Life as we know it ... is changing

Potty Training

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 23:40:00 +0000

We haven't started any kind or hard core training here yet but C has definitely started showing interest. In the fall he started saying "Eww eww" when he had a poopy diaper. When we were in Indiana he said it before he actually pooped and sat down on the adult potty once or twice but nothing big. Now he tells us "Eww eww" for any kind of diaper that needs to be changed - wet or dirty.

The past few days he has been interested in actually sitting on the potty - but has no desire to take his pants an diaper off before hand. In fact tonight he was quite upset to take off his diaper even though he really wanted to sit on the potty. He did finally decide to take off his pants and diaper but did nothing except sit for a few seconds, get up, run to the kitchen for a cracker, come back and sit some more. Most people seem to use M&Ms or something sweet to aid in potty training... Apparently C would be happy with just crackers.

Random update on a 21 month old

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:51:00 +0000

I haven't had much time to actually blog, but I do want to take a quick minute to post about little things that Colin is doing if for nothing else so that I can remember as I go back and read through my posts in the future. It has ended up being a choppy disjointed post, but enjoy learning about where our "baby" is these days.

Colin has finally started talking - don't get me wrong, he has always been a babbler but now we can actually understand things coming out of this mouth.

"More", "milk", and "mine" sound very similar. Mike even asked me tonite how I could tell what he was saying... it's hard and it usually has to do with the context.
"More" actually means just that he wants something. He hasn't quite put together that more usually applies to something he already has or has recently finished.
"Choo choo" is a very popular word and he can pick out trains on our cups (what can I say, my husband works for the railroad so we have cups with trains on them) and in books.
Something that is very different but sounds very similar is "shoo shoo" - I'm not convinced he isn't saying the same thing. Funny enough, he does know the difference between his tennis shoes, "shoo", and his rain boots, "boots". He does, in fact, tend to say the word twice for some reason.
On the note of shoes, to Colin, socks are also called "shoo". No matter how many times I help by reminding him that they are socks, not shoes, he still calls them "shoo".
And on the note of saying things twice, when he's hungry he says "eat eat" and walks to his chair at the table.
While Mom and Mike were visiting he picked up on the word "plane" and looks up at the sky any time he hears them wherever we are.
Because we still live in a construction area, there are lots of trucks. He tries to say the word truck and does OK, but it's not the most recognizable.
Whenever he hears the trucks in the neighborhood backing up with their beeping signal going, he says "beep beep" followed quickly by "bye bye". The only thing I can think that makes him connect the two is that Mike's work truck has the signal whenever he goes in to reverse, but otherwise I have no idea why the reverse signal means "bye bye".
His newest word that just came about of the weekend is "outside".
He says "baby" and points out babies that he sees.
I think that he has learned "Elmo". We don't watch much Sesame Street but somehow he has learned Elmo. We do watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse more often and I noticed today that he pointed to Minnie and said "Elmo" this afternoon so maybe it's just that it's the character he has seen on TV?

The energy that this boy has is absolutely never ending. Colin would live outside if he were allowed to. The cooler weather isn't any deterrent at all. He also climbs on everything. For Christmas he is hopefully getting an outside play set that will be big enough for him to get some good climbing energy out on. The poor animals are the newest target of his energy, specifically the tails of the cats. We are working hard on redirecting and encouraging gentle touch but doesn't always help. Oliver in particular gets the brunt of Colin's energy. Also, because Oliver tends to jump on the kitchen counter a lot, Colin hears us tell him to get down quite frequently so he has now started yelling "down" out of nowhere. More often than not, there is actually no cat on the counter, just a toddler yelling "down". He also likes to tell Trucker to "go" anytime that we do during dinner (since Trucker normally is as close to Colin's feet during any meal or snack).

He climbed out of his bed a few weeks ago so we changed his crib to a toddler bed. The first night he cried as we left his room and ended up sleeping on the floor. The next day was better both at nap time and at bed time. The following day, however, he was up and about for the entire hour and a half of nap time. I checked on him once and saw he wasn't in bed but it took me probably half a minute to see his shadow from behind the curtains. He didn't see me so I quietly closed the door. About 45 minutes later I went back and he still wasn't in bed but this time he did see me checking on him so all bets were off about going to sleep at all. It seems that if you are a 21 month old boy then watching trucks and bulldozers is much more fun than napping.

He makes us laugh every day and is always picking up on something new. For instance, today I found him attempting to put deodorant on (first, I'm not sure why it was somewhere he could get to it and second, the cap was on so he wasn't actually putting it on). He loves to hear himself talk, scream, or sing. Usually we love to hear it too but I must admit the screaming is a little bit much sometimes - it's seriously high pitched!

