Fun Saturday - Swimming and Soccer

The day started with Collin waking me up and asking for cereal. This is not an usual way to start the day. What was different was that he slept through the night in his big boy bed (I will post later) without a problem. He was able to get out of it this morning without a problem.

After breakfast, we played with some toys. One of his new toys from Mimi was the kitchen that we cleaned up the other weekend. We brought it home yesterday and Collin got to play with it this morning. He made me breakfast of pizza, ice cream sandwich and an onion ring. Thoughtful but he should know now that I don't like onion rings...hahaha Then, we went outside in the back for him to ride on some of his motorcycles and other toys he can ride on. He stopped at one point, came over to me and said, "Let's go inside. It's hot out here and the bugs are getting me." I agreed and we went inside to get ready for swim lessons.

The lessons started out rough because he was in a bad mood from getting out of the car. He wanted to unbuckle himself, put on his own shoes (yes, he still takes them off every time he gets in the car) and shut the car door. I was trying to hurry him because we were running a few minutes late already because he wanted to "I want to do it" when getting ready to leave. So, when we arrived to the pool, he was in no mood to swim. The instructor, Miss Sarah, was great and VERY patient. He finally calmed down and got in the pool.....and then he did not want to get out. After lessons, we watched the other kids swim for a little bit.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a professional soccer game. My company was having a Family Night there. It was good for us to go so Daddy and Collin could meet my new co-workers. There was a lady making balloon animals. Collin wanted a tattoo of a soccer ball with flames coming off of it. Daddy and I got one too....mine had sparkles on it. We then ate some dinner and then went inside the stadium to watch the game. It was fun to watch and Daddy was really getting into it. Collin seemed to follow the soccer ball better than he has been able to do with the baseball. If it was not an open stadium and 97 degrees outside, we might have stayed longer. It was just so uncomfortably hot that we left. Collin was ready to go by this time because he told me "I want to go home Mommy".

I almost forgot to mention the mascot, a fox named Diesel. I have mentioned before Collin's fears of mascots. When he sees one, he immediately starts to scream, cry or otherwise be really scared and want to leave the area immediately. Yesterday, Diesel snuck up on Collin. I thought for sure that he would have freaked out and jumped in my lap. Instead, he sat there and watched the mascot. Once the mascot left, Collin watched him wherever he went. He rarely took his eyes off of him. When we were all finished eating, I wanted to walk around and introduce my family to my coworkers. If the mascot was in the area, Collin refused to head that way. Once the mascot left that section, we could head that way. Diesel eventually left and went inside the stadium to get ready for the game. Collin saw this and said that the fox was hungry and getting some food. Once we finally went inside the stadium, Collin did ask were the fox was. I noticed him looking around a few times and could tell he was not watching the game.....he was looking for the fox.

Primary Class

Because Collin is potty-trained and has passed all of the other requirements, he is ready to move to the next level of class, Primary. Daddy and I observed two Primary classes this past Wednesday to determine which teacher and class we liked better and thought Collin would do well in. We chose Ms. Kristine's class. She had more older kids in her class (age 4 or 5) which Collin loves to watch and she is a little more disciplined than the other teacher. We think Collin needs more structure and rules since he is pushing both of those right now. Plus, he already knows a few of the kids in the class: Ellie and Alex, Jacob, and Griffin.

Over the next week, he will observe his new class for about 3 hours a day. The following week, he will move to the class as a full time student.

Do you have any money?

I have been trying to teach Collin that he 1) cannot have everything he sees and wants in a store and 2) that we have to pay for things in the store before they are ours to use.

We were in Walgreens yesterday to kill some time before swim lessons (that ended up being canceled). Collin found the toy isle and immediately grabbed a car and said "I want this". I told him that he needed to buy it first. I asked him if he had any money in his pockets to buy it. He held the car out to me, asked me to hold it, and started to search for money in his pockets. After not finding any, he told me "I don't have any money". I then told him that we cannot buy the car if he does not have any money. I thought for sure he would ask me to buy it (like he has done before). Not this time. Instead, he walked over and put the car back where he found it, turned around and left the isle. hmmmm........will that work every time?

