Grandpa had a birthday in September and I got to see my cousin Brenna. Grandpa took Brenna and I for a ride in our wagon.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!!

Love,

Connor

Since the day we found out Victoria was pregnant, I’ve been waiting for the time Connor would be able to run to me and say “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy” as I arrived home from work.

Well, he is not running or shouting that yet, but he is doing the next best thing. It all started last week when I got home one night. I walked in the house, noticed he was sitting on the floor in the family room with Mommy. He turned to me, smiled and watched me for a second. I stood in the door way and said “Come here, Connor” — motioning with my hand. He got down on all fours and started to crawl over to me. I waited for the 20 seconds it took him to crawl over to me and then gave him a big hug and kiss.

He did that three nights in a row — what a feeling!!!

I love you Connor!
Daddy

I’ll keep this post short and provide videos (since that is what most people want to see here).

Enjoy.

About two weeks ago, I called Grandma (my Mom) on the phone and had a brief conversation with her:

Daddy — “When can we start telling Connor, ‘No’?”

Grandma (split second response) — “Never!”

Daddy — “But I read in a magazine that around 7 months you can start introducing the word and concept of ‘No’ to babies.”

Grandma — “I don’t ever remember telling you ‘No’ at that age.”

Daddy — “Ok, maybe we should wait a while.”

Grandma — “You should wait a long time.”

That was pretty much it for the conversation.  Let’s just say I went home feeling like I was just yelled at for doing something wrong when I was about 5 years old.  Why would I feel like that, my mom just told me she never said ‘No’ to me or yelled at me.

Well, I tried to say “No” a couple of times to Connor when he would approach our T.V. stand only for him to sit down, turn around, and just look at me.  He would soon thereafter turn back around and continue what he was doing.  Maybe it was to early to tell him ‘No’.  Maybe Grandma was right…

Well, Grandma watched Connor one evening as Mommy and Daddy were shooting a wedding.  The day after, I called Grandma to see how things went the night before.

Here is how part of the conversation went:

Grandma — “Have you tried to say ‘No’ to Connor yet?”

Daddy — “No, not really.”  (Lying to Grandma.)

Grandma — “Well, I did last night and he turned around and began to cry.”

Daddy — “What??!?!?!  You tell me I can’t say ‘No’ and then you try it.”  I started to laugh.

Grandma preceded to tell me how it broke her heart to see him cry after she said “No” to him.

I talked to a couple of “veteran Mom’s” at work and they explained to me that Grandma’s answer to the “No” question was from a Grandmother’s perspective.  Grandma’s don’t remember anything they did when raising their children and when it comes to grandchildren, the word “No” just does not exist.

Connor — don’t you worry, when you have kids of your own Mommy and Daddy will be sure to remove “No” from our vocabulary.  Until then, you better drop the crying reaction.  😉

Love,

Daddy

Check out the photo gallery, I posted some new pics.

http://babyblog.vlwphotography.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=23

Here are a few of the new pics:

Before I start….I love you, Mom…  😉

We’ve all heard of backseat drivers…well, how about backseat diaper changers.  My brother and I can definitely tell you some stories about our Mother and her backseat driving (or passenger seat driving).  She’s been know to put an arm across our chest to “help stop” a potential impact and at least once made a motion to grab the steering wheel while she was seated in the passenger seat.

Ok…back to the real story here before I get in deeper trouble.

Connor and I were visiting Grandma on Sunday.  Soon after we arrived I noticed Connor needed changing.  Grandma offered to change him, but I always tend to do the changes unless something is really preventing me from doing it.  Well, I positioned Connor on the floor and soon noticed Grandma was joining me on the floor.  Now, I am sure every parent has their own routine for changing a diaper.  I don’t watch other parents or even Victoria when they do it.

Well, Connor and I went through our diaper routine:

1. Daddy tells Connor, “I am going to change your diaper…”
2. I unsnapped his clothes.
3. Positioned the new diaper under the old.
4. Took 3-4 wipes out for the dirty diaper.
5. Took the old diaper off, wiping up as much as I could with it.
6. In this case, I passed it to the assistant watching my every move (Grandma).  She put it in a plastic bag so it could be disposed of.
7. I then preceded to wipe his rear-end.  Wipe #1 is dirty and I disposed of it.
8. I used wipe #2 to finish cleaning up his rear-end and started to dispose of it.

