I hate blogging...

So I don't know what happened to the font - formatting this is a nightmare for me... but since it's way past my bedtime, I'm just going to hope that you spend extra time trying to read the ridiculously small print. Sorry - next time, I think I'm going to just ignore making it look "pretty!" (And if any one has some tips for me, I'd love them! I have like a 24" screen, and I only get a 3" window to work with! Ugh! That's got to be another reason I'm so bad at this...).

Seriously? 10 Months?

Okay - so it's almost official. I am probably the worst blogger in the world. Like, I remember that I have this thing that I should update, but I just never actually get around to doing it. Partially, it's because I really want a new camera so that I'll have my very own camera cord, but that's just not going to happen any time soon. So, combining my total procrastinating skills with my lack of camera cord, and throw in the constant sharing of a computer (I'll get to that later), it's taken me almost FOUR months to get around to updating the blog. So, without further adieu, I'll go ahead and update you on what's been going on with the Zwickl's for the last couple months. :) And trust me, there's a lot to cover (this could also be why I'm so slow -it's just piling up!).

WHERE TO START? (aka April)
According to Glinda, it's always best to start at the beginning. :) So, I guess the first "big" event was my 30th birthday. Yes - the dreaded 3-0. But I'm okay with it. :) I'm not so happy with Mother Nature, though, but that's okay. On my actual birthday, Shannon, Maria, Jeremy, Andrew, Connor and I all went to dinner at Carino's. I had originally planned to go to the zoo with everyone, but we had some crazy bad weather, and the rain just didn't cooperate.

Drinking a Peach Belini with Shannon

Sisters

So, the weekend after my birthday, we ventured to Coors Field to see our beloved Rockies play, after dinner at BD's Mongolian BBQ (my favorite place to eat downtown!). All in all, there were a bunch of us - Andrew, Connor, Shannon, Maria, Jeremy, Mom & Dad's P and Z, Elizabeth, Scott, and me. We were pretty lucky that we sat beneath the overhang in the first deck so that when it did rain (again!) we were a bit sheltered. The Rockies managed a 10-4 victory over the Dodgers (who we continue to follow in the league!).

Daddy and Connor walking to dinner at BDs Mongolian before the game

So alike!

Connor, Nana and Auntie Maria

Mommy and Connor

Shannon and Elizabeth

Jeremy and Maria

Heather & Andrew

Dad and Mom P, Dad & Mom Z (and Connor)

The Whole Crew

STANDING AND WALKING, SQUEALING AND GRUNTING
Connor's been moving quite quickly through the milestones. He pretty much mastered crawling at 6 months, and started moving super fast almost right away. Andrew and I have to be pretty quick to catch up to him. He quickly learned to climb the entire set of stairs - heavily supervised, of course, though now, he can make it up all of them by himself with us only "casually" watching. :) So, because he weighs a ton, it's nice to let him take himself up the stairs! :) He'd been pulling himself up on everything, and I used to joke that if the couch was a mile long, Connor could walk a mile. At about 8 1/2 months, he took his first un-assisted steps. It was so exciting. He was just playing with Andrew, and then suddenly, it was step-step-step, fall. He quickly had to repeat the effort, and has been walking as much as he can ever since. He's quite adventurous, and really likes moving around. I'm still not comfortable with him walking by himself on concrete or other hard surfaces for anything longer than a couple seconds, but I'm sure he'll be running in no time!

He's also started high fiving, and waving bye-bye and hello. It's crazy to watch the development process - one minute he can't do something, and then the next, he's doing it over and over. He's also quite talkative. Da-da-da-da comes out almost all the time, and we think he's figured out that Andrew is Da-da. Haven't had much repeat of the ma-ma, but that's okay. I know he loves me, too. :) He's also squealing and squeaking (and will mimic you if you make a little noise), and grunts/growls on command. It's so freakin' cute! Also, he loves making raspberries - and is quite good at getting everyone wet when he does it. Lately, he's also started laughing back if someone near him is laughing - it's like he's in on the joke. It's adorable. (Can I gush enough about my kid? Man!)

Connor still doesn't have any teeth, but I'm hoping that some will come in soon. I'd really like to start giving him some more table food, but I'm nervous about the teeth. We're trying little things, but he seems to be doing well with blueberries and other fruits, so I guess it's okay. In the last couple of weeks he's started being a little picky about eating his baby food - and I'm hoping it's just that he's teething or something like that, and not that he's given up the baby food all together. He's still nursing just fine, and we're pretty sure he's getting enough to eat (he's HUGE), so it's all working out okay. I'm just the worry-wart mom!

Here are a bunch of miscellaneous pictures of Connor throughout the last couple months...

APRIL

'Cause he's just too cute!

