Busy Weekend

The Taylor family came up to Bellingham for the weekend, and the Ericsons surprised us all with a Friday night visit as well. We had a wonderful dinner party over at the Guzstiltzman household. Conan and Kiah had fun playing together and baby Morgan was her cute cuddly self.

Luckily Aimee had packed some jammies so before we left we got Conan ready for bed and he fell asleep on my lap before we could even get him in the car. He was super tired, just zonked. I love that floppy warm baby cuddle time - I get so little of it with this busy little guy.
I have some more pictures but I'm just too tired to mess around with downloading them from the camera. The two above were both taken by Gabe; there are more on his site under the heading "Week 16, Nov 2009".

Update- I downloaded my pictures from the camera at last and I had to add this one of me and Morgan:

First Halloween

Flight of the bat-baby:

Conan dressed up as a bat for his first Halloween. Mama and Papa dressed up as bat Biologists (Chiropterologists) and followed him around. We all went downtown and trick-or-treated in Bellingham with Brian and Chloe and some other friends. Chloe made a very convincing Yoda. Later we met up with Abby (Leia) over at Grandpa & Grandma Mapes house.

We all had a lot of fun. Conan didn't really get the trick-or-treat aspect of Halloween, although he enjoyed seeing all the kids and being downtown. He had a little basket and he sometimes waved it in the general direction of the person handing out treats, so we still managed to collect some candy. Of course as a good parents we took all his candy away and dutifully ate it ourselves. :)

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...