Happy Halloween!!!

It was another busy morning for the Holmes family. Daddy had to leave early but brought back donuts for breakfast. Collin had just woken up around 8am when Daddy arrived with the goodies. I saw that Collin had four of the very small donuts on his plate. He ate those and a donut hole or two. We had about an hour before Grandma H had to leave and get back on an airplane. That sure was a quick trip! During that time, we hung his new art board in the office so we could display more of his artwork. Here he is measuring the board after he helped me hammer and hang it.





He and Daddy left to take Grandma H to the airport and do some errands at the bike shop while I stayed home and put the house back together, got ready to go out of town on vacation with Daddy and get ready for the Halloween festivities later today. The boys picked me up to get some lunch and then came back so they could take a nap. I was not tired, so I stayed up and "fiddle-farted" as Daddy likes to call it...which is really me cleaning the house, doing chores or getting other things accomplished and off my mental list.


Since Collin is a toddler that expects choices, I laid out three Halloween c0stumes for him to choose from. I had four but Mimi showed up this past week with a dinosaur (probably cousin Dustin's). He had a choice between the dinosaur, skeleton (we had it last year but Collin was REALLY scared of it) and Cat in the Hat. Here is what he woke up to.

He chose the skeleton and had to have it on right away. I was able to distract him for about 30 minutes which was the time he needed to then put it on anyway. We walked with our neighbors to the start of the parade...Luke, Max and JP.

There must have been at least 200 people at the start of the parade. Collin was amazed at all of the people and was constantly checking everyone out. There were a few of the c0stumes that he was scared of and ran towards me. I reminded him that he was a skeleton and that they might be scared of him. That worked for a little while. We walked in the parade and ended up at one of the neighbor's houses for "boo" dogs and snacks. Then, we went to a few homes to trick-or-treat. Collin did not know what to do. He stood in the line (yes, with that many people, there was a line at the first few houses) and did not move up with it. He let people pass him up. He finally walked past all of the kids and look pitiful when he walked up to the homeowner. The owner gave Collin lots of candy for that look. We went to a few other of the homes and then came home because he was just not into it. He had more fun answering the door when the trick-or-treaters came to our door.

Because of all the activity, I thought he would have gone to bed earlier than usual. Nope, he finally went to bed after 10:30pm.

Grandma H and the Bowl of Spaghetti

Grandma H woke up this morning to find Collin trying on his skeleton costume. He wanted to put it on to scare her....and I think he did. After playing with it for awhile, he wanted to paint.....but first, he helped me put biscuits on the pan so we could cook breakfast while he painted. He picked out brown, purple and blue paint and painted two pictures for Grandma H to take home. Painting lasted for about 20 minutes before he wanted to do something else. We then got ready to run a few errands. First stop was the bike shop so Grandma H could see the shop and Daddy working. We went to the bookstore next door to get some new books. We then called Mimi to see if she was available for lunch, which she was. She met us at the Olive Garden near her house. Collin must have been starving because he devoured most of a huge bowl of spaghetti.

He loved sitting in between his grandmothers. Don't they look like they love him?

After lunch, we ran a few more errands. Collin fell asleep in the car which we hoped he would. Instead of going home and possibly waking him up, we drove around a little looking at houses and the neighborhoods near our house. Collin ended up getting almost a two hour nap.

Later, Daddy came home and we ate dinner outside because it was a nice night. We then had to run a few more errands and ended up getting ice cream. Collin really could care less about sweets. He did eat the most bites of his ice cream that I have seen him do before. After making a "I don't like this" face, he pushed his ice cream away.

I read a few of his news books to him tonight and then talked about his day before he fell asleep close to 10pm. What a day.....

First Field Trip

Friday morning, Collin got to go on his first school field trip to Dewberry Farms. Daddy went as a chaperon which Collin really liked. Another first was that he got to ride on a school bus. Here he is with one of his school mates. Daddy said he did really good on the bus.

While they were there, they:

Played on a playground

Road in a trailer pulled water barrel converted into a riding car

Jumped on a bouncy floor

Picked out pumpkins

Climbed in a three-story play house

Looked at the animal farm

Daddy did a great job watching the kids he was in charge of. He had so much fun that he wants to do it every time. Ms. Kristine said that he is welcomed back any time as a chaperon because of the job he did.

Most of the kids, including Collin, fell asleep on the way home......Daddy did too.

Later that night, Grandma H arrived on an airplane to stay for the weekend. Collin fell asleep in the car on the way to get her (around 7:45pm) and did not wake up until briefly when we got home.....just long enough for me to put a pull-up on him. He slept the next morning until after 7am. That was one tired dude!

