The Final Chapter Begins!

I finished the third book last night and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!! I loved loved loved it!!!!!! This was easily my favorite so far...I love the story of the wolves and the vampires and I literally could not put the book down. I am chomping at the bit to see what happens!!! I just bought the final book and I am a little sad..it is almost over! I seriously don't remember the last time I was obsessed with a set of characters like I am with these. I won't start writing away about everything I would like to talk about since some folks who read this may not want spoilers, but MAN!! Hello Jacob!?!? I can't wait to see what happens!!!!! :-)

My house is a total disaster and the pile of laundry is as tall as I am. I must not start reading this book until tonight...I must do laundry while Colin naps. Do you think I can read and sort at the same time? HA!

Blue Cars and Broken Thumbs

Well, date night was wonderful...we ended up staying closer to home and eating at one of our favorite Mexican places in Southlake. It is the kind of place that always has a wait and never works with a toddler in tow. Needless to say, it was amazing. We waited 40 minutes for our table and then we sat and drank margarita's and ate guacamole and queso...without ordering our food! We actually waited! Oh, the novelty! :-) Our dinner turned out amazing and we even shared dessert. We had a wonderful time actually enjoying our food for a change. It was a much needed night out!


Now for the ridiculous part...I slammed my thumb in the car door when we got home. The damn thing is now broken. Yes, only I could fracture my thumb on date night. We were in Jer's two door sports car, which I never ever ride in, and I guess the different weight of the door was too much for me. I am such a rock star, let me tell you. I ended up at Care Now on Sunday morning and now it is purple, black, peeling, gross and hurts like hell. Lovely. I don't recommend taking care of a toddler with broken digits. Only me. ;-)


To end my little update, I have some pictures of Colin from our walk this evening. I took him around the block in his blue car and once we were a couple of blocks from home, he decided he wanted to walk. Immediately. I was nervous, but he was such a big boy about it! I told him that we had to always walk on the sidewalk and he had to stay next to Mama. He did it! We walked all the way home together and I was so proud! Here he is just being super adorable:


Checking things "under the hood". ;-)

Heading out! Honk honk!!

19 Months Old!

Colin Dickson is 19 months old today! He is such a big guy! We had a great day together running errands and playing. It took me two stops, but I finally bought book three, Eclipse, and I am looking forward to reading a little bit tonight. I went to Wal-Mart and Target today, yet still managed to forget eggs. Why must I always forget at least one important thing every single time I go to the store?!? While that adds little to the value of this post, I thought you should know. :-)

Colin is currently obsessed with cats. He absolutely adores them. He now finds them everywhere...regardless of what book we are reading, if he spies a cat in the illustrations, he yells, "KITTY!!!!!". He laughs and points and starts jumping up and down, which ruins the story being read, but is still adorable. He shouts kitty whenever he sees one on TV and also when he lays eyes on Ferris Mewler. Ferris now uses it as a warning...when Colin yells kitty, Mr. Mewler takes off. I wish we could get another cat for him...one that is nice and allows actual physical contact, which Ferris Mewler is vehemently opposed to. I doubt that will happen anytime soon...our two pets are plenty for this household. Tomorrow is Jer's birthday and I am very happy to announce that we are actual having DATE NIGHT!!!!! Aunt Alie is coming to keep Colin and we have big plans for dinner and a movie. The evening is Jer's choice and tonight he decided that he really wants to head into Dallas to eat at our all time favorite Thai place. I am beside myself with excitement...our favorite food eaten in normal time without fear of a toddler meltdown. This is very exciting!

I would also like to add that February is the month of birthdays for people I love. It is really rather annoying. It makes me feel like the black sheep. ;-) I celebrate a lot in February. My twin sisters are the 8th, mom is the 12th, dad is the 16th, Jer is the 21st, brother-in-law is the 28th, and Kate and Carson are also the 12th. So here is one great big happy birthday to all you crazy people! I love you!!!

Gymboree!!

