A No Good Very Bad Day

Today was a huge disaster of a day. My little man had the worst day he has ever had in his short life! We have been very lucky with Colin...he has never actually been sick. He has had a couple of light colds and teething has been hard on him, but that is all he has had to deal with. Today, my little man felt HORRIBLE. I felt so bad for him! The spots themselves are very small and don't itch, but he was miserable today. He basically cried all day long. He arched his back and screamed every time I tried to put him down for a nap. He ended up getting only about 30 minutes of sleep collectively all day. Nothing seemed to make him happy and he kept walking up to me and laying his head on my shoulder. Poor baby!!! I hate hate hate it when I can't make Colin feel better. It was a long battle of a day and thankfully he went to bed very easily since he was simply exhausted. I sure hope that he feels better tomorrow...it breaks my heart to see my happy little man feeling so yucky!!

Chicken Pox = Boring Weekend

Well, after talking to the nurse at the pedi's office, I am sure that Colin has the chicken pox and I am also sure that we cannot attend the first birthday party of our friend Hayden tomorrow. Although Colin has a light case, he is still contagious to those who have not had the chicken pox or the vaccine. There will be lots of little ones at the party tomorrow, so Colin can't go. Not to mention the fact that our standard afternoon playtime at the pools is also out, since I can't risk Colin spreading it around the kiddos. So it looks like Colin and I are going to have a lovely weekend of itching and watching cartoons. **sigh**

My SUPER AWESOME New Header!

I meant to do this last night, but got sidetracked by the stupid chicken pox. Thanks to WONDERFUL and AMAZING DANA, I now have the skills to put awesome headers on my blog!! I seriously never thought for two seconds that I would be able to do this and thanks to her, I can!! So now Dana has helped me get Colin to sleep through the night and to decorate my blog! YEA DANA! She is also working on her own blog that will be up and running soon, so I will be advertising that for her as soon as she gives me the green light! No pressure or anything. ;-)

Oh, and April...I am going to send you the same instructions that Dana sent me. You will not believe how easy it is!!! :-)

What a Day...

Well, today has been quite a day. My right arm has been bothering me for a couple of days...I figured that I had pulled a muscle and put it out of my mind. Then I noticed while showering that my entire right underarm was swollen and looking generally not good. This freaked me out a bit, so I made a trip to our family doctor to get his opinion. Luckily, it is nothing serious at all. He told me after poking and prodding me to death that it is a serious strain to my something pectoral something or other muscle. And YES, I was paying absolutely no attention to my doctor because Colin was busy trying to open the waste bin with the bright red X's on it. I swear Colin will gladly play with anything that can kill him. So, I pretty much checked out mentally as soon as I heard that I did not have something deadly growing under my arm.

In other bits of insanity, it looks like Colin may be coming down with the chicken pox. I literally cannot believe it. Colin had the vaccine at his 12 month appointment almost two weeks ago. When he got the shots, the pedi warned me that it is a live virus and it is technically possible that Colin could come down with the pox from the shot. Apparently it is rare. Yeah. SO, Jer is giving Colin a bath tonight and calls me in. Sure enough, he has tiny little pink dots springing up. There is one big welt on his leg that I had seen today, but thought was a bug bite. Apparently, it is the damn chicken pox. So, it looks like we get to make an appearance at the doctor in the morning. My poor little man!

Tidbits About a 12 Month Old Colin

Colin loves fruit. He LOVES fruit. He loves oranges (navel and mandarin), watermelon, peaches, plums, honeydew, cantaloupe...loves fruit. His favorites are oranges and peaches. I can always count on him to eat every single piece I give him.

Colin will eat absolutely anything that I place on his tray. Now, he might not love it...it may come back out...he may eat two bites and be done...but he will try anything. And he will try it every single time I give it to him, regardless of the fact that he tried it the day before and did not like it.

Colin thinks that Chickipoo and Fluff are hysterical. They are a short little cartoon that randomly comes on during the day on the Noggin channel. He laughs every time he sees them. And they are not doing anything funny...they just are funny to him. He also thinks that any face I make at him is the funniest thing he has ever seen. He will laugh uncontrollably if I tickle his neck under his ears and chin. He laughs when I come in to get him from his naps...he laughs all the time. He is the happiest little man you ever saw.

He knows immediately if I leave one of the gates open and runs to it with a quickness! He knows that he has to step over the little railing on the floor and he pauses before each gate, puts one chubby little hand on the side railing and carefully steps one foot over and then the next before taking off. I am always right behind him to bring him back to the living room, but I always stop and let him do his little gate steps. This is partially because I think it is good practice to learn to step over things in his way and partially because it is frankly the cutest thing I have ever seen. It gets me every time.

He loves to be out and about. Even during the worst day...no nap, teething hell, after shots...he will cheer up if I take him somewhere. He loves the grocery store and adores the plastic bags for produce. As soon as he sees me tear one off, he starts kicking his legs and clapping. I hand him two of them and he whips them around his face like a crazy man. I am fully aware that other mothers in the store think I am crazy. (I am pretty sure plastic bags are not acceptable baby toys. But I am standing right there! I swear I don't let him take them home!) He thinks it is too funny to whip those babies all over the place. He shows his dimples to anyone who looks at him. And even those that don't. He also loves the pool. We have discovered three pools in our neighborhood with the beach areas and splash parks for the babies. He adores them. I don't know what I am going to do when fall rolls around again.

