Until today I hadn't been able to get Connor to wear his Halloween costume for longer than about 2 minutes. But, he really came through tonight! His cousin Livvy came over and they went trick-or-treating together and did SO WELL!!! We were all surprised at how much fun they had with it. Although, Connor had never had candy until today and he caught on VERY fast that his pumpkin held the goodies and Mom & Dad stood between him and sugar nirvana.
When you have trees (i.e., leaves) like we do, raking is a skill that needs to be taught at a young age. :)
Connor's Grammy and Pappy took us all to Shaver's Creek for their fall festival event along with Uncle Beej, Aunt Stacy, & cousin Livvy - fun! Then in the afternoon we carved our pumpkin, but Connor was initially pretty upset by the whole idea. Me cutting the top off the pumpkin and then showing him the "yucky" insides was almost too much for him to take. But he was eventually won over by the chance to feed the pumpkin pieces of himself... poor pumpkin.
Our family outing for a pumpkin this year was a lot different than last year. Last year I remember propping a not-so-sure little Connor within a pile of pumpkins, but this year he was a little man on a mission. We took a tractor ride out to a huge pumpkin patch and as soon as Connor spotted them, all we heard was "punkin pleeeease! punkin pleeeease!" as we waited to get to the patch. Once there he was all over the place checking them out.
Picking the right one takes a lot of concentration
"Cheeeeese!!!" with Daddy
Climbing around on the pre-picked patch
Hamming it up with Daddy
Love that toothy grin!
Bunny petting area
The last couple of weeks have been an absolute verbal explosion that is so amazing to see. Connor had many, many single words up until this point, but rarely put them together other than to add "please" to the end of his requests. Almost overnight, he started stringing words together to express himself, and will now try to repeat entire sentences when we talk to him - getting closer and closer to forming full sentences for himself.
There was a wonderful little fall festival downtown this weekend and we went along with Grammy, Uncle Beej, Aunt Stacy, and cousin Livvy. So much to do and see, and so much fun, but the highlight was certainly the kids riding horses.. That's right - Connor rode a horse, a real horse, not a pony. He kept telling us he wanted to ride it and even got upset at having to wait in line. I thought for sure that he would change his mind when we got to the front, but no - I put him in the saddle and he grabbed hold like he'd done it a thousand times before with a big smile on his face. I kept a hand on him the whole time, but he sat there all on his own and loved it. How is it possible that my little baby boy is doing such things??? He also went into the bounce house with Livvy and the other, older kids with no adult inside with him. Although its a shock to see him growing up, I'm so proud to see his little independent streak.
I wish I had more time to tell you about how much Connor is changing and all of the fun we have together. Let's just say he has a great sense of humor and is quickly becoming his own little person with strong likes/dislikes that he freely shares as well as a healthy curiosity about everything in the world. Today this little whirlwind had crammed himself into a tiny basket (which he thought was quite hysterical as well and comfy) and followed it up by putting on his Daddy's shoes (all by himself) and attempting to walk around the living room.
