Connor is 1 (+1 day)!!!

Connor's first birthday started off with a treat: A doctor's visit and four shots. Yay?

Chunky Charlie followed in his sisters' footsteps and slipped on the charts another percentile group for weight, but kept his height up. The doctor suggested it was because he was walking and because of his recent bout of strep (the whole family got hit with it a week ago, yuck!) causing a little weight loss/slimming down. Either way, nobody is concerned. It happened to the girls and he's still growing like a little champ.

Height: 30.5" (just above the 50th percentile line)

Weight: 21 lbs, 9 oz (a bit below the 50th percentile line)

His noggin was so large the nurse felt the need to measure it 3 times before she would accept the number. I just laughed to myself and let her shake her head over it.

The rest of his day went much better once he forgave me for pinning him down so the nurse could put four different needles in his legs. We went to the local humane society and admired dogs and even picked out one to take home. It'll be a few days until we can pick him up, which is actually kind of perfect. There will be pictures forthcoming when we have him!

Then, around dinner time, we packed up stuff for dinner and went to the new house. James and I discussed moving things that evening, but I decided I wanted to take it easy and just focus on a little family time. So, using boxes as tables, we had dinner and cupcakes and a little birthday celebration for the boy. He got a toy car and a preschool basketball hoop. He ignored the hoop until we took the car away (the girls loved the hoop, though).

So, our little man is 1. He is exhausting, by the way. He is already a momma's boy, which is part of it, but he also thinks his dad is pretty much the coolest person ever. Everyone we meet adores his cheeky grin and blue eyes. The pediatrician and her resident each called him adorable at least a dozen times. Despite reaching toddlerhood and the required tantrums that accompany it, he really is the happiest little boy (as long as things are going his way).

Connor's favorite thing to do is climb. Climb the stairs, climb onto the table, climb onto the fireplace or even attempt to scale the back of the couch (he's unfortunately getting very good at this). When that's not an option, he loves ot climb over people if they'll lay still long enough. It's not uncommon to look over at him and find him doing a headstand and peeking at you from between his legs. Which is another favorite thing of his. He loves playing peek-a-boo through surfaces. He'll hide under the table just to peek out at you. Or at the park he loves to find holes to reach through and shout at me through. Lacking that, he'll put a random piece of clothing on his head and grin at you like he's the smartest little boy in the world.

He's not a baby anymore, and that's becoming more and more apparent. He gets mad if I don't give him a fork or spoon like everyone else. He wants to play with the girls every chance he gets. He even refuses to eat at the high chair anymore, but wants his chair up against the table with everyone else. Though he still crawls, it's usually only because he's been pushed over or something and doesn't feel like going through the effort of standing up again. I can't wait to see how his personality blossoms over the next year!

Our New Home

It's been a long four days here. A long month, really, but the last four days have been the longest. We were all set to close first thing Monday morning... until about 7pm Friday evening.

Lots of phone calls, lots of emails, and lots of pacing, but finally around lunchtime everything fell together and this afternoon we walked into the title office and signed a mountain of paperwork. Well, okay, not a mountain, unless a mountain can be an inch and a half tall.

About twenty minutes into the signing, I was crackings jokes about how I should have started off with a simpler, sloppier, faster-to-sign signature.

However, it's done. It's ours.

Here's some pictures nabbed from the real estate ad. Once we've put our mark on it, you can bet there will be a lot more to share.

Also, fair warning, there might be a post in the next couple days introducing a new member of our family. A furry one, that is. Keep an eye out!

Houston Children's Museum

We braved the children's museum today. I have been wanting to go for almost as long as we have lived in Houston, but never got around to it until today. Coming home... I remain unimpressed. It might have been different if I had gone before we had Connor or if I had James to help out. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't that much fun and a lot of that is because I felt outnumbered in many ways.

It also didn't help that there were a large number of school groups who tended to take over once they were set loose. When my 4 & 5 year old are being crowded out by older kids without direct adult supervision... *sigh* Also, when I attempted to go to the tot spot to let Connor have some roaming time, they refused to let me in because the girls were too big. I understand they don't want big kids playing there, but there was no option for the girls to sit quietly somewhere and let their little brother have a moment. So, basically, Connor spent the entire trip in the stroller, since when I let him out he tended to shove legos and plastic cubes in his mouth...

The point was to stretch and touch 4 lights at once before they changed. Megan just danced.

The girls got overwhelmed early on, so we took a break to color.

Finally found something the girls would do without hanging on to me. A mini obstacle course.

With apron strings snipped, the girls braved the rock wall.

