Hunter Turns TWO!

I can hardly believe it, but Miss Hunter is now TWO years old! Melanie and Patrick held her party at Boomerang's on Saturday and in what can only be characterized as my best move ever, we arrived at 5pm. The party was from 3-5pm. Yes, I am awesome. ;-) Colin refused to get up from his nap, which always happens when I actually need him to wake up. I thought we were going to miss the whole party and just drop off Hunter's present, but things were still in full swing when we arrived. Hunter was having a blast and the party carried on for over an hour after we got there. This little girl has NO FEAR and was doing everything by herself. I already have a feeling that she will be getting Colin into trouble before you know it. :-) We had a great time and I got to see Melissa and Daniel, too! It feels like just yesterday we were all at Hunter's 1st birthday party...how is time passing me so quickly?!?! Here are a few shots that I managed to take despite my late arrival.

Colin and Hunter in the same shot, which was a miracle. As you can tell, they were having nothing to do with my camera.

One of my all-time best friends in the world, Melanie and her little crazy girl Hunter.

Colin loving some bounce house goodness!

Lastly, a very silly shot of us when we got home from the party. I was tickling the man and he was doing "the melt" as I like to call it...when he does not want me to get him, he turns into jello and just melts out of my arms. Ah, the joys of toddlerhood. :-)


For even more fun, you can see how much Colin and Hunter have changed here, too. :-)

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. :-)

Happy Memorial Day!!

This weekend was not exactly a holiday for us...Jer had to work both Saturday and Sunday due to his huge new program that is finally underway. This is what he spent the whole winter out of the country working on, so it is a crazy time for him. He finally had a day off today and we tried to pack in as much Memorial weekend fun as possible. We went to feed the ducks and play at the park this morning, which backfired when everyone else in town had the same idea and the ducks were already stuffed. They actually ran from our bread, which was hysterical. Colin chased them all over the place, the poor things. We had Mexican food for lunch and Colin refused to sit in his high chair, so he sat beside me in the booth and covered me in beans. I should have taken a picture, I was a total disaster. Thank goodness I was wearing an old t-shirt. :-) He will still occasionally give us a few minutes in a high chair, but I can see that we are almost totally done with that, too. I had no idea how much was going to change before his second birthday, let me tell you! We headed home and changed for the pool after Colin unfortunately fell asleep in the car, thus ruining any hopes of a nap. We have lots of pools in our community and they were all packed today, which was no surprise. Colin seems to like the crowds and we still managed to snag open chairs and a little table. We spent about an hour there, but Colin was quickly getting overly tired without a nap. A tiny snow cone stand just opened between the pool and our house, so we stopped in for a treat on our way home. I made hot dogs for dinner in a final ode to the holiday and Colin just passed out in bed after our busy day. All in all, a great Memorial Day! Jer is now back at work on his laptop (he needs a vacation!) and I am enjoying the sting of a slight sunburn across my shoulders. I know it is incredibly unhealthy, but I love the tight feeling of getting just a touch too much sun. It feels like vacation, even if there is not one to be had. I will leave with a picture of Colin and I at the pool...the only picture of both of us that was taken. Maybe one day he will actually look at the camera when sitting with me. :-)

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!

I am going to take on the huge task of posting about all the crazy things that are going on with us at the moment. This will likely take some time, but I have already waited too long to write about everything. There are so many firsts taking place that I don't want to forget!! I want to get everything written down for my own record, so I apologize in advance for the extreme length of this three day in the making post. :-)


*About three/four weeks ago (time is becoming blurry!), Colin stopped taking his nap and bedtime bottles. We would relax together in his rocking chair and he would drink a bottle of milk. He literally woke up one day and quit. He will not touch one now. The strange part...he will not drink milk at all anymore. The same day he quit bottles, he quit milk. Even with chocolate, strawberry or hidden in an opaque sippy cup, as soon as he tastes milk, he throws it down. He has not had a sip of milk in almost a month. I have no idea what is going on with that. I personally cannot stand milk and have not touched the stuff since I was a kid (and was forced by my parents). I guess he might have gotten the same aversion? I still think it is pretty strange to wake up one day and hate the thing you loved!


*Also about a month ago, Colin started talking. REALLY talking. The language exploded just like the pedi said it would and this guy is off and running. He says lots of things now and usually surprises me with something new every day. We love it! He also gets very upset when he wants to tell us something and we can't understand him. He will repeat the same "phrase" several times and then stomp his feet and yell when we don't get it. I know this frustration is causing a lot of his "terrible two" behavior.


