Two Very Special Friends

Last Friday night was a magical evening! First, a little background...when I found out that I was pregnant with Colin, I joined a message board for mothers expecting babies in July 2007. The board was wonderful and it was awesome to have a large group of women to talk to who were literally going through everything at the exact same time that I was! On the board, I was immediately taken to two women...April and Kimberly. They both seemed like kindred spirits to me and I found myself following their lives just as I would a best friend that I knew in person. Kimberly moved about 15 minutes down the road from me, so we got the chance to become good friends in real life and I value very much the friendship that I was able to make with her whole family. April and Kimberly both keep blogs like I do, and from that I feel like I know them both like family of my own. April should honestly be my sister...she and I end up saying and doing the exact same things and our boys have been like little clones of each other through action and mannerisms. I just adore these girls and could not be happier to know them!!! We found out last week that April, who lives in Oklahoma, was coming to our area for a family event and that we could all three finally get together in person. I was so excited that I could barely sleep! :-) On Friday night, all three of our families met at Babe's (because really...you must take all possible excuses to eat fried goodness) and went to the splash park around the corner afterwards. Despite the 100 degree temps and having to wait outside for an hour for a table, it ended up being a magnificent evening and lived up to every expectation. The boys all managed to get through the long wait and dinner without major meltdowns and they had an absolute BLAST at the park. Since all three husbands were there, the girls actually got a chance to talk while they chased the toddlers. It was so soothing to be able to talk for an extended period of time to good friends like that!! I must say that it brings me a lot of peace and happiness to have women in my life that are going through the same ups and downs that I am and can share in the experience. I have been a self admitted "guys girl" in the past and generally shied away from what I considered girly interactions...I have moved on from that and now value these relationships beyond words. I am so honored to have these women in my life and I hope that when I look back on this blog post in years to come that I still count them as close friends. Now how is that for a cheesy Chalna post?!? Would you expect anything less? :-) Here are some pictures:

This one is Kim's son Hayden at the splash park. He was absolutely hysterical!!! He spent the whole evening waiting for those giant water buckets to rain down on his head, much to the amusement of the grown-ups! I love that little boy!

Colin watching Hayden in disbelief. He could not believe that anyone would want a bucket dumped on them. :-)

From left, Hayden, Colin and April's son Schafer. This is the only shot that I managed to get with all three boys and barely at that! :-)

Chalna, Kim and April...in one place!! Amazing!! :-)

Colin gives Schafer a pat on the back while waiting for dinner at Babe's. Could they be any more adorable?!? I think not!

Colin's ROUGH Week!

Yet another week has past since my last post, but I promise that I had good reason this time! I was back to single mama status for 11 days with Jer on his trip to Europe and insanity ensued as usual. Things went downhill last Saturday morning. Colin was in very poor spirits all day, but I assumed he was in a bad mood because his dad was gone. The older Colin gets, the more upset he gets about Jer leaving town. I chalked up his bad mood to that and carried on with our day. Our good friends were throwing a 2nd birthday party for their son on Saturday night and I really thought it would cheer Colin up. Sadly, I could not have been more wrong. I had to go solo to the party, obviously, and after about 15 minutes I really really needed a second pair of hands. Colin was in such a bad mood...he was crying endlessly for no reason and things that normally would not bother him were only making things worse. There was a beautiful display of cupcakes on the kitchen table and Colin went to reach for one. When I told him we had to wait a bit, he completely lost it (and knocked my full wine glass out of my hands). I tried to get him back on track by taking him outside to play and at that point he spotted the beautiful pool in the backyard. He made a beeline for it and I had to snatch him up rather quickly, which startled him...thus pushing him past the point of no return. I have never seen him this upset in all his two years. It was unsettling to say the least. At this point, I was heading into panic attack mode. Dinner was being served and it was a packed house while Colin was screaming and laying on the floor. In an effort not to completely ruin the party, I literally ran out the door with my poor child in tow. I thought to regroup in the car, but Colin continued to scream bloody murder, so we just drove straight home. I left the party without even a nod to our host and felt horrible about it!

