Singing and Errands

When running errands today, Daddy, Collin and I sang some of Collin's favorite songs. I reminded Daddy that some of the songs, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" can be sung in a round. I started signing first and then I said "go Dad", for Daddy to start singing (which did catch him off guard) and then he started. After singing a few verses, we stopped. Collin was not finished so he said "Go Dad" wanting Daddy to start singing again. We both laughed and.....started to sing....again!

Then we sang "Baby Bumble Bee" which Collin likes...especially the "ouch, he stung me" part. We had to sing this one over and over and over again too. I am glad bought some CDs that have kid's songs on them because we have GOT to find some news songs that Collin will like.

Water and lots of Sliding

This morning, Mimi, Collin and I went to a local water park. Collin had a blast riding down the big water slides with me. He wanted to do it over and over again and "go fast". I finally told him we needed to check out another area of the park so we went to the Wave pool. He liked this until the waves started. He was fine with the waves when I held him and then helped him "jump" over the waves but he did not like being in the waves themselves especially when they crashed down near him.

We left there and went to the kid section of the park. Here, he discovered the slides that had water running over them. I had to show him the first one but then he figured it out after that. He wanted to climb up the steps and then slide down, over and over again. Mimi and I showed him the boat in the water that had two other slides. We then saw some OTHER slides that were three next to each other . Collin liked that Mimi or I could slide next to him. He did pick Mimi over me a few more times. I was OK with that since I got to stand at the bottom and watch the huge smile on his face when he slide down to the bottom of the slide.

It was then time to eat. Collin had a few french fries, 3 slices of a personal pizza and two bites of an ice cream sandwich. The boy was hungry from climbing up the steps and all of that sliding!

After 3 hours, it was time to go because he was getting tired. He did sleep for about 30 minutes on the way home. I thought he might have slept more when we got home and hoped he would because I was pooped!!! Nope, he was ready to play. Glad Mimi was there still so I could take a much needed nap. Thanks Mimi!!!

No pictures because we had so much fun swimming and sliding.

We ended the day at our friends, the Jureks, for dinner and play. The kids had fun trying to "drive" on the Wii game. I enjoyed watching Collin concentrate trying to drive and watch Ethan show him how to do it.

Collin Loves to Sing

Collin is learning new songs at school in addition to what we sing in the car with him. Daddy already wrote that Collin like to sing the ABC song. Other songs he likes to sing and includes some of the hand motions that go along with them are:

Wheels on the Bus
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Itsy, Bisty Spider
Row, Row, Row Your Boat

After dinner sometimes, we let him watch some of the songs being song by people on YouTube.com. He REALLY likes this and does his little dances moves and arm motions while listening to the people sing.

I will try to get a video of him singing one of these songs over the weekend. It's too cute...

2-year Check Up

We went for Collin's 2-year check up today which meant shots. He got two of them (Hep A and Flu) plus had to get his finger pricked. He, of course, cried when he got the shots but stopped crying as soon as I sat him up and put him on the ground. He let me know it was time to "go mommy" and that is what we did....we left and walked to the lab. He thought he was done and was being cute while waiting for the tech to prick his finger. He peeked around the corner and looked at the other kids in the waiting room. He then peeked around the other corner and saw that it was a long hall. He could not resist....off he ran down the hall and turned quickly into an open door as I ran after him. Fortunately, no one was in the office.

It was his time to get his finger pricked, and he cried for most of it. Then she wrapped his thumb in a band aid. He stopped crying so he could check it out. The rest of the afternoon, he held his thumb out so he could look at his band aid. Here he is outside of the doc's office before we got in the car. Notice he has not let go of his sucker.

He stats are: he is 29 lbs (50 - 75%) and 4 1/2 tall (50%). The doctor said he is likely to be the height of an average male when he is an adult. She said he looked great and he looks like he is eating well. Since he is saying lots of words, looks good and is active, she does not need to see him for another year.

