Doctor Dolittle

Connor hasn't perfected many names of animals yet, but is getting pretty good at animal noises. So far its been very difficult to capture his talents on camera because as soon as he sees anything electronic he will not rest until it is in his hand. But I was able to "trick" him today by holding the camera while we played with a puzzle and flipped through a book.

In addition to his animal noises, he can also say: dada, mama (or mum usually), Ty, dog, up, down, please (actually, he says eesssss), light, ball, tree, eye, help, nana (means banana and we get requests for it all day now including his first "sentence" today which was saying nana and then signing "eat"), and his all-time favorite... "dat?" while pointing at something, which of course means "what is that?". I think that's pretty good for 13 months old!

Duck!

We went downtown to do some shopping today and took Connor to the pond on campus to see the ducks that live there. In the last few weeks, "duck" has been one of his favorite words, so we wanted to see what he would do. And, he did not disappoint! As soon as a group of them ran past, he immediately started pointing and saying "duck! duck!". We let him run around for a bit, but he would have taken right off into the water, so we had to keep him corralled. He did get a big kick out of seeing them, though. Except when two males started fighting over a female duck and Connor started crying - he did not like that one bit! This is a picture of him running toward the water as I tried to stay ahead of him.

One Year Photos (a little late)

Here are some photos from Connor's 1 year photo shoot. They were taken about a month ago, but I still wanted to share our favorites. He absolutely LOVES the slide, as you can tell!

Earth Day

The Penn State campus celebrated Earth Day today, so we headed to the HUB lawn to catch the tail end of the events, just in time to burn through some 1 year old energy before dinner time. Connor enjoyed the dancing to the music, playing with Ty, running through the grass barefoot, and of course, making friends with all of the young ladies within a 20 yard radius. He is quite the ladies man, I must say. He walks right up to them, smiles, waves, and unleashes a loud string of indecipherable babble. He definitely had many of them charmed today - one even handed over her cell phone for him to play with (by far his most favorite kind of "toy", but after he tried to set up wireless internet on mine I have severely restricted his access).

Leaves, sticks, & dirt

What else does a little boy need to have a good time? Probably nothing, but a dog like Ty also helps. We finally had some warm weather, so we headed outside to explore the backyard. Connor quickly found the slide, as well as the dirt underneath it - he had a blast digging and getting filthy. Then he and Ty finished up the evening by playing together with a tennis ball that one of them uncovered (not sure who).

Ring Around the Rosy

Look what Grammy taught Connor last week! I can't believe that he's able to do these things already. It really is amazing how much he understands - probably most of what we say and he just filters through what he's interested in.

Thanks Easter Bunny!

Today started a bit rough. Connor has a pretty nasty cold and is sleeping very restlessly, so he isn't his normal cheerful self. On top of that he had his 12 month checkup on Friday which included 3 shots. The poor little guy! We went to Grammy & Pappy's house in the afternoon for Easter dinner, though, and of course he put on a smiling face for everyone. We set up his first Easter egg "hunt" and he collected eggs with a little help, then found his Easter basket too. It was sunny and beautiful but very windy and chilly, so we grabbed the goods and then headed inside. I may be a little too overboard about the healthy eating thing because the poor kid got eggs filled with whole wheat bunny crackers and freeze dried yogurt melts instead of candy. He was thrilled with that, though - seriously!