Older and wiser 1 year 4 months!

Hi everyone! Hope you are well! I have been doing great. This is a photo of me from today, Mommy said "Look how much taller you are than the back of the chair now!" Yes, I have grown a little bit bigger I guess, lots of my shirts are now a wee bit too short. I have busy playing and learning things, which keeps Mommy and Daddy quite busy as well, as I always like to have them around me, especially Mommy. Yes, I am all 'take, take take' but so far I can get away with that without any problem.

I can walk really well now, and I really like to run, too! I like to take Mommy's hand and take her to where I want to play. It's great to be able to do that! I started to walk without having to hold on to anything around 14 months. My girl friend Ellie also walked at 14 months. Now that I can walk, I love being able to stroll around wherever I want, especially when we go out to the park or to the mall. Here's a picture of me from mid-October - very happy to be outside!



I have a set of flash cards with pictures of items like a cat. If they ask me "Where's the cat?" I can find the cat card for them. I can find the cat, dog, keys, baby, apple, fish, teddy bear, shoes. For some reason they find this very cool. Speaking of shoes, I love wearing shoes. I wear them in the house every day. My favourite pair is one that squeaks! If I'm not wearing them like to take my shoes and put them in my drawer.

On Saturdays Mommy and Daddy take me to a class at Gymboree, which is lots of fun. I was scared the first time and I was REALLY scared of Gymbo the clown, but I think I am finally used to seeing him and have stopped freaking out everytime the clown kisses me (Mom says to tell you it's a clown puppet). The class has a lot of physical activity play items set up, like slides and climbing gyms. Each class they set it up a little bit differently. Then there are some group activities, where all us toddlers push a big soft log, or we sit on the log, or we sit around and the lady there sings the bubble song and blows out all these bubbles. I learned how to hit the floor with both my hands when they say "Thunder", and when we call "Gymbooooo" for Gymbo to come play, I knock on the floor. Mommy and Daddy have fun there too, once Mom climbed into one of the big soft barrels and rolled around a bit.

Here's a few photos from Gymboree.


I still have swimming classes on Sundays. I am not really into swimming these days. A few weeks ago, Mommy dunked me underwater and I got really scared. And then the next week she did it AGAIN. I did NOT like that, and now I'm always scared that she will do it again. I only have fun when I get to play with the swim toys.

I still really like my Baby Einstein videos, and I like to read, too. My favourite for a while was my Old MacDonald Had a Barn Flip Book. I would make Mommy or Daddy read it over and over and over.

I am still resisting eating whatever food they try to give me. I like being a baby and drinking my milk and eating cookies and Cheerios! But I will eat honeydew, bananas, peas, cream of mushroom soup with ABC pastas, and PoPo gives me rice noodles for lunch every day and I really like that.

One of the things I'm trying to learn right now is going down a step. Anytime I can, I like to step up on an item and step off the item. The big people all pay a lot of attention to me when I do this. They keep saying I'm like a little monkey.

I am also very fascinated with the inside of the refrigerator. So many things to look at in there! I took out a bottle of hot sauce yesterday and hid it, they still have not found it. Hee hee.

Well that's all for now, I'll try not to take so long for another update!

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Happy Hallowe'een Weekend

Did you all have a Happy Hallowe'en weekend? I had a great one! I love playing dress-up as Tigger the Tiger. Hear me roar! We went to the mall where I got free candies (not that I got to eat any of it) and I got to see other kids dressed up, too. Dad also played with me lots, he pushed me around on my horse (see the video!). In the evening kids came to our door asking for candy, and I handed some out.

We went to the park today. I love going outside and walking through the leaves and on the gravel at the playground. I got to play on the swing too, that was fun!


On Sunday we visited my girlfriends Addison and Avery, who have a new sister Makena. Most of their toys are girl toys, like strollers and Dora dolls, but I played with them anyway.

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Connor at 14 Months

I've been a bad little blogger and haven't provided an update in a couple of months. A lot sure can happen in two months!

Connor loves to give this wide-open mouth grin-smile. It's hilarious, he opens his mouth as wide as he can!

In August, we took Connor on his first plane ride out to Toronto to visit all the relatives and friends there. Here's a shot of a very tired mom+baby on the way home. Connor was pretty good on the plane, but he screamed like a banshee on the descent - must have been the pressure in the ears. Nursing didn't help any, he was in too much discomfort to even try. Poor baby!