They didn't get very high, but they were so proud of how high they did get.

Playing with water and PVC pipes. Mostly just water in Connor's case.

Admiring the newly hatched baby chicks right before another school group crowded us out.

Connor's new little friend. The little guy hopped right over to him.

A reason for my silence and updates

It has been a long time since my last post for a good reason.

Days after Valentine's Day and our trip to the zoo, we put an offer in on a house. As anyone can imagine, this experience has consumed me. Not only am I going through a ton of paperwork and making a dozen phone calls a day, but I'm also sorting through a thousand what-ifs. We are about to clear the final hurdle before our sprint to the finish line: The appraisal. If that goes through for us, the house is as good as ours. If it goes sour, well... that could potentially become a dealbreaker. So, understandably, I am a bit of a mess waiting for the appraiser's report.

The girls are excited about the upcoming move. They got to go with us to the inspection and had a blast running through the house.

The girls running wild in the new living room (Entry way to the right, master bedroom to the left, kitchen behind the wall in the middle)

Connor's first birthday is right around the corner, though. Poor boy has had his first birthday entirely consumed by my house thoughts, since closing date is a few days before and our move date is a few days after. So he'll turn 1 while we're in transition. Everyone tells me not to worry, he won't remember, but I'm a sucker for making memories and documenting them. Even things like first birthdays.

So, while his actual birthday may be overlooked, he'll certainly have a birthday to remember. If things work out, the boy is getting a puppy for his birthday. ;-) Well, that and a toddler basketball hoop. And probably a toy car, since he loves all the ones we find at various playdates.

These darn kids insist on growing up!

Cadence is so ready for kindergarten it's not funny anymore. We drove by the school we would be zoned for after the move (knock on wood, cross fingers and pray) and pointed it out to her. Rather than whine about not wanting to go as she has done in the past, she kicked her feet and grinned. Yesterday, she sat down and worked her way through an entire book. It took a little coaxing on my part to get her through the last few pages, but we did it. She was so proud of herself when I announced "the end!" When we talked about school, her first question was "will it have books to read?" Yes, my dear, there will be dozens of books to read. She's slowly gaining confidence.

Her art skills remain above par. During church, James kept tapping me on the shoulder and pointing to her drawings with a look of shock on his face, because even he could recognize the characters she put on paper. She was able to draw the main group of ponies from "My Little Ponies", except she was drawing them from the back, because they were looking at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. You could recognize each of them due to the little details she put in. Next, she drew Elsa and Anna and Olaf from the movie "Frozen" and added sparkles and snowflakes.

Megan is right behind Cadence in so many ways. She tries to keep up, but she doesn't quite have the knack for fine motor skills Cadence has. She wants to read with us, but she's so eager she gets her letters mixed up still. However, if I help her sound it out, she can blend them in an instant (that was the part Cadence struggled with) and tell me what the word is.

She has the most amazing imagination, though. The stories this girl can tell! She carries around an old cell phone of mine and tells me her prince is going to call, then I'll catch her "on the phone" talking about a dance. I giggle a little when she tells me her prince is going to kiss her in an excited voice. I warn her not to let Daddy know and she'll laugh and run off. The other day I caught her in the bathroom talking to her reflection, who I was informed is actually her friend from the mirror world. I still remember 2 years ago laying on the couch as she pointed out the friendly red dragon flying around on our ceiling and discussing how he bit her once but it was an accident.

And Connor... He's such a character. He loves stairs and gets mad when I block them off. He loves food and gets mad when I don't share. He loves remotes and cell phones and all things babies love and gets mad when I take them away. He adores his sisters and wants to be with them at all times, unless he's getting tired and demands to be in my lap while he refuses to sleep. He loves to climb and wrestle, though he hasn't quite figured out that just because someone's on the floor doesn't mean they want to wrestle. I have to sit on the couch to fix the girls' hair now because he tries to play with us.

His new trick is putting things in buckets, whether that's where they belong or not. I put Megan's laundry on the floor by the closet and when I went back, Connor had put all of it in their toy bucket. Yesterday while cleaning, he found puzzle pieces on the floor in the girls' room and attempted to put them in the doll bin, much to Cadence's distress. We could not convince him to put them in the smaller bin. He wanted to put it in the big one. Once we moved the doll one out of his reach, he contented himself with putting the pieces in the smaller one and dumping them back out again. And no cupboard of mine is safe, anymore. If I forget to put the kitchen baby gate up, my pots and pans are rearranged by my little helper.

No place is safe from this little dare devil! Climb, climb, climb!