Most of our pictures are on my phone but here's a recent one to tide everyone over until I can get more uploaded:

In the woods in the backyard - almost 2 months ago

Summer 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 02:53:00 +0000

We have had a good summer with the highlight being that we finally moved in to our house! But before more about that, we'll do a quick overview of the rest of the summer.

We did a little bit of camping this year. Unfortunately, it's not like Denver where no matter how warm it is in the city, just a little bit away you'll get to cooler weather. When it's hot at our house, it's also hot where we'd go camping. And since we currently don't have an AC in the camper, we were only able to go a couple times at the in the spring. Colin had a great time and I had fun getting to play with my camera.

We had a busy weekend just before Memorial Day. We got to show off our new "hometown" to Stu and Allison which also included showing them the framing of the new house.

Our first out-of-town visitors to our new home

The next day we went to my grandparents' farm in West Virginia. It was quiet, serene, and we got to see family that we hadn't seen in a very long time. Colin also got to enjoy his first chocolate sandwich cookie.

Resting on the way to Great-grandmama's

Yummy Oreo

Just like his cousin, always has a stick in his hand

We took an impromptu trip to the beach in New Jersey. Colin did not like the idea of the ocean at all but did really enjoy playing in the sand. After some coaxing we did get him to spend a few minutes in the pool, too. Between now and next summer we'll do swimming lessons, I hope, so with any luck next summer will give us more time in the water (and he'll enjoy it more, too).

Pick me up!!

Getting tired after an afternoon of playing

We also have started going to Little Gym. Colin loves to climb anything and everything so he has really enjoyed getting to climb on all the apparatus. He's not too sure about he following directions, but he's getting there.

And of course, the most exciting part of the summer has been getting to move in to the new place. We have been here just over two weeks, all our things were delivered out of storage last Friday, and amazingly we have made a good dent in getting things organized and put away. Living without things for 10 months shows you how minimally you really can live, but also how nice it is to have some things. Colin has adjusted fairly well but there are definitely times here and there that he gets mad - but who's to say that's not just because he's 18 months....

I'll do a more detailed post about where Colin is these days - there are things I want to write down just to not forget. He makes me laugh every day and he really does amaze me each day as well. He is a very smart, inquisitive, loving, energetic boy who we are thankful for every day.

Haircuts

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:54:00 +0000

Colin has had 2 hair cuts. I didn't think we would need them too frequently considering this is what he looked like at just about a year old:

Feb 9, 2012

But around my birthday when we went to the beach, we (and by "we" I actually mean Mike) decided that he needed to get his precious curls cut. It made me a little sad because I feared that the cute curls wouldn't grow back (which was a well founded fear it turns out). But we started getting more comments about how long his hair was getting, so alas, we went to a kid's hair place (45 minutes away since our town has nothing of the sort) to get a haircut.

June 2012

Colin did well for his first haircut. Initially he didn't want to let go of me but once he got a handful of lollipops he was better. He didn't eat any lollipops but did enjoy playing with them. And he sure did look handsome in the end.

Watching himself in the mirror

And today, we had to do it again. We went to the place the Mike goes to and Colin did OK despite the fact that he was hungry and tired and is going through a very mommy-clingy phase right now. Today, he did eat the lollipop and appeared to enjoy it. The stylist was awesome and definitely skilled at quickly cutting a toddler's hair. I was very impressed - the salon is closer, I liked the cut better, a little cheaper... we'll be going back again.

Patiently waiting his turn while reading a Sports Illustrated - his hair grew fast in the past two months

Yummy!

Where'd the little boy go?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:47:00 +0000

I was comparing pictures today - one from April and one from yesterday. How could he look so different in just a couple months??

Colin month by month

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:25:00 +0000

I have downloaded pictures and finally gotten to start organizing so I though it'd be fun to see what Colin looked like month to month in his first year. Here's the result. It's incredible how he looks like himself and looks nothing like himself all at the same time in the earlier pictures.

Our house!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Why does it always seem that we are starting a post with something like "I know, it's been a month (or two, or three)" but alas, I'm working to get caught up. I finally have a computer desk set up so it will be a little easier to keep little hands away while I'm trying to work on things like blog posts.

We are still living in the apartment and the walls haven't closed in... yet. As things stand right now, we'll be in the house near the beginning of August. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like over the past month or so.

April 27th - broken ground and foundation walls

We thought it looked smaller than we were expecting... until we saw what Mike looked like in the basement

May 13th - the start of the second story going up

May 18th - we could finally walk around the first floor and see the floor plan again

Our first family portrait!