Crawling in the pen

MAY

Walking with the couch

Playing with the carseat

7 Months

8 Months

MAY AND JUNE
In May, Ella had her first birthday - and I can't believe that's she's getting so big! Her theme was Strawberry Shortcake (the coolest little girl ever!), and she had quite a crowd. Connor had fun playing with the other kiddos there.

Ella-Bella and her new car!

Connor & Izzy (and Mommy & Marie)

Blowing out the candles

My first Mother's day as an official Mom was nice - we didn't do much, but it was nice to just enjoy each other's company. My mom and Shannon also sent flowers to me (a heather plant, which I have so far managed not to kill), and I got some really nice cards from friends and family. We spent some family time at the bowling alley with my parents, and all had a pretty nice time. For Andrew's first Father's day, it was pretty much the same - just relaxing with the family, and enjoying our little guy who is growing like a weed!!

Andrew won some Rockies tickets at work, and we were able to go see a day game, so Connor got his second trip to Coors Field. We rode the light rail down - a first for both Connor and me - and then got to sit in the club level seating. By the way - I'm so club level seating people. :) It was really nice - but it was a little difficult with a baby. Connor didn't like it so much when everyone cheered, so Andrew and I took turns walking around with him once he started to get fussy. One of the ushers also let us know that Dinger, the mascot, was coming by, so we asked the people behind us to watch our stuff (they were really nice), and then both Andrew and I got to have a picture with Dinger. Even though we think it'll be a while before we take Connor again to a game, it was a lot of fun. :)

On the Lite Rail

Andrew, Dinger, Connor and Heather

May also gave us a couple of chances to get in the water with Connor - he loves bath time, so we figured he'd love pool time just as much - and we we're right! He just adores being in the water, and we try to get him there any chance we get. For Memorial Day, Andrew's Grandma Lorraine's pool was officially Connor's first dip. :)

Connor playing, ready to swim

Testing the water with Daddy

The family that swims together...

We also had a BBQ in June, and had our own baby pool for the babies, and that went okay - once we got enough hot water into it to make it not freezing! Connor and Ella liked it for a little bit, and they also had fun trying to get out of it!

Connor climbing out to Nana

Ella and Connor - ready to play!

The search for grass...

Corn Hole - Maria , Peter, Scott, and Jeremy

Our cousin Melissa made it out for a visit in June, which was really nice. She made it out the day of our BBQ, and stayed for about a week. Mostly, she got to hang out with Connor, Andrew and I at our house during the day until everyone else got off of work (which I'm grateful she didn't mind!), but we did have some pretty exciting outings. We went to Casa Bonita, since everyone who visits from out of town has to go there!

Heather, Connor, and Andrew

Connor - check the hat!

We also took Connor for his first Zoo trip - which was only okay for him. It did coincide with his 8-month birthday, where he also managed to get a nice bruise/rug burn on his cheek by somehow falling on the ottoman. This kid is going to give me an ulcer! Anyway, I think the zoo was really for us adults more so than him - he pretty much had the "tolerate it" baby look the whole time. He does get pretty excited about trees, so we had to let him touch those as often as he could. He did find a little rodent-like creature that he was fascinated with, and watched as it ran back and forth on the other side of the glass.

8 Months - and so happy!

Riding Daddy's shoulders

Melissa, Connor, and Mommy

Such a tall kid...

The peacock posed for us!

Shannon and Melissa with some kanga's!

Daddy, Connor and Mommy

Auntie Shannon and Connor

Connor was fascinated with this little guy!

Melissa also gave us an excuse to go down to Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods (which none of us had been to before) and Cave of the Winds. I think everyone had fun, and Connor did well for having his normal routine completely changed. We did get some pretty good pictures, though!

I love Colorado.

The Whole Group (Yeah tourists!)

A bored Andrew and Connor, and happy Shannon

Maria, Melissa and Shannon

CAVE OF THE WINDS

Melissa & Connor

Andrew, Connor and Heather - I'm so happy that Connor was smiling for this!

I also forget that Andrew is ridiculously taller than me until I see pictures...

Andrew carrying Connor through the caves... Connor lasted about half the tour in the Bjorn, and then we had to take turns carrying him...

Maria, Shannon & Melissa in the caves...

Heather & Maria - and she had way too fun. :)

We also went to another little girl's first birthday - our friend's Sara and Andy's daughter, Exia, turned one in June. And there were so many other little ones there, too! It was actually really neat to see what other babies close to Connor's age were doing. The babies were 9 or 10 months old, and at 8 months, Connor was moving the most - just pulling himself up on the tables and chairs and walking around. He was quite popular!

