Summer time

It's almost Connor's 2nd birthday and summer is in full swing. Connor is loving his life right now. He wakes up around 9 and goes to story time, play group, or First Steps depending on the day. Then we come home, eat some lunch, and go down for a nap around 12:30-1:00. We wake up again at 3ish and either go to the park, hang out in the backyard, or hang out inside.
Life is good...

Summer Vacation

It's the third day of summer vacation and it's already raining. Yuck!! Luckily, Connor hasn't asked to go outside yet. Things are going well so far. We've hit up the library the last two days, took a walk, and went to a really cool playground. I've managed to tire him out which is really good. He's also been sleeping in which is even better. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but don't worry they're coming.
Connor's having his 2 year old pictures this Saturday and his birthday parties are fastly approaching. I can't believe he's almost 2. It's been a great two years and I can't wait to experience more.

Connor enjoying the ducks...

Here's Connor enjoying chasing the ducks at my parents house over Easter Break. He had a great time seeing all the geese, ducks, and swans. He especially like having the ducks go back into the water.

Connor's haircut

Connor got his haircut in early May. Steve
and I felt it was necessary since he was
starting to look like a little hippy.

He did not like it...

No, no daddy...

This is Connor's newest saying. Mornings have become a little rough for Connor. He's definitely following in Steve's footsteps for his morning routine. He's decided that he'd rather have his milk in his crib while he fights the fact that it's time to wake up. So as Steve tries to change his diaper and put his clothes on, I hear "No, no daddy" from my bathroom. If you didn't know what Steve was doing, you'd think he was beating him. While the "No, no daddy" is going on, he's wiggling around so it's literally impossible to get his diaper on.
Next on our list is Connor's first haircut at Cookie Cutter. This is a kids salon where they have cars for seats, a slide, and a dvd player at each station for the kids to watch. Connor loved the slide, but wasn't sure about the seat cars. So, mommy was his seat and got to wear the drape. Connor hated getting his hair wetted down. The hair stylist did well with him but I felt cut a little too much. Afterwards, we had to change his clothes because there was hair everywhere.

Loving Life

Connor throughly enjoys being outside, picking up sticks and rocks, throwing balls, and helping daddy in the yard. For the past few weeks, this has been Connor's favorite pasttime. He also likes going to the pond and watching the ducks and geese. When we were at my parents house over Easter break, he really enjoyed chasing the ducks into the water. I took some pictures of it but they're on my mom's computer, so everyone will have to wait until I go back to Ohio.
Connor is also saying a lot more things. He says two-three word sentences and is very interested in airplanes. I love listening to him talk because new words come out every day.

Spring Break

It's Spring Break 09 and Connor and I are ready to party. We started off the day with some Honey Nut Cheerios and milk. Then we watched Little Einsteins while getting ready to go to the library. Oh yes- it is story time at the library. The last time we went there was during the summer. Connor throughly enjoyed his time at the library. He played, sang, danced, and listened to the books. We got home and had a few pieces of cheese while I ate my lunch. (We're not eating a lot these days) Then we went upstairs for some more story time and had a nice 3 hour nap. Then we went outside after our nap and played with some balls. We also got invited to our back door neighbor's house. (I can't remember her name and I feel bad asking- I think she knows all of our names- along with Duncan) Then we came back inside for some yogurt and berries.

All in all, it was a great day. I can't wait for tomorrow. I'll try to put some pictures up. It's been awhile.

20 months...

Connor turned 20 months on March 11. I still can't believe how big of a boy he is and how big he is going to get. It amazes me every time I look at him. He's saying so many words and understands what we say which is so cool. This past weekend, we went on a walk that lasted an hour and a half. We ended up at the park that's in our development and Connor loved every minute of it. He enjoyed going up and down the slide, climbing the stairs and the rock wall. He also enjoyed going over to Duncan who was tied up on a park bench to say "Hi Duncan". Quite cute. He didn't want to go on swings yet.
The last two days have been really nice and Connor has spent the majority of his time outside playing with all types of balls. We went on a short walk which consisted of Duncan wanting to go faster and Connor trying to keep up. He also found some sticks that he enjoyed banging on the ground. I can definitely flash forward a few years to where Connor comes home with skinned knees, dirt all over and different animals in his pockets. I feel I have a Dennis the Menace on my hands.

