Conner's Well Child Check

Conner loves to dig in the dirt

I took Conner in for his 3 year check up last week and he is doing great. Here are his stats:
Height: 38 1/4 inches - 44th percentile
Weight: 31.2 lbs - 68th percentile

I talked with the doctor about Conner's speech. He is doing a lot better but I still struggle to understand about 1/2 of what he says. I might take him in the fall to get his hearing tested again but we will see how he is doing.

Conner likes to climb into Micah's standing toy and yell "Yook at me!" while grinning ear to ear.

Here are some facts about our newest 3 year old:
- he has a VERY strong will.
- I started potty training him at the beginning of February and we are still working on it. He figured out the peeing part relatively fast but he refuses to have his bowel movements in the toilet. I have tried a few different methods and nothing works. I talked with the doc about it and she suggested taking a break for a little while and then trying again. I got so frustrated with him so we are taking a break and we will try again in a couple of weeks.
- he loves to do what "Iyan" (Alan) does
- he likes to give hugs and kisses and snuggle. When Reed comes home from work Conner will sprint to the door and yell "Daddy, hug!" Reed will pick him up and Conner wraps his little arms around his neck and gives him a squeeze. Also, he seems to enjoy snuggling - he will climb on my lap to watch tv, or he will snuggle with me right after he wakes up, and he often wants to be held when he is sad, even if I am the one who is making him sad.
- he usually wakes up between 6 and 6:30. He lays down for a nap really well. Sometimes he even finds his dogs (stuffed animals that he sleeps with) and brings them to me and starts pulling me up to his room so that I will put him to bed. It is harder to put him to bed at night but he still does pretty good.
- favorite phrases right now:
"I yuff (love) ______" (He says this when he wants something, so he will pull me over to a cupboard and say "I yuff pay-do" and that means he wants me to get the play-doh down.)
"nakes (thanks)" has been saying this a lot lately and I never get tired of hearing it!
- he eats breakfast okay, but he doesn't eat lunch or dinner very well.

He loves eating bread dough

Happy Birthday Conner!

We celebrated Conner's birthday up in Canada at Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher's house. Conner loves to visit either of his grandparents so he asked me if we were going there several times a day until we left. On Saturday morning we went to Toys R Us to get his birthday presents. I don't know why but Reed and I had a really hard time deciding on something for his birthday. He likes everything but doesn't really love anything. At this age Alan was slightly obsessed with trucks so we knew what to get him but Conner just likes everything. We finally decided on a a bunch of little presents instead of one big present. Anyway, we had tacos for his birthday dinner and then we went swimming. Conner LOVES to swim and we have been trying to go for the last month but something always happens and we don't do it. We almost didn't go this time because it was getting late but I am glad we decided to go because all of the kids had a blast.

Conner going down the big slide by himself. He did that once or twice and then he wanted to go down with me.

Here we are, ready to go!

Ready, Set.....Go!

Splash! We did this again and again and again....

My dad helped Conner shoot a few baskets

Micah enjoyed the water

Alan really liked finding different floaty toys/mats and climbing on them.

Conner liked climbing around on this airplane

Then we went home for cake and ice cream and presents. I showed Conner a picture of a dinosaur cake and he was excited so that is what I made.

Conner conducting us as we sing Happy Birthday to him (he likes to conduct music)

Make a wish! He was able to blow out one candle but he had a hard time with the other two. He was trying so hard that he got too close and singed his eyelashes. After that he figured out that if he kept his mouth shut he could blow air out his nose and direct it better than he could if he blew out his mouth. He did that to put out the last 2 candles (we got a good laugh, and that section of the cake was eaten last!)

Yum! Conner especially liked the chocolate pieces we used to decorate the cake with.

Then it was time to open presents. Conner was pretty excited about this shovel.

Alan was very eager to see what Conner got.

We gave Conner a Zhu-zhu pet. He saw Kelcie get one at Christmas and was really excited about it so we got him his own.

Squirt guns!

Then my parents told Conner to go look outside for his present:

When we went to Toys R Us he saw this bike as soon as he walked in the door. He climbed on and he stayed on the bike for most of the time in the store. He is still getting the hang of pedaling but I think with practice he will be chasing after Alan in no time.

I was very impressed that before he climbed on he wanted to know where his helmet was. We didn't have one for him so he wore one of my brother's helmets (which is why it is so big).

Practicing with Grandpa

I think Conner had a great day. Happy Birthday Conner boy!

Happy Anniversary!

I am SO far behind in my blogs, and I even typed this blog out but it got deleted so I am doing it over, although a little shorter. Reed and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last week. They have been 8 wonderful years! On our actual anniversary Reed had to work late so we decided to celebrate on the weekend while we were up in Canada. That night I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. We had a birthday party for our family with the boys. They were really excited to blow out a candle and have cake. Then we looked though our wedding photo album.

The boys with their cupcakes, waiting to blow out the candles

We headed up to Canada on Thursday night. Too bad Micah doesn't travel as well anymore - he cried for the last hour of the trip. We decided to celebrate our anniversary on Friday, Conner's birthday on Saturday, and Mother's Day on Sunday. It was a whole lot of partying! So on Friday my dad took the day off of work and stayed home to watch the boys while we went to the temple. It was nice to go and think back eight years ago to that same spot. Then we went home for a little while and then we went out to dinner. We went to Luigi's Steakhouse and it was very tasty. It was really nice to spend time together. Thanks again Mom and Dad for watching the boys and putting them to bed while we out enjoying ourselves.

