Random Leap Day Thoughts

I wonder sometimes what parts of me are me and what parts of me come from my parents. I think about this every now and then...at least I do now that I have Colin. How much of our kids personalities are genetically ingrained in them and how much are the doing of us as parents? For example...I don't like ketchup. I also don't love ice cream. I could take it or leave it. Those are two of my strangest traits, I am sure. Every time someone finds out about those, they look at me like I am crazy. When I think about it, I don't think I have ever seen my mom eat ketchup and I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen her eat ice cream. So maybe I just followed the lead of my mom when I was a kid and adopted lots of her likes and dislikes. I wonder if Colin will like ketchup if he never sees me eat it? Hmmm...

I do know one thing for sure...I am going to introduce Colin to a world of tastes and places. I want him to have a diverse palate and enjoy travel. I want him to see the world beyond our living room. When I was a kid, my family did not go anywhere except our summer trips to Dallas to go to Wet N' Wild. My parents were working so hard to raise three kids and give us more than they had growing up. They felt like they could not afford to travel, so we never did. I totally understand this and don't think badly about my parents at all for the decision. I mean, there were three kids! I know that money is going to be tight for as long as I continue to stay at home with Colin, but it is really important to me that Colin gets out in the world. We have already decided that even if it means long road trips and stays at the Motel 6, we are going to see what is out there together as a family. I hope it is something that will make Colin a great man and give him lots of chances to learn about other people and places. I can't wait for the adventures to begin! Even if it does not involve ketchup! ;-)

Sidebar: The picture above is Colin showing off his onesie that his Great Mom Mom sent him. Jer's grandmother still lives in his hometown of Hellertown, PA and it was a gift from her. I noticed today that he has just about grown out of it, so we took some pictures for her. We love her very very much!!

Good Morning, Sunshine!

On a whim this morning, I decided that I wanted to sit outside and drink my coffee. It is simply beautiful here today and I thought Colin and I could use a break from the stuffy house. So we headed outside for some fresh air and coffee (for mom!). I took the camera and got this hysterical picture...Colin wants to have everything that he sees me holding, camera included! So this is the picture that I ended up with. If my back was not bothering me, we would be headed for the park today for sure. Since I am still working on healing, I think we may just try to spend some time outdoors in the backyard instead. Which is reminding me that there is nothing worth looking at in my backyard. There is one lawn chair, a grill, and a tiny patch of concrete. I think we better get on that.... ;-)

The Great Television Debate

My message board got me thinking about this today, so I decided to write about it. Television...should Colin be watching it or not. I will start out by saying that Colin watches TV. This started when he went to Miss Anne's for daycare. He had not laid eyes on TV before he went there and one day when I went to pick him up, I saw him laying in front of the television watching intently. I flipped out and was pretty upset. Then I slowly calmed down and finally threw in the towel and let him watch at home. Now that I stay home with him, we have our own schedule. He watches Playhouse Disney every morning when he wakes up. While he is waking up fully, he lays in his chair and watches The Wiggles or My Friends Tigger and Pooh. While he does this, I make coffee, eat a bowl of cereal, brush my teeth and throw on a clean t-shirt (sometimes!). Then we start our day together and the TV goes by the wayside. I keep the TV on all day for background noise and I keep it tuned to Noggin so that it is at least kid friendly noise going on. But once he gets going for the day, he is no longer interested in sitting still to watch TV. Now for the big no-no...he watches a Baby Einstein video in the evening while I get dinner ready. Those videos seriously freak me out with how they hold Colin's attention. Without those videos, I promise we would not eat dinner in this house and I would very rarely get to shower. However, I have read so much about how bad they are for Colin, that I am very careful not to let him watch more than one 30 minute video per day. I race around and do everything I need to in those 30 minutes because once they are up, no more for Colin. I feel bad enough that I play it once a day!! I know that those studies are really saying that you should not use the TV or videos as a babysitter, and that makes total sense to me. I play with Colin all day long and I know that 30 minutes a day watching a video is not going to make the slightest difference in the long run. But I still feel a little bit bad about it. OH WELL.

I know several people who do not allow TV at all. I just can't get on board with that...I need a few minutes here and there and sometimes television is the only way that I can get that! So I am determined to let go of the guilt! Heck, I watched the hell out of TV, and I turned out okay! (I think!) :-)

The Retiring of an Infant Seat

Well, today was the day. We finally bit the bullet and purchased Colin's new convertible car seat. He was just too big for his infant seat...his feet were hanging off the end and he was mushed in rather uncomfortably. The picture above was his very first trip in that seat on the way home from the hospital. And today it is retired. I take him everywhere in that seat and it was just getting too heavy to carry with him in it. He also gets stir crazy really fast now and no longer likes to be strapped in for long. SO...off we went to Target to get the new seat. It is so big and comfy...I wish I could sit in it! ;-) Looking at his little infant seat in comparison just breaks my heart...here is yet another milestone that we are breezing through. When we bought the infant travel system, I just could not picture the time that Colin would outgrow it and here we are! We put him in the new seat to adjust the straps and he looked adorable in it...I think he is really going to enjoy his "new ride".

