Hunter's Hat

We found a hat that was Hunter's size in our closet last week.  He loves it.

We are not sure what he was doing here, but it sure is cute!

Yup.  He is the most adorable blue eyed boy ever!

Dirty Boy

This is a picture of Conner right after our ward party. No, there was not a mud fight, just a little water, sand, and a playground.  He was filthy.  Him and his 2 groupies ran up and down and around the playground for 45 min. straight.  He is a bit of a ring leader, but I don't think he means to be.

He had so much fun playing with his "friends".  These really were his friends, but the word to him means any child around his relative size.  He is definitely my social child.  Whenever we go to the park, he always asks if his friends will be there.  Whether he has ever met these 'friends' or not is irrelevant to him.  He is happy to talk to, follow, and be followed by complete strangers.  It is pretty fun to see him socialize.  

Vocabulary

Conner has been talking for a long time.  He is usually very easy to understand, but lately, his language has been changing.  He is at the glue like stage of life - Everything he sees and hears sticks.  He likes to repeat words and phrases he hears.  It is very cute, but some times makes it difficult to understand him.

Here are a few of his most recently picked up words and phrases,

"wow, that's amazing." (Thank you Little Einstein's)
"I'm amazing"
"Look, straight ahead" (Not sure where this comes from, but probably Octonauts)

With Conner's extending vocabulary, it is a little harder to know exactly what he is saying.  I am usually not expecting the big words, and they are not always used correctly, but it is sure fun to see him learn!

Conner has been watching a lot of The Letter Factory (I highly recommend it for toddlers needing to learn letters and sounds).  This was our go-to activity for potty training we-need-to-stay-of-the-carpet activity, so he may have watched it 3 or 4 times in a day... And Conner knows a lot of his letters and sounds.  Here are his favorites:

R - This has been his favorite letter for months.  He knows the letter R and its sound very well.
O - second favorite letter. He will point it out everywhere.  Anything that is a circle is an O. (we need to work on shapes...)
W - This is his 3rd favorite.  He loves to say the sound most - Wu, Wu, Wu (followed by a giggle)
C- When asked, he will point out C and say the letter.
B - He is not so great at saying B, but he says Bu, Bu, Bu, when he sees the letter.
F -This is similar to B.  He does not say F, but he says Flying, because the letter F flies in the movie.  Cute.
K - When Conner sees the letter K he says Kick. (and he acts it out)
A- Ahhh! (hands in the air, like he is afraid)

Those are his favorite letters, but he knows all of them a little bit.  If you point to any capital letter, he can either tell you its name, sound, or the action it makes in the video.  Not bad for 2 1/2!  :-)

Moral of this post: Kids do learn from what they watch on TV, so make sure, if the TV is on, there is positive, good messages for them to learn from.

Hunter Walking

Hunter is walking.  Not just occasionally, almost exclusively.  It is official - he is a mobile terror!  :-)

Here is evidence:

Hunter's favorite show to watch is Little Einsteins.  He will pat his legs along with the characters and raise his hands high in the air for rocket to blast off.  It is adorable.

Swimming!

After a summer full of swimming with cousins and friends, Conner is really starting to like it.  He does not swim on his own, but he swims with a little float-y.  It is adorable.  He gets super tired and sleeps very well on swimming days.

Here is a video of Conner and his friend Bennett.  Aren't they adorable?!  They have so much fun swimming.