The next morning we packed up and left for my parents house...I decided that he needed a change in scenery and I needed another set of hands! The drive was great and Colin seemed just fine at first, but he woke up that night with a screaming fever. By the time morning rolled around, Colin and I were the first arrivals at Direct Care to see a doctor. The pediatrician took one look in his ears and cringed, calling me over to look for myself. It was HORRIBLE! Both ears were severely infected to the point that it gave me chills! Colin got a shot of antibiotics immediately and we were sent home with an oral prescription as well. He was completely lethargic for two days...he did not get out of bed at all. I certainly had my answer for his bad mood the weekend before! The poor little man was sick as a dog and I had no idea! We ended up staying at my parents house for a few days longer, but we are finally back home now. Colin is still sick..he took two naps today (unheard of!) and spent most of the day laying in bed with me ( REALLY unheard of!). He is obviously better than he was, but is still far from 100%. Today was his last day of antibiotics and he now has a red rash all over his stomach, legs and cheeks. I think this is from the meds, but I still plan to take him back to our pedi on Monday morning to double check his ears and make sure he is totally well. I don't like that he still feels so exhausted and under the weather. Hopefully he will be a new man tomorrow.

The good news is that Jer is home! It is so great to have our little family back together! I was able to go out shopping this afternoon...my sister is having her baby shower next weekend and I had a blast getting to finally shop for girly stuff! I am like a kid in a candy store! YEA FOR BOWS!! :-)

A Morning with Hunter

Today was our play date with Melanie and Hunter and we had a GREAT time! The above picture was worth the whole outing. :-) Hunter picked the entire ensemble out herself. She also kept that purse with her for the remainder of the morning. It was hysterical. That girl can play some serious dress-up! We all had lunch afterwards and Hunter brought Colin a late birthday present. This little boy has really milked his second birthday for all it is worth, let me tell ya! :-) Hunter is the funniest little girl...case in point:

This picture is Colin eating Hunter's fruit.

Here is the look on Hunter's face while Colin is eating said fruit:

Could you die?!?! I LOVE HER! (also, please ignore the 5 lbs of onion rings that Mel and I were eating. Just look away....nothing to see here...)

The Official Two Year Stats!

Colin's two year well baby check was today! Here are the stats:

29.5 lbs (50-75th percentile)
35.5 inches long (75-90th percentile)

His giant noggin is still in the 95th percentile just as it has been since the day he was born. :-) We had to see a different doctor in the practice for this visit, which I was not exactly happy about. Dr. Fricker has always done the well visits and I don't like change. However, we have seen the other doctor before and she is incredibly sweet, so it turned out just fine. She was impressed with his speech and noted that she understood most everything he said, which is awesome at his age. He did very good despite the visit taking forever because of a switch to some new software (I swear that I only show up at that office when things are falling apart!) and got two lollipops on the way out as a reward. We got up to date on his shots at his last visit, so no pokes today at all! That was good news all the way around. She informed me as we were leaving that he does not have another well visit until he is THREE! In a YEAR. It made me feel kind of like we graduated today...almost as if it was the final exam and babyhood is officially over. Sniff sniff!

In other news, Jer left today on a giant trip that includes stops in New York, Canada, Switzerland and Russia. I really should have been a pilot. Don't worry about me...I will just be here watching Noggin. haha! Honestly, we do already miss him a ton, but we are sure looking forward to seeing some cool pictures and getting good presents when he gets home. :-)

How do I get so dang behind?!?

