The State of the Household Address

Get ready for some very random bullets of assorted stuff that I want to remember but let pile up before writing them here. Is that a run-on sentence? :-)

* Summer is HERE. EARLY. Sort of. Maybe it is always this hot in early June and I mentally block it out. Anyway, the last two weeks have been brutally hot and humid. Our outdoor activities officially must involve a pool or I will melt.

* I took Colin to the BEST place yesterday...a giant "rainforest" pool for little children. It was an enormous pool surrounded by beach entry with a depth of no more than Colin's waist at it's deepest point. It was full of water cannons, slides, and a huge playground in the water. We have been to places like this before, but this one is cheap (kids 3 and under are free!) and the whole rainforest park is surrounded by a fence, so the kids can't run to a deeper pool. I was able to sit with all of my friends on the beach and watch the boys at the same time. We had a picnic there and stayed for a long while. It was a blast and probably the best outdoor activity we have found for summer, without a doubt. I did not get any pictures, which I am not happy about!

*At the water park, Colin stuck to the grown-ups like glue. He loved the water, but the big park was a new experience and therefore he stuck close to me. He gleefully hung all over my friend Kim the entire time. Her son Hayden was a rock star going down the little twisty water slide and Colin stood at the bottom cheering for him for the longest time. After he would come down, Colin would clap and yell and then announce, "GO AGAIN, HAYDEN!". It was so adorable. His favorite activity of the day was using buckets to dump water over our heads. It was a very wet afternoon!

* It is hard to find the right words to explain how much I love Colin's personality. He is just so funny and adorable and interesting, all at the same time. He still takes his time to warm up to new places and likes to absorb a new situation before he ventures away from me. He still does not like the innate and normal roughness of children his age, which can be trying at times. However, he loves people. It doesn't seem to make sense, but while he can seem easily overwhelmed and shy, he also loves to grab the attention of others. When at the grocery store (or anywhere, really), when someone passes by he says, "Hello!" and waves and smiles. Once someone directs their attention toward him, he goes into full performance mode, trying to make them laugh or engage them in conversation. He tells knock knock jokes at the barber shop, formally introduces himself to the teenagers bagging groceries at Albertson's and asks everyone, "What's your name?". I love it. He is also oddly polite! He loves to thank people and does it at the cutest moments..."Thanks for opening my door, Thanks for driving me home, Thanks for my apple juice". He catches me off guard several times a day. When we left the grocery store yesterday afternoon, I said "Colin, you were such a good helper at the store" and he replied with "Oh, thanks Mommy!". I absolutely adore this!!

*Colin is a pretty demanding little man these days to say the least. He asks a LOT of questions. A LOT. In fact, he questions literally every word that comes out of my mouth and everything he sees. While driving, he talks the entire time about every bird, truck, sign and so forth. He asks what everything is, but does not stop with just hearing the answer. He will ask why until you don't know what to say anymore! :-) This has been going on for several months already, which seems really early and caught me off guard more than any other parenting issue that has come up. He has already asked me where babies come from!!!! My totally impromptu response for that was "Ummmm....errrrr......well....God makes babies!". Since that day, he questions me frequently about God and what he makes and doesn't make, where he lives and why we can't see him. He wants to touch and see everything. If I make pasta for dinner, he wants to see the box and touch the dry noodles. If I pour apple juice or cereal, he asks his patented "Can I see it?" and when shown, he always says "OOOOOHHHH!". He asks a lot about work and jobs. After sending dad off to work one day recently, he asked me what my job is. I said that my job was to take care of Colin. A couple of days later after Jer left the house, Colin said matter-of-factly, "I wish Daddy could be a Mommy for work like you." Nothing gets by this kid! He has now started insisting on climbing into his own carseat, which takes forever. If you try to hurry him along with anything he wants to do himself (which is everything), you will not stop hearing about it, so I try to be patient. :-)

*We had our first big playdate here at the house with all of Colin's friends last week. He was so excited that he nearly lost his mind. He screamed every time the doorbell rang! He gave tours of the house, and basically ran around like a lunatic the entire time. He did a pretty good job of sharing his stuff, considering it was the first time he has had friends over. He has not stopped talking about how "all my buddies came to my playroom!" and he will randomly show me a toy and tell me that "Hayden loved this" or "Jack thinks this is cool". He continues to be utterly in love with all of the babies, who are now all around 14 months old and have little patience for Colin trying to drag them across the room. HA! He tries to hug them and is too rough, so I have to pay pretty close attention.

* I am trying very hard right now to work on Colin's extremely dramatic reactions. He overreacts to just about everything that does not go his way, from not being able to get his shoe off to a crayon rolling out of reach. He hates it when he can't get things right immediately and will quickly cry and say "I can't DOOOOO it, Mommy!"...this is a tough one for me! I spend extra time explaining things like practice and patience, but this is a hard lesson to learn. I often find myself telling him that some things are just not a big deal and not to sweat the small stuff. I wonder if he will outgrow this or if he will be this easily exasperated when he is in school. We shall see.

And so ends yet another long post full of things I have been meaning to make note of. I will end with a picture of my very dramatic and absolutely wonderful little man. He is my sunshine. :-)