After the doctor appointment, we were headed home when daddy called and needed us to run an errand. We did that and Collin was hungry so we went to Jason's Deli. He loves the hot dogs there. After he finished eating, I got him an ice cream cone which he has never had on his own. He really enjoyed licking the ice cream out of the cone....and did a really good job. His shirt was dirty from the strawberries he had with the hot dog and not the ice cream at all.

A,B,C,NMNP,V,Z, YEAH, CLAP, CLAP,CLAP

We have been working on the ABC's both at home and they are doing it at school as well. So on the way to school in the morning we will sing the song. Collin chimes in with only a few letters but it sure sounds cute. He really likes the end of the song when you invite everyone to come join you next time and he claps and says YEAH...

Collin also now pretty much has to do everything on his own, unless he decides he wants your help then he gets mad at you if you do not do read his mind and know exactly what he wants, I always thought that was a women thing. I think Laura is teaching him that.

Time to wake him up but it sounds like he is already to go. He is up there saying the words he knows like "APPLE JUICE, I LOVE YOU, ABC, OUT" it is all really awesome having the boy around he is so much fun.

Collin and the Gang

Daddy just called after dropping Collin off at school this morning. He said that Collin is really making some friends there. If he buddies are already there, they stop what they are doing when Collin arrives and come over to "greet" him. Then most, if not all of them, wave bye to Daddy before he leaves. Collin's main buddies are James, Jason, Juanito and Nicho. His newer friends are Cirus and Marquesa. Charlotte is there in the group but maybe she is not at school yet when Collin gets dropped off.

Birthday party x 2

Collin had a full day today attending TWO birthday parties for his buddies. This morning, we went to Isabel's party at a local restaurant. Collin likes this place because it has a sandbox AND a bunch of animals that the kids can feed. Collin was not interested in feeding the animals himself because he was really scared of them...especially the horses. He did not mind standing there to watch me or someone else feed them but he did not want to hold his hand out. He did like watching the chicken though.

After lunch of hamburgers and fries (Collin only ate a few fries because he was too distracted by the other activities), it was time to play in the sandbox with the other kids.

Cake was next which was full of purple and pink icing. He usually likes to just stick his finger in the icing, but this time, he ate almost the entire slice of cake. His face was FULL of icing. It was time to go home and rest before the next party began which was a pool party. He only napped for 30 minutes on the way home. He still rested before the party.

We got to the next party and he was bashful at first. Ethan, the birthday boy, was not there yet so Collin did not know anyone there. He did find the playroom and started to warm up a little to the other kids. Then, it was time to get into the pool. He had a great time sliding down the little kiddie slide into the pool. I caught him but only after he landed in the water. I then made him swim to the edge (which means kick as I held him) and made him get out of the pool by holding onto the edge of the pool and climbing out. He did this at least 10 times and did not get tired of it once. He then found the water gun and played with that until it was time to get out and have dinner. He ate a hot dog and a TON of strawberries before it was time for......yep.....cake again!

Daddy met us in the area for dinner and so did Justin and Shelley. For as long of a day he had, Collin did great.

Happy Birthday at school

Nothing like celebrating a birthday for a week, right? Well, Collin got to this year. Yesterday morning, I brought grapes and popcorn to his school during the morning snack. As soon as I opened the door, most of the kids ran to a chair to sit down. Collin ran up to me to give me the biggest hug and was ready to leave. He finally figured out that I was staying for a little while. The teachers and I passed out the cups of popcorn, grapes and juice boxes to all 14 of his buddies. It was fun to watch one take a grape from another or look over at someone else eating popcorn. One little girl turned with her hands to look at her friend and off the table went her grapes. There were plenty were those came from.

The kids all sang "Happy Birthday" to Collin. He was beaming the whole time they sang. I was still passing out some food so I did not get to get a picture or video of this or put his birthday hat on that he has been wearing a little this week.

Here is Collin with a new friend, Meme. The teacher told me all of the kids names and I only remember a few which are the ones that he mentions every morning when daddy drops him off at school.

Here is Collin and his buddy, Nikko. Collin then ran to give Charlotte a hug. Apparently, this is something they do everyday.

