A Winter Saturday

It is freezing cold here at the moment and therefore I have had very little to report. A cold snap arrived this week bringing the highs down into the 20's, which kept Colin and I firmly indoors. The house does not even feel warm and I have spent a lot of time bundled up in my fluffy slipper boots and two sweaters. With the boring week behind us, Colin and I were very excited to get out this morning for his good friend Gabby's 3rd birthday party! This year's shindig was at Paradise Pond, one of Colin's all-time favorite places to go. The party was a blast and Colin had so much fun playing that he even skipped cupcakes! That is a pretty major deal. He had a lot of fun, but displayed some of his familiar fears with a large crowd. The food was served in two rooms that were packed with the kiddos and their parents and Colin got very upset when I tried to get him to go in as well. If there is one thing that Colin does not do well with, it is a large crowd in a somewhat confined space. Despite not wanting to join snack time, he had the best time and we were thrilled to celebrate another birthday with Miss Gabby. I only managed a couple of pictures at the party and got zero with Gabby, which is unfortunate because she was too adorable for words in a giant multi-colored tutu and personalized shirt. I got these of Colin playing with the trucks:

After the party, I decided on a whim to take Colin to MY all-time favorite place, La Madeleine. I have been eating there forever and there is nothing that I love to eat more than their chicken caesar salad and tomato basil soup. It is my weakness and also a place that I rarely get to visit since leaving work. There is one in Grapevine very close to my old office, so I ate there weekly. Sadly, there is not one right around our house and since Jer does NOT love it, we hardly ever go. Since we were in Grapevine, I informed Colin that we were going on a date and he was taking me there! It ended up being one of the best times that we have had together! He walked through the line with me and picked out his own fruit cup. He was so good and stayed with me in line and through the whole process of getting our drinks, silverware, bread and jelly. He picked out our table and carried his own booster seat over. He loved the fact that they have a fireplace! I showed him how to dip bread into the soup and he absolutely adored it and ended up eating more of it than I did. We laughed and talked together (he was very impressed with their selection of jelly) and I snuck out the camera to take a picture of us. It was such a sweet moment together and I was very proud of him. He was so well behaved and the whole experience hints of what is to come with him. He is moving into a time that will be so much fun...a time of sharing more fun together now that he is older. I just love being with him!

Here he is enjoying his soup...or what is left of it!

My handsome (albeit messy) date!

I love him SO!

Random Tuesday Updates

The following are exciting tidbits from our world. I use "exciting" in the loosest, most un-exciting sense of the word.

*I managed to get Colin in actual clothes before 8:00am this morning. I have a new tactic. I have his clothes ready to put on for his original diaper change when he wakes up. This is the one time he is not fighting me, so it is the perfect time to trick him into getting dressed. Normally, he could have breakfast in pj's, but this new way works much better. Granted, he is dressed for the day long before his mother is, but whatever. :-)

*I purchased a fluffy mattress topper for Colin's super firm and not very comfortable bed. I put it on with his new sheets and it is AWESOME. His bed is now more comfortable than mine. Jer does not like to sleep on anything super soft, so he would never go for such a big fluffy mattress. I tried a featherbed when we first got married and Jer hated it. Once we got our king sized bed, the featherbed was history. This morning I tried to get Colin to stay in bed with me so that I could snuggle in his new cloud bed. He said no.

*We went to the library today and Colin was his normal revved up self. He ran in the door and rocketed right up to the girls at the front desk and yelled as loud as he could, "We have to be QUIET at the library!!!". Everyone was cracking up. He went over to pick out a new movie and went through almost every single one, giving me commentary on his choices. "No, not the Thomas movie. I don't want to watch Percy" and "What's that movie? Garfield? No, I don't think so". As we were leaving, the girl checking us out complemented his dimples. His response was to launch into his loudest rendition of the Bob the Builder theme song.

*The Bachelor season premiere was last night and I had a wonderful evening watching with my friends. Kimberly's mom hosted at her house and it was totally kid-free. WONDERFUL. We ate and drank and laughed so hard that we nearly passed out. I heard absolutely none of the show, with the exception of our commentary on how each girl was horribly disfigured or a complete halfwit. It was hysterical. I love my friends. :-)


*Jer requested some "Mediterranean" style food, so we are having tuna nicoise bread salad for dinner. One of the main ingredients is grape tomatoes, which Colin is currently eating while watching Olivia. It looks like there will be four tomatoes (maybe) in the whole meal.


*Lastly, I leave you with the member of our family getting the most enjoyment out of Colin's new bedding. Ferris Mewler has been sitting in that spot for the last 9 hours. (that is his happy face)

The Essence of the Nap

I think I could write an entire novel solely based upon the sleep patterns and cycles of Colin. I am sitting here laughing at the crazy road that sleep has been for our little family. I was prompted to write because we have had yet another change in the past couple of weeks.

