Never the "Biter" Be - Always Strive to Be the "Bitee"

Just got a call from Connor's school to let us know that some kid had bit him.  The skin was not broken, and he was unfazed, but there were clear teeth marks on his skin.

I called Mike just to let him know, and he was a little annoyed. I reminded him that on two past occasions, Connor was the "Biter", so this was probably just our time. Plus, the skin was not broken - so the cootie factor was lowered.

How sad is it that you have a sense of relief when your kid gets bitten by another kid - only because your kid was not the one biting?

(If I was that snobby - my kid is better than your kid Mom, I might note that Connor was out of his biting phase a long time ago. Bam ! Take that Harvard Admissions!)

Updates...

Ok, we have not had time to download any pictures from the camera, but I still wanted to give everyone updates on all of the Primos' adventures;

1. We went to the Circus on Saturday and had a BLAST. Props to Mariana for organizing everything. It was Connor's 1st time going, and he was in awe. He ate TONS of cotton candy (blue) and popcorn. I told him that he could choose a toy from the gift shop and before I got my sentence out, he had picked the light up sword with the giant spinning ball. Nick chose the same. 

Two boys + crowded facility + lots of blue cotton candy + giant plastic swords = A lot of apologizing to random strangers.

2. After the circus - we ate at Jaleo. De-Lish!! Dates wrapped in bacon sound gross, but man oh man, they are yummy. My friend Forrest would point out that really anything wrapped in bacon has to be good.

3. During the circus adventure - my Mom called to report that she had located a second hand race car bed. We had been on the hunt for one, so it was perfect timing. She and Hank brought it over on Sunday. We put it into instant use, and Connor has slept in it for 5 nights now, and seems to love it. The crib is headed over to Paul and Katie's new house. Yeah for big boy beds.

4. My Mom also showed up with a Radio Flyer tricycle. Super cool. Can't wait to go cruising with it.

5. Rachel, Ella, my Mom, and Hank all had dinner on Sunday night. Mike fired up the grill for the 1st time, and we had some burgers and sausages. Good times.

We are starting to plan out a family trip for the Spring - I'm so excited that Spring is here. The flowers are coming up and the trees are starting to bud. I think the Boy Scouts are delivering mulch this weekend, so that will make it official!

A Great Weekend Was Had By All

I have all kinds of great news to report, and will do so later when more time is had...and more pictures uploaded, but we had a great weekend.

I had this picture though - so I thought I would post it.

On Sunday, Connor and I went with our friends Rachel and her daughter Ella (pictured) to the Great Pet Expo, and had a lot of fun. Surprisingly, Connor was most interested in the moon bounce, more so than all of the animals. We did go into a booth and got our picture snapped with a big barn owl. At one point - he spun his head 360 degrees and stared at us. He poofed up a bit for the picture, so he looks almost as big as Connor.

Connor and Ella also posed for the picture on the right. No, Connor did not get eaten by the snake. He did pose, but at the point when the snake was deposited on Ella, and the snakes tail gently started tickling his arm, Connor's eyes got HUGE, he turned around, saw the snake, and ran out of the picture. He's on board with owls - but not with snakes apparently.

Connor Protecting The Point

We went to visit St. Mary's College (where most of the crew went for undergrad) two weekends ago. This is Connor, Tabs, and Tim coming back up the hill from Church Point. Church Point is right on the water, and is such a great place to go relax and sit on the beach.

Tabs and Tim look calm, although their dad tells me that they were not in the subsequent photos that were taken along with this one.

Connor looks ready to rumble and protect the point from one of more of the following; ninjas (sorry Carolyn), bears in the woods, masked villains, or perhaps even out of control college students.

He's only lacking a cape.

Going to the Circus!!

We are going to the Circus with Connor's friend Nicholas and his family on Saturday!!!

We are all really excited. Connor has never been and we can't wait to see how excited he is going to be. We always have a lot of fun with Mariana and Tim too, so it should be a great time.

