Collin's Sayings

Collin has come up with some cute sayings lately.

1. I love it when he is scratching somewhere on his body and he tells me, "I have scratchies".

2. If I tell him that we will or can do something later, he will respond by telling me, "We can do it on Sunday". Apparently, that was my response to him a few times so now Sunday is the day that everything gets done....which is really true in our house.

3. He will point out things or grab onto them and say "I like this Mommy". It can be a jersey at Daddy's shop, something he is eating or doing. At least he does not hate it.

4. Speaking of like, he is finally eating something else besides chicken. He really likes hamburgers but calls them a sandwich.....which is followed by "I like this sandwich" (see #3 above). As you know, he is not a huge eater.....but with hamburgers, he can surprise you. He ate an entire Beck's Prime kiddie hamburger the other day which are not the same size as other fast food kiddie burgers. He even had some of his shake and a few fries that night. I thought he was going to pop. Last night, Daddy took him to McDs and Collin had 1/2 of that hamburger and most of his cold fries.

5. I LOVE it when he tells me for no reason, "I love you Mommy", and then gives me a kiss. I am sure later in his life, this will be followed by some request he has so I am enjoying it now.

6. He is still saying "Cranberries make me fart" when he farts. Great in public and trying to explain where that came from. Mimi, any ideas?

I am sure there are more that I cannot think of at the moment. I will add them when I can remember (Mommy brain?).

Nightly Visitor

Now that Collin can get out of his bed and using his big boy bed, we have a nightly visitor into our bed every night so far. Last night was the first time it was twice (or that I can remember because getting woken up in the middle of the night is messing with my sleep) that he did get up twice. Once, he came to my side of the bed around 4am. I was SO happy he did not ask me for a drink. I pulled him onto my side of the bed and then Daddy transferred him back to his big boy bed about 20 minutes later. Then, again at 6am, Collin was back. I was actually glad this time because Daddy forgot to set the alarm. No run for me this morning! At least I was not going to be late to work. This time, we left him in our bed because I was getting up anyway to get dressed. Yesterday morning, he slept until 7:25am (only because Daddy finally woke him up) so I thought he would sleep through me getting ready. He did almost. He walked in about the time I was getting dressed. He had a HUGE smile on his face and said, "Mommy, I peed on your side of the bed". Great! Good morning Mommy......

Stickers Can Hurt

Collin loves to put stickers on his clothes or on his skin. This started a while back when Kroger or HEB checkout clerks would give him stickers as we were in the check out line. He would take these and put them on his arm or leg. These are easy to get off because there is not too much sticky stuff on the back of them. Most of the time, he takes these off himself and throws them in the trash.

He learned the hard way today that not all stickers are alike. Apparently, school has stickers to remind parents when there is portrait day the next day. The sticker has a bear on it and says something like "Reminder: Picture Day Tomorrow". Collin ended up with two stickers somehow.......he put one on his belly. After swimming and a bath, the sticker was still on. I did not have time to search the Internet to get suggestions of how to take it off so I put Vaseline on it.....after Collin and I picked at it a little, it started to come off. Collin was telling me that it did not hurt and he was not crying....which probably meant it did hurt a little.

Wonder how long it will take him to do that again? Probably this weekend.

Big Boy Bed...Morning Update

Collin did stay in his bed all night....well, at least he did not get out of it in the middle of the night. After putting him to bed, I joined Daddy in the living room. He was watching TV and I had to work some because of a big presentation I have today. I did glance over at the hall door thinking I would see a little boy standing there....but never did. When we were going to bed, we checked on him (which is what we normally do) and he was still in bed. Good so far.

We were not greeted in the middle of the night by the little guy which was nice. I did go for my run this morning and thought maybe Collin would be on my side of the bed when I got back like he was last week. Nope. A little after 6:30am, I did hear Collin talking to Daddy and asking him where Mommy was. He was up for the rest of the morning. Not bad for his first night. One down.....many, many more to go.

New Girlfriend?

Oh boy....this pic sure is causing a commotion on Facebook right now. Ella came over this afternoon for a swim and to play with Collin. As you can see, they got along great. Collin little smirk concerns me.....are we in trouble when he gets older and starts dating?