Colin's nap has been up in the air for months and I would say that he averages around 4 naps a week. He long ago began refusing his bed for naps and I forged ahead with my first trick...watching tv in my bed. Colin and I would snuggle up around nap time to "watch shows" and he would fall asleep while there. That has been our only ticket to naps for several months, so I have held on for all it is worth. On the days that we are not successful, Colin always tries to fall asleep on the couch at around 5pm, which is the worst thing that can happen in toddler land. That basically means you are looking at an 11pm bedtime, but still a 7:15am wake-up call. Regardless of the time Colin goes to bed, he wakes up at 7:15am. ALWAYS. Anyway, slowly but surely, he is rejecting getting in my bed for the TV watching trick. It started out working everyday, then it narrowed to almost everyday and now it is trickling down to not working at all. Which brings me to the latest change...naps on the couch. Now that he does not retreat to my room, he stays in the living room around nap time and I watch him slowly winding down. He will start out sitting on the couch and as he gets sleepy, he will get a blanket and cover up with it. If you ask him if he wants to take a nap, he will protest to high heaven....all the while getting quieter and quieter on the couch. The next thing you know, he is sound asleep. This has been going on more and more often and now he has done it the last three days in a row. It looks like naps have taken on yet another reinvention. It makes me laugh because if you could be a fly on the wall during naps, you would have a blast laughing at me. When Colin took normal naps in his crib/bed, I would hole up in my room. Then he moved to my room and I started to hide out in the living room or office. Now I find myself sitting back here in the office being as quiet as humanly possible, since the precious nap is taking place in the middle of the open house. Sleep is so elusive with Colin and he wakes up so easily that my house must be the picture of silence. Therefore, I have always gotten next to nothing accomplished during naps (oh how I would LOVE to be able to cook dinner!) and now with him in the living room...well, next to nothing is now absolutely nothing. Oh, well. :-) A nap IS a nap, and I am not complaining. But it really is funny to look back on the progression!

In other completely unimportant news, I found the PERFECT sheet set for Colin today! We actually never bought sheets for his big boy bed and have been using old queen sized sheets. I did not want to buy just any old sheets...I needed something awesome to match his cabin/lodge themed room. You would be surprised how hard that is to find! I am so glad that I held out because I finally stumbled on some today! AT TARGET! They are covered in bear paws, tents, camp fires, grizzly bears, cabins and compasses! I am probably a little too excited about this, but it's the little things! ;-)

The First Post of 2010!

It is 2010 and I feel good. Great, actually! Yesterday was a very typical New Year's Day for me; it is admittedly my least favorite day of the entire year. We always leave our decorations up from the day after Thanksgiving (or a bit earlier!) until New Year's Day. That always leaves January 1st a bit of a downer...the parties are all over and the fun is coming down and being packed into boxes. It is never a great day for me, but it was even tougher this year because Colin was cognizant of what I was doing and asking over and over why we were taking down the beautiful lights and Christmas trees. It was a rather blah day. Today, however, is a new day! I liked waking up to the fresh clean house and the bright winter sunshine coming in through the windows. I found myself making a mental list of new household items that I would like to get for the coming year and thinking about re-doing one of the extra bedrooms as a playroom for Colin. I feel initiative washing over me, the type of which can only happen at the beginning of a new year; a fresh slate. I sat down at the computer with my cup of tea (Jer is out of town for work and I am too lazy to make a pot of coffee for one person) and began checking email while Colin watched Olivia. He walked into the office, holding his bowl of dry cheerios and a serious face. He wanted to tell me something and began forming his words. "Mommy, I dropped Cheer-we-woh's on the couch...but...I....um...I picked them up....and...um...I picked them up and put them in the bowl!". I got down on his level and hugged him hard, thanking him for picking them up so nicely. Watching him standing there in the hallway, concentrating very hard on telling me his story using all his words and forming a perfect and complete sentence was a wonderful moment for me. It reminded me how far we have come since 2009 began and Colin was still saying only a couple of words. He is such a little boy now in comparison and I find the change that occurred in one short year to be awe inspiring. I can't help but think about how different things will be next year at this time and wonder what amazing new things I am up for, but can't fathom now. I think that big things are in store for our family this year...I feel it!