It was time for me to try to sneak out but I knew that was not going to happen. Collin would not leave my side. I knew the teacher would have to help. He did cry when I left but I could hear that he had stopped by the time I got to the end of the hall.

Happy Birthday

Our wonderful little boy turned 2 today. I was out of town for business but made sure I stepped out of my meeting so I could catch the boys on the way to Collin's school. Daddy handed him the phone so I could tell him "Happy Birthday". Collin repeated it back to me and laughed. I told him that I loved him and he told me that he loved me too and then I could hear him blow me kisses. I loved it. It made me feel not so bad for not being there on his birthday.

He does have a surprise tomorrow morning though. I am going to show up at school with some yummy snacks to share with his friends.

Momma's Little Helper

Collin likes to help me clean the house.

He puts his plate away when he is finished eating,
he throws his cups in the sink when he is finished,
he throws things away (not everything is trash so I have to watch this),
he helps me wash clothes (even when they are not dirty - see the post below),
he helps me wash the dishes including getting a rinsed one out of the dishwasher to rinse it again, and he helps me clean up his mess after eating.
Must be nice to have a little helper huh? I don't clean as fast, that's for sure, but it is fun to watch him learn.

Here are a few pictures of him helping me put the silverware away which is one of his jobs when I am putting the dishes away. He also puts the Tupperware away since that is the only cabinet door without a "Collin" lock. hehe

"Roundy Round"

Collin is OBSSESSED with washing clothes these days. As soon as I take his clothes off, he wants to run to the laundry room, put them in the washer and then wash them. He wants to push the button to start the washer and then watch the clothes go "roundy round". He says this while making a closed fist, holding it in the air and turning it around and around.

Tonight, he got made at me for putting his PJs on him since he wanted to take them off and put them in the roundy round. I successfully put his shirt back on only for him to get mad and try to take it back off.

Yesterday, he took every blanket in the house he could find and put them in the washer. Once he could not open it, so he came and got me to open the door. I knew what he wanted so did not budge from where I was. This, of course, made him mad. I am running out of distractions from the washing clothes obsession. Help?

Mimi said he does this with her and can stand there for 30 minutes taking clothes in and out. Glad to know it's not only me he is wearing out.

Birthday Party

What a morning. Collin celebrated his 2 year birthday party with a bunch of his friends and there parents. We started the morning at a local splash pad and playground. Alex, Ellie, Saige, Ethan, Dane and Finn joined us there. The kids liked playing with the water guns more than running through the water. Saige was more interested in running through the grass and eventually discovered the playground. The girls made "pie" with the playground coverings while the guys chased each other with the water guns. We had a bubbles machine which was a favorite too.





Then we were off to the bike shop for story and creative time, snacks and birthday cupcakes. The kids that were at the splash pad were hungry and immediately wanted some fruit and something to drink. As they ate, the other party friends arrived:

• Linden and her mommy, Kristen
  Lisa, Dustin and Timmy
• Mimi, Pappy and Grandma Filla
• Brewer, Bonham and their parents Lisa and John
• Ameila and her parents, Dustin and Kelley
• Isabel, little Jay and their mommy, Jenny
• Ethan and his mommy, Wendy
• Stephanie showed up too because she was working at the bike shop that morning

After some snacks, it was story time!!! The nice lady from Blue Willow Bookstore came over and read "Bark, George" about a dog that could not bark. The kids LOVED it....especially when the lady made the animal noises as she read them in the book.









Then, it was time to color a picture of the dog they just heard the story about and then glue a dog bone on the picture. I don't know about the other kids, but it was the first time that Collin had used a glue stick before. I am surprised it did not go directly into his mouth instead of on the paper.












After coloring, we sang "happy birthday" to Collin and shared his cupcake cake with his friends. Collin was only interested in sticking his finger in the icing and licking it off. The green was his favorite so he had a green finger and mouth after that. Grandma Holmes and I made sugar cookies shaped like dog biscuits. The kids thought that was funny and enjoyed eating one...or two of them.


