Are You Ready for Some Football?!?!

The last weekend of August/first weekend of September is quite possibly my favorite weekend of the year - it is college football's opening weekend AND marks the return of pumpkin coffee at Dunkin Donuts! This year, on the Friday before the first ND game, we were at home in Wyomissing. My parents watched Connor while Ryan and I went to the Luke Bryan concert at the Allentown Fair. We had the best time - the concert was so much fun! The only problem was that we had to haul ass home the next day because we had to be at Julie and Donald's before the start of the game. Connor is the only one of us that had "the Shirt" this year (I guess when you have a grandkid your kid no longer gets souvenirs on your trips to Notre Dame, right Dad?).

 

This year watching football games has been a little bit different than last year at Julie's. Last year, Connor was so little that everyone wanted to hold him - we'd arrive and I'd hand him off and not see him again until it was time to leave. Or he'd be content to snooze in his carrier and would sleep right through all the rowdy cheers. We could eat and drink and not have to worry about him. This year, since he's mobile and doesn't quite understand the importance yet of sitting and watching Notre Dame game from start to finish, it is a little more hectic. But, he is so good and adapts very well in new environments, so it is still fun. We just make sure he has lots of things to entertain him and take turns walking around with him.  He is just about the cutest ND fan I've ever seen - don't think he'd be nearly as happy in PSU gear!

 





Connor was also excited for the Eagles debut the following week. He wore his Eagles sweatshirt to daycare that day and was a big hit.

While the Eagles looked awesome that first week, things have gone downhill since then. At least they have a slightly better record than the Steelers. The Irish are unfortunately not headed for a repeat appearance at the national championship game. They are 3-1, but are currently in danger of losing their second game. It is frustrating watching them - they make a lot of mistakes and bad decisions. Hopefully they will turn it around for the rest of the season but they have a touch schedule. At least we have some good company to watch the games with!

 

It's tough being a Notre Dame fan.

15 Month Stats and Fun Facts

Connor had his 15 month checkup earlier this month. He is growing like a weed! Here are his stats:

• He is 32 inches (he grew 2.25 inches in 3 months and 11.5 inches since birth) which puts him in the 72%
• He weighs 23 lbs. 2 ozs. (gained 9 ozs. in 3 months and 14 lbs. 6 ozs since birth) which puts him in the 27%
• His head circumference is 18.5 inches, which puts him in the 42%

Overall, he is doing great! He seems a little skinny, but I think it is because he had a major growth spurt since his last appointment. His physician assistant didn't seem concerned. Actually, in the few weeks since his appointment, Connor's developed quite an appetite and seems to be filling out quite nicely.

A few fun facts about Connor at 15 months:

• He finally learned to walk on his own! He was a late crawler, so I was not surprised that he took his sweet time learning to walk. Actually, for months now he's been able to walk really well holding on to furniture or a hand, but was just never confident enough to do it on his own. Everyone told me to count my blessings, but with two dogs and making it hard to keep the floors clean, I was more than ready for him to be done the crawling. It seems like all of a sudden one day he just decided he was over it too.

• Connor is doing much better drinking from a sippy cup. I would have liked to have him completely off the bottle by now, but I made the mistake one morning of trying to give him a sippy cup of milk instead of his usual bottle and He. Was. Pissed. I mean, inconsolable. Ruined his whole day and stressed me out - and I already find it stressful enough to get showered, dressed, looking somewhat presentable, get Connor up, dressed, fed, and dropped off at daycare and at work on time (give or take five minutes). So, we're going to have to work on that.
• Connor's become quite a good eater. Some of his favorite foods are chicken nuggets, steak, grilled cheese, pineapples, pears, waffles, and oatmeal. And he goes nuts for french fries. He is not at all interested in any kind of pasta and I find it difficult to get him to eat vegetables with his fingers (although at daycare he does it with no problems) but he will still eat the pureed vegetables with no problem for me. He is in the process of learning to feed himself. He's still pretty lazy and likes me to do it for him, but it's a start. Breakfast, as if it wasn't already stressful enough, just got a little longer and a whole lot messier:

• He is really developing quite a little personality. He waves when someone says "hi" or "bye" to him; in addition to "mama" and "dada" he can say "bye-bye," "ball," "more," and he mimics every sound we make like a little crow; his favorite toys are balls (and he's got quite an arm already) and cars (we went to Julie's for a game a few weeks ago and she let him play with some of her son's matchbox cars and he loved them so much we had to go out and buy a few the next day).
• He is an excellent sleeper. He goes to bed without any fuss between 730 and 800 and sleeps through the night. On the weekends he takes 1 nap, usually between 3 and 4 hours long. At daycare, I'm told he does great sleeping on his little mat during naptime and usually sleeps between 2-2.5 hours.
• He is, 90% of the time, the most pleasant little boy. He is such a joy to be around, and warms my heart with his giggles and smiles and funny antics. He is a bit of a mama's boy, which is just fine with me!