Bedtime Antics

Collin continues to come up with reasons that he just cannot get in the bath or go to bed. This can be entertaining because of some of the things he says but I have to remember to be strong, consistent with my directions to him and, most importantly, not to let a 3-year old beat me at "the game". Just this week, I have heard:



"My stomach hurts (holding it), my head hurts (pointing to it) and my back hurts. I need a drink of water" - said right after I told him that it was time to get in bed

"Monkey needs a drink" - said after I told him it was time to get in bed

"Monkey fell out of bed (he threw him out). I need to get him" - said after I finally got him in bed

"I AM listening to you" - said after I told him that he was not listening to me because he was ignoring what I said.

"Just one more book. Ok, Mommy?" while looking REALLY cute and smiling at me

"That was my dinner" - said after he farted in the bath tub.....I threw that one in just to see if you were still reading. :)

He is at least getting to bed and falling asleep earlier this week than the last two weeks. He was inching his bed time to 10pm which was wearing on me by the end of the week. Even if I started the bath and bed time processes earlier in the evening, he managed to stay up until 10pm. I read an article about toddlers and the bedtime routine later last week and it reminded me to be patient when I talk to Collin so he will not push back as much during the bed time routine. The first time I tried it, he went to bed by 8:45pm. I will call that success! The next night = 8:30pm. The other nights that followed were about the same which was MUCH better for both of us. Him getting to bed earlier did not cause him to wake up earlier either. Daddy had to have liked that since he takes care of Collin in the mornings.



The challenges of a 3-year old. Score: 1 for Mommy, 12 for Collin.

Staying Dry

Now that Collin is, and has been, doing great with going to the potty on his own during the day, we have been working on him staying dry during the night and nap time. For the last week and a half, he has come home from school in the same clothes that he arrived in. This means that he stayed drying during nap which is HUGE! I have been making a big deal about it when he comes home and I see that he is still in his school uniform.

Before going to bed, I have him go potty and then ask him if he needs to go again after we read some books. Most mornings, his pull-up is wet. Last night, he woke me up because he needed to go potty. At least he recognized that he needed to go, woke up and decided he needed some help. This morning, he pull-up was barely wet. Maybe we are making progress? Right now, I am not interested in the "technique" of letting him go to bed in his underwear to see what it feels like waking up in a wet bed. Too much of a hassle for us right now. I like the "dry approach" better as of right now.

Birthday Parties - Two of Them!!

Today, we attended two birthday parties: one for Timmy (he turns 2 on the 26th) and one for Saige (she turns 3 today).

We attended Timmy's party first which was at a park by his house. This was the same place he had it last year. First, Collin, Timmy and the other kids played on the playground for a little while. Then, it was time to eat hamburgers. Collin was not hungry because he just had an apple, some cheese tortellini and breakfast biscuit. They then went back to playing. One of the daddy's brought a kite and Collin was in awe of it. He ran as fast as he could over to me to tell me that he wanted a kite too. I was able to distract him enough for him to forget his request. Time for cake! Timmy did a great job blowing out the candles. He was hilarious while the cake was being served. Instead of eating his slice of cake in front of him, he stuck his fork in the big cake several times. Hey, it's his cake. Then, Timmy opened presents. I knew that Collin would want to play with the huge garbage truck that we bought Timmy....and he did. Collin hovered over Timmy until he played with another toy. Collin played with it the rest of the time. Here are a few pictures from the birthday:

Glad Collin slept on the way to Saige's party. He and Daddy actually stayed in the running car for another 30 minutes so he could get a good nap in. When he got up, he saw the huge bounce house in the backyard. He played in this most of the time or threw the ball with Ethan, Saige's big brother. I don't think he realized that he and one other boy were the only boys at the birthday party. There sure were a lot of girls there. That did not seem to bother him though. He jumped and jumped in the bounce house only coming out for a drink. When he did, he was a sweaty little boy. He must have been really thirsty because I think he drank 4 - 5 drinks and did not have to potty the entire time we were there. After most of the kids left, Daddy got into the bounce house and jumped with Collin and Linden. There were many instances of "dog piling" where the kids piled on top of Daddy. That looked like fun so I gave it a try when Daddy got out. I could get some air in that thing.....but figured out really quickly why the kids were all sweaty when they got out...it's HOT in there...plus, it sure is a workout.

I know Collin had a good time today. He was not as worn out as I thought when we got home. He took a quick bath and then wanted to read some books. We finished 5 books and then he laid in bed. It took 45 minutes for him to settle down and relax. He did go to sleep before 8:45pm which is still REALLY early. Thank you Collin!