First Baby Sitter

Collin survived...and so did the baby sitter. Until tonight, Collin has not had someone other than family watch him while Daddy and I went out. Tonight, Ms. Rebecca, his swim coach, came over to watch him while Daddy and I went to see a movie, 'Inception' with Leonardo Decaprio. He was SO excited to see her when she came over. I told him when he got home from swim lessons that she was coming over so he had to take his bath, put on PJs and be ready for when she showed up. I caught him looking out the front window to see if she was here yet (too cute).

When she did arrive, he was so excited that he ran around his "track" a few times (living room to dining room through the office then kitchen and back to the living room). She just stood there and asked for a hug. He kept running and being excited that she was there........until we said we were going out for a little while. We felt it was not right to just disappear while Ms. Rebecca and he went to the back of the house to his room or playroom. He was sad and started to cry a little before we left. She said that only lasted a few minutes. They went back to his room, read 5 books, he got into his bed and requested her to sing a few songs (the usual of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Bingo, Itsy Bitsy Spider and a few others) before he turned over and started to go to sleep. She left the room, he cried out a little, she came back to sooth him, he stopped and then fell asleep. She said that he was really easy and did great. So did Mommy and Daddy while we were out. We did not cry leaving him with the sitter. ;)

Random Pictures

Here is a picture of Jimmy (the little giraffe) and Mama giraffe (or he refers to him as two years old which used to be baby giraffe's name). This is how Collin put them on his bed before he left for school. They are facing the door and must be waiting on Collin to get home.

Here is Collin laying on the bench in our bathroom one morning. He either sits here on in the closet with the lights out(because the light hurts his eyes if he sits in the bathroom). Notice that Monkey is with him. Lately, he is able to carry Monkey, Puppy, Jimmy, and Mama giraffe with him from his room.

Collin is doing a great job brushing his teeth at night. He wants to put the tooth paste on his tooth brush. Occasionally, he gets too much on his brush. He starts with his front teeth and then moves to the sides. He finishes with brushing his tongue. Hey, trying to create good habits for him.

Potty Trained!!!!.....at least when he is awake

For the past 10 days, Collin has successfully pooped in the potty without crying and taking over an hour to get the job done. Tonight, when he announced that he had to poop, he told me that it won't hurt and then sat on the potty. This tells me that the main issue he must have had with pooping on the potty was that it must have hurt....and he associated that feeling with pooping on the potty. After he finished, he announced that he gets cranberries (gummy candy). We will have to buy more if he keeps this up since we only have 3 little packets left right now.

Collin bathroom remodel

I just put the finishing touches on Collin's bathroom tonight. The theme is due to Collin's favorite stuffed animal....named Monkey. Here are the pictures of Monkey Collin took with my phone. I think he did a good job.





















In one of the pictures is a growth chart that allows for me to include pictures of Collin in it. It was perfect because of the monkeys on it and the colors. The other monkeys and dots are vinyl adhesives. They peel off and can stick again which was helpful when I was trying to figure out where to post them.

When Collin saw his bathroom tonight, he had a hug smile on his face. Then, he counted the monkeys and said there were five of them. Later tonight, he talked about the Monkeys as he took a bath. He especially liked the Monkey on the clothes hamper door. I think he approves of the remodel.

Great Bedtime Routine

The other night, Collin had WAY too much energy as I was trying to get him to calm down and read books before going to bed. I walked out of his room to get Monkey, came back in and found him jumping on his bed. He had cleared off most of his pillows, his stuffed animals and his blanket. He was having such a great time, it was hard to tell him to stop......so I took a few videos.

In this video, he talks about Monkey's jumping on the bed. He also mentions his castle of stuffed animals. I had not heard him say this before and thought it was clever of him to call the mound of animals he put on the floor a castle.

Collin's Spring Toddler School Picture

Who knows what Collin was thinking or why he would not smile, but here is his Spring school picture. He is still really cute....even when he is being a "turkey butt" (one of his many nicknames we have for him).

"Mommy, I did not say poo poo"

Just like most boys I know, Collin is fascinated with poop. He was coming home and saying poop too frequently. We told him that big boys do not say poop unless they have to use the potty. It took him a few days, but we did notice a change in the frequency of use.

