A River Runs Through It

We just arrived home from a lovely afternoon at the park. The weather is insanely beautiful today and we had a great time. Colin had fun running in his awesome new sneakers that I bought at Stride-Rite yesterday. He measured for a 6.5 wide width. Colin has HUGE feet. He is getting taller and leaner and his feet are just so big!!

While at the park, we decided to walk through the trails in the woods and came across a stream. I ended up with this shot of Jer and Colin which I think is amazing. You just have to click on it to see it big and up close. I am going to cherish this picture for a very long time.

Running Man!

The high yesterday was in the 60's!!!! Oh, the glory! After lunch I took Colin to one of the parks in our neighborhood and we will be going back there for sure. This one is completely enclosed by a gate and is not too large. It has a basketball court attached to it, which Colin had an absolute blast running around. He loves a new wide open space more than anything! There was a puddle on the court that he stomped in and plenty of room to run. I love the second picture above...I kept trying to take his picture running and that was the best I could get. It really sums up Colin perfectly. :-) I plan to get a ball this weekend that we can take to kick around. I think he would really like that. The brisk temps forced me into putting socks on with Colin's sandals. Not exactly stylish. The tennis shoes that I bought him at Target don't work. They are too bulky and big and hard to walk in. He needs wide width shoes and I am going to have to take time out this weekend to find some good ones for fall. He needs light weight, sturdy shoes with a sole that actually bends, just like his nice sandals. I think I am headed back to Stride-Rite.

I am "SO OLD".

We have had two days of rain here and two days of trying to find fun things to do that don't involve a park. Yesterday Colin slept in until 7:30am (which might as well be noon to us) and therefore took only one nap. I took him to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and to play in their playroom. He is obviously still too small to actually climb in those, but he loves to watch other kiddos. We sat facing the kids and Colin and I shared a lunch. Afterwards we went into the playroom, which is closed off from the dining room. I was the only mom inside and a little boy immediately walked up to me. The following conversation ensued:

Boy: Hi. I'm 5.

Me: Wow! What a big boy!

Boy: My little brother is 3.

Little Brother: I am THREE!! THREE! THREE! THREE!

Me: You are both big boys!

Boy: My mom and dad are getting married. Again. (rolls eyes)

Me: well. that is nice. (shifts in seat)

Boy: You look a lot younger than my mom.

Me: OH. MY. ER.

Boy: How old are you?

Me: I am 31.

Boy: (immediately becomes pale and his jaw slacks to the floor) 31?!?!?! That is SOOO OLD.

Me: I know. It really is.

Boy: Yeah. REALLY.

I laughed almost the whole way home. I especially loved finding out his parents were getting married. Again. ;-)

I HEART NAPS

Naps are my nemesis. Colin has been belligerently tired for days now. He has been crying, fussy, and generally extremely unhappy. This is not like Colin in the least and I have been so worried about him. It seemed that every day without two naps, things just got worse. Yesterday was a particularly rough day with Colin and I both so physically exhausted that the memory of the day is hazy. Today, I woke up on a mission. I decided that Colin was taking a morning nap and I was going to do everything that I could to make it happen. He woke up for the day at 6:20am and I put him down for his nap at 9:00. He protested loudly. I went back in a couple of times to replace his pacifier that he had thrown angrily across the room. After 30 minutes, I took his clean blankets out of the dryer and took them into his crib. It was so funny...he cried for another 30 seconds, realized that I had given him deliciously toasty warm clean blankies, and fell promptly to sleep. He slept for two solid hours. He woke up in a wonderful mood! We had lunch together and got our Monday grocery shopping all done with no problems. Colin was adorable and happy for the whole trip, even back to showing his dimples to anyone who would look at him. We got home and after putting all the groceries away, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try for his regular afternoon nap too. He went right down. I was really blown away. He then slept for almost two more hours. The poor little man was beyond exhausted. After waking up, he was a joy all evening. He let me cook dinner, played with his Daddy and Enzo, and laughed all night long. He ate a nice big dinner, did not cry at all, and then went right to bed at 7:30 0n the dot. So what does this mean? I DON'T KNOW! I am so confused. I just don't know where we are heading with this. I will be putting Colin down again tomorrow for the morning nap on time and play the day by ear. He was obviously in desperate need for sleep. I get the feeling that he is probably going to go back to the old schedule until he is well rested again and then go back to fighting two naps. I guess this will work itself out, but I sure do hope it does not take too long. It is hard to plan our days when I don't know what naps are going to be like, not to mention that when Colin does not nap properly, he is in such a fussy mood that I can't really run errands like I normally would. Not to mention that the poor baby is wearing himself out. I guess time will tell.

A Saturday to Remember!

Today was simply a perfect day. This morning we took Colin out to the Pumpkin Patch and we had a wonderful time. This place was just unbelievable...I ended up with a half ton of pictures. There were hayrides, bounce houses, miles of pumpkins, mazes, food and drinks, and everything from Disney characters to scarecrows to get your picture taken with. It was a beautiful day met with bright sunshine and just the perfect time to play in the pumpkins. We met Colin's Mom Mom and Pop Pop out there and everyone had a good time. Colin was beyond ready for a nap by the time we left and he passed out immediately in the car and slept the whole way home. Here are some of the pictures...there were so many cute ones!!








