Update on the boys

These two are still best buddies & Harris thinks Connor does no wrong - even if it is painful! We have had some hot-hot days and playing in the water makes everyone happy! Here is Harris standing at the water table for about 45 minutes at only 10 months old!

And what a good time he had splashing himself! I rescued him from Connor dumping cups of cold water on his head!

Connor has shown a lot more interest in playing a lot of sports lately - golf, baseball, soccer. We believe he is left-handed in sports which means it might be a challenge for us to teach him some things. He has also been practicing riding his bike - with no training wheels. He'll be taking off in no time! And he has started playing soccer with some other friends his age at a local sports center. He likes to be fast!

Here are the best buddies! Harris is only chewing on his thumb!

Old San Juan

The original plan was to get a rental car for 2 days while in San Juan. One day for a trip in Old San Juan and one day for a trip to the rainforest. After one day in Old San Juan, we loved it so much we decided to rent the car for 3 days and have 2 days in Old San Juan and 1 day in the rainforest. (never made it to the rainforest - Connor got sick the night before. Too much fun & sun!)

Mike & Connor at the Old San Juan city wall. It is 22 feet thick.

Next is the view from San Cristobal, one of the 2 forts we visited. AMAZING views. San Cristobal has a dungeoun that we got to explore. I tried to get pics of Connor behind bars but he was too afraid he would be stuck there!



This is a view from the other, bigger Fort - El Morro. If it wasn't 90 degrees with a blazing sun, I could have looked at that view for hours. This is the Atlantic Ocean.

And here is Connor playing on some canonballs!

Waterbugs! Pool time in Puerto Rico

My boys are WATERBUGS! Here are a few pool pics from our two week vaca in Puerto Rico! The picture with Aunt Beky is from ta saltwater pool at La Finca on the island of Vieques. Harris went in with Aunt Beky while Connor practiced walking under water and holding his breath.
The other 3 pictures are from the resort pool in San Juan. By the time we left there, Harris was so relaxed in the water that he needed a little umbrella for his milk!

Many more pictures to follow!

August 2010 - lots of plans!

August of this year is starting to look like a very busy month! Here is a look:

- Beky & Dan's Michigan wedding reception for a week (this has since been canceled so we will have to celebrate
extra at reception here in June!)

- August will be Connor's last month before preschool! How exciting! He talks about preschool almost every single day and has even asked when he can go look at his kindergarten!

- Harris will turn ONE in August! I already have a G6pD safe cake recipe and I have a feeling Harris will like Cake much more than Connor did on his first birthday!

Here are the boys on Harris' 6 month birthday



OH, YEAH one other thing that will keep us busy in August: Harris will become a big brother! Connor has already let him try on his Big Bro' shirt! Connor was very excited with the news but not until after we explained that this new baby was in addition to Harris - not replacing him!



You read that right, our family has been blessed with a new little one due to arrive August 12. Drs have told us that it's a good bet that this one will arrive a little early just like his/her big brothers! But we aren't going to count on it! 8-)
And for those of you keeping track, yes this is 5 pregnancies in 5 years. Two boys to snuggle everyday, two girls at home with God, and new life growing bigger and stronger in a safe, warm place.

WE ARE BLESSED! (and tired, he he!)

Diapers - a guest post!

Hi, it's me, Harris! Mama asked me to write something on the blog like Connor used to do all the time. Well, I'm going to write about something very close to me - my diapers! I am very picky about what I use and why shouldn't I be! That's my skin down there!

Before I was born Mama & Daddy bought a fancy new washer that has a setting for cloth diapers so they decided to do a little research on these fancy diapers. They learned that they would save money in the long run by washing and reusing instead of buying and disposing. Plus, the manufactoring & shipping of a cloth diaper ONCE is much better for the Earth than the manufactoring & shipping of disposable (we call them sposies) after sposie for 3 years. Even the water used to wash my diaps is nothing compared to the pollution and energy use in making sposie after sposie. Also, once I become a big brother, my little sibs can use my diaps saving even more money and energy!
Besides, isn't this so much cuter than something that will just be thrown away!