I am not pleased with myself for the solid week between posts. I have really been slacking on writing here lately and I need to stop it! The week of Colin's birthday was very busy and it looks like things are going to remain that way for a bit. Last Friday, our friend Kayrene threw a big 2nd birthday bash for her son Ryan, whose birthday is just two days past Colin's. It was a great party (her backyard slide actually arrived as planned!) and literally PACKED full of kids. I have honestly never seen so many children in one place. Most of her friends have new babies in addition to their toddlers, so there were as many infants as two year olds in attendance. Colin was in absolute heaven with all the babies around, since they are easily his favorite thing in the whole wide world. The party was also a little on the sad side for us because our very good friend Laura and her little ones, Scarlett and Greyson, left for Ohio afterwards. We have become close and I am so sorry to see her move so far away! The hardest part for me was actually Colin. Greyson is the baby that I have blogged about before...Colin loves that child. For whatever cosmic reason, Colin formed a serious attachment to that baby! During the party, 8 month old Greyson was sitting in the middle of the floor and Colin was glued to his side. He was stroking his hair, patting his arms and hugging him for most of the party. One mom asked me if they were brothers! It was so sweet and therefore kind of heartbreaking. Even though he is a mere two years old, I know Colin is going to greatly miss that little boy!

This past weekend was very special because our long time best friend Chris came to town for a few days. We call him "Chrissy" (yes, it drives him nuts) and Colin immediately started calling him "Chrisky". It was probably one of the more adorable things you have ever heard! He ran around the house for the better part of the weekend yelling "CHRISKY!" at the top of his lungs. Chris got a crash course in living with a two year old and fared VERY well. Colin had basically attached himself to Chris within an hour of his arrival. We took him to Babe's (a requirement whenever he is here!) and for dinner and breakfast at our little dive Mexican place that we love. It was so good to see him and hang out.

This week is already lined up to be a busy one! We had a play date with Dana and Gabby this morning that included play at Paradise Pond and lunch afterwards at Jason's. The kiddos pretty much turned the restaurant into a sea of watermelon juice and melted ice cream. It was great fun! We will get more fun time with them next week at Dana's big "So You Think You Can Dance" finale party, which I am so excited about! Colin has his two year old appointment this week, as well as play time scheduled on Thursday with Melanie and Hunter. Saturday is our good buddy Hayden's second birthday party and Colin is already excited for another excuse to sing Happy Birthday, which is his favorite song ever now. We can't wait!

I know there is a ton more to report, but it is LATE! I should also note that I have a tentative idea for a novel...maybe I will actually get started on that one of these days! At least I have an idea, which is headway...trust me! :-)

Colin is TWO!

It is now official...my precious baby boy is TWO YEARS OLD! Despite the slide/party fiasco, we managed to have a very special day on Monday. We met our good friends Laura and Kayrene and their respective kiddos at Paradise Pond for a morning of play and then everyone made the trek back to our house for brunch and presents. I made french toast casserole and it was beyond good! It was my first time making this particular recipe, so I was very pleased that it turned out! I generally like to taste test a recipe before serving it to a crowd. This was a make again dish for sure. The kiddos had cake and helped Colin open presents. It turned out to be such a wonderful morning...it was a rainy day, so the indoor play turned out to be the perfect plan. Once all the kids hit nap time, everyone left and Colin took a long rest. That evening we took him out for dinner at Jason's, which has turned out to be one of his favorite places to go. As far as Colin is concerned, you really can't beat a restaurant that has free soft serve cones. When we got home, we let him open up the remainder of his gifts and played the night away with all his new loot. He spent the whole day saying, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!", which simply melted my heart. Granted, he was wishing everyone from Jer to the dishwasher a happy birthday, but it was still pretty adorable. :-)


Jer was off work today as well, so we closed the birthday extravaganza with Colin's final present; a trip to the water park! We found a smaller park in Denton that has a HUGE children's pool area that was fantastic. Jer and I got to take turns riding the slides and we took Colin around the lazy river in giant tubes several times. I was shocked that he was willing to ride in our laps down the river, but he loved it! It was a perfect ending to a very sweet birthday.


