Connor and his milestones

Tomorrow our little boy with be 15 months old.  He really is getting quite grown up.  He loves to read his books, play with all of his musical toys, and explore everywhere and everything he possibly can.  He is so curious! And his new favorite thing to do is climb.

The other day I was in his room hanging up some of his shirts.  I looked behind me and there he was, almost on top of his dresser.  He had climbed from the nursing stool onto the glider and was going after his books on top of the dresser.  For a kid who has been "late" on all the physical milestones, this new eagerness is surprising me.

I was so worried in the beginning when it was taking him so long to roll over.  I think he finally rolled over at 6 months or maybe later.  I was slightly less worried about him not being interesting in crawling, but I definitely still did worry.  Just before 10 months old he started army crawling.  I was a little concerned that he started normal-crawling at 12 months, because that's around the time that most kids start walking.

Clearly he had his own timeline for these "milestones".

I'm happy to say that I finally relaxed about when Connor would start walking.  He took his first steps at 13.5 months, and for the next month or so was happy to take a few steps and that was it.  Just this past week he has started "taking off" and he'll be 15 months tomorrow.

Our little Trojan is practically unstoppable these days!

I have a feeling my days of chasing him everywhere are right around the corner and will last for years to come. :)  And I've learned a valuable lesson: some kids don't exactly go "by the book" but that is perfectly ok.  He is a happy, healthy, and active kid who just wanted to take his time with certain things.

Our Visit to Chicago

Last week we flew to Chicago and spent the week with Derek's parents.  Like last March and last September, Derek's exam seminar for his next test happened to be in Chicago again, so Connor and I tagged along and made a little family vacation out of it.  We flew in on Saturday, and Derek's exam seminar was from Tuesday to the following Saturday.  

Unfortunately Derek woke up on Sunday with the stomach flu, and over the course of the week the rest of us had our share of sickness, too.  (He was mostly better by the time his seminar started, so it was good he got it first).  I thought I was invincible because I've never had the stomach flu in my life, but I sure did experience it and it was not fun!  Connor threw up once and took a few long naps.  Thankfully that was the extent of his sickness.  The week didn't go as any of us envisioned, but it was still nice being together.  

Thanks to his parents, Derek and I still managed to have some time together (dates are such a treat!).  One of the nights his parents happily watched Connor so that I could drive to where he was and we had a nice dinner together.  And on Friday night I drove to spend the night at his hotel so we could drive back the next day after his seminar ended.  I had the flu most of that day and was a little feverish, but I was determined to take advantage of his parents' offer to watch Connor overnight.  I love our little boy so much, but it's nice to have a break every once in a while.  :)  We had milkshakes and watched a movie.  We are so wild and crazy!

So far Connor has flown at 11 weeks, 9 months, and now 14 months.  This was definitely more challenging than previous times.  Thankfully we had the row to ourselves so he had a little room to get some energy out.  He didn't sleep a wink on the plane! He slept a total of 30 minutes the whole day, and oddly enough it didn't phase him at all.  

Exploring Grandma and Grandpa's house is lots of fun!

Connor in motion...as his shirt says, he does all his own stunts :)

Having a blast walking back and forth from Grandma to Grandpa.  He still hasn't completely mastered the art of walking, probably because he starts laughing hysterically whenever he takes steps.  It's hard to keep your balance when you're laughing so hard!

Our family of 4 (Connor is sitting on his brother)

When we arrived, it was snowing and COLD.  A couple days later, it was in the 60's!  Connor loves the park, and playing with Grandma is very fun.  

We took Connor's picture on this bed in this same spot when he was 11 weeks old.  It was a lot easier to get him to sit still then! :)  He's such a big boy!

Grandma giving Connor his very first Chicago style pizza

The growth chart wall.  He is a lot taller than he was 5 months ago!