The State of the Household Address

Get ready for some very random bullets of assorted stuff that I want to remember but let pile up before writing them here. Is that a run-on sentence? :-)

* Summer is HERE. EARLY. Sort of. Maybe it is always this hot in early June and I mentally block it out. Anyway, the last two weeks have been brutally hot and humid. Our outdoor activities officially must involve a pool or I will melt.

* I took Colin to the BEST place yesterday...a giant "rainforest" pool for little children. It was an enormous pool surrounded by beach entry with a depth of no more than Colin's waist at it's deepest point. It was full of water cannons, slides, and a huge playground in the water. We have been to places like this before, but this one is cheap (kids 3 and under are free!) and the whole rainforest park is surrounded by a fence, so the kids can't run to a deeper pool. I was able to sit with all of my friends on the beach and watch the boys at the same time. We had a picnic there and stayed for a long while. It was a blast and probably the best outdoor activity we have found for summer, without a doubt. I did not get any pictures, which I am not happy about!

*At the water park, Colin stuck to the grown-ups like glue. He loved the water, but the big park was a new experience and therefore he stuck close to me. He gleefully hung all over my friend Kim the entire time. Her son Hayden was a rock star going down the little twisty water slide and Colin stood at the bottom cheering for him for the longest time. After he would come down, Colin would clap and yell and then announce, "GO AGAIN, HAYDEN!". It was so adorable. His favorite activity of the day was using buckets to dump water over our heads. It was a very wet afternoon!

* It is hard to find the right words to explain how much I love Colin's personality. He is just so funny and adorable and interesting, all at the same time. He still takes his time to warm up to new places and likes to absorb a new situation before he ventures away from me. He still does not like the innate and normal roughness of children his age, which can be trying at times. However, he loves people. It doesn't seem to make sense, but while he can seem easily overwhelmed and shy, he also loves to grab the attention of others. When at the grocery store (or anywhere, really), when someone passes by he says, "Hello!" and waves and smiles. Once someone directs their attention toward him, he goes into full performance mode, trying to make them laugh or engage them in conversation. He tells knock knock jokes at the barber shop, formally introduces himself to the teenagers bagging groceries at Albertson's and asks everyone, "What's your name?". I love it. He is also oddly polite! He loves to thank people and does it at the cutest moments..."Thanks for opening my door, Thanks for driving me home, Thanks for my apple juice". He catches me off guard several times a day. When we left the grocery store yesterday afternoon, I said "Colin, you were such a good helper at the store" and he replied with "Oh, thanks Mommy!". I absolutely adore this!!

*Colin is a pretty demanding little man these days to say the least. He asks a LOT of questions. A LOT. In fact, he questions literally every word that comes out of my mouth and everything he sees. While driving, he talks the entire time about every bird, truck, sign and so forth. He asks what everything is, but does not stop with just hearing the answer. He will ask why until you don't know what to say anymore! :-) This has been going on for several months already, which seems really early and caught me off guard more than any other parenting issue that has come up. He has already asked me where babies come from!!!! My totally impromptu response for that was "Ummmm....errrrr......well....God makes babies!". Since that day, he questions me frequently about God and what he makes and doesn't make, where he lives and why we can't see him. He wants to touch and see everything. If I make pasta for dinner, he wants to see the box and touch the dry noodles. If I pour apple juice or cereal, he asks his patented "Can I see it?" and when shown, he always says "OOOOOHHHH!". He asks a lot about work and jobs. After sending dad off to work one day recently, he asked me what my job is. I said that my job was to take care of Colin. A couple of days later after Jer left the house, Colin said matter-of-factly, "I wish Daddy could be a Mommy for work like you." Nothing gets by this kid! He has now started insisting on climbing into his own carseat, which takes forever. If you try to hurry him along with anything he wants to do himself (which is everything), you will not stop hearing about it, so I try to be patient. :-)

*We had our first big playdate here at the house with all of Colin's friends last week. He was so excited that he nearly lost his mind. He screamed every time the doorbell rang! He gave tours of the house, and basically ran around like a lunatic the entire time. He did a pretty good job of sharing his stuff, considering it was the first time he has had friends over. He has not stopped talking about how "all my buddies came to my playroom!" and he will randomly show me a toy and tell me that "Hayden loved this" or "Jack thinks this is cool". He continues to be utterly in love with all of the babies, who are now all around 14 months old and have little patience for Colin trying to drag them across the room. HA! He tries to hug them and is too rough, so I have to pay pretty close attention.