Collin then enjoyed visiting with his friends until it was time to leave. He did not understand or like that they had to go but it was time since the kids...and parents.....were all getting really tired.


We all took at least an hour nap when we got home. What a day!

Say Cheese!

Collin LOVES to eat cheese. He does not care what form the cheese comes in. Tonight, he wanted and ate sliced cheese typically used on a sandwich, cubed cheese...and his favorite.... shredded cheese. He likes to stick his hand in the bag, grab a fistful and eat it. Of course, he does this with is OWN bag of shredded cheese. Who wants to eat cheese after a snotty toddler stuck his hand in the bag and maybe put the cheese back in?

Weekend Summary

What a weekend. No time to be bored...at least for me.

Saturday:

10 am Gymboree - Collin has 2 classes left and then we will need to decide if we want to register him for the next set of classes.

Birthday party errands - Collin's birthday party is next Saturday so after Gymboree, we ordered the cake and then found a party supply place. Collin loved playing with the personal fan the entire time we were in the store. It was a good distraction for me from the balloons and stuffed animals that he would have wanted to play with if he noticed they were there.

Lunch with Daddy - Daddy was finally back in town so we met him for lunch. Collin was finally napping by then. He was so tired that I was able to take him out of my car, wait in the bike shop for daddy to leave for lunch, and then transfer Collin into Daddy's truck. We ate Sonic so we could stay in the car and Collin could finish his nap.

Saige's house - After lunch, we were off to Saige's house to play with her and her new splash pad in the back yard. Collin really liked the slide and tyring to figure out where the water was coming from. Saige was the dare devil and continually ran and jumped in the water. Collin made his own attempt but he still cautiously did it.

Home - We left about dinner time to be home with Daddy before eating and then going to bed.

Sunday:

Breakfast - After dropping a bike off at the other bike shop, we had breakfast out. Collin ate the entire plate of eggs and almost an entire piece of French toast. This was after having strawberries in the car while waiting on dad.

Groceries, Walgreens and then Home - Hung out at home the rest of the morning because it was going to be a busy day. I washed clothes and got things ready for the rest of the week I usually do.

Grandma Filla's birthday - We met the family at a B-B-Q place (yeah, not my thing at all) to celebrate Collin's great grandma's 79th birthday. He sat across from his cousin Timmy and copied most of what Timmy was doing. If Timmy screamed and hit the table with his hands, so did Collin....you get the idea. Here are Collin and grandma after the meal and before cake.

Mimi's House - I dropped Collin off at Mimi's so I could work at the bike shop for a few hours and have a date night with Daddy since he had been out of town since Wednesday. Daddy picked Collin up after the date and brought him home.

Next weekend will be even more busy with the birthday party and Grandma Holmes in town for the weekend.

Back up singer

Over a week ago, Daddy was bringing Collin home from school. As usual, the radio was on and they were singing and snapping/clapping to the music. "Don't you want me?" by Human League came on (yeah, reach back several years and you might remember this one). I guess there is enough repetition of the chorus "Don't you want me baby? don't you want me - oh" because Collin started to sing "Don't you want me baby?" over and over again. He did it the next day too. Several days had gone by and he went on to "sing" other songs. Today on the way home, I did not even have the radio on and Collin started to clearly sing "Don't you want me baby?" within 5 minutes of us being on the road. He sang louder and grew irritated when pointing to the radio because he wanted me to find this song and sign it, I guess. I did end up finding another song to distract him a little. However, when the song was over, the broken record began again.....

"Don't you want me baby?, Don't you want me baby?, Don't you want me baby?, Don't you want me baby?"

Collin's Potty Moment

This one's for the guys. If you have a weak stomach, stop reading now....hahaha

After washing the car and taking a shower tonight (see the blog entry below), Collin said he needed to go poo poo. I don't question if he has to anymore because he does need to go half the time he sits on the potty. He took his stool, took his diaper off and sat on the potty. He leaned over as he usually does and started to pee. He smiled and was proud of himself. He pushed a little more and he tooted. He laughed really hard after that and said "farted". He did that three more times and laughed harder each time. I thought I was going to pee in my pants because I was trying not to laugh. He did finally poo in the potty, he then wiped and it was time to get off.