Our backyard (currently torn up for the septic field, hopefully grass will grow soon after we move in)

View from the master bedroom

May 23rd - All the windows (except for one above the garage apparently) and doors have been installed

Luckily the house is 5 minutes from the apartment and only slightly off the trip from daycare to home so between the two of us we drive by multiple times a week. I know once we get past the big things like walls going up and (hopefully in the next few weeks) the exterior going up, it will seem much slower but I'm so excited that we have a move in date (knock on wood).

A Special Day

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:47:00 +0000

Today Colin started daycare. As you can see, the picture they captured of him is pretty typical - sitting there, holding a toy, sucking his thumb. We have been working/struggling lately with him wanting to be held what seems like all the time so I think that getting out of his comfort zone and playing with other kids - without me around - will really help. And who knows, maybe seeing all these other kids walking will cause him to let go and join them!

Birthday #1... What a Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:30:00 +0000

While I was watching the Super Bowl this year I was reflecting a lot on the Super Bowl last year. Last year I sent Mike off to the party with our friends that we go to every year because I just wasn't "feeling great". Truth be told, I had been having contractions since the night before and I told Mike that I thought it was possible we'd be having a baby that night but he didn't believe me! By the end of the first half I was pretty sure I was in labor and by 1:00 AM we were on the way to the hospital. Colin made his arrive at 8:17 AM after a non-eventful labor (with just a bit of fentanyl for me towards the end to take an edge off the pain... I'm not sure it actually did). As I was sitting on the birth ball around 3:30 AM I realized that it looked like Colin (or Charlotte, we didn't know if it was a boy or girl until he was born) would be born on the same day as my nephew two years later. I'm not sure how we ended up so lucky but I think it's pretty cool. I think the boys will as they get older, too.

The actual birth was pretty incredible (it wasn't all beauty and rainbows but I'll gloss that over a bit for the sake of the blog). The L&D nurse who was there for the delivery was incredible (I really wish I could say the same for the one I had overnight while I was actually laboring, but I guess you go with what you get). One of the best complements I got was her telling me that I gave her inspiration to try to go unmedicated (she was 12 weeks pregnant at the time). It took me almost a minute after Colin was born to remember to ask if it was a boy or a girl (because of the dose of fentanyl I had gotten and Colin's laid back lack of crying he was over on the warmer pretty quickly and not with me unfortunately). Speaking of his lack of crying, the image that will always be in my head is him looking straight at me stunned with big bright eyes right as he was born.

Since Colin was over a week early and my plan was to finish getting the nursery ready and get my bag packed for the post-dates birth I was sure we would have, it being my first and all, we managed to throw a few things together as we were leaving the house but did not get a camera. That said, all we had in the way of pictures were fuzzy iPhone pictures from his first bath. (I was given quite a hard time about not having pictures to post on Facebook - I tried but for some reason my phone would not post at all.)

Luckily, Mike made it home to get the camera that night and the next morning a friend came by to get some pictures uploaded to Facebook followed closely by my mom and stepdad getting to the hospital to take more pictures.

He sure was stylin' on the way home from the hospital in his grandpa jeans

The past year has been crazy - not only because of bringing home baby and becoming mom and dad but also for all the changes we have made in our lives. If you had asked a year ago where we'd be today, I would not have said half way across the country from where we started. Colin brings joy to us every day and he truly has me laughing all the time. That's not to say that he is the perfect baby, but I love seeing the new things he learns all the time.

Stay tuned for an update from his 1 year appointment, too!

I know, I know

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:41:00 +0000

You'll have to forgive me for falling off the face of the ~~earth~~ blogosphere in the past few months. Since I was last present on the blog at the beginning of November, Colin and I have visited Maryland then made the actual move, put the house on the market, gone under contract, found potential homes here... it's been a crazy few months but it is so nice to be living in the same place as Mike finally. So in the interest of time, I'll update the last few months by way of pictures. Then on to one of my goals for the year - update at least once a week... we'll see how that goes.

Loving time with Aunt Jenni

My sister and nephew made it to my dad's to visit and the great thing about that is my dad lives just an hour from us! So we got to spend a little bit of time together - but not nearly enough time.

We went to NYC for 3 days to celebrate Christmas as a family. We knew that we wouldn't have a "Christmas" here since there were no decorations and we didn't really even know anyone here, so it was our own little present to ourselves to get to spend the holiday together and experience a great city.

