uh-oh!

Ok, I lied about the hiatus.. So over Christmas, Colin started saying uh-oh! and I just caught it on camera..

Let me tell you how fitting it is that this is his first word.

the reaction "no" gets in our house*

We're on break, so the blog is too. Christmas pictures will show up when I have the energy. It might be awhile. To tide the grandparents over, here's a short video of Colin's reaction to us telling him "no no."

*This is one reaction. You wouldn't be entertained by the other one. Unless you like face-down tantrums.

**Yes, that is the diaper pail he is chewing on. It's a miracle we don't all have dysentery in this house.

14 months! (almost)

Since I no longer have to wrangle Colin down for his monthly pictures, I realized I've slacked on the monthly updates. It's getting hard to keep track of his milestones - it seems like he learns something new every day.


He's starting to really walk well. I'm not sure when we can officially say he's "walking." By far, his preferred mode of transport is still crawling. But, he can take more steps than I can count on his own... often halfway across a room. He also walks very well just holding on to someone's hand. He's a very physical little boy. His new favorite thing is crawling up on the windowseat or the couch on his own, and then crawling/rolling back off of it (usually over the arms of the couch), again all on his own. Sometimes he falls, but he just laughs and keeps going. And he loves throwing things. He has quite a pitching arm. His favorite game is throwing sippy cups or food and watching us pick them up. Not my favorite game.


He loves "hiding" from us and playing peekaboo, and he's really gotten into copying us finally, which is funny. He claps at everything. He loves "answering" his play phone or our real phone (holding it up to his ear and raising his eyebrows like it is SO interesting). He still isn't saying anything we can understand beyond mama and dada (and honestly, he calls everything dada), but he knows lots of words, and will "find" his duck or dog if you ask him where it is. He also makes this hilarious mouth-smacking noise any time he hears the word "milk." He is a little milkaholic!


He transitioned into his toddler room at school in "record time." So now he eats lunch at a table and naps on a little cot like a big boy. That room has a structured curriculum and they do lots more activities than the baby room did, and I think he's enjoying having more going on during the day.


We're still stuck at three teeth, but I think the other top one is coming in. We know the time is coming soon to be rid of the pacifier, but when he's teething it is the only thing that keeps him happy. That one is more a test of our patience than his though.


Here's some random pics that have nothing to do with milestones, I just kept forgetting to share them. Mohawk man:

Please give me a haircut people!

And Sunday he was cracking himself up by picking up my (empty) coffee cup and pretending to drink out of it. Not sure why that was so funny to him... I wish I could have gotten a picture of his huge smile every time he picked it up. Perhaps he notices Mom and Dad seem happier after they drink out of them.. hmmm.

He's a little ham, and is so smart. I can't wait for my family and friends to get to see our little toddler over Christmas!

we are only here to entertain him.

This is Colin's favorite new game.. playing catch with Dad from the upstairs balcony. As you can hear, he gets very excited to throw the ball down, but not so happy when it takes Dad awhile to get the ball back up to him. Also, as you can see, Colin officially has a baby mullet. We are aware of the problem. I just can't bring myself to cut his hair yet - although it's long, there isn't much of it. Poor little guy.

Since we're heading down to Edwardsville later this week, Mike and I opened our presents from each other a little early this weekend. Mike always outdoes me on presents. This year, he got me an awesome little Flip camera that I can use for catching short little moments on camera and then emailing or blogging quickly later. I love it! So, look forward to lots of short clips on here of Colin doing random Colin things.

lovely weather for a sled ride together

While wandering around at Menards on Saturday (we live a life of excitement here), we spotted some "toddler sleds" on a shelf .. so we picked one up for Colin. Mike took him out in the yard yesterday and Colin loved it!


(really, he did.. I just didn't get any pictures of him smiling)

Whee! Mike got quite a workout.

Here's a short video of the action.. I didn't get it on camera, but he was laughing every time Mike would pull him down the slope. Our neighbors stopped by and Colin got very loud about demanding another ride. I'm guessing we'll get a lot of use out of this thing... after it was too cold to stay outside, Mike gave Colin a few more rides around the living room, and he seemed to like that just as much :)

playing nicely

Colin and Ellie playing nicely on Saturday night ... though Ellie doesn't look quite as happy to share her toy as Colin was...

Colin was also up to taking 5 steps at a time on Saturday night - he must have wanted to show off for his lady-friend who is already foot-mobile!

beginning to look a lot like Christmas!*

It's 6 degrees this morning, snow on the ground, work is crazy stressful, and I've relapsed on my peppermint mocha addiction. This can mean only one thing - it's almost Christmas! We got our tree up last weekend. Colin was slightly more "helpful" than last year, when we decorated the tree with him sleeping in the baby sling on dad's chest.