We took lots of photos in Toronto, which I've been having trouble posting onto Picasa as I've run out of space! So I have to figure out something else. It's been hard to find time to blog, as over the past two months Connor has been building up his walking legs so you basically have to watch him carefully all the time, otherwise he can easily fall over and give himself some good bruises. At one point he looked like he was in a car accident, he had so many bruises on his head! He started trying to walk at about 11.5 months. Now, about two months later, he is able to walk around quite good by himself. Not yet 100%, but almost there!

Connor is still not eating too well in that he will only eat crackers and cookies. He seems to still enjoy bananas, and depending on his mood he might also eat yogurt, peas, long beans, cream of mushroom soup, and noodles in clear soup. He loves blueberries, and we've given him concord grapes and other fruits. Po Po calls him a vegetarian! We also give him chocolate milk mixed with homo milk. Last week I started buying the Avalon brand milk, which is the best milk I have ever tasted (at a premium price, unfortunately). I think Connor likes this milk better, too.

In early September, the Allen Grandparents and Aunties Emily and Molly came to visit. It was a short but great visit. Here are a few videos from their time with Connor.

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Connor's Big Shiny New Ride-On Toy

Connor received a big new ride-on toy for his birthday from Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Brian. It's a fancy convertible walker/ride-on car that plays music, has a horn, and other "car" sounds. The front "hood" has shaped holes to put in shaped toys, and the "hood" can open and close, too. Connor loves all the sounds it makes. He hasn't yet taken to the idea that it's a ride-on, but I have seen him straddle the toy by himself at least once, so he's learning!

Connor can crawl around really quickly now, he can crawl faster than Gung Gung can walk, that's for sure! He's also able to "cruise" - hang onto items and walk - very easily. He's starting to try climbing onto higher surfaces such as the sofa - he can do it if he steps on something, like a small stool. He loves shiny gadgets with knobs that can turn - so much for trying to teach him not to touch such things! His favourite "toys" are the remote controls, the DVD buttons, and the TV buttons.

A new TV cabinet with doors has been ordered. Hope it arrives soon, before the DVD and TV breaks!

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Connor Turns One!

It's hard to believe that one entire year has gone by already - my Baby turned one year old on July 16th! Since it was a Thursday, we celebrated with a party on Sunday July 12th.

We had Connor's swimming lesson in that Sunday morning, so it made it a little bit of a hectic to prepare for the party, which started at 2pm. Connor had a deep sleep nap after swimming, but he was still very cranky for the entire party. See these two photos here, it pretty much sums up how crazy it was! Both Connor and Kolton are crying!

From Birthday

On Connor's actual birthdate, we had a small cake at home (which, you'll see from the video, Connor wasn't terribly interested in trying it!).

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Learning how to swim

Mommy and Daddy signed me up for swim lessons. Lots of other little boys and girls are there with their mommies and daddies, too. I'm learning how to move around in the water, it's fun! They want us to learn how to blow bubbles but I'm not ready for that yet. Mostly, they just want me to get used to being in the water.

Here's some videos of me frolicking in the water with Daddy!

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Connor's First Swim

I bought a small wade pool for Connor to "swim" in. We will be taking a baby swim course beginning the end of June, and I wanted to get Connor used to being in water outside of his own bathtub. Of course this is very nice for those super hot days too - which we had for a while here in early June.

Here's a video of Connor's first time in his little pool!

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Connor's First Stand

Connor is now able to stand up by himself by pushing up against a flat wall - he still needs to hang on or touch something for balance to stay standing. I'm sure he'll be able to stand with no support any day now. He's not yet started "cruising" - where baby walks by himself while holding on to something for support, for example along the sofa.

He started trying to stand around the first week of June. Here is a video of one of the first times that he was able to stand while holding something else, in this case, inside the playard. The video is from June 11, 2009.

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Crawling Baby Connor goes for the booze

My computer has been giving me some minor problems with recognizing my camera's USB, so it's been less easy to get photos posted quickly. So I have some catching up to do - lots of stuff I want to share!

As I wrote in my last post, Connor has been crawling around for quite a few weeks now - he started around early-mid May, and began to crawl around real good starting around the end of May. He's now 11 months and 3 days old, and can crawl as fast as I can walk. We are using one of his playpens to block the stairway, as he is fearless and will not hesitate to bolt head first off a bed or sofa, and for sure the stairs (luckily this has never happened yet, we've always caught him in time!).

When Connor was first learning to crawl, he'd get on all fours and rock back and forth. See this video to see him rock out! The video was taken on May 11, 2009.



Here's another video of Connor crawling, from May 31. He's quite mobile here, and goes straight for our wine rack!

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Yes we are still here at 10.5 months!