Herald Square Santa

Colin's first Santa experience was with the Santa on 34th Street. It was pretty fun to see the actual "Miracle on 24th Street" Santa. The Macy's at Herald Square was incredible! We went on the night of the 22nd and they told us it was an hour and 15 minute wait and we decided to come back the next morning. They warned us that the 23rd would be even busier but we decided to go at around 10am and we waited maybe 30 minutes, tops. It was definitely worth it even though Colin looks a little shell-shocked in all the pictures.

We had a very touristy-filled time in New York but it really was a great trip. We started our trip with the Empire State Building then headed back to the hotel to try to get Colin to take a nap, which he was not a fan of despite being exhausted. He screamed so loud that one of the maids knocked on the door to make sure everything was OK. That night we went to Macy's and Rockefeller Center before crashing at the hotel. Friday after our time with Santa, we made it to Union Station, the Chrysler Building, did some shopping and ended the day by meeting up with Colin's favorite nanny from the summer because she's now living in NYC (which made me very sad when she left this summer). Saturday we went to Katz's Deli (famous for the When Harry Met Sally scene with Meg Ryan faking it) and then made our way to Central Park. Unfortunately it was too cold to really appreciate Central Park. I think if Mike and I had been there alone it would have been OK but since Colin was with us, it was definitely too cold.

Overall, we did about half of our transit in cabs and the other half on the subway. We both felt pretty comfortable with the subway but it definitely was an experience. On our last cab ride as we were getting dropped off at Penn Station, I almost lost my cell phone - thank goodness for lots of traffic outside of Penn Station so the cabbie hadn't gotten to drive off yet.

Christmas day was spent in the apartment with nothing all that fun - we literally watched TV and played with Colin. Then we had to go out for dinner because we had no food in the apartment at all... so sushi it was.

That really has been the most excitement we have had since we have been together as a family. The little things like having dinner together and just sitting on the couch are really great. Colin seems to learn something new every day... if he would just let go I swear he'd be walking. He'll start day care for the first time just after his birthday because I have accepted a position here - back to 3 12 hour shifts a week, mix of days and nights. I'm very excited to get back to work and I really believe that Colin having a chance to interact with other kiddos will be so great for him.

This post has certainly been more wordy than I like, but over the next few days and weeks I'll update with lots of pictures... all in anticipation of our little man turning 1! I don't know where the last year has gone but it's really been incredible. It's time for us to reminisce about the craziness that has gone on in the past year!

First Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:43:00 +0000

I'm feeling a bit under the weather so this will be a quick post - mainly pictures. Colin enjoyed his time on Sunday as Nemo - the third kiddo of our coworkers to wear the costume. It couldn't have been cuter!! And Colin didn't care at all about the costume, it didn't slow down his playing at all.

All of us with kids who were too young to trick or treat met up and so the kids got to show off their costumes to each other. Colin decided to take a long nap that afternoon so we missed the big group picture but I did manage to get a couple. Since I'm posting from my phone I don't have the best shots but I will try to get some from my computer posted this weekend.

Here Comes Trouble!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Colin started pulling himself up on his daddy's birthday this past Tuesday. Now it's all he wants to do. He had yet to figure out, until this morning at least, that he could also pull himself up in the crib. This morning, however, when I went to get him after hearing him play for a few minutes, I walked in and found this...

Celebrating Baby Girl Sanford

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:28:00 +0000

Last weekend we hosted all of Julie's girlfriends from Denver (but we missed those who couldn't make it!!) for a celebration of Baby Girl Sanford who is due on October 28th. Our friend Emily hosted with me and it ended up being a very nice gathering of different groups of friends (her friends from nursing school, our mutual friends, and her friends from college). I thought that no one would be bringing their kids so I was sure Colin was going to have to entertain himself (ha ha) but we ended up with 3 kiddos there (and one more later in the evening) so they were as much the center of attention at times as Julie herself. Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the food spread, but Emily and I put together a menu of pulled pork sliders, shrimp and grit tarts, deviled eggs, veggies and dip, caramelized onion dip with crackers and bread (I think that was the most popular, just as it was the first time Emily made it at Thanksgiving a few years ago) and apples with caramel toffee dip. It was really a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hang out and see the kiddos interact as well.

College Friends

Nursing School Friends

I'm not sure if you can tell but the flowers are bibs and the flower pot
is filled with other little things Julie had on her registry

The babies taking over the party

Colin taking a break

Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:17:00 +0000

I am taking an online photography workshop that is helping with my point and shoot and giving me pointers for my (hopefully) eventual DSLR. It also goes over lots about taking pictures on the iPhone and recommended apps to make those pictures look great. And as I have already admitted, the iPhone is my primary camera. I was very excited to snap the following shot then use different apps to make it even better (I don't remember which apps I used specifically for this one though). If you are my Facebook friend you have already seen the final product but I can't help sharing it across multiple platforms because it really is my current favorite picture.