Now, instead of talking about it, he updates us at the end of the day by letting us know "Mommy (or Daddy), I did not say poo poo. I'm a big boy" without us even asking him about it. I have told him that he just did say poo poo when he gives me the update. He does not understand this and argues back with me that he didn't.

"Mommy, put Daddy in Time Out"

When Collin is throwing a fit, we have put him in Time Out. This involves putting him in a chair in the living room and have him sit there until he stops crying or says he will do...or not do....what we asked him to do or not do. He is not in the chair long before he says "I stopped crying Mommy. I want to get up." and he is perfectly fine after that.

Last night, Collin and I changed the sheets on his bed because he wet them during the nap he took that day. Before I put the pillows and blanket back on, he took the opportunity to put his stuffed animals on the bed....ALL 20ish of them. He then ran from the bathroom door from his room onto the stuffed animals on the bed. This is a great bedtime routine, I know, but it was funny too. Daddy walked in during one of the "crashes" and asked why the animals where on the bed. Collin told him to not touch them and got off the bed to crash back onto them again. At this point, Daddy started clearing them off the bed. Collin got mad at Daddy, starting to whimper a little and turned to me and said "Mommy, put Daddy in Time Out!". So......I did. Daddy sat in a chair in the living room to start his Time Out. He had is laptop on his lap so I thought it would be good to show Collin that Daddy could not play during Time Out. Daddy had to put the laptop on the side table. We walked back to Collin's room to get ready for bed.

Collin brushed his teeth (he is doing a great job with this....and even includes brushing his tongue) and we were starting to read books when he smiled at me and said "let's check on Daddy to see if he has his computer". OMG! Too clever. I told him that he probably did not because he was still in Time Out. I did not want to go back out of his room because that would stir him back up and take an additional 20 minutes before he would calm back down to be ready for bed again.

Speaking "Collin"

We noticed several weeks ago that Collin would insert strange words into a sentence when previously, he used the appropriate word. At first, we thought that maybe he was trying to speak Spanish since his teachers use Spanish. After a few weeks of listening and asking him questions, I think he is either doing it for attention and/or because he thinks it's funny. Some examples of Collin's word choices are:

• "Look Mommy, I'm shaking my bon-bon". We have heard this one MANY times. Bon-bon is actually correct if you are trying to sing the Ricky Martin song. Maybe this started it all because we thought this was so funny. You will see a theme to the rest of the "words" based off of bon-bon.
• "I want to eat cereal and have some hon-hon". Huh? What's a hon-hon. We have asked with no answer from him.
• "Your a pon-pon". I, of course, let him know that calling people names is not nice. I guess the name could be MUCH worse than a pon-pon.
• "Let's play with the con-con". Sure, you can play with the con-con as soon as I can figure out what that is.

Not every sentence is like this. Most of the time, he speaks and enunciates clearly. It's only when he thinks he is or is trying to be funny. He does have a great sense of humor.....which really keeps Daddy and I laughing.

Circus

We went to the circus today with Jacob and his mom, Susan. We arrived early so we could see the animals and the pre-show with the clowns. Collin talked about the elephants before we left but his favorite animals when we arrived were the zebra and the miniature ponies. We then checked out the pre-show with the clowns. I thought for sure he would not like them since I have heard about little kids being afraid of clowns. He was front and center during most of the clown act until Daddy put him on his shoulders. Collin would laugh at all of the expected funny parts and really enjoyed the show.
























The circus performance was over 2 hours long and Collin did great. He sat in or in front of his own chair the entire time. For the first half of the show, he starred at all of the performances. He was getting a little fidgety before intermission. After intermission, the big animals like the elephants and the tigers came out. He really liked the tigers. He also liked the performances that happened in the sky.....tight rope and the other sky gymnasts. For an almost 3 year old, Collin did great. We all had a good time.

First Report Card

Here is Collin's first report card for his first full year at Smaller Scholars. He is ready to move to Primary from Toddler as soon as he is fully potty trained. Tonight was another successful attempt at the potty so he will likely be ready to move up by his 3rd birthday next month.

