5 Months!

Hello my friends, family, and fanclub. I know that you have been waiting anxiously for yours truly, Connor, to write my 5 month post. Well here it goes! WOOOOOO!

This is the best picture Mom could get with my 5 month sign. I was busy.

I loooooove sitting in my bumbo seat and I am an excellent percussionist.

My drum is tasty, too!

Hey! Get back here!

I guess my sock is just as good...

I'm getting a little wild under the arches - I guess we'll have to return that to the Jones' so that whenever they have another baby it will be ready to go! :)

Yum, my swing!

Ahh...the beginning of my photo shoot!

HELLO, Momma!

I can only sit up for so long!

Munch munch munch munch.

Get me outta here!

Mommy told Marmee that she couldn't take my 5 month pictures in Syracuse because even though I was there on the 19th, she wanted to take all of my "month" pictures in the same place. Marmee asked Mommy, "So what are you going to do when he doesn't want to sit in one place and tries to rip apart the card?" Funny she asked...

Daddy helped mommy set up my name letters on the wall above my crib. Now I will be spelling and cheering for SU in no time!

Today is my (almost) Uncle Jay's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE JAY! Yesterday was Karina's birthday (sigh, we haven't called her yet) - HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARINA! Tomorrow is Daddy's birthday! Can't wait to show you all what I got him!

By the way - no doctor's appointment this month, but mommy says something about her back breaking when she hauls me around in my carseat. I think I'm closing in on the big 20 (lbs, that is).

Lots of Love,

Connor

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Sadly, it was our last day in the Cuse. Can't wait to get back to my sweetheart, but wish I could bring our families with us! We missed time with Mom/Marmee too because she still didn't feel well today...but we hung out in the hallway so we could at least talk to her while she was staying away from us in bed! Here's Connor rocking himself nearly off the carpet!

This is what my parents' dog, Cleo, does every time my dad has something to eat. Yes....he always feeds her!
We call it the tripod position. She's pretty cute and she knows it!
Connor and I got to go down to the rec office and visit with the boss - I mean Peggy - and Eric for a little while.
Dennis was bummed that he was the only one in his family who hadn't met Connor, so he stopped by for a visit!
Then Great Aunt Annie came by to see Connor!

Here's a sweet picture Connor's Nana took when we went for our walk (today it didn't even reach 20 degrees...definitely not walking weather!).
Aw...saying goodbye to Nana and Grandad.
Connor also had visits today from his Great Uncle Don, Auntie SAS and Uncle Jay. We will miss you, family loves!

HARPIE!

Today my wonderful friend Cailin (who happens to play the greatest instrument in the world!) drove an hour on her February break to see us! Isn't she spectacular?! :)

I haven't seen her since Jonathan and I got married. We were long overdue for a visit and I'm so glad that she got to meet Connor! She is a lifelong friend and an amazing music teacher and I don't think we could ever run out of things to chat about!

Smoosh! Sweetness.

I had planned to spend a lot of time with my momma today but she was not feeling well and stayed away from Connor and me. :( We did get to spend good time with my dad and then had dinner with our other family!

Here's a couple of sweet pics with Grandad. Thankfully he is JUST able to hold big boy Connor since he is recovering from some shoulder surgery. Yay!

Luck o' the Irish

No, I'm not confused. I know that St. Patrick's Day is not quite yet. HOWEVER! Connor got to be the boys' good luck charm for sectionals and fit perfectly into his GREEN and WHITE outfit that Marmee and Papa brought from Ireland!

I had to help Will re-shave his head so it would be smooth again when he dove in for finals. I have never shaved anything but my own legs and such...so I was nervous! As you can see, no blood or 911 calls. :)

Baldy 1 and Baldy 2

Ooh, beads! Connor wanted to eat them all. Here he is in the bright lights with his Papa! He stayed in his sweet outfit through the Medley Relay, then it was back to just a diaper!
The top heat of each event gets to take a walk up to the blocks with some pump up music playing, and then are announced before their swim. You can see Will's head, the last of those without their jackets on!

Off they go!

Unfortunately, West Genny won the medley this time by just a bit - but the FM team STILL beat their best time again and is ready to go to States! This picture with Will hanging on for dear life to stay on the podium was also in the newspaper this morning. (Not my blurry one [duh], but this same scene.)
Through the heads in this pic you can see Will diving in for his 50 free. He did very well in free and also won his heat in 100 breaststroke with a great time (9th overall). We were so glad that we could be here to see Will and cheer him on! Great job, baby brother!
Our day at sectionals was VERY long and VERY hot - poor Connor was going on one 10 minute nap and one extremely sweaty 15 minute nap. We came home and he had a little exersaucer time (thanks again to our friend Katie!) and we were laughing with him as he attacked this flower...