7 months? Already?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:57:00 +0000

I cannot even begin to figure out where the last 7 months have gone. I look at the pictures from 2 months and hardly remember when he was that small and cuddly. I miss the days of him falling asleep on me and just wanting to cuddle (he rarely wants to just cuddle unless he's not feeling great) but I absolutely love the grins and belly laughs and the fact that I have to put him in the Exersaucer just to be able to go to the bathroom because he is moving around so much.

I couldn't have done better if I'd done it on purpose - the exact same picture 3 months apart!

Colin has finally taken to some solids. He is quite a fan of purees but if you put any amount of texture in there, it's a no go. Thankfully he is eating the peaches I made him; I got all bummed because he wasn't interested in the sweet potatoes I had made after the first time or two and I thought he would never eat anything I made for him (yes, I know, dramatic all or nothing)... but when we ran out of peaches from the store, which appear to be his favorite along with pears and mango, I thawed out some of my own peaches and luckily he ate them. He ate all the sweet potatoes from the store, too, so I'm going to try my own again to see what he thinks. And there are studies showing that children have a taste for whatever mom ate while she was pregnant... maybe that's why Colin will eat yogurt all day every day given the chance.

I really have no idea when babies are supposed to start being mobile, but I feel like Colin is working on it a little early. And it has seriously all started in just the last week. He was rocking, then started scooting here and there, but he is on to full fledged combat crawling. He can make it from one side of the living room to the opposite side of the dining room in no time flat (hmm... maybe I should time it). I walked in to get him up from a nap last week and he was sitting up in his bed, a first for doing it without help from me (the next day he finally demonstrated his skills so I could see how he did it). He proceeded to use the rails of the crib to start pulling himself up. Luckily he didn't actually make it standing but I don't think it's long; he was doing pretty well. One perk to the combat crawl - his belly does a great job of getting the dirt off the floors!

Sleep continues to be hit or miss. I feel very thankful that Colin started putting himself to sleep in the crib from about 5 weeks old (that's not to say I always put him down when he was awake but he was capable of it at that point). We fought with night time sleeping for quite a while and now we are fighting with naps. Somewhere around 6 months and a week or so, after letting him fuss through his "habit times" of waking up, he started sleeping 10-12 hours at night. He can only stay awake for 1.5-2 hours at a time during the day with maybe a little longer if we are out of the house. I have gotten very good at his cues and put him down as soon as he seems sleepy and he will usually go right to sleep but it's the staying asleep that's a problem. One a rare good day, he will nap 2-2.5 hours but many days it's anywhere from 45 minutes to just over an hour.

And in case you wondered - the best way to show love of something is to attempt to bite it with your toothless gums (or maybe he just can't go 5 seconds without shoving something in his mouth... even during a photo session).

Well Dressed

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:03:00 +0000

Colin sure has been looking spiffy the past couple of days! First at a friend's place for dinner last night he modeled a cowboy hat. Then at the park today he was chillin' in his camo hat (daddy picked it out of course) and his shades.

And as an aside, thanks to my cousin Ashley I have found that Blogger has an app (this is new, I have been looking for one for ages). This is quite handy since 90% if my pictures are taken with my phone anyways!

I know, I know, another video...

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:50:00 +0000

I know that all I have done lately is post videos, but when family is so far away, I have to take video so they can see Colin grow up just like I do. That said, here's another video. It may be long and boring to you, but since this blog is a way to document his days and experiences, I thought I'd share it here. I have watched it probably 5 times in the last 20 minutes and I still actually laugh out loud at how he continues to push the balls further away from himself. At least he's practicing moving around!

Happy 7 months ~ scooting around! from Katie on Vimeo.

Movin' and Shakin'

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:20:00 +0000

While little man isn't crawling yet, he has a way of getting from one place to the other that you'd have to see to believe. I was sitting with him on the floor yesterday and thought I'd try to document some of his moves. Since it is better to see the "time lapse", one after the other, I decided to make it a movie. I promise he was never actually stuck and after all this moving around, he did decide to take a nice long nap. Hopefully it's not too big of a movie and it loads pretty quickly!

Could crawling be far behind?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:29:00 +0000

Colin and I spend lots of time playing on the floor while we are at home. When we were at a friend's house yesterday he was very interested in all the toys that they had out and I realized that he had really just had the same toys out for a while at home so I thought I'd bring in some of the other toys that we have. He was really enjoying it, especially the rattles and "car keys" that make noise (as much as a teething 6 month old can enjoy anything at least). But that's not the point of this post...

