Changes, changes, and more changes

Time flies so fast with Connor around. We just love him to pieces and everyday is something new. He has 9 teeth now and two that will pop through any day now and 5 more that are on their way. These teeth are a good thing since Connor REALLY loves his food! The only fruit I've tried that he hasn't liked is watermelon. He loves tomatoes, but he wouldn't be mine if he didn't. We finally found that he will take a cup if it has a straw. We also found that we can stay sane if said straw can't be removed from the cup. I got him these grippy cups with a built  in straw from Munchkin and he loves them. It was so frustrating trying to get him extra fluid and having him not be able to work the sippy cups. He just never got the hang of tipping them up to get the fluid where it needed to be. Now with the new cups I can just hand it to him and let him go. Now if we could actually get him to swallow his spit, he might stay hydrated!
Connor is definitely the outdoorsy type. Unfortunately he does seem to have my sensitivity to bug bites, though I haven't seen him itching them. He loves to go out and walk the neighborhood. He loves to ride his buggy and his tricycle (that we push and steer.) He loves to just go out and see people doing things in their yards and garages. He likes to look for critters, too, including "Boots" the cat. She/he doesn't really belong to us, but she will often take walks with us and comes around for food several nights a week. If you tell Connor "We're going in to get Boots some food," that had better be exactly what you're doing - and he wants to help. He helps pour the hard food into a bowl and he carries that bowl to the front door, takes it out and knows just where to put it. He is quite the little helper. Pretty often I encourage him to do what I want by asking him to "help Mommy."
Connor is fascinated with cooking. He will stand at my feet craning to see what I'm doing until I say "Connor, go get your chair so you can watch." Off he goes to get a kitchen chair to stand on so he can watch and help. I let him pour things into bowls and stir things (with help of course) and he loves it! Of course he could reach the knobs on my stove so I had to take them all off and just put them back on to cook. I can't even leave them on then because he goes over and adjusts the heat on me. He loves the sizzle of things hitting a hot pan. He also gets very excited by the dishwasher and happily climbs in every time the door is open. I have to get creative when it is time to unload and load it or he is into everything. Oh who am I kidding - HE IS INTO EVERYTHING!
Connor has been fully weaned for a whole week now. I didn't push the issue. He just didn't seem as interested anymore. It wasn't really putting him to sleep reliably at night anymore. So we just slowly started eliminating different nursing sessions, waiting a week before stopping another. First went the naps, then the morning and finally, last Sunday night was our last time nursing. I think it was harder on me then him. That was our special thing, just Connor and Mommy. At the same time we started including reading into our nap and bedtime routines. We still get to cuddle and as one thing was lost, another was found. He really doesn't seem to be missing the nursing. There hasn't been any shirt pulling or lifting and he puts himself to sleep with a lot of jabbering and minimal fussing. All in all I'm a little sad but proud of my smart easygoing kid.
He has also weaned himself to one 2-2.5 hour nap a day. I don't really miss the two nap thing. It made it really hard to plan a day and get anything done. It was especially had because Connor was one or those kids who couldn't/wouldn't nap unless the car was moving or he was in his own bed. Now we can get up and actually accomplish something before his nap which can happen anywhere from 12:30 - 2pm. I have been trying to keep it around 1pm so he can have a good nap but still be up plenty of time to be tired for bed.
Connor has also started falling asleep more easily in odd places. I can only guess it's because he doesn't need to nurse to fall asleep anymore. He has fallen asleep while eating twice. He fell asleep in the jogging stroller on my jog this morning and once in his bike seat on our way home from getting the Sunday paper. When he starts to fall asleep now there really isn't any deterring him. A lot of times I'm trying so hard to get home to feed him lunch before his nap and he falls asleep in the 5 minutes between Home Depot and Home. I tap his feet, talk to him, make funny noises - but it's all no good. The nice thing is that more often then not I can get him from wherever it is he has fallen asleep to his bed without him waking up - I never could before.
My drooly kid slimed a little girl at Barnes & Noble the other day during the story time free-for-all. I'm not exactly sure how how he did it. All I saw is that she was holding this little bug house and Connor ran over to see it and knocked it out of her hand (and ended up on the floor in the process.) The next thing I know she was holding up her arm with saliva dripping from it and whining for her Mom. I felt sort of bad and managed to hold off laughing until I was a ways away.