Colin Becomes Art!

I recently had the pleasure of becoming Internet friends with an amazing artist who I hired to paint a watercolor portrait of Colin. She finished it this week and emailed me a scan of it (picture above)...literally amazing. It took my breath away and I am so excited to get it!! I have already decided that I am going to have her paint yearly pictures of him so that I can have a series of paintings of Colin growing up by one artist. I will take a picture of it when I get it framed and hung and will post it. I am just so excited to get it! I can barely stand the wait! It makes me tear up just looking at it...I know that I will spend a lifetime looking at that painting...even when Colin is a grown man.

Jer has been delayed and is still not home yet...but hopefully soon! We are very anxious for him to be back! Colin is sound asleep and I am getting ready to sign out for the night myself. There is not much to post tonight...today was pretty uneventful, although the weather was amazing. Colin and I ran some errands together and picked up some new pj's for him. It is just getting too warm to keep him in his winter ones, not to mention the fact that all those 9 month clothes barely snap anymore. He is growing up too fast! Now he has a nice new stack of 12 month clothes and pj's, so we should be set for...oh...two months. haha! :-)

On the Road Again...

We are back home again tonight...safe and sound from our journey. Colin was such a trooper for the whole trip and I was reminded again today how lucky I am to have such an amazing little baby. My family took us out to lunch before we left town and Colin was such a sweetheart. He was charming the pants off everyone as usual. As we got into Dallas, we got stuck in a couple of different traffic problems, but Colin held it together almost the whole way. He finally started to holler when we got within 20 minutes of the house, so we pulled over and had a bottle and let Enzo take a bathroom break. Then we got home and played together for the rest of the afternoon. It was almost 90 degrees today!!! Crazy!! We went for a walk in the sunshine and played outside for a bit, too. I need to get some sunscreen for this guy. I think that will be my mission this weekend. The pics above are from the week in Tyler and I just took the one of Colin rocking his new pj's. My mom got them for him and he looks so cute that I could literally eat him up. :-)

In other news, I just found out tonight that my friend Ellen will be moving just down the street from me in about 3 weeks!!!!!!!! I am SO excited!! :-)

Last Night in T-Town

Well, tonight is my last night at my parents house...at least for this trip! Colin and I are going to head home in the morning. The plan was actually to go home today, but he was running a slight fever this afternoon and he was not feeling well, so I decided to delay the trip till tomorrow. I think this is all teething, but we shall see. He did not go to sleep until 9:30 tonight, which is really super late for Colin. I really hope he is not getting sick!! His dad is finally coming home on Saturday and we are both really excited to have him home!!

My wonderful mom has made me copies of lots of her recipes to take home with me. She still has a lot more to go, but she is hand writing them for me, which is taking awhile. I love that I will have these hand written recipes forever to hand down to my kids. My mother-in-law actually did the same thing for me at Christmas, so we are going to have all the family recipes to keep for the kids, which I just love. Colin will probably be a great chef just like his dad is!

It has been so wonderful being at home this week and it was really great to have my parents around to lean on. Sometimes it is just nice to be a kid again and have your parents take care of you. My mom made me french toast this morning as I was sitting in my usual early morning stupor brought on by getting up all during the night with Colin. She just kept refilling my plate with hot french toast and as usual, I felt better afterwards. I have tried to get her to come back to my house and live, but apparently that won't work with her career and all. :-)

I know my wonderful friends from T-town having been soaking up all this hometown chat...Melissa, you need to take a week off and come home, too. It does a body good!! And if you want to get started on memories...I was driving past the practice field and could not help but think of "leather Thursday's". Practice with the band, baby! :-)

And Shannon...I completely agree with you. If I could freeze time and have Tyler stay circa 1994, I would do it in a heartbeat! It seems so strange to see all these new places around here. I can't tell you how many times a day I have said, "When did we get that?!". Crazy!!

So...signing out from Tyler!! :-)

Sleep = Happy Chalna!

Thankfully, the third night on the road was the charm! Colin finally slept a little more normally last night and we both got more sleep. He only ate once during the night and I was able to quiet him down with the pacifier alone during his other wakings. MUCH better! He also napped normally today and went to sleep tonight at his normal time. I took a nap when he did today, so that helped me to feel a thousand times better.

Today was a beautiful day and we all packed up and went on one of our famous family scoots. A really nerdy tidbit of info about my family...we love to find places to eat in really small towns in East Texas. If it is on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, we have probably been there. We have a whole list of favorite places to eat around here and we call it "going on a scoot" when we head out. In all fairness, that practice of calling it that started when I was about 10 years old, but I know it is still nerdy none the less. ;-) Today we went to one of our all time favorites...The Shed in Edom. I had chicken fried steak with gravy, mac and cheese, corn nuggets and peach cobbler! SO BAD! That did not help with how fat I am, but it was fantastic!! Colin had a blast...all the girls were kissing on him and he loved it as usual. The weather was great and the scenic drive in the country was just what I needed. I love where I am from. I really do believe that East Texas soothes the soul.