WAIT…STOP the routine…Grandma decided to do a little backseat driving.

1. Now I hadn’t touch his private area (for any children that might read this blog) and Grandma had noticed there was some cleaning that needed to be done there.
2. So, she pointed this out.
3. I said I know.
4. But she still pointed it out a 2nd time.
5. So, I laughed and said I wasn’t done — I still had two more wipes to go.
6. So wipe #3 was used to give a cleaning to his private area.
7. Wipe #4 was used to give an all around cleaning to finish the job.

Connor — you can rest easy knowing your Grandma was keeping Daddy in line.

Love,

Daddy

Mommy has rearranged the furniture in the family room so Connor can no longer escape.

When Grandpa and Mimi stopped by on Sunday, the ottoman was no longer blocking access into the kitchen.  It didn’t take the “incarcerated one” very long to figure this out.  Mimi was playing with Connor on the floor and as soon as he caught a glimpse of “freedom”, he disregarded the fact that he hadn’t seen Mimi in over a week and made his break.  Of course guard (Daddy) was there to stop him.

Victoria is using the leather couch as an obstacle to keep Connor in the family room.  This leather couch has about a 4 inch clearance underneath.  Over the weekend, I put Connor in the family room as I was doing a few things in the kitchen.  As I walked by to go to the pantry, I heard him fussing but could not quite seem him.  After I peered over the couch, I saw that he was laying flat on the floor trying to crawl under the couch.  Keep in mind it is way too small, so he can’t get stuck or hurt (so please do not call Social Services on us).  I went and got Victoria and showed her.  She said he had tried it on Friday as well.  He can see daylight on the other side, but just can’t squeeze under the couch.

Of course we think he is a genius since he is trying to find ways out.  But, if he was a genius he would have been smart enough to figure the space was not large enough for him.  Oh well, he is still a genius in our book.

Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!?

Our newborn baby boy is now growing faster than we can believe. Rolling over, crawling, pulling himself up, standing up on furniture, walking with a walker, chasing the cats, following Mommy and Daddy, etc…

Connor has learned so much in the past month that it is truly amazing to watch. It makes us feel so proud.

Victoria turns to me often and says, “We love him. He is such a good boy.” She is exactly right! I mean, what else could we ask for — through our unbiased eyes, he is perfect! 😉

Connor is expanding his taste buds, but a lot of it has to do with Mommy and Daddy masking dislikes with foods he likes. So, we will mix carrots in with peas or green beans. Zucchini in with sweet potatoes. He can’t seem to eat carrots or zucchini by themselves, but when mixed he seems to tolerate it.

He still hasn’t learned how to eat more “solid foods” like the puff graduate foods or freeze dried fruit or yogurt. He gives us this weird look and kind of slowly flicks the solid food out of his mouth.

He now has two teeth.

Here is a picture of young blue eyes (he got his eyes from me!!!!!):

I went to Aidan’s house on Saturday to celebrate my buddy Aidan’s (Daddy’s co-worker’s son) 1st birthday. I got to play with some of Aidan’s toys and spent some time with Aidan. Aidan is cool and was very nice to me. He was actually forming a “conga line” with me as I pushed his walker around. It was cool!!!

Aidan got a lot of presents, so now I know where to hang out.

He also got this small piece of food that they call a cupcake. I don’t know what you are suppose to do with it, but I think he must have did a good job because he had green stuff all over his hands and face (and everyone was laughing). Daddy kept trying to tell him to put it in his hair so Aidan’s Mommy would have to clean it up. 😉

Happy Birthday, Aidan!

I can’t wait until you can come to my birthday party!!!!

Today, Connor allowed Victoria and I to have our Sunday breakfast together without interrupting (first time since he was born).  Of course, Victoria wanted to wake him up but I convinced her that he was fine.  Normally Connor wakes up around 7-7:30am.  Today, he didn’t wake up until around 8:30am.  So, we took advantage of this and had breakfast and read the paper.

At around 8:30am, I strolled upstairs to check on Connor.  He was sitting up in his crib and was quietly entertaining himself.

I changed his diaper at brought him downstairs so I could feed him as we continued to relaxed at the breakfast table.