The muffin man

Anytime we get a few bananas that start to go mushy, we turn them into banana-chocolate chip muffins. Connor's my muffin maker helper. He's the official "banana masher". We've made them so many times that he tells me what goes in them: butter, sugar, egg, flour, soda, salt, and of course the chips...his favorite part. I should've gotten a couple of pictures of him mashing and adding stuff to the bowl, but didn't think of it until we were almost done. Maybe next time.

Cutting takes total concentration

A few weeks ago I picked up Connor his first scissors. The first few times were tough. Trying to show him how to hold the scissors with one hand and hold the paper with the other didn't work well with the two-year-old who wanted to do it his way and by himself. I second guessed myself thinking maybe he was too young yet. A little practice everyday and he has come a long way in a short time. At first he didn't like cutting ads since the paper is thinner. It would crimple up on him. Now the toy ones are his favorite. He likes to sit and cut paper every day. It's his new thing. Usually his cutting time is while I'm getting supper together. Works for me.

Connor's new bed

This past Saturday we took down Connor's crib and put up his new "big boy bed". He was all for it when I asked him and he started chucking all his blankets and animals out of his crib. It didn't take too long and we had the new bed all up and running. So far he has done pretty good napping and sleeping in it. Although he has bonked his head a few times on the footboard already. Not sure how, but I think when he's climbing out or something. He has tried to escape a few times from napping and going to bed, but we just keep putting him back in there and eventually he goes to sleep. Last night was another story. He was up at 3:00am and was convinced he wasn't going back to bed. I ended up laying with him in his bed, otherwise he wasn't going down. And he didn't want his pillow and he wanted all his animals in his bed. Finally I convinced him that I needed to go sleep in my big bed since his was too small. He asked me to shut the door on my way out....and that was it. He woke up at 8:30am this morning. Maybe that's the trick, we just need to keep his door shut all night. I hope he does better tonight. I'm sure it will take a little getting used to since he is used to being confined to his crib and sleeping on his belly with no pillow. He has done pretty well considering, except for last night. Connor celebrating his new freedom.

Putting all his stuffed friends that were in his crib on his new bookshelf. They didn't last long there as they are all in his bed now. And every one has to be accounted for before he can go to sleep. If there is one missing, it has to be found before he can go to sleep. UGH!

Christmas 2009

Finally I get my Christmas pictures together. For Christmas we made it down to Okabena before the big snowstorm. We brought Connor's stocking along so that Santa would know he was down there instead of at home. Santa did find him on Christmas Eve and in his words, "dropped down a bag of presents for him." We did make it over to my Grandma's on Christmas Day and then opened gifts at my parents house that night. On Sunday morning we drove to Mark's brother's in Sartell for Christmas with Mark's family. We were back home Sunday night. Once back home, we did a little more stretching of the house to allow for all the new stuff. :)

Connor's 2nd Birthday

Connor was lucky and had two birthday parties this year. The first one was at my parent's house a few weeks before his birthday. The second one we had on his actual birthday. We had a few friends and neighbors over for supper to help him celebrate his big day. My parents also made a surprise visit to our house the day before his birthday. They surprised us all as we didn't know they were coming. Connor says thank you to everyone for all the fun presents!

Thanksgiving

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I'm like so behind. But I do have three fun slideshows for everything. Lots of pictures so the best way was to put them in slideshows. For Thanksgiving, we get together with my Mom's side of the family at a hotel in the cities. We stayed from Thanksgiving Day til Saturday. This year was the first time in a long time that everyone was there on Thanksgiving Day. We had a photographer come and take pictures, but the ones in my slideshow are the ones that I took. It's always a fun weekend as this is often the only time of the year that we see everyone. Mark and I also took Connor to the Mall of America on the day after Thanksgiving. He had fun on the rides.

Connor & Izzabelle

Before Thanksgiving, we were down to my parents house for the weekend. Izzabelle, my sister Bon's daughter, was also there. Since Thanksgiving was the following week, Izzabelle decided that she wanted to come stay at Connor's house. Which she did. They played and played. For only being two years old, she did very well. She talked on the phone to her Mom daily and slept on the floor in Connor's room. They both slept well in the same room. We played in the house and outside, rode Connor's gator, and I took them to Vining to the park and to the statue park in town. They both had lots of fun and played pretty well together.