I love A. Idol!

Connor like his Mom and Dad loves to watch American Idol! Here are some pictures of him sitting on his bumbo beside his Daddy watching the show on Tuesday night. It was hilarious to watch him being so captivated by it! He especially likes the beginning on the show with all the lights!

Mmmm... Prunes

Mother Robin

We have a mother robin that has made a nest on our pergola outside. She has laid eggs and is very protective of her babies. Every time we go out on the patio she flys away to the fence where she makes some very ear shreeking chirps! As I was out there I realized she was in alot of distress to try and protect her babies in the nest. As a mother, I know that you will do anything to protect your precious baby. I felt bad and retreated inside. Here are some pictures of her sitting in her nest that I was able to capture at another time.

What is this?

As I said before, I love watching Connor discover new things. Connor discovered his hands and feet about a month ago, but on this day he thought they were particularly interesting. It was so cute!

Fun Times with Family

This weekend Connor's Grannie, Poppa, An Am, Great Uncle Brian, and Great Aunt Benita came to visit us! The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the day catching up on the patio. This was the first time that Brian and Benita have visited us since we moved to our house. They enjoyed the trip, as they used to live in Columbia twenty years back. We drove there for lunch and they got to see their house and apartment that they had while living there. They couldnt believe how much Spring Hill had grown since it was only farmland when they were here. Poppa enjoyed holding Connor on the swing, however he didnt much care for Connor's hat. However, I know it will make his Grandy very proud! Go Yankees!

Connor's Grannie, Poppa and An Am brought him lots of new toys to play with! Thank you to all of you! Connor is loving the Rainforest musical for his crib and the singing mouse!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. Notice the one with them in their convertibles. We thought this was funny. Brad actually said, "Hey, this is backwards. Shouldnt the youngsters be in the convertibles?" LOL!

A busy day at Ms.Betty's

Connor's 1st Cereal feeding

Here are some pictures of Connor's first cereal feeding on Friday night. Needless to say he wore most of it, but I think he enjoyed the different texture. He did extremely well and at the end he even opened his mouth when we touched the spoon to his lips! It was so much fun but very messy! All I have to say is that we will definitely use a vinyl bib next time. The cereal soaked all the way through to his shirt. We are going to try mixing it up a little thicker tonight.

I am also including some pictures of Connor playing in his exersaucer. He still has a little growing to do to be able to play in it just right. We put a couple of blankets at the bottom so he could touch and push with his feet. Connor is getting so strong in his legs and can stand for several seconds if he is propped up on something. It is amazing! We thought that we would try the exersaucer since he loves standing so much. He liked playing with all the new toys!

Last Nights Drama

Well, last night we tried the advice that the doctor gave us for trying to get Connor on a sleeping schedule. Lets just say that an hour and a half of crying and screaming finally did us in! We tried it one other night and two hours went by and Connor was still going strong! I called the doctor yesterday and she said to be prepared for Connor to cry for several hours, and to try and be strong for 2-3 nights and it would get much better. I knew it would be hard, but nothing prepared me for Connors relentless screaming for over an hour! Now I have heard babies cry very hard before but Connor sounds like he is in pain or maybe it is just that he is my baby so it is much harder to hear. Even Brad said, " Is this normal?" He wanted to tape record it for the doctor, but I assured him that I thought most babies did the same. Finally we got out of bed and went into the living room so the crying wouldnt be as loud and did some research on the computer. Now anyone who knows us knows that we do research on EVERYTHING! After looking into it apparently this concept is called the Ferber method. Also, as with everything there are 2 very different opinions on how you should train your baby to sleep. One is the Ferber method or "crying it out", and the other is to comfort your baby when he cries because that is why we are built with the instinct to go to your baby when it cries. We read some things that said that letting your baby cry for hours may indeed do psychological damage! This didnt sit well with either of us. We would rather be sleep deprived than to do that to poor little Connor! Brad was reading it to me as my insides were churning from hearing Connor scream in the other room, and he said that the Ferber method treated the babies behavior instead of his feelings and that your baby was wondering why no one was coming to help him! Brad looked at me and said, "Connor probably thinks we dont love him anymore." Well, of course you know the rest. I immediately went into his room and picked him up and just like that he stopped. I felt so bad the rest of the night and knew in my heart that the Ferber method was not for us! Now I wont pass judgement on anyone who has done this with their child. Actually I have many friends that have done it and it worked successfully. I just think that Connor is very strong willed or he may not be old enough to understand that he needs to go to sleep on his own. I do have to start working on how to get him to soothe himself to sleep after going down. He always cries immediately when you put him in his crib even after he has been asleep for some time. It is so frustrating! If any of you have any tips that I can try please let me know! I am willing to try anything! I am trying right now to get Connor attached to another object for comfort (pooh blanket). This was recommended by my doctor and several other resources. Well, it is getting to be that time again... Good night and hopefully we will all get some well needed rest!

