23 months

I can't believe we've hit the 23 month mark!  Less than a month and our big boy will be 2!!

In the past month, Connor has successfully been sleeping in his big boy toddler bed.  He's done great in there and really hasn't had any trouble adjusting to the new bed.  In fact, in the last month post he was having trouble falling asleep (he was crying for a few minutes before bed), but he hasn't done that in weeks.  He still likes to be rocked and sang to before bed....he willingly gets down and climbs into bed on his own!  He's still a good sleeper and usually wakes up between 8:00 and 8:45.  Bedtime is around 8:00 at night.  He still takes about a 2 hour nap each day.  This past Saturday was his first full day without a nap and he did surprisingly well (however, we won't be stopping his nap anytime soon)!!

Connor has started to sing (like real singing) this past month and it is. oh. so. sweet!!  Skidamarink is currently his favorite song!  He is talking up a storm these days....using anywhere from 1 word to 4 word phrases to communicate with us!

Connor is so funny and is constantly doing things to make us laugh!  We love his sweet personality.  When he asks questions he quints his eyes and cocks his eyes.  If you ask him what his name is, he'll tell you it's "bubby".  He knows his colors, most animal names, and this week we've started to work on counting....he's up to 4 :)  Connor has shortened the names of people this month....Papa is now Pop, Nana is now Nan, Sissy is now Elli, Mommy is now Mom, and well.... Daddio is still Daddio (not sure why he calls Scott Daddio, but he always has).

Potty training is going pretty well.  No real big change since last month.  The other day I had decided that he was done with pull ups for good and we'd move on to big boy underwear.  That quickly changed after I cleaned up....well...I won't go into details...the pull up got put back on within seconds.  So instead, now I'm just taking him to the bathroom every so often and he rarely has accidents in the pull ups!  We're pretty proud of him!!

He's such a sweet boy and is almost always very generous with his hugs and kisses!  Happy 23 months, big boy!

Baby Maddy

Two weeks ago I took the kids to Indiana for the week to visit the newest family member, Madelyn Joy.  Scott was traveling that week, so we left late Monday night and made it to Indy around 12am.  It wasn't the most pleasant drive or best night sleep for any of us, but the kids were so excited on Tuesday morning to get to the hospital to meet their sweet little cousin.

Connor and baby Maddy!  He enjoyed holding her, but didn't want to touch her :)

Elli was in awe!  She was able to hold her many times over the few days that we were there and boy did she love it!

Elli has said multiple times "I'm going to have a new baby sister."  I think I've finally got it in her head that she will not be having a new baby sister anytime soon.

All the cousins....And yes, it's chaotic having them all in the same room together!  I can't believe we actually got them all to sit for a picture!  

While we were there, we also got to have a playdate on Wednesday morning with Landon and Avery.  Unfortunately, Connor doesn't sleep well on the road....as a result he wasn't in the best mood......

I think our next playdate needs to be here in Columbus....where Connor is well rested....so we can actually show Landon that Connor can share!

Ha....I posted the last picture for proof.  Do you see how Connor is grabbing all the trains off the board?  Ugh....oh Connor!

Welcome Baby Maddy!  So glad you are finally here!

July 4th

As crazy as it sounds, July 4th has become one of my favorite holidays.  It's a day where we've began forming our own traditions here in Columbus!

For the past 3 years, we've spent the morning of the 4th at the New Albany parade.  Nana & Papa L. were here to spend a few days with us!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out...

Ha....they'll love us for this later I'm sure :)  

Nana L. helped me make a dress for myself and for Elli.  You wouldn't believe how happy this dress makes Elli.  She wants to wear it daily!

Scott and I went out on a date and then we ended the night watching fireworks!  This was by far my favorite part of the day.  This is the first time both kids have seen big time fireworks.  It was a late night, but totally worth it to see how much they loved it!

Connor's photo shoot

We're fixin' to have a small tractor party for Connor's 2nd birthday!  I took some pictures for his invitation (I'll get around to sending the invites soon) and I couldn't resist posting them on here..... 

I had to give myself a pat on the back!  Scott was over at his friend's house this night and I decided to squeeze in a quick photo session by myself.  Luckily, this kid was ready to smile!!

Lately

Some of these pictures are from quite awhile ago....

We met Randy and his family at my Grandparent's house in Mansfield back in May.  Elli and Adison (my youngest cousin) played so well together!

 Connor got to go fishing with papa for the first time while we were visiting them in Mansfield.

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The other day I took the kids to Easton and Elli pet a snake...over and over again....eeeeek!!

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I took the kids to a movie one Wednesday morning (our local movie theater has movies for toddlers/preschoolers on Wednesday mornings in the summer for $1)...we never got to see the movie because it wasn't working, but we had fun waiting!

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S'mores and a fire....

 The kids were fascinated with a bug crawling up the wall and they wanted to get their picture taken with it.

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I took the kids to the zoo a few weeks ago.  We took a train ride....

 This was Connor's first time on the train....he loved every second of it!

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Taking pictures before bed one night.....

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Elli went to VBS last week!  She wasn't super excited to go, but once she was there she had a great time.

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We made an impromptu trip to Max and 'Erva's' (as Elli would say) for dinner on Sunday night.  The kids were great and were on cloud nine!  The waiter brought the kids gummy worms....

 Elli making funny faces....