First Day of Kindergarten

Conor started Kindergarten today!  We walked down this morning and figured out the line up procedure, then I went in with him to help him get settled.  He did so well, took it all in stride - no tears!  After school we met with some other kindergarten families at the park for a play date, some of whom we already knew and some we didn't.  Tonight was open house, so we toured his classroom and the school.  (He has a locker!  I didn't have a locker until 6th grade!!!  Actually, it doesn't lock at all and is more like a cubby.)

It's going to be a great year!

First Day of Kindergarten Questionnaire:

My teacher's name is... Mrs. Conn.
Favorite part of the first day  - "sitting at my table"
Thing I'm most excited about this year is - "playing outside"
Favorite book - "The Kissing Hand" (Mrs. Conn read this book at the beginning of class today.)
When I grow up I want to be - "a teacher"

Reading

Conor has been reading up a storm lately. He hadn't really been too interested in trying to sound out words up to this point, but just in the past few weeks has been much more excited about practicing. Tim bought him a few sets of Bob books for Christmas and he really likes those.  They spend 10-15 minutes every evening practicing reading them together.  He can read all the first set of books from the beginner series by himself.  Sometimes I know he is just memorizing or looking at the pictures ("Dot sat on the mat" he will read as "Dot sat on the carpet") but he has looked at books he's never seen and sounded out brand new words, too.  He definitely has learned lots of "sight words" that he can recognize independent of the books, and is trying to sound out new words as well. He's made so much progress in just a few weeks!

Here he is reading - he was not interested in a "Take 2" without the Michigan game blaring from the radio.

Conor is Four!!!

Conor turned four today! He went to school this morning (had to make his imagination birthday cake with his friends!) and then we went to lunch and tried to go to see Monster's University.  He didn't like that idea at all and declared that he was afraid of "Monster's Incs." So we left.  His party is Saturday, which he is really excited about.

At four, Conor is rambunctious, energetic, curious, sensitive, silly, funny, and loving. He loves swimming lessons, playing outside, collecting things (bugs, dinosaurs, rocks...) and drawing pictures. His favorite books are Thomas early readers and any book about animals.  He has an awesome imagination and amazes me with the things he thinks up.

Four Year Stats:

Weight - 42lbs (90th %ile)
Height - 42.5in (90th %ile)

Instead of writing everything out for his questionnaire, I'll just let Conor tell you his favorite things:

Conors 4Year Video from Lisa Carmody on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Conor!!!  We love you :)

Official Three Year Stats

Conor had his three year well visit recently.  His stats:

Height - 39.25" (84th percentile)

Weight - 38.4 lbs (94th percentile)


He did much better for the checkup this time, thanks to "Elmo Goes to the Doctor".  He was much more comfortable around Dr. Diane.  (Which is not her real name but that's the name of Elmo's doctor so that's what he calls her.)  He did great at all his "tests", except drawing an "X".  Dr. Diane drew a circle, and Conor copied it.  She drew an "X" and he drew two parallel lines and another circle.  Extra points for thinking outside the box.

Three.

My baby is three today! We had a party with family Saturday and went to the zoo today.

Looking back at his birthday post last year, I'd say all those interests pretty much still apply. Here are some more ways I would describe Conor at 3.

He is funny. Not just "kids say ridiculous stuff" funny, but he knows how to turn it on. He is such a ham and keeps us laughing.

He is sweet.

He is rambunctious.

He is curious.

He is cautious.

He loves to act things out - songs, movies, stories....

He loves animals.

He loves to play and get dirty.

He loves to sing.

He loves his family.

He loves Shrek, Blues Clues, Super WHY!, The Muppets, Tangled, The Berenstain Bears and Toy Story.

He follows his own path - he knows what he wants and goes after it.

He is growing up fast, but still loves to cuddle in his mama's lap.


Happy birthday sweet boy! We love you so so much.

Potty Training Update

We started potty training last weekend.  I stocked up on supplies - 12 pairs of undies, lots of snacks and juice as incentives.

Saturday morning we put on the big boy underwear, covered the living room in towels, moved the potty downstairs and just..... hung out.

dancing to Potty Time Elmo

By noon, we had gone through just about all 12 pairs of undies :/ The afternoon wasn't any better.  He didn't really seem to have any control, and couldn't have cared less.  He did go on the potty many times, but just as often in his undies. I was feeling a little worried Saturday night - wondering if he wasn't quite ready, if we were pushing it too hard, if maybe we should go back to diapers for a while.