After a quick trip home, we headed back out for another fall festival. We live next to a tiny town called Roanoke and they had their annual fall festival today. They have one tiny little main street and that was roped off to traffic and they had all kinds of things set up for a fun afternoon. I absolutely adored this and it reminded me of exactly why I love small town Texas. We had corn dogs and funnel cake for lunch and big glasses of the best homemade lemonade you ever tasted. They had all the firetrucks out for the kiddos to look at, as well as live country music, clown shows for the kids, face painting, bounce houses and even water balloon fights. Here is a picture of Colin enjoying his corn dog and our view from the picnic table we were sitting at. I plan to make this a yearly event for us and hope to have many more pictures in the years to come of our Pumpkin Patch/Fall Festival weekends.


As if all of that was not enough, the Fort Worth Air Show was also today. We live very close to the airport and decided to take our lawn chairs out to an empty stretch of land close to our house to watch the Thunderbirds. There is a new subdivision that has the streets paved, but the houses have not been built yet. It literally overlooks Alliance Airport, so it made the perfect vista to enjoy the show. There were loads of our neighbors there with the same idea and there were folks in their chairs and on their tailgates watching the show. The Thunderbirds took our breath away...it was amazing!! I thought Colin might have been scared with all the extremely loud air tricks, but he had a great time. It must be in his blood. :-) That finally concluded our day and Colin is sound asleep now. I can tell you that days like today remind me how very blessed I truly am. Just an amazing day.

Thursday Stuff

I knew that I needed to keep Colin busy this afternoon so that he would not think about being sleepy. I did a good job with that! First, we took a trip to Target to get sneakers and socks with grips for Colin. The mornings are slowly getting cooler in the house as the temps are dropping and I broke out my own house shoes for the first time in months today. The time for socks is growing near! After a fair amount of digging, I found some with grippers at Target and I hope there is enough grip to keep him from falling on all of our laminate flooring. The sneakers are pretty cute, but they don't seem nearly as comfy (obviously) as the expensive sandals that we got from Stride-Rite. Colin wears those everyday and they are so nice. I need to make a trip back there for a fall pair, but I have been holding off to make sure that I get a size that will last through the season.

When Jer got home, we all went back out to get Jer a new pair of dress shoes for work. DSW is right beside Central Market, so we headed over there afterwards for dinner on their patio. It was a special treat with the weather being so nice and Colin really had a great time. They have a great playground that uses torn pieces of tire for the flooring. It is very soft and springy, which is great to avoid injury, but boy was it dirty! Colin did not want to do anything but play in it and his hands were solid black. He then started running around the whole patio, which made several people laugh. One woman stopped me to tell me that Colin looked just like me. I get a lot of that, but I also have people that say he is an even mix of both of us. I always enjoy hearing the different takes people have on that. I think he smiles like I do, which is probably why the woman thought he looked like me last night. Colin and I were both cracking up at the time.

After Colin went to bed, Ellen and I went over to my friend Sally's house to basically watch her set up her garage sale, drink a margarita and rifle through her stuff. I did not get home until after 11pm, which is really late for me. I feel a bit like I snuck out of the house. :-)

Naps Continued...

I need to send out a great big thank you for all the comments about the naps. I find it incredibly helpful!!!! After hearing from you all, I see that Colin is right on track with the timing of losing the second nap. I have been really nervous to start the schedule change officially, but I see that it is time and I need to go ahead and follow his cues. Yesterday was the same pattern...he showed signs of being tired, but when put in his crib for the first nap, he refused to sleep. After an hour of playing in the crib, I took him back out. He was awake for maybe two hours and then finally passed out for an afternoon nap that was one hour long. Once again he had a fussy night and went to bed shortly after 7pm. Today I waited until about 10:15 to put him down. (the normal morning nap starts at 9:00). I rushed to take a shower thinking that he would probably not go down, but after 30 minutes of crib play, he did finally go to sleep. He slept until 11:45. I doubt that he will take a second nap, which will mean a fussy evening. Tomorrow I think I will attempt to push the nap until after 11:00am. If he could get two hours, I know he will be less upset in the late afternoon. I am going to try an hour of quiet crib time this afternoon and hope he will relax for a bit at least. Do you all have crib toys? Colin sleeps with two small stuffed animals. Maybe I should add a couple of toys in there to encourage quiet play. What do ya'll think?

We are also dealing with what I suppose is separation anxiety. Colin has stopped allowing me to put him down at all anymore. I can't decide if this is from being tired or not...but I cannot let go of him without major tears. He will walk around me crying the entire time I am trying to make dinner. The entire time. Jer usually gets home when I am finishing up dinner and Colin would play with him while I got everything done. Now he won't even do that...he simply wants me and that is it. In a complete show of desperation, I opened the back door last night and left it wide open while I made mashed potatoes. Colin was pleased as punch to step up and down from the house to the patio and it gave me a brief reprieve to finish my task. There were 10 flies to kill once I got the door shut, but I swear it was worth it. :-)