Sunny Saturday!

Today was a fun day! We decided to start a new family tradition...going to Dallas on race day! We live very close to the Speedway and traffic out here is crazy on race weekend, so normally we stay at home or close by. We decided this morning that it was far too pretty outside to stay home, so we headed to Dallas for our favorite Thai food. That is one thing we miss about living in the suburbs...good Thai food!! We had such a good time that we decided to start a new tradition and head to Dallas for our favorite foods on race weekend. There were so many places that we wanted to eat that we came very close to getting a hotel room so that we could have more than one meal! HA! Anyway, Colin was well behaved, but by the time dessert rolled around, we had to eat fast because he was ready to get moving. Gone are the days of him lounging quietly while we eat. Not anymore!!! He wanted to grab everything he saw on the table and was very vocal about wanting what we moved out of his reach. He was very sweet, though, and I think he liked all the new scenery.

After lunch, we looked at the kitties next door at Petsmart and then drove back to our neck of the woods to pick up some odds and ends at Sam's. I spotted a really nice area of bluebonnets on the way home, so I am planning to take Colin back there tomorrow for some pictures. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect spot to get the famed "baby in the bluebonnets" picture and I think this area will work great as there is a good spot to park nearby. Jer was laughing...he said that is a very "Texan" thing to do...park on the side of the road to take pictures in the wildflowers. I told him that it was indeed, so get on board! :-)

Yesterday, I took Colin up to my old office to say hello to everyone. I had been meaning to do that forever, so I decided to go ahead and get it done. Jer works for the same company, so Colin got to visit Daddy at work also. He was so adorable saying hello to everyone, although he tired out very quickly and was hiding his face in my neck to let me know it was time to go. I never get tired of that, I must say!! It was strange being at my old office watching everyone carrying on without me. It reminded me how lucky I am to be home with Colin. I would much prefer to be exhausted from taking care of my sweet baby than to be worn out from spending all my time at work. Now I just need to hurry up and invent something so that I never have to go back to work. :-)

A Day of Firsts!

Well, here is the first video of Colin that I have ever posted on the blog for your viewing pleasure. :-) I had to grab the camera today because Colin decided that he was not satisfied with walking around the kitchen and decided to go explore the house. When I first put him in the walker, he would just rock in one place. My how times have changed! In fact, Colin pulled himself to a standing position all by himself for the first time today! We were playing in the office and I have a little table sitting on the floor. Sure enough, he planted his little hands on it and pulled himself up. I did not have time to get misty about it because he immediately fell down. I had to jump in and distract him quickly so that he would not scream. It worked and he went right back to trying to pull himself up. In the matter of mere hours today, my world has changed again. I won't be able to take my eyes off him now unless he is restrained in the walker or exersaucer. I would walk all around the house while he played on the floor with his toys, but I see now that he could pull up on something and fall down within a second! So there goes that! I can't believe how fast time is flying by me. Also, I noticed a second tooth popped in overnight right beside the first one on the bottom. Sure enough, that would explain the horrible week of sleep and Colin staying up all night the other day. I am starting to get this figured out. Now just...um...30 more teeth? :-)

First Bubble Bath

Okay, so I just got this off my camera from our bath tonight. Oh, the cuteness! This was Colin's first bubble bath! :-)

No "Crying It Out" in this house!

