PA Visit

Today is our first day home after a 2 and 1/2 week visit to PA! It was a very busy & packed few weeks in PA!

We started our visit out by traveling to Pittsburgh for Craig & Danielle Kaniecki's wedding! Ryan was in the wedding, so I had a lot of R&R time the day of the wedding while Ryan filled his groomsmen duties! Connor stayed with my parents while we were away. It was a beautiful wedding and I know Craig & Danielle are going to be very happy!! The day after their wedding, we hosted a 1st birthday party for Connor at my parent's pool! It was great to see all of our friends & family and to celebrate Connor's first year!

Over the next few days we were able to visit with a bunch of friends ~ Liz & Ravi, Kristen & Ethan, baby Jameson & Jenna. We spent one day at Hershey Park with Kristen & Ethan and the boys had a blast in the pool and in the splash parks!

While I was home, I was able to throw a baby shower for my dear friend Katie who is expecting baby Hannah in September! It went very well and Katie got so many nice things!! It was nice for all of her friends & family to get together and celebrate Hannah before her arrival! I know lots of people are excited to meet her!

The beautiful flowers at the shower provided by my mother-in-law, Jan!

Katie (baby Hannah) and I

Katie's baby shower before the guests arrived!

Time flew and before we knew it, it was time to return back to IL! It feels good to be home and back in our routine, but we are missing everyone!!

We have a week of "downtime" and then things are going to start to get busy & hectic again. We close on our house on 8/2, the movers bring our stuff from storage on 8/3, and then we will be spending many days painting and getting settled into our new home. Luckily, my parents are coming to help the 1st week we are in the house and Ryan's family is coming the 2nd week! It would be near impossible to get things done with Connor and no babysitter because he is so busy these days.

My parents are coming out again in mid-September for my dad to run in a marathon in Chicago and then our next trip to PA is planned for the beginning of Oct!

Now a little on Connor and all the new things he is doing:

~ He gets around with ease. He can stand up on his own without having to go to furniture to stand up.
~ He has a huge appetite and he eats almost anything (if he is in the mood for it)! One day he will refuse a food and the next he will gobble it down.
~ He points to everything and attempts to say "What's that?"!
~ He is starting to try to mimic words we say. He says "daddy" perfectly, but sometimes we also hear "thank you", "tree", "cheese", and I'm told "pap"! No sign of "mommy" yet! :(
~ He mimics our actions too! One of my favorites is that he loves when we smell his feet and say "Ewww stinky"!! Today I saw him walk over to me, smell my foot, and attempt to say "eww"!! Ha ha.
~ While in PA, he got his 7th tooth with little to no fussing!
~ Connor tests my patience!! Ha ha. I find it hard not to laugh at him, but I am working on it! Everyone knows I am a germophobe. Today we were at Target and I forgot wipes to wipe down the cart. Okay, I can live with that. But, Connor decided that he was going to lick every inch of the cart that he could reach (ewwww!!!!). The first time he did it, I said no and he stopped, but he watched me and waited to see my reaction before he did it again! I kept telling him no, but the little stinker kept on going and would pause between each "lick" to see what I was going to do. He definitely has a naughty side!! Wonder where he gets it??:)

Until next time...

Post 17 - Something that makes you cry

Most of the stories in today's news!! The news is depressing nowadays.

** I also posted entry #16 below!

Post 16 - Something that makes you feel better

Too many to list, but I'll name a few:

1. Connor's chuckle/belly laugh & big smile
2. Watching Connor light up when Ryan gets home from work (he RUNS to the door).
3. Watching Ryan be a daddy.
4. Starbucks frappucchino -- ha ha
5. Turkey Hill ice cream -- there is none other like it
6. Connor's pterodactyl impersonation!
7. Sleeping in

Connor turns 1!!!!

I absolutely cannot believe Connor turned 1 this week! In some ways, his birth seems like ages ago, and in other ways it feels like it was just yesterday. It is amazing to look back at photos and see how much he's changed. He's officially a toddler now!

We had Connor's 12 month check up yesterday with a new pediatrician. She was nice, but I do miss our pediatrician in Hershey. Our Hershey ped was much more informative. He would examine Connor, talk to us about where Connor was on the growth charts, tell us what he should be doing, tell us what to expect over the next couple of months, and sympathize with us because he has a little one the same age who also didn't sleep for a majority of his first year of life! Ha ha. Our new pediatrician is very good and nice, but just waits for our questions. His doc appt pretty much turned into a wrestling match the entire time because he wants to get into EVERYTHING, so I didn't have a moment to gather my thoughts and ask questions. Of course, I thought of about 5 questions after we left the office.

Enough about that.... I'm sure we'll grow to love her. If not, there are other pediatricians out there.

Connor's 12 month stats:

1. Connor now weighs in at 20 lbs 10 oz. Which is a weight gain of about 12 1/2 lbs in his first year! He is only in the 25th percentile, but the kid never stops moving, it doesn't surprise me!

