"Let me do it"

This evening, Collin and I went for a walk and then ended up at the park to swing and play a little before dinner. Collin usually lets me push him in the swing and really has a good time with it. Tonight though, I stood to the side of the swing and noticed that he was rocking back and forth to help me keep the swing going. I stopped pushing him and he continued to rock in the swing. Wow! He had a huge smile on his face while doing it. As he was swinging, there was a little girl that stopped by and had a little puppy in his arms. Collin started to "yell" at the dog in excitement. He immediately wanted out of the swing so he could pet the dog. His way of petting is to grab the dog's hair though and I am sure that is not pleasant for the dog. Anyway, he watched the dog a little before we headed back to the house.

Something else Collin has started to do which we need to break before it's a habit is his way of letting us know that he is finished eating. Usually when he is full, he turns his head to the right or left with his mouth closed so we cannot get the spoon in his mouth. If we try again and he still turns his head away, then we are finished with the solids. Well, in the last few days, Collin's figured out that blowing the food on the spoon as it's going into his mouth makes a funny noise and it's much more fun to do this to tell us he is finished instead of turning his head. We try really hard not to laugh because we don't want to encourage it but he thinks it's so funny and really gets tickled about it. We will try one more spoonful before giving up and he does it again. Sometimes, he blows so hard that the food gets all over his face and on our hands and clothes. I sure do hope this is temporary. Wish us luck.....and beware if it's your turn to feed him.

Collin is like a new toy

Chris Here:

With life catching up to us, Laura and I have been very busy. Laura actually got to go on vacation for a week and came back really rested. As you can see in the previous post Collin and her had a great time in Colorado with Nancy & Robin. But I on the other hand was extremely bored. The house was to quiet and I had nothing to do. Some guys Golf or play Tennis, have really cool audio systems or cool cars, I have come to realize that Collin is like my little toy and new hobby. He is fun to play with, you can never have enough stuff with you when you are with him, and all of the baby toys are a blast to play with(at least I think so). If you ask Collin the empty can or old computer mouse or old cell phone are the best toys, but I particularly like the Monkey Puppet, the telephone with the big shiny, flashy buttons, and the little push car toy I bought him that he can sit on and I can push him around on.

Laura has found out that unlike a girl that you can dress up like a doll, Collin can wear shirts with risky sayings on them and then give him bathtub Mohawks( Wait til I cut his hair like a real Mohawk then we will see how much fun she has with that). Anyways both of us are having a lot of fun playing with our ever growing toy.

Yesterday we wanted to see exactly how much he would eat so we decided to keep feeding him until he pushed us away. We were concerned that he was not eating enough after talking with some friends that have a kid and found out how much they ate. SO to make a long story short he ate more food than ever. BUT as you guessed it what goes in, must come out, and guess who got do deal with the BIG POO Diaper?? That is right ME. Although it was fun kinda like Russian roulette, first it was me, the second diaper went to Laura and then back to me but no POO yet. We kept taking turns with growing tension with each diaper and then BOOOOOM. The BIG ONE. The next morning Laura Left early( I think she went and smelled the room because it was her time) but she skated out early with the Lame excuse of she had to get to work early. I still call B.S. to that. You can imagine the rest of the story.

Needless to say we are having fun playing "I am going to get you" and "The Tickle Game" and giving him "Raspberry's" on the tummy and neck and many other fun ways to play with our new 11 month old toy.

The laughter is incredible and stays with you all day.

Collin and Sydney

As promised, here are some pictures of Collin and Sydney playing together Saturday afternoon.

Here they are exploring each other's faces.

Here is my son already trying to look up a girl's dress. He is acting like he is eating it but I know what he is doing.

"Hey, someone....I think she needs to be changed. It smells familiar and this is when I get a new diaper."

Sydney is not crawling around yet so Collin demonstrated several times how it's done. He's really fast these days so she might not have been able to catch everything he was doing but she was sure trying to.

Collin loves to be tickled so he's doing it to Sydney. He did not know where her spots were so she was not laughing....but we all were.

This is a picture of Collin sitting one of his new ways. He is so busy right now that he rarely takes time to sit with his legs out. He sits in this position on his knees to he can get to a crawling position. When he is ready to go, he throws his arms up in the air, rocks forward a few times to get the momentum to push himself over to a crawling position....and then he's off!

The Weekend

This weekend was busy for us a usual. Daddy took the day off Saturday to be with Collin and I since we were out of town the previous week. We had a great time in the morning relaxing around the house (well, the boys relaxed....you know me well if you read that and thought I was joking that I relaxed). Here is a picture of the boys watching TV after a big breakfast.

We all piled in the car to attend a baby shower for someone I work with. Collin and daddy hung out with Sydney's daddy while she slept during the entire shower. She woke up when everyone left. Collin and Sydney played for a little while before we had to leave. Her mommy took pictures and I will post them soon.