Saturday with Friends

Collin had a REALLY fun weekend spent with friends. On Saturday morning, Collin helped me make breakfast biscuits and then ate three of them with honey and butter. We then met Jacob and his mom at a local park. The boys played on the playground for over two hours. We then left to eat hamburgers at Fuddruckers. Collin must have played hard because he ate all of his apple slices (he prefers these over the fries because they have "stuff" on them) and all but 3 bites of his hamburger. We came home for him to rest which he did but did not take a nap until Daddy came home.

Later that evening, we went over to the Jureks to have dinner and celebrate Kristen's 36th birthday. Collin loves playing with Saige and Linden. He really looks up to Ethan. At one point, Ethan and Collin were sitting on the couch. Collin leaned over and kissed Ethan on the check...not what a pre-teen boy wants but it was really sweet of Collin to do this. When it was time to go home, the sprinklers were on in the front yard. We were just going home so I let Collin run through them a couple of times. His laugh while doing this was worth it. I hope that also wore him out even more because we had a REALLY busy day tomorrow....two birthday parties!

"I need a cold one"

What?!?! Collin wants a beer? No, this is what he tells me when he is in bed and grabs for a pillow to put between his legs. I ask him why he does this and he tells me he likes it "because it's cold" or that "it's a cold one". I don't think that the way we sleep in hereditary but this is exactly how Daddy and I sleep. We each need a pillow put between our legs as we sleep on our sides. I have not always sleep this way but started to when I was pregnant. This was MUCH more comfortable to me with that big belly. Now that Collin has been born, obviously, I have not changed the way I sleep. I don't think that Collin notices this is how we sleep because he rarely sleeps with us. When he does, we have covers over us so he does not see the pillow and it's dark. Did he discover this on his own? Whatever the reason, it works for him and helps make him comfortable.

An Artful Weekend

I have told you already that Collin is really into coloring these days. This morning, he wanted to color before going to school. That's probably because he did not want to go to school.....but he did go anyway.

This weekend, as you have already seen from a prior post, I got the paint out and painted a picture for Saige's birthday. I knew that Collin would want to help me if he saw me doing it so I planned for it. First, I covered the table with drawing paper to 1) protect the table from paint and 2) so Collin could color or draw on it...which he did both. Here he is both days that I painted. The first time, he only wanted to color. That night, he wanted to paint with me. I was impressed that he did not try to touch the wet painting I was working on. I did talk to him about it. Of course, the next morning when he saw it, the first thing he did was to touch it (it was dry) and look at me with that I-know-I-am-doing-something-I-am-not-supposed-to-do-look (it's really cute...and gives him away every time). I acted like it was no big deal and he stopped because the "game" was not working the way he expected it to.

Monkey at the park

Collin is not as cautious as he used to be when playing at the park. He at least attempts to do things now, especially if he sees older boys doing it, instead of not trying at all. Yesterday, we rode bikes to a local park that Collin has played at many times. The difference this time is that he played on parts of the playground equipment that he would not even go near last time. He also played on a variety of things instead of climbing up the stairs and then going down the slides....perfectly fine to do this but it does get old for Mommy after awhile. This time, he did slide but he also used the ropes to climb up in addition to the stairs. He also walked around the edge of the equipment on something that teaches kids to climb and hand-eye coordination. He did really good. I had a video of the entire attempt but cut it short for blog purposes. As you can hear in the video, it's Daddy's birthday. He did not know I was taping Collin and was letting me know of all of the birthday wishes coming in for him. Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Sun and Moon

Collin has been coloring a lot lately. I notice that his drawings he brings home from school are more precise and the coloring is closer together and deliberate instead of all over the page. Tonight, we were out to dinner with the Harrises and Mimi and Pappy. He was coloring while we waited for our food. I was talking to Aunt Lisa and not paying attention to what Collin was coloring. He taps my on the arm and tells me to look at the moon he drew. I was expecting to look over and see a bunch of one color together. I was wrong. He did draw a crescent moon. I asked if he could draw a sun thinking this would be challenging and also wondered what he would draw. The little stinker drew a sun, a circle with sun rays coming out from it. He drew another one but then colored over it because he did not like it. I was impressed. This was the first time I had seen him draw a scene or at least draw a few different shapes when asked too.

Here is what he drew tonight. I know, only a picture a parent could love but I was really proud of him and he knew it.