Olivia is going to hang out with Nick's little sister Layla, the 1st time being away from Mom and Dad - but not at school. A day of firsts!

Connor Calls Grandpot

Last night Connor pretended to call Hank (Grandpot) on a toy car. He had like a minute long conversation telling him that we were at Lobster Super Donalds (Red Lobster), and that he was happy to talk to him. Very very funny.

(My motherly pride is erasing from this story the fact that he "borrowed" the car from another kid at school, and we need to return it to it's rightful owner tomorrow.)

Uncle Bruce begins chemo either tomorrow or on Monday. Sending prayers and good mojo to New Jersey for Bruce and Gwen and all of the medical staff.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is a picture of Olivia eating my work to-do list.

Olivia has this little devilish grin and laugh when she knows that she is doing something bad, and it really amps up when she knows that you are coming to stop her from eating/tearing/chewing/gnawing/sucking/licking whatever she's got going on.

She also has this little scamper as she tries to avoid you and continue doing whatever bad behavior it is that she is in to. 

It's very hard to get upset, because she looks so cute when she's up to no good.

Connor came home with a big shamrock on his cheek - and everyone wore green to school. This am, we were explaining to Connor that if he did not choose something green to wear, that he might get pinched. His eyes got like saucers. Not sure if he was worried about being pinched, or excited about the pinching prospects.

My cousin (2nd ??) Tim arrives tomorrow. He and his wife Analyn live in Minnesota, and are tired of being cold. He is looking to move his company to the area and will be staying with us for a few days. His mom, my Great Aunt Gina, is my Grandmother's Sister, Should be a lot of fun to reconnect. Also - cool to have more family in town. Safe flight and happy office hunting to Tim!

Olivia has a meltdown!

This is normal little kid behavior, but Olivia is a really chilled out little lady. Yes, she does have firm opinions on things, and DOES NOT like to have things taken away from her, but overall, fairly relaxed. She woke up in a royal snit this am. She was fine while nursing, but when we went downstairs for ME to have breakfast, she had a 15 minute meltdown. She was crying and at one point sat on the kitchen rug and was banging her head on the floor. About 15 minutes after it started - she got her stuff together and was just fine. 

I can't wait for her to talk. When she is upset now, there is no real way to determine what's up. Once you have checked for hunger, diaper issues, clothing issues, etc., it's a little bit of a crap shoot to figure out what's going on.

She looked happy like this when she went to school!

Connor Remembers !

Connor has changed so much over the past year, especially over the past 6 months. I had a lightbulb moment as I realized that one of the biggest things is that he remembers stuff. This sound so mundane, and frankly, obvious, but it's pretty neat.

Mike and I have spent the past three years doing tons of stuff to create special moments for him. Special memories.

They were really our memories. 

Sure, I know he remembers hugs and love and snuggley moments, but he probably won't remember lots of the little stuff that we did. I think that from now, he might, which feels cool. We were talking about birthdays, and he knew that his was on the 26th. And without missing a beat, he mentioned his Batman and "move it" (Madagascar) cakes that he got to this year. For school, he picked out his cake at Wegman's, and he picked Batman. The topper had a magnet, so Batman balanced on his toes, ready to leap off the building.

We went to Sara's birthday a few weeks later and he fell in love with her "move it" cake. I flipped through the cake book, trying to pick the perfect cake for his moon bounce party, and kept going back to the Madagascar cake, and finally picked that one. He calls that movie "move it" because there is a song in it that he loves where they sing "move it move it".

We'll keep doing the special things - and I can't wait for that time years from now when he says, "Mom, remember that time we made cupcakes with the little pumpkins for the school bake sale? That was fun!".

Connor Eaten Alive

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago in the midst of a sunny spell, and this is Connor being eaten by a dinosaur. This is by the big cat enclosure - aside from teeth, I'm unclear on the connection.

Connor, just like Mike, loves the prairie dogs. Can't wait for Spring, we love trips to the zoo.