Sunday, I went for a bike ride with a friend while the boys slept. After I got back, we played together as a family. Collin has some balloons still from a friend. He had fun trying to keep it in the air by hitting it with his hand (with my help). He also has fun knocking the blocks over that daddy or I stacked on top of each other. I brought back an old computer mouse that aunt Nancy gave us which is his new favorite toy. I am sure he will get bored of it soon. After he took a brief nap, we headed out to run some errands and then play at Maria and Matthew's house in the afternoon.

Collin and Matthew had fun playing with Matthew's toys. They really play well together. If one of the boys was playing with a toy that the other one wanted, then he would let the toy go and find something else. Eventually, he did get to play with the stolen toy. Collin's favorite "toy" was a newly cleaned plastic dog bowl that he found in the kitchen. All of the toys were practically new to him and he focused most of his time chewing on the bowl. After about an hour, we walked to the community pool to swim for about an hour. Collin floated in one of Matthew's pool floats. He got bored of that so I put him on the side of the pool for him to jump from a sitting position into the water and my open arms. I would count to 3 and sometimes he would jump before 3 but he would jump every time and smiling the entire time. He did this over 10 times and did not get tired of it....I did because my arms or out of shape!

A shock for me was that he wore the hat I put on him the entire time he was in the pool even during the jumping times. I could not believe it. He has hated hats or anything on his head for about 7 months now. I hope this was not a fluke and that he will allow me to put hats on his head. I love him in them. We came home and Collin went to bed about 1 1/2 hours earlier than usual after he drank almost 13 oz of milk. His usual is 6 oz. He was a hungry little bug.

Home!!

We are home!!! The flight home was COMPLETELY different from the flight to Colorado. We did at least sit next to a window to give Collin more room to roam and he sure did. He did not stop moving even for 5 seconds until the last 30 minutes of the 2 hour flight when he FINALLY feel collapsed from exhaustion. The person sitting next to us was a teenager that was working on his laptop. Yep, you guessed it. Collin was REALLY interested in the laptop and keyboard. It was all I could do to keep the wiggling little guy from hitting the keys on the keyboard. Oh, the best part is that right as the airplane door shut, Collin decided it was time to fill his diaper. I could not change it until the seatbelt sign was off which was going to be at least another 20 minutes, SOOOOOO I had the wiggly, squirming guy on my lap and the entire time I was smelling his fumes. I am sure the people around us were too. It ended up 45 minutes later when I was able to change his diaper which was very difficult in the small airplane bathroom but we did it.

Daddy was SOOO happy to see us. He met us at baggage claim at the airport because he could not wait for us to walk outside of the airport. Collin was really happy to see him.

Colorado - Day Five

Today can only be described as beautiful, adventurous and humorous. We started out early and headed to Boulder to see the sights and then shop a little at the Leanin' Tree Museum and Celestial Seasoning Factory and Tasting Room. Collin enjoyed the sculptures in the garden outside the Leanin' Tree Museum. We then went inside to buy greeting cards which is what the Leanin' Tree develops (you now know where your cards will be coming from the next time I send them...hehe).

Our next stop was Celestial Seasonings tea factory. I had a great time tasting the teas and picking out some to take home in the gift shop. I am loaded up now for the next several busy months at work!

Our next stop was Estes Park which is about 45 minutes Northwest of Boulder. Our mission was food! We stopped at a favorite place of Robin and Nancy's called the Wapiti Restaurant. We then walked around the cute downtown and looked at a few of the shops. Collin got excited when he saw a dog. I knew that he did because of the dog specific squeal he made (see previous blog entry). We had to stop and take a few pictures for him. The weather was really nice...a cool 70 degrees. It was also good to get out and walk before we got back in the car to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park.

We drove for about an hour and stopped at the Alpine Visitor's Center which was above 12,000 feet which is above the tree line and 47 degrees outside by then. Collin did great with the altitude...he did not cry at all and his ears did not seem to bother him. In the Visitor's Center, Collin had a good time "testing" out the stuffed animals and toys in the kid section.

Words cannot even describe the scenery in the Park.....

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at Lily Lake to have dinner and stretch our legs out. We had no idea of the fun that we were about to have. Little chipmunks we really excited that we were there and came up to say "hi" to us. Collin LOVED to see them running around. They were not shy either. One crawled up his stroller wheel to get a better look at Collin. He yelped in excitment about that. We were laughing too hard to take a picture of that. We then walked around the lake before we got back in the car to head back to Nancy's house.

Well, tonight is our last night in Colorado. I know Nancy and Robin will miss us but I know of someone else waiting in Houston that will REALLY be glad to see us when we get home.

Collin took a bath tonight, is clean and ready to be home to see his daddy.

Colorado - Day Four - Day of Rest

Because of our big day yesterday and our plan to be in the mountains again tomorrow, we stayed home today to rest (at least compared to the other days we rested more). Collin apparently needed it because he took almost a 3 hour nap this morning and he went to bed the earliest tonight since we have been here. We started the morning with food which has been a theme since we have gotten here....none of us are starving, that's for sure...including Collin. He has eaten solid food 3 times a day since we have been here which is more than usual. He has eaten 3 times a day before but not the quantities he is eating now.

