For Mairead, Love, Connor

Connor's friend, Mairead, LOVES the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus".  Since she loves it so much, we decided to invest in the book.  Connor absolutely loves it, too!  So, to thank Mairead for the recommendation, Connor read the book for her.  We hope she likes it!

Southwick's Zoo

It was a beautiful day. We finally had a weekend without plans. Southwick's Zoo was offering free admission for teachers. The stars were aligned, so it was off to the zoo for Connor and Mom!

The zoo was huge. We spent 5 hours walking around the entire place. Connor loved it. He declared before we left that he wanted to see zebras. We definitely saw zebras, among a ton of other animals. They had two areas that allowed the animals to walk around with everyone. It was the best part of the entire zoo. Watching Connor's face light up when a goat or deer would come near him was priceless. Thanks to some very generous people, Connor was able to feed both the deer and goats (Mommy didn't have any quarters to buy food).

We also saw a baby chimpanzee. He was the cutest thing! He kept trying to get the "grown-ups" to play with him, but all they wanted to do was sleep. Sounds familiar!

We had a fabulous time, and he was thoroughly exhausted on the way home. We were barely out of the parking lot before his eyes were closed!

We're Back!

I apologize for the blog hiatus.  It's been busy around here, and Mom hasn't felt like getting her laptop out and uploading pics for a while.

A few pictures from our trip to Vermont over April vacation.  It was NOT spring like weather, unfortunately, but Connor still got to help Grammy decorate the tree with Easter eggs.

Then we hit up the ECHO center on Lake Champlain and saw lots of snakes, frogs, turtles, and fish.  Connor loved it, but would get fixated on ONE thing he wanted to see and wouldn't want to move to see anything else.  I think his favorite was the snapping turtle and the special tunnel he could crawl under to see more turtles and fish.  At one time, there was a larger woman in the tunnel when Connor was trying to get in behind her.  He put his hand on her butt to try and balance himself, then realized he wasn't going to get in and says "nope... too big" to the lady.  I don't think she heard him, but I quickly grabbed him and took him far away from her.  Funny now, embarrassing then!

 On Friday we went to my cousin's house to see her mini farm.  She has four horses and some baby chickens.  Connor was in his glory.  He loved the horses, and the horses loved him!  Most of these pictures are with Walker, the Morgan.  I think Walker thinks he's a dog, because he was very cuddly and probably would have sat in our laps if we let him!

After the horses we saw the chickens, and Connor loved them, too!  The chickens weren't tiny, I'd say they were "toddler" chicks, so we let them run around a bit.  Connor was fascinated.  He kept running back to them!  He also loved playing with his cousin, Sarah.  Sarah is four and loved playing with Connor.  They ran, played on the swingset, and jumped on the trampoline.  They had a blast!

 Connor and Grampy played a little baseball on the one sunny day we had.  I think Connor has a little work to do, but he had a blast playing.

Grampy also took Connor to the fire station to see the firetrucks.  Connor was thrilled that he was able  to sit in the driver's seat and "drive" the firetruck.

Bonnie the Snake Lady

This evening, Connor and I went to see "Bonnie the Snake Lady" at the Arnone School.  Bonnie has many reptiles, and many have some type of disability, such as blindness, or missing legs, etc.  It was put on by the parent information center through Brockton Public Schools, but it was Connor's daycare lady, Ms. Janet, who organized a group to go.  She reserved front seating for a bunch of the kids that attend her daycare.  Thank GOD she did this, because the place was PACKED.  And, unfortunately, packed with a lot of parents who didn't feel the need to ask their children to follow the rules.  There were a LOT of kids making their way into the aisles, both on the sides and in the middle, and Bonnie was not too happy about it.  She was VERY good at being nice, but the second the kids got too close to the animals, you could tell she was nervous.  There were also an insane amount of talking.  I realize this program was for elementary aged children, but it seemed to be more adult conversation than kids talking.  From the middle row back people couldn't hear, even with a new microphone.  I felt badly for them, and there were some parents who weren't afraid to be vocal that they couldn't hear.  It was a little insane, but there were some good parts!

Connor loved seeing the reptiles.  He was fascinated with the turtles, lizards, and snakes (one of them a big python).  There was a lot of explaining by Bonnie, which was lost on Connor, so he played with my phone for much of the night.  If it was a smaller group and more hands-on, I think he would have been totally engrossed.  The worst part of the night (well, for Mommy), was when Bonnie busted out the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.  You know, the kind that are the size of my hand?  I was completely grossed out by them!  They asked for volunteers with white shirts on to hold them.  Guess who had a BRAND NEW white shirt on?  But I lucked out that I wasn't a kid, so I didn't get called on.  There was a very brave 4-year-old who volunteered to go up.  She did start to freak out when both cockroaches started crawling up her neck.  EEEEWWW!!