* I am trying very hard right now to work on Colin's extremely dramatic reactions. He overreacts to just about everything that does not go his way, from not being able to get his shoe off to a crayon rolling out of reach. He hates it when he can't get things right immediately and will quickly cry and say "I can't DOOOOO it, Mommy!"...this is a tough one for me! I spend extra time explaining things like practice and patience, but this is a hard lesson to learn. I often find myself telling him that some things are just not a big deal and not to sweat the small stuff. I wonder if he will outgrow this or if he will be this easily exasperated when he is in school. We shall see.

And so ends yet another long post full of things I have been meaning to make note of. I will end with a picture of my very dramatic and absolutely wonderful little man. He is my sunshine. :-)

We Love Aunt Victoria!

I have had yet another delay in posting, but for good reason! We have been very busy and having a blast with Jer's sister Victoria and her boyfriend Josh. They live in NJ, but Josh has an aunt who lives close to us. He was asked to deliver a car to her, so he and Victoria decided to make it a giant rode trip and visit with us! Colin was absolutely over the moon about the whole thing. It made leaving PA a little easier because he knew she was coming to visit the next week. They made great time driving across the country and made it here last Saturday afternoon. They just left today and we already miss them so much. I can't express in words how amazing they are with Colin. He absolutely adores them! Josh is a giant guy...I am guessing 6'3 or 6'5...and Colin climbed all over him like a jungle gym the whole time, thus starting the nickname of "jungle josh". ;-) Victoria is so sweet and loving and clearly in love with Colin, which brings me so much joy. I love knowing that Colin has so many people in his life that cherish him. It was such a wonderful few days watching Colin basking in their attention. He made Josh play trains with him about a hundred times and yelled for "Aunt Victorweeya" to come check out his "cool firetrucks" about every 5 minutes. He has told me a zillion times today that he wants them to come back to our house. When we got in the car this afternoon, he pointed at the empty seats beside his carseat and announced, "Those seats are for Josh and Victoria!". Then at dinner, he insisted that we call Victoria so that he could "tell her I am eating!"....it broke my heart a little! Colin is such a loving little boy and once he decides he likes you, he wants you around all the time.

We spent the week eating a ton of mexican food, BBQ and going to Babe's (of course!). On Sunday night, we took them to Jer's office and we all went in for a sim demo. These flight simulators are $20 million machines, so needless to say, I have not been quick to take Colin for a ride in one. ;-) I was nervous beforehand that he would not like the experience and want to get out when we took off, but of course, I was wrong. Colin is a born pilot, just like his daddy! Once Jer had us in the air, he handed the reins over to Colin and it was hysterical to watch. That kid was IN CHARGE! He sat so calmly holding the yoke and every now and then he would move one hand to turn a switch here and there....like he really knew what he was doing. He was not freaked out at all with the real flying aspect and Victoria and I were sitting in the back of the sim just melting over how adorable it was. The only bad news is that Colin knows exactly what Jer does at work everyday and now begs to go with him. Oops! I have a feeling that Colin will learn how to fly long before he has a drivers license.

On Monday, we took a tour of the brand spanking new Cowboys Stadium and let me tell you...it did NOT disappoint!! I have been a fan since, well....birth! I can remember watching games with my Daddy and thinking that Tom Landry was the coolest guy ever. I have loved them in good times and in bad! ;-) I admit that I got a little teary on the morning they knocked down Texas Stadium...I have so many childhood memories around that place and not seeing it anymore as I drive past the spot, that is hard. The first thing I saw when I walked up to the new stadium was a giant statue of Tom Landry, which I immediately made Colin pose with. It is probably my favorite shot of the whole day. THAT is Texas to me!
The only drawback to the week was the giant case of bronchitis that kept me coughing all night every night. I am finally back to normal, but the house sure does feel empty now. We have had a charmed few weeks with family and now we are getting back into the swing of normal life. There are lots of play dates, swimming and birthday parties around the corner, so summer is absolutely in high gear. Now if only it weren't already so freaking hot!