I also want to get back to my original blog style, which was more day to day updates about the little mundane things we do. My goal in starting the blog was to record the small stuff that we forget so soon and relive it down the road when my children are long past trips to the library for story time and runs to McDonald's for nuggets and playtime. As I get busy, I tend to blog about the big stuff and write big picture "philosophical" kinds of things that are important to me, but I get away from the little stuff. SO, let's get back to boring, shall we? :-) Colin is going through a stage that baffles me at the moment...he hates getting dressed. HATES IT. He screams and flails around every single time that I try to get him dressed. It has gotten so distressing that on occasion we don't make it out of the house until after his afternoon nap, simply because I am so loathe to go through the dressing process. That is not a good thing. Spending the day in pajama's is fun every now and then, but I can't get into that habit. Life is better when we are active and busy, so I need to power through. Once we go through the kicking and screaming of getting dressed, he calms down and things go back to normal. It seems strange to me, but I figure that it is just a stage. He also fights diaper changes with a vengeance including the same kicking and screaming. I think potty training may be around the corner, but I continue to be on the fence about starting it. I keep looking for the clear and obvious signs that he is ready, but they remain elusive to me. He does not mind having a dirty diaper in the least and shows absolutely no interest in the potty or using it. We have had the fluke moments of success, but those are rare and not consistent. I thought to leave it up to Colin and not set up for disaster by starting him on my time clock instead of his, but I think we will go ahead and try it regardless this spring. I think about this a lot!

In other news, I got the worst haircut of all time two days ago. My lovely long layers, which I spent a YEAR growing back out, are now hacked up and look almost exactly like this:
Looking like Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in 1982 is not what I was going for. To make matters worse, it only looks like that on ONE side...the haircut is an uneven shambles with one side clearly and horribly longer than the other. I have spent the last 48 hours in a ponytail and trying desperately to will time to rewind so that I could run from that girl and her scissors. It is only hair, I know, and will grow out. I have an appointment with the salon manager on Tuesday for her to hopefully fix the crazy lopsided haircut (free of charge, of course) but I know that fixing it will mean that I will be right back in a short haircut, which is exactly what I did not want. I am so upset about it. Last February, I got a heavily layered (but good) haircut that I immediately did not like and wanted to grow out. I spent almost a year doing so, and thus had a mess of split ends that needed a simple trim. I am really unhappy that one year later, I am right back where I started. Probably even SHORTER since the hack job on the right side of my head starts way up top. Lovely. I am trying hard to stay positive, so...Happy New Year, friends! :-)

The Last Picture of 2009

Here it is, folks! Hot off the presses!! The last official picture of 2009. We set the camera up with the timer and managed to get this one on the first try. We are celebrating at home exactly as we did last year...we decided to have our second annual seafood party with our little family of three. It was wonderful!! We had shrimp cocktail, filet and scallops and some wonderful brie. Tonight has been the perfect ending to an amazing and eventful year. I spent the morning in heaven; Jer gave me a day of pampering for my Christmas present and today I cashed it in. I had a pedicure, hair cut and color. The pedicure was sinful and I don't remember the last time that I have relaxed like that. Our night has been peaceful, fun and full of good food. Colin is now sound asleep and Jer and I have popped the cork on the champagne. We are sitting here in bed, watching "Steven Segal; Lawman" on the DVR and waiting for Dick Clark to start at 10:30. Yep, just another wild New Year's Eve. ;-)

2009 has been a year of blessings; new friends, new niece, and good health. I lost my uncle, but I am happy to know that he is watching over us from heaven now. My little baby has become a funny and wonderful little boy. Overall, the joys and gifts have outweighed the challenges. I am excited beyond words for 2010...the start of a new decade. When this decade started, I was a girl of 22 going to college. I had yet to leave my hometown in East Texas. I has just gotten my first job in aviation...a very low level position greeting private jets. I had yet to meet Jeremy. The 2000's ushered in the career that would be my life and livelihood. It took me to live in Pennsylvania, California, and New York...and finally back home to Texas. It brought me some of the greatest friends of my lifetime. I met my husband, married him, and had our first child. We bought a house in the suburbs and finally settled down. I gained a nephew and niece and brother-in-law that I adore. It is hard to sum up 10 years in a blog post, but suffice it to say that I was blessed beyond measure during the last ten years of my life and I cannot wait to see what the next have in store for me. Happy New Year!!!

One year ago: The Last Picture of 2008

Three Christmases

This is going by just a little too fast...