He's much like Megan in his walking, though. Two months after his first step, he finally got around to figuring out the walking thing. So, now he's walking everywhere. Unfortunately, he feels that he should now get the same treatment as his walking sisters and wants to walk whenever we go out into public. He doesn't want to be held. It's impossible to keep pants on him with all this walking, too. He's got his father's build, all torso and shorter legs. So pants that fit his waist are too long and he'll step on them until they come off.

Babies and stuff at the zoo

Finally, finally it warmed up enough I was willing to go outside rather than hunker down on my couch, huddled under blankets. So, off to the zoo we went to chase down stories about a newborn giraffe and a newborn elephant!

See the tiny baby giraffe? So cute!

The girls got to feed the giraffe again. Connor just stared at it. Not sure he knew what to think!

As we approached, two of the elephants were wrestling in the pool. By the time we took the picture, only one was playing. He kept going underneath and bobbing back up again.

The newborn elephant! SO tiny (well, comparatively, at least. 385 pounds when he was born after 22 months gestation. Ouch!)

We got to meet up with quite a few friends. It was a pleasant afternoon.

I also got a little super-mom and made PB&J sandwiches cut into hearts with pink sprinkles on top and even bought some pink pudding cups and included some little heart-shaped chocolates for the girls' lunch at the zoo today. I think the attention to detail was lost on them, but I enjoyed doing it nonetheless. Plus, other moms saw how I awesome I am, so it worked out. ;-) Kidding...

Playing Outside

There is only a short period of time in which I feel comfortable allowing the kids to run outside and play. Thanks to Houston's bug populations and no screen door or see-through backdoor, our only option is to leave the door wide open while the kids play and I don't usually let that happen. However, with the recent freeze (if you're my Facebook friend, you saw the half inch of ice covering my car and there's a whole rant about my drafty, crappy, rental and its utter lack of insulation, but... we'll not go there) killing off most of the bugs still hanging around, I can let the door stay open and the kids go wild without fear of being eaten alive while tucked safely inside my house or Cadence and Connor coming in covered in little red welts.

Connor only recently began exploring the backyard. At first he stayed on the cement patio, but once he finally dared to go into the grass once and realized it wasn't that bad, he began exploring the entire thing. If the back door is open, he is racing for it. Especially if he hears his sisters out there. If they're having fun, he wants to be a part of it (there's another cute story about how the girls will have their heads together giggling over some joke only preschoolers find funny and he'll crawl over, sit next to them and laugh loudly, wanting to be a part of their little group).

Anyway, I had to take a moment to grab my camera and get a few pictures of them having fun and play with them a bit myself. Usually I kick them outside while I clean up the living room or do a quick load of dishes, . LOVING the last picture of the three of them together. <3

At the zoo (again)

With James's temporary night shift, it's best for everyone if I get the kids out of the house in the morning so he can sleep and they don't have to be unnaturally quiet.

Today, we went to the zoo, hoping to beat the rain (which showed up an hour early, darn it!). It was otherwise perfect weather, though. High 50's, overcast, and no real wind chill. With the looming storm, the zoo was practically empty compared to what we're used to, allowing me to relax a little and let the kids explore with a bit more freedom.

I originally planned to let the girls feed the giraffes again, but when I realized I did not have my camera, I decided against it. I want Connor's first up-close-and-personal to be caught on film. Besides, it started raining at 11, when the feeding was scheduled to start.

We had lots of unique moments thought:

We went to see the lions first, on our way to the giraffes. The lionesses were not in their usual nap spots, but closer to the viewing platform, chewing on the bones from their breakfast, allowing us a great view of them. I pointed them out to Connor and when I said "see the cat?" he became rather alert and sat upright in his stroller to try and see what I was pointing at. Once he saw them, he excitedly began saying "Ta! Ta!" and even waved at them. Too sweet.

The zoo has a spot in the children's park where you can climb through a tunnel and poke your head out in the middle of the prairie dog exhibit. The girls and I took Connor into one and happened to see a prairie dog hanging out, digging inches away from our faces. It was pretty cool and once again, Connor was super excited and kept banging on the plastic.

At the chimp exhibit, one of the chimps sat beside the large window in the viewing house and was responding to the people he saw. One kid clapped his hands and the chimp mimicked him. Cue several minutes of kids clapping and laughing as the chimp clapped his hands and then clapped his foot and his hand and made goofy faces. Of course, he abruptly got fed up with the attention and attempted to roundhouse kick one of the little girls. He only kicked the window, of course, but it certainly scared her.