Sunday it was like somebody flipped the switch and he did AWESOME.  No accidents at all (well except the one time he forgot to pull down the undies.) Monday and Tuesday more of the same - I think he had one or two small accidents Monday but otherwise stayed totally dry. He went to daycare today and stayed dry all day :)

The trouble now is that he doesn't like to poop on the potty, so he's holding it. He'll try to sneak away and hide to do his business.  We tried building a little "pooping house" to hide the potty in but he wasn't buying it. So we're working on that.  He's also in a PullUp for naps and at night - I don't expect he'll stay dry all night right away.

About the snacks/rewards - he was all about the J-U-I-C-E.  He actually refused M&Ms, jelly beans, and frosted animal crackers in favor of apple juice.  The kid is crazy for the juice.  (He did eventually come around on the other stuff.) He doesn't really need the treats anymore but I think we've created a juice monster.

So YAY! Looks like we're well on the way to being fully potty trained.

Yay! and pOops

It was almost a year ago that Conor got his potty. Since then, he's been pretty good about peeing on the potty. Lately, he has been going pee on the potty consistently at least once a day, sometimes more than that.

Except it's only ever pee. He had never pooped on the potty. Until tonight!

I could tell what was happening, but Tim couldn't (although he was whispering "I poop on the potty like a lion.") As soon as he stood up and we saw it in the potty, we both yelled "YAAAAAAYYYY!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!", which startled the daylights out of the poor boy. He started crying and saying "No!!! No!!!" It took a little while to calm him down, and I'm not sure he really ever got that we were happy that he had pooped in the potty.

So oops on us. but Yay!!! for Conor!

Two and a Half!

I get this a lot. He's a master at avoiding "eye contact" with my camera.

Conor turned two and a half last week!  Being with him every day makes it hard to appreciate just how much he's grown in the past few months, but when I look back at pictures from the summer I see such a big difference!  Some of the big milestones/changes/goings on in the past half year:

Language - So many new words.  His vocabulary amazes me and he picks up new words all the time.  Mispronounciations are dwindling.  Multi-word sentences are the norm, initiates a lot of conversation.  Sings the entire alphabet without missing letters.  Knows the words to lots of songs and will sing along.

Potty learning - Haven't tried to potty train yet, but he is much better at being able to go when we ask him to (no poop yet though), and will now even ask to go himself.  Likes to hide when pooping.  Frequently, will ask for a diaper change when wet/dirty (never used to do this).

Developing a better memory of things that have happened in the past.  When we drive somewhere on a route we've been before, he'll say (for example), "I want to go to the zoo!" (even if we're not really going to the zoo.  Bummer).

Questions everything. One of my favorites - when he hears a noise he'll ask, "Mama what make that sound?"  He also frequently asks "Mama/Dada, what you doing Mama/Dada?" (not a typo, he says it at the beginning and the end)

"Reads" books - Some of his favorites we have read so many times, he has them memorized and will "read" them to us.

Likes to direct us (tell us where to go and what to do).  My favorite is when he tells me which way to turn in the car.

Tests boundaries constantly.  Will yell to get attention.  We see this face a lot:

Loves bath time and swimming.  He's taken swimming lessons for over a year now.  We're going to try a new swim school this month.

Says things he knows are funny to get a reaction, like (running into a room) "What's going on in here???" or (when sitting in someone else's chair, as if imitating them) "What are you doing in my chair?"

Imagination taking off - loves to pretend and role play.

Enjoys having stories made up for him - says "Rubber time" (meaning "Once upon a time") when he wants you to tell him a story.

Good eater - prefers breakfast and lunch to dinner.  Fav foods are fruits (esp apples and peaches), mixed veggies (peas, carrots, corn and green beans), mashed potatoes, pasta, cheese, cottage cheese, pizza, cereal, cereal bars, waffles, yogurt, beans, and mac and cheese.

Favorite toys/activities - Fire truck, ambulance, tractor, trains, guitar ("instrument" or "tar"), dancing to music, PlayDo, coloring/drawing/painting, stickers, making a tent out of blankets, playing with cars and trucks, reading books, legos, puzzles ("I wanna put the puzzha togezzah!"), going to the zoo, going to the playground, going to the library, talking about going to the zoo/playground/library

Favorite books - Busy Town, Dear Zoo, Is Your Mama a Llama, Otis, My Big Boy Potty, Mike Mulligan, Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin, Scuffy the Tugboat

Dislikes - Haircuts, toothbrushing

Height ~37" (75th percentile)

Weight ~33 lbs (between 75th and 90th percentile)

Big Boy Bed

Right now, Conor is upstairs sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time (big boy bed = crib without a front and a little safety rail).  He's been there for roughly 2 hours without incident and I call that a big success.

