Growing up

Connor is growing up so quickly. He's already past 10 months old, one week away from 11 months. I realized a few days ago I forgot to take a 10 month side by side comparison shot of the boys. The only way to get Connor to lay still was to let him eat my phone and Dallin decided he wanted to look dead, so this is the best you get. (See 8 month comparison here, 6 month here.)

Connor has 6 teeth now which he uses very effectively to eat all kinds of foods, even meat! He's becoming a better eater than Dallin. Example: Last week we had Pad Thai for dinner. Dallin wouldn't eat any so he had a peanut butter sandwich instead. What is wrong with this picture?

 Dallin wanted to sit in the baby high chair and barely finished half a sandwich, while Connor happily sat at the table in the booster seat and ate a good portion of noodles.

Full disclosure: about half those noodles fell on the floor.

Connor loves cherrios.

He eats them by the fistfuls.

 He is *almost* walking. He will stand all by himself, and a few times he has taken one step before falling down.

 We're not calling anything official on "first steps." Mostly because Mckay hasn't been home to see it and I don't have video yet. But I'm anticipating multiple steps in the next week or so.

 Connor loves being outside. What kid doesn't? We got a lot of rain last week and that brought cooler weather with it. During one rainy day, I had the back door open with the screen closed to let some cool, fresh air in. Connor opened the screen door (all by himself!?) and sat by the open door watching the rain.

For like 10 minutes. I'm sure he would have escaped if there wasn't the danger of getting wet.

Connor has discovered he can reach most things he wants by climbing.

We had a little evening bonfire at a friends house. All the older kids were sitting and eating at this picnic table. Connor managed to climb up on the table by himself to finish off their leftovers.

Dallin is growing up a lot too. He is becoming very opinionated. He will often veto my outfit choices for him. His favorite pajamas are the warm fleece ones with footies, which are great for the winter, but not the best when he chooses to wear them in the hot summer months. This morning, while getting ready for preschool, he asked me to put the hood up on his jacket.

 He also like to help me with things. Most of the time it's great. During Mckay's birthday weekend, we surprised him on Saturday morning by picking up some fresh Mary Lou Donuts. Dallin (who is developing quite the sweet tooth) demanded that he carry the box out of the store. 

He held it on his lap the whole way home. I counted the donuts when we got home to make sure he didn't sneak one on the drive.

The Dog and the Monster

We came up with these affectionate nicknames for our boys when we went camping a few months ago. It was inspired by them wearing these pajamas:

Dallin, the monster and Connor, the dog

We didn't realize at the time how appropriate those nicknames are to the stage of life they are currently in.

Connor is very much like a dog. Right now he just wants to crawl around and get into everything. He is learning and exploring with his mouth. He tries to play in the garbage and toilet. I always catch him eating shoes or paper.

He will eat pretty much anything you give him. Even if it's a new food, he just opens his mouth and eats it. He likes to crawl around in the kitchen and pick up the scraps of food that Dallin has dropped for him.

He recently discovered he loves french fries.

He bites with his 3 teeth. 

(The best picture I have of the bottom 2 teeth.)

Especially with it being summer and everyone wears shorts with bare legs exposed, he loves to crawl around and bite legs. He drools a lot. When you pick him up he squirms like crazy, he does not want to sit still. One time in the bath he was hitting the water gently with his hand, very much the same way a dog paws at a bowl of water. Do you see the resemblance?

As far as non-dog-related development goes, Connor amazes me. At 9 months, Connor now weighs 19.5 lbs and has been coasting along at the 50th percentile for months now. He crawls with amazing speed and pulls himself up to stand on everything. He is now discovering he can stand up and hold onto a support with just one hand, while the other is free to fly about as he bounces up and down on his knees. He gets a big smile on his face when he does that.

He mimics what we do. He saw Dallin playing with sidewalk chalk, so he picked up a piece and made little strokes on the ground, completely by himself!