Assorted Videos From Cowboys Stadium!!

Our Big Giant Pennsylvania Vacation!

We are home from our trip to Pennsylvania and there are really not enough words to describe what a great trip we had and how wonderful Colin was. It is overwhelming to think about putting our week into a single post, but I want to get all the details down so that we remember everything about it. I am going to write about every detail so that I can look back on it down the road and read all about the first big trip that we took as a family.

Our flight departed on Tuesday morning at 9:40 and we got absolutely everything packed into the car before waking Colin up at the last minute. Things started out amazingly well! We parked in a remote lot and took the bus to the terminal, which Colin thought was awesome. The other folks on our bus asked Colin where he was going and he happily informed them that he was "going to see my Aunt Victoria". :-) He talked the whole way to the terminal about the buses and airplanes and was jumping out of his skin with excitement. When we were packing the night before, Jer told Colin that he would have his own suitcase to carry on the plane. I packed the tiny little roller suitcase with some books, DVD player, his blanket and stuffed animals (Sam the bunny and Bear Bear to be exact). Upon our arrival at the airport, Colin insisted that he roll his suitcase himself. It ended up being one of my favorite memories of the trip; Colin confidently striding through the terminal while rolling his carry on. It was utterly adorable.

Colin breezed through security and we all shared McDonald's for breakfast in the terminal before boarding our flight. When they called for us to board the plane, Colin rolled his own bag and walked right up and handed the attendant his boarding pass. I almost melted from the cuteness of it. He just seemed to innately know exactly what to do and had no problem at all with the whole process. He strode right down and boarded the plane like he had done it a million times. I was so proud of him that I could barely see straight! Jer had found the co-pilot and told him that it was Colin's first flight, so he announced it on the intercom. The whole process was going flawlessly. We taxied out and were next for take-off when the pilot informed us that due to weather in Newark, we would be holding on the runway for an hour. I almost had a stroke. Things were going so well! How could this be happening to me?! Colin watched movies, ate snacks and played with his toys while I sat sweating nervously in my seat waiting for him to realize that he was stuck and freak out. Luckily, the little man hung in there and managed to wait patiently. We took off after the hour and our 3 hour flight was now 4 hours plus. I had tons of new toys stashed in my bag and we pulled them out at various times while watching his movies. The whole flight went so smoothly until the very end, when we started the descent and his ears popped. That upset him in a huge way and he went into hysterics while holding his ears. He promptly fell asleep in my arms while crying, which resulted in one of only two naps that he took during the whole trip. ;-) He was soooo good and I was bursting with joy when we landed. We made it!! As we waited at the baggage claim, an older woman sought us out in the crowd to tell us how wonderful Colin was. She went on and on about the other children on the flight who had been running around "like a bunch of wild indians" and how Colin was "the most well behaved and charming little boy". I wanted to hug her neck and tell her that I had been paralyzed with fear that Colin was going to fall into the wild indian category, but instead I just told her thank you. :-)

When we arrived in Newark, it was 55 degrees and pouring rain, which was not exactly what we had in mind. Jer's dad and stepmother picked us up and drove us to their house in Pennsylvania, which was about an hour away. Once we got home, Colin went berserk with all the goodies waiting for him. Nana and Papa (as he calls Jer's parents) had purchased an entire camping scene for him, including his very own real tent that his Aunt Amanda bought. Jer's sisters, Amanda and Victoria were still working and would not be over until the following day, but they had left their gift laid out for him, too. He is now the proud owner of his own tent, army bag, sleeping bag and pillow, canteen, mess kit, flashlight, and safety kit. Victoria bought him his first scooter, which he promptly jumped on and knew exactly how to use. I have no clue where he learned that, but he was good! We then ordered dinner from Crossroads Pizza, one of Jer's childhood favorites, and had cheese steaks, pierogies and pizza. It was a perfect night!