Saige, Collin wanted me to tell you that he still loves you....but thinks its OK to have several "friends". He does still think about you and Linden frequently. Then....there is also Addison, Melia, Ellie.....hmmmmm.....I guess he is a player.

What a Sunday!

Today confirmed that we made the right decision buying a house in the suburbs and where we did. The day started early because Collin woke me up at 6:45am. It was painful to be up that early because Daddy and I watched a movie until 1am the night before. After breakfast, the family did our usual grocery shopping. We came home to get the house ready for friends to come over in the afternoon experience "Holmes Resort". Collin and Daddy went out front to do some chores. I noticed it was taking them a long time and wondered what they were doing. I stepped outside and found Colin at the neighbors soaking wet. He stepped into the middle of a water balloon fight. He had the biggest grin on his face when I walked up. There were 8 kids playing. Collin loved it because he was playing with the big kids and getting wet.

After he put on dry clothes and had lunch of PBJ, chips and grapes, we set out to get his "big boy bed". Yep, Collin is sleeping on his twin mattress for the first time tonight. The mattress is on the floor and we still have the crib in his room in case he was not interested in sleeping on his new bed. Based on the positive reaction he had to the mattress when we first put it in his room, I think he likes the idea of the bed. I had him help me put on the sheets that he and I picked out together a few weeks before. We have been telling him that he was going to get a new bed so he would not be surprised when we finally brought it home. Once Pappy finishes the bed frame, his new bed will be complete. Here are a few pictures of Collin snuggled in his bed after we put the sheets on. He wanted to stay in there and not get up. No.....he did not end up taking a nap. Besides, we had to get ready for friends coming over later.

We are blessed to have such great friends. The Wattersons came over with their kids Isa (week younger than Collin) and John (14 mos). Our old neighbors, the Petersens came over with Ella (19 mos). Later, Aunt Lisa and Timmy came over and joined us for snacks. We all got in the pool despite the water only being 78 degrees. It was chilly at first but felt fine after your body got used to it. The kids had a great time swimming, splashing and playing in the water. After it was really too cold to be in, we all got out and had some snacks. The kids had fun throwing the ball, sliding down the slide or playing with the other toys. Their favorite part was eating the Popsicles I made.

Timmy and Aunt Lisa stayed the longest and played indoors after it got dark. There was jumping on Collin's new bed after a bath. This is turning out to be a Sunday tradition (both the bath AND jumping).

What a great day! The weather could not be more perfect and we were joined by several of our friends and family.

Tonight, both Daddy and I sat with Collin and talked about sleeping in his new bed. He did try to get out of it after we sang him some songs. I ended up laying in bed with him until he fell asleep. So far, he is still in there. I'll let you know how it goes.

What a Day!!!

Both of us should sleep REALLY well tonight. The day started with Collin getting out of his bed and greeting me on my side. He quickly said, "I got out!" and then "I want a drink". I pulled him into bed and he did sleep another 30 minutes. Yes!!!

After a HUGE bowl of Cheerios, it was time for Daddy and Collin to do their chores. This morning, they did not have to blow/rake leaves in the front or back yard but they did have to sweep some around the pool and clean out the skimmer baskets. Here is Collin helping with sweeping. Just after this picture, most of the broom did go in the pool.

After Daddy left for work, it was time for us to get ready to go over to Jacob's house to play. He is a friend from school that Collin does not get to see much since Jacob is now in Primary and Collin in still in Toddler 2. Collin will get to join him once he is fully potty-trained. The boys had fun sliding and swinging in Jacob's backyard. They both discovered the "water table" (a table full of water and water contraptions meant for toddlers to play with) and started playing with that. Within 2 minutes, both of the guys were really wet. Who cares, they were having a blast taking the water out and watering the plants. Jacob's mom did have to fill the water table back up twice before they got tired of playing with it. Then, they rode the tricycle and scooter before some other friends came over. Collin threw the ball around while the other kids were on the swings.

We left when the other kids started to eat lunch because we picked Daddy up at the bike shop and had lunch with him instead. Collin visited with the people on both sides of the both instead of eating lunch. He did finally eat most of his hot dog bun before Daddy gave him some ice cream. He finished that in the car.

