Two More Teeth

Sheesh! Two more teeth have come through now, bringing Conan's total up to 10 (four in the last 10 days). The latest two are both on the top left, first the just-left-of-center one in the front and now the middle molar one that matches the one he got on the right last week. When these all grow in he's going to have a symmetrical smile for the first time in months, not to mention a much improved ability to chew. Hurray for teeth!

Strawberries

Conan likes them! These plants were pretty useless (according to him) until recently, when they started having yummy berries on them. Now he checks the berry patch every day when we get home.
He ate about a dozen green berries (well, nibbled them, anyhow) before he got the idea that the red ones are the ripe ones. Yummy!

We have the berry patch well covered with bird netting that attaches to the sides of the raised bed which helps keep Conan from eating all the red berries and then starting on the green ones. :)

More Words

Conan's vocabulary has suddenly expanded again. It's really interesting to me to see what words he picks up, because it's a window into what he sees as important and neecessary to communicate. His new words include the following:

Up
Hat
No
Owie
Happy
Jus (juice - this is a big favorite)
Bouh (book - another favorite thing)
Bampah (Grandpa Dave)
Wower (flower)
More (now spoken along with the hand sign)
Tancoo (Thank you)
Moo (moon - this one surprised me. If you ask him where it is, he'll point to the sky. It's very cute.)

He also knows the names of several cats, both at home and at friends' houses. And when he wants milk, he points to the fridge and says "Muh!" which is not exactly a word but it is a start...

We actually had our first verbal argument the other day. He wanted juice, but he'd already had enough in my opinion (and mama's opinion is pretty much law). So I offered him a cup of water. Our exchange went like this:

C: Jus?
M: Water.
C: Jus!
M: Water.
C: Juuuusss?
M: Water.
C: Jus.
M: Water.
C: Jus?
M: Water.
C: Jus!

Then he went and asked Papa, who also gave him a cup of water. Foiled again!

For the Record

Conan had his 18-month checkup last week, and he now weighs 22.6 lbs and is 33.75 inches tall. He's quite the skinny little beanpole. Developmentally he's right where he should be in all regards, and ahead of the curve with physical coordination. The only worry was his continued lack of teeth, particularly since they've come in in such a strange order. Dr. Floyd isn't too worried, but she suggested that we take C in to a dentist soon, in any case.

He only had six teeth a week ago, when we were at the checkup. Since then he's gotten two more. First he got a middle molar on the upper right, and then yesterday he got the right-of-center one on the bottom. Apparently he heard us talking about his teeth and decided it was a good time to grow a couple more. But we'll get him in to a dentist soon anyhow, 6 teeth or 8.

Great Grandma Joy, and cake!

Saturday evening we had a surprise bridal shower for my cousin's fiance, Svea. They were down from Canada for the day, doing some wedding shopping, and had planned to stop by for a quick visit "to see Conan" before heading back for the night. So all the Whatcom County family came out for the evening; it was really fun to see everyone. The next time we'll all be together will be at the wedding!

Conan was especially thrilled to see his Great Grandma Joy - he threw himself into her arms when she first arrived and stuck pretty close to her for the whole evening. Besides cuddles, they also shared a big piece of cake. Mmmmm-mmm, frosting...

Conan also had fun romping with his cousins Hazel and Hannah. It's neat now that he's able to play with them more like a kid and less like a baby. The girls are really good with him, very understanding.
Little Odessa isn't quite walking yet, but she'll be able to keep up soon enough, she's getting so big. Almost a year old now, it's amazing how time flies. Conan is 18 months old now, I can't believe it!

Book Browsing Baby Busted

There's a certain quietness that I think all parents recognize as the sound of a kid up to no good. I was folding some laundry and Conan (I thought) was playing in his room, when I noticed it was quiet - too quiet. When I went to check I found he was in fact in the spare bedroom, happily browsing through the books, pulling them off the shelves into a pile all around him. Naturally, the first thing I did was go for the camera.

Whatcha reading there, little C? Marxist theory? Well of course. Gotta start young!

This toothy smile gets me every time.

But still, these aren't books for playing with. So we picked them up and made sure the door to the spare room was really shut this time, and went downstairs and read all of Conan's books together. They're a little more accessible (and have WAY better pictures) than those books on Marxism.

Highland Games

It stopped raining for a day so we headed over to Ferndale for the Scottish Highland Games on Saturday. Conan was pretty excited about all the people and especially the drums and pipes. We got there just in time for the massing of the pipes, which is a pretty impressive spectacle regardless of your age:

Conan got an assist from Papa to see over the crowd and watch as hundreds of bagpipers and drummers marched down the field, playing at deafening volume.

We ate a couple of meat pies and browsed around the merchant booths, watched some of the dancing competition, listened to the always fun Wicked Tinkers, and checked out various exhibits of Scottish stuff. We tried to watch the athletic competitions, but the "fence" to keep spectators back was just a rope strung up a little higher than Conan's head, so he kept trying to run out onto the field. No toddlers allowed in the caber toss! We moved on, to what was probably Conan's favorite part of the day: looking at the turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese that live at Hovander.

It was a lot of fun. Conan was exhausted, and he took a long nap after we got home. That was ideal, as it allowed us to get out and actually mow our entire lawn, for the first time since the beginning of this extra-rainy May. Whew!

Memorial Weekend

We were lucky enough this Memorial weekend to host two of our favorite out-of-town families for a couple fun days of catching up and watching the kids play. It was quite a full house, with 6 adults, 4 kids, 4 cats and 2 dogs all sleeping under one roof. And then on top of that we had two more families over for dinner on Saturday, including two very fresh little babies, Bellatrix (2 weeks) and her cousin Riker (7 weeks). I somehow didn't get any pictures of baby Riker, but we did manage to get the other 5 kids all on the couch at one time, not crying, and facing the camera!
Despite the continual rain, we had a great time. The kids entertained one another and mostly got along and shared their toys very well. Kiah and Conan are interested in the same things, and they were really cute playing together. We did manage to get outside a couple of times when the rain broke, but it was super wet so it was never long before we had to go back inside to dry off and warm up, and of course eat some more. I think we must have eaten about 14 (delicious!) meals in three days. Good times. :)