My feelings on this birthday are harder for me to write about, I have so many mixed emotions. On one hand, I feel like it was yesterday that I was in the hospital having him and on the other hand, it feels like an eternity ago. For the first 18 months of his life, he seemed like a baby to me. He still took occasional bottles, was rocked to sleep every night, mostly babbled and was just a sweet baby boy. This spring he has completely changed into so much of a little boy...talking, rough housing, displaying a sense of humor, sleeping in a big bed and generally being a little kid. This is easily my favorite stage so far. Watching his little personality develop has been the greatest gift and he is so funny and sweet. Now that his words have progressed, he has stopped a lot of the major meltdowns and is much happier than he was a few months ago. He gives lots of hugs and kisses and loves to "get cozy" under the covers to watch his "shows". He has a new move here around his 2nd birthday that is so adorable that it nearly kills me. If I do something that he likes...such as give him a cookie or fresh juice or anything that he deems awesome, he says "good mom!" when I hand it to him. Not "thank you", but "good mom!". It is hysterical. Even his inflection is funny...he says it exactly like you would say, "good dog!". I could not love this baby more if I tried. :-) Finally, here are some pictures from the weekend of fun.

Running at the water park. He LOVED it!



Yea for water! :-)


This place was kid heaven.

All smiles during his birthday dinner. I love that face!!

He was beside himself to open those presents!

A shot of his goodies on the big day.

One of my all time favorite pictures! Colin, Scarlett and Ryan share brunch together during the party. They looked so adorable lined up on those stools!

Daddy and Colin playing with the bubbles at Mom Mom and Pop Pop's house

Mom Mom showing him how it's done!

Colin spent half the day loving on Jasper and Solomon, the best doggies ever!

Daddy introduces Colin to the workings of the slip-n-slide. Such a great present from his grandparents!

Opening presents with his grandparents. He got pretty good at this!

Colin, I hope your third year on this earth is just as amazing as your second. I love you, sweet boy!

The Year Draws to a Close....

Colin's birthday weekend is behind us and I simply cannot believe it. His official 2nd birthday is tomorrow. This week has been filled with all sorts of insanity, which kept me busy enough to keep the nostalgia at bay. Jer and I had decided to forgo a regular birthday party this year in favor of doing something fun like a water park or night at Great Wolf Lodge. Two weeks ago, I started to second guess my decision and started looking for possible options for a backyard water slide. Colin has several little buddies and I started thinking it would be more fun to have his friends over to the house for classic cake and fun. This is when I went wrong...at that late date, I should have stuck to my original plan. Of course, once I get a wild hair, it can't be stopped. I found someone on Craigslist that was renting a giant water slide / splash park for half the price of everyone else. I contacted them and set up the slide for Saturday. I was beside myself with excitement. My family was coming anyway and now we would get to have so much fun and Colin's friends could come, too. I immediately sent out evites to the party. It was even too late for standard invitations in the mail! I should have known better...the slide turned out to be a scam and I found out late Wednesday night that we would not have it. I suppose I should be glad that I found out that early! We cancelled the party for Saturday. It was simply too hot outside to have a backyard party without water. Our HOA only allows 4 guests per resident at our pools and they are strict about it, so we decided that we would just call off the big extravaganza. It ended up working out fine and we have had a blast this weekend. Saturday was spent at the splash park, getting snow cones and swimming at the pool. On Saturday night, Ellen and Aubrey came over to bring Colin a present and hang out for a bit, which is ALWAYS a treat. This morning, we met Jer's parents at Old West Cafe in Denton, which is one of our all time favorite places. Colin was in great spirits and had a blast. After breakfast, we headed back to their house for presents and play on the new slip-n-slide! Colin absolutely adored it and the funniest part was watching Jer and Pop Pop try to use it. Pictures are coming, you can be sure! It has been a wonderful time and I am absolutely in awe that my baby boy is going to wake up tomorrow as a two year old. Below is Colin at birth, 12 months and now. Here comes the nostalgia. My baby!!