Problem solved!

I cant believe it, but the solution to my problem for getting things done in the kitchen has been in a box upstairs in my attic all along! One word- HIGHCHAIR! We put it together on Sunday night because Connor was going to the doctor today for his 4 month checkup and he can start eating baby food this month. I had read that it was a good idea to get them used to the seat before you start feeding him to make the transition easier. Connor LOVES his new viewpoint! It must be frustrating to always look up at everyone, so I can imagine how exciting it is for him to be at the same level as us. Yesterday I put Connor in his new seat and I got 2 loads of laundry folded, the dishwasher emptied and some dishes washed! WOW! I cant tell you how long it has been since I have gotten that many things accomplished without an interruption!

Connor was also introduced to something else new this week- the jumpster (or jumperoo as most people know them). He still has some growing to do to use it properly but for now he enjoys being able to stand without any assistance and investigating the kitchen and laundry room. Since our house is very open, it is the only door frame on this side of the house. I hope he doesnt get bored with this location because I dont want to have to sit in the hallway to watch him jump for hours later on. He had so much fun with it on Sunday night as well.

I cant believe it but Connor was 4 months yesterday! Wow, where is the time going? He is so much fun these days! He got a great report from the ped. today. She said that he is very healthy and looks great! She was amazed that I havent been in to see her except for his checkups every two months. His weight is a whopping 15 pounds and 6 ounces, his height is 25 inches! He is in the 75th percentile for weight, 50th for height, and 50-75th for his head measurement. She was very surprised at how social and strong he is for his age. He just talked and laughed the whole time at her during the exam. I did learn a lot while I was there though. She said that he should only be eating one time during the night, which is very far from what he is doing now. Last night I was up 4 times before 5 am! It is getting exhausting and she said that he should be starting to sleep through the night. She gave me a handout for tips to teach him to self soothe himself at night but it might take 1-2 weeks for this take effect. Pray for me to have patience because I am afraid that I am in for some CRYING the next few nights. I have to work tomorrow and it is going to be hard since I have been so sleep deprived this week. However, she said it is time for him to get on a sleeping schedule and I dont need to nurse him to sleep or he will depend on it every time he wakes up. This makes total sense now, I dont know why I was never told sooner. Oh well, gotta start somewhere I guess. Well sorry for the long post! Have a great week!

A visit from the Easter Bunny!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter day! We sure did! Connor received his first Easter basket and we enjoyed some family time at Nonna and Grandy's house. It was very cold, so there wasnt much we could do outside. Connor enjoyed it for the most part until he got cranky later in the day. We believe that he might be starting to teethe! Oh joy!!! He chews on his fist constantly and is drooling profusely! I am actually at home today because Connor was up 8 times last night! He wouldnt sleep unless you were holding him, so needless to say I didnt sleep a wink. I decided to stay at home and make sure he is OK and try to rest a bit. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor for his 4 month visit and more shots. Oh joy, again! Ha! Hopefully he will just sleep most of the day. I should be sleeping right now, but I thought I would take advantage of this time to post some pictures of our Easter day!