Yep, Molars

Dr. Matt confirmed we are in the molar stage. Super.
The drama has calmed down (I shouldn't jinx it!). But we don't know when the next wave will hit. Frozen fruit pops are ready!

Oh, and Colin was likely working through an ear infection at the same time! We have an Rx in case it returns.

Really, it was so fun!

Drum Roll Please

Official documentation of this 22 month old eating something green (other than a crayon)! I steamed some broccoli and added some ranch dressing for dipping. He was upset when the dressing was gone, but then while we pretended not to look, he took a few bites of the broccoli .

We had borrowed a book from the library called "I can eat a rainbow" that shows some veggies like broccoli. We've been talkin' up the green stuff for a while now.

Don't adjust your monitor, Colin does own a pink bib - My Mom's Hotter Than Your Mom. Ask his father.

Thanks Mom...

We forgot Colin enjoyed frozen fruit pops. We will be picking those up, asap!

Holy Molars!

So, we think Colin is moving some molars. Not sure, but the 11pm to 12:45pm inconsolable screaming last night makes us think that could be the issue. It's a little early for molars, but his teeth have been early (and painful) his entire life.

Asking all parents of older tots for any ideas of soothing the soreness! Colin will sometimes chew on a frozen bagel bite. He never liked chew toys nor the cold or frozen wash cloth trick. Tylenol to the rescue! But then he has the runs if too much of the meds.

We were finally able to shoot some photos with CP around the Christmas tree. Ordered the cards today! It's harder now that he doesn't stand or sit still for longer than 3.5 seconds.

Off to color with Colin!

Happy Thanksgiving

We flew north to see my family for Thanksgiving and attend Cousin Alexis' baptism. I'm one of her sponsors. (I need to brush up on my 'thou's and 'holies'.) Lexi did great. She wanted to play in the water as they were dousing her head. Colin and Bill kept busy by wandering around the large church.



Great fun was had between the cousins. Colin and Lexi "played" very well together. Lexi army crawled to get at Colin, and Colin would sort of pat her and say "baaaby".




We went to the Underwater Adventures aquarium at the mall. Lexi's head was turning this way and that. Colin was very interested at the start of the path looking at the turtles and fish. Once we began the path surrounded by the aquarium with fish swimming all around and overhead, he went hyper-hypo and was super excited. It took a while to peel him off the walls.

Everyday we were serenaded with Colin's stellar piano playing. He enjoyed climbing onto to the piano bench and boogie woogieing with anyone who would join him. He takes after the crazy Jerry Lee Lewis, getting as creative using his toes, bum, and other objects on the keys. Colin also latched onto my grandfather's harmonica. He was the bee's knees when he figured out how to make it work.

As I Was Preparing Dinner...

All was quiet...



Too quiet...





He had ink all over his hands and face. And yet, he was entertaining himself by tearing up the colorful ads and then sliding around on the newspaper.

Fall Images

We jumped in the leaf pile.



We buried Daddy in the leaves.



We bench pressed a pumpkin.


Happy Halloween!

Nice Goose Egg

I picked Colin up from daycare today and the woman who watches him pointed out the nice bump on his head. From what I could gather, another kid was falling and tossed the toy, or something, anyway, the toy wonked Colin on the forehead.



I guess he's not traumatized by it. He wouldn't let us ice it.



Later, Bill and I are watching some ABC family comedy show. The new parents bump their baby's head on the wall while dancing with her, and they freak out. Sooo, I casually go get the "What to Expect" book for toddler years and read up on concussions....now, do we get up in 6 hrs to see if he's okay? Over-react much?!?

Busy, Busy, Busy Boy

Colin has been hard at work using his little brain and little body to explore new things everyday. Some things he's been working on:

- Colin can identify shapes. He knows the difference between a circle (IRKLE) and an oval (OWAL) and a square (WARE) from a rectangle (RRRANGLE), as well as triangle, star, diamond and heart.

- Colin is throwing more of what I'll call mini-fits when he doesn't get his way. We haven't seen a tantrum blow out...yet.

- Colin is working on his colors. He's quick to identify the animal or shape. We are working on the concept that the animal can be a color too.

- Colin loves to have a spoon AND a fork at meals and is discovering mega mess making to the delight of mom and the annoyance of dad.

