Our Anniversary Date Night!

Jer and I had a great time last night! My wonderful sister Alieson came over to watch Colin and we went to dinner and a movie in downtown Ft. Worth. It was a much needed night out! We took the car instead of SUV (wow!), listened to music in the car instead of The Wiggles, and ate dinner at a very nice place that would have never worked with a baby in tow. I forced myself to slow down and actually eat at a normal pace and we walked around the square to the movie theatre afterwards. We saw Hancock, which I thought was good, albeit a little different. When we got out of the movie and began the walk to the car, it was dark out and the party crowd had hit the streets downtown. There was live music playing from different outdoor places and the smell of smoke and alcohol wafted around us. It hit me that it was the first time I had been outside like that on a Friday night in over a year. It actually made me laugh to myself...I guess I had imagined that time was standing still when I was at home getting ready for bed at 9pm on a Friday night. Nope...the world has gone on without me. :-) We headed home via Wal-Mart to get formula. Yep, even on date night, we are still parents all the way. And I was very happy to get home and see his sweet little head sound asleep in his bed. We had a wonderful 5th Anniversary!

FIVE WHOLE YEARS AGO TODAY!

Today is our 5th Anniversary!! I fished into our old wedding photos to post the pics above...I can't believe it has been 5 years. I know that time is flying by because I feel like we look so young there. :-) We were married in grand style in beautiful Las Vegas! I was so happy with the entire experience...we picked out the most adorable chapel and no, Elvis was NOT in attendance! We stayed for free at the Las Vegas Hilton because of Jer's hotel points and we had a limo pick us up there and take us to the chapel. We had to walk through the entire hotel in our wedding finery and I felt like a princess. People parted for us to walk by and everyone stopped and stared and clapped for us. I remember lots of little girls telling me how beautiful I looked. We felt like celebrities! It was the perfect day! After the ceremony, we had a spectacular dinner at the Paris Hotel on the very top floor of the Eiffel Tower. I will never forget a single solitary second of that day. I had never been so sure of anything in my life, and I am still sure. Jer is my knight and always will be. At this moment, I can hear him in the living room with Colin while they play. We have come so far in five years....Happy Anniversary, sweet Husband!!

The Countdown Begins...

Colin will be one year old in 10 days. I am finding myself in a suspended state of disbelief. How can these pictures be a year old?!?! That stunningly beautiful little face has been on this earth for a whole year. I am just sitting here...staring at the folder marked "July 2007" and wondering how we got from there to here so fast. I was so scared and excited and dying to meet Colin at this time last year. We had finally scheduled the c-section for Friday, 7/20. Colin had been measuring very large since the start and Dr. White was not comfortable with me trying to deliver him. Colin's head was specifically measuring off the charts and his shoulders were wide...we were nervous about injuring Colin more than me! I had weekly ultrasounds at the end, trying to decide if I could do it. Dr. White felt we should be safer than sorry and so we scheduled the surgery. I love Dr. White...that will be another post...he is amazing. I remember that it felt so good to know the date and that Colin was finally coming! My due date had been 7/28, so the schedule was a week early. I was huge...gigantic. It was so hot and I was so big...I could hardly move at this time last year. My feet were huge and swollen and I decided to take off work that last week before he came. Looking back, it was such a special time. I was supposed to be off my feet and trying to keep my huge baby inside. Instead, I was all over town, buying new towels and sheets for the guest room since we had family coming in. I was in nesting mode to say the least. I remember being at Tuesday Morning and trying to carry all the bags of merchandise to the car. At this stage, I must have looked very close to popping because I got a LOT of worried stares. I remember the check out clerk carried all the bags to my car for me that day...his face clearly showed that he was worried I was going to pass out in the parking lot! I was so full of baby...my stomach was a huge show to watch...there were times Colin would turn over and my whole stomach would shift to one side in a huge peak. I loved trying to freak out Jer by calling him to come look. Colin was also getting the hiccups non-stop at this point. My whole belly would shake with them. Ten days. My baby will be one year old in 10 days. It simply cannot be so.

Colin and the Doggie Door

Now that Colin is mobile, this house is a playground. He followed Enzo when he went outside and decided that he, too, would go out via dog door. He has been obsessed with the door all day long. He would push it open and then laugh and laugh at himself. Here is one more thing I will have to keep an eye on...I can just imagine Colin crawling outside...good lord! :-)

Colin's Big Feet

Colin and I just got back from Stride-Rite. This was a big deal because it was Colin's first time to be officially measured for shoes and his first trip to a real shoe store. Colin has never really worn shoes at all. I have been randomly trying to fit him for sandals on trips to Wal-Mart or Babies R Us and have not succeeded. I bought a couple of pairs of cutesy light weight sandals a couple of months ago, but they either don't fit at all or Colin takes them off in two seconds. He is not a fan of shoes. I realized that I was guessing on the sizes and decided that it was time for a real trip to the shoe store. Colin is walking now and I can't let a barefoot baby out of the stroller anymore!