Once past the chimp place, we wandered toward the elephants (with a visit to the African drums the little play village first). I had received an email from the zoo and learned one of the elephants is pregnant and due any day now! We happened upon a moment when they allowed the pregnant elephant's 3-year-old to spend some time with his older brother, where he will spend most of his time once the new baby is here. Initially, I thought they were fighting over territory, since that male elephant has always been alone, but the zookeeper set us straight and we watched the two brothers wrestle and play. Then the zookeeper pointed out the pregnant elephant. I'm excited to take the girls back when the baby is here. We were told that, barring any health issues, mama and calf will rejoin the herd within days of birth, so when the time comes, we'll get to see a newborn baby elephant!

Of course, when pointing to the pregnant elephant and telling them there was a baby elephant in her belly, just like I'd had a baby in my belly, the girls assumed all the elephants were pregnant because their bellies were so big.

Oh well. Maybe next time we go to the zoo we'll have pictures of the baby elephant and pictures of Connor feeding the giraffes to share all at once. ;-)

Cleaning Our Room

According to my new weekly chore schedule, Tuesdays are the day we focus on getting the bedrooms cleaned. So, after lunch, the kids and I locked ourselves in their rooms and got them vacuum-ready (I'll be tackling my room later this evening when James isn't sleeping). I think the girls have too many toys, but since they play with most of them, I haven't bothered with sorting through them. Undoubtedly, they'll lose several once I start cleaning things out for our upcoming move (which has no details beyond "we're moving out of this house sometime before the end of summer, we hope").

The girls like to play more than clean, so it requires me sitting in their room frequently directing them what to pick up, but in the end, it does get done. 

Connor likes to play while the rest of us clean

Megan and her crazy hair. It gets combed every day, I swear.

Connor's way of helping sometimes results in tears from the girls.

Cadence's hair! I gave her bangs and it just transformed her, I swear.

And, to end it all, we got a little video of Connor's run-before-he-can-walk routine. :-) I know how much a certain reader of mine (Hi, Lynne!) loves videos of her cousins.

Another "first"

For the past month or so, Connor will eagerly bounce and point out every cat he sees and chatter at me. Over the past week, I've come to a realization... he's saying "Taz". Of course, to him "Taz" is the general word for "cat", since that's the cat he sees 9 times out of 10. Poor Hanna has been labeled as "Taz" in his little brain, but we'll rewire that later.

Just like his oldest sister, he is fascinated by the creatures and will chase them down. He's actually a fair bit nicer to them and will attempt to pet Taz on her head, which almost looks like he is smacking her, but not quite. As always, she is incredibly patient with his less-than-gentle affection.

So, his first word beyond "mama" (because he's been using the mama sound to indicate he wants me or my attention. Usually while crying, but he'll use it without crying on occasion as he comes to find me).

Actually, this morning, when he saw her, he kept saying it "Tda! Tda!" (The t sound is a little harder than the normal t sound, a cross between a t and a d). When she complied and hopped up to visit us, he got super excited and said "Ha Tda!", which I can only assume means "Hi, Taz", since "Hi" is another word I have suspected him of knowing due to my habit of greeting him with an enthusiastic "hi!" every time he wakes up from a nap or I return from running and errand, etc.

So, I guess we also get to claim his first two-word sentence? Kidding... ;-)

First Steps

I was right. He can do it.

For the past couple weeks, Connor has been cruising as much as possible, even using the walls as hand holds to avoid crawling. He'll crawl from the couch to the wall, get to his feet and walk along the hallway to get to his room. I've been avoiding the urge to grab him and shake him and say "walk already!" (Okay, so I only resisted the shaking urge, I've said the words many times).

He's been standing, when he's not paying attention. When I try to stand him in the middle of the room, he'll immediately squat and lower himself to the ground. He's been lifting both hands while cruising, using my hoody string (because it's oh so supportive) as a handhold while bouncing, etc. But, he's been refusing to stand. Over thinking it, or so I've been saying. You can see the wheels turning in his head when I try to get him to stand or walk. He thinks about it, looks around him, considers his options and then plops on his butt and crawls, even though I've been swearing he's 100% capable of walking if he wanted to and have been doing my best to bribe those first steps out of him.

Tonight, though, I finally won the battle of wills. I lifted him to standing, as I've done a dozen times over the past few weeks, while chatting with friends at a small get together, and took my hands away. He stood, squatted, stood, squatted, stood and took a step.

Unfortunately my exclamation of "Ha! I told you!" scared him and he plopped on his butt.

He did think it was pretty cool, though, because he tried it again (twice), but then he got distracted by the toy vacuum cleaner and lost all interest in anything but that for the rest of the evening. At least until he saw the brownie I was holding...