The second day of our trip started with a trip to the fire station. Jer's dad has been a volunteer for decades now and is still a non-active member. He was able to walk us right in the bay and Colin got to play on several firetrucks and ambulances. You have never seen a kid so excited! It was like a dream come true for him. The fire chief was there and Colin got to chat with him, too. He was in and out of all the trucks and almost refused to leave. Jer said that it was one of his favorite memories from childhood to play in that exact fire station with his dad and here was Colin, doing the same thing. It was so sweet.

After the fire station, we headed over to Pop Pop Toot's house. Pop Pop Toot is Jer's grandfather and he is 97 years old. He still lives in his same house, takes care of himself, drives his own car and basically is amazing. I absolutely adore him. My own grandparents have been long passed away and I really attached myself to Roger when Jer and I were dating. He has always treated me just like his own granddaughter and never fails to send me birthday cards. He is so loving and has always doted on me and I just love him so much. It overwhelmed me to see Colin with him for the very first time. I took too many pictures to count and video, too. The family calls him "Toot" because of his love of trains...his whole basement is a giant collection of train models. These are not toys, but real replicas of trains and most of them have already been donated to the local museum. He still has a ton of stuff in his basement and just as I imagined, Colin was in love. He touched and checked out everything he could get his hands on and just adored Pop Pop Toot. I can't believe that Colin will have pictures of four generations to look back on...it just warms my heart. Pop Pop also pointed out that Jeremy was his first grandson and Colin is his first great grandson! How wonderful is that?!?! Tonight, Colin looked up at me out of the blue and said, "Mommy, I think Pop Pop Toot needs a kitty. Can we please take a kitty to him and then stay and play trains?" I thought it was the sweetest thing ever. We all love Toot! :-)

That night we all stayed home and Jer and I made tacos for the family (had to bring a little Texas!). His sisters Amanda and Victoria, as well as Victoria's boyfriend Josh, arrived and we all stayed up late looking at old pictures and laughing. I had the luxury of finding out that Jer and his friend used to go door to door in the neighborhood offering to break dance for people. He made his cousins carry his boom box and cardboard box to dance on. I almost passed out from laughing so hard. ;-) Thursday morning the whole family got up early and headed over to the Crayola Factory in Easton. We all had the most wonderful time chasing Colin around the place...we got to color on big glass walls with markers, write with neon lights, write on sidewalks with chalk, do different paint projects, play with melted crayon wax and then play with their modeling clay. Colin was in heaven and ran to each and every activity with bells on! We wore ourselves out and then headed over to a diner for lunch, which was a blast. I was craving good diner food (something that we don't have in Texas) and Colin had never been. He asked for spaghetti and boy did he get it! He was overjoyed and putting on quite the show for the table. He also made up special "songs" with his aunts and was cracking them up while we ate. Once we got home, we busted out our new 3D sidewalk chalk from Crayola and made lovely drawings all over the driveway. Colin played mercilessly with Amanda's puppy Sophie, who he immediately began calling "Snophie", and Victoria's dog Wally. That night we lit a big fire in the backyard fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Once we got Colin to sleep, we sat in front of the fire drinking wine and talking while the flames died...it was one of those beautiful moments that I will always remember. Here are some assorted pictures from a fantastic day

On Friday, we went to pick up Jer's Mom Mom for playtime and lunch with Colin. She is another amazing person that I am lucky enough to know because of Jeremy. I can't believe that Colin got to meet his great grandfather AND great grandmother during this trip! She also amazes me at how quickly and totally she welcomed me into her family and how she never forgets little things like our birthdays. She sends Colin a card for almost every holiday. She had a little bag of goodies all set up for Colin and he loved it! We took her to a bounce place for Colin to run off some energy and he asked me today if we could "go back and bounce with great mom mom". It breaks my heart that we can't live closer to everyone at the same time!



