Hockey Night in Memphis

Connor always uses this toy car as a "skating board." (Against all odds, he has not yet needed stitches.) This weekend he was using a golf club and a rubber ball while "skating." I stupidly asked, "What is this game?" So Connor hit the ball past me and said, "I made a goal with the puck, Mommy!" So wow- he's watched a half hour total of hockey in his lifetime, and now he can play it. I guess he pays more attention to SportsCenter highlights than I thought! His uncles from the North are fighting over who gets credit for this- they're both very proud.

More skating hijinks to follow- I didn't want to spoil you by posting it all at once!

Long Time No Post

Here's our bathing beauty- Sorry we haven't been good about putting up pictures lately. Now that the new seasons of 24 and American Idol have started, we just don't have time for things like taking pictures of Connor! Just kidding- he's just as cute as ever. I keep waiting until he gets a haircut to take and post pics- it is shaggy way beyond the point of cute at this stage! When I was in elementary school, there was this one kid who rode the bus with me (can't remember his name, but I can remember his stop) and his hair always looked like Connor's looks right now. And every morning, someone would say to that kid, "Hey, did your mom brush your hair with the blender?" and we'd all laugh and he'd cry. The point of this story is, I'm just glad Connor doesn't ride the bus yet.

As you may know, we got rid of our old funky carpet and put hardwood in all of the bedrooms upstairs. Then we had to get a couple of new pieces of furniture so that there would be something in the baby's room besides hardwood and a crib. So we ended up letting Connor pick out some furniture for his room and transferring the other stuff into the baby's room. He picked out a bed with a slide on it. It ended up being a good deal, so I figured why not. Same with the chair- it's comfy and big, and it was the floor model so it was dirt cheap. Woohoo! Clark has already used it more than the rest of us. I'm glad I could get something that made him happy.
Now let me go ahead and address your concerns:
1. Yes, I worry that he might fall off of it. But I also worry that he will fall off of any bed/chair/table/etc. that he gets near, because he tends to jump on and off of things with no regard for his own personal safety. Then he laughs when he does fall. But I am not really concerned that he will just roll out in the night, since there are rails on it. Of course, this is his first night in it, so he could prove me wrong any minute now.
2. No, he won't grow out of it in a year or two. Many people told me a kid will use this until they're 10 or older. Imagine Connor sitting under it with a lamp or flashlight reading a book! If you knew me when I was 8 or 9, this would not be a crazy idea.
3. Even though we are 95% sure of the name, we are still not ready to have stuff monogrammed or anything. I like to keep my options open! (I know this isn't a concern about the bed, but it's the other question I get asked the most.)

We'll try to do better with the blog!

Rock n Roll!

As you probably know, Connor got a guitar for Christmas. What you might not know is that he also got a karaoke machine! We've had many fantastic performances since Christmas. What's really fun is that he knows a surprising number of song lyrics, although a lot of times he starts one song and finishes another. If I could post video here, I would show you a great rendition of Jingle Bell Rock.










This picture is particularly funny to me. He asked me to hold his guitar, but you can tell how badly he really wants it back. His mouth is smiling at the camera, but his eyes and hands betray his true intentions.

More Christmas

Christmas at our house was a lot of fun, especially for Connor. Santa used to leave presents unwrapped under the tree for Chip, but he always left my presents wrapped- so when he visited our house he combined those two methods. As a result, the first thing Connor saw when he came downstairs was a guitar and a bunch of Matchbox cars! He was beside himself over the guitar, and would have played with it and the cars forever if we hadn't forced him to start opening presents. In this picture you can see the art table Grammy bought him, as well as a bunch of cars and the beloved guitar. He actually did a great job of playing with everything he got, including a plastic golf set, a talking Dora backpack, and this train set (along with a lot of other stuff- if I'm leaving your gift out I apologize. Trust me when I say he hasn't gotten tired of any of it yet).



The rest of us got fun toys too, but the day definitely belonged to Connor. If you haven't had Christmas morning with a small kid lately, I highly recommend it.

That afternoon Jackie, Ellis and Tiffany came over for a big meal, and then that evening Chip and I left the aforementioned small kid at home with his grandparents and headed to Tiff's to spend some time with our friends, or as we like to call them, our other extended family. It was an early night for us because I had a bad cold (and also I'm hugely pregnant). This lead to a belated Christmas present for Chip, as I woke up Monday morning with absolutely no voice at all. Nothing but a whisper. Chip was living the dream!

More holiday posts to follow. And yes Bill O'Reilly, I mean holiday, because we celebrated New Year's last week too! And it's Bowl Week for cryin' out loud! That counts as a holiday too! Thus the phrase, Happy Holidays! (I won't even mention Hanukkah. Or spell it correctly, apparently. But you get the idea.)

Cleaning the Holiday Leftovers Out of the Fridge

Ok, we got real behind on posting the Christmas pics...

On the the 18th, we had the extended-family get-together at Mimi and Bwana's house. It was the first Christmas in the new mountain-retreat home.

Oh, the unbridled consumerism!

All the cousins together: (Yes, we're all the same generation, except for Connor.)
And one more from that gathering-- newest cousin Kaitlyn. Lookit her eyes!