The trip to the store ended up surprising the heck out of me! Number one is how expensive those shoes were. This is the kind of store that requires we shop the clearance racks. Their shoes were incredibly pricey. However, I am glad we went because the women there were well trained and very helpful regarding shoes for little feet. It was great to finally find out about the size issue. And that brings me to the second big surprise...Colin's feet are way bigger than I thought they were!!! His right foot measured just past a 5 and his left foot measured 5 and a half! And they both measured very wide!!!!! Colin needed a size 6 wide!!!! I would never have imagined that was his size, but it certainly explains why I could never get his feet squeezed into the shoes I was looking at. It was baffling me and I never thought about him needing wide width. So, we bought him a very handsome pair of brown leather sandals made just for new walkers. At first he would not stand on his feet with them on...he kept collapsing to the floor to inspect his feet. By the time we got home, I was able to convince him to take a stroll around the kitchen with me holding his hands. He is totally confused by them, but I am going to make him wear them at least once a day to get used to it. I probably should have had him wearing shoes much earlier, if just to get him used to having something on his feet. Just add that to the list of things I have learned this year!

4th of July Weekend Wrap Up and the BEST DAY!

I can't believe that it is already Sunday night...this holiday weekend went by WAY too fast! My mom and sister Alieson came in on Friday and spent the weekend with us. Our 4th of July was peaceful and uneventful...we took Colin to the pool with his Aunt Alie and had some fun in the sun. Jer made his famous burgers on the grill for dinner and my mom bought our favorite blueberry pies on her way here and we feasted on them all night! My poor dad had to work all weekend long and we missed him. Yesterday we all went to Mercado Juarez for lunch and then drove around looking at houses that none of us can afford. :-) Today....ah today. Today was the single best day that I can remember having in forever. My sweet mother basically kicked me out of the house all day long. I have been needing to run some errands and have been putting them off because they were tough to accomplish with Colin in tow. She told me that she wanted time alone with Colin without me in the way and to get lost. ;-) She even gave me a little stash of spending money as a special present and told me to enjoy myself. I have the greatest mother on the planet. I left the house at 10:30am and headed out. I first parked myself in a bookstore and spent over an hour walking around the entire store, reading the backs of every single book I could get my hands on. The bookstore is sacred ground to me...it is where I find my own inner peace...books as far as the eye can see!! I can't honestly remember the last time I got to mill around a bookstore with no time restraint. I walked each aisle slowly and devoured the experience. I only bought a single book, but it was probably the most therapeutic thing I have done in a year. I left there and headed out to several other shops looking for something cute, comfy and inexpensive to wear to Colin's birthday party. It was wonderful to meander around the stores at my own pace. Typically, I ended up looking at things for Colin instead of me, but it felt like heaven to search slowly through the baby clothes without the little man trying to climb out of his stroller about 30 seconds into the first store. :-) After my shopping trip, I met my sister for lunch at La Madeline, which is one of my favorite places EVER to eat. Then we went together and had...get this...A PEDICURE!!!!!!!!!! I used to get pedi's ever three weeks before I had Colin. I was addicted to them and when we were childless, it was just something I did to unwind from work. I have not had one since the week before Colin was born. It was AMAZING! I did not get home until 3:45!!! I seriously don't think that I needed anything more than the day I had today. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I have not had a day to myself since Colin's birth. I realized today how much I need time for me. It felt so good just to...be. Several hours where I was not watching out for someone else...just existing. I did not realize that I was so tightly wound until I was in that bookstore...and I felt the stress sliding away. I see now that in order to take good care of Colin, I need to take care of me, too. I am going to force myself to take one Saturday or Sunday a month and schedule time for me. At least one afternoon where I can walk around a library or bookstore...just some time to myself to allow my mind to slow down. I don't know really how to put it into words or make sense of what I felt today. It is hard to explain. When you spend all your time taking care of an infant, you are "on" every second. It is wonderful, but exhausting on a level beyond the physical. I did not realize how "on" I had been until I was alone today and was able to turn that off for a few hours. I feel refreshed in a way that sleep does not touch. I can't really think of another way to explain it, but it was amazing. I love my mom so much for taking such good care of me and my family. I would never have been able to justify spending money on a pedicure and she knew that when she gave me the present of today. I love her so much.