Our Little One is Growing Up

We went to one of our friend's daughter's 1st birthday party yesterday. Out of all our friends, Connor is 6 months older than most of the kids. The only kid that is older than him is 4 years old. Steve and I realized how big Connor is. He looks like a little boy compared to the two girls and one boy. This made us sad because it means he's growing up and he will no longer be a baby. I guess that's why people have more kids. They remember what it was like having a little one in the house and miss it so much.

Cloth Diapers 1st round

We started cloth diapers on Saturday and I think it's going to take some time to get used to. We realized that he is a pretty heavy wetter so we have to put two liners in each diaper. Three for the night time. A poopy diaper is not fun to clean. Thank god we ordered the diaper sprayer. Some of Connor's pants are a little tight on him with the cloth diaper. Poor guy. I tried to take a picture of him in them and he wasn't too excited. Hopefully he's not already shy about being somewhat naked. His bumps and rashes are going away which is so great and I'm so thankful that we realized that it was the diapers that were causing him so much havoc.

Words, words, words

I am loving the age Connor is at right now. He has grown so much since he has moved to the toddler room and his vocabulary is over the top. Every day Steve and I are amazed at what he says. Here are some of the words he says at 19 months.
1. Elephant
2. Hi or hello
3. Bye
4. Dada
5. Mama
6. Papa
7. Nonna
8. Duncan
9. Doing (What are you doing?)
10. How
11. Tree
12. Snowman
13. Noah
14. Nolan
15. Eat
16. More
17. Please
18. Excuse me
19. Thank you
20. No (says that very well)
21. Yes or yeah
22. No dada
23. No Duncan
24. Sit
25. Baa
26. Roar
27. Neigh
28. Hooray
29. Wow
30. Monkey

I'm sure there are more- I just can't think of them. I'll have to video tape him when he's on a roll.

Keep your fingers crossed....

Connor may be allergic to latex. We discovered this after putting a bandage on him in his groin area and when we went to take it off, there were red dots around it. I decided to go to Whole Foods and buy latex free, chlorine free, and dye free disposables. On Sat. morning, we took off the diaper and all the red dots that were around the bandage were gone. So I guess I'm not sure if it's latex or the perfume in the Pampers. Well the disposables cost 10.99 for 34 diapers. That's too expensive for us every week, so cloth diapers might be the only answer. We just bought some that we can use from birth through 35 pounds, so when we have another baby, we can use them on him.her. So- let's keep our fingers crossed that this will be the end to all of your problems and the end to my continual venting on this blog.

Is it warm outside?

I have been loving the past two days. The sun has been out and has been warming our house to a wonderful 74 degrees. Connor was able to run around in his diaper which is very adorable. He of course loves not having any clothes on. I would allow him run around without a diaper, but who knows what would end up on the floor.

We're still trying to figure out his rash and for some reason it has everyone stumped. Maybe they'll name something after him and he'll become famous. The money will come pouring in and it'll be great. Wait a minute- I'm going off to fantasy land. I just really wish it would go away.

Well- hopefully the warm sun is a sign that it's going to get warmer.

Connor's new condition

Here's the latest on Connor's illness.

Steve went to the doctor with Connor on Monday because the rash that he had moved to his face. They sent the culture out to the lab and after 2-3 days, the doctor said that he has Group A Strep, which I think is strep throat.

So our next question was if the staph and strep were related. The doctor thinks so but isn't completely sure. Nice! Connor's now on amoxycillion (I probably spelled that wrong.) for 7 days. This should take care of both problems but since I've dealt with this for the past 8 months, I scheduled a follow up appointment for Friday just in case.

I'm in the process of looking up as much info that I can on this ridiculous disease/fungus and it hasn't been rewarding. There's not a lot of info out about this which is quite frustrating. So here's where I ask my group of 4-5 people who are reading this for help:

If you know of anyone who has had any of these issues, please send me their information. Or, if you know of any great websites that you have found to work for researching diseases/fungus, please pass them on.

Luckily, Connor's in a pretty good mood which is quite helpful.

The dreaded doctor...

