Connor

Connor is Kirk's 23-year old brother and he has been here visiting us for the last 3 weeks.  He has down syndrome.  I have really enjoyed having him here.  He has enjoyed us too.  He has been a big help and gotten used to being with our kids too.  When he first got here, he didn't want to hold Cami or anything, now he will get her out of her car seat anytime we go somewhere and has even gotten her out of bed a few times. I was really surprised at how helpful he was.

• I was able to leave him with sleeping child/children while I did visiting teaching (yay!) and can take a shower while Cami is up. 
• Connor has helped unload all of our groceries, cut up things for dinner, and kept Cade laughing and happy. 
• Today we stayed home and cleaned the house.  He vacuumed for us, watched Cami while I cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the stove, dusted our shelves and a few others things and then folded the laundry!  Wow.  I should keep him around. 
•  He likes to use his iPad for research.  Usually he reads about fishing, but he gave me some parenting and potty training advice too. 
• He was able to go to the trampoline park with us and had a lot of fun.  He came to our ward party and studied Santa for a while, deciding if it was the real one or just a helper.  I'm not sure what he decided but after a while he came back with a treat bag because he sat on Santa's lap! 
• I had to mediate between him and Cade a few times when the couldn't agree to whose turn it was.  Sometimes I found myself explaining every decision I was making too. 
• He helped me make fudge and caramels, and I really couldn't have done it without him.  For the caramels he stood at the stove and stirred for about 50 min.  He kept telling me that he loved stirring. 

We are really glad that Connor came to stay for a while.  I think we may have to do it again sometime.