Sore Throats and Bounce Houses

Well, I feel like hell in a hand basket. UGH. Last night my throat was scratchy and then I woke up at 3:00am feeling horrible. My throat is on fire. FIRE. This cannot be stressed enough. I was just bragging to Jer a few days ago about how well I have been lately. There goes that! Colin then chose today of all days to end his long nap streak. Of course. :-) I am pretty sure that I caught this lovely bug at one of our kid outings last week. I have extremely bad luck with any illness incubating in a toddler. I get sick whenever I get around large groups of kids. I need some kind of vaccine to hang out with kids under 5 years old. I sincerely hope that I feel much better tomorrow.

I took Colin to another bounce house place today (I know, sucker for punishment right here) and he had a good time. This place only had bounce houses and no other forms of entertainment, so Colin got bored with it pretty quickly. I was hoping he would bounce off some energy while I sat quietly in a chair, but that is not exactly how things worked out. He kept coming over and pulling my shorts in an effort to make me play. After chasing him through a couple of giant bounce mazes, I felt worse and decided to call it a day. We came home and had a quiet dinner and he still seems to feel okay for the time being. I sure hope he does not get this, too!

We had dinner at Jer's parents house last night and we had a great time. Colin loves to play with the weenie dogs and most especially with his grandmother's beautiful piano. She always puts him in her lap to bang the keys, but for the first time yesterday he picked out single notes instead of just banging the whole time. I have, of course, decided that makes him a genius. :-) Jer's mother is a very gifted concert pianist, so maybe Colin inherited that gene. I suppose we shall see...I took piano lessons for two years before deciding to quit at the ripe old age of 12. Let's hope he has her initiative and not mine! :-) Here are a couple of pictures from the afternoon:

Paradise Pond!

We had a wonderful play date with Dana and Gabby yesterday...I am pretty sure it was the most fun that Colin has ever had. We went to Paradise Pond at the First Baptist Church in Grapevine. They have a huge gymnasium sized building dedicated to this and it was only $1 per person!!! They had everything from giant bugs and dinosaurs (Colin's favorite) to a dress-up room filled with super hero and princess costumes. There were train and truck rooms, Lego rooms, a whole grocery store filled with plastic food and shopping carts, a huge floor to ceiling play center with gigantic slide and the famous bounce house. We almost did not get Colin out of the bounce house...I have never seen him so excited about something! He and Gabby ran around for the entire two hours (they are open from 9 -11am) and wore themselves completely out. They spent a good deal of time in the "grocery store" putting things in and out of their carts. It was utterly adorable. They only take the first 100 kids in the door, which is great because it does not get too crowded. However, you really have to be there when the doors open!! Dana and I were on time and got in with no problem, but her friend Melody and her son Luke were only about 15 minutes late and did not get in!! I will certainly remember that next time and be sure we are always early. It is SO worth it! We will be going next week for SURE. Afterwards we all met Melody and Luke for lunch on Main Street in Grapevine. Colin was super hungry and worn out by this time, but he still managed to stay awake until we got home. Granted, this included me leaning back to tickle his feet with one hand and drive with the other, but we got home in one piece. ;-) Colin took a gigantic 2.5 hour nap and was happy for the rest of the day. What fun!!!

Here is Colin with the lovely spider. That bin of giant bugs was right up his alley!

Colin and Gabby playing in the grocery store. They LOVED this!!

The two munchkins playing with the magnet sticks. Good times!!

BOUNCE!!!!!

I will be doing a longer post this evening about the greatness that was our playdate with Gabby, but here is a video preview. These two were born to bounce. :-)

A Good Day!

Colin and I have had a great day! We had lunch with Melissa at Central Market and managed to have a good time despite the 4 million children that were there. Spring Break around here is insanity. It was so good to see her!!! I miss my girls!!!

Colin took A NAP today!!!!!! A long glorious nap. It was a beautiful thing. If the key is having lunch with Melissa, then she is moving in. ;-) I was forced to hire a mowing service to come take care of the lawn since it was looking like a jungle and Jer is still weeks away from being home. I set it up a few days ago and you know they showed up the second I got Colin down for his nap. I had to laugh at the irony of my life. The good news is that they were so fast that I blinked and it was over!! They took care of the whole yard before Colin could even realize they were there. It was seriously impressive. I called Jer to talk his ear off about it and I am pretty sure he thinks I am on something. But it really was insane. Hired help is a damn fine thing.

Our busy week continues tomorrow with a special playdate with Dana and Gabby. I am really happy that Colin has gotten some good sleep. He should be in great spirits in the morning and I should have more adorable pictures to post. Everybody wins! :-)

F I N A L L Y !!!