I have been living like a hermit now for over a month...since Colin has been all over the map with sleep, I have been avoiding taking him to any morning activities. I am always so concentrated on naps that I don't want to risk him falling asleep in the car (which destroys all hope for a legit nap) or worse yet, having a sleepy man tantrum wherever we are going. It hit me this morning that despite us staying home and me being the nap nazi, Colin is still not sleeping any better at all. I decided that I need to try a different approach all together. We need to live our lives, Colin needs to play with other kids, and we basically need to get out of this house and do things. So I went totally out of my comfort zone. I let Colin destroy the inside of my closet so that I could brush my teeth and hair and put on a small amount of actual make-up. I tucked him into the car and we headed out to attend our first and long awaited Gymboree class. The class is a Christmas present from Shannon and the twins...easily the best present of the season! We have been trying to start for literally weeks, with me postponing it every time due to naps. I called on my way (I was not going to take no for an answer) and told them we would like to sign up at the last minute for today's class. They said it was no problem, so we made it there about 15 minutes early for the 9:30 class. There was a good bit of confusion...we ended up attending the play class for 10 - 16 month olds. OOPS. The woman at the front desk was not the sharpest tool in the shed and failed to direct me to the right place. It was funny...I knew Colin was WAY older than the kids playing and figured we were just waiting for music class to start, since we were early. Nobody ever came to get us, so we attended the whole wrong class. We worked it out afterwards with the woman apologizing profusely to me and (obviously) not counting the class as one of his four music classes. So we basically got a free morning of play time including awesome bubbles and toys. Colin was not broken up about it. ;-) He had a blast even though he was a little tired. He loves the bubbles so much...that was also his favorite part of Gabby's party at The Little Gym. We are going to start music class next Friday morning at 10:30. There are more kids in that class and Miss April, the teacher, said she thought Colin would have a good time. I am very excited to try that one. I think we will start keeping up with these classes and try everything, including Kindermusik. Colin needs the interaction and the different environment, as do I! We will be heading to the park today to complete our fun filled day together...we make a very good team!

Oh, and sadly, there are no pictures from Gymboree this morning. Although I don't recall Colin having access to it at all, the camera has gone into the black toddler hole. I will find it....hopefully soon. I just need to start thinking of places that I would never think of. Ha!

Also, I finished "New Moon", book two of the Twilight series. I personally thought that Bella was rather annoying in this book and I am looking forward to a new path in book three. I did remind myself that the character is 17, but could she have been more melodramatic? Anyway, I will have the next book shortly! :-)

Creative Title Goes Here.

Happy Valentines Day, President's Day, and any other assorted holiday I might have missed over the last few days. Colin is having a really hard time right now...he woke up today at 4:16am. I have tried everything under the sun to help him including putting him to bed earlier, later, trying to get two naps, one nap, everything. This has been going on for several weeks now on and off, but the last week has been especially bad. Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that Colin has a hard time with sleep. Routine has been key and he seemed "cured" of his problems from 11 - 18 months. It feels almost like a switch was turned at that 18 month point and I can't figure out how to fix it again. I know I need him back in a routine, but I can't seem to find the sweet spot again that equals Colin sleeping past 4:15. The weight of this issue feels like it is pushing at me constantly...like Colin is begging me to help him and I don't have the answers that I should. I feel that I should be able to help him...I am his mommy, that is my job! I know I will figure it out, I just have to be patient. The poor little man is so tired!

I am behind on posting again...mainly because when Colin is in a sleep pattern like this, it is crucial that I try to get some rest while he is sleeping. Therefore, no posts, no return emails or phone calls...this is when I know that all my friends and family start to wonder if we are alive. :-) I promise that I am okay...just worn out. I have been feeling pretty down for the last couple of days...when I get truly exhausted, I start to think that I am failing at juggling everything. I wonder if people in the "outside world" understand what my life is like. Then, I spotted this article on a friends Facebook page. I had to post it...it gave me chills. I have never read anything in my life that more accurately describes what it is like to be me. I know that all of my precious friends will appreciate this the way that I do. Click on the picture to make it large enough to read.