YUM!

Kiai!

On Friday after sectionals it was pretty windy but "warm" so we got to go for a walk with Cindy and her baby Abby, and Sarahann and her baby Savannah! Technically SAS is also Cindy's baby. :) Our friend Katie found a jogger for us to use with Connor when we visit, and he was LOVING being bundled up and propped up in it - the hood really tunneled the wind away from his face too!

Cutie!

Saturday we got to go see Daddy's cousin Chase receive his black belt in karate! Connor wore this sweet outfit that was Jonathan's when he was a baby. He also wore his anchor socks for good luck for Laura on her LAST day of Patriots!
Here we are at the Civic Center waiting for the Karate performance and ceremony!
Chase being announced and recognized for achieving his black belt (and some person's big head in front of me...my camera doesn't have much of a zoom!).
About to show some skills with the other graduates in his program.
Chase (3rd from left) with a small group.
Showing some moves with these sharp scary things (I have no idea what they are called!).
Receiving his black belt from the kioshi. Awesome job, Chase!
All of the students who had received some degree of black belt.

It was very cool and we were so proud of Chase! His sisters are also working towards their black belts and were there to cheer him on.

Laura, my sister who is now a SWAMMER, had an amazing final night of her championships. She came in 10th in finals of the 200 fly with a 2:06 - which is super speedy! Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that she will be back in the pool again some time...but what a huge accomplishment - the culmination of four years of hard work and dedication on a D1 swim team. WOOOOO Laura!

I'll give a sectionals finals report tomorrow! :)

Sweet Saturday

Happy 5 months to my baby boy Connor!

Fun day today, too late to blog though because it's another big one tomorrow! Get ready! :)

Section III Boys Swimming

AKA "Connor's First Swim Meet" (with the exception of seeing Auntie Laura swim while I was pregnant!)

Oh wait, a quick pic with almost uncle Jay from the night before!

Connor and I went with uncle Will to his team pasta dinner. Swimmers also usually shave before a big meet - helps you to feel more streamlined and quick in the water. Here is the "before"...

Coach Shannon starting the balding process.

Coach Jamie finishing it up.

Now Will and Connor look more alike! Today Will looked in a mirror and said, "Ah! I'm bald! I keep forgetting til I see myself." Hahaha.

Go F-M!

I pulled out my green '98 sectionals shirt and my "F-M Swimming and Diving" hoodie (circa 1996) for this one...it was a big deal!

Okay so after a long walk into the pool, we were in plenty of time for the first event, the medley relay. Will had told me the night before that even though they had already gotten the state cut time, they were out to beat West Genessee, who had a faster seed time. The medley relay (for you non-swimmer readers) consists of 4 people each swimming 50 yds. The first person swims backstroke, the next breaststroke, the next butterfly, and the last (Will) freestyle. West Genny was ahead by about a half a body length to a full body length through most of the relay. Here is Will off the block...you can see the kid from WG is in slightly ahead (his feet are sticking out of the water!)
Will crept up on him throughout the 50 years (which is a very short amount of time/distance to catch someone and they hit the wall almost together - not that you can really see from my long distance pic from behind the railing.
Well, after screaming and screaming we all looked at the clock and F-M had done an amazing time of 1:37.87. West Genny had a 1:37.88. Will did exactly what a strong swimmer should and didn't let up at all - touched the competition out by one one-hundredth of a second! They will fae each other again on Sunday, should be exciting! Oh, and for all you swimmer readers, his split was a 22.30 which was a personal best and totally awesome!

Here is their relay team and WG (#2) all trying to fit on the awards podium!

Will's 2nd individual event was 100 breaststroke - he's the baldy closest to the bottom of this pic. His time was 1:06.27, which put him in 8th place after the Class A prelims. I took a video of his 50 Free swim, which was also excellent, but of course....can't manage to get it onto the blog!

Whoa Baby!

Connor was wearing his green and white frogs to cheer for uncle Will - but this is how he spent most of the meet because it was extremely hot and sweaty. I can't tell you how many people made comments like, "Lucky! Wish I was dressed like him!" Lol...he did such a great job at the meet, being Will's biggest fan!
Here's will getting his 8th place award from breaststroke.
Yay Will! Can't wait for finals!

P.S. We weren't with Laura but she also did AWESOME swimming today! She swam a 57.2 in the 100 butterfly and placed 12th overall. WOOOOOOO!