Christmas 2007


Christmas 2008


Christmas 2009

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

I love Christmas. I am sure this comes as a major shock, what with me saying that about 300 times in the last month of posts. This year was probably the best one yet and I only say that every year. Well, not every year. Christmas 2006 was not good...I was newly pregnant with Colin and very VERY sick...but other than that small glitch, I ALWAYS LOVE CHRISTMAS. We got to my parents house in Tyler on Wednesday evening, the day before Christmas Eve. I think the moment that I walked into that house made my whole year. Everything was warm and cozy, bathed in soft lights and the glow of decorations. Nothing in the whole world beats my childhood home dressed up for Christmas. It smelled like home...cookies, fudge, apple cider and egg nog. Every corner of the house was covered in family memories; ornaments spanning decades, the stuffed reindeer that my dad adores, and my mother's Santa collection just to name a few. Her tree is always the most wonderful thing that I have ever seen and this year did not disappoint. There were presents EVERYWHERE and my sisters were in the middle of the living room floor with wrapping paper and ribbon strewn all around them. Cory was on the couch with a sleeping Pryce in his arms, my mom was helping wrap and Jackson was building with blocks on the kitchen floor. My dad arrived home at the same moment we did and his booming voice filled the air with happiness. My immediate family all under one perfectly decorated sweet smelling roof. Perfection. We spent that night eating chex mix, fudge, tea cakes, cracker cookies, and Chick-Fil-A while wrapping presents and playing with Colin, Jackson and Pryce. It was after 10:30pm when Colin got to bed, which is insanely late for him. We were just all having too much fun. The grown-ups stayed up late into the night putting together the giant Thomas trains that my mom got the boys and wrapping more presents. Christmas Eve dawned bright and COLD and we spent the day drinking hot spiced cider, eating everything we could get our hands on, watching Christmas specials from the DVR and having a blast. We were all sitting around when it happened...SNOW. IT SNOWED!!!!!! We were running around like little children, taking pictures, hugging and even jumping up and down at one point. (I should say that my sisters and I were jumping up and down while Jer shook his head in disbelief) :-) I have only witnessed one white Christmas in my whole life, the year I could not get home from PA. It was wonderful, but I was very homesick at the time. There has been no snow in Texas on Christmas in my lifetime at least. It was like magic and it made my memory of this year one of my most treasured to date. It was like every Christmas song was coming true before my eyes. That night, my sisters and I put on our annual Christmas pj's and we had a huge feast cooked by my mom...chicken spaghetti, baked beans, potato salad, seven layer salad, cornbread salad, two kinds of cheese dips with crackers, and the half ton of desserts. HEAVEN! We stayed up super late that night after Colin went to bed (getting ready for Santa) and Christmas Day was upon us in what felt like an instant. I slept with Colin in one of the extra bedrooms because we forgot to bring his bed rails and Jer slept in the living room. That morning, Colin sat straight up in bed and said, "Mommy! Big presents?!?!". It took my breath away....he got it!! I alerted Jer and we walked into the living room to see the spread from Santa. A work bench with lots of tools and equipment (including a working drill!), car sets, a battery operated train that was chugging around the track when we walked in, and a giant fire truck...not to mention the stockings and other goodies. Colin gasped and ran for everything, shouting "Look! Look at this!". He also ran over and noted that Santa ate his cookies and drank all his milk, which was insanely adorable. By the time my sister Meredith and her family arrived, I had my famous "monkey muffins" cooking in the oven and the cider and coffee were flowing. We had the most wonderful day opening presents (my parents got me TWO cast iron skillets and a deep fryer!!), eating and just loving each other. Oh, and laughing hysterically at Cory and Jer at any given moment. Those two are keepers. ;-) I know that I get long winded when talking about Christmas, so I will end this post for now, but don't be surprised if I wax poetic on the subject again. There are so many cute little individual moments that I want to remember. What a spectacular holiday!! Happy Birthday, Jesus! Here come the pictures...

Sitting with my sisters on Christmas morning in our matching pj's...may we never get too old for this. :-) My mom was so proud of herself because they have little white kittens on them that look just like Musette, which is an old childhood movie that we obsessed over. As you would imagine, they were a hit.

Colin with his awesome new work bench on Christmas morning...Aunt Alieson in the background on the laptop.

Colin and Jackson opening presents together. They were SO PRECIOUS in those pj's from my parents.

My mom and Colin opening gifts...my dad is sitting there in the chair.

Colin and Jackson went absolutely INSANE over the Thomas trains from my parents. You have never seen such joy. I will never forget this moment!

Colin and his precious baby cousin, Pryce. He loves her SO MUCH. He is also rocking a pretty messy spaghetti face. :-)

Hugging my wonderful husband in the SNOW. ON CHRISTMAS EVE! Did I mention the snow? ;-)

We were such dorks...this was when the snow first started and we were running around in the driveway jumping up and down. :-)

Colin and Mommy in the snow outside my parents front door.

It would not be Christmas if I was not acting silly. Nice antlers. :-)

One view of the tree when we walked into my parents house on the 23rd. There are no words for how much I love this tree and every memory on it.