After a very short nap, we played outside because it was WAY too nice of a day. Ella was supposed to come over but she took a late nap and her mommy had plans tonight so their visit would have been too short. They are going to try again tomorrow. Collin and I loaded up a backpack full of snacks and beverages and headed to the bird sanctuary to see what animals were out enjoying the day. We saw squirrels this time and heard birds. We did see one turtle in the water and another one on the bridge. He was a long way off from the river but still alive. Collin like watching the turtle poke his head in and out of his shell. Here are pictures of him on one of the many bridges we crossed and inspecting a rock on the ground. He ended up with pockets full of rocks and small twigs.....a sign of a great hike.

We were really sweaty from the hike, so I thought it would be fun to try out the pool. It was a COLD 80 degrees but felt great once we got in. Collin was not shy at all in the water and jumped in my arms from the side at least 20 times. I made him swim around and kick after most of them. He also floated around on his raft and kicked off of the back of that. We took one break and blew some bubbles at the side of the pool for about 15 minutes. He wanted back in the water. We stayed in about an hour and only got out because his lips were quivering. We took a hot shower and had dinner.

We are both relaxing now. I am thinking of the wonderful day we had together. Tomorrow, Timmy and Lisa are supposed to come over. So is Isabella and her brother John. We also might get Collin's new twin mattress so he can start sleeping on that while we wait for Pappy to finish repairing his new big boy bed.

Here he is watching TV. Interesting way to do it huh?

Morning Helper

Usually in the morning, both my boys are asleep when I get ready for work. Only Daddy wakes up about the time I am ready to leave. This morning was different. After my morning walk/run (I get up every morning around 5:30am to do this), I noticed a little boy was on my side of the bed with his Monkey. Collin must have gotten out of his bed again. He did that twice last night, came to my side and said he wanted to get in Daddy's bed. Daddy transferred him back once after Collin fell asleep and then I did the next time. I must have woken him up when I went outside for my walk since I leave out the door off of our bedroom.

Instead of him staying asleep while I got ready for work, he met me in the bathroom with his monkey and a pillow. I tired to get him to lie down in the closet with the door open but light off so he could at least rest. He was more interested in watching me get ready for work. I had to stop to get him some milk at his request which he drank as he watched me get ready and ask "what's that" or "whatcha doing now".

I thought for sure I would run way late this morning, but was only about 10 minutes behind. I did enjoy the company since I had not seen Collin since Monday night. I was out of town on business since then and did not arrive until late last night after he already went to bed (missed him by 15 minutes from what I understand).

Two days without Mommie

and the boy turns into Yoda the jedi from Star Wars. I tell him it is time for bed and he says "I don't have to go to bed" as if I will quickly say "you don't have to go to bed" so then this morning it was "I don't have to go to school" I think mommie is teaching him the jedi mind trick.

More importantly we had a fun interesting two and a half days but we are glad Mommie is home. I like to think I did really well just he and I he was fed morning and night went to bed at the normal time and was bathed and teeth brushed and was on time to school each day. So good to go Father and son. Collin is now climbing out of his bed in the morning so this morning I got woke up at 6am by a happy little boy that was proud of himself. He bumped my head with his and told me he had to give it a kiss to feel better, so he kissed my forhead and it did it felt better. Kisses really do make bobos feel better.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11....

Collin is still doing great with his potty-training but it sure is wearing me out. Last night, we had dinner out because Uncle Robin was in town and we were celebrating his birthday. Halfway through dinner, Collin announced he had to go potty. Mimi said it was my turn, so I took him. He chose which stall to go into, pulled his pants down and did go potty. We washed hands and went back to the table. The food was there and I was looking forward to my lobster bisque. Well, I ended up eating cold bisque because Collin wanted to go potty 10 more times while we were there. I would loved to have known if he really had to go or not but I was not going to question him especially when he was doing "the I-gotta-go dance" and he looked like he was in pain. After going to the bathroom all of those times, he never went again after the first time. I thought maybe he was playing in there but he would go into a stall, wash his hands and then want to leave.....no lingering. I was worn out by the end of the meal.....actually never finished. I left with Collin because I could not keep that up any longer. He did eventually go poo when we got home.

We met Terry and Melia out for dinner tonight and he started to do it again. We did it 5 times tonight.....what a relief compared to last night. The walk was longer to the bathroom though.