My little hometown is very unique. It has a population of about 180,000 people and is not a suburb of a major city. It just exists out here all by itself. It is surrounded by all the tiny country towns that we "scoot" to...but the closest big city is about a two hour drive away. I was thinking about that last night when I went to pick up dinner...I know every single street here and every building. I can tell you a story about every corner of this town. I have so much history here. When I was a kid, I could not wait to get away. I spent so much time thinking about being grown up in the big city, but now as I drive around, I can't help but thinking about how peaceful it was to grow up here. From going to dance class and being a cheerleader for our little elementary school to dancing on the Drill Team and cheering for the Red Raiders every Friday night. I think I probably embodied every small town cliche there is, but I had the best time in the world.

Oh, and for those of you keeping count...I have had several Mama Sandwiches this week! ;-)

Dreaming of a beach somewhere....

My sweet little boy is having a rough week and if I am being honest, so am I. He has really regressed this week...his sleep patterns are all over the place again and he is waking up almost every two hours all night long. He drank two bottles in the middle of the night last night...he has not done that in months. I am thinking possibly growth spurt...or teething...I just don't know. He was awake for the day at 4:00am this morning, much to my chagrin. I am running on empty in a big way. Colin and I sleep in the same room here and that makes it even tougher...I know he can sense that I am there. I wish I could help him more!!

I have a few friends here in Tyler that I had every intention of calling and getting together with during this trip. I was so excited to show off Colin and say hello, but I don't think it is going to happen. I am so tired that I can barely see straight and I have not been able to pull it together at all!! Oh well...at least I am with my family and not home all alone. That makes me very happy. My mom kicked me out of the house this afternoon and watched Colin so that I could go pick up some new jeans. That was so sweet of her...it was the first time that I have been shopping without Colin since he was born. It certainly makes it easier to get stuff done when you have a couple of hours of help!

Hopefully my little man will have a better night...he and I took a long hot bath together before I put him down. We played with his ducky and splashed around and he had a blast. We were prunes when we got out! He is sleeping soundly for now...wish me luck! :-)

Odds and Ends from T-town

I thought I should check in here before turning in for the night...I am exhausted. Colin was pretty fussy all the way around today. I am not sure if it is the time change, being in a new place, or teething. Possibly a combo of all three. Tomorrow should be better since he will have had more time to adapt to the change in scenery. I can tell you that I am a huge fan of sleeping in my own bed and Colin just may have gotten that from me. :-)

Tomorrow I am going to hopefully get out of the house. I need to run a few errands and pick up some odds and ends. I also need to eat at some of my favorite hometown places while I have the chance! If Colin is feeling better it should work out just fine. The weather is supposed to perk up tomorrow also, so I am hanging in there!

Things I have learned on this trip so far: a) I miss Jeremy a lot. b) I really love the dog door at my house. Taking Enzo outside in the middle of the night sucks. c) Colin thinks his Aunts are hysterical. :-)

Colin + Travel = Tired Chalna

My poor little man is still working on this whole traveling thing. I broke down and put his old car seat back in the Pilot. I just did not want to risk a problem while on the road by myself with a 7 month old and a crazy little dog. We have really been working on the new seat, but Colin is not a fan yet. If I don't sit with him in the back seat, he freaks out. He just can't fall asleep in it yet. I know I set us back by switching seats today, but oh well. To quote Scarlett, "I won't worry about that today, I'll worry about that tomorrow!". ;-)

He slept the entire way here, but still had lots and lots of trouble going to bed tonight. I think the time change messed with him also. Finally after a hot bath and lots of food, he passed out. Hopefully he will let me sleep some tonight, but the first night on the road is always the worst. I wonder when they grow out of this? I think the key is probably to travel with him more often. That is hard work with such a young child!

It does feel really good to be home. I will always consider this house to be "home base"....even though I love where Jer and I live now and would not change it. I think that comes from the fact that my parents still live in the same house that I grew up in from age three. I have just never known any different! It feels like walking into a special haven, where everything is safe and good. I know that probably sounds silly to most, but it is the way I feel. My mom and I went to the grocery store when I arrived. The exact same grocery store that I shopped with her in back when I could ride in the cart! I was thinking as I was walking around that it sure does seem strange that I was there as a 30 year old buying formula for my own child...walking around the same aisles that I did as a toddler. hmmm...I am being sappy, huh? I told you I was tired!! ;-)