We made the transition because of a little "incident" last Thursday night.  Conor slept in later than usual after a particularly rough night.  Around 6:45am, we heard a loud THUD followed by crying.  I was sure he had fallen while trying to climb out of the crib.  Nope.  We found him on the floor in front of the glider!  The warm spot and drool puddle on the seat confirmed that he had been sleeping there, for who knows how long.  Apparently he exited the crib without a problem, did who knows what, then decided to climb up in the glider and go back to sleep, where he stayed until he fell out. (He's fine - the fall scared him a bit but not a scratch on him thank goodness.)

Friday and Saturday nights he stayed in the crib, but it's only a matter of time before he tries that stunt again so he's in a toddler bed much sooner than I had anticipated.

Conor Has Fun at the Hands On Museum

Here are a few short clips of Conor's trip to the HOM this weekend. He's walking!!!!

First Step

Conor took his first step by himself tonight!  For the past couple of weeks he has been standing ever so briefly on his own.  Usually he lets go and balances for a second or two before falling.  Tonight Tim and Conor were in the yard and Conor let go for a good 10 seconds.  He repeated it several times, and then took a step on his own!  He managed to do it twice.  I think we might have a walker soon!

Crawling

Conor is full blown crawling! He is also getting up on his knees, pulling up to stand, and even took two steps with the push walker today!!!

Practice at the park tonight. (He really wanted to go play soccer with the big kids!)

Videos:
**Be advised - there is some lady giving really loud obnoxious commentary during the videos, you might want to turn your sound down**

Big Boy(a guest blog by Conor)

Hello blog readers, Conorman here. I thought you might enjoy some pictures of my day yesterday. Here I am hanging out at school in my big boy clothes.

Here I am just checking my email and making some phone calls.

What else have I been up to? Oh, not much, just some STANDING AT MY MUSIC TABLE ALL BY MYSELF for a LONG time!!!!!

Clapping

Conor has this clapping thing down.

(I love how around 0:43 he tries to eat a clap.)

"Dada"

Conor has started saying "dada" as part of his babble. Actually it's more like "ahheeblablaeeeoohbababaDADA", but we're definitely hearing a "D" sound, which is new for him . Even though he isn't really meaning anything by it now, we still like hearing it!

First cold

Conor has his first cold :(

"Welcome to daycare! Here's your free tote bag and complimentary rhinovirus infection."

Other than the copious amounts of snot and boogers in his nose and the occasional cough, he doesn't really seem too bothered by it. I hope he gets better soon!

First Day of School

Conor started daycare today. We were all up early to get ready, load up (why does it take 4 more bags than usual to get a 19 lb person through the day???), and were off before dawn. There were plenty of tears (mine, not his). His teacher called an hour after dropoff to say he was doing great, and having fun playing with bubbles.

When I called at lunch he was sleeping - that nap ended up going 1.5h, a rarity at home. He was napping again when I picked him up. He drank every bit of his four bottles and even had some sweet potatoes and oatmeal. The teachers took pictures of his first day for us and it looks like he had a blast. He made a new friend, David, an adorable 12 month old whose favorite word is "lights". He liked watching David walk and giggled when he heard him talk. Unfortunately David will be moving to the toddler room soon, so hopefully Conor will like his other classmates as much.

I hope tomorrow goes as well!

First haircut

Conor got his first haircut today! It was really starting to get in his eyes so it was definitely time. He was a very good boy and didn't cry. He looks about 3 years older now.

With Daddy, checking this place out.

Sitting on Mommy's lap, getting ready.

All done!

We opted out of the $4 "First Haircut" photo and certificate, but were able to save some of his baby hair. We were also warned that he has a "serious cowlick". Um, yeah, he's a Carmody!

TOOTH!

Conor cut his first tooth today! It was his bottom front right one. The other one down there must be close behind because he has been a fussy little man tonight!

First Solids

We started solids today with VERY runny rice cereal. He was interested for sure - opened his mouth wide, grabbed the spoon and tried to shove it in, then sucked the cereal off his fingers. He got a bit frustrated - I think I waited too long past his last feeding and he was hungry and couldn't get it all in fast enough!

We'll continue to practice with rice cereal until 6 months before adding fruits and veggies.