In the past 3 weeks, Connor has either gone to the doctor's or stayed at home to fend off a fever. This week was no different.

This past weekend, I went to my parents house to help organize their basement while Steve and Connor had some father and son time. When I called on Sat., Steve told me that Connor now has red bumps on his face. It has moved. It's now in two places. Wonderful.

So- on Monday, I called the doctor to get Connor in to see him. Steve took him at 1:30 and we found out he has a staph infection. What a surprise. He's had this so called "staph infection" since June. The words mean nothing to us. What is surprising is that they finally did a swab in his nose. I was glad that they just didn't give us some more medication and send us on our way. We get to find out the results tomorrow or Thursday and then go from there.

Luckily, Connor seems to not be affected by it and is still laughing and having the time of his life.

I ended up having to buy Valentine's Day cards and paper plates for his party on Thursday. I don't understand the point of having an 18 month old pass around V- Day cards but hey who am I?

Frustrated...

Hold on guys, this is going to be a long one. Steve and I have been very frustrated lately with doctors and daycare.
First daycare- There are two rooms for the infants and toddlers. Connor is in the toddler room. This winter has been a tough one for the infant room. There have been many sicknessees. Connor has been pretty good about not getting them untiljust recently. They have a school rule that if a child has a fever over 100 degrees, he can't return for 24 hours. That's huge. Connor's been teething lately and with that comes a fever. Well last week on Wed night, he had a fever of 100.2, so I told Steve he had to stay from daycare. This past Monday was difficult for Connor. He was up almost all night and we were almost going to have him stay home when he ended up being pretty awake and wanting to go to daycare. I ended up taking a half day on Tuesday because he was not feeling well and his temp was 100.2. So that meant that we had to stay home today. He was doing great today and there wasn't any fever.
It's quite frustrating because each time Connor gets a little over 100, we have to stay home. I understand they want to look out for the young kids but it's getting kinda of old when he seems fine after 12 hours.
Next- the doctors. I think very highly of peds and recently changed doctors based on our beliefs of vaccination schedules. Well- at the beginning of June, Connor ended up with a staph infection in his genital area. This ended up happening 3 more times. Now in Jan., Connor has had a yeast infection and some other type of rash that the doctors don't know what to call it. The reason why we're getting so frustrated is that the peds keep giving us either oral antibiotics or oral antifungal meds to help cure this. Well guess what we're in our 7 month of this going on and it's still not fixed. It's getting old. I want them to do some type of blood work to see if he's allergic to something or a carrier of something and noone wants to do that. They just say "Here, we'll treat it with this." I've been reading "Mother Warriors" a book by Jenny McCarthy on austism and I feel like one of those moms. I continue to fight for Connor's fungal disease and keep getting irrated with the doctors. I've decided to keep a daily log of his genital area along with pictures. Don't worry- I won't show them on the computer. I just feel like these last 8 months have blurred together and if I keep a record then maybe someone will listen to me.

Okay I'm done venting. Thanks for listening and if you have any suggestions, feel free to comment.

Every Evening...

Picking Connor up from daycare can be quite a chore. I normally pick him up around 4:45 every day. Even though I'm a teacher and finish the day at 2:30, I normally have things that I have to get down until around 4:30. It's a good thing I wait because I think picking him up earlier might be worse than it already is.
So- I pick him up and he's normally pretty excited to see me, but we can't leave right away. I normally have to sit and wait 15 or so minutes while he finishes playing with the other two boys. As soon as I try to put a hat on him, I have the famous "Noooooooooo" in a very whiny voice. Then he normally runs away from me into a corner. While I'm trying to get his hat on, I continually tell him that I'm just putting his hat on and he can continue playing. Normally his hat is back off the second I put it on.
Then there's the coat. That's another torture event. He also doesn't understand that all of his friends are leaving too. I think he would be okay with staying in daycare the whole night. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's happy to be there, but I would really like to go home too.

Does it ever end?

A Little Tired

Connor was very tired this Monday morning. He had a busy weekend and has such a difficult time getting back into the swing of things.
My parents came up this weekend and Connor had a blast hanging out with them. Steve and I were able to go to the Progressive Holiday Party while Connor hung out with Nonna and Papa. My parents also picked up a new puppy, so Connor enjoyed running around with it and pointing at him. Thank god he's not older or he would have wanted one too.