During one of our play times on the floor today, I noticed this (Colin doesn't have much to say in this video but you may notice Oliver is happily purring away right next to my phone it seems)...

It's definitely one of his new favorite things to do (well, for today at least...). And on top of that, yesterday morning while we were playing he used my shirt to try to stand up - and he did a decent job of it at that! I don't really know if I'm ready for him to be more mobile than he already is. He can make it from one side of the room to the other just by scooting and rolling! I noticed him trying to get his knees underneath him the other day but this is the first time he has done it for any length of time and multiple times in a row. He's still working on getting back down from sitting up without falling and bonking his head, but maybe the rocking and eventual crawling will get his core the strength he needs to do that?

We are also having a long week of teething. I can actually see the inflammation on the gums but no teeth yet. As many friends remind me, it could take a while for the teeth to come through. It makes me sad because my smiley, happy Colin has been replaced by one who has to be held ALL. THE. TIME. (To clarify, I'm not sad that he needs to be held all the time, I'm sad he's so miserable.) I got some Hylands Teething Tablets today and, whether or not it's mental, they did seem to help. For the first time since he's been Mr. Cranky Pants he actually let me look in his mouth without fighting. The Tylenol and Motrin that I am giving doesn't make much of a difference either and honestly he does not like the Motrin so that's no help anyways - it's quite a fight to get it down.

Eating solids has gone by the wayside as well with this whole teething thing. He had such a great first time with his sweet potatoes when Mike was home last weekend but since then he has had no interest at all. I try to give him one bite and he spits it out and/or turns his head away. But he sure did look cute the one time he did eat!

6 month stats

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:22:00 +0000

My sister once pointed out that Colin doesn't actually smile, he just opens his mouth really big... I must admit, since she mentioned it, I have noticed that is entirely true! Lucky for him his eyes are smiling so people can tell he is happy and not angry.

I'm such a big boy!

Anyway, on to the point of our post... We had our 6 month checkup today and all is well. In typical fashion, I made sure that everything was okay the whole time she was doing her assessment - no murmur? his lungs sound good? any teeth yet? is he growing well? I was reminded by both the nurse and the doctor that in our profession, we really know too much. The nurse and I agreed that it can be good and bad...

But that aside, here are the stats from today:

16 pounds 6 ounces - 45%
25.75 inches - 40%
Head Circumference - 70%

She was happy with his growth on the growth chart and impressed with his developmental milestones. I have been concerned lately that he is not growing as well as he should - or rather than I'm not producing as much as I should - so I wanted to really get those questions answered. She said that we really have nothing to worry about but since his next well child exam isn't until 9 months, it wouldn't be out of left field to have him come in for a growth check in a month. Better to catch at 1 month than at 3. So we will go back in about a month (more to appease me, I really think) to make sure he's following his curve.

We still have no teeth but I think I can see where they are on the way. With my luck though, they'll be "on the way" for months... Colin continues to chew on anything he can get his hands on and drool like crazy. I keep thinking I see something coming in but every day, no dice.

He moves all the time - I guess I just assumed all babies moved like him but everyone seems to comment on how much he moves and that he doesn't ever stop. I guess he is continuing to live up to his nickname, Squirmy Worm (sometimes just Worm for short). When he gets mad and wants something you are not giving him fast enough, he kicks his legs. When you change his diaper (which he is not a fan of these days), he rolls to his tummy and tries < unsuccessfully > to eat the wipe warmer. When he is laying on his tummy he moves backwards very well. In fact, on the table at the doctor's office today, he moved from one end backwards to the other end twice while we were waiting for her to come in for his checkup... pre-crawling here we come!

Surprising us every day

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:07:00 +0000

Mike came home this afternoon for a last minute trip since it will be a while before he can come home again. We were in Atlanta together just a couple weeks ago and Colin has changed so much in just a short time...

He turned 6 months old this past Sunday - amazing, I know! He has started sitting up on his own and depending on how tired he is will stay that way for quite a few minutes at a time. He did fall over and bump his head this morning while sitting (even with me right there) and he wasn't a fan of that, but overall he loves his new found view.

He loves to make - or attempt to make - raspberries. I noticed it for the first time while he was playing on the floor right after we got back from Atlanta. Then the sitter said he did it plenty the next day and continues to do it more every day.