*On the subject of terrible two's...we have landed smack dab in the middle of them! There is absolutely no telling with this guy at the moment. He will have a major meltdown over things that he had no problem with the hour before. The biggest problem right now is the grocery cart. I would say that about 90% of the time, he won't get in it. That includes the back of the cart, which used to save me in a pinch. He won't get in at all. Yesterday we attempted to go to Kroger since they have the fun carts with the attached car. Nope, he would not get in that either. He was laying on the floor of the grocery store, kicking and screaming. This is because he also did not want me to carry him and was kicking out of my arms. Obviously we had to leave without shopping. You should have seen me carrying him to the car....I was holding him like a 30 lb football with him screaming. Beautiful. He also won't stay in a high chair/booster seat for more than 10 minutes at the moment. That is also cause for a major ruckus. For now it is fast food only, or somewhere with an atmosphere that works with a toddler running around the table throwing forks. Oh, and the THROWING. Colin throws everything all the time. This is the hardest part for us now. He will throw heavy things at everything and that includes pets and people. He is not angry or mean spirited about it, but extremely excited. The more excited/tired/reved up he gets, the more I know that trouble is coming. I have tried literally everything in every toddler book to fix this. Time outs do not work at all and I have tried lots of variations. He is unhappy to be in time out, but does not associate it with not throwing once time out is over. Spanking (my last resort) also does not even phase him. I did try slapping his hand and that seemed to at least upset him, but he still turns right back around and throws. He throws his heavy sippy cup at Enzo every time he sees that dog. UGH! I consider this one really important...when we were out with friends this week, he threw a rattle at their infant son. It knocked him right upside the head and he started crying his precious little head off. I wanted to DIE. I had been watching Colin like a hawk, since there were three infants in our group that day. We made it all the way to the end, we were packing up our picnic, I looked away for a split second to talk to my friend and BOOM! Thank goodness the baby was not hurt. However, this behavior is totally unacceptable. If I can't get it under control, we can't go out in public until he is four. And I am only slightly exaggerating. ;-) The more Colin likes something, the better the chance he will throw a toy at it. Colin had been petting and hugging and patting that baby all afternoon...he even played with his tiny toes and gave him a kiss on his head while we were sitting with him. I knew that he was enamored with that little guy and sure enough, he got a rattle to the noggin.

*Colin will eat fruit, macaroni and cheese and the insides of an Oreo cookie. Everything else depends on the day. He will love a grilled cheese one day and hate it the next. That goes for just about everything else. I still offer him lots of stuff like I always have and sometimes I get the right food on the right day. Luckily, I am a very well-read woman and know this is normal and he will live through it. He eats a lot of Cheerios and Goldfish. Last night he ate a ginormous bowl of Edamame and half a bag of grapes for dinner. Now that I think about it, maybe I should be eating more like Colin. ;-)

*This is the biggest change of them all...Colin no longer sleeps in his crib. I still can't even believe it as I type this. Also about a month ago (see a pattern?), Colin started to kick and scream at being put in the crib. It really came out of left field and happened right along with the bottle/milk thing. At the beginning, if I got him sound asleep first, I could put him in the crib and then expect middle of the night screaming. Within a week, however, it had escalated into screaming whenever he touched the crib. We spent a brutal two weeks letting him cry it out...this time it got worse everyday instead of better. You have never heard such screaming. I spent several days in a dark place while dealing with this...I have many friends whose toddlers would refuse sleep, possibly sit in the crib and play for two hours, but none that reacted so violently. He seems too young to be done with his crib, so it was only after that horrible two weeks that I started to think about the actual bed being the problem. I posted my thought on Facebook and immediately got lots of responses from my wonderful friends. It would appear that it is quite normal for Colin to be ready for a real bed at this stage of the game. I got lots of emails from my friends who have already made the transition and I feel so much better now that I have a solution. For the time being, I have been sleeping with Colin in the guest bedroom. He will go to sleep without a problem in a normal bed, so that has alleviated the screaming fits, thank God. Once he falls asleep, I tuck pillows around him and leave him there for a couple of hours while I try to get caught up on my life. Then I go to bed in there with him so that I can make sure he does not fall off during the night. Or at least be there when he does fall off, which happened last night! OOPS! The good news is that the screaming went away as soon as I gave up on the crib and moved him into the bed. Now we need to convert his crib to the full size bed and get him in there asap, before he is too addicted to the guest room. Not to mention that Mama would love a night in her own bed with her husband for a change! :-)

SOOO, the long story even longer is that a lot has been going on with my precious baby. He just seemed to pick a day and decide that everything needed an overhaul. He is so funny and sweet right now. Even with all this terrible two stuff, we are having a blast together. He seems to unveil a new trick for me every single day. Last night, we were all in the guest bed "getting cozy", which is code for going to bed. Colin got in the middle of me and Jer (facing us), put one hand around each of our necks, and gave us a group hug. It was so adorable that I almost couldn't take it. This post could just go on and on with all the sweet little things he does for me on a daily basis. I will leave it at this for now. If you actually read this whole thing, Happy Memorial Weekend!! :-)

Breakfast - Big Guy Style!

Colin, my officially 22 month old son, decided to eat his breakfast on a bar stool just like his Mama. He looked so cute and grown-up that I had to snap a picture. And yes, Enzo is a very bad dog. :-)

I am still working on my big update post...maybe I will finish it one day soon!

Our Favorite Park

I took these pictures yesterday at our favorite park. It is close by in Southlake and the fishing lake and dock that is attached is beautiful and very peaceful. There are a ton of major things that I need to post about, but I am having a very hard time getting a chance to sit down at the computer. More to come...hopefully soon.

The Dog Park!

I have been valiantly trying to write a post since yesterday at about 1pm. Since I can't seem to find more than 5 minutes at the computer, I am going to just post these pictures and try to write tonight. :-) This is our visit to the doggie park with Enzo yesterday. We all had a great time! Enzo was pleased as punch to be out and about and Colin was thrilled to chase lots of dogs!