It is about time! This evening Colin and I had the pleasure of hanging out with our friends Kimberly and Hayden. It is almost sad to admit, but this was the first time that we have actually met in person. Kimberly is a member of the message board that I joined back when I was expecting Colin. I found out (forever ago!) that she lived close by and she recommended that I join the playgroup that she was a member of. I joined the group, yet still we did not meet. I have been following her blog for ages and I feel like we have been friends for a long time, but no meeting! So FINALLY we got together this evening with Kimberly, Hayden, her sweet mom, friends Laura and Crystal and their little girls. We all met at Life's A Beach and proceeded to have a great time. Hayden is the blondest little blue eyed thing you ever saw...I could just eat him up!! Colin was not himself at first due to missing his nap today, but after he ate dinner he perked right up. He is still not a fan of the sand, but once he found the grassy area, he was pleased as punch!! Our group had four toddlers the same age and they really had a great time chasing each other around. I was so glad to see Colin enjoy himself and it reminds me that I need to make a real effort to make it to more play dates. What a great evening!! Here are a few pictures...I had a hard time getting any of them to stay still for two seconds, but at least I got a few action shots! Here are the boys strolling around:

Tell me this is not toddler mania?! :-) I love the look on Colin's face.

Super cute buddies!!

Lucky Day!

First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Spring is my second favorite season, only topped by fall. The weather is fantastic here and it is the perfect time to play outside. St. Patty's Day has always reminded me that winter is over and good times are on the way!

Second of all, I love Central Market with all my heart and soul. Seriously. I love this place. It is no secret that I am a foodie, therefore Central Market is the place of dreams for me. I have been shopping there for delicious treats since we lived in downtown Dallas. My love goes deeper now, because it is the best place to shop with Colin. I took him yesterday and we had such a great time.

Upon arrival, a sweet man greeted Colin as always with a balloon. He tied it on the cart and Colin was beside himself with glee over this floating piece of goodness attached to his ride. We went straight into Colin heaven, otherwise known as the fruit section. There are few things in the world that Colin loves more than fruit. Hopefully that includes me, but I can't be totally sure. ;-) Anyway, at Central Market they have fresh samples of every fruit under sun always out for tasting. Colin ate himself silly on everything he could get his hands on. It should also be noted that we have thrown away 10 lbs (no exaggeration, they were 5 lb boxes) of tangerines and oranges lately. Once home, the fruit was horrid and looked like a raisin on the inside. Lovely. But not at Central Market!!! We bought tons of fruit there that was the sweetest, freshest stuff you have ever tasted. After eating 6 tangelos with Colin within 24 hours, I have decided to make more trips there if only for the fruit. It really makes me wonder where the hell Wal-Mart was getting those horrible tangerines from. But I digress. Colin had such a good time tasting all the yummy foods that I have now promised myself to go there weekly for fruit and a fun outing with Colin. I am very glad to know that my son is obviously a toddler foodie just like his mama. ;-)

Lastly, in other silly news, Colin has taken his nap on me for the past two days. As in laying on top of me on the couch. This is a weird one, even for Colin! I tried very hard today to get him in bed, but after several attempts and a lot of crying, I gave in and he slept on me instead. This really can't happen...the only things that get done around here get done during his nap. I am not sure what is going on other than possibly teething and the fact that we took a short weekend trip to Tyler that seemed to mess with his schedule. Hopefully he will shake it off tomorrow. I sincerely hope so, since we have scheduled activities planned for the next four days! I can't be a body pillow very often. I will say that despite not getting one thing done for the past 48 hours and a very sore back and neck, it is a pleasure to have a sweet smelling angel faced baby boy sleeping soundly on you. Every now and then. I mean, he is really cute. Just look at him, for heavens sake!

OF COURSE!

Things have been very quiet here this week! My mom was here Sunday through Wednesday and it was so great to have her! Their Spring Break was this week, so we got some great Mimi time. We ran errands and just hung out, which was such a treat. I purchased two outdoor chairs from Lowe's for the patio...Colin played in the yard non-stop this week. We had thrown away our old chairs, so I spent three solid days sitting on my butt on the cement. That had to stop! I am also going to look at a sandbox and some type of swing set to put in the backyard. We have never spent time out there, but Colin is all about it now. In fact, the cold front that came through yesterday has been a major problem! He stands at the back door hollering to go out. I have explained that it is cold and raining now, but he does not seem to care. :-) I would also love to extend our tiny little patio, but I need to do some pricing. We shall see!

Colin has started changing in warp speed...all kinds of new things are happening here. He has started saying "Of course", which is too cute for words. It comes out "AH KORST!". This is the cutest thing I have ever heard! He says "okay" and tells me "no" while shaking his head. When I tell him it is time to run an errand, he gets his shoes, sits down, hands them to me and says, "SHOOSE!!". Last night during his bath, I asked him if his toes were clean. He looks up at me and says, "TOS KEEN!!". I did not think it was possible for him to get cuter, but he has!! :-)

We went to a mommy playgroup meeting today at the Northeast Mall. Since it is cold and rainy, they scheduled a meetup at the kids play area in the mall and it was so much fun. I joined another group that is closer to us and the ladies were VERY nice. Colin had several kids there to play with and it felt great to have some adult conversation...even if we did only talk about the kids. ;-) I met four moms who live in my same neighborhood!! It was a great morning all the way around!