Not one but two

I should have guessed this since all of his other teeth have come in pairs, but I didn't. Conrad is getting both of his upper first molars. The second one has started to break through. Still no sign of his lateral incisors on the left side. Maybe he will catchup on those. In case inquiring minds want to know about the estimated eruption of baby teeth, enjoy the one above. I even shaded it for illustration. The dark gray is teeth Conrad already has in. The light gray molars are in progress.

Baby Molar

Starting Wednesday, Conrad cried when eating his snack with Dad and again at dinnertime. Since he already has 6 chompers and we haven't seen any new teeth in a while, I figured he must be teething. So I went digging--- only to have Conrad bite down on my finger making it difficult to see if any new teeth were poking through. I didn't find any.

His crying continued yesterday so I tried again....and low and behold his 1st baby molar is breaking through on the top, right side! The first time, I didn't go back far enough because I thhought it was the lateral incisors on his left side not a molar. It has already broken through but I'm not sure if it is completely through since the stinker insisted on biting down on my finger. Dad says he will be eating steak in no time!

So he now has all four central incisors. The right top & bottom lateral incisors and a baby molar on the right side. I guess he favors his right side since the left side has yet to produce any teeth. Conrad is great about brushing his teeth every night, but you guessed it, he bites down on finger brush every night too!

Bugged out

When all else fails, give Conrad your sunglasses. If you need him to stop wiggling to get his diaper back on, give him your sunglasses. He really thinks he's cool when he's trying on your sunglasses.

However, he has become quite a prow at taking them off so you need to be quick when trying to get a picture.

I used Picnik to alter this cute picture of him in my shades.

Happy 1st Birthday

We're a bit late getting these posted. Thanks to all of our friends and family who joined us in celebrating this milestone. I'm sure nobody will soon forget our crazy kid putting out his first bday candle with his hand. Who does that?!?!? Conrad does.

Don't worry, he didn't even get a burn. I think the hot wax hurt him and I quickly peeled it off. As the pictures indicate, he was not deterred by the bumpy start.

Special thanks to my sister for her amazing job in creating Conrad's giant jungle cupcake and all the cute cuppy-cakes! Hey Cupake has nothing on this girl.

New do

Conrad and I tried out some new hairstyles in the bathtub a couple of nights ago. You like?

He definitely likes drinking bathwater out of that cup. I wasn't quick enough to get pictures of that.

Dizzy busy bee

Hope you enjoy the video. Conrad definitely had us laughing with his antics last night. This video is a bit reminiscent of the video of him first walking.

Vote

Have you voted yet? We did!

Other Notables

Here is a run-down of other things going on at our house. Conrad is quite the little caretaker. He loves playing with his "baby" = Jill's old cabbage patch doll. He has learned to open the drawer below the oven and enjoys playing with the lids and dragging them around the house. We also changed his carseat to forward-facing and as the picture indicates, he is loving it!

Pumpkin Patch

I really, really wanted to start the tradition of going to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. The first patch we tried had already closed but Dad came to the rescue with the hunch of another one in nearby. Conrad was happy to chill in his now forward-facing carseat for the ride.

The pumpkin patch was more than I could hope for. Piles and piles of pumpkins, hay bales and scarecrows. All of this complete with a Conrad size fence and lights on a string. Conrad loved running around the patch and even met a four-legged friend. She was so sweet with Conrad. He was content to follow her and her family around the patch.

Yes, we paid more for his pumpkin then say the $4 pumpkins at the grocery store. But, the extra money was well worth the family time and fun we had searching for our pumpkin. What Halloween traditions do you have?

Fall Festival

We had a dress rehearsal for Halloween at Conrad's Fall Festival on Friday. He, surprisingly, only tried to take off his costume one time! He participated in most of the activities: the duck pond, the fishing pond, the photo booth and the cake walk (he won on his first try!).

'Tis the season

to find ways to give back. As I have been trying to de-clutter some of our closets, I mean organize, I was shocked to find that lots of junk followed me to our house! My kitchen with all of it's glorious cabinets, has 4 junk drawers! YIKES!! In one of them, I found an old cell phone from ages ago.

