Fingerpainting!!

My little man is bored. I decided that we desperately needed to switch things up today, so we broke out all of Colin's awesome finger paints and supplies that he got from his best friends, Kate and Carson. We both had an absolute blast!! We got all set up out on the back patio since the weather today was perfect at 90 degrees and sunny. I squirted some of each color on four different sheets of paper and let Colin go to town. It took him a few minutes to figure things out, but once he got going, he was a natural! He was squealing and laughing up a storm! I had to put the camera away once things started to get really messy...he was hysterical! I don't think babies love anything more than getting dirty! The fun picked up even more once he got tired of painting...I went over and turned on the hose to clean him up and that turned into a solid hour of play!! I stripped his diaper off and ended up handing him the hose. I sat in a lawn chair while Colin ran around the little square of cement, squirting himself, the dog, me and the grill. :-) He was having so much fun that I went inside and got his bath toys...he splashed and played forever! What a great time!! I think he felt great doing something different for a change, not to mention the fact that he got to leave his diaper off and play with water...two of his favorite pastimes. This was an afternoon that I think we will remember for a long time!

Colin's Professional One Year Photos!!

The most wonderful photographer in the universe, otherwise known as my amazing friend Melissa, has posted her precious pictures of my little man from his one year photo shoot. I am so beside myself this morning with how truly beautiful they are that I can barely do anything but stare at the computer screen. Can you believe she is one of my best friends?!? How lucky am I?? :-) Here is the link...enjoy!!

http://www.photographybymelibelle.com/gallery/5757925_gzBrY#355975661_kzugK

Happy 13 Months, Colin!

Our angel turns 13 beautiful months old, today! Happy day, little man!!

Who's That Kid With The Oreo Cookie?

As you can see from the glorious series of photos above, Colin had his first ever Oreo tonight. He (obviously) loved it. This was one of the most joyous things to watch...Colin had a blast eating his cookie and it took him forever to finish it. The first shot is the before picture and the after...oh man. Let's just say we went straight into the bathtub. I love the super close-up shot that Jer took...so hilarious!

In other firsts, Colin said his first word other than the basic Mama and Dada...he said "Enzo"!! It comes out like "i-no" at first and then progresses into "i-so". He is working on his "z" sound and it is the cutest thing you ever heard. I have known all along that Enzo would be the first thing to come out of his mouth since I yell at that dog all day long. Hearing it was like music to the ears...my little baby is getting so big!!

Monday Stuff

I will start today's post with the best possible news. It rained here all day. Like actual water from the sky rain. It was amazing. Due to the fact that we no longer have sprinklers and our neighbors pool is still a huge ditch, rain is the best possibly scenario for our pitiful lawn. We have been feeling like we live in Phoenix with the lack of rain here lately, so today was a blessing. This front has brought much lower temps, which should stay around all week, so I am loving the weather in general. It feels like I need a jacket when it dips down to 85. HA! :-)

I spent 4 hours on Sunday finishing the painting in the office. I still can't believe how much work painting our small office turned out to be. I chose a very deep green and it simply took a lot of work to get such a dark color to look nice while doing things on my own. Jer watched Colin so that I could get it knocked out. I think the color turned out beautiful and now I am trying to arrange a photo wall dedicated to aviation. I also put together a large mural type frame of lots of Jer's photographs from his aircraft carrier from his Navy days. That is going to look great hanging on the wall! I wish we had the extra funds for new office furniture, but I think the fresh walls at least spruced up our somewhat boring glass desk.

I don't ever touch on news in my blog (I should...it would make for interesting future reading!), but I decided that I needed to add one little tidbit. John Edwards is a huge asshole. After reading all the news articles on his affair, I told Jer that I was going to post an entry here titled simply, "John Edwards Is A Douche". Jer howled with laughter and told me that I should go one step further and add a picture of a bottle of douche for the body of the post. We got a huge laugh out of that one. This whole thing simply boggles my mind, especially the involvement of Fred Baron. Unbelievable. And this tool wanted to be President of The United States. Lovely.

Rain, office paint, and John Edwards. What a random post! :-)

A Superb Saturday!

What a wonderful Saturday we had! We decided to take Colin to that indoor play facility that I mentioned yesterday and we all had a blast! First of all, it was complete and utter chaos in this place. I neglected to think about the fact that on a Saturday afternoon it was likely to be insane. There were at least 12 birthday parties going on just while we were there. It is a huge building that is about three stories high with play jungles literally from the floor to the ceiling. One side of the room says, "Ages 4 to 104" which I thought was cute and the other side was "Ages 3 and under". It was a massive web of crawl spaces and bouncing floors and slides and everything you can imagine and a lot you couldn't! Colin is still a little young to truly go crazy...his little feet could slip through the webbing and he is not quite a monkey yet, with the ability to crawl up all the levels on his own. Jer and I took turns carrying him through the mazes of twists and turns and let me tell you, we were sweating bullets!! This place is a major workout!!! There were even some areas that you had to crawl up through a little hole to get to the next level! Crazy! It wore us slap out! Now when Colin is ready to climb these mazes on his own, it will be amazing. It is an intense workout for me, much less the little ones. This will be a perfect outlet for spending some serious energy one day. But back to today...Colin was awestruck. His eyes were like two saucers the entire time we were there. I have never seen him look quite like that before...he was blown away. It was so loud and colorful and children were running everywhere. He could not peel his eyes away from everything. Even though he did a lot of riding around in our arms, he loved it! Watching Colin experience something new is one of the greatest joys in the world. I could practically hear his brain soaking up all the new sights and sounds. He also went down a slide by himself for the very first time!!! He was a little confused by it, but seemed to enjoy it. He really liked to go down the slide with me! That was great fun!

After our family play date, we stopped for Thai teas and then made a dash into a locally owned little pet store to see the animals. Colin got to see a spider monkey right up close!!! He was putting his hands on the glass and the little monkey was chasing Colin's hands and looking right at him! I have no clue where they got a monkey in this little shop, but Colin loved it and so did we! I wish I could have taken him home!! :-)

Is that a good day or what? As one final thing, I am attaching the link to the latest Colin video. Jer was making goofy noises at Colin during dinner and it was just about the funniest thing Colin ever saw. You know I had to get it on film! :-) Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTh3ZFWXFKo

Cruising the Neighborhood!

Like a Christmas miracle, it finally rained heavily last night here in North Texas and the aftermath was a beautiful day! For the first time since...well...I can't remember, it was pleasant outside!! We actually went for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner with the little man. It felt wonderful to be outside again without having to be in a pool to survive! :-) Yippee!!