The Many Faces of Conor

Conor is becoming quite the little comic lately. He's discovered that if he makes a funny face, everyone laughs at him. It may be the cutest thing Morgan and I have ever seen. Even better, when we laugh at him, he does this fake laugh back to us which causes me to laugh even harder which makes him fake laugh more and it quite the hilarious circle. I love this kid more and more every day.

What a smile for the camera!

Hey, what is this thing?

Funny face profile.

He was saying CHEEEEEESE!

Here he was saying CHEEEEEESE with oatmeal!

Winter Sports

Our dear Arizona friends, Manuel and Katie visited us this past weekend. Since they had never been to Oregon we decided to take them up to Mt. Hood to enjoy a couple of days on the mountain. Morgan and Manuel went snowboarding and the rest of us decided to go snow shoeing. I was able to rent snow shoes and poles from school for cheap and thought it would be a great way to have our own bit of fun in the snow.

What fun! And so easy too. I was afraid it would be a workout in the vein of cross country skiing but it was so much easier. You just strap them onto your boots and away you go! We brought along Tucker of course, and about a quarter mile into our hike we passed another dog who looked just like a wolf. She and Tucker said their hellos and we walked on. About five minutes later, she showed up again and stayed with us for the rest of the trip. She and Tucker got along great and she gave Tucker a little incentive to run and play and get out some energy. Turns out her owner lets her roam the forest for an hour or so on her own and she always returns. Sounds a little scary to me, but as she was one of the best behaved dogs I've encountered, I'll certainly defer to her owner's expertise.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...Good times with good friends!

Mountain Family.

We're so rugged!

Mommy and the Brown Abominable SnowBaby.

We're ready to go! See Conor strapped onto Keenan's back? Yeah that's an extra 25 pounds of dead weight.

I'm ready to go, Mom!

11 months!

Oh my baby! Where has the time gone? Conor is ELEVEN months old now and so amazing. I look at him and think how is this kid my baby? He's WALKING and TALKING and he has the cutest fake laugh you've ever heard. And he can click his tongue. You know what I mean? Where you press your tongue to the roof of your mouth and let it hit just below your lower teeth? Where did he learn that?

He can say CAT, and MAMA, and DADA, and NANA, and GAGA, and DOG and HI. That's seven words at less than a year old. Einstein, anyone?

And he is walking for real now. It was so fast too. One day he is crawling and taking a few steps here and there and the next day he walked across the room. Does it happen that quickly with all kids? While he still walks around like he's a drunken sailor, every day he just gets a little more sturdy on his feet.

I went back to work on MWF for just a few hours a day so Conor is in day care five days a week now. He loves little Riley who is his care giver's daughter and always has fun. I get to feel like I am contributing to the finanaces now so I think everyone wins.

I'll wrap this up with a few pictures. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Here Conor is wearing a pair of overalls that were purchased in 1977 by Great Grandpa Cobb for Uncle Rhino (Morgan's brother, Ryan for those of you without a cheat sheet). They have been passed down from baby to baby since then and Conor is the 11th little one to wear them. AWWW, how cute is that? Don't you just love the pose too? He's like, "ladies, how you doin'?"

See that thing on his arm? Yeah, that is a temporary tattoo from Daddy. You can't see in this picture but its a skull and cross bones. And they use the word "temporary" loosely.

He's a lion!

Hello friends! I'm as adorable as the day is long! Thank you for admiring me.
Love, Conor

Conor's First Christmas!

Yes, I am woefully behind on pictures and posting. The problem is that my mom let me borrow her laptop so now every time I want to check my email I can do it WHILE I AM WATCHING TV! Its not bad and lazy, its multi-tasking! So I haven't been in our office where the pictures are any time recently. But, because you all want to see the adorable boy on his very first Christmas, I present to you the following:

Cute as a button in a Christmas bib, over Christmas Jammies, surrounded by Christmas presents. He was not at all interested in the presents. I had thought that he mind find some interest in the ribbons and bows and wrapping paper but no. Next year, perhaps?

He loved gnawing on the new bath toys through the mesh bag.

Playing with his new tractor/book with Papa. His two favorite things, books and wheels, combined. YES!

Oh and did I mention that Morgan made Conor the coolest present EVER? About 6 weeks ago Morgan decided he wanted Conor to have a toy box. This came after stepping on his toys (REPEATEDLY) in the playroom because we are running out of toy storage space. So, he draws out this dump truck on a piece of paper, goes to Home Depot to buy wood and nails and other manly items and on Christmas Eve this appeared!

Conor can sit inside, the bed fills up with toys (it will have a dump feature in the future, I'm told), and the wheels actually spin. And this is all from Morgan's imagination and a couple weekends of hard work! And don't you love the colors of the letters and their spacing? Don't you just think it makes the whole truck come together? That was my contribution. Morgan told me that I could choose the colors but when I told him what colors I wanted, I was told I could do the letters. Oh well!

Special thanks to Keenan for ALL of his help with this project. Morgan was sick with the flu on Christmas Eve and without Keenan here to help, it would have never been finished in time.

Snow. Again.

A few more snow day pictures to share with you.

Conor sharing an apple with Buggy.

Our backyard after 14 inches of snow, covered by ice, covered by more snow.

Conor on a walk with Mommy and Buggy. Our nice neighbors took this picture.

Snuggled up in the Baby Bjorn. This kid is HEAVY!

Reading stories with Buggy. Such fun!

Our snow is gone, and while I'm there are some who miss it, I think everyone I know was happy to see it melt away. Its so beautiful but unfortunately Portland is not well prepared for snow and so the whole city sort of grinds to a stop. The city actually ran out of de-icer and the mayor was on the news joking (maybe) asking if anyone had any de-icer they could donate.

Good news is that we made it through safely and, despite a few minor spin outs on my part, we escaped with ourselves and our vehicles intact.