Easter and 18 Months Old

"Okay, now I get it. The Easter Bunny is okay, and Easter eggs are fun. But Easter's not about that stuff...It's all about God's son."

Happy Easter from the Petersen's!
This year Easter was all new! Connor woke up to goodies galore! A bouncy ball with Chuggington, a Mickey Mouse plush in a zippered egg, and a great basket. As he picked through his goodies he found his favorite. The Easter Bunny brought him fruit bites!!! Haha! Better than any candy, this little boy goes gaga for fruit bites. Clever, clever bunny! How did he know?


The most anticipated part of the day was the Easter Egg hunt. Of course there were eggs in perfect places for Connor and we wanted to see just what he would do with them. As the door opened and Connor-boy ran out, basket in hand, he went straight for the eggs.....and chucked them! Granted a few went in the basket, but it was much more fun to throw them on top of the trampoline. When we finally convinced him to put them in the basket, he found a thrill in dumping the lot wherever he could. It was hysterical. I can't get enough of this little boy. Grandma Glenda gave him a basket with goodies, but hers included chocolate. Boy does she spoil him, and let's not forget the new Fisher-Price lawn mower that didn't quite fit in the basket.

Easter is always such a wonderful holiday. As Pastor Thompson said at church it's like the Superbowl or World Series for Christians. It is so much more than the baskets, chocolate, and eggs it is the reason that we can have hope for a tomorrow. Because of the resurrection we know that our Messiah lives, and He offers everyone the same.
We went to WDW over Spring Break and purchased three day passes, but only used 2 of the days. This brings us to our spontaneous-middle-of-the-week-why-not trip of 2012. We had to use the tickets before they expired, it's only getting hotter, and Connor turned 18 months old. PERFECT reasons, I tell you! Perfect! We started our day at Animal Kingdom, and Connor loved it. We did the safari first, saw the bird show and Nemo, and even had lunch with the characters at Tusker's!
We were a little apprehensive about how Connor would react to the characters. He has had a few meltdowns in the past around them, but this time was different. He was in awe the moment he saw them. He would point at them and try talking to them as they were visiting other tables, and when they approached ours his eyes would get really big and he'd just stare. It was as if "wow, are you really here?". Mickey happened to put his hand on Connor's head, and it was precious because he didn't know what to do. I tried to take pictures but he wouldn't move his head, only his eyes to the camera. Like he didn't want to move or else Mickey might move his hand. Now upon showing the pictures to Connor, he is still just as excited about seeing them. He even waves and says "Hi Mickey" to the picture.
He decided to sit right down in the middle of Main Street USA to enjoy his view of the balloons. It was just so sweet, and I just snapped away!

What was so special about this trip was the amount of rides we got to go on with him. This was a Disney trip that was truly all about him. There wasn't a single big kid ride to be ridden. He soaked it all up and loved every bit of it. We did the Carousel, Small World, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Tea Cups, and Dumbo....just to name a few. The squeals of delight that rang out from him will forever be in my heart. Tim said that this ranks up with one of his favorite trips to Disney....ever!

Spring has brought such fun into this household. We had a trip to the zoo with Grandma Glenda where Connor became the desire for lunch for a very energetic female lion. That was a very fun trip, he's finally able to enjoy it. He also got to play some soccer on the UM soccer field. We went down to watch a game because of Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jason. Uncle Jason gets to coach the team, and Connor had fun scoring some goals. Like always, life keeps moving forward. I cannot believe he is a year and a half already. We are in awe of him, and he really is wonderful.

"I taw tuck"

The day after the last entry Tim and I took our first overnight trip away from Connor. Deep breaths, tears, and courage were a definite part of this endeavor. It was hard to leave him. He was of course in the very capable hands of Grandma Glenda, but we so enjoy every moment we have with him, that it is hard to be apart. Tim and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in New York City. We did and saw so much. Two Broadway shows (Newsies & Anything Goes), the Intrepid, and the St. Patrick's Day Parade just to name a few of the new sights for us while we were there. Of course this wasn't our first trip to the Big Apple, but I truly feel you can come up with entirely new things to do each trip. A major part of our trip was exchanging picture mail between us and Grandma Glenda. I felt connected with Connor the entire time. We even tried to send video at different special spots. The video Connor wanted to watch the most was us with the "bairblanes" on top of the Intrepid. The trip was wonderful for Tim and I, we even managed to sleep in, but the renewed and refreshed parents that came back to Miami couldn't wait to get their arms around their baby. The day we left, Connor developed a very scary bout with croup, and it was terrible to not be home to take care of him. He graciously shared his sickness with Uncle Casey and Leo, who are still trying to shake the germs. He has been on antibiotics and yet the runny nose still hasn't gone away, though the tightness in his chest has. Of course this trip and his croup knocked us off of our sleeping through the night, but I know one day we'll get back there.
April brings spring into our lives, and we have been very active. We have had great playtime recently and Connor is loving every minute. My favorite is watching him play with other little kids, and the Collins' housewarming party was the perfect place to watch the their joyous interaction. It was so sweet to see him with all of my friends' children. I love that they are growing up together, now we will see what youth group they will all end up in.
Part of his favorite playtime is outside in our backyard with his playset. After putting it together we didn't hang up the swings knowing he was still too small for them. As a wonderful surprise Grandma Glenda shipped two perfect swings to our house, and ::poof:: swing time in our backyard!
Here he is showing his Liberty pride and we get ready for an alumni function for the CFAW students leaving from South Florida. Of course when he plays it's a production, and it ends up everywhere. I say this points to a creative brain!!!
Here Connor is meeting a beautiful horse, and loving being able to pet him and love on him. He is so gentle with animals, and I am always impressed how there always seems to be a connection.
We had playtime the other day in Hunter's splash pool and it truly felt like summer. I guess we have entered bathing suit season, and Connor is thrilled....mommy will just have to get on board. The stretchmarks have to tan out someday!

Connor has been babbling up a storm. He loves to talk. Now we clearly don't always understand him, but he certainly tries all.the.time. I love his voice, and he is so willing to say yes to everything. We have yet to enter the "no" stage, and I don't think it's too naive to hope that it doesn't start until he's a teenager. Ha! He has moments of speech sometimes that just make our mouths fall open. He's said "thank you" to daddy opening the door for him, he's said "sorry" to mommy for having hurt her, and today he told me "I saw truck" after watching the garbage truck drive by. A sentence!! Woot woot! Of course, maybe it sounded a little more like "I taw tuck" and maybe only mommy heard it, but to me, he's a master orator!