"You Can Come to my House"

I have noticed that when Collin likes someone, he tells them "you can come to my house". On the flip side, he does also tell people that "you cannot come to my house". He usually tells this to kids close to his age but he has also told this to our adult friends too. Well, tonight, he was mad at me when I was telling him that he better sit next to me so I an read books or I was not going to read books to him. He kept ignoring me, so I got up to put the books away. He quickly told me, "I am mad at you. You cannot come to my house." Oh really? I told him, "Collin, this is my house and I am already in it. Now what?" He thought and his reply was, "You can read me some books". Ugh....that's where we were just a few minutes ago. I know that reasoning with a toddler can be useless. When does it start working?

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Today, Daddy turns 41! I took Daddy out to dinner and to see a play, The Odd Couple, at a local high school. We had a great time. It was nice to be out just the two of us. This morning, Daddy and Collin were quiet so I could sleep in (wait, who's birthday is it today?). Then, after I got up, we went to a local Starbucks and then the grocery store. This is what Daddy wanted to do on his birthday.



Then, Daddy had a great idea for us to ride our bikes to a local park. Collin swung when we got there and then wanted to climb around the playground equipment. Collin and I then ran around the track a little since Collin enjoys running these days. We stopped so he could swing a little more. We played a little more and then headed back home for some lunch. After lunch, it was time to head to soccer practice. He was not interested for the first 10 minutes and then he joined in......just in time for running. I would say it was a great birthday for Daddy so far.


All of the morning activity wore Collin out. He is still napping and it's been over 3 hours. Yeah for Mommy!!!! Daddy was sad because he wanted to see him before he left out of town. He did kiss him a few times which did not wake him up.

Look what I did while Collin slept (I painted some of it yesterday). This is one of Saige's birthday presents for next weekend.

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year to look for a pumpkin and go to the local pumpkin patch. We went to the same patch as we have for the last two years which is now really close to our new house. Collin was not as interested this time to stay as long as last year but he did pick some pumpkins out. Instead of wanting a large or even medium sized pumpkin, he picked out three of the little ones. He liked the ones with long stems. I decided not to dress him up in his Halloween costume this time since he was getting cranky and this could have put him over the edge. Here are a few pictures from today.

Here is a picture of him last year at the same pumpkin patch. I guess this is was not the first year he was not in his Halloween costume. That was the year before. (wow, it does not feel like that long ago).

Here is the first year at the pumpkin patch. Can you find him in his Tigger costume?

Here he is celebrating his first Halloween with his first friend, Addison. The other picture is us before we went to the block party on Addison's street and attempted a few knocks on the door. Hey, I think we did get a few pieces of candy.

Happily Brushing Teeth

While he is still doing it really well, I had to take a video of Collin brushing his teeth. Ever since I bought him a powered tooth brush, the fighting him, chasing him around and giving up on him brushing his teeth has stopped. There have been several months now of teeth-brushing bliss (I am sure the day will come that I will have to try a new tactic but I am enjoying it while I can). He even ends brushing this teeth by brushing his tongue.....most of the time with out me prompting him to do so. Good job Collin!!!

Show and Tell

Collin has show and tell at school every Friday. Two weeks ago, it was about Johnny Appleseed. We have a book about apples so Collin brought that to school to show his friends. When I picked him up from school, I asked if his friends liked his book. He said, "Yes, they said "cool" when they saw it". I was not expecting that answer....especially the "cool" part. He repeated this the exact same way when Daddy asked him later that night. Hmmmm....consistency means that might have really been what happened?

This past Friday, he had to bring something related to Christopher Columbus. I printed a picture of a ship with sails, found his toy binoculars and made a pirate hat for him. I told him what the binoculars were for and he was able to pronounce them really well. I wanted him to know so he could tell his friends at school what these were for. When I picked him up, I asked him what his friends thought of his binoculars. He said " they really liked them and then they said they wanted to buy some at the store to bring them to their house Mommy." What a mouthful. Guess the binoculars were a hit.....at least to Collin they were.

Wonder what's next weeks subject? Is Collin having more fun than Mommy with this show and tell thing? :)

Morning Visit to the Zoo

This morning, Collin and I meet the Jurek girls at the zoo and spent a few hours there. When we parked, Collin announced that he wanted to see the Elephants so we went to see them first. Along the way, we stopped at the meerkats. I love these little guys. They were really busy this morning digging in the dirt. A few of the babies were helping out which the kids really liked to see. Then, we stopped at the zebras. Collin let us know that on of the zebras was pooping. Such a proud moment. We finally made it to the elephants. There was a little baby elephant that was born Monday. Even though he was not even a week old, he was a big guy. The kids loved seeing a baby and the Mommy helping him eat. We then looked for the giraffes but they were not outside yet. Collin said that "they are in their house eating". We stopped at the black bear exhibit and then the lions next. Linden was growling at the animals and especially the lions. Really cute! Then, we spent the rest of our time in the monkey exhibit. Here are a few pictures of the kids checking out the animals.