Here is my original diaper stash. I have since gotten some new ones plus outgrown my first pre-folds. Plus, Mama got a fancy new wet bag for going to playdates. Oh, and Mama & Daddy use cloth wipes on me, too. I guess I'm a little spoiled on the pampering...he he!

And, because we are cute and best buddies, here is a picture of Connor and me snuggle-bugging. Connor only used disposable diapers. I don't know how he did it! I am very uncomfortable in a sposie and wake up a lot more at night when I have one on. I guess Connor's bottom is a little tougher than mine!

(Note from my Mama: Here is a good calculator to determine if you will save money by using cloth. And a spreadsheet to determine how much diapering will cost you over 3 years. Keep in mind that the cost varies depending on many factors including types of both cloth and sposies used.)

Pre-preschool

We never thought we would send our kids to preschool. The goal was for me to be home with them and to take care of teaching them what they needed to go to kindergarten. We work on reading comprehension skills, sight words, sounding out words, are starting to write the ABCs, etc. Anyone that teaches a young child knows that they just soak this stuff right up. And Connor is EXCITED about it! He asked to learn how to read about when he turned 3 and he told me the other day that he will take books to preschool and when he goes he will 'know the words.' Of course, ABCs and 123 s aren't all you need for kindergarten so we do a variety of other things too - music hours, storytime, etc where we learn to sit still, wait our turn, etc. And of course lots of fieldtrips - everything can be a learning opportunity even just helping with dinner! I've gotten a lot of tips and resources from homeschooling moms. I can't imagine ever being a homeschooling mom (I don't have the discipline!) but they have great advice for teaching prechoolers.

Then when we started looking at the public & private kindergarten options for Connor, we discovered something we didn't like at all - all of the kindergarten classes are full day. FULL DAY ! We talked about it a lot - a little obsessively maybe, and decided that Connor can not go from no school program to a full day school program. We feel that would be too much of a change for our little guy - even at 5 years old. Soooooo....the search for a preschool began and we believe we have found the perfect one. We went to the open house last week and Connor got the very last spot in the class we wanted! And is he excited about school! When we left the open house he said 'Maybe tomorrow we can go see my kindergarten?'

In the meantime, our little sneak (caught him on the counter getting goldfish from the cabinet) will continue 'school time' at home. Our latest project is flashcards around the home - on everyday objects. Connor LOVES this and walks around the house spelling out all of the words. When we wrote the words, Connor helped me to sound them out. Here's an example:

The missing Christmas card..

We didn't send out Christmas cards this year. If we had, this probably would have been our picture. Connor is very cooperative for pictures lately and loves posing with Harris.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that we didn't get around to doing Christmas cards since we never even mailed out Harris' birth announcements. Kind of strange since I'm obsessed with taking pictures AND we had professional newborn shots done of our little Baby Bob.

Here are a few pics from Christmas. There are many, many pictures but these are just a few highlights.

Harris got a homemade hat from Aunt Beky and I took a million pictures of him wearing it. We love homemade!

Speaking of homemade, here's Har-Bar in an elf hat I made for Connor's first Christmas. Harris actually ripped a little paper off of his presents but he still needed some help.

We spent Christmas Eve at Mommom and Poppop's for dinner (and massive amounts of legos!) and then went to Mass. Poppop, Mike, Connor, and Harris all fell asleep during the 10 PM service! Mommom and I managed to stay awake!

Christmas day we had breakfast at our house with Uncle Mark and Whitney and then headed to Memom and Dada's. Some illnesses tried to bring down our Christmas spirits but we were blessed with a lot of answered prayers.

The day after Christmas Aunt Beky and Uncle Dan joined us at Mommom and Poppop's. Connor opened his new 'Connor sized' guitar and started strumming immediately! 'Cowboy songs' are his favorite, of course!

We read the Christmas Story to Connor often and make sure he knows the real reason for the holiday. At one point he said to me, 'Mommy, I know it's about Jesus but I really like presents!' We explained to him that Jesus is the best present and we celebrate him by sharing gifts with others. I'm not sure if he understands completly yet, but hopefully we are building a good foundation for him and Harris.