He adores our mean cat, Ferris Mewler. And Colin is the only member of this family that Ferris does not bite. Colin laid down on top of Ferris yesterday. And not a scratch. Meanwhile I walked past Ferris on the way to write this post and he bit my ankle. Just because.

Colin thinks whole milk is the greatest thing ever. He drinks every single drop I give him every time. He actually gets excited for his bottles now. I hate milk with a passion, so I can say for sure that he got this trait from his father.

I serve Colin his milk warm in a bottle. I wanted to ensure a flawless transition from formula to milk, so I serve it exactly the same way that I served the formula. He loves it so much and I am in no hurry to get rid of those bottles. He drinks his ice water and juice perfectly out of his sippy cups all day long, so it is fine with me if he hangs onto the bottle for some warm milk a few times a day. This is probably different than other moms feel, but it works perfectly for us. The whole "weaning from the bottle" thing is not stressing me out at the moment. Don't worry...he won't be going all "Suri Cruise" and drinking from his bottle at 2 1/2. At least not in front of the paparazzi. ;-)

When Colin is tired, getting rocked, feeling bad, falls down or just plain gets upset, he lays his little head on my left shoulder and wraps his arms around my neck. It is the single greatest thing that ever happens to me. I love that more than words could ever describe. I can smell his baby scent of Johnson's Shampoo and whatever fruit he was last eating with a splash of Goldfish for good measure. If I could bottle that scent, I swear I would.

The Legend of the Chocolate Pie...and the Passing of the Torch

I am going to talk about pie. Yes, pie...chocolate, to be exact. My mother makes a chocolate pie that has become folklore. For those not in my immediate family, you should know that this pie recipe has been passed down in our family for a long time and is the highlight of every single holiday. The whole thing is from scratch, crust included, of course. It would be hard to accurately explain the deep love that my family has for this one single pie. I don't remember a Thanksgiving or Christmas that did not include the pie, although the older we got, the quantity that my poor mother had to make got higher and higher. If I was asked to pick one thing, one object, one memory that would encompass my family, it would simply be two words. Chocolate Pie. The stories are legendary. I grew up in a family of 5 and we did not have much in the way of extended family. The 5 of us were (and are) extremely close and our holidays were amazing. My mom used to attempt to make two pies, but we always ate both in one afternoon. We begged my mom to start making more of the pies and it finally spun out of control into 5 pies...one for each of us. Now, my mother did not need her own pie. No, the 5th pie was for the whole family to eat like normal people and then my sisters, my dad, and I had our own pies to subsequently destroy on our own time table. Sad, but true. One Thanksgiving several years ago, I was home from New York. I was only home for the long weekend and as I was getting ready to go to the airport, I realized that my pie was still over halfway full. Time had gotten away from me and I had not eaten my whole pie. So what did I do? I stood at the island in the kitchen and proceeded to eat the WHOLE pie before I left. My sisters and Dad were all standing around me ranting and I was eating like I was in a contest. I'll be damned if they were going to get my pie! I was physically ill on the airplane (how shocking) but I was so pleased with myself! I told you the pie was serious. My whole family just LOVES to retell that one. Then there was the Christmas that my father took one of the whole pies and HID IT in the top of his closet. During that particular season, we were having trouble keeping track of whose pie was whose, so we were just all eating them like the pack of wolves we are. We finished them all off and were rather distraught over how fast they went. Then all of a sudden, my FATHER appears at the island...eating a PIE! You have never seen a man so proud of himself. Ever since that year, we all go running into my dad's closet to check every nook and cranny for hidden treats. As we got older, we started having boyfriends over during the holidays. That really threw a wrench into things. If a boyfriend wanted to try the pie, they got a piece of your personal pie only. Well, I am sure you can imagine that it had to be pretty damn serious to go that far. I remember my sister Meredith dating one boy that hated chocolate and we all LOVED him. That was the best news we ever got. :-) That same sister has a new boyfriend this year and it is pretty serious. We told him at dinner last month (yes, in June) that if he wanted pie at Thanksgiving, he would have to talk to Meredith. (have I mentioned that marrying into this family is a risk few would want to take??) :-)

So, needless to say, this pie is basically our family crest. My mother finally gave me the recipe a couple of months ago. I had never laid eyes on it before, but she said she was ready to pass it on to me, as the oldest sister. She is officially tired to the bone from making 74 pies per holiday season (I exaggerate only slightly) and this will be my year to step in and if not take over, at least help her. This, my friends, is a huge undertaking that cannot be sneezed at. I decided to give it my first try yesterday. It took me a LONG time (like all afternoon) to make it. And I only made one. However, it is good. REALLY GOOD. It is not as good as my mother's...you know how it is...nothing we ever make is as good as moms. But it is pretty dang good. I feel like I passed a big test at being a mother in my family...it solidifies that I am officially a mommy. I can make the pie!!! I wonder if Colin will love it as much as we do. Probably. He does have my crazy genes running through him, you know.

**edited to add picture of half eaten pie to prove to family that I actually did make it. I swear. :-)

The Bath Series

The cutest baby boy in the world takes a bath. What more can I say about these pictures!?! :-)