I stole a few pictures from Baby Sequoia’s blog (thanks Leo!).  You can read more about our trip to Gloucester here.

Here are the pics I “stole”.

Mommy, Daddy, and Connor (check it out, Connor has my eyes — finally, something I can claim — YES!!!!!!)

Dads and their babies (Donnie/Connor, Troy/Ava, and Leo/Sequoia):

Moms and their babies:

Victoria, Connor, and I went to baby massage class.  This was the 2nd part of the “baby prep course” we took back in Oct-Jan.  Ava and Rebecca are attending as well.  It is funny to watch Connor and Ava together.  They have been around each other 3 times now (totaling around 6+ hours together).  Connor laid on his blanket as Mommy and Daddy was giving him a massage and just kept his little head turned towards Ava the whole entire time.

Ava and Connor were outstanding students in class (no surprise).  They didn’t cry or fuss at all during class.  Connor made smiles at Ava quite a bit.  Rebecca kept warning me that she “was going to tell Troy”.  Connor definitely likes Ava and Rebecca.  I think I am gonna have to keep an eye on him, he has become a “ladies man” already.  He definitely does NOT take after his father, but rather takes after his Uncle Danny in that department.

As far as class…it was pretty cool and is another opportunity for Mommy and Daddy to bond with our little boy.

In the past 4 days, Connor has dramatically increased his socialization skills.  My Mom reported that he giggled twice for her (1 real good one) on Friday.  I tried my hardest on Sunday night and he actually let out two little giggles.  He is smiling all of the time now!  I love the interaction with him.  The last two nights I have sat on the couch with him (his back against my thighs/knees) and just played with him for about 1 hour.  He smiles with his gums and all.  I sign and say “I love you” and then jiggle the “i love you” sign on his tummy — he loves that.  I also take his feet and pound them against my chest like it is a drum (making drum sounds).  He absolutely loves this and this is where I got two giggles out of him on Sunday.  These times are wonderful!!!!

I love you Connor!

Daddy

Connor had a very busy weekend:

Friday (7 hours) with Grandma.  Mommy/Daddy had to shoot a wedding.

Saturday (8 hours) with Mimi and Grandpa.  Mommy/Daddy had another wedding to shoot.  Brenna also visited and from what we heard they had a great time together.

Sunday (4+ hours) in Gloucester with Sequoia, Ava, and some other little friends.

Whew…more weekends like that and the blog might have to close up shop!

Through it all, Connor slept well when he got home.  It must be a testament to the great parenting skills his parents instinctively posses. 

Or it might be the great bedtime ritual Daddy continues. 😉

Well, that bedtime ritual will be coming to close very soon because Daddy is playing softball again and sometimes the games go late.  So, Daddy has instructed Mommy on how to hold Connor in the rocking chair, while patting him with one hand, and holding the book in the other.  I think I have an advantage over Mommy on that one, because of my long arms.

Anyways, it was a busy weekend but Connor continues to be “our perfect son”.

We went to Sequoia’s house today. She is the 19 day old baby girl of Colleen and Leo (their blog is here). We met Colleen and Leo from our “baby prep course” we took at Mary Immaculate. Colleen/Leo, Rebecca/Troy, and Victoria/me were 3 of the remaining 4 couples that actually finished the class. We are all very similar in age and all are experiencing our first child. So, we have formed a friendship that has been great.

I passed the “blogging tradition” on to Leo (I got it from Jaime) and as many of you can see, he is giving this blog a run for its money. Great job, Leo!

Anyways, we visited their house today and Connor got to meet Sequoia for the first time. Connor was quite jealous of her because she has more hair at 19 days old than Connor will probably have by the age of 2 years! Trust me…take a look.

Connor also got to see Ava (Rebecca and Troy’s 12 wk old daughter). We all had a great time!

Connor — don’t worry, it is better to be bald now than when you are 40 years old (just ask Uncle Danny).

In honor of The Masters golf tournament, something Connor and I (and Uncle Danny/ Uncle Buck) will hopefully attend one day, I have posted a few pics of our favorite little sports all-star.  Here is one, check out the photo gallery for more.