On Friday night, Nana and Papa hosted a big party at their house for all of the extended family and a handful of our closest friends. We prepped all day for it and Colin even took a nap in preparation for the festivities! We had all kinds of delicious food and family and friends were everywhere! My very best friend from PA, April, came with her husband and precious baby girl Lena. Colin, of course, adored her. :-) Nick and his wife Jeannie and Chris K. came over, too. This on top of all the aunts, uncles and cousins made for a fun filled night. Jer got out the "big bang cannons" which are a favorite memory of childhood for him and his sisters. They make a very loud bang when fired and I thought that Colin would surely start to cry over the noise. Not so much! He jumped right down and started helping his dad fire them!! Like father, like son. ;-) It was a perfect night and the best big ending for our special trip. It seemed like it was all over so fast! These are a few pictures from that night...this first one is Jer's favorite. Colin is riding "Uncle Chrissy's" bike and he was too excited for words over it. He better not get used to it! ;-)

Working on the big bang cannons!


Glenn, Lena, April and Chalna

Colin loves Lena!

Saturday morning was tough because the time to go was looming ahead of us and none of us wanted to leave! We all went to breakfast together at a local diner and I feasted on just about everything on the menu. It should be noted that I need to diet after this trip! I really miss diners...it is such a delicious and cheap way to eat good home cooking at any hour of the day. Colin spent the whole breakfast running around to all the family members and having fun. Afterwards, we stopped at the dollar store so that I could restock the prizes for the plane ride home. We headed home and started packing up while Colin played with everyone on the back porch. We loaded up and Jer's parents drove us back to Newark for our flight home. Colin hugged everyone goodbye and immediately began chanting in the car that he wanted to go back. It broke all of our hearts a little. We made the goodbye at the airport as short as possible and we all felt heavy hearted as we checked in for our flight. Colin's spirits were raised when he got to carry his suitcase again. :-) We went to the food court and Colin picked out chinese food for lunch. He was so perfect; he picked out our table, carefully parked his suitcase beside his chair and sat nicely while we all ate and talked about our favorite parts of the trip. Colin said his favorite part was "all the doggies". We went through security and then spent over an hour watching Colin inspect all the rows of seats while eating grapes and playing with left over modeling clay from Crayola. Soon it was time to board and Colin took his boarding pass and walked ahead of us to check in, suitcase in hand as usual. You would swear this child was a world traveler. It was crazy! The flight home was incredibly smooth; the weather cooperated and we actually landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule in Dallas. Colin played and watched movies throughout the flight and never made noise or left his seat Granted, I kept him heavily occupied the whole time. Thank GOD for all those toys and the DVD. There is no way on earth we could have flown without them! I broke out a bag of gummy bears when we were about to descend, which worked wonders. There were no tears at all. Colin even informed us calmly when his ears popped and then when they popped back into place. We landed and began gathering our things while the woman behind us tapped me on the shoulder to tell me how wonderful Colin was. I was grinning ear to ear at this point...compliments on both flights! I had been so worried, but my son behaved like a prince. Whew!! Finally for the best ending ever...as we walked out of the airplane, the captain was standing at the cockpit door watching everyone deboard. Colin was walking ahead of me and Jer and he stopped at the cockpit door and said in his precious little voice, "Thank you for flying us home!". I almost melted on the floor where I stood. I did not tell him to say it, or even mention something remotely like that to him. He came up with it all on his own. All I could think about while we got our baggage and headed home was what a truly wonderful son, husband and family I have. The whole trip was amazing and I could not ask for a better memory for Colin's first big trip.

All smiles in Newark and ready to come home.

Waiting on our luggage...home safe and sound!

THE END! :-)

First Plane Ride!

Here is another little video, this one of Colin on the plane. My favorite part is the end...listen to his answer when I ask how old he is. Hysterical! :-)

My big post about the trip is on the way...it is just taking me forever to write!