Now, I'm trying to be a responsible citizen since having a kid so I: vote at each election (but especially this one!), recycle, am slowly switching to green products, bought energy efficient appliance (I LOVE those front loaders-- not that I can take credit for doing any laundry-- Love you Hubby!!) and looking for ways to donate my junk versus filling a landfill.

So, I have a couple of ideas. One is obviously the cell phone and October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Here are a couple of ways you can donate your old cell phone:

1. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: http://www.ncadv.org/takeaction/DonateaPhone_129.html This has a pre-paid mailing envelope you can print out for mailing. It doesn't get easier than that!


2. Donate your spent battery here: http://aboutus.vzw.com/communityservice/hopeLineRecycling.html and your used phone to any Verizon Wireless retail store.


3. Cell Phones for Soldiers http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/shippingLabel_generic.html If you have AT&T it appears they will pay your postage for you. You can decrease your postage by not including the battery...which you can donate at Verizon Wireless see #2.
   

So which one am I going to do? Hmmm... I'm not sure so maybe I will need to find another cell phone lurking in a junk drawer.

Paying it forward

We truly are blessed and I need to realize this more often. Rather, I need to take heed to the old addage "Count Your Blessings."

One of our blessings is that in less than two months, no more formula. Buying formula at about $25 a can weekly or more was definitely an expense I thought we would avoid with nursing.

On more than one occasion, we have gone to purchase formula to find a store coupon hanging off the shelf. You see, some blessed soul saved all those crazy coupons that print out at the cash register based off the food you bought that day. Instead of throwing theirs away (of which I am very guilty), they slipped there's under the item.

So, I started to pay it forward with the formula coupons. But as I was shredding receipts yesterday and found a bunch of those coupons expired and co-mingled with receipts, I realized I had been slacking on paying it forward.

Anyone who has bought formula knows how even just a few dollars off formula can save a ton. I'm going to be better about paying coupons forward. I know it brightens my day when I've found them under a formula. Thanks for the blessings!

Ingenious- water playscape

As if running away was not enough celebration of Conrad's 10-month milestone, he was treated to his very first visit to a water playscape. How ingenious is this idea?!?!? Combining a play area with spraying, dumping, shooting water!

Conrad was a bit apprehensive at first (see pictures with shirt on), but then got into the groove of things. He was the only kid there at 10am but it wasn't long before 3 brother arrived and showed Conrad the ropes. He had a lot of fun trying to keep up with them and was then amazed by the buckets that unexpectedly dumped water. I couldn't pick just one favorite pick of the day so here are several. Enjoy!

Escape artist

Conrad reached several milestones today. He is now 10-months old. We are still trying to figure out where these last 10 months have gone or where that little baby has gone.

He also ran away from home. He got as far away as the driveway so not so far. Barry had the door to the garage open and the garage door cracked about a foot or so to ventilate. We finally are getting some cool mornings. This has become somewhat normal to have these doors open. Normally, Conrad steers clear of the garage, but today curiosity won out.

After a couple of retrievals from the garage, we closed the door. A little bit later, Dad decided he would open it again (unknown to me). All was quiet which now means Conrad is somewhere doing something he shouldn't.

Suddenly, Barry yells that Conrad is out on the driveway as he is running to the front door to unlock it and get outside to capture the runaway. I run after him and sure enough, Conrad is standing on the driveway looking very PROUD of himself.

Come to find out, Barry saw Conrad go out into the garage and kept an eye on him to see what he would do... and when he started to go under the cracked garage door that's when he decided to intervene. Ya think?!?!??!

This hammers home the point that we have and will have our hands full with all of Conrad's "adventures" to come.

Tongue roll

So I wondered if Conrad would be able to roll his tongue like I can. Barry cannot. I thought rolling your tongue was an inherited trait. So, who's genes would win out on this one?

Caught on film by his Aunt Jill today (granted, he was probaby coughing, but nonetheless, a tongue roll) my genes won out! Or so I thought until I did some research here and here. Bummer, it turns out it may not be genetic afterall. But according to one of these websites, he maybe inherited my moter skills... maybe that's why he was a walking machine before 9 months!

Who can roll their tongue in your family?