"We were berry picking!"

And what kind of berries? They were STRAWBERRIES!
On Tuesday, Connor's class had a field trip to our local farm's organic strawberry fields. The berries were really great this year and we both enjoyed as many in the field as we brought home.

Connor and I each received a container to fill with strawberries, so we stayed together to help one another find the best ones.

"This is the biggest strawberry in the whole world!" (Connor is into superlatives lately).


We went to a nearby park after the farm. Here is Connor playing with one of his classmates at the water feature in the park. They were slightly soaked by the end of it (thanks to Connor...mostly).

Sean is 8 months!

On Saturday, Sean turned 8 months. The time has gone so fast, I cannot believe it. He is crawling now and loves fingerfoods (aka "puffs") by Gerber. He practically jumps out of his highchair when he sees me take out the container. He can barely pick one up, but he tries very hard. He seems to be developing his pincer grasp little by little. He is smiling and being friendly most of his waking hours, which is really fun for us. Yesterday in church he flirted with all the women around us, especially the 7 and 9 year old girls behind us. He says, "HI" and waves to his audience, and he believes any gathering of people exists to visit him. He loves to do the baby sign for "lights," and there are tons of lights on the ceiling of our church. So when he wasn't greeting "his people" he was telling me about all the lights on the ceiling. We could hardly keep a straight face because as my dad always said, "Anything funny that happens in church seems twice as funny because you can't laugh.'
Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Going for the food.

Chillin' with big brother Connor.

Fridays Taste Like Chocolate

This morning, Thursday, as Connor was dancing around outside he announced with glee, "Fridays taste like chocolate." Hopefully tomorrow will taste like chocolate for everyone reading this. However, in an unrelated story, it has been a pretty fun week! Here are some highlights from our week.
This week Connor and Sean had their first bath together. They loved it. Sean is happy in the bath as long as he has one of these rings to play with. Connor has always loved baths.

Connor tried out his trike again. Notice the handle bars are turned backwards. He refuses to ride it any other way. Needless to say, he will probably not be the next Lance Armstrong.

Connor and Abby played "Diego" and rescued all the animals in our backyard! Abby is looking through the "spotting scope" so she can be sure to spot the "animals in trouble." I think they were busy rescuing for over an hour!

Sean jumped and played in the saucer and watched Connor and Abby at play.

Connor and his friend Abby chose to eat their yogurts in the wagon. They buckled themselves in, put their yogurts in the cup holders and told me they were having a "yogurt party."

Have a great weekend everybody!

Brothers

The family room floor is often home to Sean's books and toys. He generally tries to avoid them at all costs and goes for Connor's toys or other objects we would rather he didn't get into. However, when these pictures were taken he was actually "reading" his new book from Auntie Sacha and playing with a soft baby toy!

Big brothers are always fun to grab as well. Sean loves Connor, he is still learning how to show it nicely, though. Connor loves the attention and lets Sean do pretty much whatever he wants to him.

Connor got away and tried to interest Sean in some of his toys. Connor is good about distracting Sean with safe toys for him. Notice that Sean is still only looking at Connor.

Here is just a picture I like of Connor. He loves the flowers and said, "Mommy, look at these beautiful flowers!" He liked the flowers so much he actually sat still for me to take his picture.

Friday Night at the Beach

As many of you know, we go to the beach every friday evening when Chris finishes work. Yesterday was windy and pretty cold. (Cold is relative, of course, check out Liam's blog)! There has also been a high surf advisory here, so the waves were beautiful. It was difficult to take any pictures of Connor, as he never stops moving fast. Last night he was a frenetic frog leaping across the sand or a dog digging for a bone.

Mellow Sean loves sitting in the sand and feeling it with his feet and hands. He just takes it all in calmly.

He barely reacted to this taste of sand. He sucked the sand right off his fingers without missing a beat. I finally rubbed his hands on my shirt to help him a bit. He didn't seem to mind sand in his mouth, though.

Here is Connor, actually standing still for a moment. All he wants to do at the beach is dig and bury himself in sand. He is very kinesthenic!

Daddy and Sean love one another very much. Sean absolutely beams when he sees his daddy!

Sean in Training

Lately Sean has been trying really hard to crawl. The other day I caught him in what appears to be nice push-up form.


Here he is rocking back and forth in crawling position.


He doesn't get anywhere rocking, so he goes back on his tummy and shakes his arms and kicks his feet. If he were in a pool I think he would get pretty far.

Easter Egg Hunt

On Friday we went to a local farm for an Easter Egg Hunt. It was the most disorganized egg hunt I have ever seen. First the woman in charge sent Connor and his friends to start looking for eggs, but there were none. The children didn't seem to notice. Then she sent her 9 year old son to hide some eggs--right in front of the kids. They didn't seem to notice. When we pointed to the eggs they cheered for themselves for finding the eggs and put them in their baskets. Then a woman went around with a huge 2-foot diameter bucket filled with brightly colored plastic eggs and hid them right in front of the kids. You guessed it, THEY DIDN'T SEEM TO NOTICE! They each "found" 3 eggs and the other moms and I shuffled them out of there. We couldn't decide which was worse, the disorganization or the cluelessness. The kids had a great time and were completely thrilled with themselves, and that is all that matters.


Here is a picture of Connor the train engineer on a ride after the egg hunt. He loved it!

Look at that smile! Sean continues to be a happy little guy! He loves being outside (as long as he does not have to feel grass).

On the go, trying to reach whatever he can--even that annoying grass! Connor tried to give him one of his milk carton blocks, but that did not keep him occupied for long.

Victory! Sean conquers the magazine basket at last. He has been aiming for it, but is usually redirected. Yesterday I decided it was time to recycle those mags anyway, and I let him have at it.

He was very business and systematic in his approach and always took the top one from the basket. He squealed with delight the entire time!

Here is Connor when he was about 8 months engaged in the same activity.

A Day in the Life of Connor

Connor is a very busy guy lately. In the course of a day, he drives Hot Wheels on his rug map. He has been earning a Hot Wheels for using his potty. He has a lot of them now--Yippee!

The weather has also been great for sandbox play. He can now remove the lid by himself and he plays for a long time independently. He can hardly fit in his sandbox with all the sand toys in there!

Connor recently learned to play Memory. Yesterday he taught Motma how to play. It was hilarious...Connor never forgets where any card is...Motma on the other hand, had to "warm up" her memory. Motma won in the end, though. Connor is undefeated against me so far.

On Tuesdays we go to Parent/Child preschool. This week our teacher gave the children buckets of water and sponge brushes for "painting" the play area. Connor went to town! He took his assignment very seriously and made sure every playhouse, fence, and rocking horse was completely covered. He was very wet by the end of it!