In other firsts today, Colin sat up in the cart at Target!! This is the first time that I gave it a shot...I have been wary of sitting up in the cart because I thought he was still too little and I always carry him in his infant seat. Since that is no more, I tried out the cart ride today. He LOVED it!! It was so cute! I feel silly for doubting it now...he had such a good time checking things out. I am still slightly worried because during my long Monday grocery store trips, he goes to sleep in that seat and is out for most of the trip. Wal-Mart is like a sleeping pill to my son. HA! I am nervous that when he realizes that he can't lay back and go to sleep like he is used to, that he will be screaming. He has not stayed awake for a really long outing before, so we shall see. He will probably be fine since there will be so much stuff to look at instead of napping.

I should also mention that I am confounded by how much my son loves the attention of strangers. It is hysterical...all of my baby books say that Colin should have started his stranger anxiety by now. I am sure it will hit him at some point in the future, but for now, the boy loves to flirt! He is so funny...he grins and shows both dimples to everyone that comes up to see him. We went out for Chinese food tonight and he had every single waitress in the place crowded around him just fawning over him. He was grinning from ear to ear. He is just so adorable!! :-)

Colin is getting better!

As I predicted, last night was not good. The poor little guy slept until 11:00pm before he woke up. I changed him, fed him, rocked him, and put him back to sleep. We woke at 2:00am and it took about an hour to get him to go back to bed. After that, he woke up fleetingly a couple more times and then woke up for the day at about 6:00am. It was a long night, but at least he got lots of sleep in the long run. He was awake for about 2 hours and then he took a two hour nap! After that, he finally seemed better. We went to the pedi just to make sure that he did not have an infection, and everything looked clear. Thank goodness! I have noticed that Colin can be too sick for words and as soon as we get into the doctor's office, he is a new man. It just cracks me up. He was literally laughing at the doctor and grabbing his stethoscope the whole time. I looked like and idiot, but oh well. ;-)

I joined a local meet up group today of moms with babies born in 2007. They meet fairly close to where I live and I am excited to make some new friends for Colin and I. That will be something new for me! I want to get Colin out and about when I can and this should be an affordable way to do that. I found out after I joined that one of my friends from work is also a member! She quit work before I did and her little girl was born the same week Colin was. I am excited to see her!

Sick Baby!

Well, the good news is that after a day of coughing and sneezing himself out of every nap he tried to take, Colin is finally napping well. The bad news is that it is currently 7pm and he has been asleep for two hours. I just opened his door and am sitting here in the office loudly typing with the lights on hoping that he will wake up. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be a very rough night. The picture was taken this afternoon of playtime...he decided that he wanted to play with his mat from above instead of below for a change! :-) You can see from his expression that he is not feeling well. There is nothing worse than a sick baby...just breaks my heart! I ordered the battery powered nasal aspirator from target.com yesterday when I noticed the cold. I have looked for it everywhere and can't find it in stores. I can't wait for it to arrive. I have had lots of folks tell me that it worked wonders. Colin HATES me coming at him with the bulb and this is supposed to be MUCH faster. Cross your fingers that it works and gets here SOON!

First Trip to the Zoo!

It was a fantastic day outside today, so we packed up and headed out to the zoo for the very first time with Colin! I needed to get out of the house and this was great! Poor Colin has caught a cold and was pretty snotty all day, but I think the fresh air and animals perked him up. He was in awe for almost the entire trip to the zoo, with the exception of the nap he took while we waited in the seemingly seven hour line for food. Typical lack of planning on our part...we forgot to eat lunch before we got to the park and ended up starving. Colin had a full bottle while we were there and was an angel the whole time. It was packed there today, so I did not get to spend as much time showing Colin the animals as I would have liked. With the droves of people, you kind of have to keep moving. I am pretty sure his favorite part was the turtles that were in the alligator exhibit. The glass tank allowed Colin to stand on the ground and touch the glass as the little turtles swam right up to him. He laughed at them! It was so cute!

The two pictures that I posted are the only two pictures that we took at the zoo. We remembered to grab the camera, but once we got to the zoo, we realized that the batteries were dead!! I think we need new ones...they are not holding a charge for very long anymore. I plan to take Colin back to the zoo on a weekday when we can spend more time without the crowds. We live very close to the Ft. Worth Zoo, which is awesome! Such a great place!

We definitely tuckered the little guy out...he fell asleep in his carrots tonight! LITERALLY! His head flopped right down into the spoon. Poor thing!! I managed to wipe his face off and get him into bed...this was at 6:30!! If he sleeps well tonight, I may take him to the zoo every day. haha!