After 6 full months, he is officially becoming a thumb sucker. He comes by it honestly, since mom and dad were both thumb suckers... let's just hope he kicks the habit well before either of us did. Colin has always appeared to have the tendency for thumb sucking from the first days home from the hospital (and even before, as a matter of fact) but it was always few and far between the times he would keep it in his mouth for any length of time. Colin was hanging out with Allison and Charlotte while I got to sleep in a little bit on our excursion to Westcliffe this week and when I got out of bed he was asleep in Charlotte's arms with his thumb in his mouth. I didn't think much of it since we'd had times here and there where he would suck his thumb but never more than once in a day. So that afternoon after we got back to Denver, he was throwing a fit about being in the car and I clearly couldn't get back to him to give him his paci again so he decided the thumb would do it - he fell asleep twice in the car with his thumb in his mouth. Then that night, I was curious if he would do it in bed, too. (For the record, I haven't encouraged or discouraged thumb sucking; I figure if he's going to do it, he is going to do it.) I put him down with his paci in this mouth but went back in to check on him and found this instead:

He tends to do it when he is sleepy but still hasn't fully figured it out. Tonight for example, when I put him down for bed I didn't give him a paci because he had already been sucking his thumb as we were getting ready for bed. After about 20 minutes, though, he was started having "panicked" crying (the crying he does when I know he isn't going to fall back asleep on his own) so I went him, snuggled for a few minutes, was a sucker and brought him back out of his room since daddy was home for a visit, and then daddy put him back in bed with the paci. By the time he fell asleep, the paci was no where in sight and the thumb was in his mouth.

Our current fun with sleeping will be another post altogether but I am happy to report that Colin has figured out sleeping 10-12 hours a night! He goes down between 6 and 7 as a rule and is up around 6 or 6:30 for the most part. Usually once per night we'll have a wake up but I don't go in there and he puts himself back to sleep within 5 minutes or so. So now we are working on day time naps. Yesterday he did two separate 2 hour naps for the sitter but not so lucky for me today...

I have many more updates I'm sure, most importantly, his official stats from the doctor for 6 months. The appointment is next week but I'm guessing he is somewhere near 26 inches and 16 pounds. He has the cutest rolls on his legs so at least I know what he's getting from me is doing him good! We may try some solids this weekend so Mike is here to see it! It should be interesting!!

Raspberries... with a side of drool

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 01:41:00 +0000

Here's one of Colin's newest tricks...

A VERY late 5 month old post

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:04:00 +0000

I know, I know... we are 5 days away from 6 months. I have had this post sitting ready to be edited for almost a whole month now, it just didn't get done. All last week I tried to edit on my Nook from Atlanta but for some reason it wouldn't let me so I just let it go.

I can't remember specifically things that Colin has done at 5 months but I will share some of the random things we have done by way of a couple of pictures.

Lots of watching the rain

When I first moved to Denver almost 8 years ago, we had rain almost every afternoon. Lately (as in the past few years), it has been incredibly dry. This year, however, we had a period of rainy afternoons - for 8 days straight I didn't have to worry about watering the lawn, which was wonderful! Colin didn't know what to think about the rain but it was so nice to just sit out there and watch it. It usually happened just before his bedtime so we'd get him in his pajamas and hang out on the porch.

Using the BOB for the first time hiking in Evergreen

Enjoying the rocky terrain

After a long, exhausting hike! :)

While Mike was home one weekend we both felt the need to get out of the city and enjoy the mountain air. Granted, we only made it to Evergreen but it was so nice all the same. We went to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park to hike and got to get the BOB stroller out to enjoy the path. When Mike and I were newly dating, we used to come here to ride mountain bikes... it's very different when you are on foot instead of on a bike and you are taking your own child. It was very nice, though, and I loved hiking with the BOB. It never occurred to me that there were options for hiking with the stroller (since we don't have a hiking carrier at this point) but Three Sisters provided great options for using the stroller - we hiked between 3 and 4 miles that day.

Colin is also very excited to be rolling over all the time. He scoots himself from the middle of the rug in the living room to the far edge of it without me fully realizing how he's doing it. I swear today I even saw him try to get up on his knees - I'm hoping I'm imagining that and it's not really happening quite yet.

I think that teeth aren't very far off. I keep looking and have yet to see anything starting to come up but he is drooling a ton (more than normal - a lot is normal for him), practicing biting on anything he can get his hands on, including our hands (and boy does he have a strong jaw!), and is kind of cranky. Lately, I'm not sure if I'm dealing with a growth spurt, teething, getting used to being back home after traveling, or just general crankiness.

While I don't have a Pooh Bear picture with him this month, this was taken on his 5 month birthday - edited slightly with Instagram on my iPhone.