Azaleas and all in the background!!!

Love,

Daddy

Remember all of those pictures of me half naked and wearing funny clothes.   Well, look at what I was wearing/doing today.

Can you guess who is responsible for all of those crazy pictures?  Mommy takes the pictures BUT Daddy is the one who “sets the scene”.  Thanks Dad!  I’ll be sure to discuss this with you in about 13 years.

Love,

Connor

Aidan (Jaime’s son) came over on Friday and Mommy took pictures.  Aidan is cool and very nice to me.  He wanted to touch my face but Daddy and Aidan’s Daddy would not let him.  They were afraid I might get hurt.  Ahh, Aidan and I are buds — he would not hurt me.  Someone please tell the grown ups to chill out.

Anyways, Aidan is about 5 months older than me and has begun to crawl.  He showed me how to crawl on Friday, but I am not ready yet.

At one point, Aidan started to smile at me.  I smiled back and then Aidan started to laugh.  Then I gave him a big smile.  He giggled even harder.  I don’t know how to giggle yet, but I sure can smile with the best of them (that is what Daddy and Mommy says).  The grown ups thought this was cool.

We had a great time and Daddy says he will be posting all of the pictures on the gallery, so please check over there.

Love,

Connor

Here are a couple of pics…

Today, Daddy took me for a walk around the neighborhood.  He strapped me in the Baby Bjorn that we got as a gift from one of Daddy’s co-workers. It is so cool.

I kept looking to the left the entire time.  Daddy would try to get me to look the other way, but the houses and trees on the left side of Daddy were closest so I looked that way.  The wind was blowing in my face and the sun was a little bright (even though it was overcast).  I squinted most of the time and then began to fall sleep near the end of the walk.

I enjoy walking with Daddy.

Love,

Connor

This posting is for Uncle Danny and Uncle Tony, because they know who has the best looking grass in all of Virginia!  And no, the grass was not “touched up” with Photoshop.

On Saturday, I showed Connor how to keep a lawn looking beautiful.  I explained to him what are weeds (even though there are no in my yard) and I also explained to him that in about 12 years he will be cutting the grass and that he has to cut in diagonally so it will look nice.

Here are a few pics of Daddy educating Connor on Landscaping 101.

This posting is probably not something the kids should read. And yes, I got approval from Victoria to post this.  Remember, this is for us to document our experiences and also to help educate other parents that might be going through similar things.

Over the past 3-4 weeks, Victoria has been experiencing some problems breastfeeding.  She has had two clogged milk ducts (one turned into an infection).  On Monday, we went to the doctor regarding her last clogged milk duct and that is when we found out it had become infected.  We had been doing everything they tell you to do — start on the “bad” breast, warm compresses, hot showers, pump afterwards to drain it.  Nothing seemed to work.  About a day and a half of taking the antibiotic, Victoria was doing much better.

Yesterday (Saturday), I watched Connor all day (Mommy was working on wedding pictures) and fed him 5 times with a bottle of expressed breast milk.  Victoria pumped during this period 4 times, so things “should have been ok”.  Saturday night she noticed the infected breast was once again hard as if the milk duct was clogged again (different location this time).  Hot shower, warm compresses and then pumping — still no improvement.  So, we started to worry again.

By now, it was 11:30pm and “sleepy head” had been sound asleep for 3 hours.  I suggested Victoria take a hot shower and I told her I would wake Connor because the breast pump didn’t seem to relieve the pressure.  So, I woke Mr. Hurricane, told him he had to help Mommy out, and then turned him over to Victoria.  15 minutes later, her breast had gone back to being soft and the “emergency” had been aleviated!

So, Mr. Hurricane is now Mr. Hoover (the vacuum) and Mommy is feeling much better.  We concluded that pumping for an entire day may not be a good idea (for Victoria).  The pump is working, it just does not seem to work on all of the milk ducts all of the time.  We realize that this is probably different for every woman, but we feel our solution is to breastfeed Connor most of the time and then mix in a bottle/pump session for Victoria.