Colin has crossed into a new stage and I am pretty sure that this is classic separation anxiety. I thought that he might skip through this because he is always so happy to meet people and be held by others, but I see it is much more than that. Over the past few days he has started to despise being out of my sight. Normally he plays on his mat while I am in the kitchen behind him cooking or cleaning. Now he must be right there beside me. If we are having a good time playing with his toys and I get up to get a drink, he starts to fuss as soon as he sees me standing. Suddenly he likes being rocked again and as soon as I lay him down, he wakes back up and gets upset. Going to bed used to be almost immediate, but now it takes about 20 minutes to get him happy and asleep. And as you all know, he is back to some tough overnight habits of waking up frequently. I know that this too shall pass and I am just making sure that I am there for him constantly. Especially at night. One thing that never crossed my mind before I had Colin is the great "Cry It Out" debate that rages through the motherhood community. I now find myself on the team that thinks crying it out is both not helpful and ultimately damaging. I have read many books on the subject of sleep and read both sides of the debate. The decision that I made for myself and Colin is to comfort him when he cries, even if that means that I suffer some sleepless nights. Strangely, I find this is not a popular viewpoint and even most pediatricians (mine included!) say to just let him cry even when he is teething and never feed him during the night. This does not jive with me...as Colin's mother, I know my son. I know what his cries mean and when he needs me. I know the difference in being fussy and really crying because he needs something from me. Since Colin cannot talk or get out of bed to come get me, I will always go to him when he is truly crying. There is not a chance in hell that I am letting Colin cry for an hour straight (there are several folks on my message board that have let babies cry for seriously an hour every night!). I am not trying to start a debate or belittle the choices of other moms. Again, this is the decision that works best for my family. I don't doubt this decision even during the weeks like I am in now...getting zero sleep. There will be a day when my sweet baby does not need me anymore. When he is a teenager, he will want to sleep literally all day. I can get through these days, even if it is a battle. He will get through this stage and I will know that I have been there to support him when he needed me. I really think that I am teaching him to trust that I will take care of him no matter what. Now if my second child won't sleep...well, we may have to re-visit the plan. HAHA! :-)

Divine Consign

I did not get the opportunity to post last night because Ellen and I made a late night trek to shop the Divine Consign sale that takes place twice a year locally. I found out a couple of months ago about the sale...apparently it is the largest consignment sale ever and they are very strict about what they will sell, so the products available are great. I was early enough to sign up for the "First Time Mom's Pre-Sale", meaning that Ellen and I got to shop last night at 9pm before the sale officially opens today. That was GREAT! I got stacks of great toys for Colin that were all around $3-$5 each. I also found several cute outfits from Ralph Lauren and Gymboree for just a few dollars. I could have really done some damage, but I finally had to put a bunch of stuff back and calm down. :-) They had such a wide selection of things!! Ellen and I shopped for a couple of hours and I made it home at around 11pm. It was also nice to spend a couple of hours with Ellen by ourselves. I put Colin to bed before I left and put Jer in charge of holding the fort down. It was nice to get some shopping done without being in a baby induced hurry. Not to mention the fact that it was the first time I have been in the car without listening to a Baby Einstein movie in months! :-) Good times!

The picture above was taken yesterday afternoon. I brought out that pony (which he is too little for at the moment) to give him something new to grab and look at. He loved it! He slept slightly better last night, giving me a 4 hour stretch of sleep after his 2:00am bottle. He has been really needy at night lately and I know it is because of the teeth! I am really making an effort to enjoy this time, though. I don't mind all the sleepless nights and being endlessly tired. This little sliver of time in our lives is going to end before I know it. I had to stop typing this for a moment because Colin was fussing. I picked him up and he nuzzled his little face into my neck and tucked up his knees into my arms. I sat down in his room in the glider and rocked him to sleep. He was so warm and sweet in my arms. He is now tucked into bed for a morning nap and I am reminded as usual that these are the sweetest days. I am so lucky to be home taking care of my precious baby!

Sleep...where are you!?!?

Colin did not sleep at all last night. That is actually not much of an exaggeration. He went down at 8:30 like he normally does. He had two good naps yesterday like he normally does. However, he woke up crying the first time at 11:00, which is really early for him. I knew something was not quite right, and I was right on the money! He woke up every 30 minutes to an hour all night. He had a full bottle at midnight, but that did not help. At 2:45, I gave up and put him in bed with me in the guest bedroom. He fell right asleep, but was awake again at 4:30. That was the most sleep he got all night. After battling until 5:00, I was forced to get Jer up so that I could catch an hour of sleep before he left for work. Poor Colin fell back asleep at 7:00 am and took about an hour nap. He is now playing with his toys. His other eye is now red, so whatever is going on there has moved to the other eye. Maybe that is what was waking him up. I think this may be all about the teeth and there is not much I can do. Last night was the worst it has ever been, so I am keeping my eye on him closely today. I am really hoping he is not sick. Wish me luck. My big plans of going to the outing in the park with my new mom's group are out the window...I am going to spend the day trying to sleep when (if) Colin does. I wish I knew how to help him with sleep. My issues with sleep tortured my childhood and I don't want the same for Colin. It breaks my heart to watch him wake up all night long!! Hopefully he will be better tonight. My poor little angel!

