Life's a Circus

Shhhhh, do you hear that? No? EXACTLY!!! Saturday and Sunday night we didn't hear anything either....Connor slept through the night both nights!!! We are up to 11 nights total! Let's see if we make two weeks! I just keep telling myself he has to sleep. Everyone sleeps. Right?

 A few weeks ago we got to enjoy the "Greatest Show on Earth" with my family. Grandma Glenda secured some amazing seats for all of us to enjoy, and enjoy we did. I love the animals, but there's something with the stunts that makes me uncomfortable. Connor loved it all! Tigers, Elephants, motorcycles, and dragons, he was on cloud 9. Every time the dragon would come out he would get so excited!

 Our fantastic church, First Baptist Church of Ft. Lauderdale, had a Family Fun day recently as well. It lived up to it's name and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying the festivities. The big kids enjoyed the food trucks, and Connor couldn't get enough of each bounce house. He was nice and sweaty by the end, which leads us to his tiger face.

This was Connor's first time getting his face painted and after having seen another child walking around as a tiger, Connor was sold! The lady wasn't sure how still he would be and told me she was just going to do something small. I told her she would be surprised and to just go for the full effect. She couldn't get over what a good boy he was. Nice and still, and so well behaved. Tiger Connor indeed!

I love that our church values the family so much. I love that Connor enjoys going to nursery/Sunday School, and that he has his "friends" there. January has been very full, and yet we are lucky enough that it was spent with family and loved ones. We have gotten to see Great Grandpa Ernie and Great Grandma Jo, we have been to Ft. Myers, and even got to spend an entire day with Connor's buddy Nathaniel. Connor has been fighting a cold for about a week now, but at his doctor's appt they measured him at 36.75 inches and 28 pounds. He is growing so fast, and I am so lucky to be a part of his life. Hopefully this bug will pass quickly and we have our little tiger back on his feet. He sure is grrrrrrreat!

Independent Thinker

"In bad times and in good, I've never lost my sense in zest for life." ~Walt Disney

Last night while talking to Tim I asked, "Are you and I going to go out to dinner for my birthday?" To which Connor quickly and enthusiastically replied "YEAH!", thinking I was talking to him. He then added "and daddy too, and choo-choos." What a cutie!

 Five thirty in the morning is rather shocking, especially if it's on a Saturday, and also your birthday, but that's what time we riled the troops. Rarely does my birthday fall on a day that we can travel, so that's just what we did! Disney here we come! We initially planned the trip for just us three, but after talking about our upcoming adventure we got Uncle Casey and Aunt Arielle on board. Look out, here comes Funville, population 5!

We spent our day at Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It was fun getting to roam around and do exactly as we please, each getting to go on rides and drink/eat at your leisure. Tim, Connor, and I even squeezed into Dumbo, and a Speedway race car, at the same time! Great memories. We even got to watch the Epcot fireworks from a special roped off section just for us. What a special birthday it was! After Epcot closed we trudged back to our car, and yes, decided to drive all the way back home (games were necessary). It was a looooong (birth)day to say the least, but absolutely perfect.The night before we had gathered with the rest of the family and Connor got to help me blow out my candles and open all of my presents. It was perfect.

New Year's Eve was spent with our loved ones, and was also the deadline for the photo contest. I am happy to say that I won a Kindle Fire, and I'm so excited to use it with Connor. I wanted something aside from "my" things to use with him. This will be more for him. He is so smart. He is recognizing more and more letters, and just the other day told me correctly that the letter block he was holding was an "A". He's been pretty good about the 4 letters in his own name, but now we're branching out. There are 22 more after all.

He seemed to transition back into spending the day at grandma's very well, though he has been showing signs of being very strong willed over the past week or so. More so than before. The Sunday before school started back up was his first major melt down, all because he wasn't ready to leave grandma's house. He is certainly trying to assert his wants, and testing to see who is boss. It is a very interesting new period in development. It hasn't happened every day, but when it does it's Chernobyl. I know he's frustrated because he wants to say so much more than he is able to, and it has to be frustrating. We just remember to be patient with him, but still let him know we are in charge, we have rules, and he still has to obey. It has gotten better.

My favorite time of the day is saying prayers with him at night. He has been more active in our time praying and I love when we are done and he says "amen". He also slept through one night over break, bringing us to a total of 7 times. That was a nice treat! Tantrums are normal, he really is such a sweet boy and we are so lucky!