Major Break Through

Our little boy can say fish!!! He pronounces it properly almost all of the time now. If he gets excited or he's in a hurry it might still come out "go shit" but for the most part, it is very definitely fish now! No more dirty looks from people in the grocery store for us!

Our Brave Little Boy

Today was a big day for Collin. He got his tubes put in and his adenoids taken out. All in all, he was very well behaved throughout the whole ordeal. He woke up in a fantastic mood this morning and didn't even mind skipping breakfast. I took him to work where he's met everyone before but he turned shy as soon as we walked in the door. He's no dummy, he knew this time was different from the other times he'd been to Mommy's work. Collin didn't even want to color a picture, and he always wants to color pictures. Tim went back to the OR with him while he went to sleep and the surgery went very well. He woke up much better than I anticipated. He cried a little, but not like some of the kids I've seen. I was very proud. I was so afraid that my kid was going to be the bratty kid that we can't wait to see go home. Mostly, he just wanted to cuddle for a little bit. When it was time to go home, he got to go and spend the day with Grammy while he recovered. They both enjoyed their day. By this afternoon, he had taken a nap and wanted to get up and play outside. He played with sticks and kicked the soccer ball around and cried when he had to go back inside again. You'd never know he'd had surgery this morning. If this is the end of the monthly ear infections and the constant snotty nose, it will have been worth it to get the surgery.

2 Year Check Up

We went to yet another doctor's appointment today. It was Collin's two year check up and he did fantastic. Not only did he follow the girl right back to the room, he cooperated when she took his temperature, got his weight and took his blood pressure. Over the last few months these seemingly simple tasks have been enough to cause major meltdowns. Then he waited very patiently to see his doctor, greeted him pleasantly by name and was as good as gold while he was examined. He even recognized that the tools that the doctor had out were used to look in his ears. Thankfully, we didn't need any shots this time around and we won't until he's 5! We don't even have to go back until he's 3 unless he gets sick. Everything checked out perfectly and cognitive and language skills are really terrific and he even sang "where is thumbkin" for the doctor. I guess he learned that one at daycare because I sure didn't teach it to him. Good news all around today. Hopefully after he gets his tubes in on Thursday, we'll be done with the doctor's office for a good long time.

Pictures from Collin's 2nd Birthday

We were going to have Collin's birthday at our house but Tim was really sick this week so Mom and Dad were nice enough to let us have it at their house. They bought Collin balloons which he thought were totally awesome. His favorite is the Lightning McQueen balloon that you can't see in the picture.
I love this picture. Collin was so excited about his cake. He talked about "yummy, yummy chocolate cake" all week long because I promised to make him a chocolate cake.
Who needs a fork anyway? Collin dove right in picking the cake up with his hands. By the time he got to the icecream, he was ready for a spoon.
Ms. Al, Mikey and Joey joined us for cake and icecream and presents and Michael helped Collin set up some of his new toys. Collin opened presents in record time and couldn't wait to play with them all.
By the end of the night, Collin was tired, but he wasn't giving in. He was still ready to party some more. The one thing Mommy should have gotten him for his birthday but didn't was a haircut. The curls are just too darn cute to cut off yet.

The terrible 2's and then some...

Oh my gosh, my beautiful baby boy hit 2 and turned into a little devil! Since his birthday party at daycare on Friday, we've had more than few incidents that made me want to pull my hair out. The first occurred Friday evening as I was changing him before going out to pick up dinner. We were in the living room, and I should mention for those of you out of town that the weather is beautiful and the doors and the windows have been open. That being said, we were changing Collin's diaper in the living room and he got away from me. Being big and fat and pregnant, I didn't jump up and chase him immediately, instead opting to yell to him to get his little butt back here. After a minute or two of hearing nothing but giggling, and with no sign of his return, I managed to get my butt up off the floor and track Collin down. I found my sweet angel standing in front of our open front door, in nothing but his t-shirt, giggling at the puddle of pee and pile of poop that he'd just made, again right in front of my very open glass door. I hope none of my neighbors were walking by while he was doing this. I hauled his little butt back to the living room, got a new diaper on him and had a discussion about how he didn't have to wear a diaper if he didn't want to, but that meant he had to go to the bathroom in the potty. I really don't expect that discussion to lead to anything. The next incident occurred while I was out getting dinner. I returned home to find that while Tim had turned his back for a few moments, Collin had chosen to update our kitchen floor with his latest artwork. By the way, magic eraser is great at removing crayon from ceramic tile. Then this morning, as Tim and I were attempting to combine closets in preparation for the arrival of the yet to be named baby, we made the mistake of allowing Collin to play by himself downstairs. The doors were all shut, the cabinets were all locked. The house was baby proofed, or so we thought. Then we heard the sound of lots of little things falling on the floor and Collin giggling again in delight. We came downstairs just in time to discover that Collin had opened the can where we keep Sadie's dog food and proceeded to distribute her food all over, not only the dining room, but the living room as well. I should mention that this was after I watched him put a chicken nugget in his mouth at lunch, walk over to her and feed it to her, right from his mouth. I swear he wasn't doing this stuff a week ago!

