The Vocabulary of Connor

Cory and I have been a couple for 17 years... as with most couples who have been together that long, we have our own language. For example, about 15 years ago, we were at a bakery and the clerk could not find the proper coding for the delicious treat we were buying... she chose to code the sinful morsels as "Blueberry Muffins". To this day, EVERYTHING in a bakery case is now referred to as a blueberry muffin.

Now that we have Connor, our language has expanded. Here is a brief dictionary of terms...

Honey Cake... verb.... this is the act of becoming extremely intense and overstimulated by a toy or object. Used in a sentence... Connor went all honey cake on the Xbox controller. Phrase Origin - It comes from an evening that Connor got his mitts on a ziploc bag full of.... you got it... honey cake... he got so excited that when we took it from him, he literally vibrated for a few minutes.... Thus was borne the phrase... Honey cake.

Noodle... verb... swaddle. Used in a sentence... Connor needs to be noodled to go to sleep. Origin - dunno

Noodleage... noun... A quality scale for swaddling. Used in a sentence.... That's some mighty fine noodleage there, honey Origin - Derived from Noodle.

The list is long and growing with every day... Part II is coming...

Jolly Jumping

Adventures in Motherhood - Connor the Person

We are just a few weeks away from Connor being 6 months old. I've been going through the pictures and video for the last 6 months, it blows me away the differences and development. I find that I often talk about his physical development and down play the person he is becoming... I guess I use the videos to tell that tale...

Connor is extremely good natured. He wants to smile even when he is upset. He spends most of his days laughing and chatting with us. He smiles in his sleep and beams when he wakes up... He doesn't like to sleep in his crib, he prefers to sleep on my lap or in my arms or in the middle of our bed. To go to sleep in his crib he needs to be swaddled and the bed needs to be pre-heated with a heating pad. When he is sleepy and nursing, he plays with his hair.

He thrives on positive reinforcement which he receives by the bucket load. He cries if he thinks you are upset or if he thinks he has done something wrong (i.e. Biting a nipple). He startles easily like his mom... loud noises make us jump, but never make us cry.

He thinks farts are funny and so are sneezes. Although, he thinks our sneezes are loud and scary and he needs to be reassured that we didn't explode. He only likes to snuggle when he is feeling sleepy but there is a fine line between sleepy and cranky. Awake time is for kicking, wiggling, rolling and bouncing.

He will accept any food offered even if it makes him shudder and he is always willing to taste it again just in case he had it wrong the first time. When he is done eating, he is rewarded with the left over breast milk in a shot glass... we are pretty sure this is the only reason why he eats anything at all.

He loves to watch the dog's tail wag and is planning how to grab it. He loves the feeling of cat fur between his fingers especially when attached to a cat. He can stand himself up unassisted as long as he has his daddy's thumbs to pull himself up on and that makes him very happy.

He loves music to the point of distraction. His entire world stops for the opening theme song to the Gilmore Girls and M*A*S*H. He really doesn't like to be disturbed when these are playing so please don't block the television. In fact, TV only exists to him when music is coming from it...

He is certain that his life will improve greatly if he could just get his lips around the Xbox 360 controller and is willing to have a temper tantrum when his attempts are thwarted.

When he is crying because he feels he needs our full attention, he has a pouty lip that makes me smile every time. When he is serious about crying, his head turns bright red.

When he touches silk, he looks like he's touching the best thing in the world...

Well that's a little bit a snap shot of Connor the person... it changes and grows every day..

Adventures in Motherhood - The Photo Shoot

Adventures of Motherhood - Taste Testing

Thanks to the Nuby Nibbler... Connor tastes Watermelon...

Adventures in Motherhood – The Milestones

Never before have I been so concerned with calendars and development, until having a child. All actions are reviewed on a chart and compared to where he should be today. On a whole, Connor seems to be above the average for hitting milestones. He is a very strong baby. Apparently all that excessive kicking he did before he was born translated into a physically fit baby. He has been bearing weight on his legs since he was three months old. I can't remember him not being able to hold up his head. He passed a toy from one hand to the other months ago... and just the other day he exhibited object permanence when he dropped (or threw) his toy on the floor and then leaned over to look for it...

As a general rule, he hits the milestones either before the average or right on the line... for example, he rolled over from belly to back the day after he turned 4 months. The "Books" say that he should roll over belly to back between 4-6 months. Recently, he was behind the curve... in my mind, anyway... all the other babies in his age group started rolling from back to belly... I started to fret... worry... then I discovered that he had zero motivation to make this move. Connor is extremely motivated by positive reinforcement... EXTREMELY! So we helped him roll from his back to belly and then lavished him with praise... he spent the next hour perfecting the roll over himself and now he is a rolling machine.

He still doesn't enjoy eating cereal. He gets a tonne of praise and ends up eating almost a tablespoon's worth but it's a long process. I enjoy the opportunity for Cory to feed his son, but I think we are going to stop again and try again at 6 months. Connor isn't eager and the cereal isn't value-added at this point of the game.

He is sleeping better (Thanks to my demi-goddess Kara!!). Swaddling was like giving him a sleeping pill. I am learning to put him to down to sleep when he starts to exhibit signs of being sleepy and following a loose routine with him. I still haven't corrected his bed time but he is following his own schedule now. Baby steps!!

Adventures of Motherhood - Food Rewards

So Connor is still not enthusastic about his cereal... he gets barley in the morning and rice at night. After he eats his rice cereal, he gets a treat... he drinks the leftover breast milk from a glass...

My Daddy Did My Hair

Adventures in Motherhood - The Food Dilemma

Wow.... what a hot topic feeding between 4-6 months. I don't think I've found a more diverse set of opinions on any other baby topics. Some doctors recommend cereal at 4 months, others say stay completely away until 6 months, some say only rice cereal, some say only single grain cereals, others say go ahead with low allergen foods...

So in my complete confusion, I made my own decision... I'd let the kid decide if he wants to try stuff. He is being offered a rice cereal and a barley cereal. To be honest, he isn't a fan but he's a trooper and tries it for me. He seems to like the barley cereal better than the rice cereal but he isn't enthusastic by any stretch. I'm sure he will get the hang of it eventually...

Adventures in Motherhood - Sleep

Okay, I am admitting that we have screwed up.... Connor does not go down for the night until 3-4am and sleeps until mid to late afternoon, with a feeding every few hours. He will fall asleep on my lap or in my arms but the second his back touches the crib mattress, he wakes up and starts wailing. In order to get any sleep, he has been coming to bed with us and nursed to sleep. While this does give us a chance to sleep, it is a poor quality sleep, fearing that we may roll on him or some other parental nightmare. My hips and lower back are so sore from being in a locked position all night.

Our biggest issue is that Connor will go to sleep but seems to wake himself up. He falls asleep with his feet in the air but as they gently relax into sleep, they drop down and wake him up. I've almost conquered this one by rolling up a blanket and placing it under his legs when I first put him down, if I have progressed to the point that he will actually lay down.

So we have our work cut out for us... we need to get him back into his own bed, change his bedtime back to a more suitable time and get him to fall asleep on his own.... should be simple enough...ha!