- Colin and I have been counting to 10 on the car ride to/from daycare. He loves to reach 10 when we get to let out a big cheer! He's got 1-3 down then 4-7 are a little tricky, eight and ten are good, nine we forget sometimes too. Of course when I ask, "Do you want to count with mommy?", he politely says, "no?". Then I hear him whispering "wah, tuh, wree...", so we'll finish up to 10 together.

- Colin loves to climb onto a box of any size and JUMP up and down or jump into your arms (make sure to pay attention to the random baby flying at you!). Daddy and Colin play this a lot. It freaks me out. The little daredevil...

- Colin can point to and say many of his body parts. He's working on elbows versus wrists. That's a tricky one. He likes pointing to your facial features when you are holding him. For your nose, he thinks it's hysterical to shove his fingers up your nose and say "NOSE!" Hahaha...ewwww.

- And he knows his Wiggles characters by name. Sesame Street folks are pretty popular too. The funniest are Oscar, Grover and Cookie Monster which he says in his monster voice while scrunching up his face! He calls Ernie "Tub Tub", you know, from the Rubber Ducky song.

Beware of Flying Objects

We decided to keep Colin rear-facing in his car seat per new car safety studies suggesting kids are safer in this position until they weigh something like 35 lbs. (They don't mention the weight of the kids being fun for the parents to try to load in this position.) Anyway, I whack Colin's head on the roof of the car everytime he's getting in his seat. It's so sad. He even tries to duck to help me out. Geesh.

A new thing Colin is doing while traveling in his car seat is passing forward the books or toys he no longer wants with him. If I don't grab the object in time, he gets annoyed and yells "ELMO!" or "MAP" (he likes the Rand McNally laminated maps) then chucks it over his head and into the front seat. My front seat passengers will have to take precautions!

More Park Adventures

During a recent visit to the small park, (now, we designate between small park -the one by our house- and big park -the one by the library), Colin decided to tackle the climbing wall up to the slide. Bill helped him navigate which steps to step to next and where to put his hands. By the next trip or two up, he had his climbing path picked out. Now, when we go to the small park, he's up those rock stairs in no time at all, then down the slide, and around again.

1st Haircut...okay, more like a trim

G'ma Mary helped out with Colin's first haircut. Really, he just needed a trim around the bangs and ears. We seated him in the highchair and went out on the deck at the lake. Some string cheese and Mommy's hand holding helped get him through the ordeal. I think it was more that this was not on HIS agenda and he didn't appreciate being confined. G'ma Mary did a great job. The little man looks a little neater and she kept his curly mullet.



"I'm not too happy, I must say."

18 mos photos

I took CP in for his 18 month photos. Yep, we are at the stage where he was not going to take direction from a stranger with the soul stealing device (aka camera). I got him to smile once as I sang "Running up the Sand Hills" from the Wiggles. At least he had a cute outfit. And, we have more pix to send to the grandmas.




Look at all those teeth! It's like Jaws from Moonraker!

Goats and Goat Poop

Colin and I took advantage of the cooler weather to visit the petting zoo at the Zoo. It's basically sheep, goats and poop pellets (everywhere!). Somebody got a scrub down when we left!



I put this one in because it shows off his cute loafers from Auntie Anita!



"This is the way we comb a sheep, comb a sheep..."



"Don't head-butt me, bro!"


Colin takes a seat and converses with his new friend.

New Game

Propelled by his Baby OCD, Colin meticulously took each toy, one by one, out of the bin and crossed the room to see which ones fit through the baby gate and bounced down the steps.

MaNu = Balloon

We have reached the stage of trying to decipher what Colin is saying to us. For a week, while reading certain books and seeing certain shows, Colin would say, "Manu! Manu!".

Um..okay?

Then we were at the grocery store and passed by the florist area. "Manu!" Aha! Balloon. Got it.

Now, we're working on "OhKo". No idea.

Not Quite Picasso

Having located the IKEA bucket of sidewalk chalk purchased oh-so many years ago, we introduced the medium to Colin. He got it on the house, on his pants, shoes, bum and face...not so much on the driveway. Maybe we wait a little while before we bring the chalk back out.

Swimmng Like a Fish

We picked up a kiddie pool since Gma Mary, Zoe and Justis were driving down to babysit Colin for a day while daycare was off for the week. Colin and Daddy tested the waters over the weekend.