He played happily with the lights for half an hour, mostly trying to eat them, until mean mom got worried about electrocution and lead poisoning and took them away...


Big boy and his Christmas tree! He hasn't even tried to knock it down yet, though we moved most of the fun stuff up to the top half of the tree.

This weekend we got our first real snowfall of the year - about 4 inches. Saturday we planned to take Colin out in it, but he woke up from his nap with a fever and was just a whimpering mess. So we spent the afternoon with him cuddling on my lap, watching Christmas movies while the snow fell. As much as I hate seeing him sick, it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon. We had to miss out on a playdate and our friends' christmas party, so we were bummed about that, but I was pretty worried about the little guy. Luckily the next morning his fever was down a little and he seemed to be feeling better. So we did get some play time in - he did surprisingly well in the snow, just didn't seem to care for the cold wind.



Pics of December so far are here: http://tinyurl.com/2a7a86w


Hopefully he's back to normal today. We attempted daycare today so fingers crossed I don't get "the call" to come retrieve him once his Motrin wears off... Have a great week and stay warm everyone.

*Is there any worse Christmas song out there? Not if you worked at Shop 'n Save during Christmas for four years. I can't hear that or "the most wonderful time of the year" without suffering extreme grocery store PTSD.

thanksgiving 2010

We had a great trip to the QCs for Thanksgiving this year. Colin slept the whole way there in the car, and half of the way back, so traveling was not nearly as bad as we had feared!

all dressed up for thanksgiving!

Colin got to soak up lots of attention on Thanksgiving at both families' gatherings. At the Hanson thanksgiving, he also finally got to meet his cousin Graham. They hit it off right away - smiling and babbling at each other, chasing each other around, and playing. It's hilarious that they just know the other one is a baby too. When Grandpa Doug came in the room for the first time, Graham just silently pointed to Colin, like "Check this out." Ha! It was so cute to see them together!


Colin ate a TON of food at both dinners. His favorite was the pumpkin pie, which got a "mmmmmMMMM!" from him. He was eating it off Dad's fingers at Grandma Pat's.

Sharing a plate of food with dad...

Guess what I am thankful for?

He was quite the showoff all weekend.. taking a few more steps on his own, calling me mama (yay!), imitating Grandpa Ron, and Grandma Pat even taught him to dance:

Pics of the weekend are here: http://tinyurl.com/2cret4b

weekend in review!

A couple more videos of our stinker.. this is pretty much what we did all weekend... chasing him around the house with his dino...

and playing peek-a-boo with the bathroom door. He's obsessed with hanging out in this bathroom. He likes to bust through the door when anyone's in there too... sort of like a little furry friend of ours used to do... hm.

The other (unwelcome) development of the weekend is that our perfect little eater, championed by his teachers as "the best eater in the class" (seriously) has decided he doesn't like vegetables. At all. Even when covered in hummus or cheese. Today, I mixed broccoli into his ravioli and sauce, and he still managed to spit out each piece of broccoli that entered his mouth. Yesterday, he picked out all his green beans and carrots and threw them on the floor, one at a time. I have so many questions. Isn't it a little early for picky eating to arise? How does he even know they are vegetables? Doesn't he know he's half vegetarian? And most importantly, how do I get him to eat them again? Any moms with experience getting a kid to eat vegetables would be welcome to contact me.. you know who you are...

*minor update: for dinner, he scarfed down some squash that I sauteed for him, but spit out his stir-fry tofu. So, it may be that someone has learned how to spit, more than anything. Awesome.

class of 2027

Colin's class picture was too cute not to share. If you can't spot Colin, he's the one with the chew toy, trying to hold a girl's hand.



* You can always click to enlarge pics on the blog. Someone told me the other day they just figured that out. Sorry.

quick videos

I am terrible at getting good videos of Colin... I wanted to get one of his fancy footwork backing up and maneuvering his walking toy.. but one of him walking in a straight line will have to do.

And here is the little stinker scampering up the stairs.. his new favorite game that I'm not a fan of. We're getting a gate this weekend.

dinner out: more fun that it looks

Last night, Mike picked Colin up from daycare and then swung by my office so we could have a family dinner at Moe's. We haven't taken Colin out to eat for, oh, about 6 months. I will admit, I've been afraid at how he would do, given that he seems to think being put in a high chair is equivalent to waterboarding, and he has a penchant for throwing food and yelling when he's done eating. But, he did great! He scarfed down way more food than he does at home... gorging himself on beans, tofu, cheese, olives, mushrooms and rice. I was shocked! And, being my child, he picked out all the beans/tofu that had sour cream and cheese on them and ate those first :)


This is when he was making eyes at the baby at the next table. At one point they were both waving their sippies in the air in some sort of solidarity gesture.