Working at the car wash, yeah!

When I picked Collin up from school this afternoon, he was playing outside on the slide. When saw me, he immediately ran over to the gate to be let out. His hair was soaking wet from sweat. We walked inside and he stopped at the water fountain to get a drink. This is what he and Daddy do when Daddy picks him up so I did not want to break his routine. I had a snack ready for him when we got in the car. Typically, I have fruit or something from the house. I stopped at the mall to run and errand and I got Collin a cinnamon sugar pretzel. He did not know what to do with it at first. I had to show him that he can eat it. Once he finally took a bite, he wanted more and more until he made such a mess in his car seat.

When we got home, I thought it would be fun to wash the car. Collin was so hot from playing outside, I knew he would love playing with the water hose and getting wet. He did GREAT aiming the water at the car and washing it like mommy. We (mainly me) washed the car a lot quicker than I thought it would take so I even cleaned the inside of the car. He helped by "driving" and turning the radio on. That might have been his favorite part.

We took a shower to play in MORE water. He love it and did not want to get out. We needed to because his skin was starting to wrinkle and mommy was getting hungry.

I had a great time with Collin this afternoon. It's so much fun watching him learn something new and trying to figure things out.

Big boy eating

Now that Collin has started school where there aren't any highchairs, he does prefer eating at the table when at home. He also wants to drink out of a cup without a lid. If we give him a sippie cup, he will insist that either we take of the lid or he will try to.

Here is a now typical eating scenario with Collin:

This morning, when he got to the bottom of the stairs, he announced "eat", walked over to the table pulled out the chair and sat down. I had already set the table with breakfast of eggs, toast and milk because we needed to get going this morning. He sat down, grabbed his cup with both hand and took a sip. Then he dug into the eggs with his fork while saying "eggs" and then "spoon" (we are still tyring to teach him the difference between a fork and spoon). He sometimes is able to pierce the food but generally uses a fork like a spoon. Eggs don't stay on top of a fork very well which is what happened with his first bite...fell to the floor. He had to push his chair out, get down, get the eggs and put them back on the table. He climbed back into his chair but it was then not positioned just right at the table. He pushed out and then wanted me to push him back in. This cycle happened for the next 10 minutes. He finally finished his bread but wanted down to help me put my plate in the sink since I was finished. He got out of his chair, walked to my chair, looked at me and said "finished", grabbed just my fork, put it in the sink, then came back for my plate, put it in the sink and then my glass was next. He was not finished eating so he got back in his chair.

It's now been 30 minutes since we started to eat. Much faster when he is in his high chair. Maybe when we are in a hurry, the high chair is best. I bet daddy already has this figured out. Mommy does not usually take care of Collin in the morning since I am already at work or at least getting ready to leave.

Every day he is wanted to show (or exhert is more appropriate) his independence whether that is pulling his pants off, trying to put on his socks, putting the toothpaste on his toothbrush, putting deoderant on (you will need to read daddy's entry from a week or so ago) or, you name it, he wants to do it.

Collin's nicknames

Unlike some cute nicknames for kids, we seemed to have come up with some creative ones. Besides "Collin", we currently refer to him as:

Stinky Butt - obvious why sometimes after play outside or....after eating a bunch of Fig Newtons
Skudo - don't ask where this one come from. We don't have a good explanation for it.
Buster
Collinator
Dude
Boy
The Boy
Idgit - again, strange...and no explanation

Mimi's contributions are:

Itsy - when little and getting into trouble. What does she mean by that? He gets into trouble now.
Bubba
Collin Everett - I asked her to stop calling him this because he would be confused about what his name really was. It's not Everett.

School Uniform

Collin has to start wearing a uniform to school since this year's school season has already started. He can wear a navy blue, light blue or white polo shirt and khaki shorts or pants. I chose to buy mostly navy shirts since he is still rather messy when he eats.

