Milestone Alert!

Connor turned 10 months old on the 14th of this month. He started pulling himself up using the couch at 9 months old September 22nd to be exact. We quickly ran out and bought him a walker...

Not the reaction I was hoping for. He loves to play with the toys on the front but has no interest in trying to use it as a walker. We stand him up and show him how to hold on and he just leans over the handle to try and get to the toys and then sits down.

But yesterday (10/20/11) was the day! We stood him behind the walker encouraging him to grab it and he did it! He actually walked all the way across the living room all by himself. Here is a small clip...

Maybe he will be walking by his 1st birthday after all. :)

Playgroup

Connor and I just joined a playgroup put together by my friend Ashley. She also asked me to help her organize and plan our weekly playgroups. 

Today was our first group and we decided since it's 85 degrees in the middle of October, we would meet at our local park. Although, I feel like calling it a "park" is a bit of an understatement. This park has 2 small lakes, walking trails, a carousel, a train for kids, an old western town, a couple different play structures, a swimming hole at the lake, etc etc etc. With our babies being under 2 years old and most under 1, we stuck to blankets on the grass. A few of the older babies, well toddlers really, played at the play structure.

There is something so relaxing about hanging out with a bunch of mom's who are going through or have been through what you're going through. LOTS of advice. Needless to say I had a great afternoon and so did Connor.

Ashley and I were the last to leave, but before we headed home we decided to take Connor and her daughter over to the baby swings. They had a blast!!! And we of course used it as an opportunity to take 117 a few pictures.

Next week we're meeting at the pumpkin patch! I already can't wait for those pictures!


***For those who are wondering I take most of my pictures with the Canon Rebel T2i which I love love love. Even if I only know how to use the basic functions.  If I'm in a hurry then I just use my IPhone 4.***

Water Baby

Connor has shown a love of water from an early age. Being a stay-at-home Mom, I am constantly looking for things for Connor and I to do, you can easily go crazy staying in the house all day.

We of course started going to our local Mommy & Me group at Kaiser which meets once a week (we still go) as soon as I felt Connor was old enough. He was a preemie so we didn't start going until he was a month old. When a mother would introduce herself and say her baby was only EIGHT days old I couldn't help but gasp I was shocked, I was so accustomed to keeping Connor home and away from people and germs. But I promise no judgment, just shock and maybe some jealousy that I was cooped up for so long.

So when Connor was 6 months old (the required age) we joined the Mommy & Me swim class at the YMCA. He was a natural from the start! The swim instructor said some babies are just born swimmers. And let me tell you... Connor is without a doubt one of those babies. He was holding his breath and going under water, with no fear, at our first session. The other moms would ask me what my secret was as their children clung to them for dear life and I said I had no idea!

Bath time is one of Connor's FAVORITE times. Which I am sure is true of a lot of other babies his age. I can't believe in 60 days I will have to start calling him a toddler!

Just for fun here are the products we use...

First I pour a small amount of Johnson's bedtime bath into the water, then after a lot of splashing and tons of water on the floor I wash him using Johnson's head-to-toe baby wash. After his bath I use Johnson's bedtime bath lotion.


I've had a lot of mom's tell me they can't use Johnson's products because their babies have sensitive skin. But if your baby is like Connor and does not have sensitive skin then I would recommend these. They are great and the bedtime line smells so good. People always tell me how good he smells. :)

In his jammies and ready for bed, one tired boy! That is the goal of bath time right?

Donating for a cause

I know I've mentioned that I have amazing friends and family and today was a perfect example of just how special they are.

For about the last 6 months one of my best friends Jayme had been saying she wanted to cut her hair, she'd been growing it for 4 YEARS! Right about the time she decided she wanted to cut it she heard about an event being held in our area called 'The Sonoma County Hair Harvest' sponsored by Froggy 92.9 (my favorite country music station!) benefiting Locks of Love and the American Cancer Society.

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

The American Cancer Society supports cancer patients undergoing hair loss by providing free wigs through a variety of Wig Banks at American Cancer Society Offices and health care facilities.

So she patiently some days she almost grabbed the scissors and cut it herself because she couldn't take it anymore waited for October to roll around.

Today was the day!!!

It was a very special day to watch all these people donate their hair (we all know how woman are about their hair!) to two amazing organizations, my best friend being one of those people.

She donated 19 INCHES of hair, enough to make TWO wigs. AMAZING.

She is beautiful inside and out and I am so blessed that I can call her one of my best friends.

I must say though, our gorgeous children stole the show today!

Planning the 1st of many...

Well I can't believe it!!! It's time to start planning Connor's 1st Birthday Party!! Where did the year go? It seems as though from the second he was born life has been on fast-forward. It's been an amazing year, I can easily say the best year of my life.

I have planned a lot of parties but never a child's birthday party and never one as important and as close to my heart as this!

There are so many things to do!

• Choose a theme (hands down the funnest part) - DONE! I wanted something very boy-ish but not baby-ish. Absolutely no Elmo, Bob The Builder etc. I decided to go with a cute monster theme. 

•  Make a guest list - DONE! We're inviting everyone. Hey, you only have a 1st birthday party once right?! 

