Baby Kisses

Conan is an enthusiastic kisser. Wet, sloppy, open-mouthed kisses which occasionally turn into attempted hickeys are his speciality. What a sweet boy!

Signing

Conan has started using the sign for milk. I'm especially impressed because I didn't really think I was doing a very good job teaching it. I probably only remember to show him the sign about 30% of the time I give him milk. But aparently it was enough, because he really has the hang of it.

Of course now the dilemma is what to do when he asks for milk and I don't want to (or can't) give him any right then? The entire 15 or so minutes after his shower while I was getting him ready for bed last night he was signing milk - which he does get at bedtime, but first we have to get him dried off, put on a night-time diaper and jammies, and brush his tooth. Milk Milk Milk Milk Milk, he said. I guess I need to learn how to sign "Yes I know you want milk - just a minute"! That's a little advanced though. We're still working on "more" and "food"...

Still sick, but getting better

Conan and I have both come down with the flu. Or maybe it's a bad cold - hard to tell for sure. In any case, it started on monday night with a headache, tiredness, and a scratchy throat, which by Tuesday morning had developed into a sinus fire, stuffy ears, and sore throat so bad it hurt even to breathe. Wednesday I was feverish with a racking cough, but at least the sore throat went away and congestion put out the fire in my sinuses. Conan has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough, and Tuesday and Wednesday he was cranky and had a low appetite. Today we are both feeling better, Conan's appetite is back and I am not feverish. He still has quite the snotty nose and I am still achy and have bad coughing and sneezing fits, but I feel like we are both on the mend. Whew! I'll be glad when we are healthy again.

For lunch today I made us grilled cheese sandwiches. It was Conan's first ever sandwich, and he was a little hesitant at first. He loves toast, but this was clearly different...
The verdict? Yummy!
He ate almost the whole thing, and now is happily playing in the living room. I'm so glad to see he's feeling better. There's hardly anything sadder than a sick baby, unless it's a sick mom with a sick baby.

Walking

Yesterday Conan started really walking. It's been less than two weeks since he took his first step (Sunday Oct 4). Early this week he started taking 2 or 3 steps at a time. Wednesday he had a couple good bursts of walking, 5 to 7 steps at a time. Today he is walking from place to place, no more couting steps - it's about distance now!

It's hard to get on camera, because when he sees the camera he drops to his knees and crawls to me as fast as he can to try and get ahold of it. So this isn't his best walking but you get the idea. :)

A tooth at last!

Conan has finally cut his first tooth! It's just barely poking through but it's definitely, finally, there. It's the lower right center tooth. I was getting a little worried - most kids get their first tooth between 4 and 7 months of age, and by 10 months nearly all of them have two teeth, some have quite a few more. The books say not to worry unless they don't grow any teeth by 12 months, but I was starting to anyway...

Ten Months Old

And more fun than ever! It's hard to beleive how much he's changed. All the things he can do now - sit, crawl, stand, even toddle a few steps, go up and down stairs, say mama, clap, wave hello and bye-bye, bang things together, look at books, play games,SLEEP ALL NIGHT - all these things seemed so far away as to be nearly unattainable just a few months ago. It seems like just the other day I was all excited because he found his toes! :)

Standing, Playing & a first step

Conan took his first step last night! He stood up, reached towards me, took a step, wobbled for a moment, and then sat down. :) Of course I didn't get that on video, but I did get several instances of standing and some very cute playing with his favorite red ball.

Fall Fruit Festival

We attended the Cloud Mountain Farm Fall Fruit Festival yesterday. It was cold, but we were well bundled up and had a great time. They had so many delicious varieties of apples to sample! There were also lots of varieties of pears, asian pears, grapes, and berries on hand to sample. For a fruit geek like me, it was a perfect way to spend a saturday afternoon. Conan enjoyed trying the apples, but he liked the ice cream (from Mallard) a lot more. He was mesmerized by the hula-hooping kids, and also enjoyed petting, patting, kissing and talking to the pumpkins, squash, and gourds. We picked out one particularly knobby gourd for him to bring home; it's nature's own teething toy. We also brought home a 20 lb. "Sweet Banana" squash, several "Sweet Dmpling" squash, some grapes, garlic, and fresh pressed apple cider. Yum!

Summer's end

The grass is still green and the sun is shining, but it's definitely not summer anymore. We had our first light frost a week ago and a killing frost last night. I'm relieved, frankly; no more trying to keep up with the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden. I will miss the sunflowers though. It really was an amazing year for them in my garden. This spring when I was laying out my beds I just didn't have the heart to take out very many of the volunteer sunflowers that had popped up. As a result, by mid-summer my corn was stunted from growing up in the shade of so many sunflowers, but I enjoyed the luxury of giving away huge bouquets of dazzling blooms all summer long. Now this year's flowers are dropping their seeds (the ones the chickadees miss, anyhow) all over the garden, so next spring I will face the same choice: the garden I've planned, or the garden that volunteers?

Another sign of fall that I am enjoying is the finches foraging for thistle seeds. Among the clover and vetch that we planted as a cover crop on the someday-to-be orchard grew a large number of big purple thistles. All summer long as I drove down the driveway I would look at them and think "Man, I really need to get out there and cut those before they go to seed." But, I never did. Inevitably, the thistles went to seed. However, I had not counted on the army of finches which has descended upon the thistle patch and is just loving those seeds. Now when I drive by I enjoy watching the finches spook and fly off, and I love knowing that my laziness actually resulted in a bonanza of seed for these birds. There's probably a pithy saying that sums this up, but I can't think of it.

It's very very windy today, and cold despite the sun. Still, it's not raining so Conan and I are going to bundle up and go over to the Cloud Mountain Farm fall fruit festival. I expect it will be a lot of fun! Perhaps I'll have some pictures tomorrow...