We hope that your Christmas was blessed!

Introducing...N Corno

Connor got busted rearranging the letters hanging on the wall of his room. Mug shot below:



Feel free to call him N Corno

November???

These boys can't get enough of each other! If Harris cries, Connor comes running to help cheer him up! We got a popcorn maker and Connor thinks this is how you get every last kernel!

Grandma and Grandpa Gene came down from NY and we all had a very nice visit!

Sometimes the only way to get Harris to calm down is to give him to Connor

Harris turned 3 months on 11/7. Here's a flashback to Connor at that age. (This pic is of Harris)

What happened to October?

Minutes before we left for Harris' Christening on 10/18, I lost our media card - our ONLY media card. I'm pretty sure I dropped it in the trash. Funny because I did the same to my cell phone a few months after Connor was born. So, I had to ask others to share pictures and I didn't get all that I wanted...Here are a few:

We had a beautiful day on Strubble Trail. Can't get enough of that place in the fall.

We took the train into Phila with our good buddy Colin to see a Disney exhibit. Tons of cute pics of Connor & Colin (holding hands,hugging!) but I haven't had a chance to ask Colin's mama if I can post them yet. She has been a little busy lately!

Baby Bob BOO! showed up on Halloween....Along with Super Why and his Super Readers!

A conversation with Connor

Connor (right after Mike left the room): You guys are married?

Me: We are

Connor: Can I get married with you?

Me (heart swelling!): Of course you can!

a little while later....

Me: So, will you be my husband?

Connor: Yup, and Daddy will be your wife!

Connor's first Crit July 11, 2009

After lots of practicing riding, Connor participated in his first Crit this month. The IronHill Criterium in West Chester has a childrens heat between the amateurs and the pros. Connor rode his 'Caillou' bike (it looks like Caillou's) right up Gay Street! Here he is putting in a few warm-up laps.

After we met up with Memom & Dada, it was time for Connor to line up and get ready....Then he was off!

As he crossed the finish line, he was handed a soft pretzel and a medal. The pretzel was much more exciting to him then the medal! But check out that rider number!

With a mouth full of pretzel, Connor showed off his medal. And of course he offered to share his pretzel with everyone. Who knows, maybe in a few years he'll be riding down the shore with us!

Xrays and stitches

At about 7PM on 5/28 while Mike was on a plane to Phila., this happened...

That's the glass door to our tv stand. We still aren't sure what happened. Connor and I were both sitting by the tv stand but all of the glass landed on Connor. I scooped him out of the glass as quickly as possible but this still happened...

I apologize if any of the screaming disturbed anyone in the tri-state area! There was more blood then I wanted to see and it really scared Connor. Fear and pain kept him screaming! I had no idea if stitches were needed so I called my mom (Mommom) while I was cleaning the wound in the powder room. I had the phone on speaker but Mommom still couldn't hear me because of all the screaming! She was at our house in minutes!
We called the WONDERFUL night nurses at CHOP that work w/ Connor's doctor and found that we were to apply pressure for 10 minutes and if the bleeding stopped, no stitches needed....Well, we applied pressure for 10 minutes, 3 times and there was still bleeding, so....

My little Connor had his first trip to the ER, his first xray (to look for embedded glass), and his first (4) stitches. Mommom came to the hospital with us and stayed until Connor went for xrays. Mike got to the hospital just minutes after us. At this point it was more than 2 hours since the cut had happened and Connor had calmed down a lot - until the nurses and doctor had to come near him of course! The PA (Kristin Frank) that stitched him must have been an elementary school teacher in a past life because she knew all the tricks to keep Connor calm...until the stitching. While he was being stitched it took 4 of us to hold him down and it just broke my heart. He screamed and cried so hard that he broke a lot of little blood vessels in his face. Here is how the stitches look the day after...
The boo-boo doesn't seem to hurt Connor too much today. But our weekend canoeing had to be modified to a picnic to keep him out of the water. We are just happy that it was only a small cut after all that glass. And as always, I am so glad I live so close to my mom! Connor is being spoiled today with some TV time! He deserves it!