Want More

Conor has this funny habit of saying 'want more' after we've seen something cool outside the car as we're driving along. Driving through the country to take his brother and sister home, we see horses which he loves. "Want more" he says after we've passed them. "Want more horses," as though I can conjure some up on demand. One day we hit the jackpot and were stopped at railroad crossing to let a choo choo go by. He definitely wanted more of that. I usually suggest to keep an eye out and we might see more. Horses, yeah we'll probably see more, but choo choos are a rarity.

Little boy on fast forward

Since Conor turned 2 I've been amazed at how quickly he is becoming a competent communicator. He constantly practices words, repeating everything we say just to get the sound right in his mouth. Some of his favorite songs that he hears over and over again are songs that he attempts to sing by filling in the final words of each line. He can sing most of "Twinkle twinkle little star" and he can sing his A B C's by slurring through the letters he isn't too sure of. He always finishes strong on Z and goes back to the drunken sailor slur with, "next time won't you sing with me." It always makes me laugh to hear him sing this and I'm pretty impressed with him and daycare who deserve the credit for everything he knows. Recent words and phrases: popsicle (he says opsicle but that's pretty close), crash, snack, black (he says clack), crayon, "here you go mama", "Conor's turn", "mama's turn".

Church is going well. We've brought him over for the final 25 minutes (communion and final hymn) about 3 times. Last week I ran over to the nursery to get him but he was completely passed out on one of the nursery helpers. She was stuck that way for an hour 'til church was over because she didn't want to disturb his sleeping. The times he has made it to church, he has fun checking out the stained glass windows. There are about 4 that line either side of the chapel, one large window at the back, and then another very large window up at the front. He likes to flirt with whoever is sitting in the pew behind us, and then once communion begins he watches the people walking up to the front of the church. The church provides little activity packets to keep kids busy (crayons, paper, goldfish), but so far I haven't needed to pick one of these up. I bring a sippy cup of juice and some blueberries and that's enough to get us through the last of the service.

Potty training is not really happening at this time. For a few days he was really excited because we converted his potty chair to sit on top of the big toilet with a step to get up to it. He was pretty excited to use it but even more so, he was excited to jump down from the toilet and get toilet paper to drop in the toilet and flush away. Then he wanted to repeat the whole performance. We almost clogged the toilet one day because he got a bit carried away. I could force the issue and plop him on the potty every hour or after every meal, but he's at such a stubborn place right now that he'd probably rebel at being forced. He'll be ready soon. Between seeing us at home use the potty, seeing his little buddies at daycare switch to undies and no diapers, plus just the loss of control when he has to lie patiently while we change him, I'm sure he'll say bye bye to diapers in the next few months.

Church visits

We have been utilizing the free nursery St. Lukes provides each Sunday that we go to church. When Conor was a newborn up to about 5 months I could take him into church and he'd either sleep or be pretty easy to keep calm just bouncing him on the knee. Then he hit the stage where sitting still just wasn't an option, and being quiet even less so.

Now that he's two, I've been thinking it's time to get him into church for short periods of time so that he can start to understand a little bit about what we do in church and that it is a time to sit still. I've been more nervous about doing this then I have been about potty training. What if he acts out and makes noise? Everyone we know will be annoyed by him and who knows what they'll think of us. That's been my thinking even though I know that everyone expects kids to make a certain amount of noise. Even I don't mind when other people's kids make noise and act out a little. I just don't think it should be my kid, ha ha. In the last month we've brought him into church a couple times, just before communion for the remainder of the service. He's been really good, a bit grabby of the hymnal and BoCP which is to be expected with no other toys to play with. When it's time to sing his ears perk up and he's focused on the choir up front probably because their voices are so powerful. It's live music for him, and that's a cool thing even if it isn't the fun pop music that he's used to from the radio. He nearly started clapping after a couple songs today but stopped when he saw that no one else was clapping. He did get a few chuckles from some people when he said "amen" a few seconds after everyone else after the Lord's Prayer.

So, I plan to keep bringing him over from the nursery just before communion. That's about 15-20 minutes of adult church time, and just one more sign for me that my little guy is growing up into a little boy!

Conor turns 2!

Conor turned 2 and it seems like every day he is showing us that he really is on the verge of learning new things and how to do different things on his own. We ask him to turn off the tv and he grabs the remote and knows which button to push. He can use a mouse with a little success. He definitely knows how to turn on the computer, to get it ready for us to take him to Youtube so he can watch helicopters and airplanes. He attempts to put his shoes on himself and almost has his coat figured out too.