After we left the zoo, we had to ride the train. The weather was perfect for a visit to the zoo.

Collin the Puppy

Collin continues to act like he is a puppy. This morning, puppy barked at me while I was getting ready for work. He must have gotten bored because he then asked if he could color. I brought some markers and paper into the bathroom so he could color. No more puppy the rest of the morning...at least for me.

When I got home tonight, Collin was himself until it was time to start getting ready for bed. After his bath, puppy showed up again. I told him that he needed to pick some books out for me to read and he replied "I can't because I have paws and not hands" so I picked out some books. Puppy then crawled into his bed so I could read to him. Collin was back during this time because he was asking me questions about the books that I was reading. Then, when it was time for me to tuck him in and talk about his day, he asked if I could be a Mommy Puppy and sing some songs. Yep, the things we do for our kids. I started to bark the melody of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Mary had a Little Lamb. He thought this was funny and started to bark along with me to a few songs. I then told him it was time to go to bed. He fought me on this for about 15 minutes but did eventually fall asleep. Yeah, this was an hour earlier than last night.

"I need ice Mommy for my ankle"

Collin is fine.....a little dramatic but fine. Daddy hurt his knee playing kickball on Sunday with the boys on our block. That night after working and standing all day at the bike shop, he put an ice pack on his knee.

If you read the other blog entry by now, Collin announced that he needed an ice pack for his knee because he hurt it running. I thought he might mention this again tonight because I knew that Daddy was going to need another ice pack treatment. When Daddy asked if I could get him an ice pack, I got Collin one too. This time, his ankle hurt. Here are some pictures of him using the ice pack and looking like he is suffering. He really pulled out the sympathy card for this one! He did not lay there long because the ice pack was cold. He told me it was because "I feel better already. The ice worked".

Radom Comments Collin Made this Weekend

Over the weekend, Collin made some comments or said some things that made me laugh, smile and pause to figure out what he was saying.

• "Mommy, smash my feet". I admit, this one took me a few minutes. I asked him to show me what that meant because I did not have a clue. I finally figured out that he wanted me to massage his feet. Yeah....I would not have guessed this is what he wanted because I have not done this to him since he was an infant. Maybe Mimi has done this for him recently. I did "smash" his feet for a few minutes until he told me "that's all Mommy".
• "I need ice for my knee because it hurts". This was more easy to understand because Daddy had just done this for his knee that he hurt while playing kickball with the kids this morning. I asked him how he hurt his knee and he told me that he did it when he was running today....just like Daddy.
• "I don't want to go to soccer today. It's not fun" and "I don't want to leave the house today". Awww....he was coloring and really meant to say that he did not want to go right now because he was coloring...and did not want to stop. I did get him to go to soccer. During a water break, I asked him if he was having fun and he told me that he was. Then, I asked if he was glad he came to soccer practice and he said that he was. Yep, Mommy really does know best. :)

Lots of Friends to see Today

Collin and I were very busy today. First, I got out the Halloween decorations and looked through them with Collin to see what we have and what lights still worked. Collin really liked digging around the storage box and asking lots of questions about what he was pulling out. The morning was a nice, low humidity morning to be outside so we started to put some of the decorations out in the front yard.


Then, we went to see baby Matilda and her mommy, Ellen. She and I met as running buddies about 7 years ago. Matilda is her first child. Collin did great with Matilda talking softly to her and being really careful around her. We spent some time outside in the side yard since it was such a nice day. Collin enjoyed picking up some rocks and putting the biggest one in his pocket. He later asked Ellen if he could have it, and she said he could. He then announced that he was ready to go home. I could tell that he was getting tired so we did leave. I stopped by our old house to get the mail (yes, we still own it after a year).. Collin was already asleep before we left that house.










Next stop was the bike shop so I could get a jersey and some energy food for the race I am in next week. We spent about an hour there because I know that Daddy likes for us to be there and Collin likes to play with the Lego table near the service area.

When we got home, we finished putting out more Halloween decorations. JP, a neighbor that is near Collin's age, was outside and came over to "help". He boys had a lot of fun. JP's Daddy came over to see if it was OK for JP to stay awhile. I could tell that Collin liked having JP at his house. The boys then took turn riding Collin's bike. Then, it was time for a snack. After that, we played in the backyard and then in the playroom until it was time for JP to go home.




Daddy came home a little later. After getting dinner at Smash Burger, it was time to get Collin to bed. He was a cranky butt and I know it's because he did not take a long nap today (just the 20 minute ride in the car to the bike shop). He was just having too much fun today.