At the beginning of June, Andrew got put on standby at Washington Group. Basically, it's like being put on leave - he's still an employee of the company, and we still get benefits, but he's on an unpaid leave. There's the possibility of him going out of state for work (still as an employee of WGI) - basically a few weeks gone, and then home for a long weekend, then back out. We're crossing our fingers that the economy turns around and something happens soon (and for a short term project versus a long term one!), and the most likely candidate so far seems to be Washington state. It would be interesting if Andrew got an assignment like that, and Connor and I would probably go spend some time with him up wherever he ends up, since we're flexible for travel now. The not-so-great part, is, of course, that we've got to share the computer now, which makes it much more difficult for me to get that blog updated (any excuse, right?). But it is really nice that Andrew is home with us every day, and he's gotten to spend a lot of time with Connor.

Another highlight for June was that our local Sam's Club was sponsoring a Nathan's Hot Dog eating competition, and of course, Andrew had to participate. He had quite a crowd of people rooting for him, too! It was 5 minutes of all-you-can-eat hot dogs, and Andrew was one of maybe 12 people. He ended up standing between a police officer (in uniform) and a guy who probably had about thirty pounds on Andrew - and it ended up being where all the action was! The big guy came in 1st, with 8 1/2, the police officer 2nd with 7 1/2, and Andrew finished 3rd with 6 1/2. It was pretty neat to watch - not near as disgusting as watching it on TV on the 4th. :) After the amateur competition, there was a group of professional eaters (um, aren't we all?), and the guy who won ended up getting to be in the real competition on the 4th (he didn't win, but it was still neat to have someone from CO represent!!).

Getting ready to eat! (The guys on either side finished ahead of Andrew)

Eating

The super cool sign we made him!

JULY
Connor's first July Fourth celebration went well. We had the last hurrah at Andrew's parent's house (more on that later), which backs the golf course in Louisville, where they do the fireworks show. My parents and sisters also joined us up there, and there was quite a big group of us. Like every year, the fireworks end up looking like they're just for us. The show was shorter this year than last year (only about half as long as last year) - just another sign of the slow economy -but it was still amazing. My mom and Andrew's Dad took turns "playing" with Connor inside so that he could watch the show, and he actually watched for a little, but then he took a nap. :) Maybe next year he'll enjoy it all a little more!

Jamie & Heather

Mom, Shannon and Heather's temporary tat's - they were so fun!

Connor...

eating Nana's shoulder.

Showing off his walking skills

Getting ready for fireworks

Adam and Jamie got married on July 11th (national Slurpee day! 7/11!) in Crested Butte. We went up on Thursday, and Connor got his first road trip -with mixed reviews. It's about a 4 hour drive, which at some points, felt like longer (we did get a new car seat for Connor a few weeks before the trip, but he's still rear facing - at least for a few more months). Connor slept for a couple hours, and those were the best times. Once he was awake it took about 1/2 hour for him to decide that he was fed up with the car seat. So we had to pull over a couple times to feed and change him and let him stretch a bit (the ride back was the hardest - I climbed in the back seat with him to help entertain him, but he still cried straight for about an hour - poor baby!). Anyway, we stayed at Jamie's parent's condo, across the street from the base of the ski resort, which was nice. Friday was a beautiful sunny day - unfortunately, the wedding was on Saturday, and it rained. We had about a 30 minute delay to let the rain pass. Fortunately, Marshall, Jamie's dad, had stocked up on umbrella's, and they passed them out to all the guests. The umbrellas actually made for nice pictures. All in all, the wedding was pretty - and the wildflowers were beautiful.

9 Months!

Walking with Daddy

Checking out the things he's knocked to the floor

Connor and Mommy at the Rehearsal Dinner

Connor and an all dressed up Daddy!

Waiting in the car for the rain to go away...

Andrew and Ellen

The bridesmaids, Jamie's sister's Tosha and Katie (on the ends), and Ellen, holding the umbrella

Marshall and Jamie

The ceremony

The newest Mr. & Mrs. Zwickl

Walking away

Ellen & Andrew going up the aisle

Maria and Jeremy

Matt & Michelle

Shannon, Maria and Heather

Cutting the cake

July 15th was a historic day in the Denver-Metro area, and we were invaded by 5"kids" from Boston - NKOTB at Fiddlers! The best part, really, was that Jenn made it in from Hawaii, and Whitney came from California so that we could all go together. In total, there were 9 of us: Shannon, Maria, Brittany, Jenn, Whitney, Venessa, Elizabeth, Sarah (her sister-in-law), and me. Elizabeth and Brittany told us they had a surprise, which ended up being a limo - apparently the best way to get 9 people in one car, so that we could all talk and have fun. Honestly, it was awesome! We had so much fun, and it really was better than taking three cars. The concert, as expected, was pretty amazing, too! Jabbawockees opened, which was pretty neat, and then those five boys we've loved so much took the stage. We also were pretty lucky in that Donny and Danny ended up being on the corners of our row when they came into the audience to sing (I think I almost got crushed from the screaming women!), But we had an incredible time.

