Fort Connor

Its been a rough week for all of us. First, Connor started last Monday going to daycare 3 mornings a week. He is, understand- ably, having trouble with the transition (as are his parents), but his teachers are wonderful and are giving him the extra attention he needs right now. On top of that stress, though, he ended up coming down with infections in both ears. Thursday he spiked a fever of 104.5 and we were in the ER with him. He got some antibiotics and we've been trying to keep him comfortable since then. Our normally cheerful boy has been pretty darn miserable, grouchy, whiny, and all the things you would expect when both of your ears hurt you and you have a cold on top of it all. Today I was looking for a way to distract him from all of that and made him a "fort" out of a sheet. It was a HUGE hit! He hung out in there with his milk, blankie, and toys for quite a while - loving every minute of it. Hopefully he will be feeling much better soon - poor kiddo!

Rained out

We planned an afternoon at the "beach" (local State Park) and a cookout dinner with Connor's Aunt Stacy, Uncle Beej, and cousin Livvy. But the weather didn't hold out - it started raining as soon as we got there. We still managed to have fun, even though I forgot some essential items at home and we could only enjoy the beach and water for about 15 minutes before the next downpour. Beej and Brian came to the rescue of our barbeque and we had a yummy meal followed by ice cream at the Twin Kiss!

Brothers enjoying a sunny day

Brown bear, brown bear

Recently, Connor started asking for specific books when we read at bedtime. Some of the favorites right now are The Napping House ("house!"), Hop on Pop ("hop! hop! pop!"), Hands Hands Fingers Thumb ("hand!"), and Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? ("bear!"). I decided to see if he wanted try reading with me by finishing the sentences, especially since he knew the words for most of the animals. Not only did he do it immediately, today when we were driving in the car I started reciting the book and he remembered all of the animal names in the right places. I absolutely couldn't believe it! Here we are reading it before bed.

Arts Fest 2009

Its that time of year again - we are inundated with art, culture, music, fun, and all of it happens in too tiny of a little time frame to adequately fit it all in. I guess that's part of what makes it so special, though, and always keeps you coming back for more. First stop was the People's Choice Festival on Saturday morning where we brought Ty along. It was fun for our "boys" to be out with each other, but lots of work for Mom & Dad considering they each had their own agendas and neither of them involved looking at art (Connor = running around in the grass, Ty = finding scraps of festival food). Still, it was lots of fun.

Connor had his first italian ice, which he enthusiastically called "ICE!" over and over until it was all gone.

One of the main reasons we can bring Ty to this Arts Fest - there's a stream that runs right behind the festival. Considering he's a dog built for the snow, July temperatures are typically miserable for him, so he gets to take a break from the Fest with a swim.

Our boys, posing perfectly and illiciting many, many "Awww... look at that"s from the crowd

Next, on Sunday, it was time to hit the downtown Arts Fest just as the crowds began to thin out. We walked around a bit to take in the artists' booths, then grabbed a picnic lunch and headed up to campus to see the Earthtones play.

Listening to a didgeridoo - Connor loved it. We had to force him to take the headphones off.

"Ball!"

Going through the mist tunnel

In front of this year's sand sculpture

We met up with Uncle Beej, Aunt Stacy, and cousin Livvy for some family time on the lawn. A perfect ending to a very fun Arts Fest. We cannot wait until next year when Connor will be able to enjoy it even more.

Honduran hammock

We had a big cookout that was also a competition today. Think Iron Chef, but with grills and our kitchen. It was wild, but really fun. I'll post more details once I get the pictures that our friends took. I was way too busy juggling details, guests, and a toddler that awoke from a nap to find 30+ people at his house to take pictures. Here are some pics from the end of the day, when the craziness was over and we were relaxing with friends. Connor, and all the other kids, are loving our hammock. I brought it back from a volunteer trip in Honduras where I bought it in a tiny village called Santa Lucia, directly from the man who made it. Here are several hammock pics - Brian with Connor and Livvy, me with Ty Martin, and Connor with Gabrielle, a sweet little girl who lives around the corner from us. Like I said, everyone loves the hammock!

A quiet 4th of July

No fireworks, no crazy celebrations. Our 4th of July was quite quiet - in anticipation of a big event the following day. We spent the entire day getting ready for a cookout/competition at our house on the 5th (more info about that to come), and dealing with the very unexpected development of our refrigerator dying on us overnight Friday. So, in all that excitement we never made it to the local festivities. Definitely next year. And, Connor is just too young to stay up until 10pm for fireworks - his normal bedtime is 7! But, we did make it to Grandma Jean's for a cookout at dinnertime. Connor enjoyed seeing everyone and walking around the yard where his Daddy grew up. Unfortunately we had to make an early exit, again because of this little man's bedtime.