Aubrey's First Birthday!

Our very good friends Ellen and Wes invited us to their daughter Aubrey's first birthday party today and we had a blast! Ellen and I were pregnant together with our precious babies and I cannot believe they are both one now. It just blows my mind. I took several pictures of the festivities. Aubrey looked adorable in her pink tutu! Colin was a handful and a half, let me tell you. Aubrey is much smaller than Colin and not running around like he is, so their home is not quite baby proofed just yet. In other words, Ellen has a ton of beautiful things that I was scared to death Colin was going to destroy. I spent the whole time running after him watching his every move! Not to mention that it took everything I had to keep him from opening her presents for her. :-) The first picture below is Aubrey opening our present to her.

Here is Ellen and Aubrey with all their "helpers", including Colin.

The only way we were finally able to get Colin out of the presents!


The beautiful little birthday girl!


Last but not least, Colin in the middle of Aubrey's awesome loot! He was wearing out at this point!

We had such a wonderful time and were so happy to be included on the big day. We are so lucky to have such great friends.

CHEAP DIAPER RANT!

I have used several different kinds of diapers since Colin was born...everything from Pampers to Huggies to Luvs. I have had my favorites that work the best for Colin (Pampers Cruisers seem to be the most comfortable and best protection) as well as the more economical (Luvs is a savings and works just fine!). I usually just buy the box that I have the best coupon for. A few days ago, we all went to Sam's and as I was picking up a box of Pampers, I spied their store brand of diapers. They were for sale for 176 diapers for $32. I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy them...the savings is just fantastic and I decided that there was no need to be a diaper snob. I learned today that I was TOTALLY wrong and being a diaper snob is completely justified. These diapers are WORTHLESS. I just started the pack and the elastic is a joke, there is no elastic at the tabs, and they feel cheap. All of that is the good news. This afternoon, Colin had poop come out both legs all over him, his clothes and me. This is after two weeks of horrible diarrhea with no accidents at all to one small regular poop oozing out the sides. You have got to be kidding me. We have never had an accident like that in 14 months and two days of the cheap diapers and I have poop all over me. LOVELY. I now have a ton of diapers that I can't use. Lord knows that I am not risking it again. These stupid things have just been relegated to my "in case of emergency" pile. I figured that I would post this for the good of my friends who might be considering trying them. DON'T! UGH!!

A Picnic on the Square

We have had quite a day today! Colin woke up for the day at 3:45 am. Yes, you heard me correctly. I tried desperately to get him back down...everything from bottles to rocking to getting in bed with me (which, for the record, he is never willing to do!) He finally went back down for a nap at 8:00am, so we were off for the whole day. I decided that we needed to get out and about after such a mess of a morning, so we headed out for another picnic. Colin really seems to enjoy the outdoors now that the weather is nicer and he just adores getting to run around new places. We get such a kick out of spending our afternoons this way and it is such an economical way to have a good time. I just pack a lunch for us and we hit the road. He loves to run around and he gets all the pent up energy out from just hanging out in our living room. I have decided that this will be my little tradition with Colin...picnics together just the two of us. I think it will be fun to make a memory out of these days together and make the picnics our tradition that can stay with us long after he is in school and I am working. We both felt very refreshed afterwards and Colin took a nice nap when we got home, which helped me a great deal. Who knows where we will end up tomorrow! The pictures were taken today, including the silly one of me holding the camera out. I never get pictures with my little man! So take it for what it's worth! ;-)

You Knew It Had To Happen...

I should have known...he was WAY too quiet. I made pan fried pork loin chops for dinner tonight. I had two paper plates on the counter with flour and breadcrumbs. Colin was playing with the stuff from his "safe" cabinet on the kitchen floor and I turned my back to him to put the chops in the pan. I was also sauteing spinach at the same time and had my back turned for a good couple of minutes. Jer walked in the back door and said "Uh...Mom...I think Colin is helping you cook". I turned around and there was Colin with the paper plate on the floor and sitting in flour. I knew something was strange since Colin did not start yelling for his Daddy when he heard the garage door. Apparently flour piles trump Daddy. :-)

I almost felt bad cleaning him up...he was having so much fun in that flour! You would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He was also very proud of himself. The lessons that I learned from this? 1. Colin can reach anything within 6 inches of the edge of the counter tops. 2. Thank the lord above that I took the lazy way out and used the paper plate for the flour.

Have I mentioned that Colin is into everything? Enjoy the lovely pictures. :-)

A Picnic in the Park

Colin and I had a wonderful afternoon today! I packed a lunch for us and we went to the park for a picnic and some play time. We luckily snagged the table under the trees which overlooks a giant sandbox. Colin watched several little boys making huge piles of dirt while we ate our lunch. He was dying to get out of his stroller, so after we ate I took him out and sat him down on the pavement. He took off! I literally had to chase him with the stroller to keep up with him. At first I was close to having a heart attack with the fear that he was going to fall and skin his knees, but I finally realized that he was fine and I let him just walk where he wanted to.

Colin is growing so fast...the last three times that I took him to this park, he was not ready to take off like that. He stuck close to me and did not run off at all. Today, he was ready to roll!

HALLOWEEN COSTUME IS OFFICIAL!

I have been trying to decide on a costume for Colin for some time now and have been completely torn. Halloween in Texas is much more likely to be 80 degrees than cold and all the adorable costumes that I wanted for Colin are heavy and furry with head pieces. There is not a chance in hell that Colin will allow something on his head and if he feels hot or uncomfortable, Halloween will be a wreck. So I have held back in ordering anything. I finally figured it out tonight and purchased Colin's costume!!! He is going to be a little doctor!! OH, THE CUTENESS! I found little blue scrubs that are exactly like the real ones!! On top of that, they are embroidered with "Dr. Colin"!!!!!!!! I stumbled on them in one of my catalogs and they are not actually a costume, but they will be perfect! I am going to get one of those doctor kits so that he can have a stethoscope and the whole nine yards. I can layer long underwear under them if it does turn out cold, but they are light and perfect if it is warm. And he can continue to wear them as comfy pj's afterwards, so the money spent will go to more uses than just Halloween. I am so excited!! I plan to go out this week and look for a pair of scrubs for myself that match and see about getting mine embroidered with "Dr. Mama". I spoke to my family and it looks like my nephew Jackson may get matching ones, too! How cute will we all be?!?! :-)

SHAPES!

Now that Colin is such a big guy, he no longer enjoys merely sitting on his cute "shapes" flooring that I laid down last winter. Lately he has been pulling all the shapes out and thus creating plenty of places to trip and fall. We decided to retire it as flooring and make it into big cubes. Jer made a cute fort out of it (while informing me that boys love forts) and Colin has been playing with them ever since. Those cut-outs are all over my already toy filled little house and I am pretty sure they are going to drive me crazy, but Colin loves them. I think I need a new house for Colin's stuff alone.

I have also been meaning to make a note of how fat my silly dog is now. Jer took him to the vet for his shots and he has gained 3 pounds!! He went from 16 to 19 pounds since Colin started eating finger food that he drops to Enzo. NICE. :-)