Give Me Back That Filet-o-Fish!

Daddy went to the mall yesterday and came home with the McDonald's Filet-o-Fish named Frankie.  Yes, the one that sings the song from the commercial.  Of course Connor loves it, so we had to keep it.  Enjoy the video of him and the fish.  :)

Monsters, Inc.

For the past 9 years, Joey's old "My Pet Monster" has lived in our basement (albeit a storage bin, but nonetheless...).  He has been waiting for the day to introduce him to Connor.  He busted it out the other day when Connor wasn't feeling well, but I don't think Connor knew what to make of it.  He was a little apprehensive and VERY grouchy from his ear infection.  Joey just put him down on the floor in the office and we all kind of forgot about him.  Today, Connor went in there and was staring at him.  Joey was all over it - they wrestled, played and Grunt (that's his name) "talked".  Connor had a lot of fun so of course we had to get some pictures. 

Kidsports

For our last weekday of vacation, Connor went to KidSports in Stoughton with his friends Layla, Quincy, and Brady.  He was nice enough to invite the Mom's and our friend, Chris, to help keep an eye on everyone.  How nice of him. 

Connor had a great time climbing on anything that he could climb on and jumping in the bouncy house.  He even discovered a new toy - and the best toy of them all - the water fountain!  If you press a button, water shoots out of the spout!  It's great!  It was a battle to keep him from wasting water, but he eventually gave in and spent some time in the bouncy house.  There were a lot of big boys there, and most of them were oblivious to the two toddlers who desperately wanted to play in the bouncy house, so we kept a close eye on the kids while the big kids were around.  Layla amazed us all and climbed the ladder to the bouncy slides and had a great time.  Connor never did quite figure out how to climb the bouncy stairs, but had just as much fun bouncing near the ladder.  Maybe next time.  Mom tried to help him climb them but those bouncy slides are not meant for adults. 

The kids had a good time and wore themselves out.  There was a lot of eye rubbing on the way out of the building, and I'm sure they will sleep well tonight.  We can't wait for Spring when we can have outdoor playtime on a real playground, but these indoor play places will have to do until then. 

Valentine's Day Play

     Our Valentine's Day was very low key this year.  Daddy and Connor gave Mommy a beautiful key necklace, and then Daddy brought Stonebridge breakfast back for us to eat.  Connor was literally jumping up and down at the blueberry pancakes he got.  I'm not surprised, since this is the same kid who refused a chicken nugget in Costco yesterday to instead dig into the giant container of blueberries he saw in the cart. 
     Connor spent the morning doing some art projects.  He wasn't that into it, but he did spend about 10 minutes completing his project.  He was annoyed that he had to have the apron on, which is why the painting didn't last very long.  We'll work on that.

After painting and breakfast, we decided that it was warm enough not too cold to go outside in short intervals.  Connor was very unhappy that he had to actually wear mittens, but soon forgot about that when he saw his bike outside waiting for him Thanks, Grammy and Grampy!)!  He first went out with Mommy for a while, and about an hour later went back out with Dad.  Any fresh air we can get in the winter is fine by us!  We were only out there for about 10 minutes at a time (which was plenty - little hands can get very cold in 10 minutes).  Connor absolutely loves his new bike, and riding it around our tiny house just isn't quite the same as having the road all to yourself.  Daddy loves to push the bike fast, and you can tell how Connor feels about that just by looking at his face.

Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose

Part I:  Medical Update

Connor has been sick this past week with a cold and what Mom thought could possibly be conjunctivitis.  Most mornings this week Connor woke up with his eyes crusted together.  Gross.  Several minutes with a warm washcloth solved the problem, and he had no other symptoms of pink eye, but that's a pretty major one, so off to the doctor we went.  Shockingly he did NOT have conjunctivitis, but (not-so-shockingly) he did have an ear infection.  Such is life for us.  I think this is ear infection #6 since November of 2008.  Not completely unheard of in the toddler world, but not what I wish for my little man.  He has his antibiotics, and this morning he not only woke up with his eyes crust-free (for the first time since Monday) but he seems to be feeling much better. 

In other news, the neurologist called with the EEG results.  Turns out they were slightly abnormal, but nothing to be alarmed about.  The same part of the brain that controls seizure activity showed some abnormal results.  Fortunately, he does not have a seizure disorder (although he may be prone to them in the future, but the neurologist was not concerned with this as he's never shown signs of a seizure).  This is the same part of the brain that also controls language development.  BINGO!  We've found a correlation!  Normally the course of action is to have Connor meet with a speech pathologist, then go on anti-seizure meds for 4-5 months (these same meds also "calm" that part of the brain down so that language can develop), and then have him re-evaluated in 6 months.  FORTUNATELY, after speaking with me about all of the improvements Connor has made lately, he just simply recommended the appointment with the speech pathologist.  Mommy was very happy.  She wasn't too keen on putting Connor on meds if he didn't need them.  If we see any regression or if he stops improving, then we'll talk again about meds, but for now Connor seems to be speaking more and more everyday.  Which brings me to Part II of my post:  Look what I can do!

Part II:  Look What I Can Do!
It seems like just as everyone kept telling Connor what he couldn't do, he felt it was time to prove them all wrong.  He has been talking up a storm lately, and every day I'm hearing new words.  I would have liked to have typed that sentence when he was a year or so old, but I'll take what I can get.  Some words he's been saying lately:  red, blue, yellow, purple, cracker, juice, sprout, hi, hello, bye-bye, more, M (as in M & Ms), Mommy (but he says it like he's up to something... it's very funny), more, shoes,  ready, set, go, please, fish.  There are more, but I can't remember them all (that's a good thing - it means he's saying more than Mommy can remember!).  He also has numbers 1-10 down (which he's had for a while, but now he acknowledges the number 2!), and he has most of his alphabet down.  He also recognized two words without them being said to him.  "HI" and "Sprout".  I bought him the "Learn to Read" DVDs and one of the first words put up on the screen is "HI".  Connor looked at it, and before the DVD said anything, said "HI!".  I was amazed.  Joey wrote it on a piece of paper and showed it to him, and he did it again.  Ok, so it's only two letters, but STILL.  I was impressed!  As for "Sprout", when he watches Thomas & Friends On Demand, the intro is a bunch of kids saying "Sprout, please" and they show the logo for sprout about 20 times.  On Mommy's phone, there's a game Connor plays that is a "Sprout" game, and the logo pops up before the game starts.  Everytime the logo pops up, Connor says "Sprout".  Yes, I know he's not really reading the word, just recognizing the logo, but I can still be proud of him.  He's come such a long way in such a short amount of time. 

One of the best parts of his learning is that he actually helps Mommy clean up!  He tends to make quite the mess when he plays with his toys, and Mommy is tired of cleaning them up, so she says "Connor, help pick up!", and he DOES!  He'll put his cars back in the bin, his bathtub letters back in the container, and today he even started picking up crumbs he decided to spill all over the coffee table.  Now if I can only get a mop in his hands....

Thanks for checking in with us.  I don't really have any new pics, so I'll just post this latest one of him trying to get something under the couch.  He doesn't quite understand you can't get to it feet first, but we'll get to that.  One thing at a time!