Stock in Goldfish

Mike sent around a bunch of pictures that he downloaded this weekend. Almost all of them have my kids hauling around little baggies of goldfish. When I looked at them, it made me feel like all my kids do is eat all day. They certainly are snackers. Mmmm...I wonder where THAT genetic trait comes from?

In addition to my Diet Coke stock - we should probably acquire some in Goldfish!

(This is Connor at the B & O Railroad Museum, my Mom and I took the kids there a few weeks ago. It's a great place for romping and climbing. Go when it's warm though.)

Sarah has a blog!

My friend Sarah has started a blog about her little nugget. She joins my friend Carolyn who writes daily about little Patrick.

I got all excited to see her blog - she and Jon spent several years trying to add to their family and they have a wonderful new addition, Little Declan.

Carolyn would joke with me about my random capitalization, but for some reason Little Declan seems like the perfect use of caps. We got to spend Saturday with him at St. Mary's College. We all sat on the beach, and it was his first trip to his future alma mater. It felt complete that he was there.

Welcome to the blog nation!

Kids Love Parks

Yesterday was sunny and lovely. Please note that we had a horrible snowstorm 5 days ago. Very random, but nonetheless, Spring is my favorite time of year. I love working in the yard. I feel like I have abandoned the yard for three years due to small babies. I have committed to making this year different. I don't want to become known as "that house".

After a bunch of errands, we took the kids to the park and ran into Ava and her Dad and Lily and her parents Peter and Doreen. Lily lives next door and is a sweet little girl, I hope that she and Livie become fast friends.

Olivia has done slides before, but usually on the lap of a big person or with a mom at the top and dad at the bottom.. Yesterday, she proved that she has the same daredevil genes as Connor. She hustled on up all by herself and had no problems sliding down all byherself. She even went once head first.

Connor begins marketing for Fruit of the Loom

Connor is now three. While he had some firm opinions about things before - he has firmer opinions now that he is three.

Connor does not understand why his Fruit of the Loom underwear has the picture on the back. He can't see it back there. Being in marketing myself - I actually think this is a good question.

Every morning, we have the conversation about why Lightening McQueen is on the back instead of the front. He will also often go to school and drop his pants to show his teacher or friend the character that is on his behind. Sometimes the pants just get pulled down a little to discuss the character of the day, sometimes, he drops his pants all the way to the floor. While I'm not sure I like him dropping his pants, I can understand his frustration.

I see a future in product design or marketing.

Olivia gets snipped!

Olivia got her first haircut on Sunday.

Unlike Connor, she was not thrilled with the experience. Even when Pauline tried to buy her affections with a lollipop.

I loved Connor's hair after his 1st haircut. He suddenly looked like a little boy. We took Olivia to Mike's barbershop. I think Olivia's turned out looking like she got her hair cut at a barbershop - ha ha. Everyone else thinks it looks sweet. I think it looks a little severe. She's sweet, so I guess it is all good.

This is a photo of her at the beginning - two seconds later, Pauline started up the electric trimmers and all hell broke loose.

Light Up Shoes

Connor slept all night in his light up shoes. I'm sure Mike got quite the surprise when he went to get him up this am.

Olivia is still asleep, this is shocking information. Alas, I will have to go wake her up.

Happy Friday family and friends!

Spiderman Sleeps Tight

Despite the fact that I have no fashion sense or style, Connor has some firm opinions about his attire. He is STRONGLY against buttons, pretty firmly against snaps, can only handle one pair of shoes in the closet at a time, and seems to hate sweaters.

We have been wearing light up Spiderman shoes for several months. They still fit, but no longer light up, they are in pretty rough condition, and they seem to even smell a little.

I went out at lunch and secured a new pair. Connor is in LOVE!!! They also light up, and are only a little different from the original well loved pair.

This is a picture of Connor in his new shoes. He insisted on sleeping in them, and I was so happy that he was happy, that I didn't argue.

