Happy Birthday Colin

I can't believe my baby is 2 , if this year is any indication, I am so excited to continue to see his growth in the years to come. He brings so many smiles to my face! We've been having a blast at the beach with Grandma YiYi and Grandpa. Colin has been in a great mood and very welcoming to his Texas grandparents. During Their last visit in June, Colin was quite clingy to me, but this visit has been the opposite!

Looking forward to the new year with my little man!

A perfect Christmasy day

This morning Colin had a holiday play date with all his buds, including Santa!
Then this evening, along with his best bud Kyler and his mom Kelly,we went to the wild wonderland at Lowry park zoo. The zoo had over a million twinkling lights,snow, reindeer and holiday games..,he had a blast! Seeing him have so much fun really makes me so happy.

Hanging around

This morning i took Colin to open gymnastics "class" at the y. I write class loosely as its really just a bunch of toddlers running around the gymnastics floor, jumping on the trampoline, hanging from things ( as pictured) and having a lot of fun. I have a feeling our son is going to be quite the athlete. I often get comments from people on how strong he is or what a great throw he has. Either way this boy is happiest when he's on the MOVE!

Colin's 1st soccer class

This past Saturday Colin started his first soccer class, it is a 45 minute class once a week, and I think he really enjoyed it. He did well listening to the coaches and picked up the lessons /drills they were teaching pretty quickly. Looking forward to more classes and of course games when he is older!

Christmas decorating

We put up our Christmas tree this past weekend. We being me, Evan never has any interest but does come oh and ah over my handiwork when I'm done. It is a sentimental ritual for me, I put Nat King Cole Christmas channel on pandora and enjoy stringing the lights and getting out our ornaments. We have so many ornaments from places we've traveled and momentous occasions in our lives so far, I love the memories it brings. This year, Colin fingerpainted his first ornament so I'll look forward to seeing that ornament each year and the memory of us sitting together fingerpainting. I hope next year Colin will enjoy decorating with me!

Caught!

What is fascinating about my make up drawer kid?

Dr Colin goes trick or treating

Halloween!

Colin's 2nd Halloween was so much fun. Originally we had plans to be at the beach for the week but I'm so glad our plans changed and we were able to join in all the festivities with our friends.

Colin attended a Halloween themed party at Gymboree, here are some pics of that afternoon

a little photo shoot at Grandmary's before we headed out

Dr. Colin

Getting ready to decorate his pumpkin

On Tuesday, we attended a spooktacular play date with my gymboree mom's group. This time I grabbed a last minute Buzz Lightyear costume for Colin, it is a size 3-4 so I'm hoping he'll also be able to fit into it next Halloween, I hear a lot of 2 year olds love Toy Story.

The actual day of Halloween we trick or treated with another group of friends and had so much fun! A post on that coming soon!

A morning at Sweet Fields Farms

These sunflowers greeted us in the parking lot

spider hay

Buds

water racing

he loved climbing the hay stacks

building and knocking down blocks

he loved feeding the goats and chickens

milking the cow

Last Friday, Colin and I drove 30 minutes north to a local farm in Masaryktown. They turn their farm into a fun fall festival and we had a great time! We saw a pig race, fed the farm animals, climbed on lots of haystacks and even went on a hayride. Thanks to Kelly and Kyler for telling us about it and joining us on our adventure.

Scenes from NYC

Colin update at 21 months

Before we know it December will be here and this baby of mine will be 2 years old! I'm treasuring every day and love seeing his development.

Eating:
He seems to eat alot at breakfast, his hungriest time of the day. In the first couple of hours in the morning he usually has a cup or two of milk, a pack of raisins, applesauce, a yogurt,small slice of toast and either a banana with peanut butter or breakfast sausage. Lunch time seems to be light these days but his appetite at dinner is good. He LOVES the squeezy pouches and would prob eat 5 a day if I let him.

Sleeping:
Lately Colin wakes up around 7:45am and plays in his crib about 15 minutes before I hear "Maaa"over the monitor to let me know he's ready to start his day. One nap from about 1:30 to 3 or 3:30. Down for bed at 8:15, and part of our new nighttime routine before bed is singing him a few lullabies before I put him in his crib, which is nice cuddle time for us :)

Communication:
He says about 20 words, his most recent being "okay" and "up". It's so funny to hear him respond to me with "ok" me: "do you want to go to Gymboree Colin?" him: "oohhkay!"
He still doesn't say no or yes but has a very long exaggerated head nod for yes. Although at this point his vocabulary is small, I believe he understands everything so I talk to him as if.

Funny/amazing things he is doing:

When I get him dressed, I guess I've always told him since he was born how cute/handsome he looks, so now after he's dressed he'll stand back with a big smile and expectant look while I enthusiastically exclaim "how cute" or "how Cool" he looks.

He brings me flowers from his walks with Pauline or from the yard with a big grin on his face.

He loves taking showers with me or Evan and the second he hears the word he runs to the shower ready to get in.

He still loves his binkie or "b" as he calls it, we only let him use it in the crib or carseat and now insists you wash it off before bedtime.

He likes to build pretend boats with his Lego blocks

Loves being tossed around, thrown on the bed and is always asking to do it "again again"

Likes to help Opa, for example will bring him his slippers or walker when he needs them.

He really remembers things now. We were at the library and he remembered the week before I'd shown him a display of Lego boats in a different part of the library, so he wanted me to take him back to see the same display a week later.

He loves all his stuffed animals, I'll see him pretend with them like today when he pulled out the chair at his table to have his frog sit with him.

For a few months now he's been able to complete the board puzzles pretty easily.

Im sure there is so much more that I'm not listing and I'm really looking forward to the next year as his communication skills continue to grow.

Flowers

When Pauline is here she likes to take Colin for a walk down the street and Colin has started bringing me back flowers. Now if only his Daddy would start doing that :)