• Find a location -  DONE! Thank you Auntie Carol for letting us use your beautiful home! It's the only house big enough for the gigantic guest list.
• Pick a date - DONE! Because Connor was born 11 days before Christmas, I want his birthday to feel totally separate from Christmas, which makes picking a date tricky. I don't want his party too close to Christmas because I never want a Christmas tree at his party but I also don't want it too far from his actual birthday. So I decided we will always have his party the first Saturday in December. This year it falls on December 3rd. See ***EDIT*** at bottom.
• Decide on a time - Can you say nap-time melt down?

•  Choose a menu

• Find a cake that goes with our "Monster theme" 

• Find someone to make the cake - DONE! Thank you to my best friend Jayme, she is going to make Connor's smash cake! She does amazing work! Check it out...

• Find decorations/invitations

• Find Connor a birthday outfit - DONE!

I feel like I'm forgetting something already but that's why I started planning early! The thought of his party makes me excited and sad all at the same time. I promise you...this Momma will shed some tears.  

PS. Would LOVE any suggestions/ideas.  

***EDIT*** For family and friends reading this please note the date of the party has been moved to Sunday 12/4. :) Invitations will go out in November.

I heart Sundays

When Connor was born, my family and close friends had to come to our house to spend time with him. (I was too overwhelmed to try and go out yet.) His doctor advised us that with it being cold & flu season we should limit his visitors and outings because preemie's can get sick much easier. I was also very strict with everyone washing their hands AND using hand sanitizer. Which now seems pointless because even with all the extra precautions he still contracted RSV when he was 7 weeks old and was hospitalized for 6 days. 



 When he was about 3 months old we decided to start going to my parents house every Sunday for dinner because I really really needed to get out of the house so they could spend time with Connor.

Sunday dinners quickly turned into an all-day thing. Dinner was just not enough time. We now go over there around 11:30-noon and stay until 6:30. Poor Mom now has to feed us TWO meals. ;)

It's always such a relaxing day... 

We hang out in the backyard...







sometimes we play Clue (we're very competitive)...

Keeping track of our wins.

  Connor swims in his baby pool... 



  we have extended family come and visit...





 



and the dogs run around driving us nuts, yes we bring our 7 year old Chihuahua and 1.5 year old Boxer, it is family day after all. :)

It's quickly become a tradition that we all seem to cherish. I hope to keep it going forever. When Connor is grown and has children of his own, I hope that he will want to spend Sundays hanging out at his Mom & Dad's house.

Connor is extremely blessed to have such an amazing Grandpa...



The most loving Grammie on the planet...  



The best Uncle Patrick...

 

and a bunch of others who love him dearly...

 



 



He doesn't understand it yet but he also has a very special guardian angel, his Grandma Nancy.

She lost her battle with lung cancer in 2004. It breaks my heart that he will never get the opportunity to know her, but I find comfort in knowing she is looking out for him. If she could be with us every Sunday I KNOW without a doubt she would.

I'm not sure if it's physically possible for anyone to love my son as much as I do but if it were, I know these people would.

So needless to say, I hold Sundays very close to my heart. I look forward to them all week long.

Book Club

I just joined a book club thanks to my new friend Ashley. (Her blog is a must read, send her some luv http://www.5ohwifey.com/)  



We met at our local Mommy & Me group when our babies were just little peanuts. They are both growing WAY too fast.



  Maybe we should tell her that Connor already has a girlfriend named Jazmyn...

What can I say? He's handsome. Ok back to the book club...

I have never been part of a book club before but I've always loved to read. So when she mentioned it, I was a little skeptical at first. Having no idea what being part of a "Book Club" entailed, she promised although she lied there would be no hazing. The women were all so sweet and very welcoming. I look forward to our next get together especially since it's some ME time away from my boys.

This months book choice, which I picked is...



And WOW, it was good. I couldn't put it down. I had to force myself to stop reading and do the dishes I had a lot of baby bottles to wash. After I had cleaned the kitchen, put Connor to bed, cleaned up the million toys scattered on the living room floor and after the hubby was in bed, I practically ran to the couch to finish the book.

I go to turn on my kindle and....NOTHING. Wait WHAT? It was frozen on the screen saver. And not just frozen, there was something obviously wrong with it. Take a look...

 You can imagine how panicked I was right? So what did I do? Once I figured out it was dead dead, as in not coming back. I proceeded to pout. I sat there just staring at it thinking "If I had just stuck to REAL books, this wouldn't be happening, but nooooo I just HAD to have a Kindle!"

What was I thinking? I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Kindle. It took me a year to finally decide I wanted one and I've yet to regret it. Except for 15 minutes on September 27th. ;)

The next morning I called Amazon. Luckily I still had 5 months left on my 1 year warranty. So they sent me a brand spanking new one and it arrived 2 days later. Wait this post is supposed to be about the book, not about my amazing shiny new Kindle.

So, I of course finished the book the moment my new kindle arrived.



I still cannot believe what happens in this book. It's a page turner for sure. But to be fair, if you're a new Mom like me and still completely hormonal even after almost 10 months postpartum there will be parts of this book that are extremely difficult to read. I don't want to say much more, I don't want to ruin the book. So instead I will leave you with the books description and hope that you'll read it too and let me know what you think!

Dear Anna,

What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life.

Yet there was so much they didn't know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.