It's very sweet. Of course when he wakes up at 2am because the light up Mo kitties that have been stalking him have woken him up, I won't think it's so cool. but he is really cute.

We had parent/teacher meetings at school today - they seemed to go really well. We had them back in December, and the kids have both made a lot of progress which feels great.

Today was Olivia's first day at school with only milk - no bottles of breast milk. I felt sad, and a little like I was letting her down - but she seemed to survive just fine.

I feel like I have been nursing and pumping since the dawn of time, so it's a totally alien feeling to see the finish line. 

Shirlene at work who has NEVER connected the dots to sort out why my door is shut when I am pumping, and inevitably knocks on the door when I'm in there, will not know what's going on.

We are keeping Uncle Bruce in our prayers - hope to find out the big picture any day now, and the Doctors will create a game plan to get him well.

We might get Olivia her 1st haircut this weekend, she is looking a little shaggy.

Sleep tight little munchkin and big Spiderman.

Olivia says Daddy!

Olivia has actually said Daddy before, but she was looking at her feet, the cat, or the wall, so I did not really count it. Mike counted it, but I did not.

Today, she looked at Mike and said Daddy. It was very sweet.

I have been coaching her for months to say Mama or Mommy, but apparently, to no avail.

"Bye-Bye" - accompanied by a seriously cute wave, was her first word though.

These are other things that she is doing;

1. She is walking quite a bit.

2. Digging into all of the unsecured cabinets. There were 4 left, and she has had a field day. I spent 45 min last night putting in new safety locks.

3. Climbing on the edge of the big tub. I was always convinced that Connor would fall into the tub. While he was interested, he never actually got up on the side. When I'm in the shower, I have to watch her through the door, and have had to dart out naked on two occasions to fetch her off the edge of the precipice.

4. She is having regular milk. We are slowing down on the nursing.

5. She is clapping.

6. She can dance along to music or something on TV.

7. She is FASCINATED by Connor.

8. She loves Mo, and wants to touch his face.

9. She wants whatever toy that Connor is holding.

**10. She makes a really loud Pterodactyl sound when she is displeased. 

She is one cute kid!

**To my Mom and Carolyn. Yes, I did look up the spelling of "Pterodactyl". Seems like the spelling is dependent on which website you look at. I found 5+ versions, and picked this one.

Always Trust Joe (or Hank)

Ok - today's post is not REALLY about kids, or parenting, but it is in a way. The lesson for today is to trust your gut. If you are lacking the mythical "gut", trust Joe or Hank.

Hank is my step father, and Joe is my friend and next door neighbor.

My neighbor Peter offered to lend me his ELECTRIC snow blower. Joyce - Joe's wife had already told me to borrow Joe's GAS snowblower. I took Peter up on his offer, because  this was new neighborly behavior, and I was pleased. I ended up going to Joe anyway because my extension cord would not fit the snowblower. Joe did exactly what Hank would have done - he cut off the offending plastic bit that was preventing the cord from fitting in. Mind you, we have no idea what the bit did, but Hank would have done the exact same thing.

I spent the next hour trying not to run over the extension cord and moving snow randomly around my driveway. I don't think any of it actually LEFT the driveway, I think I just moved it around. Some might call this "user error" - but I think that the electric snow blower was not the "right tool for the job". I'm not totally sure what job the electric snowblower COULD do, since it is a snowblower after all, but clearly, not well designed for it's assigned task.

Joe is WAAAAYYYYY too polite to say this at the start, but he seemed to know that I'd eventually be back for the gas one, because he kept offering it.

So, today's lesson is that if your gut tells you to do or not do something - go with your gut. If the kid's car seat seems loose, it probably is. If the stroller seems unwieldy, it probably is, don't buy it. If going out without spare clothes seems like a bad idea, it probably is.

If you do not have an internal "gut" that alerts you to these things, just let me know, and I'll get you in touch with Joe or Hank. They can probably offer sage advice on whatever subject you might be seeking information on.

Today's second lesson is that electric snow blowers are crappy.