When Gma Mary brought out the pool, Colin learned how to blow bubbles from Justis and splashed up a storm with Zoe. Fortunately, the weather cooperated (it's been a funky summer weather-wise). Thanks again for spending a fun day with Colin!


J may be a tad over the recommended age group for the kiddie pool!

No Veggies

I still have to work on getting Colin to eat his veggies. And that was lovely head of broccoli from Aunt Kathy's garden. Now, I shove them in a blender with foods he likes and mix in with meals. There's something to that sneaky-veggie book.

Jumping in the Water

More fun in the water. Colin had no problem "jumping" off the dock to Daddy. (We'd better keep a close eye on him.) Background noise is the waverunner lift. Background discussion is of who has Zoe's towel. I'm the thief!

Swimming

Colin trying out the life jacket in the water with Daddy and Zoe.

Lake Week 2009

We enjoyed a fun time at the lake with family. This summer Colin was able to enjoy more of the activities at the Lake. We pulled out the buckets, shovels and small slide. Jen and Paul brought up the Tykes picnic table. Colin enjoyed figuring out how to sit at the table. He liked swinging in the hammock and was only clothes-lined once when trying to push the hammock. Another fun time was pushing his stroller all around the yard, and back again. That would keep him busy for some time, then he'd tire out and want to sit in the stroller for you to push him around the yard, and back again.

Colin loved swimming and did great hanging out on Bill's boat. He didn't seem to mind the life jacket he had to wear. We had him "swimming" in the lake with it on to get him used to it. Once he figured out how to move his arms in the jacket to splash, he was okay. He would watch everyone wakeboard and surf while trying not to fall asleep to the hum of the boat. When stopped to switch riders, we had to keep Colin from pressing the horn button too much. We didn't want to appear distressed to other boaters.



Cousins Justis and Zoe did a great job keeping Colin entertained and out of trouble for the most part. Zoe and Grandma did tat Colin up on his right arm. He also ate some dirt and touched his first pile of dog poo. That odd sensation stopped him in his tracks, stunned him for a few minutes, and we were able to clean his hand before he figured out what was up. If he wasn't "powering up", Colin would entertain the crowd by covering his eyes with his hands, uncover them and say Booo (with an odd southern accent).



Lastly, we celebrated Gpa Bill's birthday with a very special cake. A woman Bill works with is into making designer cakes, so Bill tossed out the idea and she did it. We hauled this master piece in our trunk up to the lake! It made it and received the reactions we were hoping for.

The Zoo

Nana and Papa were in town for a weekend visit and we made our first trek with Colin to the zoo. He did pretty well. It was kind of boring for him in between animal areas. But then we saw the lions playing with a card board box right up against the fence. The elephants were lazily walking around their corral and Colin was pointing at them as if to say "are you seeing this?" He liked the aquarium best with the fast moving, colorful fish. We liked it best because of the air conditioning.

Stuff He Picks Up @ Daycare?

We assume that the kids at daycare taught him this. Who knows. Funny stuff.

Colin's also picked up screeching from the kids when everyone's excited. Fortunately, his voice doesn't get to that glass shattering octave.

Most of all, we love to sing, dance and run around!

Eh, whadda you looking at?

The special tonight was more fun to fling than eat.

Back to Basics

We had to reestablish the sleep routine. It dawned on us that for more than a week Colin has fought going to sleep, asking for more "buk", trying to play, then crying when put in his crib. It was taking at least 45 minutes for bedtime routine. I think it was a slow progression, probably stemming from when he was sick and it was hard for him to sleep when he didn't feel well.

So, last night we put him to bed right after milk and 2 books and, sure enough, he wailed. I waited the 10 minutes, went to his room, gave him a hug, laid him back down, and left. I was expecting this to happen a few more times before he'd wear himself out. He cried himself down in the next 10 minutes and I didn't have to go back in his room. Nice! Now tonight, I hear him flopping around his crib and gabbing away as I type. I hope that means he's soothing himself down. We shall see.


Photo of Daddy and CP - all giggles!

Water Buddies

Oui, it is zee famous Jacques Cousteau and his son, Jean-Michael exploring zee remote beaches of Irish Hills.




Although he really enjoyed his time splashing in the lake, Colin has been fighting off some wicked virus. Fever, swollen glands in the neck, white gunk on his tonsils, a horrible cough, etc. etc.