At the end of the presentation, everyone got a chance to touch the python and turtles.  The second I asked if he wanted to touch the snake, he jumped up and tried to cut in line!  He was very excited to see the snake, and was very respectful touching it, too.  Most kids were rushed through the line to accommodate all of the people, but the people before us were talking to Bonnie, so we got a little extra time with the snake.  Connor went right up to his head with NO fear.  I was pretty impressed.

I think Bonnie would be great to have in a small setting.  It'd be great to see a few kids get to have a complete hands-on experience with the reptiles.  Although, I may ask her to leave the cockroaches at home!

Who Pneu?

In true Connor fashion, he developed yet another cold over the weekend.  He had a cough but seemed fine otherwise.  On Monday night, after Speech, he came down with a high fever.  I kept him home Tuesday, and Wednesday we had a snow day, so he was home again.  I thought he was feeling better Wednesday, but that night he seemed to get worse, and I noticed he was taking quick, shallow breaths while he was sleeping, which is not normal.  We went to the doctor's first thing Thursday morning so they could check him out.  After listening extensively to his chest, they told me they suspected pneumonia!  Off we went to Weymouth to get an X-Ray to know for sure.  Connor was VERY good during the X-Ray.  Luckily, it's been one of his favorite words to spell lately, so he was intrigued to see the machine that goes with the name.

The X-Ray's confirmed the pneumonia. Connor's been on nebulizer treatments every 4 hours, and amoxicillin three times a day.  We went back to the doctor's yesterday for a re-check and the doctor's still heard crackling in his chest so they wanted to see us again today.  Connor's chest sounded better, but wasn't he diagnosed with an ear infection!  So we had to head back to the pharmacy to get Augmentin to replace the amoxicillin.  The poor kid can't seem to catch a break.  He DOES seem much better today, though.  He's more active and actually eating a little bit, which he hasn't done much of this week (he's lost 3 lbs. since Thursday!).  We've done a lot of cuddling on the couch and added naptime back into his schedule.  Let's hope he's on the road to recovery!  

Playtime

To get out of the house for a little bit, I took Connor to Kidsports for a few hours Sunday afternoon.  We both needed a change of scenery, and this is right down the street, so it was perfect.  Luckily, it wasn't that crowded. I tend to worry when there are bigger kids at these places because they don't always pay attention to the little ones and knock them down.  Yesterday, though, it seemed that most of the kids there were between 1-6, so all was well in the world of indoor playgrounds.

Connor tried out the bouncy house, which he normally stays away from, but he gave it a whirl.  He didn't seem overly enthused about it.  He had more fun playing in the cozy coupes and the toddler area.  I did manage to get a bit of it on video, though, so check it out!

After about an hour there, Connor finally discovered the big kid slide.  He has to climb up on platforms to get to the slide, and he was just tall enough to make the climb up.  The entire slide is covered in netting, so I didn't have to worry about him falling over the edge.  Once he was on the slide, it took him a couple minutes to work up the nerve to slide down.  He saw one kid go down on his belly, so Connor did the same thing.  Once he went, he loved it and kept going back for more.

Later that day, while Mom was making dinner, Connor was playing with his trains and I saw him put on the conductor's hat he has.  He doesn't ever wear it, so I quickly grabbed my camera and got a few shots.  He wasn't pleased, because he says the flash "hurts eyes".  Sorry, kid... you better get used to it!  :)

We hope everyone stays warm and has plenty of shovels to dig us out of these next two storms coming up.  We cannot WAIT until spring!

You Don't Know Jack...

After months of planning, and three cancellations, Connor finally got to have a playdate with Jack Kelly.  Jack is my friend Lisa's son, and we haven't seen each other in ages.  We started scheduling this playdate back in November, and due to many circumstances beyond our control, had to cancel 3 times.  Today, though, the stars were in alignment and it all worked out.

When we arrived, Connor immediately spotted the train table and was hooked.  Jack is only 16 months old, so he and Connor played around each other, not really with each other.  Both boys were learning about sharing, but I think they did very well.  The Mommies got to visit and enjoy a cup of coffee while they played, which was nice.

Connor spotted Jack's Cozy Coupe and spent a while just hanging out in the car.  Jack would push him around the living room sometimes, but it was the cutest when Jack kept giving Connor hugs and rubbing his earlobe.  Connor's obsession lately is Mom's earlobes, so it was funny to see Jack do the same thing.

After pizza for lunch and yummy cake for dessert, we headed home.  Jack was a very good host, and it was great to see Lisa and get out of our own  house for a while.  We hope to see them again soon!