Potty training update .... #12?

In case you were interested, Collin is doing much better with he potty training. We still need to work on it while he is sleeping either during a nap or overnight, but he is MUCH better during the day. This weekend, there were several times that he got up and went pee by himself. Flushing is not his priority right now but at least he does not need me to be in there with him like he did when he started this adventure. He also has improved with pooping in the potty. He has gone in the potty the last 3 times he has needed to while we were at home. I don't think he has had an accident at school but it's hard for me to keep up with how he does during the week. Maybe he will be going pee and poo by himself by the time he turns 3. I sure hope so!

Look what a week can do

Amazing how fast kids learn. Remember just last weekend when Collin was saying "I can't!!" when he was trying to ride his bicycle? Well, a week has gone by and he can pedal his bike for a long period of time AND can also turn and pedal at the same time. Check it out:

Swim Lessons Complete!

Collin finished his first swim lessons. His teacher said he did really good and mastered the Monkey Walk (holding onto the side of the pool and moving along the side) but recommends that he take the lessons over again because he still is unsure of himself in the water and does not want to get his head wet.

We start next week at 5:30pm for two weeks. Daddy rocks too because he is the one that is picking Collin up from school and taking him to all of his lessons. Collin would not get to go if it was not for his Daddy. Thanks Daddy!!!

Ben's Pool Party

This morning, Collin and I went to Ben's pool and birthday party. Ben is one of his buddies from school. Since Collin still does not like to get his head under the water, he played in pool floats most of the time. One was a car float that had a steering wheel and horn. He really liked this one. I liked it because it had a cover and kept him out of the hot sun (it was already 90 degrees at 10am). After some swimming, the kids checked out the fish and turtle Ben had in his pond behind the pool. Collin sat there longer than most kids and really liked watching the fish swim around and asking questions. He then played with Ben's tractors and trucks while the rest of the kids swam. When it was time to sing "Happy Birthday", Collin did stop what he was doing to join in with the singing. He did have a cup cake afterwards but only the cake part. He told me once again that he did not like icing (he did not say icing but pointed to the top part of the cup cake and told me he did not like that part). He was in luck because Mommy LOVES icing. We make a great pair at birthday parties because of this. After cake, it was time to leave because Ben was getting hungry and ready for a nap. I wished that Collin was getting tired. It's 4 hours after the party and he is still going strong.

New Buddies

Move over Monkey, Collin has some new "friends": Mommy giraffe and baby giraffe a.k.a two-years old. Since he got these guys at our recent zoo trip, he has been carrying them all over the house with him. They also still sleep with him at night (see the last post about moving over). The other large monkey is Andy. Daddy and Collin named him after Andy Schleck (a cyclist in the Tour de France that Daddy and Colin watch together).

Move over...

Collin is really enjoying the two stuffed animals Nancy got him at the zoo Saturday. He has carried them around the house with him (and Monkey) to every room he goes in. They sit in his lap or in the chair with us when we read books before bed. This used to be reserved only for Monkey and MAYBE Mickey every now in then. Tonight, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom which is a book about ABCs. One verse in the book is "Chicka Chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room?" which Collin usually says with me. After we read a few more books, he got out of the chair and started putting his new "friends" in bed with him. I was thinking to myself that there was not that much room left for him in the bed when he said aloud "Chicka chicka boom boom, there is not room for me". Too clever! I am glad I was able to laugh to myself at that one. The things their little minds can come up with.

Sunday morning ride

This morning, we rode our bikes with a few friends. While Daddy was getting the bikes ready, Collin wanted to ride practice trying to ride his bike in the front of the house. You will see in the videos below his frustration with not being able to keep the bike going. I know he will get it one day. I know as a parent that I have to keep encouraging him and have him keep trying.

Once the bikes were loaded, we headed to the bike shop to meet some friends and ride our bikes together. Terry and Melia, Susan and Jacob met us there. Collin road in the trailer while Daddy road his bike. I was on my own bike. After a break, Melia got in the trailer with Collin. I could hear Collin yelling at Daddy to "go faster Daddy!" which made Jacob do the same to his mommy. I am sure she appreciated that.