He picks up his books and sits with them telling himself what the story is about. He even pointed out a major plot detail in Goodnight Gorilla that I had completely missed (my little genius!). If the cd player was at his level, I'm sure he would be regularly choosing cds to put in and play. I already know we're going to have arguments about volume in the future. In the car on the way to daycare he calls out the names of songs he wants me to play from his Sesame Street cd. "Cookie" he calls from the back seat, which is my cue to forward to C is for Cookie by Cookie Monster. "Ernie" he says which means he wants to hear the rubber ducky song. And just this morning he said something about trash. I asked him if he wanted the Oscar song and he said, "yeah." The Oscar song is I love Trash. Of course nothing takes precedent over Elmo, and we must listen to Elmo's song twice as many times as all the other songs combined. Sometimes I tell him Elmo needs to take a potty break, and then I sneak in one of my songs.

We love our little two year old! I hope I can find the time to type up some of the other fun things he has been sharing with us.

2011 - Must be time for the terrible two's

Conor turns 2 mid-month, but that hasn't stopped us from complaining about the "terrible 2's" for a couple months now. I think I witnessed his first real tantrum around 18 months. He may not have been an early walker, but tantrums he picked up on easy as you please. So far we have been lucky in that the tantrums have occurred mostly at home. They're easier to laugh off at home, so I'm thinking we'll try to go from home to daycare back home again as much as possible and stay in most of the year. It will make it a quiet social year, but look at all the money we'll save.

Seriously, Conor isn't too bad even in the middle of a good crying session. If the tantrum is about something we're not willing to give in on, it doesn't take long to divert his attention to something else. A good (fake) belly chop from my husband usually has him giggling pretty quick.

The other day he refused to let me help him put his coat on. He couldn't do it himself, and finally said, "need help." Usually tantrums with me are over changing his diaper or getting dressed. Some parents say to just hand the kid an interesting toy to distract him. Ha ha ha, that worked up until a few months ago. I have to do a lot of Oscar winning acting to make a toy seem fascinating enough for him to hold while I put a new diaper on. My cell phone usually quiets him in 2 seconds but then I have to figure out how to turn off the auto-correct feature he managed to turn on.

So far there hasn't been anything too terrible that we've experienced, and I think the more language Conor acquires he'll be able to tell us what is wrong or what he wants. Hopefully he'll be open to the idea of negotiation and power sharing too. I promise I won't throw a tantrum if it doesn't happen.

These are a few of his favorite things

Conor is like most kids, knows what he likes and what he doesn't like. And sometimes what he doesn't like is what he liked 5 minutes ago. Ahhh, the ever-changing mind of a "pre-toddler" (you've heard of "pre-teen"? well we have that and a pre-toddler in the house...watch out!).

It's a powerful thing to know what the pre-toddler *loves* because if this knowledge is used correctly, it is possible to control their actions, at least for a short period of time. So, what does Conor really love? Besides his blankie right before nightie night or in the middle of a good cry? Or besides the bedtime bottle of milk? The only thing that comes to mind is.....popsicles! I pulled one out of the freezer for him the other day and I could swear his world stopped momentarily as his eyes locked on the plastic wrapped treat and he transitioned into the foot stomping happy dance that he sometimes does. He never once took his eyes off the popsicle as he ran towards me to claim it. I hardly had time to take the wrapper off before he reached me grabbing for it. He doesn't get to have these too often. I brought one out for him that day because he'd been such a good boy and I wanted to give him a special treat.

But now, knowing how much he loves his popsicles, would it be so wrong to use it as the occasional bribe to encourage good behavior? I haven't had to worry about bribing yet but I'll keep it in mind for when that day finally comes.

More new words!

A few more words for Conor in the last two weeks: hello and yellow, purple, cold and plane. Oh, and bottle. Bubble is still a stand in for blueberry, but he is really making attempts to say words by pointing at things and waiting for us to say what they are. He's done this a lot with books we look at. He attempts to say Elmo by saying Momo. And "thank you" sounds a bit like "A chew". He has surprised us with some other new words but I can't think of what they are just right now. He still impresses me with how he tries to mimic my phrases by just copying the intonation. He doesn't usually get any of the words at all but he captures the phrasing really well.