THE BIG BOY BED

I could not be happier about this post...Colin is officially sleeping in his awesome new big boy bed!! WOW. I feel like a new woman, let me tell you!! Here is the long and short of it:

Jer was off on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. He went ahead and broke down the crib and converted it into the full size bed on Wednesday evening. I, of course, was an emotional wreck about it. I sat in his room for a good while trying to memorize what it looked like with his crib there. Since Colin has not slept in the crib for more than a month now, it was not as hard as it probably would have been otherwise. I had already started the letting go process. :-) Anyway, the mattress set was going to be delivered on Thursday afternoon, so we started really hyping things up on Wednesday. On Thursday, we started moving the furniture around and made a big deal of Colin "helping". We had to move his armoire into the guest room because it turns out that the full size bed is HUGE. It is a beautiful piece of furniture and I see now why it was so damn expensive! It is far bigger than I thought it would be. We decided to switch the office and guest bedroom around as well, which made the whole morning into a huge production. Since the guest room will belong to baby number two one of these days, we wanted the kids to have the two rooms that don't share a wall with our bedroom. After spending the last month sleeping with Colin in that room, I found out the hard way that you can hear every noise made in our bedroom. We ended up having to turn off the television and whispering whenever Colin was asleep. NOT great. Therefore, we decided to switch everything around. I think the new setup looks fantastic and the armoire goes beautifully in the guest room. Colin can have it back when we move into a bigger house one of these years! The mattress arrived at noon and we immediately put the sheets on and set it up. Colin immediately adored it and I knew instantly that we had made the right decision. He was bounding up and down on the bed, grinning from ear to ear. We spent extra time "getting cozy", explored all the new bedding and then read a few books together. It was not long after that Colin fell asleep for his first nap! It went off without a hitch!! When he woke up, he simply sat up in bed and called for us. I took him to the Twilight concert at The Square in Denton that night to make sure he was extra worn out for bedtime. That worked...he was so tired from dancing and playing that he fell right into bed. I get up in the bed with him and read a story and sing his favorite songs. When he gets still and almost asleep, I weasel back out of the bed and then pull the covers over him. And then...TADA!!!!...he slept through the night! WITHOUT ME! IN HIS OWN BED!!! Oh man, it was a beautiful thing! Now, I was up every two hours all night long and got zero sleep because I was so worried. Thank God we have a video monitor or I would have been sneaking in there every two seconds! But my worries were unfounded and all went well. He started to cry one time, but put himself back to sleep. It was flawless. I am so happy that we made the decision to go ahead with the big bed. That is what he wanted...out of the crib and up off the floor in a nice bed. I am so happy that I can't put it into words!!

Today, he took a brilliant two hour nap after we spent all morning at the pool. He likes to put himself under the covers and pull them up to his chin, which is beyond adorable. He went to sleep easily and slept great. Tonight we had an absolute blast at Life's A Beach with some of our wonderful friends. Colin spent hours running after other kids and making sand castles and I spent time nursing a margarita and enjoying the company, which was wonderful. We got home a bit later than I had planned, so Colin did not get to sleep until almost 10pm, which is way too late. I hope that doesn't ruin our good run! Hopefully he will have another good night of sleep. After his quick bath, he jumped right into bed and pulled the covers up! I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to see him happy about this! We still have to rearrange artwork now that we moved the layout of the room and I need to get a stool that he can use if he tries to get down on his own, but besides that, we are all done! Here are a few shots from this morning when he woke up:

Playing and loving his new cool room!


Enzo, very pleased with the new bed. ;-)

This is just a view of the setup. If you fold the rails down, you can make the bed normally and it looks nice. We just need to get bedding that matches his current cabin/lodge themed room, but that can wait. The bear on the headboard "watches over him" while he sleeps and Colin thinks that is great. He kisses his nose good night. :-)

So there is the story of The Bed. I have no doubt that you will hear plenty about this in the future. :-)

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!

Adorable and Tired!

