Height/Weight: Well, he's finally putting some distance between himself and his brothers--at least in the weight department. He was basically the same height as William and Garrett--just shy of thirty inches--but at 22 lbs 3 oz he is over a full pound heavier than Garrett and almost half a pound heavier than William was.
Wearing: Thanks to the two pounds he has packed on since twelve months, most of his twelve month clothing is definitely on the snug side. Granted, a lot of the eighteen month stuff is too long (#shortkidproblems), so his closet is basically a total mess of clothes half in and half out of bins, which is super fun. Getting that mess organized is definitely one of my top priorities in the next few days.
Eating: Can I just say that you don't put on two pounds in three months without a hearty appetite and leave it at that? Ugh. This kid loves his food. Honestly, he seems to be a little bit more picky than his brothers were at this age, but sometimes it seems like that is because we serve the food in a manner he doesn't appreciate (aka we have the nerve to cut something up for him). He basically demands breakfast within minutes of waking up, string cheese and any type of bread/grain is always a guaranteed win with him, and he definitely seems to have some of his Momma's sweet tooth. I suppose there are worse problems to have, right?
Sleeping: And speaking of problems... Sleep has been hit or miss at best (although haven't I been saying that for months? Sigh). This kid is fully capable of doing all the "right" sleep things--self-soothing, sleeping through the night, napping consistently--but (more often than not, it seems) he likes to exercise his ability to demand that things be on his terms. For a lot of the past three months, that has meant waking up between midnight and two and needing one of us to go in to him (thankfully for not very long though). For naps, it means that if I put him down around 12:30, he'll sleep for two hours, which means I need to wake him up to go get William (which turns him into a bit of a bear for most of what is left of the afternoon), but if I put him down earlier, he rarely naps for the full two hours and is usually up after ninety minutes. Go figure. Fortunately, despite the aforementioned grievances, he usually goes down for naps and bedtime really easily, and unlike his brothers, tends to wake up happy and chatty in his crib, so I guess I'll take that.
New Stuff: Shortly after his birthday we introduced a lovey animal/blanket, and he loves the thing. So much so that I hunted down another one online so that I can have two to rotate in and out (if you saw the deterioration and grossness of Garrett's taggie blanket you would understand why I want a second one--and if you've ever seen me tear apart the house looking for said taggie at bedtime you would also understand why I want to have a backup). We don't do a blanket or other animals in the crib yet, though, because he loves cuddling things (much like Garrett) and has a tendency to "cuddle" by burrowing his face in things, and I'm just too nervous that if he burrows his face into something big and fluffy like a blanket while he's getting ready to go to sleep that he might not un-burrow his face #paranoidmomproblems
Right around fourteen months, Connor officially started dominating the world of walking and hasn't looked back since. He tries his darndest to keep up with his brothers, and every once in a while they will tone down their games (like football and chase) to a level that he can play at, which he loves--and he shows his approval with his ridiculously amazing laugh (I'm still convinced he's got the best laugh of my three boys, and that's saying a lot because I've always loved William's and Garrett's laughs too).
At one year I mentioned that his fifth teeth had come in and that I thought we might be getting a break from the teething pain--boy was I wrong about that. He is now up to essentially TWELVE teeth (yes. Seven teeth in three months. Pretty sure we know what some of the sleep issues were). The front four on the top are fully in, plus one molar is mostly in and the other is halfway in. On the bottom, the middle two are fully in and the ones to either side are cut all the way through but are not all the way up. Both bottom molars are fully in. It's been a fun few months (not). I am not looking forward to the eye teeth coming in next (and I'm not foolish enough to state that we might get a little bit of a break before that happens, because that pretty much guarantees that we won't).
Based on the growth questionnaires we fill out at his well visits I'm inclined to say that his communication is a little behind the curve--but comparatively, he's pretty on par with his brothers, and they seem to be turning out just fine, so I'm not too worried. "Mama" and "Dada" are the only spoken words that I would say he has in his vocabulary, and even those are a little bit of a stretch since sometimes they just seem to be babble and non-directional. He's picked up the signs for "All Done", "More", and "Eat", and as of recently has finally seemed to figure out "Water". Although truthfully, 90% of the time if he wants something he'll just sign "more", and he'll keep signing more until we prompt him with questions to figure out what it is he wants more of (for example, if he wants more food he'll sign eat after we ask him if he wants to eat, if he wants water he'll sign water if we ask him if that's what he wants, and if he wants something else he'll basically just keep signing more until we say what it is he wants and he'll acknowledge us by smiling and/or pointing. It's a super fun game--not). Sometimes I'm convinced that he knows more and could do/say more to communicate with us, but he just is choosing not to. I guess just like everything else communication will be on his own terms and when he is good and ready, although we would certainly avoid a lot of tantrums if he'd just choose to communicate effectively with us sooner than later.
This isn't really just Connor-specific news, but shortly after his birthday Connor and the boys survived a four day stretch while I went to Chicago with some girlfriends. The reports from my mom and Darrell were that he (and his brothers) did really well, despite the fact that he was nursing three times a day when I left, refusing a bottle, and not really drinking cow's milk. I kept up with pumping (at least a little) while I was gone, so I was able to jump back into that, but it did make me feel better about getting him weaned, and we had that wrapped up by fourteen months. He still doesn't drink cow's milk the best, but admittedly, we aren't very good at remembering to give it to him, so that probably plays a factor.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I forgot to mention that this kid thinks he is the official sous chef in our kitchen. We've always prided ourselves on including the boys on meal prep, even if it is just standing at the counter and snacking pieces of vegetables while we cut them, but Connor has already started to take that involvement to a whole new level. He knows the sounds of both the dishwasher and microwave and absolutely needs to be involved in the opening/closing of them. He can identify the sound of food cooking on the stove, and will scream at you until you pick him up so he can help stir (which actually led to a pretty decent burn on his finger one morning as he was clamoring at the stove trying to help Dad flip an egg. But you wouldn't have known he got burned by watching him; he was perfectly calm once he had the spatula in his hands). And if I turn my stand mixer on, he's guaranteed to make a beeline for the kitchen (assuming he isn't already in there pulling at my legs so I will pick him up and let him help with whatever I'm making).
The bad news about having three kids is that I don't have anywhere near as much time to blog as I used to--but the good news is that it means I have plenty of never-before-seen Connor photos to dump onto this post! Enjoy!
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| My handsome boy at our family photo shoot/his belated one-year birthday shoot |
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| The first of my kids to actually smash his cake! |
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| Sporting Halloween costume number one at story time (For our church Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween our family dressed up as the characters from "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and he was the great pumpkin) |
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| His brothers won't let me leave the basketball hoop this low for long, but he loves having it at his level! |
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| Polishing off some pumpkin pie at the Turkey Dinner at Great-Grandpa's church |
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| I made the mistake of thinking we could share a doughnut. Never again. |
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| All cuddled up with his lambie! |
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| Isn't this where you put Mr. Potato Head's glasses for safe keeping? |
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| Lounging on the couch with some stories |
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| My marshmallow man is ready for winter! |
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