Worst picture ever taken of my two boys, but I didnt' want to be "that mom", obviously taking and retaking pictures in a fastfood establishment. I promise, it was actually fun and painless, and made me feel much better about getting out for some family meals.

weekend update

Aunt Zoe came to visit this weekend, and we all had lots of fun. Well, most of the time - Colin's right upper tooth is coming in, so Zoe got to experience the crabby crabber that teething brings. But overall it was a good weekend.

She brought up some birthday presents for Colin, which he loved! Here she is trying to read to him from the soft firefighter book she gave him (he just ripped the book from her hands as I was taking the picture.. he likes it!)


Zoe's stated goal for the visit was to get Colin to walk. She sort of succeeded! She gave him this dinosaur walking toy, which he LOVES. As soon as we had it put together, he stood up and started walking around the house with it like he'd been doing it forever. Seriously, he was backing up, cornering... I couldn't believe he just automatically knew how to do it! I need to get it on video, but someone gets a little camera-shy ... so we'll see if I can get it this week sometime.

He seriously MOVES with this thing... FAST.

He gets the biggest smile as soon as he starts walking with it... he's very proud of himself!

Sometimes he cheats and walks on his knees, but we try to stand him up again.

he goes in the kitchen, bathrooms, family room, around the dining room table - he was all over the house with this thing!

I think the walker gave him some confidence too... right before Zoe was leaving, Colin was standing all on his own, and then took a STEP by himself to grab on to the chair! So we're counting that as his first step - we all saw it!

Colin also had some fun tunnel playtime yesterday. He loves playing "peekaboo", looking inside and then outside the tunnel at dad at the other end.

Then he goes inside and plays peekaboo with me.

HI!

He loves the cornpopper my parents gave him for his birthday, even though he can't walk with it yet. So he just drags it around with him.

He took it inside the tunnel with him. He's a nut.

So, despite the teething and the time change and some fussiness, it was a great weekend with some fun playtime. Hopefully by the next time we have visitors, he'll be running around on his own!

happy halloween!

Yesterday was another nice fall day. Colin "helped" his dad rake leaves during the day...


Then, in the evening, we got ready for some Halloween fun. My last flashback for awhile, I promise.. but here's Colin's first Halloween:

And a year later, here's the cutest giraffe ever, trying to chow on some candy:

Big boy! He was so good and didn't even mind the hat. We walked around outside a little and got to see our neighbors and some kids in costumes, which he seemed intrigued/confused by.

Here are some more pics from yesterday: www.tinyurl.com/colinhalloween

fall photo shoot

A couple weekends ago, we had a photography student meet up with us at Happy Hollow park to take some family pictures. I think we got some really good ones! Here are some of my favorites:

She gave us the pictures on a disc so I could upload and print them myself. This link is to her "finished" pictures - she played around with the color and effects, so there are multiples in here: www.tinyurl.com/fallpicsfinished

And the full file of lots of pictures is here: www.tinyurl.com/fallpicsall

Spoiler alert: I'm super lazy, so you'll probably see our future christmas card picture somewhere in here.

12 month update

We had Colin's 12 month appointment yesterday. He had four shots but he was very brave and calmed down right away, poor little guy. Mr. Colin is weighing in at 21 lbs 7 oz (25-50%), 30.5 in. long (50-75%) and his head is 46 cm (25-50%). So he's a little on the tall and slender side, but Dr. said that's normal because he is so "active." Ha.

Colin isn't taking any independent steps yet (unless you count letting go while cruising and lunging his body at us) but he is super fast at crawling, and can even crawl up a flight of stairs (quickly). We've caught him standing on his own several times (but he won't do it if you try to make him). He loves to crawl away and then look over his shoulder to see if you are following him. He can throw a ball overhand, and loves playing "catch" by bouncing his big ball back and forth with dad. Still no words, and that's something Dr. C says we need to keep working on with him, but he babbles nonstop and is starting to point (with his whole fist, but it's something) and grunt when he wants something, which is a good step. He likes to fist-point at things and say "da" - everything is called "da" though. His favorite game is dropping things from the high chair and waiting for us to pick them up. We got the go-ahead to switch to whole milk in sippy cups and phase out bottles and formula (hooray!). We have a little toddler on our hands, people.

So, for his last monthly pic, I give you the full time-lapse of the Colinator over the past twelve months!

more cake pics!

Already, Grandma Linda has come through with better cake pics! Yay!





I've uploaded the first batch to www.tinyurl.com/morecakepics.

And with that, I'm going to break Colin out of baby jail early for his birthday, as I am obv. doing no work today.