Hello, hello!!

  I'm back!! At least for today.... I can't believe I have not blogged since the week before Thanksgiving.  But honestly, it has been a nice break.  The holidays were so busy, Connor was (and still is) keeping me busy and I just lost my motivation to do it.   I have considered shutting down my blog completely, or making it private but every once in awhile (like today) I get the urge to do it again.  So, here I am.    SOOOOO much has happened in the past 2 1/2 months! I know I am going to leave out a lot but I am going to attempt to tell you about the most important parts.  And I apologize now for the randomness and babbling that you are about to read :)   -  The last time I posted was when Connor was turning 7 months.  Now he is a week away from being 9 mo.  9 MONTHS people.  This is crazy....and exciting....and sad.    - Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.  Connor got to meet his great grandma (my Granny) for the first time and his great grandpa (my husband's PeePa).  We spent time with my family for a few days then went to Oklahoma City to see some of Chris's family.  We drove to OKC....so it was Connor's longest trip in the car (8ish hours) and he did great!    - Mama and Daddy had their first overnight trip away from Connor, at the end of November.  My parents watched Connor for us and we headed into Houston for a friend's wedding, then a night of celebrating my husband's 32nd birthday.  We had a hotel and had dinner at Seasons 52 (one of my favorite restaurants ever).  The next morning we had brunch at our old favorite spot, Backstreet Café.  I missed my little man so much but it was fun having 24 hours to ourselves.    - December was filled with play dates, holiday parties and get togethers and lots of sickness.  Connor and I were both sick off and on all month long.  We flew for the first time with Connor at the end of the month.....we went to NC for my step-dad's surprise 70th birthday party and to celebrate Christmas with family there.  Connor did so great on the plane coming and going! Christmas was a blast with him too....he got so many fun, new gifts!   - January was filled with more play dates and lots of other things to keep us  busy.  We started construction on our outdoor kitchen, I joined the MOPS group at my church, we celebrated our friend's Casey and Morgan's wedding and my husband spent a lot of time during the weeks traveling for work.    -  Now it is February 11th.  Holy cow.   This year is flying by!  We had our 5th annual Super Bowl party at our house and had 70 people here.  YIKES!!! We made it a kid-friendly party this year so there were about 25 kids and babies running wild in our house.  Pure craziness but so much fun!  Connor had his first trip to the ER a little over a week ago.  He woke up around 4 AM coughing and gagging and it scared me so my husband and I took him in.  He was gasping for air and his cough was just awful. :(  After some tests and chest xrays they determined that it was just croup and bronchitis.  So, we have to do a breathing treatment on him a few times a day now.    And more on Connor and what he has been up to.....   * He is crawling!  Everywhere.  He is all over the place and into everything these days.  He loves to play in the pantry and in the fridge.  If he sees me in the kitchen and the door to either of those are open, he is there in 2 seconds.  He also loves door stops, daddy's shoes, the basket of diapers and pretty much anything else that isn't a toy.  And he pulls up on everything, without any help.  Baby proofing is in the works!     * He said his first word a few weeks ago!! " Uh-Oh" is officially his first word and it is adorable when he says it.  Once he said "mama" but never has done it again.   We are working on it though ;)     * We are still 100% breastfeeding! A little over 3 months until we hit our goal and the weaning process starts.  But, I have to be honest, I have moments where I think I am done.  For no certain reason.  But then I always change my mind.  I don't think that I am emotionally ready to be done.  Whenever I think about quitting I get all sad and can't imagine that part of his life being over.  Plus, our other major problem is that he won't take a bottle.  He hasn't taken one in about 2 months, until this week.  I have managed to get him to take a couple....praise the Lord!!  So, now that I am making progress, I am going to make sure to keep giving him 1-2 bottles a day so that he stays familiar with them.      *  He is not really a fan of food.  Purees or table food.  90% of the time he wants nothing to do with purees....he cries, turns his head, swats at the spoon or grabs it and throws it on the floor.  So, I have pretty much given up on those.  A few weeks ago we started going more of the Baby Led Weaning route (BLW) and he does much better.  Not great, but much better than purees.  We will give him "sticks" of our food....carrots, squash,  peppers and other foods, and he will usually gnaw on them or suck on them.  He usually doesn't have much interest in Puffs or Mum-Mums.  For awhile he seemed to like them ok, but now he wants nothing to do with them.  Ughh..  I always joke that he isn't even a year old and already has eating issues like a grown woman does :)   * He is in size 4 diapers, and 9 or 12 months in clothes.  But he LOVES just playing in his diaper.  He is happiest when he is practically naked :)   * Sleep-  Still going to sleep between 7:30-8 and usually will sleep until 4-5, wake up to nurse then go back to sleep for an hour.  But the past week he has been waking up 3-5x a night and not napping very well.    * He has 4 teeth!  The 2 on the top are just poking out of his gums.....and they definitely were way worse when they came thru, than the bottom ones.  Whew....it was a rough few days around here! But things are starting to get back to normal for our little guy :)     And that is a really short version of what life has been like the past couple of months. I will leave you with some pictures :)