Potty-training is keeping me in shape....or at least moving and unable to finish dinner. I never thought of these as side-effects of potty-training. Maybe other moms out there know the feeling.

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I hope everyone has finished their tax returns or at least extensions by now. My clients are in good shape....tomorrow is hopefully not going to be that bad.

Jumping Beans

Aunt Lisa and Timmy came over Sunday night for dinner and for Timmy and Collin to play with each other. They have done this a few times now that we moved closer to their house. When it gets close to the time that they need to leave, the boys take a bath together and then get into their PJs. Bath time can be funny because Collin wants to sometimes bathe Timmy. He is not as gentle as Timmy is used to, so he does not like this....which makes Collin want to do it more. They pretended to swim which was funny because there were too little butts facing up and little legs kicking. I was not close to the water like Lisa and Mimi who were getting wet.


After the bath, Timmy wanted in Collin's crib which he has not even paid attention to before. Since Timmy was in there, Collin wanted in too. The jumping started immediately. At one point, Collin started to imitate Timmy which we thought was funny. They jumped much more than this video shows but it was too long to post here.


Making memories......

I Can't Hear You

Collin was so happy to go to school yesterday after being away from two days last week and this weekend. That was the first thing he told me when I met him and Daddy at my work for "the exchange" (Daddy had to go back to the bike shop). When I started ask him what he did at school that day, he stuck his thumbs in both ears while holding the rest of his fingers up in the air and said, "I can't hear you". I wanted to laugh because this reminded me of when my nephew did this to all of us when he was about the same age. Knowing if Collin saw me laugh would only encourage him to do it more, I stopped talking until he moved his fingers out of his ears. For all of the good habits he learned at school, there is room for these new things he learns from his friends. He did tell me that Meme taught him this. She is a friend at school. Daddy said he did that he had already seen Collin do this on the way to meet me.

On the way home, I had not turned on the radio yet or started one of his music CDs. Instead of asking for me to turn the music on like he usually does, he started to sing the following without stopping, "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-O. On the farm, there was a pig, with an Oink here". This was the most I have heard him sing of this song or any other song without me singing with him. We continued to sing the rest of the song together on the way home. I did get to see him tell me "I can't hear you". He could hear me though because I tested him by asking what he wanted for dinner. His reply was "chicken". I told him that I thought he could not hear me and he stuck his thumbs back in his ears.

When we got home, he had taken his shoes and socks off like he does every time he is in the car. This is usually the first thing he does unless he is preoccupied with something else.

Something new every day.....

On a Squirrel Hunt

Collin is fascinated with squirrels ever since he saw one in his backyard. This morning, we went on a squirrel hunt in the nature sanctuary by our house. After a hour and a half, we did not see any squirrels, but we did see lots of turtles, frogs, birds, sticks and rocks. When we first entered the sanctuary, he picked up a stick and started shooting me with it. As I have mentioned in other posts, he can turn anything into a play gun and start shooting me with it. This time he was thoughtful and gave me a stick to shoot him with. I had to smile at that.

The first pond we came to had a HUGE frog sitting on a log. Here Collin is showing me where the frog is. He wanted to stand there until the frog jumped....which it did eventually do.

We then took of skipping along the trail. Every time we come to a section of the trail that has a choice of going one direction or the other, I ask Collin which way he wants to go. I explain that we have a choice and he can pick which way we are going next. We made it to the other side of the pond and spent most of our time there. We found another frog that was the biggest one I can ever remember seeing. Instead of jumping, this one sat there the entire time we were there.

While we were sitting there checking out the frog, I spotted one turtle swimming towards us...then two.....and eventually four turtles where swimming right below were we were sitting. Collin loved counting all of them and watching where they were going. He told them to "sit on the log over there" and was frustrated that they would not listen (hmmmm.....he never does that do me....hahaha). I told him we need to wait and they might eventually need to get out of the water to dry off. Two of them did. The other two swam off.

He still remembered we needed to find squirrels, so we took off down the nearest path. No squirrels were ever found though. He had fun skipping and running down the path when it was wide, sitting on the rail along the bridge ("I need a rest Mommy") or carrying our water bottle. At one point, he asked if he could pee in the woods. He remembered the time he did it two weekends ago after he finished Easter egg hunting. I assumed he did have to go, so we found a secluded spot.....and he DID have to go. He made sure to tell Mimi that he did this when he saw her.

