Happy First Birthday Big Boy!!

No more little man here!! Connor is literally just a few steps away from being a toddler. He's a One Year Old!! It's unbelievable the changes that happen in such a short time, and I still see them every day. It's silly, but I thought that when Connor turned one, that he would all of a sudden be so different, and though he is changing quickly, it's not that quickly!! I was happy to see that Connor still needs me just as much, and he is still my little boy, at the same time as being my big boy!!

On Friday, January 11th, Connor went in for his one year check up, and things are going well! Dr Kumar was amazed at the strength Connor has, and said that he was very healthy and wonderfully active, but, as always, we are keeping an eye on his weight. He has dropped under the 5th percentile now, just a tad, but the Dr. was not surprised, considering the way Connor moves around!

His stats are as follows:

Weight: 18lb 13oz
Height 29.5in

So, that's a whopping 3 ounce gain this month! He has been gaining almost a pound a month for the last couple months, but he is really getting moving lately - he has taken one or two steps a couple times recently, and he is climbing all over everything! Also, he has been teething for the past 5 weeks, and his appetite has not been great, but....


He finally got his third tooth on his Birthday! After everyone had left, I was changing Connor, and I noticed his top tooth had finally broken though! Yay! It wasn't through earlier that morning, so he must've been actively cutting a tooth while at his party! No wonder he didn't want any chocolate cake! (Pictures to follow!)

We are well under way with the switch to whole milk. We probably would have been completely switched already, but I told Daddy to pick up two cans of formula last time, not thinking about how much longer one lasts when you are splitting it with whole milk! So, once this can is gone, he will be completely switched, probably by the end of the month. Connor quite likes his whole milk, but I think it might be affecting his tummy a bit. Let's just say he has started eating prunes again! I find this really odd, because all other dairy has the opposite affect on him.

I also have discovered that tomato sauce makes Connor's face red. It's weird, because he has had spaghetti probably 10 times or so, and it has never done it to him before, but this last time it sure did make his cheeks red. His cheeks were already bad because he was teething, so I wonder if maybe it won't affect him if he isn't teething. It doesn't really make sense, but I can't understand why it took so long to show a reaction. Also, he eats raw tomatoes like crazy, and they don't affect him at all! It's too bad, because Connor loves noodles and spaghetti, but we'll just have to make pasta with a non-tomato sauce for the time being!

Well, I think I have rambled enough, on to the pictures!

We decided we should do a little recreation of an old picture, just for funzies, so here is Connor at two days old:


And here he is on his first Birthday:




And here are some pictures from Connor's Party:

This is the cake I made for Connor.... It's not fancy,but I was pretty proud of it! (I'll try something a little more difficult next year Connor, I promise!!)


As you can see, Connor was not that excited about the cake I put so much work into:




He hardly ate any of it at all, but he did start making a little mess, eventually!
















A few more party pictures - it was a very casual, mellow get together, but it was nice to have both sides of the family there, and even some friends I haven't seen in ages!












I wanted to get one picture with everybody in it, but of course I forgot!

It was a wonderful day, and I hope that everyone had as good a time as Connor and I did! Thanks so much to everyone for coming, and making the day a great success!

Happy First Birthday Connor!
Your Mommy and Daddy have enjoyed every moment of the past year, and we look forward to seeing you continue to grow right before our eyes, and amaze us each and every day!
We love you very much!

Good-Bye 2007!! Hello 2008!

Wow! I cannot believe that 2007 has come and gone. It has been without a doubt, no questions asked, the absolute best year of my life! I have seen a phenomenal amount if changes in Connor - he is a little boy now, and he was an infant just a short time ago.

His latest trick is climbing on everything! He gets up on the couches, on the coffee table, and even on the...
















Dishwasher!!

He is unstoppable! Derek calls him our little shirpa! I have to keep an eye on him much closer now, because he will climb on to the couch in the blink of an eye! No more can we use the back of the couch as a catch-all for the things we don't want him to get at!

Connor continues to wave like crazy; he waves at people when they leave the room, and he waves as soon as someone puts a jacket on. He waves when we go into his bedroom, and he waves when you put him in the car seat! He has an excellent grasp on what going bye-bye means!

The weather has been fabulous lately, so Connor and I took the opportunity to head outside and play! Grandma Smith bought Connor the most adorable snowsuit, so we had to have a little winter photo shoot!






