It ain't easy bein' free (that's 3 in Connor speak)

Connor has it pretty good around here, but there is no question that being the smallest boy can be tough. We had one of Jamie's friends and his parents over today. Generally, they were pretty nice to Connor, although there was a brief game of "Let's battle Connor," which we out a stop to quickly. The main thing that is difficult for Connor is that things simply move too fast, try as he may to keep up. This is most obvious of course when we set off for the pool and the two big boys are off down the block in a flash, with poor Connor a mile behind them, his little legs whirring away desperately.

But we saw another vivid example after dinner. The boys each had a brownie for dessert, but of course wanted more. Approaching from 3 directions they swooped in on the plate where there was just one brownie and some crumbs left. First they tried to con us into leaving the room, but somehow we saw through their ploy. So, Jamie and his friend now knew the brownie was off limits but yelled "Crumbs" and charged forward, little fingers grasping everywhere. Connor meanwhile echoed the call and went straight for the brownie. Admirable ambition, but I swooped in and put it out of reach, so he turned to a larger crumb. Jamie grabbed this so Connor moved to another smaller one only to see that swiped by the friend. He was just moving in on the only remaining, miniscule morsel, a single grain of brownie, when the tip of Jamie's finger came in and picked it away. This all happened in the blink of an eye and poor Connor just looked bewildered. Don't worry, the boys soon tore off like a swarm of locusts to lay waste to another field and I gave Connor a good bite of the remaining brownie.

First day of school! First day of school!

Title is a Nemo reference of course. Yes, the boys are back at school. Here's the picture of them heading off that morning.

Connor had his first full week this week, though he had had some short days the week before. Last year it was quite clear that Connor wanted to go to school with Jamie very badly. We would always drop Jamie before taking Connor to school and by the end of the year he would just cry as Jamie got out of the car and say "I wan' go school wiff JAMIE!!!!!" Now that he can he seems pleased enough, but he has already learned from Jamie to give absolutely nothing away. We ask if he liked it and he says "Yeah." What did you do, we ask. "I don't remember." Do you have any buddies? "Yeah." What are their names? "I don't remember." You get the pattern. Except that, just to mess with us I think, when we asked if he liked his teacher he said "Nope. Not one bit." (That's a classic Jamie phrase). But he does always seem in a very good mood when he comes home so I think he is happy. The one detail we get consistently is that he used the potty and washed his hands. At age 3, we're pretty willing to consider anything more as gravy.

Self-awareness

Just a quick snippet here. We still call Connor bunny, I guess because he is very cute and he hops around a lot. Happily he still let us. As Sarah was giving him kisses the other day she asked him, "Connor do you know why I like to kiss you so much?"
"Because you are love me? And I'm cute?"

We've had one accident-free day at the jobsite!

Yes, that's right folks, Connor went a whole day using the potty and had no accidents! He is extremely pleased with himself and we are too, since it raises the possibility that he could actually go to the school we are paying for this Fall! For whatever reason until very recently, he just wasn't getting it and didn't seem to want to. All the bribes and big boy talk in the world couldn't make him want to do it, but something has clicked and he has been improving almost exponentially. Yesterday was a little challenging because he would go and then tell us he needed the potty, but even this was progress. Sarah had cleverly said that he would get a sticker and marshmallow for every time he went in the potty and he is loving that of course.

She also cleverly enlisted Jamie's help by saying that if he encouraged Connor he would get a marshmallow too, so he is pretty into it. On the other hand, he is not wild for all the attention this means Connor gets. Yesterday he said sadly to me. "I wish everyone was involved in my potty too." We've been trying to be as encouraging as possible, I can assure you.

The waterboy

A new chapter has been added to Jamie's swimming adventure. Just one day after his Dad snorkeled for the first time, Jamie went out himself. He was very brave about it and did a great job. We had gotten him an underwater camera for the trip and he had already been snapping away (results will be posted when we finish the roll). I had been so impressed already with his swimming in the ocean. Although the water was shallow, the current was very strong. One day, we were swimming, without snorkels and Jamie was taking pictures. He was incredibly composed, putting his face in the water while pointing the camera, shooting, advancing and shooting again, all with his head under water, and all the while bobbing on the waves with his wee legs kicking away to maintain his position.

Cousin/Cousine

By far, the boys' favorite thing about Club Med was having their cousins around. We got there about 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon and within about 1/2 hour they were all in the pool climbing all over each other and Pops and blasting each other with water guns. Jamie and Liam always have a great time because they are close in both age and spirit, but Jamie was in Finn's group at the Mini Club Med so it was great that the two of them got to be silly together. And Connor and Emma hit it off particularly well. She was so sweet with him, watching after him and helping him. At some point he was trying to climb up one of the ladders to go down the waterslide and a bigger kid was trying to push him out of the way. Emma formed a kind of human wall and shielded Connor while he made his way up the ladder. One night as we were going to dinner, Jamie went running off after the rest of the cousins. Connor did his little move where he runs in place like the RoadRunner before zipping off saying, "I goin' get the cousins!" Later we said, "Connor, aren't cousins great?" "Yeah," he said with great earnestness, "and Emma is the BEST!!"

Kitty cat!

Well, we have a new family member. Sarah's parents brought their cat Annabelle, who was almost my cat many years ago, to stay with us, now that they are splitting time between North and South. The boys could not possibly be more excited. They were unable to go to sleep the night that they all arrived and have followed her every move ever since and proclaimed her the best cat ever. The first full night she was here, Jamie eagerly brought her food over to her and then sat down cross-legged a couple of feet away to watch her eat. "Connor!" he said excitedly, "she's EATING! It's AWESOME!!" Connor ran over and plopped himself down too and they watched the rest of the show in reverent silence. Connor will also exclaim whenever he sees her do the most basic of cat activities. For instance, "LOOK!!!! Annabelle got down off the chair!!!"

The boys had gone to the store with Sarah the previous week to get some supplies for Annabelle and had very thoughtfully decided to get her a present, namely some little catnip mice, and they like to bring them to her while she lies down. She looks like quite the Queen with her courtiers bringing their tributes. By and large Annabelle deals with all the attention gracefully and patiently, and the boys are really very good about touching her gently and not chasing her too much. It brings out the snuggly side of Jamie too. He said, "I like hugging Annabelle. Her fur is very soft and I can hear her heart beating."