How cute is my little man?! I had to snap these pictures this afternoon...I put his snack crackers on his table so that he could help himself and he pulled his chair out and sat down! I absolutely melt every single time he does this and I am so glad I managed to get a picture this time. He seems like such a big boy when he sits at that table! I also have a new development to report. Enzo (the worst behaved dog ever) constantly runs outside and starts barking at another dog through the fence. When I go to get him, I always chant, "NO NO NO, ENZO!". Well, today Enzo runs outside to bark as per usual and before I could get up, Colin ran to the window and said, "NO NO NO!". I fell to the floor with praise for him and he loved that, so he continued it all afternoon. He is obviously a genius. ;-)

There seems to be so much going on in our world and so little time for me to blog about it. Colin's sleep is still utterly out of whack and I am trying my best to get it back under control. I am having little success, but I am keeping the faith. He woke up this morning at 4:45, which is actually better than the day before. UGH. I think it has to do with his cold, his Daddy being suddenly gone, teething and growing pains. I have a trip to Tyler planned for later this week, as well as a trip to Austin to see Shannon, so I sure hope he gets better in the next few days. Traveling with a toddler is hard enough without being sleep deprived and getting up all night and then before dawn. We had our first major meltdown yesterday...oh MAN, it was bad! I needed some groceries, so we headed to Wal-Mart. On the way there, Colin started to fuss in his seat, which is rare. He normally loves the car unless it has been a long time stuck inside. We pulled into the parking space and I got a cart that was sitting right there and tried to put Colin in the front seat like always. He lost his mind. He arched his back, kicked his legs out and started screaming. I am talking serious screaming...like, "This woman is BEATING me, someone call the police!" screaming. It was horrible. He has never done anything close to that before, so I was totally blown away and floundering. I tried to calm him, but it just got worse. He was kicking so hard that I almost dropped him! I tried to put him back in the car, which meant strapping him back in the car seat, obviously. Yeah. Not good. He was totally losing his mind. If I had been a stranger seeing this, I would have thought Colin was being kidnapped. I finally got him strapped in and he screamed the whole way home. The poor guy is so exhausted and I felt so badly for him. And me, for that matter! Needless to say, I did not get groceries. Luckily he was in better spirits today after getting a morning nap, so I managed to get to Wal-Mart. You should have seen me...I was chanting under my breath, "Please please please let me get the cat litter before the tantrum!". HA! Everything turned out okay. Remember when we did not have kids and used to stare at women whose kids were freaking out and thought, "That will never be me". Uh huh. ;-)

We still miss you, Daddy! :-)

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. :-)

Changes are a brewing!

Changes are afoot with Mr. Colin. I know something big is about to happen...I am just not sure what it is. I don't know if he is getting a big molar or about to walk out the front door, but something is going on with him. My man is a champion napper...you have never heard me complain about that one...but now he won't even take his naps. I can sense this is beyond sleep issues and I have a feeling that he is getting ready to make a big change. It could be just a growth spurt or something bigger...but mark my words...changes are coming. I just feel it in my gut.

He is getting so big...lots of his 12 months clothes just won't snap anymore or they are too tight to be comfy. The main problem is the jumpers, which I love to dress Colin in. They are simple and comfortable for lounging around the house all day, but still look extra cute when we go out. I bought several of them when JC Penney was having a sale in March...it was the Okidokie line, which I think runs really really small. Those are all way too small now and I am wishing that I had not stocked up on them! The Carters 12 month line just fits, so I am trying to wear the heck out of those right now. We went to JC Penney this afternoon to look at the 18 month outfits and I walked back to the baby section where I always go...and noticed after a couple of minutes that we can no longer shop in the "baby" section. I had to go across the aisle into "Toddler Boys". Of course, me being me, I had to stop at the edge of the baby section and take it in for a moment. There I was, standing in a sea of baby blue and tiny little outfits and across from me loomed the bright reds and blues and the huge "TODDLER" sign with pictures of boys playing in sandboxes. I know I am a huge sap, but I could not help but thinking that it was another one of those moments that you look back on...another rung on the ladder.

Anyway, Colin went down again tonight at 7:20...I am trying to get him down by 7pm, but it is hard to time it right to get him bathed, fed, read to, snuggled, and asleep by then. He is responding really well to the earlier bedtime, so I am going to keep going with it. He took an extra bottle today, so I think we may be heading into a growth spurt. Like he needs one of those!! :-)