Bodily Functions

What is it about bodily functions that little boys find so funny? Collin has been giggling at bodily functions for a while now but he's taken it to a new level recently. Someone taught him the word "burp" recently. Now he uses it even when he hasn't burped and giggles like its the funniest word in the whole world. I try to tell him if he's going to burp, even fake ones, he must learn to say excuse me afterwards. That's just as funny as burping in his eyes. Even funnier than burps? Farts. Oh yes, he learned to give arm farts a long time ago and I thought we were beyond that, however I was wrong. Its recently come back, and with a vengeance. Apparently when he was out to dinner with Aunt Bella and Max the other night he began making arm farts on Max's arm. Then tonight, again at the table (this time just for snack) Collin actually farts and says "Did you hear that?" I told him I did and he bursts out laughing and says "Collin poop again!" (he hasn't learned the difference between actually pooping and just farting) Why is this so funny? I have absolutely no idea, but he giggled and giggled like it was the funniest thing ever. I must admit, the part I found funny was when he asked if I had heard it. I giggled and giggled over that. I can't wait till he grows out of this stage. Unfortunately, most grown males I know still haven't completely outgrown this stage so I think we have a long way to go.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's day was very busy so I didn't have a chance to post this yesterday but I wish all of you Mom's a very happy Mother's Day. I've been celebrating Mother's Day since I was a little girl, but this is probably the first year I really got it. Every time my mother said "you won't understand until you have a child of your own" I thought "no really, I get it". No really, I didn't. I didn't truly understand how much a mother loves her children until I had one of my own. Watching him explore the world and seeing it through his eyes is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Watching him yesterday, I realized how much I owe to my Mom for all that she has taught me over the years. I hope someday my children realize how much I truly love them and how hard I try to be a good Mom for them. Its a whole lot harder than my Mom made it look!

Give Me A Hand

Collin has made some friends recently at the playground by our house. There is a family with a bunch of girls, the youngest I'm guessing is maybe a year or two older than Collin and the oldest one seems to be somewhere between 12 and 16. I'm really lousy at guessing ages, if you couldn't tell. Anyway, Collin just loves to play with these girls and they seem to really enjoy playing with him too. When its just the two of us, I make him follow the rules, like climbing the stairs to use the slide and not throwing dirt. When he's out with a bunch of kids, and I'm kind of there just to make sure he doesn't get hurt, I sort of let those rules slide, except the dirt rule. Yesterday, the girls were helping Collin to climb up the slide and they were all having such a good time, I didn't intervene. Pretty soon Collin was raising his arms up and saying "take my hand" and "give me a hand" so they would help him go up the slide. I'm not sure where he picked those phrases up, but it was cracking the girls and I up. He is such a ham!

Cinco de Mayo

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, Aunt Bella and Uncle Max (Yes Chrissy, I said UNCLE Max) decided to make margaritas. It turns out Collin really likes margarita mix!!

CHEERS!!!!

Yet Another Doctor Visit

Collin went to the doctor's office this afternoon and for the first time in a really long time, the trip did not involve tantrums and bribery! I am so proud. Usually he freaks out as soon as his name is called. The past few times we've been to the doctor's we've been really working on this. I've promised him everything from a trip to the playground (not such a bad bribe) to nuggets and french fries from McDonald's (yes, I know that's awful but I was totally desperate at the time). This time they called us back and asked Collin to stand on the scale and he hopped right up. Then while the nurse took his temperature in a most unpleasant place, Collin picked up an extra thermometer and held it under his arm because that's how they did it in the other office, still no screams or tears! He was even good while the doctor examined his ears. He has yet another ear infection. I've lost track of how many this makes since his first birthday but its a whole lot. We go back in 2 weeks unless he hasn't improved any by the middle of next week. I'll be discussing getting tubes with his doctor because, at this point, between co-pays and prescriptions, I could have paid for tubes without using insurance. I hate the idea of putting him through surgery but we've been spending lots and lots of time in doctor's offices lately and if getting tubes will put a stop to that, I'm all for it. I just don't want my little boy to feel so crappy all the time.

My 1st Flower

When I got to daycare today to pick Collin up, he was swinging on a big boy swing and I sat down to watch him play for a bit. When did he turn into such a little boy? He's certainly not a baby anymore! After a few minutes he realized I was there and came over to say hi. Along the way, he stopped to pick two dandelions. He handed me one, said cheers and proceeded to try to blow all the little white things away, all the while blowing spit all over me. He was so proud of himself for giving Mommy a flower and showing her how to blow all the little white things on it away. Its the first time Collin has picked a "flower" for me! I almost cried. I'm going to blame that on the pregnancy hormones, but the truth is, I'm such a pathetic sap that I'd have almost cried even if I wasn't pregnant.

When Mommy Says No....

Somehow kids are just born with an innate knowlegde of how to get exactly what they want. You know the old adage "If Mom Says No, Ask Grandma!"? No one had to teach this one to Collin, he just knew it. We were over at Grammy's yesterday for a visit and some gold fish. Collin had already had at least 2 little cupfuls of gold fish and asked for yet another one. I told him he'd had enough and without missing a single beat, or even getting slightly annoyed at being told no, he turned right around, walked over to Grammy and said "More go shit?". Thankfully my mom holds it together better than I do and didn't bust out laughing right away. She explained that since Mommy had said no, Grammy could give Collin any goldfish either. Collin went off to pout for a bit. A little while later, Grampa came home. Collin jumped up and went running for the stairs yelling "Grampa!". As soon as he finished giving Grampa a hug, what were the first words out of his mouth? You guessed it! "More go shit?" Its a good thing Grammy and I were sitting there or he'd have gotten them too!

Starfall.com

This is the greatest website in the whole world! We started playing with Collin on Starfall.com when he was less than a year old and now he walks right over to the computer and asks to play starfall camp (the camp part comes from one of the songs on the site). Its a really educational and entertaining site. It starts out with the letters of the alphabet and moves on to combining letters to make sounds and then onto reading. There are lots of things for kids to explore and do on this site and I think its a big part of the reason that, by the time he was 18 months old, Collin knew all of his letters both upper and lower case. I highly recommend this site to anyone with small kids.