4 Year Old Check up and SHOTS :-(

I forgot to mention in my previous blog that I took Conor for his 4 Year Old well check and immunizations. That was the worst 1.5 hours of mine and his day. The appointment was at 3pm and my Mom agreed to go with me. Last year I devised a plan that worked pretty well. I play the "bad guy" with the nurse and hold him down for the shots, then afterwards he runs to my Mom who plays the "good guy". All I have to say is, I am glad he doesn't have to have immunizations for a while cause that sucked bad. He screamed so loud and fought so hard. It was gut wrenching. After the nurse was done he said "I don't like her, she hurt me." *tear* He didn't run fever, or get achy so that is good news. He did get a bruise on his arm at one of the injection sites. Luckily, it is on the back of his arm so he can't see it.

So literally, on a lighter note, Conor weighs a whopping 31.5 pounds and is 38" tall. He is in the 25th percentile in weight and 10th in height. The Dr. mentioned we need to watch his growth since he is measuring a little on the short side. Being the obsessive compulsive person that I am I started researching growth percentiles on the Internet. "They" say that children who fall at the 25th percentile and below in height or weight are associated with "failure to thrive". Sounds scary, huh? To me, failure to thrive sounds terminal or something. Needless to say we are giving him regular vitamins, making sure he is eating a good variety of food, and also forcing down the 'ol moo juice. I really want my son to be a tall grown man. He needs to be strong to take care of me when I am old :-).

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all his stats as of his most recent Dr. Appt.

Having a 4 year-old is FUN!!

A few things have transpired since my last post. Conor is now a BIG BOY and sleeping in his own bed and own room! This is a revelation for us all. I know we probably didn't follow all the "rules" when it came to sleeping arrangements in our house. It all started 3.5 years ago when Conor got his first ear infection. The only way he would sleep was if he was snuggled right up to me. He never slept in his room again. The kid learned how to make himself throw up. The only way he would calm down was to put him in our room. So a few months back we decided it was time to "cut the cord" so to speak. We ventured out on the quest to find the perfect big boy bed. We went everywhere! Nothing seemed to be what we had in mind. I resorted to the internet and found the perfect bed from Step2. It shipped right to the front door and took about an hour to put together. The bed is about 3 ft off the floor. It has great storage underneath it and best of all, HE LOVES IT!




Here is a picture of Conor and his friend Ashlyn. They were painting Spiderman piggy banks.



Last and certainly not least, Conor has officially been signed up for Soccer through the Lubbock Soccer Association. I am so delighted that he shows interest in it. I am completely honest in saying that I have been looking forward to soccer since we found we were having a boy. I am officially a soccer Mom. Well, almost, the season starts in March. We will definately keep you guys posted on practices, games and most of all pictures.



PS - NEWS FLASH the Expedition gets the same gas mileage as the minivan did! I was fooled into thinking this whole time that the minivan was getting better mileage!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow! So much has happened in the last few months...

Conor had a program at school. He sang all the words to "Santa Claus us coming to town" and "Jingle Bells" and even wore the Santa hat like all the other kids in his class. However, he refused to wear the cute Christmas shirt we had bought him...

He is the tiny little guy on the far left ....

After the program, Conor had a chance to chat with Santa Claus. For days he had been practicing what he was going to say over and over and over...
Conor had a Christmas Party at daycare. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go, but my Dad went and took pictures....
We had a cake on Conor's official Birthday. Papa did a great job on picking out a fabulous looking cake for our Big Man.
Can you believe that he is 4?? These dinosaurs are so neat. They roar and walk...
Conor has a serious fascination with his Red Power Ranger outfit from the Disney Store. He wears it a lot... in fact he is wearing it now..
I don't know what other people's Christmas trees look like, but this is how it looks at my parents house...
Conor anxiously waits for Daddy to start passing out the presents...


Conor got two new pairs of shoes for Christmas. He was really excited about them when we told him they were Optimus Prime and Bumblebee shoes...
Guy looks pleased with his Christmas gifts!
Cousins... The Fam before Guy left to go back to Boston.
Last but definitely not least, Craig and I bought a new car yesterday. Most of you know, we made the sad choice of purchasing a minivan 2.5 years ago. I thought I was making a good decision for gas by trading in my '03 Expedition for this van. Well, it turned out to make sense. I bitched about it quite a bit because it was so uncool. As time goes on, I learn to like the van and a couple of months ago, I had made the decision that I was going to drive the van until it fell apart. Well..... I didn't realize it was going to fall apart two months later. Let me list all the tings that were going to crap on it.....

1. From the 2nd month I had bought it struggled to start. I took it to the Chevy dealer on 5 separate occasions, but they could never "replicate" the problem. A few harsh words, and a couple of calls to GM, nothing was resolved.


2. I opened the glove box one day last year and it would never close shut. I took it in to the dealer and had it fixed under warranty. A few months later I opened it again, and it wouldn't close. The warranty had run out and I wasn't about to pay to have it fixed to I "fixed" it myself.


3. The motor went out on the passenger side window, had it replaced under warranty. A few months later the driver side window started acting up. Had it replaced too. Go figure a few months later the window would barely roll up or down.. (are you seeing a pattern here???)


4. The paint starting peeling on the roof... WTF?? Come on people, it is a 2005,


5. Last and worst of all, the transmission started slipping.

My advice to you don't buy a van that starts with a "V" and ends with "enture".

So Craig and I sat down and discussed all the issues...Do we keep it and hope we can get another couple of years out of it? Do we get it fixed and spend upwards of $1500 or more? Or do we trade it in, and hope to God the next person who buys it gets an extended warranty?

We chose the latter of the three. We are the proud new owners of an '06 Expedition. More importantly we have a 48 month/48,000 mile warranty on it. So if anything (knock on wood) goes wrong with it we are covered. So this is my third Expedition...I don't know why I ever tried to drive something else! I love these things..

So...it has been a fabulous 2007 and I am ready to devour my bowl of ritual black eyed peas. My entire family had a great year. We hope that 2008 has many more great things to come.

Cheers!