Stories from the bed..

Connor went from a crib to a twin bed in Nov 2007. We have been very fortunate all these months that he has never gotten out of his bed until he saw us coming down the hall (after yelling for us). Not once has he shown up in our room! We never told him he couldn't get out of his bed, but we never told him he could either. I did tell him that if he needed to go potty in the night he could go on his own (I don't think he has yet). More recently, however, he has now started venturing out of his bed in stages. First, it started out where we would find him on the floor next to the bed, then he was on the floor in the doorway, then he was in the hallway peeking into Brady's room. He claimed they were playing peek-a-boo together. This morning, I couldn't find him after hearing my name. I found him IN Brady's room sitting in the chair and he said they were "talking". It was so cute! I really hope that the venturing stops at Brady's room and not further into our bed... Brady on the other hand wakes up in his crib and locates all the toys and books he gathered the night before and entertains himself. He knows eventually someone will come find him (which is now Connor).

Olympics

Connor and Brady have really enjoyed watching the Summer Olympics, especially the gymnastics. Tonight, they were watching the floor part of the gymnastics where they dance and do flips. Connor would imitate the dance moves and legs and then do a floor flip when the gymnast flipped. It was so cute - perhaps we shouldn't have pulled him out of gymnastics after all. Brady was also spinning around and dancing, but he hasn't mastered the flip yet. They were really into it - they even commented when one of the US gymnasts got out of bounds.

Let the Games begin..

The brother to brother competition has gotten fierce lately. Daily occurrences...aggravating the other with the taunting..luckily we aren't to the wrestling stage (yet).

Connor:

"I'm not a baby like Brady...I don't wear diapers. I go on the big boy potty. I wear underwear."

"I'm not throwing a fit like Brady."

" I get to go to bed after my brother."

Brady:

"I'm getting out of the tub like you told me to. Not Connor."

"Mommy's holding me..na na!"

"I let Mommy help me. Not you."

And it continues..."I got chocolate milk." "Well, I got apple juice." Both think there is some superiority of theirs over the other. It is hilarious how they create competition out of simple things like the drink they have.

Connor also carries the games over to daddy - withholding information until he knows he has won. He suggested McDonald's to daddy last night for dinner and daddy thought it sounded like a good idea so he didn't have to cook. Connor waited until burger was in hand before announcing that he got to have McDonald's for lunch AND for dinner. (Daycare had a McDonald's picnic). He then said "It's okay daddy - I had chicken nuggets for lunch."

Cookout at Mimi & Papa's

Today, we spent a leisurely afternoon at Mimi and Papa's for a cookout and visit with the family. Papa's baby brother was in for a visit from Ohio. The boys had fun playing with their cousins, reading with Mimi, watching the ducks, feeding the geese, and eating all afternoon. Brady ate and ate and ate some more all afternoon! Not quite sure where he is putting it considering he is starting to slim down these days.

Connor had fun running from or running after his cousin, Danielle. He doesn't quite have the concept of hide and seek down, but he sure did have fun trying. He also tried out Danielle's Razor - uh,oh - does Daddy have his argument to get one now?

Connor's Quotes

8/2/2008...Mommy mentioned to Connor that she was ready to leave to get some lunch. (At the time, he was helping daddy put together a new bookshelf and I was trying to get them to go with me and we would bring it back home). Connor said "Mommy, you need to be patient". 7/27/2008...Connor was helping daddy cook dinner tonight. Brady came into the kitchen and dumped a pile of toys. Connor said "Brady, you're going to clean up that mess. I'm serious, you hear me." 7/24/2008...Connor was playing with some animals in the car on the way to school. He said “Look mom – each animal is on top of each other – there is one on the bottom, one on top, and one in the middle….like a PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH (Giggle)”. Connor was sitting at school eating his morning snack and I was talking about how I needed to go to work. He said “One day when I get big, I will be a daddy and I will have to go to work too. I won’t be Connor anymore – I will be daddy instead just like Brady will be”. I asked him what kind of job he was going to have and he said he hasn’t decided yet.

YMCA Swim Lessons

This was a picture of Connor coming up from being underwater.

Connor has been taking a bus from daycare to the YMCA for swim lessons since early June. I went today to preview his progress since he only has 2 classes remaining. He was doing very good holding on to the wall and treading water. He would duck under water to show me that he isn't afraid to go underwater. He did really good with the lifeguard as as they would take each child out one by one to do some swimming and trying to get them to do different things (frontstroke today). I was really glad I could see what he was doing, so we can work on it at home also.

Spent the day swimming

The funny thing about a pool is that life can continue to get in the way from enjoying it. To make up for all the evenings of it being too late to swim and weekends that we were too busy, we told the boys we would swim all day on Sunday. They swam that morning with daddy - they convinced daddy to do flips in the water and they would "save" him. That evening, they swam with mommy and convinced mommy to throw them in the water. They would bounce under water and right back up with their swim rings. They were having so much fun - they kept requesting it over and over again. Connor made a point to tell me he was a big boy and didn't mind going underwater. Hopefully they didn't swallow too much water - they will however sleep good tonight.

My Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed...

Connor's newest activity is jumping off of furniture, desks, chairs - whatever has a surface that he can launch from. Last night he jumped off his bed into the doorway and bounced around the doorjam resulting in a nice little gooseegg. It was actually really scary for a few minutes, because it was more like a bubble and we weren't sure what that meant. We kept an eye on him throughout the evening and he woke up this morning singing "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree". Apparently, it was no big deal that our monkey fell off the bed, bumped his head, and we had to call the doctor! Any chance this monkey will stop jumping - not a chance!

Visit from Baby Tyler

Baby Tyler spent the entire day with us today while his family went to Holiday World for the day. He is now 7 months old, so he is past the earlier infant stage (aka fussiness) but is still pretty immobile. He played on the floor or in the bouncy seat just cooing and laughing at the boys. Above, Connor was pretending to take pictures of Tyler. The attention from the boys was pretty limited, once the newness wore off. Tyler was pretty content all day, so it was a decent visit.

Saturday included playtime at UE College...

Today, we spent the afternoon at UE for a Children's language study. They observed each of the boys separately through a series of activities to gauge how a typically developing child plays and interacts. They hope to use the findings for application to children with Downs syndrome and autism.

Connor was very excited about going to mommy's college, so he could see where I went. However, he was very clear that he would be going to his own college one day (when he rides a school bus). They started with Connor, while Brady went in another room to play with Chris and the professor. I wasn't sure if Connor would participate with strangers and in a new setting, but he really amazed me. They went through various activities (playing with toys, reading a book, doing puzzles, bubbles, eating a snack, etc.) all the time encouraging the child to participate, carry on a conversation, or be creative. Connor really got into the imaginative play - apparently we have a brown dog that likes to get on the couch and Connor has been on a boat ride where he went fishing with his fishing rod and caught lots of big fish while throwing the little fish back. Really??

The best story Connor told was when the student asked him if he drank his drink with the sippy lid on or off. He said that he was a big boy and could drink without the lid, but that he usually uses a lid at home so he doesn't make a mess on the furniture that mommy and daddy paid lots of money for (oops - guess we have said that a few times). One activity that was kind of neat, but difficult for both boys was explaining the steps involved in a particular activity like brushing teeth or washing hands. They would act out all steps involved, but when asked what they did it was the general task performed.

We concluded with a final activity of answering questions about Connor's development and then traded places with Chris and Brady. Brady went through the same activities, but had less of the imagination in the activities. However, Chris said he did participate and answered the way he would have expected. The professor will be providing us with a summary of findings on each child as well as the final study results, so that will be interesting to see.

Afterwards, we went to McDs (typical weekend meal) where the boys got the chance to burn off their energy in the climbing tunnels after they ate. Connor had the hardest time finding the slides within the tunnels, so finally Brady had to show him how. Sometimes, we are confused by who the older child is - I think Brady is more mature than Connor and it is very obvious some days (Connor is going through the 3 year old stage where everything is a crisis and his feelings get hurt more often).

All in all - Saturday turned out to be a good day with the boys and we got to make some new observations about their development.

Road Trip...in Southern Indiana

Who knew a road trip in Southern Indiana could be so much fun! We went to French Lick, IN and Starlight, IN today with Mimi & Papa. We arrived early to French Lick to catch the 9am train ride at the Indiana Railway Museum. This was a 2 hour train ride that included a long, dark tunnel that the boys loved and a train robbery! After the train robbery, we were able to get up close with the horses and cowboys but the boys wanted nothing to do with that.

"I got my hands up! Don't get me!"

Brady gave all his money to the robbers!

After the train ride, we went over to French Lick Winery for an italian lunch at the cafe. It was really good, but the boys were more interested in getting on with the trip. We stopped briefly in the West Baden Hotel to see the lobby area and restored dome, which was amazing.

We then headed to Starlight, IN (which Little Debbie GPS did not think existed) to visit the Huber Wineries and Farms. We spent most of the afternoon at the Joe Huber Farm where the boys could go on cow train rides, wagon rides, launch apples into the lake, climb a 35 flight silo, slide down a 40 foot slide from a barnhouse, and feed/pet goats, chickens, and more. They had a blast! We then ate dinner at the Huber Restaurant before heading home. I think everyone slept except poor Papa!

Connor and Brady both were talking about how much fun they had until their heads hit the pillow that evening and they were out! The fireworks sounding off outside didn't even phase them.

Typical Ride Home...

Connor is my back seat driver....today he informed me that the reason traffic was backed up (when mommy was getting annoyed) was because the light was red and traffic couldn't move anywhere. He also was so kind to point out that once I got back on Hwy 41 (after my short detour) that I was finally going the same way daddy goes home. This is his typical back seat driving comments...you went the wrong way, you went a different way than daddy, is there still construction on that road, why did you go that way. Daddy said he got called out the other day when he rolled thru a stop sign. Also, during the rides, the boys usually get to singing together and sometimes on top of each other. Connor was singing the ABCs while Brady was making a new song of combining twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider, and ABCs. I caught a little bit of footage towards the end.