Summer Vacation Part 2 - The Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:30:00 +0000

The second part of our summer vacation was spent heading over to the beach house on Amelia Island for 3 days with Grandmommy, Jenni, and Tilden. Grandmommy had not gotten to meet Colin yet so it was a very exciting trip for her and for my sister and I because we hadn't been to the beach together in YEARS (much less with our own children)! Colin enjoyed his time at the beach. We went down and I let him put his hands in the sand... which immediately went to his mouth. He didn't quite know what to do once he got sand in his mouth as you can see in the picture below.

We went to the beach, played (well Colin slept) at the park, took long afternoon naps, and most importantly, Colin learned to roll over! Our last day at the beach, I was about to go down to the water for a quick swim after Colin and I had been on a long walk and he was going to stay with Grandmommy for a few minutes. He had been trying so hard to roll from him back to his stomach for the previous few weeks so I knew it was coming soon. That morning, he finally did it. He arched his back and got his shoulder underneath him and ended up on his belly. He's been going belly to back since he was 6 weeks old but he definitely took a while to get back to belly (which from what I have been told is easier than the other way around... I guess he just doesn't do it the easy way!). He only rolled twice that day and none the next day (who can blame him, we were traveling all day) but on my first day back to work the nanny told me he rolled from one end of the blanket to the other all morning long. Since then, he has been rolling plenty but I think it also may be contributing to our sleep problems - despite the fact that he knows how to go from back to belly, he won't do it in his crib.

Jenni with her hands full

Sleep - my new nemesis

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:40:00 +0000

When Colin was first born, he didn't cry. While his Apgars were 8 and 9, Mike, the delivery nurse, and myself have no idea how he actually got such numbers because he wasn't much of a crier. When we came home from the hospital, it was probably well in to his second week of life before he actually screamed - he was just always a mellow little boy. He woke up every two hours to eat but I was okay with that because he would wake up, I would feed him, cuddle him, and have him back in bed in about 15 minutes. I felt like his sleeping was going well because he was up for such a short amount of time at night and (after the first few weeks at least) I was feeling somewhat rested. I knew how lucky I was and I wasn't counting any chickens before they hatched, but at the time I thought things were going along quite well.

Around 4 months, I realized that Colin was waking up more for habit than for hunger every 3-4 hours every night. He'd want to eat around 10 PM (after falling asleep around 6:30 or 7:00), then again between 1 AM and 2 AM, again at 4 AM, then again between 5:30 and 7:30. In talking to other friends with infants and doing a little bit of reading, I realized he wasn't necessarily hungry, just used to getting up at those times every night.

Napping was another struggle. No matter what I seemed to do, he would only sleep for 40 minutes at the most. It wasn't such a problem until he was between 3 and 4 months old so I just kind of went with the flow.

Just prior to going on vacation, I had gotten Colin sleeping 7 hours from when he went down until his first wake up - making it around 2 AM. I had tried feeding him around 10 PM before I went to bed but he still woke up at around 2 AM so I just went with it. That had him waking up at 2 AM and then again between 4 AM and 5 AM, but I was excited to be getting 7 hours of continuous sleep on his part (not for me of course because I wouldn't go to bed until 10ish). Then we went on vacation - which is the downfall of all sleep schedules.

Upon returning home from vacation, Colin was getting up every 2-3 hours every night. I was at my wit's end and had no idea what to do about it. I tried calming him down with soothing but always seemed to give in and just feed him because I knew he would fall back asleep that way. Nights I had to work the next day I would just give up around 12:30 or 1 AM because I knew I couldn't be getting up that much so I'd just bring him to bed with me because it's really easy to nurse a baby who is lying right next to you. But after being in a complete brain fog all the time, I realized I had to do something. I'm not one for sleep training, per se, and I really don't like the idea of cry it out, but I knew that somehow, Colin needed to relearn how to put himself to sleep (did I mention he started it for the first time around 5 weeks old so I knew he was capable of it).

I won't go in to all the books I read, all the websites I visited, all the Baby Center community boards I read, and all I personally processed here and now but I will add some thoughts through posts here and there as to what worked for us and the process I went through to get where we are. As with everything, I know that all is evolving and just when I think I get it that he'll change it, but as of right now, Colin is putting himself to sleep at the beginning of the night and in the middle of the night if he wakes up (which for the past two nights has been around two times between 1 AM and 3 AM that he puts himself back to sleep from and another wake up at 4ish when I do feed him then since it's been usually at least 6 hours since he's eaten last).... all in time to go on vacation again. Let's hope that somehow I keep his sleep moving in the right direction this time. . . yeah right.

And naps have been a whole other story that I definitely don't have time to tell right now because I'm going to bed.