He watches what we do with our hands and mimics it. He will copy facial expressions. Yesterday at church he sat there in Sunday school with me, and he lifted one arm up for a good 10 seconds, as if he had a question and waiting for the teacher to call on him. It made me laugh.

I know it's late, but here is an 8 month growth comparison of the boys. First try:

I learned to take the picture faster with this one:

 

 Dallin is a monster. He has quite the temper and will yell if he does not get his way. When he is mad, he will run to his room and slam the door closed. Once it closes, he screams even louder because he realizes he can't open doors and just locked himself in there. I usually give him some time to calm down before opening the door for him.

He has very strong emotions. Most of the time he is happy, but he can also get very sad. He says "Go away." when he is sad and Connor is trying to climb on him.

Along with his strong emotions comes a great empathy and understanding of other's emotion. Often, when Connor is crying, Dallin will bring him a toy, or his water cup or a burp cloth; all things that bring Dallin comfort and he hopes will help Connor calm down as well. When I hit my head or foot on something and yell out in pain, Dallin comes running over. I explain that I got "hurt." Then later, if I yell in frustration (rather than pain) at something like the dumb computer, he comes to me and says, "Hurt?"

Dallin's language is improving. He will put together mostly complete sentences, like "I want cracker too" or "I want bath too." (He thinks everything needs "too" at the end. I think it started when we would offer things to Connor and then ask him, "Do you want a cracker too?") He says "No Connor" a lot when Connor is getting into things he shouldn't. He still asks for pancakes 2 or 3 times daily and often refers to all food as pancakes. Example: one day at dinner, I was spoon feeding Connor some puree and he kept turning his head away. So Dallin said to him, "No Connor, eat your pancakes." I LOVED that moment.

Dallin likes to organize and sort things. I stocked up on some baby food and Dallin helped me unload the grocery bags.

 He put the jars in a circle, grouping all the applesauce together on one side of the circle, with all the sweet potatoes together on the other side. He is amazing.

Dallin may be a monster, but he's a very sweet amazing monster.

6 months

Connor is 6 months old now. He likes:

• grabbing his feet.
• the song "If you're happy and you know it..." -- He could be screaming his head off and will stop as soon as he hears someone singing that song.
• playing with Dallin's toys instead of his own.

• scooting his little bum down in his bathtub so he can drink the bath water.

 

(picture censoring brought to you by the letter N)

• posing for pictures with Dallin. (Actually, Dallin couldn't stand that a photo shoot was going on without him in it)

Connor's accomplishments:

He's able to sit up on his own for 20-30 seconds at a time.

After trying for months to get him to roll over, he's finally done it! I think all 4 occasions were an accident and he doesn't quite know how to do it again, but at least I know he's capable of it!

His preferred method of moving is scooting/rotating his body around in a circle.

I have to remember now to clear a 2 foot circle around him before setting him down. When I don't, he eats paper.

On a related note: he has started solid foods (real ones besides paper).

 So far, he's not sure about butternut squash or sweet potatoes.

 We'll try bananas next.

He's a really good sleeper. I just lay him down in his crib awake and he falls asleep on his own... without any sleep training! And he hasn't taken a pacifier for months now so this is all on his own! This has been very different from our experience with Dallin so this is new for us. He wakes up once or twice a night to eat, but is sleeping for longer stretches of time consistently.

 He's growing a lot. Here's how Connor compares next to Dallin right now:

 (see previous 4 month comparison)

Wow, I guess Dallin has been growing a lot too.

Connor is such a sweet, happy, easy going baby. Bring on the next 6 months!

Growing Up

I feel like Dallin has grown up so much in recent months. Maybe it's because I'm getting ready to have a newborn baby in the house again, and I'm realizing just how much Dallin has grown up since the days when he was a tiny newborn. Or maybe he subconsciously knows that he has to be grown up and help take care of his new brother. Either way, I'm loving this new stage.

