Connor

It's been a while since I posted an update about Connor. He is 16 months old now and he is growing up so fast. He is well into toddlerhood, and everyday it seems he learns something new. He really seems to love Utah and the snow, which is a relief since we will be living here for the next long while. He is energetic and very happy a lot of the time these days. He used to be much more moody and difficult.

Maybe as he gets closer to becoming 2 he will start to show signs of the terrible 2's, but I almost think he had the terrible 1's instead. From my understanding, many tantrums are caused because children can't communicate what they want so they get frustrated and lose it. Long before Connor even turned 1, he cried a lot of the day (because he was bored, or frustrated, or wanted to walk, whatever) and I was exasperated at the end of almost every day. Brad would come home from work and I would push Connor on him because I just couldn't deal with him screaming at me anymore. That was hard on Brad, too, since he was tired from working all day.

But it seems we have now moved past a lot of that. He has been SO sweet lately! He is getting so much better at communicating his needs to me, and I have helped him understand that he doesn't have to cry, scream, and whine to get what he wants/needs. Now he excitedly says "mama" to get my attention. Sometimes he forgets and will start to cry, but then he'll catch himself and say "mama". I almost never have to remind him how to ask me anymore. Then he'll say what he wants if he knows how to say it (up, more), or he'll point and speak in jibberish to try to tell me what he wants. He definitely still has some meltdowns, which usually end with him screaming at the top of his lungs right in my face when I tell him he can't have or play with something off-limits, but those are now few and far between.

His speaking has come a long way in the past couple months, couple weeks even. He can now say hello (haya), Mama, Dada, eyes, up (up and please), yeah, all done, doggie (dah-yee), kitty, whoa, uh-oh, hot (temperature hot or hot dog), tickle tickle, and he can sign "more." He can also make 6 animal sounds - dog ("ro, ro, ro"), fish (smacks lips together), sheep ("baa"), monkey ("ah ah ah"), snake (moves tongue in and out), and cow ("moooom", sometimes sounds like a slow "mom" :) ). He can also point to his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, hair, fingers, hand, foot, toes, and tummy when asked. Brad and I get so excited when he does all these things. It's amazing how having a kid makes you appreciate such simple and trivial tasks like pointing to your nose.

He loves "helping" now too. He always wants to help me sweep the floor (which involves him keeping 1 hand on the broom and walking right through my swept pile, and he likes to push the broom himself too), doing dishes (putting clean tupperwear from the cupboard in the dishwasher), laundry (I hand him the wet clothes from the washer and he puts them in the dryer, and then sits in the middle of the dry, warm, clean clothes while I fold), kind of cleaning up his toys (he will help me put everything in his toy bucket and then dump it all back out again), and put on lotion (he rubs my knee when I put lotion on my legs).

One of my favorite new developments of all, he is now a snuggler! After he wakes up in the morning and from his nap in the afternoon, he will sit and snuggle with me for about 20 minutes while we watch a movie. If you know Connor, he has NEVER been a snuggler! Even when he was a tiny baby, if I tried to snuggle with him he only wanted to eat so he would cry.

His favorite activity inside is being chased around and tickled, and outside it's to run around and play in the snow or try to get in on a game of basketball with bigger kids. I'm constantly pulling him away because he tries to run right in the middle of their game, even if we have our own basketball.

It's unbelievable, and kind of sad, that my little baby just isn't a baby anymore. The time has passed so quickly. He is becoming a little boy, and nursery is only 7 weeks away! I guess it's time to have another?? (No, that's not an announcement.)