Easter

When we woke up on Friday morning we had two unpleasant surprises: both of Alan's eyes were reddish pink and there was about 6 inches of wet snow on the ground. Here is a picture I took on our front porch:
It was kind of pretty but it made driving around a pain. But we had to drive to the doctors so away we went. The doc confirmed that he had pink eye and an ear infection and prescribed some antibiotics. After we picked up the medicine we headed home to spent a quiet day at the house. By that night Conner's eyes were starting to get goopy so we started him on antibiotics too. I feel like we have been sick with just about everything this winter. The next morning we dyed eggs.

The boys both had a lot of fun trying out the different colors. They also really liked coloring on the eggs with crayon first.

Me and the boys with the finished product

After nap time we headed outside to find the hidden eggs. About half the snow had melted and I really wanted to do it outside so that is where we went.

Alan was very fast and efficient. He figured out early that some of the eggs were the ones we had dyed and some of them were plastic ones with candy in them and he started just looking for the plastic ones.

Conner really got into the egg hunt this year and he got so excited when he found one.

I see one!

To explain the picture below: there was an egg sitting on the fence beside me and I told Conner to come look around me for an egg. He looked and looked but he couldn't find it. Finally he spotted it and this is his face when he saw it.

Opening up the eggs and eating the candy

Alan was so excited for the candy

Conner was pretty excited too

Then we found our baskets. Here is Reed pulling out the movie Tangled from his bag:

Micah enjoys playing with the plastic eggs

The boys helped Micah find his basket and Micah enjoyed chewing on anything he could get his hands on. He seemed especially intrigued with the green plastic grass. He would would wave fistfuls of it around and bring it to his mouth to feel and then wave it around again.

It was so fun to see Alan and Conner's excitement about everything this year. Happy Easter!

Family Visits

I am behind on my blogs so all this happened toward the beginning of April. My parents and Drew came to visit us the first weekend of April. We had fun watching conference, shopping, playing games and just hanging out.

Here is a picture of our 3 boys

Here is Drew holding Micah

The next weekend we went to visit Reed's parents. While we were there we also got to see Jacque and her boys and Austin and Mindy. It was so nice to visit with everyone.

Austin and Mindy showed the boys how to play horseshoes:

Go Alan Go!

The first night we stayed at Jacque's house. Alan was really excited to have a sleep over with James. Conner was excited to stay down with the big boys until about 2 in the morning when he came up and climbed in bed with us.

We had fun playing games, spending time outside, cooking in dutch ovens and just visiting.

Grandpa taking Baer and Conner on a tractor ride out at his house. I think all three of them loved it!

James, Conner and Alan playing outside

Conner wishing he was driving the tractor

Baer playing by the door

The roads were horrible going down but great on the way back. We are glad we went!

The amazing shrinking baby

This is a picture of Micah just before he turned 6 months

Last week I took Micah in for his 6 month well child check (he was almost 7 months). A nurse took all his measurements and then left. A couple minutes later she came back with another nurse who told me they were training new nurses and that she wanted to double check his measurements because they seemed wrong. After a couple of small alterations they left again. When the doctor came in she said that she was concerned because Micah hadn't gained any weight, in fact he had lost a couple of ounces. I said that he was somewhat active since he just started rolling over and he has been jumping in his jumper a lot, but he still shouldn't have been losing weight. So the doctor told me to feed him solid food 3 times a day (I was only doing that 1 or 2 time a day) and to come back in a couple of months so they could check him again. So here are his stats:
height: 28 inches (81%)
weight: 16 lbs 7 oz (17%)
head: 43.1 cm (19%)

So he dropped from the 73% in weight to the 17th percentile - not good news. We are working on fattening him up now!
In other news he started rolling from his back to his front at the beginning of April. He also got his 2 bottom teeth when he was about 5 1/2 months old. And Micah is finally sleeping through the night (most of the time). He goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 pm and sleeps until 6 or 6:30 am. He still sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night but Reed just goes in and tells him it is still night-night time and he goes right back to sleep (if I try to go in and do the same thing he throws a fit).

These pictures were taken last week. He doesn't look skinny to me but I guess looks can be deceiving

To get stitches or not to get stitches

That was the question we were asking ourselves on Friday night. Lets back up and I'll explain. We had decided to have a family party that night. Reed's work paid for him to have a $20 dinner so we decided to order pizza for the family. Then we decided to go swimming, since we haven't done that for a while. After dinner I went upstairs to pack up our swimming suits and towels. Alan and Conner followed me up and Alan hid in Micah's room behind the door. Conner peeked through the crack in the door and squealed when he saw Alan. Then he sprinted into the room but Alan started to push the door closed really hard. The door knob hit Conner right in the forehead and knocked him flat. It started to bleed right away so I took him into the bathroom and pressed a wash cloth to the cut. Conner was so concerned that there were a few drops of blood on the floor. Then he got mad that I was holding the washcloth on and he kept yelling "Let go of me!" Finally we got the bleeding stopped and looked at the cut. It was about a half of an inch long and not really, really deep so I decided he didn't need stitches. So we started watching a movie since swimming was out of the picture. Then Reed and I started wondering if it was going to leave a big scar right in the middle of his forehead. So we called a friend in the ward who is a doctor and has a reputation for being really good at stitching up wounds and asked what he thought. Reed took Conner over to his house so that he could look at him and he said it could go either way so he put some glue around the cut and put a bandage over it and pulled the cut closed. Now we just have to keep it dry for a week.

Here is Conner the next day at breakfast

I am thinking that with 3 active, rough and tumble boys that this might not be the last time we have to ask ourselves "should we take him to get stitches or not?"