I really wish that I could wrap my arms around Carolyn and hug her until it hurts. I feel like I should pin this article to my shirt. These last few picture are of Jeremy in Jolly Old England. It almost impossible for me to be more jealous of him. :-)

The End

I finished Twilight. I am FORCING myself not to go to Target right now and get the next one. This way I can actually sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I buy it. HA! :-)

Colin slept until 7am this morning, breaking his week long run of 4:30 wake-up times. I sure hope that he does it again tonight. I am worried it was a fluke simply because he had exhausted himself. Jer was so sweet this morning....I shot out of bed to the sound of Colin crying and immediately felt too rested. I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 7:00. The room was dark and Jer was already gone. He got ready for work in the dark, skipped coffee and breakfast, and even left without getting his lunch out of the fridge...all in the hopes that Colin and I would stay asleep and get much needed rest. I have a wonderful husband!

I will not go to Target, I will not go to Target, I will not go to Target.... hehehehe!

Of Books and Twilight

I did it. I finally broke down and started reading "Twilight". I have been hearing about this book from everyone under the sun for what feels like years now and I have resisted. To be totally honest, I am a bit of a book snob. I simply refused to start reading this book on principle alone. It can be purchased in the teen girl section of Barnes and Noble for heavens sake. I was never ever going to start reading this series. I am 31 years old...it is not like I have any plans to start reading Sweet Valley High again, so lord knows I was not going to start Twilight. The message board that I haunt has whole threads dedicated to this book and still I remained unconvinced, although I stayed away from them to avoid spoilers, just in case. I keep trying to think of a way to put this that does not sound awful, but I really just assumed that people who liked this series were either teen girls or grown women who don't read much. Or like Harlequin romance with extra large print. Or both. :-)

Well, if someone would like to hand me a crow, I will go ahead and start eating it. I was utterly and completely wrong. The only reason I gave it a shot was Dana...she is one of the smartest women I know and if she liked it, I knew there was something to the hype. I was in Barnes and Noble on Sunday, enjoying my first trip to a bookstore alone in ages. Jer was watching Colin and I treated myself to a long stroll around the store which is one of my all time favorite things to do. I was reading the back of every book I saw when I came to the display of Twilight. I debated it the whole time I was there...I kept eyeing it, slowing down and looking, then speeding up and walking away. I picked up several other books to buy and kept putting them back down for one reason or another. I started debating with myself internally (which is my worst habit and is also the reason that I can't fall asleep at night) about why I should just go ahead and try it versus following my instinct that I would hate it. I was also more than a little embarrassed to actually buy it. Finally I decided that I was being a great big idiot and that the shiny black book with the bright red apple was too much to resist. I bought it, took it home, and waited three days to start it. Last night Jer got on the elliptical, so I decided to just glance at the first page. I proceeded to read for more than three hours. The book is amazing and simple and wonderful all at the same time.

Once I start a book, I can't stop. Even mediocre books must be finished immediately. I read like I am watching a movie...sit down, read the whole thing, be done. I have always been this way with reading. When I start a book, the book is my life. As a child, I would stay in my room for days on end reading. On family vacations, I would climb into the very back of the station wagon, tucked in between suitcases and pillows, and read the whole way to our destination. Before I had Colin, I would stay up almost all night on the weekends and finish a full book in 24 hours with ease. I used to sit in a lawn chair on my patio with the outdoor spotlight aimed over my shoulder, reading into the wee hours. Since becoming a mother, I have had to do a make-over on my reading style. Obviously, I have to get sleep. I have to be able to read for an hour and then put the book down on the nightstand. This is very hard for me. It is so hard, in fact, that I often put off starting a book because I know the power it has over me. This is exactly why I waited to start Twilight...Colin has been waking up at 4:30am again, and I am tired in my bones. Sure enough, I can't put the book down. I am intrigued by how much I love it...I just can't seem to wait for where these characters are going. I have to know what is next! I don't have time to read four huge books back to back. Which is exactly what is about to happen. This is all your fault Dana. :-)