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Ooopsy, has it really been one month since I last blogged? It always seems so very busy! In April we had Connor's Grandma Jackie visit, and in May we had two of his friends from Toronto stay over the Victoria Day long weekend to celebrate Linds' birthday. In between guests visiting there is always the clean-up and preparation before, and then the clean-up and recovery afterwards. And in-between there's the daily life stuff like buying groceries or going to the doctor's. Always something to do!

In May I took a bunch of photos of Connor in his birthday suit. Connor doesn't cooperate all that well with photos anymore because he is crawling around like crazy and doesn't like to sit still! He can crawl across a room in no time at all. He hates being in the playpens now, since he loves to roam free and explore. With his new found mobility, he's rolled off our bed (the Queen-size bed) TWICE now - once in his sleep, and once TODAY where basically he nosedived off the bed (luckily he fell off with a pillow and landed on it, as far as we could tell). He would rather explore and play rather than sleep these days. This caught up with him yesterday when he was crawling around and suddenly I guess his arms were too tired and he did a faceplant onto the vinyl floor! And so he got his first boo-boo on his upper lip.

Connor's upper front teeth are now visible, and we just found yesterday that a fourth and maybe fifth tooth (both upper, the ones beside the two front) are coming in as well!

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Sunny days in Vancouver

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The weather has been very good the past week! Sun sun sun, so nice outside! Last Friday Mommy and I went to visit Kolton (we visit at least once a week) and took a stroll around the park by their house. It was SO bright outside! Mommy brought my two pairs of sunglasses, one for me to wear of course and the other for little cousin Kolton. The sunglasses are still too big for both of us but I managed to keep mine on for a little while. Kolton's getting bigger really fast, he's looking chubby now (that's what Po Po says).

Here's Po Po with me and Kolton, in our hats too!

I enjoyed our little stroll... for a while, anyway!
Hey you can see my two little teeth here!

Kolton trying on his shades... doesn't he look cool!
You can see Mommy and Auntie Cindy's reflection in this, neat!

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Our day at Southeast False Creek

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Mommy says I am a big boy now... I am less fussy! Today I had a nice day out with Mommy and Daddy. Even though I missed my morning nap, I was all smiles at the restaurant and drumming away. See the video!

After lunch we walked around Southeast False Creek, near the site of the Olympic Village. It was a sunny day and I had fallen asleep as soon as I got in the car. Mommy carried me in her Baby Belle Carrier and I slept through most of the walk. See the photos, I am sleeping with Mommy and the photo with Daddy my eyes look a little droopy!

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Happy Easter!

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My first Easter! Today was Easter Sunday. It rained most of the day, so it wasn't particularly exciting, but it did end with some sunshine. I was a good boy most of the day, I didn't fuss too much. I tried some rigatoni pasta (plain) for the first time today, I had a lot of trouble holding onto those slippery things. Grandma Jackie bought me some Farley cookies - she says she had them when she was little, and so did Daddy. I like them, they are very hard so it's good to chew on. Did I mention that my second tooth had started coming in too?

Here is a video from yesterday of me with the Hippity Hop bunny that Grandma Jackie bought me. Those are her legs in the video!

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Grandma Jackie's visiting!

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My Grandma Jackie (Mah Mah) is visiting us, yay! She brought me some new toys, a 'hippity hop' dancing and singing bunny that I love, and a little jitter bunny that I love too! And some snappy new clothes too!

The night she arrived, she rocked me to sleep - and caught on camera, see the pictures below. Mah Mahs are the best!

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Cousin Kolton's One-Month Celebration

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Cousin Kolton reached his one-month of life on April 8, and to celebrate, his parents held a big dinner party at a Chinese restaurant.

According to Chinese custom, the baby's biggest celebration is at one month when the baby is (finally) allowed out of the house. An infant who reached one month of age was likely to survive, and so a "Red Egg and Ginger Party" was held, introducing the latest addition to relatives and friends.In Cantonese the occasion is pronounced "moon yeut."Traditionally, the baby's name is also announced at this time. The Red Egg and Ginger party has evolved over time into a banquet style dinner.

I was a good baby for most of the evening. But when Great-Auntie Rose and Great Uncle Pau make faces at me I don't like that and so I started screaming. :D

Here's Kolton with Great Grandma Kwok and
Great-Auntie Rose and Great Uncle Pau.

With my daddy, Uncle Andrew, Po Po, Gung Gung, and Great Grandma Kwok.

Me and Po Po. Doesn't she look nice all dressed up!
Oh, I was dressed up too in my collared shirt and dress pants!