Bathtime and Assorted Tidbits

First of all, it was HOT here today! As I type this at 8:45 pm, it is still 80 degrees. We tried to take Colin for a walk around 5pm, but it was easily 90 degrees out and I was afraid he was getting too hot. I am scared of him overheating...lord knows I was! :-) The picture was taken right before Colin's bath tonight. He looked so cute sitting on my bed waiting for the fun to begin!

Jeremy put baby stuff in the attic today, so of course I got emotional about it. He put away the bassinet that Colin slept in beside my bed for the first four months of his life. He put away the baby swing that had the little jungle flowers and animals rotating around it. Colin is way too big for it now. He put away his infant car seat and the little papasan he loved. When you are with the baby every day, it is easy to forget how much has already changed. That papasan chair was this cozy little thing that sat just off the ground. For the first three months, I would just lay Colin in that chair and he would snooze or happily watch things going on around him. There was no way he could move out of that chair, and now he would be able to just turn right out of it and scoot away. If he could still fit in it! :-) He is changing so fast. So here are some Colin tidbits below so that I don't forget.

• In order to fall asleep, we walk around his darkened room while he lays his head on my shoulder or just under my chin. I sing "You are My Sunshine" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". If I try to sing a different song, he gets upset. Those two work every time. He is 21 lbs now, so I am pretty sore afterwards, but I am going to do it for as long as he will let me. I know I will miss these moments more than anything else when he gets too big to want to be cuddled to bed.

• When I put him down for his afternoon nap, he smells of Johnson's Baby Shampoo and strawberry banana puffs. I think it is the sweetest smell in the whole world.

• As his hair is getting longer, it is starting to curl up. Everyone has noticed over the past couple of weeks. I think he may have my curls after all. When he gets hot or dirty, it gets curlier, just like mine does.

• He loves to play in the walker while I cook. He "walks" all around me while banging his toys together and shrieking at Enzo and Ferris Mewler. I know that walkers are very un-PC right now, but we got this from my mom and he loves it so much. We don't have stairs in the house and I am right beside him when he is in it, so I am not worried in the least. In fact, those moments are probably my favorite part of the day. He is so happy and it feels so good to watch him playing around me while I cook.

• He gets bored with the same toys. Sometimes when he starts to cry while playing on his own, the only thing he wants is something new to look at. If I have not switched up his toys recently enough, he will let me know!

• The days of him sitting in his chair watching TV in the morning are coming to an end. Now I can barely get the coffee on before he is sliding out of the chair onto the floor in an effort to get to his toys. He still loves Playhouse Disney, but he wants to watch while playing, not lounging in his chair.

• He will not hold a bottle of formula. He wants me to feed it to him. He knows how, because he will hold a juice bottle or even a sippie cup with juice (although he still gets more on him than in his mouth). He wants me to feed him. It is that simple. :-)

• Rubber bath toys make the best teething toys in the world. I spent so much money on these teether toys and gadgets, and those cheap rubber animals are the only thing he wants in his mouth. They do the job perfectly.

• He has one tooth on the bottom left. I think more are on the way quickly as he was really fussy all night last night and pulling on both ears today. That is what he did in the days before he got tooth number one.

• He showed stranger anxiety for the first time this week. Ellen's mom picked Colin up and he started to cry and reached his whole body back for me to take him. I wondered if he was ever going to do that, and sure enough he did.

• He has been saying "Ma Ma and Da Da" very clearly for the past couple of days. He is getting really good at it! Jeremy has been working with him non-stop over the weekend to say, "Hi Dad". Jer says it over and over and Colin has honestly started mimicking the sound back to Jer. There were a couple of times today that Jer walked into the room and I swear Colin said "hi Da" totally on his own. I think he is starting to associate Ma Ma to me and Da Da to Jer.

• He is a joyful baby. I have never been around such a ray of sunshine in my life. He laughs all day long...he laughs with his whole body and squeals with delight over everything. When he sees Enzo or Ferris, or me smiling at him, or Jer walking into a room...he erupts into gleeful smiles and giggles. The things I hear most often when people (strangers and friends alike) meet Colin, it is (a) look at all that hair! and (b) he is such a happy baby!