You can tell in the picture of Collin and Melia sitting together that Collin changed his mind that he would share with her once she was sitting next to him. Maybe he thought it was cramping his style.

Monster Spray

Last night, Collin woke up several times in the middle of the night screaming from what we think was a nightmare. Twice he mentioned monsters and that he was afraid so I assumed that he was just scared and could not fall back asleep. Finally around 3:30am, he passed out....and so did I.

I mentioned this to a friend and she suggested Monster Spray. She said they sell this spray but that we could make our own. It was important that the spray smelled so that Collin could smell it and know it was working. I found a can of Fabreeze, a monster picture from the Internet and taped it around the can. I wrote Monster Spray and Stay Away on the can.

Tonight, when we were getting ready for bed, I told Collin about the spray. He had a good time spraying around his bed and the doors to his room. He keep saying that this should help after smelling the spray in the air. Let's see what happens tonight.....although he is crying right now after me and Daddy putting him back to bed a few times. I hope it works because I could use the sleep tonight.








Oh, about his choice of "PJs:, he picked these out. Same material as his real PJs so why have a fight over what he is wearing to bed?

Saturday with Buddies at the Zoo

Aunt Nancy came over last night for dinner and then spent the night so she could visit with us a little before she headed back home to Colorado. This morning, she joined us at Collin's swim lesson which was a make up lesson from earlier in the week. He did OK...after he actually got in the water which took a few minutes of coaxing. He did get out a few times to tell me that he wanted to go home. I told him we would in 5 minutes and he got back in the water. I had to do this two more times before the lesson was over.

After the lesson, we headed to the zoo to see the dinosaur exhibit. I thought that either Collin would love this or be really afraid since they were life size. We were joined by some of his friends and their mommies: Jacob, Timmy, and Saige. Mimi also showed up for the very hot morning at the zoo. When we arrived, they were about to give the elephants a bath so we had to see that first. We then checked out the dinosaurs. Collin wanted out of the exhibit as soon as we got in there. Timmy was not as afraid but did not want to walk around. Jacob did the best but he was not sure he liked them either. After leaving this exhibit and looking at the flamingos and zebras, we checked out the gift shop. Nancy bought Collin a baby and mommy stuffed elephant. They were SOO cute. I got Collin something he could wear for Halloween which was a monkey mask and shirt (we had a great time playing with this later when we got home). We then road the train that is outside of the zoo and goes around the park. We were all hungry after that and met at a local hamburger place. Here are a few pictures from the morning. The dinosaur in the picture was not part of the actual exhibit which is why the boys were OK with sitting on it. They actually wanted to do this:

Singing and spelling

As I have mentioned before, Collin loves to sing. We will be walking around the house or playing with toys, and he will start in with "there's a hole, there's a hole, there's a hole at the bottom of the sea" or he will say a verse of "no more monkey's jumping on the bed". One of his favorites is still Bingo.

I mentioned that Mimi added a verse about a boy named Collin and then would spell his name. Well, this morning, Collin asked me to listen to him spell his name..."C-L-I-N". Not quite but he was so proud that he was spelling his name, or so he thought. I started spelling it with him the correct way and he picked up that the other was was different. Let's see if he can remember it the next time he sings.

Let the swim lessons begin!

Today, Collin had his first of eight swim lessons with Miss Rebecca. Besides Collin, there is another girl in his class named Iona. Daddy took them today. From the pictures, it looks like Collin had fun. They both get to pick a toy to use during the lesson. He picked an alligator that looked too real. I wonder if it made anyone else near the pool do a double-take.












When he got home, he told me about the lesson and watching an older kid's training group after the lessons. Daddy said that he was mesmerized for about 20 minutes watching what they were doing.

Riding in the Rain

Collin just learned how to ride his two-wheeler this morning when Daddy was watching him. Tonight, the first thing he showed me when he came home was how he could ride his motorcycle (what he calls his two-wheeler). He was so proud of himself. He practiced and practiced until we made him stop for dinner. He stopped long enough to have a few bites of his meat loaf and none of his macs and cheese (wow!). He was ready to ride his motorcycle again. We did make him wait until we were finished eating.