This is Auntie Tina, one of mommy's good friends.

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Baby Connor playing the djembe

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It looks like my baby is on his way to career as a drummer! Check out the video!

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Someone keeps stealing your lunch? Try an anti-theft lunch bag!

 

via onegoodie.com

This would certainly deter anybody from stealing your yummy sandwich!

Posted via web from ChitChat

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A day in our life

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Now that PoPo is over at cousin Kolton's all the time, I am having to watch Connor all day for the first time. Previously, she was always there as a backup and since she loved taking care of him, beginning around January I was having her watch Connor for most of the day and I spent my time blogging instead. She was also making dinner for us most days. Yes, I was spoiled!

So now I have a new routine.

• Wake up between 8-9am (ok this has not changed actually since January! It was because of that darn snow and we couldn't go anywhere so why not just sleep in!? Now I can't get out of bed before 8am!)
  

• Change Connor, wipe his face, give his Vitamin D drops, get myself together. (20-30 minutes)

• Connor plays in his playpen next to my computer. I check email etc. Connor gets bored, so then I have him on my lap and I show him some of the ABC segment from Starfall.com. (30-40 minutes)

• Set Connor in his feeding chair and start preparing his breakfast and my breakfast. Feed us both. Clean up. Start some preparations for food for later in the day. I steamed some apples and broccoli and pureed it yesterday - turned out great, Connor loved it. I read that steaming retains more flavour and nutrients. (1-1.5 hour)

• Change Connor's diaper. Let him jump around in his Jolly Jumper. (20 minutes)

• He'll be fussy by now, so it's time for a nap. I might nurse him a bit now, or after his nap. Even though he is on solids, the majority of his nutrition is still supposed to be from breast milk. The past few days I've been wearing him on my back to sleep. He'll nap from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on any interruptions that wake him. I get back on the computer to blog, etc. Or I might do more food prep, or laundry.

• Connor wakes up and I let him play about 15 minutes in his playpen, just to wake him out of his slumber.

• Time for lunch! Back to his high chair. After eating and clean-up, I may do more food prep for dinner. Takes 1-1.5 hours.

• Connor plays some more, perhaps in his exersaucer or on the floor with me. I can also watch Young and the Restless now. :D
  

• By now it's either 2:30-3:30, and it's nap time again. So I get to do more computer stuff or other household chore.

• Connor will wake between 4:00-5:30, and Linds might be home by 5pm and it's time to think about dinner. Linds always showers when he gets home, because he can get very dirty from being in the warehouse at work.
  

• 5:30-6:00pm, Linds will feed Connor while I make dinner. Connor sits with us through dinner and eats a rice cracker or plays with his toys or fusses.

• 7:00-8:30pm, Connor will go down for the night. I always nurse him to sleep in bed. I had wanted to avoid nursing him to sleep, not sure how I ended up doing it. :/
  

That's our day together! Here are a couple of videos of Connor playing and eating today.

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Baby's First Tooth!

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My first tooth is coming! It's the lower left tooth. Po Po realized it yesterday when she let me gnaw on a cup and she could hear clinking. Mommy stuck her finger onto my gums and felt it, too. You can barely see it, but it's there, it's coming! Yay, I can't wait to start chewing foods!

Here's a super-duper close-up of my gums.

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I did 9 months and finally got out

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Hi everyone! Don't you just love this cool t-shirt!
Yup, I did my time, now I'm out!

I was innocent, I tell you!

I am much brattier now. I refuse to take my daily vitamin D drops - I shut my mouth tight and move my head around so mommy can't get the dropper in. I touch everything that I can get my hands on. I like to bang my toys. I like to grab mommy's lips and nose, and when she yelps because my nails get her I laugh. Hee hee hee. :D

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A few more photos of Kwok Jr.!

A few more photos of Kwok Jr.!

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Welcome to the world, cousin Kwok Jr!

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My brother and his wife welcomed a new wee one last night! At 9:15 pm on March 8, 2009, little Kwok Jr came into the world weighing 6 lb 6 oz!

Connor and I, along with Po Po and Gung Gung, went to visit this afternoon. I can barely remember Connor ever being this tiny! Connor was born 6 lb, 4 oz.

Kwok Jr arrived after giving his mommy a long wait (her water broke on Friday around 9pm!). Everyone is doing very well!

Here is a video of our visit with the new one.

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Baby's Crying Face

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Connor has been very needy the last few days. He doesn't like being left to his own devices. Starts crying as soon as you put him down. Probably spoiled by Po Po!

Here's his crybaby face...





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