I love these times we spend together.

Feeling Better

Collin was MUCH better yesterday and was back to himself today. No other symptoms after having the fever. Speaking of fever, Mimi and he were having cabin fever so we did go to Zoobilee at the zoo last night. After trying to find parking for 20 minutes and walking from about 2 miles away, we did make it to the zoo. We met Terry, her daughter Melia, Michelle and her boys Brady and Tanner there. We all arrived at different times because of the parking situation. Once we were there, the kids had a blast looking at all of the animals. Collin and Melia got airbrushed tattoos on their arm. Collin picked out a dinosaur and Melia picked out a kitty. After that, we checked out the larger animals. With larger animals comes bigger waste. The kids pointed out the poop more than the did the elephants and the Anatole. Even Melia was pointing it out. The boys thought it was funny. At least they were enjoying themselves.

After the zoo, we went to dinner with Terry and Melia. Collin sure did have an appetite after two days of not eating much. This was the first time I have seen him eat a sandwich....and it was MY sandwich he reached over and took a few bites of. Terry and Mimi could not believe how much he was eating either. I am so glad he is feeling better. I don't like to see him not feeling good.

Sick but still witty

Collin has been home from school the past two days. Mimi has been awesome and watching him at his house while his parents are at work during their busy time of year. We are not sure if he is in the beginning of a regular cold or strep throat (I hope not), so we kept him home so he could rest and get better. His main symptoms are fever (as high as 102.6). When he does not have fever, you would not know he was sick.....back to his usual 2-year old antics.

This morning when I called to see how he was feeling, he did not want to talk because he was busy watching TV. The phone was on speaker so I could hear him make comments every once in awhile as Mimi gave me the update. As I was about to hang up, he did say "bye bye" and then "call again". That made my laugh and ask Mimi if I heard that right. Even though he does not feel at his best, he is still able to make us laugh.

Here are some comments Mimi noted yesterday:

• When operating the washer/dryer, Collin stood on his stool and told me to stand 'over there' so not to be near him to help him.
• Collin perked up both times in between naps saying 'I feel better'
• Collin asked for medicine. I thought he meant medicine for the healing cut on his face from Frisbee in Monday's park. I giggled when he applied it to his throat after he said monkey had a sore throat.
• My family will love this one: He told me cranberries make him fart.
• After I came back into den with another shirt on, Collin commented 'another shirt?'
• After picking up a small green thing on the breakfast table area floor, Collin asked 'where did this come from?' as well as other items he would ask 'what is this for?'
• While getting vitamins with Laura, Collin noticed jelly beans and told me 'that is for later'

Operation Collin's Freedom - Update

Daddy came up with a name for Collin's new found "trick" of being able to get out of his bed last night. He did not get out last night after I put him back in bed. Thank you Collin!

I just talked to Daddy about how the morning went since Daddy had morning duty with Collin. He said he went in to check on Collin and Collin said he was not ready to get up. Daddy went to the bathroom area to start getting ready for work and the day. Just a few minutes later, Collin walks in and said "I got out all by myself" with a proud look on his face.

Later, he got back in his crib to jump. He likes to do this and practice turning around in the air when he jumps from one side of his crib to the other. Mimi was there because she is watching him this morning (school is closed today). Collin went to get out of his crib another way and he flipped over the rail. Of course, he cried and this scared him. I guess we will have to see if that scared him enough to not try and get out tonight after I put him in bed.

Escape Artist

Well....the time has come.....Collin has finally figured out how to get out of his bed. I cannot complain because most of his buddies were getting out of their cribs before they were even 1 years old. It took him 31 1/2 months to figure it out. He had told me before that he was scared when he tried it. Well, that must not have been the case tonight. I knew it was going to take him a little longer to get to bed since he stayed up way late the last two nights while we were out of town. Plus, Saige had just come over to play so he was wound up from the day. I thought we were doing great since I was reading books to him a little earlier than I typically do (8:15pm because he is usually in bed by 9:30pm). So, when we were rocking and he said he wanted to get in bed, I was excited to see that it was 9pm. That should have been a sign. At his request, I put him in his crib, gave him kisses, covered him and Monkey up, and sang him some songs like I do every night. After four songs, he was really quite so I left the room with the music playing and went into the den to join Daddy.