We changed his crib to a toddler bed when we moved over a month ago. For the most part, he does really well and stays in bed. But sometimes (usually for naps) he decides he's not tired enough and would rather get up and play. The thing is that there is not much to play with. The toddler bed/crib that Dallin sleeps in is in the "baby room," the room the baby (and thus, the crib) will be in when he's born. "Dallin's room" has all his toys in it and the twin size bed that Dallin will eventually sleep in. (Confusing enough for you?) The point is that there are no toys in the room Dallin sleeps in, just a dresser full of clothes. So when he gets up to "play," there's not really anything to play with. I can usually hear him up and about, pulling clothes out of the dresser for about an hour until he falls asleep on the floor.

I love the way he's sleeping, with both his arms behind him.

Oddly enough, he seems to sleep just as well on the floor.

Dallin has finally reached 22 lbs and is big enough for a forward facing car seat. I thought this day would never come!

He loves it! And I love that it's easier to get him in to.

He likes to "help" me do things, even if it's not always actually helpful to me. Like when I sweep and he follows me around with the dust pan, trying to scoop up the crumbs himself, but really just messing up my pile. Although, it is pretty cute to watch him pick up crumbs, one by one, and place them in the dust pan.

Yesterday he helped me bring the groceries in from the car. I gave him the lightest bag, but it was still a little heavy for him. He had to drag it.

I guess it's a long walk from the car to the front door because he got distracted for a bit. He thought poking a stick in the mulch would be much more fun than boring groceries.

I just love how much he's growing up.

Scary

Dallin spends a good part of his day hanging out by his high chair, pointing and whining for me to put him in it and feed him. (Lest you think a miracle has happened and he's become some crazy eating machine, I must say he's still very picky about what he eats once he gets in the high chair.)

Apparently, I wasn't fast enough in responding to his plea this morning, so he climbed into the high chair by himself!

Why do they even put a foot rest on a high chair?! Don't they know that every child is going to use that as a step to climb to dangerous heights?!

(Also, please ignore the pasta thrown on the floor from last night's dinner.)

As soon as he got himself settled in his seat, he folded his arms.

He knows that we have to pray before we can eat.

Part of me is so proud of him that he figured out how to climb in by himself; that he was able to maneuver his arms and legs and use his muscles to get himself in the seat. That he's trying to be independent and do things on his own rather that always relying on my help. That he is communicating his needs with me by motioning towards the seat. That he's learning and making connections and knows that being in his chair (and saying a prayer) will get him food.

But the other part of me is scared, because my life just got more difficult.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality. These were taken on my phone. We left our camera charger in Colorado and our camera battery has now died. So you get to see mediocre pictures for the next little while.)

Just like everyone else

Now that Dallin is learning to do more and more things, he's taken to imitating things we do. He wants to do the same things everyone else does. He tries to do more things on his own.

We have a decorative picture that will be hung in the great room. I was holding paint sample cards up to the picture to match the colors.

Now anytime Dallin gets a hold of a paint sample card, he'll hold it up to that picture.

That's what you're supposed to do with these cards, right?

He likes getting his shoes put on, because he thinks it means he'll get to go outside after they're on.

After getting him dressed this morning, Dallin sat down and tried to put his shoes on by himself.

I let him try for a while before I helped him.

He's been trying more new foods and he ate half of a peanut butter sandwich with lunch today!

Well, almost a entire half sandwich. He was a little too tired to finish the rest.

Independence Day

We are celebrating Independence Day by admiring Dallin's new found independence: Walking!

He's been able to take a few steps here and there for a month, but it was inconsistent and he preferred crawling. Now in the past few days, he's decided he wants to walk. And he can walk a lot better and further than these videos show, but he never wants to perform when he's supposed to.

He's gotten pretty good at standing back up by himself when he falls. This happens a lot, as this video shows.

Sneaky

Dallin is really a smart, sneaky little boy. He knows when he's getting into something he shouldn't. He tries to be really quiet when he does, because he knows that as soon as I find him playing with the forbidden item, it's gone.

