christmas - well, not a real real bat, but a good 2-yr old version).

Eli is a TALKER.  He wakes up full of energy and talks my leg off.  I love it.  It's really funny to hear him say things we say.  For example, he calls me hon' (or hun) as in "Honey".  Yep.  I guess I say this a lot and now he does too.  Haha.  He'll say things like, "Where we going today hon'?" or "What we having for lunch hon'?"  It's pretty hilarious.  He says all sorts of things and has a great vocabulary - until we go somewhere new.  Then I can hardly get him to say 2 words together.  He's a major people-watcher and likes to observe everything for awhile before feeling at ease.

Eli has been really into drawing lately.  He will sit at the table for a good chunk of time and draw circles and snowmen and kings and whataver else he tells me.  (Some is actually recognizable and it's pretty exciting).  He loves to color and draw pictures and write letters ("lellers").  He can actually write his name all by himself now!  It helps that we gave him one of the easiest names ever to write.  All lines, no curves...and only three letters, but he's proud and we're proud of him too. It's adorable.  He also likes to "write directions" - or squiggles over and over on a piece of paper.  He sees me doing this a lot since we've lived here (Pittsburgh is confusing, okay?!), so he's started doing it too.  It's pretty cute.

He has also developed very good manners.  All that reminding him to say please has really paid off.  He says it for everything and it's really sweet.  He's also learned that saying please greatly increases his chances of getting what he wants, but he usually doesn't abuse that too much :).  It's nice to hear him talk nicely.  Last Sunday he was so extremely tired during dinner.  We'd had 2 late nights on Friday and Saturday and then Sundays are always crazy with no naps.  It was 5:55 pm and we were eating and he looks at me with barely opened eyes and says, "Mommy, please give me a nap?" and I obliged.  He went to bed and slept clear until morning.  What a sweetheart.

Eli has always loved to help me in the kitchen.  At our old house he would scoot a chair over to the counter all by himself, but now that our chairs are on carpet it's a little more difficult.  But he says "Please get me a chair?" and he comes up and plays with the measuring cups while saying things like "quarter cup buttermilk", "cup of flour", "I put it in the oven", etc.  It's awesome.

He adores his brother to pieces and loves to make him laugh. The other day I put them both down for a nap at the same time (I usually try to get one asleep first), and they spent 40 minutes giggling at each other before I finally just took Connor out until Eli fell asleep.  Hard to get mad when they're being sweet with each other. The other day he kept saying to Jeremy, "This is my brother Connor!" like he was so excited.  As Connor gets more mobile, Eli is adjusting to someone else taking his toys!  It's pretty funny to see determined little Connor going for his blocks or cars or trains or whatever and Eli saying "Don't gwab that Connor! No Connor!  Stop gwabbing dat!"  Of course he is sometimes too rough with him, but as Connor grows and Eli learns, they are really starting to have a good time together.

That's about all for now!  Everyday I think of more things he says that I need to write down, and I'm really going to try to start doing that.  He is a great kid.  He drives me nutso sometimes and really tests my patience a lot of times (which is good for me, as I remind myself daily), but he also is my buddy and brings me so much joy.  I love you Eli!

Oh, and here are a bunch of pictures.  Enjoy.

...stay tuned for Connor....

Visit from Mom!

My mom came last week and it was so wonderful.  She flew in late Tuesday night and then left a little after noon on Saturday to go on to Philadelphia to see my sister.  We had a great visit with her!  It was so nice to have her come see Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately the boys were (and still are) getting over illnesses and I managed to get an ear infection while she was here, but we still had a good time!

On Wednesday we took it easy in the morning since she was adjusting to the 3 hour time change.  Then we decided to go on a little hike at our favorite park.  It was an absolutely GORGEOUS walk and I was so glad we did it!  I carried Connor in the front pack and my mom pushed Eli in the stroller.  It was all downhill going so we had a good workout coming back. :)  Then we ate lunch and let Eli play at the playground.  When it was time to go I realized I didn't have my keys....so I ran/walked the entire hike again looking for them because I thought I had them in my pocket.  Well, after realizing they were probably just in the car, we called AAA (thank you Mom for having that!), waited around for awhile and finally got in the car!  Although it was a real bummer to be so lame-brained and lock my keys in the car, I thought it was just about the best scenario to do so - my mom kept me company, the weather was beautiful, and we were at the park!  So the kids were happy.  (Oh, we tried calling Jeremy too, but he didn't have his keys).

(and I forgot my camera so these are phone pictures)

So after that 3 hour excursion we went home to give the boys naps and spent the rest of the day talking, eating, and playing at home.  On Thursday Eli had a 2.5yr checkup (weird that they do that here) so my mom stayed with Connor.  I'm blanking on what else we did that day, but that night she took us out to dinner at this yummy Indian restaurant.  Fun!

Then Friday Jeremy took me to the doctor while my mom watched the kids since my ear was in very bad shape.  It was mucho hurting and plugged and I was dizzy, so Jeremy was nice enough to drive me.  I got on some medication and started to feel a bit better, so that afternoon we did some Christmas shopping and then went to Jeremy's school for dinner that evening.  Every Friday they have "B**Rs" (aka beers) they call it where, yep, they have several kegs of beer and dinner for the MBA students and their families.  Luckily the beer is outside and the food is inside so we just get to enjoy a free dinner every week!  It's a nice way to check off another week and visit with some friends.  We weren't planning on going but we went to pick Jeremy up since we were out and about and then just decided to go ahead and go!  My mom was a good sport :) and she got to see the school which was fun.  Turns out they had Indian food again but it was good!

Then that night my mom gave us the best gift ever - she babysat so we could go on a date!  It was our first night out sans kids since moving to Pittsburgh 3.5 months ago!  Let's just say it was long overdue.  We had a wonderful time getting dressed up and going out all by ourselves! :)  We got Connor to bed and then left Eli to my mom and took off!

When trying to decide what to do for our date, Jeremy had a great idea to go on the "Duquesne Incline".  It's this trolley kind of thing that is right on the river bottom and it goes up the cliff to lots of restaurants and shops.  I read a bit about it and found out that it was originally opened in 1877 and then redone in 1964.  It goes up 400 feet in just under 800 feet of track.  It had a great view of the city right where the 2 rivers converge.  It was very romantic of course. :)

We walked a bit and went to this really nice restaurant and split some fried calamari and the amazing decadent chocolate cake.  All the restaurants up there have amazing views with windows everywhere and it was very fun!  It was quiet and slow-moving and it was so nice just to talk and take our time.  THANK YOU MOM!!

At the top of the incline:

 Yummy!  It was pretty dark and I didn't want to turn on my flash, so not the best picture, but oh my was it good!

 View from inside the restaurant.  Stunning!

 We did a little more shopping on Saturday morning and then took my mom to the airport around noon.  We had a great time and were so glad she came.  Seeing family made us excited to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Wendy and then Christmas with both families!