I know he is grinning behind that snowsuit!!














He kept trying to move around and then he just fell right over!





I thought I should finally get a couple pictures of Connor in front of his first home!















Here he is trying to get forward, but he can't move all that well in the snowsuit!

And, I will throw in a couple cute pictures from New Year's Day to finish things off:

You can see his poor little red cheeks in these pictures. He is still working on those top teeth, and his face always gets so red when he is teething! I see some small white spots on his gums now, so maybe by his Birthday he will have at least one more tooth!

Connor's First Birthday is in one week! I have so much planning to do still!

Whew, a busy first Christmas!!

Connor has a very busy first Christmas, but I think he had a great time! His bedtime over the past week ranged from his normal 6pm, to a couple 9:30pm nights, to a very hectic 1am bedtime on Christmas Eve, but thankfully he slept in the car!

Well, where do we start? Connor's Christmas actually began on the 23rd of December, when we visited Grandma and Grandpa Mellott's. Uncle DJ was there, and also Uncle Dale and Auntie Elvie. Connor had a wonderful time unwrapping altogether too many presents! Mom and Dad were silly and forgot the camera though, so we don't even have a picture of Connor opening his first Christmas present!!

Christmas Eve was a very busy day! We started out at Oma and Opa's house for a big gathering with all the family:

Connor had a ton of fun hanging out with his big cousin Kaden:










And he loves his Mike Wazowski!!



He also learned to anticipate the flash from the camera, so it's very hard to get a picture with his eyes open now!


But eventually we got one!


Connor also got his first puzzle, and a really cool train(which has a song that has been in my head constantly since then!) And, a really loud set of bells, which strangely enough, I told my mom to buy for him! He loves them though, but not as much as Derek does!













Later that evening, we drove to Grassland for the Mellott family Christmas, and we finally got that 4 generation picture I mentioned before!

Grandpa Mellott, Daddy Mellott, Baby Mellott, and Great-Grandma Mellott, together at last!







I can see a resemblance in all of them! Very neat!


Then, we had our very first "Christmas Morning"! Derek and I have grown up both doing the big get together and gift opening with our families on Christmas Eve, so it was really special to start our own tradition with our little family! We didn't take any pictures until after everything was all said and done though!







Then, last night we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for another Christmas celebration!











Connor got his very first "gaming console" which, as you can imagine, Daddy was very excited about!

So, Connor's first Christmas was a week long event, and a very special one at that! I will remember it forever!

In non-Christmas news, Connor is waving at everything and everyone, including people on TV, and anytime anyone leaves the room, or every time I carry him in to his room! It's totally adorable!

He has also recently aquired a fascination with eyes, (which I am sure is due to Mike Wazowski's prominent Uni-eye!) If you ask him where are "_____"'s eyes, he will more often than not point at them, but not on real people, only on stuffed things!

He is also standing more and more lately, and for longer periods of time. But sadly, he is still working on those top two teeth, and they, on top of trying to recover from a very disrupted schedule, and wreaking havoc on his night sleep. So, I will leave it at this, as Connor has just awoken, and is not very happy at all!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year! Two weeks and counting until Connor turns one!

So many changes!

Just a quick pre-Christmas post to mention all the new things that Connor has been doing lately! He now waves, but it takes a while to get him to do it! When he waves good night to Daddy and Leo, he usually doesn't start to wave until I start closing his bedroom door! He also does "so big!!" when you ask "How big is Connor?" but only if you lift your arms up and say, "so big!", too. He just started this a day or so ago though, so he's still getting the hang of it!

He also has started to stand on his own!! Mostly once he pulls up on something he will let go for a few seconds, and then sit down, but he also has started using my legs when I am sitting on the floor to get part of the way up, and then he will straighten the rest of the way on his own. It's very cute to see him with his arms out for balance slowly lowering himself back into a sit, too.


In other news, Leo has discovered that good things usually happen when he sticks close to Connor.

As an example:










Connor discovered how to get into the box of Frosted Flakes, and Leo was right there to assist in the clean up process! It was adorable, and of course I let them play in it while I grabbed the camera, but I think we will be moving the cereal up a shelf from now on!!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, and I'll be sure to post about Connor's first Christmas in a few days!!