Summer Recap

Ok, I fully realize how ridiculous it is that we are now at the end of September and it has been three months since I've updated. Three months is a long time in the life of a baby! In all fairness, I've started this post about three separate times, written one sentence, and stopped. So each time I came back to it, I saw "I can't believe summer is half over!" then, "How is it already Labor Day?" then "We are mid way through September, where does the time go?" You know it is bad when someone texts you: "I'm sorry for your loss." and after you reply "Thanks, but who died?" you get "Your blog." Anyway, now that summer is over and we are into football season and, in my opinion, football seasom = spending Sunday afternoons on the couch watching the games with laptop close by monitoring fantasy football scores, I fully intend to get back into the swing of things with posting updates. In the meantime, here's an as-brief-as-possible recap of the last few months.

We were so lucky to have some incredible weather this summer. Aside from one miserably hot week, it was so beautiful in Central PA so we tried to do as much outside as possible. A few weeks after having my appendix removed, I was feeling well enough to test out the new hiking backpack we bought for Connor. Okay, I didn't really do any of the testing, other than making sure he was properly strapped to Ryan's back but that's an important job when there is precious cargo involved! We took a drive up to Watkins Glen, New York, to hike the famous Gorge Trail. Within 2 miles, the stream descends over 400 feet and has 19 different waterfalls along the course. It isn't exactly a wilderness hike, but it was really neat. In the 1930s they hand carved steps and bridges into the stone. There are 832 steps total along the trail, with nearly 180 of them coming at the very end on a very steep part of the gorge known as Jacob's Ladder. It was a very hot and humid day, so by the time we were done we were both sweaty and more than ready to refuel with some lunch and craft beers at the Rooster Fish Brewing Company.

 

Connor thoroughly enoyed the ride.

 

 

Who do you think won this staring contest?

 

This summer I was fortunate to be able to work from home 2-3 days per week. A few years ago my bosses wrote two books: The Pennsylvania Trust Guide and The Supplemental Needs Trust Guide. I contributed a few chapters to each book. It's not exactly exciting reading, more of an instructional manual for lawyers, financial advisors, and trust officers. Anyway, each year we have to do a supplement for it, which is an update on statutes, case law, as well as any new material we think is interesting and pertinent. The supplement gets automatically sent to every person who purchased the original guide (think Columbia House). This summer, Adrianne was out on maternity leave so I was responsible for preparing the supplement. I was very thankful for the opportunity (and that they trusted me to do it on my own!) and even more thankful that they allowed me to do the majority of it from home, to avoid the distractions of the office. I still ended up sending Connor to daycare while I worked from home because there's no way I would get anything done with him here with me, but the nice thing was I was often able to adjust my hours in order to do some fun things. Most Tuesdays I would work for a few hours after Connor went to bed so that on Wednesday mornings (Ryan's day off) we could go to the Lewisburg farmers market. Usually we would stop at the grocery store afterwards. Connor likes the carts at the Weis in Lewisburg - they are police, firetruck, and racecar themed!

 

 

We also took Connor to Knoebels for the first time. It was a beautiful afternoon and because it was a weekday, it was far less crowded than on the weekends. Connor was still too little for most of the rides but he was able to go on a few.

 

 



 

Tuckered out after a an exciting day!

 

Knoebels is such a neat park. It is only about 45 minutes away from us. No admission fee, very family friendly and clean, the rides are super cheap, and the food is consistently winning awards for the best amusement park food. I can't wait to go back next summer when Connor is a little older and can ride a few more rides.

 

We didn't get to do too much swimming this summer. Connor enjoyed swimming at Nana & Pop-pop's over the 4th of July but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I did manage to snap a picture of my dad sneaking him some ice cream!

 



 

Overall we had a great summer. Connor grew so much and I really loved seeing how his little personality is developing. Towards the end of the summer though Connor, like his parents, started to get antsy for football season!