Not 5 minutes later, Collin opened the door that leads to the hallway. He peeked out and told Daddy that he got out of bed. His face was beaming because he was SO proud of himself. Ugh!!! Now, not only do I have to start the bedtime process again, he knows he can get out of bed. I wondered how long this was going to go on tonight. I went back into his room, put him in his bed, sang songs, left the room....and then stood in the hall waiting to see if I would have a little "visitor" come out of his room. After a few minutes, I peeked back in his room and he was snoring. It's been about an hour since that happened so I hope he is down for the night.

Well, I guess it's good that Pappy is getting Collin's big boy bed ready for his room. Keeping him behind bars is not going to keep him in his room much longer.

Easter Fun

While at Madison's house, Collin dyed eggs for the first time. Instead of wearing his PJs, he wore a shirt that Madison gave him to wear. He cracked a few of the eggs as he dropped them into the dye but not enough to have to discard the egg. He was the most efficient egg dyer I ever had seen too because he put as many as he could at one time in each bowl in front of him. We found out that four eggs will fit snugly but he want to try to include more. Once he dyed all dozen of his eggs, he began to put them back in the dye to color them again. I took them out so they could dry and he then could put stickers on them. He started to put stickers on the eggs but then decided that it would be more fun to put them all over him. After putting every sticker on his body, he took them back off one by one. Here are a few pictures of him dying the eggs.

In the morning, he got to see what the Easter bunny brought him. He pulled out of his Easter bucket (sand bucket....Easter Bunny was practical this year) some cars, a Nike baseball cap, a Recorder because the Bunny could not find a kazoo, spider man toys for the pool and some candy. After Madison and Justin finished looking through their basket, it was time to hunt for the eggs that Easter Bunny hid the night before. Collin did great. He found 12 of the 51 eggs that were hidden. He WAS the most entertaining finding his eggs because, he dropped the eggs into his bucket instead of laying each one in there. We could hear each real egg crack or break as he dropped each one in. Thank goodness that they were hard boiled. Daddy thought it would have been funny to hide some real ones. He better not try that at home. After all of the eggs were found, it was time to get on the road and head back home. What a great weekend spent with friends.

Weekend with Friends

We spent the weekend in Dallas with good friends that we have not spent much time with since Collin was born. The main reason for going up there was to surprise one of Chris's best friends, Tom, for his 40th birthday party. After being in the car for over 4 hours, Collin did great at the birthday dinner. He entertained himself and was social with everyone that stopped by to say "hi" to him. I was impressed at how good he was for such a long day. He continued to asked to go to the potty even though we were somewhere he had never been before.

After the party, we went to Tom's house which is where we were spending the night. He has two kids, Madison and Justin, that were still awake. Collin was not interested in sleeping once he saw them. Finally, after midnight, he passed out after Madison and I both read him some books.

For the rest of the weekend, Collin latched onto Madison and was her shadow all weekend. Instead of him insisting that I do everything for him, he wanted Madison. She was allowed to read him books before bed, get him a drink and hold his hand when we got out of the car while we were running errands. He even wanted to eat what she was eating when we stopped for lunch.

We had a great time and home that it's not almost 2 years before we do that again.

Music Man

We have played music for Collin every night since he was a newborn. I would change out the CD every week or so (or when I thought about it) so he could listen to a variety of soothing music while he falls asleep. In the two years, we have accumulated over 10 CDs that we cycle through. In the last week, another way Collin is showing his independence is that HE wants to select the CD for the night. Not only does he pick it out of the bin with the other CDs, he takes out the one currently in the player, puts this one in the CD case, takes out the newly selected one, puts it in the player, pushes the button to shut the CD into the player, pushes "play" and then even determines the volume of the music. That is actually the cutest part because he will say "too loud" and then turn it down and then even say "maybe a little more", so he will turn it back up. Last night he selected some lullabies that Matthew's mom gave Collin when he was a newborn. He selected Mozart the night before. He told me he did not like "The Rat Pack" CD and took that one out. That was Daddy's contribution to the CD collection. After several rejects over the week, I took it out of the rotation. Maybe next year Daddy.