Since it was not a hot night tonight, we all went outside in the back to enjoy the cooler weather (meaning it was less than 90...yes!). Collin continued to practice outside and was able to cover more space quicker....he was getting faster. While we were out there, it started to rain. We let him continue to ride since he was still in his swimsuit from swim lessons. Here is what we saw:

Looks like he was having a good time, right?

Garden Pets - Blackie and Patty

A few weeks ago, Collin and I planted a garden for him to maintain. Basically, he got to plant some herb seeds and then water them. We do refer to the section of the backyard where we did this as Collin's garden. When we are in the back, he does want to check on his garden and water the area. I would say water if needed, but the watering part is SO much fun.

While I was shopping at Hobby Lobby for kid craft ideas, I saw that the garden figurines were 60% off and stopped by. This was fun for Collin because there were many different shaped frogs, turtles, snails, gnomes and dogs.....yes, dogs. Not sure how these made it to the garden section but they were there. I let Collin pick out two figurines that he could put in his garden. He picked out a small snail that he called Patty and then the German Shepard dog he called Blackie. Through the rest of the shopping, he cradled Blackie and stroked his "fur". This was the sweetest thing I saw.

As soon as we got home, he had to go out to his garden and put them in there. He did not space them far apart....he put them right next to each other. At least he faced them out so they could "see" the rest of the back yard.

Later, it sprinkled. Once it quit, he wanted to check on Blackie to see if he was OK.

Cereal and the Box

When Collin eats his cereal, he now wants the box in front of him so he can look at it. His favorite is still Honey Nut Cheerios....especially now that Shrek and Donkey are on the box. You will notice that Monkey has to join him for breakfast when he can sneak him out of his bedroom in the mornings. The bowl you see in the picture is the size he asks for and can usually eat at least two bowls full.

He is talking in this picture and asking me if he can see the picture I just took. I now have to catch him off guard when I take pictures because he will ask to see it if he notices. Taking a second one is nearly impossible without the look he has in this picture.

Toy Story 3

Collin saw his first movie in a movie theater today. We met Jacob, Charlotte, Maddy and their parents at the theater. He did GREAT! He sat in his chair most of the time and only got up when he told me he had to pee (twice). If there were not 15 minutes of previews before the movie, he would have made it the entire time. At the very end, he told me that he wanted to go home. I told him the movie was almost over, and he sat quietly until the end.

What a big boy!

July 4th Party

I hope everyone had a safe July 4th. We were host to about 40 people a July 4th party at our house this year. Daddy and I were happy to have a comfortable house to host a party of this size and feel even more blessed to have this many friends. Most of the people that came were connected to the bike shop or our friends. One set of neighbors came...the others are out of town.
Since it had been raining for about 2 weeks prior to the party, I was happy to see the sun out in the morning and it not to humid out. The weather forecast was great for a pool party. Most of the time, people were in the pool or outside of it talking and catching up with each other. The kitchen was a huge gathering area because we had lots of good food. The favorite seemed to be the PBJ sandwiches that Daddy made. Several people commented about how many years it had been since they had eaten one.

The bid event was the water balloon fight with about 400 water balloons. These took MUCH longer to make than they lasted in the fight. I did not participate because....someonene had to take a video of it all....hahaha. Daddy and Collin joined in though. Towards the end, you can see Collin throw about 4 of them. One even made it to the other side.



Collin had lots of kids to play with. Throughout the day, there were at least 17 of them. He really liked playing with Jacob (friend from school), Timmy and Layla (daughter of one of the shop employees).

With all of the people and commotion, he actually did a great job with asking to go to the potty. At one point when Collin needed to go potty, he lead me to the back of the house and said "there are a lot of people here". I found out later from Daddy that he did have one accident but that's not too bad. Possibly, he wanted to go potty but they were all taken. I know I had that issue a few times.

Collin lasted the entire party withoout taking a nap. After everyone left and we picked out the backyard, we all sat on the couch to watch a movie because none of us wanted to be on our feet anymore. Collin lasted about 10 minutes before he past out. He slept for almost 2 hours before he woke up and then went to bed around the same time he normally does anyway.