Next Resolution

I love that I've kept up on my blog. I feel so much better about things and the fact that I can look at this when Connor gets older and remember the good ol' days. My next resolution is to get Connor and Steve out and about. I want to capture those memories and the park and on the hills when there's snow and the museums.
I don't want all of my pictures of him to be of him at home. What a boring beginning of a life to lead. I want Connor to see all the great places he went (that cost little to nothing) and all the wonderful time he had doing everything. So wish me luck in finding places to go to that don't cost a lot and allow a child to have fun.

The Wilson household is contaminated

Steve, Connor, and I have all come down with some sort of infection. Connor had a fever on Thursday and was cranky throughout the weekend. (What a joyous and long weekend) On Monday morning (3:00 to be exact) I came down with a stomach flu which made me take a half day at work, and now Steve thinks he's coming down with a cold. Odd that it's three seperate viruses, but nonetheless we're all sick.
How I love the cold season.

Cold and cold..

There was a flu outbreak in the infant room and even though Connor is now in the toddler room, that nasty bug found it's way over. I was happy at first that Connor was in the toddler room, until I came to pick him up, and he was in the infant room. Why would you bring healthy kids into a room where a virus has been mingling around. They said that they disinfected on Monday, but still...

Luckily, yesterday we didn't have school becasue it was a "cold" day. We ended up staying at home all day and by the end of the day I was tired and wanting to get out of the house.
Today, Connor woke up and was very cranky. So far, we've had a day of cranky and happy. Steve had to work today and may be coming home early so I can get out of the house.

Adorable

I love being with Connor at this age. He cracks me up. He's starting to put words together and make sense of what is going on in the world. The other day, Duncan was eating dinner and Connor was in the kitchen. Iasked him what he was doing, and I swear this came out of his mouth: I'm watching Duncan eat. Now of course it wasn't as comprehendable as an adult, but it was comprehendable to me. The other thing that I get a kick out of is his ability to play with his blocks or farm animals for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. He loves to play with these things and babbles away. I know I'm going to miss these moments.

Another day...

I'm really sick of the snow. I feel like winter is going to be here forever. We may possibly get a snow day this week or next and I'd rather just go to school and get the snow days in Feb. or March when we hardly ever have a day off.
Connor thinks the snow is great. He loves to say snowman and giggles when snow hits his face. It's funny how you forget those simple things.

Trying really hard...

I'm really trying hard to update this blog. I read a bunch of blogs throughout the week and I'm so impressed with their daily update. I never feel like I have a lot to talk about, so I feel as though I don't need to update things. As I was looking at my blog, it was nice to reminance about the summer days when I started this blog. So my New Year's resolution is to blog every day (or every other day :) Maybe it would help if I knew of people reading my blog. Anyone out there?
Connor's had a rough start to the new year. He's had a hard time falling asleep and it has to be because he's growing so much. We went for his 18 month appointment and he's 26 lbs and 33 inches. I can't believe he's almost 3 feet tall. That seems so crazy to me. What is also crazy is the fact that he's 18 months. I can't stand how fast these months go. Before I know it, he'll be 2. Ugh! If only I could capture him at this time and we never moved on.. Wait a minute, I don't want to have to buy diapers for the rest of my life.
Anyways- we are having fun with Connor these days. He's played with his barn every single day since he opened it up on Christmas Day. I'm so glad I made the purchase.
My parents are coming up next weekend so we can go to Steve's holiday party. They love coming up and "babysitting". They always have fun stories to tell us when we come home.

Thank God Christmas break is over....

So- I love the holidays and spending it with Connor makes it even more amazing, but it seemed like these two weeks were long and short. They were long because there isn't a lot to do with an almost 18 month old child when it's cold outside and short because I still have a million things to return.


Steve and I had a great time watching Connor open all his presents. He enjoyed each one. He had a difficult time going from one present to the next. Once he opened up the present, he wanted to play with it. I especially love the fact that he loves his Fisher Price barn. He has played with that nonstop since he got it for Christmas. That makes me feel really good because I know it's something that he enjoys.