He must have known that he was wearing something special and different this morning. Check out that smirk on his face.

A morning of fun with mommy and daddy

This morning, we went to breakfast as a family as we usually on a Sunday morning. We chose to go to Kolache Factory today because we had a play date with Elina and her mom at the water park so we could not go far away from the house like we sometimes do. Also, daddy thought he was going to have the day off but needed to work today. Collin really enjoyed his cinnamon roll and watching the other people come in to place their order.

Collin got cleaned up and we went back home for him to ride his bike (while one of us pushed it) before we went to the park. He is getting really good at turning his bike either left or right when instructed to do so. He can keep the bike straight especially when he is on the sidewalk or...when he wants to. When it was time to go, he purposely turned the bike in the opposite direction because he was not ready to go. We tried some coaxing that did not work but distraction finally did.

He was excited as soon as he saw the water at the park when I drove by. I am glad we had him ready in his swim gear before we got to the park because he was ready to go. Once there, he did take a little while to figure out if he was interested in playing in the water or not. Daddy had to get in which helped Collin start playing. He likes to stand on the water vents and then spray me or anyone that is close.

He did get bored and ran off to play on the playground that was close. Daddy ran after him. Collin likes to slide again which is great since he was scared of them when he first got his cast off. However, this slide is WAY too wide for him so we have to help him down. If not, he turns sideways and eventually backwards. None of us are ready for a broken bone again anytime soon. Here are a few pics of the guys.

Daddy had to leave for work and we went to Elina's house for lunch and more time to play. She has different toys than Collin so he had a great time checking them all out. Both kids got tired so it was time for us to leave so they both could take a nap....which is why I have time to write this post at the moment.

Cousins are so much fun

Last night, Collin's cousins (Ben (6 1/2), Will (4) and Hollis(15 mos) ) stopped by from out of town on their way to the beach for vacation for the next week. Collin has met them before when we drove to their house and stayed the weekend when he was 10 months. The boys had a really good time then. They had even more fun this time. When they arrived, Collin was so happy to have people over to his house. He immediately lead the boys to his play room to play with his cars, balls and other toys. Hollis quickly joined them and found the play piano. When it was time to eat, I did not think the boys would stop playing long enough to eat but they did. Collin wanted to sit next to his buddy, Will, and eat what Will was eating. Here they are taking a break from playing.

After dinner, they played for another hour mainly on or near the slide in the living room. Yep, daddy brought the slide in the house one day from the garage. Since we don't have a back yard for Collin to use the slide in, why not the living room near the TV? Anyway, all of the kids had a great time climbing up the slide and then sliding down. We had to watch and make sure Hollis was out of the way since she kept walking in front of the slide and wanted to climb up it the opposite way.

Collin and Hollis took a bath while the boys got ready for bed. After his bath, Collin joined Will brushing his teeth. Collin followed Will around all night so it made since that he would want to copy Will brushing his teeth too....down to spitting in the sink which he had not done before.

Of course, Collin wanted to sleep with the boys who were settling for bed right outside Collin's room. He did go to sleep quicker and much better than I expected though......until he woke up at 12:30 crying and would not stop. Daddy went to get him before he woke our guests up and brought him to our bed. We have never done that at home and have only let Collin sleep with us once which was during vacation this past June. He did go to sleep until a little after 4am. Maybe he wanted to see what the boys were doing.

They left early the next morning so they could get on the road since they had a long drive ahead of them. Here are the guys right before they had to leave. Aren't they cute?

More Potty time

Collin continues to want to sit on the potty. Most of the time, nothing happens. Every once in awhile...success! He either poos or pees. Today, Mimi was watching him and he got the floor wet. She let out a yelp because it scared her. I thought it would have scared him too but he wasn't.

He lets us know when he is ready by either saying "potty" or "poo poo" (he does not say "pee pee") or taking one side of is diaper off if he does not have shorts on. When he takes his diaper off, it sure does get our attention. None of us are interested in accidents.