Peter, Blake and Ella hanging out in the limo before we left

Shannon taking a sip of something nasty!

Venessa and Brittany kissing the locket

They were so neat!

Elizabeth, Heather & Shannon

The Kids

Venessa in Danny heaven

The bunch of us crazy girls

Brittany & Heather

Whitney, Brittany & Jenn

Sarah, Elizabeth, Shannon & Maria

"You're like Baby, I'm like Swayze..."

Whitney & Heather

Maria, Shannon & Heather

Jenn and Whitney stayed a couple of days after the concert, too, and so before they left, we (Marie (Britt & Jenn's mom), Brittany, Ella, Jenn, Whitney, Lorelei, Connor and me) got to go to the zoo. It was fun to have a couple other babies for Connor to hang out with, even if he still was pretty much the "tolerate it" baby. I'm sure he'll like the zoo a bunch more in a year or so, but he did pretty well. Anyway, we had a good time. We missed Francis, Maddie and Taylor, but then Jenn let the good news out that they'd all be coming back for Christmas, so I can't wait to see them again, and so soon!

Excited baby Connor (who's not so baby anymore!)

Ella, in her borrowed shoes!

The baby crew - Connor, Ella and Lorelei

Whitney, Marie, and the babies

Two weeks after our Crested Butte trip, we took another road trip down to Arizona. Andrew's parents have "officially" moved to Arizona. They were selling the house, but ended up taking it off the market and letting Ellen rent it with some friends, so technically they still have a house here, but for all intents and purposes, they're Arizonians. So, with our open schedule, Andrew and I helped them move down to Mesa. We drove the Acura down Friday, stopped in Albuquerque (Sandia Casino) for the night, and then made it to their house Saturday afternoon. The drive was a little better this time for Connor, since we tried to maximize the time he'd be sleeping. Again, we just stopped when we needed to, and Andrew and I spent some time in the back seat to help keep him occupied. The last 45 minutes or so before we made it to Andrew's parents house, where there's really no place to stop, of course, was when Connor pretty much cried straight. Once we made it to the development his parents live in, he finally decided to sleep. Ironic. One of the neatest things about the trip is that Friday in he hotel room, Connor was showing us how much better he was getting walking, and then by the time we left Arizona on Wednesday, he was a hundred times better. It was just such an amazing example of babies learning process. He's able to walk, stop, change directions, bend down to pick something up, and start again - sometimes. :) Anyway, we flew out of Arizona Wednesday night, after having a two hour delay on our flight, which was supposed to leave at 5:20, and ended up leaving at about 7. The 5:20 would have worked, since I could have nursed Connor during take off, and hopefully, he would have slept, but the 7 delay made it so that he was up almost the whole flight before he decided to take a nap about fifteen minutes from landing. Go figure. But it was nice to see everyone and get a chance to go to AZ in the summer - just so that I never have to do it again. :) The high there was 115. It was generally in the 110's - but we spent most of the time inside, where there was AC. We did hit the pool, but that was early in the morning (like 9:30 or 10), before it got to hot. So I'm comfortable to continue to visit only in December, January, and February!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Well, I think I've managed to cover the big stuff... I've had to use my pictures as a guide - if I don't have pictures of it, I can't remember it! It's horrible getting old! :) We do have a new baby in our world, since our friend Diane had a little boy on July 9th - 4 weeks early. Little Braden Des Daniels was 5 lbs 15 oz, and 19 1/2" long. We just got to meet him (I know - it's horrible that I forgot to take pictures!), and he's so tiny! He's a shade under 7 lbs now, but still so long and skinny. When I held him, I couldn't get over the differences in my huge bohemeth of a baby, and the new little guy. :) Connor was totally curious about him, too - he kept trying to peek into the car seat and play with him. :) Maybe in a couple months. :)

We've got a couple things coming up - Connor and I, and hopefully Andrew, will be joining my parents and Shannon in a summer NJ visit, which I can't wait for. We'll leave on August 11th, and come back on the 18th. Andrew and I will also celebrate 2 years of married on the 11th (even though it feels like it's been so much longer!). Because (hopefully!) we'll both be on a flight, we'll try to do something this next weekend together to celebrate - probably something simple like dinner and a movie, but it'll be fun. I did have jury duty for 8/3, which I was super excited about, but I got excused (jurors 1-120 had to report, and I was 314 - oh well!). And we have Connor's 9-month check up (finally) on Tuesday, so we'll see how he's doing against all those other babies. :) We had to reschedule because of the AZ trip, and had planned on originally doing it late because of the wedding, so we're a bit behind. I'll try to update again after we get all the info. :)

I guess that's it for now... I'm keeping my finger's crossed that I'll do better about keeping this up to date. :) See you soon!!