Fortunately, we ran to the library before going to the Lake House to get some DVDs. He vegged out all day Saturday watching the Wiggles over and over (slight pause here to reflect on how I have to forfeit my Mom of the Year nomination because we exceeded our allotted video time).

Did you know that the Wiggles' DVD starts over by itself? At first, I thought Colin hit the PLAY button on the remote, but then I realized the cleverness of the Wiggles. Ah-ha! Hours upon hours of wiggling. Gads. And when he's sick, he only wants Mom. He's a pretty good, by that I mean a talented, whiner too. So fun.

We hope he's up and running 100% by the end of the week. He seems to be improving, but still tires quickly and is sleeping a lot --the one good thing about this illness!

Sit'N'Spin

After a week or so of just launching toys off the Sit'N'Spin, Colin plunked down and started spinning himself.

The Slide

Now that it's warmer out and Colin doesn't have to wear his fleece jacket, the ZAPs from the slide are less shocking. He slid down with Mommy a few times. Then he wanted to walk up the slide (the cool, big boys were doing it at the library park). Instead, Daddy convinced him that going down the slide was way cooler!

Wood, Silverware & Sapphires

Yes, that's right, it was our 5th wedding anniversary. WTH? Right!?!
We celebrated at the Lake. G'pa and G'ma babysat Colin while Bill and I saw the new Star Trek movie and enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Evans Street Station Restaurant -amazing food, we highly recommend it. We received complimentary champagne and dessert as well (key lime cheesecake).


Best part were the gifts from hubby. He so thoughtfully remembered our wedding negatives and contacted the photographer for the remainder of our photos and negs. We are going to go through them and see if we want to retouch and reprint any with Russ' help. And, a gorgeous pearl bracelet to go with my earrings. Jewerly -always a winner!
I needed another weekend to get Bill's gift ready, so I'm a bit tardy. What's new!?!?

A Snuggaloo Who

Colin is slowing moving into the next size up (18 mos). He has his 15 mos doctor appointment tomorrow. It'll be great to see how he is progressing on his chart, oh, and two shots.


I finally bought him some bigger pjs instead of squeezing his head and toes in the 12 mos jammies. I think he looks like a Dr. Suess character.
Left foot, left foot.
Right foot, right.

Let's See What's New...

Peanut is picking up so many new things each day, it's all happening so fast. Colin tries to repeat many of the words we say and our actions (uh-oh!). He's starting to put signs and words together to request (and sometimes demand) things. He signed "bear" while growling and then made the sign for "book" and said "buk". He wanted the Brown Bear book before bed (hey! an alliteration, nice!). We let him pick two books. He'll get upset and demand more "buk", but two's the limit, buddy.

Itsy Bitsy Spider was playing in the car and Colin signed the song to himself in the back seat mirror. I almost crashed the car watching in my review mirror. Too cool. You can watch him trying to figure out how to say the words to his favorite songs. Colin loves the Wiggles' "Hot Potato"! That song will turn his frown upside down in a second. He can do all the motions, but now he's thinking about the word potato and tries to sound it out.

Colin seems to be telling himself the stories in the books. We'll come home from daycare and he'll go sit among his books and look through a bunch of them squeaking out sing song words and pointing at the pictures. Other times, he's climbing in and out of cupboards while we try not to drop anything on top of him in the kitchen. Or, we're late getting home and he's banging his cup on his booster seat demanding "eat"!


When he hugs you, he pats you on the back. I think he picked that up from little Allison at daycare who hugs him when he arrives. He's her "baby". I dropped him off at daycare one day and he saw Maria and squealed "eee-ah, eee-ah". She bent down to hug him and he hugged and patted her back. So sweet.

You'll notice Colin is still wearing the bib fashion accessory for in-coming molars. He is still drooling buckets. We'll take that over a diaper rash, boy!



Yes, we are at the stage of wanting to touch everything, and if it fits, we put it in our mouth. Here he is splashing in Aunt Kathy and Uncle John's water fountain. That water was cold. He was soaked and loved it.


We've now named his tight fisted excitement "power up". If you do it, he'll copy you and your intensity. Hilarious! We let him loose at Costco and he was "powering up" at all the big box items. He was really ticked that the brightly colored, inflatable water island slide was hanging from the rafters way out of his reach. We experienced his ballistic "power up".

"Then Skippyjon Jones goes to sleep, so he can do it all over again when he wakes up." -from one of his, well okay, one of my favorite books of his.