He's discovering how to manipulate his surroundings to get what he wants. The other day, I caught him like this:

He moved the stool over the the window (it wasn't there before) and climbed up on it so he could look out the window. When I came in, he was just bouncing and staring out the window, laughing and talking. Of course, when he discovered me trying to take his picture, he started to climb down from the stool, hence his position in the picture.

He's also starting to take some independent steps all on his own. He's going to be running around before I know it. I'm in trouble...

Big Changes

There are some big changes coming up for our family.

One change already happening is that Dallin has started to actually eat solid foods. It's amazing to give him a piece of food and watch him chew and swallow it. He's not eating everything yet; he sticks to soft foods (like mashed potatoes and refried beans) or foods that dissolve (like graham crackers, cookies or cheese puffs). I love being able to sit him down and have him actually consume a bowl of food. It's amazing! My problem now is that I don't know what to feed him. This is new territory! I only know how to feed babies milk. What do you feed them when they start eating?!

He really likes to eat mashed potatoes:

And he makes a big mess when he does it.

Notice the ankle braces Dallin is now sporting.

Here's a close-up:

It's called a Supra-Malleolar Orthosis (or SMO).

It keeps his ankles and legs in a proper, straight alignment to keep his feet in a position more conducive to walking.

Sine he started wearing them almost a month ago, his balance has improved tremendously, and he can stand up all by himself without holding onto anything for 10-20 seconds at a time.

He has even taken a step or to by himself from this position. He's not walking yet, but he is making great progress and his physical therapy is really helping to strengthen his muscles. I imagine he'll be walking on his own sometime this summer.

Another big change is that we're in the process of buying a house. Nothing is signed yet and no decisions have been officially made, but we've been looking at neighborhoods and houses and we have a pretty good idea of what we'd like to get. We're getting very excited about the thought of living in a much bigger, much nicer house in a few more months.

The biggest change is not very big at all right now; it's only about the size of a lime.

But in the coming months, Baby Easton #2 will get much bigger, along with my belly.

I'm 11 weeks along in this picture. I know I don't look very big, but trust me, this baby is growing and I feel bigger!

Our little baby should be joining the family around October 27, 2011.

We are very excited for all the growth and change that we'll be experiencing in the next few months.

Dallin's First Haircut

After almost 2 years, we decided it was finally time for Dallin to get his first haircut.

I've been hesitant to cut it because his hair is so thin and I didn't want him to look bald, but it was really getting long around his ears.

Mckay did the actual cutting. I worried that Dallin would be afraid of the clippers since he's afraid of other similar sounds like the vacuum, mixer and hair dryer. He was just fine though. We let him hold the clippers for a bit and we turned it on to let him get used to the sound before starting the trim.

He sat still on Mckay's lap the whole time and didn't cry or get scared at all. The biggest problem was that he kept trying to turn his head to look at what Mckay was doing.

Dallin put up with it all very well and his hair looks really good.

Mckay did a great job cutting and we think it makes Dallin look more grown up.

Dallin is still in awe over the whole experience.

Overalls

While going through some of Dallin's clothes, I found a pair of blue denim overalls in a 12 month size. 12M is not quite his size yet, but he is getting much taller so I thought I'd try them on him. I think overalls look so cute on babies, but I wasn't sure if he would be too old to still look as cute in overalls.

He is definitely not too old for overalls! I think he looks so stinking cute in them!

And I am so proud of him that he fits into 12M size pants! There's still room to grow, but he is by no means drowning in them.

This boy has been very much into books recently.

He's constantly crawling to me with a book in hand and signing what he thinks is the sign for "book," but is actually the sign for "more." We're still working on clearing this up.

He has been mobile for 5 months but he's only just now realized that he can reach the books on the bookshelf and pull them off.

He's very good at only touching "his" books. He doesn't even care about the other ones.

He's loving pop-up books lately. He's usually very gentle with them and doesn't try to rip the pictures.

Usually.

He's even figuring out how to work the little pull tabs in the books.

My little overall boy is growing up so fast.