Connor's Christmas Carols

Happy Holidays everyone!  Liam is now almost 10 months, and Connor is doing very well in school (Junior Kindergarten). Last week Connor's class, along with other JK and SK classes, performed a Christmas concert. Connor's class performed two songs, and danced along with it. At the end the class performed two more songs with the rest of the school's kindergarten classes. I was definitely a beaming parent!

Yes of course I have video of the concert! Additionally, Connor has performed a solo for us which I also have a video of (there is also a quick 'Merry Christmas' from the rest of the family at the end).

We wish you all a joyful, memorable holiday. We knows ours will be, as our family life has enriched our lives tremendously, especially this year as a family of four (five if you count Oscar the dog)!

(If you see this via an email, you must go to the blog site at http://adventuresofconnorandliam.blogspot.com to view it).

Don't forget to view up-to-date 'Instagram' pics at the website, too, or click here.

Fall 2012

It's Fall, and with it the business of school!  Connor started Junior Kindergarten in September. Part of the Ontario kindergarten program, the school near us offers it part-time from 8:40-11:15, 5 days a week (all schools are phased into full-time offerings). The school is just two blocks away, and I've been walking Connor to school and back each day.

Connor of course did not want to go.I made the mistake of telling Connor that I would be at home while he is at school. He cried right away and all the way to school! But after a couple of days the crying stopped. However, he does need to believe that I am waiting outside the school for him. Every day he says,"Mom, wait right outside of the school". And I tell him, yes, I will be right outside. Of course I actually do go home, but what he doesn't know means he won't cry.

After 4 weeks of school, Connor seems to be doing well. He is very vocal to the teacher and often tells the teacher about his family. There is one Chinese Mandarin-speaking boy named Andrew that lives a couple of blocks from us in an apartment building; they walk in the same direction as us to go home so we have been walking home together. His mom takes him to school, and they have a 4-month old. The boy Andrew does not speak much English, as his parents speak Mandarin at home. Andrew and Connor are friends and they play together at  school - they play 'dragon' at the playground when they have outside time at school, they do puzzles together at school, and we had a playdate with Andrew at the playground just outside Andrew's apartment. It was great to see the two little boys running around together laughing and playing!

Connor has homework every Friday. Here he is doing his very first assignment.

Liam is growing so fast! Two weeks ago he was able to pull and slither across the room pretty quickly, and now he can actually crawl. He can also pull himself up to a standing position. Liam's two top front teeth are growing in now; they are clearly visible. So everything he picks up goes into his mouth.

Ever curious, we really have to keep an eye on where he is and what he's trying to pick up. He doesn't have the fine dexterity to pick up small objects like Lego yet, but we are nervous about all the tiny little Lego pieces that Connor has, and so we have tried to ban Lego playing in the living room. I also took a refresher course on emergency response for choking infants and toddlers. Liam is still pretty easy to take care of, however we cannot leave him alone in a room anymore - once he knows he's alone, he starts crying.

I signed up for a family music class at Gymboree, so that the three of us can have a family activity together. The best thing about Gymboree is their play area, which is set with padded mats and climbing structures that are safe for little ones. Below are a couple of pics from the Gymboree play area.

That's all for now! It took me three days to finish this post! It's now the Thanksgiving long weekend, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

School!

We just received our notice from the school board. Connor will be in the morning classes. We get a PT meeting on Sept 4 and Connor gets orientation on Thursday morning Sept 6, and school starts officially on the 10th. Exciting!