Colin, The Travel King

Here is the first little video snippet from our trip...this is Colin walking down the ramp to board the plane. Please note that he is carrying his own suitcase (he refused to let me near it) and walking like he owns the place. He was totally at ease, like he had done this a thousand times. I thought it was hysterical and had to get it on video.

A Nervous Mama

I have a bit of the "calm before the storm" mentality this week...next Tuesday we are leaving to visit Jer's family. We are flying to Newark. With Colin. On a plane. With other passengers. For 3 hours. Plus the whole time in the airport. And the drive from Newark to Jer's parents house. I am honestly paralyzed with fear over this. The thought of this giant travel day, with airline terminals, flights, and then the drive...I am just frozen with terror. I know that it will be okay, I know it, but still I am so nervous that I can barely see straight. This is not a train ride that we will be able to walk away from or a playdate that we can depart early from. This is the real thing and I am having a very hard time not imagining the worst...which means that it can only be better than what I am picturing, right? I think that airline travel with a highly sensitive child could be more upsetting to the parent of that child than the child himself. ;-) I wish I could just snap my fingers and be on the airplane. The waiting and thinking is really driving me bonkers...that and the mental image of Colin standing in the terminal screaming that he does not want to ride the airplane. Yeah...that thought is slightly freaking me out. However, I am reminding myself that there is a good chance that he will love the whole experience. He does have aviation in his blood, afterall. ***breathe in***breathe out*** :-)

The good news is that we are all going to have a BLAST once we get there, of that I am sure. Colin is beside himself to see his Aunt Victoria, Aunt Amanda, Nana and Papa. We also informed him that he gets to go to the Crayola Factory, to which he almost fainted with joy. He won't stop talking about it and I cannot wait to see the look on his face when we actually get there. "Mommy, we are going to the CWAYON FACTORY where they MAKE MY CWAYONS!!" Oh my lord, it is the cutest thing I have ever heard! This is the first time for Colin to visit his Daddy's hometown and I think it is going to be so special for all of us. Now if only I could get some magical powers and just skip the travel days!

Colin is very happy these days. We do a lot with our friends and Colin's buddies have become a big part of his life. We have been going out to the airport a lot lately with all the boys to have picnics at the viewing area overlooking a runway. Colin just loves it and gets so excited when each friend arrives. He is so funny and outgoing with the people that he loves. He likes to tell jokes...which are actually just words that he picks out and decides are "silly". He then runs up and yells them at you and then cracks up with laughter, like he told you the best joke ever. His current favorite thing is to yell "CUPCAKE!" at Kim whenever he sees her. She plays her part very well and laughs at him, so he is probably going to keep it up for a long while. ;-) Here are a couple of pictures from the airport this week. I love that Colin turned around to wave at me.
Just some sweet boys watching the airplanes!


He has been saying and doing so many things that blow me away. He notices everything. EVERYTHING. When my dad was visiting about 3 weeks ago, he used a small white coffee mug. I pulled it out the other morning and Colin said, "Mommy, that is the coffee cup that Duke uses. You need to put it back." There was a woman eating in the booth behind us at lunch last Saturday and Colin leaned over the seat back and asked her why she was sad. That was an interesting moment for me. It is hard to explain to an almost 3 year old why he should not always make his observations out loud. He is loving firetrucks and any and everything that could be a "rescue" vehicle at the moment. He loves to "go on an emergency" with his firetruck, ambulance and police car and "save people". He is obsessed with his "diggers" and all construction related materials. He knows what they all are and corrects me, "Mommy that is not a digger. It is a front end loader!" The funniest thing is when we pass by the big construction area where a new "high five" roadway is going in...he gets so angry at me when I drive by and won't stop so that he can watch the big trucks working. I try to explain that you can't just stop on a major freeway, but it falls on deaf ears. :-) As the time comes to start planning Colin's birthday, I can't help but wish we could have it on a construction site. Colin would probably perish from excitement. Or better yet...go to an actual fire where firemen are putting out a blaze. Now THAT would make Colin happy. HAHAHAHA!