Anyway, this afternoon, we ran a few errands and did some chores around the house. Collin even helped us take the dry clothes out of the dryer. Later in the afternoon, the adults were treated to over an hour massage each by a masseuse that came to the house. I know, you are all wondering what was Collin doing when it was my turn. Nancy watched him and did a great job. She fed him a bottle and both he and Nancy survived a poopy diaper change. After my massage, Collin and I spent some time in the backyard to enjoy the hot weather. We played in the grass a little and then had to check out the dogs in the neighbor's backyard through the fence. Collin heard them bark and was trying to imitate the barking. It was really cute.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Estes Park and then stop in Boulder for a little shopping.

Colorado - Day Three - Big Hiking Day!

After a relaxing morning, we drove through Boulder Canyon to arrive at Brainerd Lake State Park. Robin drove ahead of us on the Harley while Nancy, Collin and I followed in the car. It was a gorgeous, clear day so the park was really crowded. We finally found a place to park at a trail head that they had not hiked before. What a great choice because the hike was fantastic. We hiked to Lake Mitchell and back which took us about 2 hours. On the way there and back, Collin had a great time "singing" and talking practically the entire hike. He really got excited whenever he saw dogs on the trail. He had a specific squeal and then laugh every time he spotted a dog. He also was really interested whenever he saw other kids. This made him happy for a few minutes after the kids passed by. We hiked over several bridges with running water underneath which really got Collin's attention because of the noise the water made. He would yell a few times at the water. Collin did great for his first hike ever.

After the hike, we were all hungry as you can imagine. We stopped at a favorite historic restaurant of Robin and Nancy's called Millsite Inn that operates out of a log cabin. It has been there since 1935 and had really good homemade food. We stopped in at an off time so we practically had the place to ourselves for a little while.

We left the restaurant and were guided back down the mountain the opposite direction we came from by Robin on his Harley. It was a new experience for all of us because I don't think I have ever had a Harley tour guide before. Robin would point out places of interest and Nancy would provide the commentary as if Robin was in the car with us. We saw rock formations, creek, narrow canyons of granite and homes on the hillside. Several points of interest had Robin and Nancy appointed nicknames like "The Narrows" for a stretch of the road that was winding through a narrow canyon with jutting rocks on each side of the canyon.

By the time we got home, I got to see a beautiful sunset over the mountains that can be seen outside the back kitchen window as I was feeding Collin his 4th meal. Yes, he has had an appetite during this trip. I am fattening him up.

Colorado - Day Two

Hey, it's the Collinator here. Mom's busy getting my bath ready. What a day!!! I can hardly remember how it started. I am sure mom changed my diaper after I woke up but I doubt you are really interested in those details. After I woke Nancy up by getting excited and screaming at the fan (it's a Holmes brand fan...wow, we must be rich), we went for a walk. It was much nicer outside than yesterday morning but just as hot. I am always hot so I did not really notice but I heard mom talking about it. After the walk, we had breakfast. Mom's homemade french toast looked MUCH better than my bananas, plum, pears and oatmeal.

After breakfast, we cleaned up and relaxed before we went to a local friend's house for lunch and a visit. I had a great time exploring a new house. She did not have as much on her coffee table as Nancy did but she had enough to keep mom busy for a little while. I was not really interested in what was on the table but more interested in seeing how fast mommy could move. Shhh...our little secret. The best part was she had a dog that I got to pet and yell at. The dog was great because he just laid there.

After the lady's house, we got in the car and the mean car seat again and drove to see Red Rocks Amphitheater. We were going to see the Rock N' Roll museum and get to see the amphitheater but it was closed because an old, funny-looking guy named Lyle Lovett was playing in concert that night. So, we left and went to Morrison to stop and feed me. I was getting really hungry like I had been all day. I had carrots while mommy and Nancy had a root beer float. Now, how fair is that? Carrots vs. a float?

We came back home and saw some guy with a white mustache. His name was some bird like Robin...or something like that. I played with him for a little while before I started to get hungry....again. I surprised mom since I had only eaten 2 hours before that. This time, I had banana, peaches and oatmeal. Is mom crazy? Feeding me bananas twice in one day (thinking of you Mimi)? She had stuffed mushrooms and salmon rolled with dill cream cheese. Who does this woman think she is? When is she going to share that stuff with me?

After eating, Nancy, mommy and I went to a local festival. We stopped by a local art gallery and saw two more dogs. I talked to them and the people around me thought it was funny. Hey daddy, can we get a dog? Then, we went to listen to the band, Poco, play. Well, we lost Nancy on the way so mommy and I went shopping at the local street vendors at the festival. We thought Nancy was worried about us so we decided to find her which did not take long. A really nice man gave me a red balloon. You know me and red balloons. I loved it!!! Nancy, her friends, mommy and I found a great spot on the grass to sit, listen to the band and talk. I was having a great time playing with the balloon and flirting with Nancy's friends...especially the lady with a really cool necklace on.

It was a great day and I am pooped now....talk to you tomorrow. I better go see what those two women are up to and planning for the day tomorrow. I am ordering two naps!!