2. They measured his length at 29 1/2 inches long (50th percentile), which sounds a little off to me because he measured 29 inches at his 9 month appt. But, in their defense, he wouldn't hold still for them to get an accurate measurement.

3. I have no idea what his head circumference was -- I didn't catch that number.

4. Connor got 2 vaccines yesterday and also got a finger prick to check for anemia (he wasn't anemic). He didn't make one peep for the finger prick, which surprised me because I think that hurts!! But, he did cry quite a bit for the shots. I don't blame him!

What else is Connor doing?

- Walking very well.... all day long! He doesn't want held or cuddled. He just wants to walk, walk, walk. Luckily, he has gotten a lot better and doesn't fall and hit his head as much.

- Babbling like crazy. You would think that he has his own language! The only "word" that he says really well is Dada. Sometimes we think he is trying to say "uh oh", "two", and "hi". But, he only attempts these words when he is mimicking us.

- Connor is still in love with VeggieTales and thanks to Libby, Emily, & Greg, we just received a new DVD in the mail for his birthday!! So, now I can get some of those old songs out of my head!! But, of course, I'm sure I'll learn all the new ones now and have them playing in my head all day long too! ha ha.

- Since becoming much more mobile, Connor has without a doubt learned the meaning of "no"! He listens very well unless he is tired. In our small, small apartment, we have a fireplace, vertical blinds at the balcony door, & a fake plant that are 'hot spots' for him. Throughout the day, as he is making laps around the apartment, I'll see him stop at these temptations and look at them. You can tell he is pondering whether or not to touch them. If I see him do this, I'll say "Connor..no!" and 99 percent of the time he walks away. At night before bedtime, that's another story! But, overall, he does VERY well at listening.

- Sleeping!! He is FINALLY sleeping! He has slept through the night since we've been here in IL. Although, he is an early riser, we can usually get him to sleep an 8 1/2 - 10 hour stretch! Naps are also going well with minimal crying when I put him in his crib. He averages 1-2 naps per day depending on when he gets up in the morning.

Connor's 1st birthday

Connor's 1st birthday was this past Monday! We were very lucky to have Ryan take a day off to spend the day with us! We took Connor to the Brookfield Zoo where he saw zebras, lions, tigers, bears, birds, reptiles, fish, etc. He had a lot of fun! After spending the day at the zoo, he (of course) had a chocolate cake for dessert after dinner. He was a MESS!!! And, let's just say you could tell he had much more sugar than normal! He was WILD!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, we've been in IL for about a month and we are slowly getting settled. We have a house that we are under contract with and hopefully we'll go to settlement in mid/late July. We are ready to be out of this tiny apartment!! We've gotten to do a lot of sightseeing in our short month here. We've gone into the city, to the aquarium, to two zoos, to a waterpark, for many walks, and to the children's museum. We are trying to be "tourists" before we move into a house and get bogged down with moving/painting/etc.

Connor and I are flying back to PA in about a week to spend 2 and 1/2 weeks there! Ryan will fly back twice over those two weeks for a wedding and for another commitment we made prior to moving. I am more than nervous for the flight back to PA with just Connor and myself. Like I said before, he postively does not want to be held, so I have a feeling keeping him on my lap for a 1-2 hr flight will not go well. I hope he proves me wrong!! Ryan will be on the flight home with us, so I am much less nervous about that one!

We are going to have a true birthday party for Connor while we are back in PA! It'll be nice to see all of our friends & family!

Well, that's all for now! Hope to post again soon!:)

Post 15 - Something that upsets you

Okay... so after a couple months hiatus...I am going to try to continue with our blog challenge without Ryan. We are just too busy in the evenings when he gets home from work to bother him with it. So, I will try to finish it myself!:)

~Something that upsets you ~

I have a few small pet peeves that I just happened to be exposed to yesterday, so I'll write about them..

1. We were at the pool of the community where our temp housing is, so there is an array of ages spanning age 5-40s. It seems like a younger community and I haven't seen too many people over 40. Anyhow, we were at the pool and there were young kids swimming and these 20-somethings found it appropriate to cuss loudly around these kids. Of course, I don't like them doing it in front of Connor, but he doesn't understand yet. It bothered me more that they found it acceptable to swear in front of these kids.

2. I know we've come a LONG way with laws banning smoking in restaurants, bars, etc. So, I shouldn't complain. But again, we were at the pool last night and I was overwhelmed by cigarette smoke from these 20-somethings! Again, I find it offensive, but it bothers me even more that they are blowing their smoke in the direction of my 1 year old son. I hope some day they ban smoking everywhere except your home/car! I'd rather not die of cancer from 2nd hand smoke..thank you!

3. The drivers in IL!!! It is routine to see drivers run red lights, especially if they are waiting to make a left turn. The light will turn red and you'll see a line of 2-3 cars turn left after the light turns red. I understand if you are in the middle of the intersection because you are waiting for your chance to make a left turn and the light changes, but c'mon....they are definitely pushing the line with this one! But, like I said, it is so common...I wonder if the police officers ignore this one!?

That's all for now!:)