Let's play catch up - Part 1 of 123298123521 - aka Colin is 2

I have been falling behind.  Exceptionally far behind.  We have done so many amazing things since I last wrote, and even MORE since I shared pictures.  I'm going to do my best to try and recap it without sending everyone into a "please stop sharing, that's enough" mode.

I think I will start at the end and go backwards - because that makes sense, right?

The biggest news??  We have a TWO YEAR OLD!  An opinionated, talkative, smart, animal-obsessed two year old.  I'm just in awe about how quickly time went, but we are loving it.  The older he gets, the more fun he is.  Of course more fun also equals more head-shaking and deep-breath taking on our end.

We had a wonderful birthday party with our friends and family.  I am so appreciative that they took the time out to celebrate Colin.  It means so much to me that we have such wonderful people in our lives.  Colin loved it too.  He got to hang out with Wylie and they ran around like crazy people which was so fun to see.  It made me realize that we should probably try to make some more kid friends for Colin.  He apparently likes hanging out with kids his own age as much as hanging out with his parents (when did he get to be a teenager?).

So here are a few pictures from his 2nd birthday to kick it all off.  I am in all of my freshly broken wrist glory (it had happened the Wednesday before his Saturday party)... so you'll have to excuse my completely disheveled look...

Blowing out candles

We've created a monster about donuts now.. but can't resist the Happy Birthday Donut from Glazed & Infused!

Nom nom nom

 

Seriously, aren't balloons just about the greatest thing ever?

Then, just to make sure my arm was surely documented?  We did some family pictures the next day.  Our friend is a photographer and has been taking pictures of our little family since the beginning.. doing our pregnancy photos too.  Colin wasn't in much of a mood for pictures, but we got a few in there before he freaked out and just wanted to sleep on my shoulder.  Carrying around a 25 lb child with a casted elbow is pretty tough though.

  

I realize this is essentially the same picture but Colin is looking at the camera, but I can't resist the one where he's staring at us and laughing.  

And this one of the two of them might be one of my favorite things...

Then we got tired boy.... But I love the cuddles.

We still need to take the obligatory bear photos in the chair, but we'll get there.  We are so good at sneaking things in against the wire.  Hopefully we get one in before the last day before he's 3!  

Loving who this little boy is becoming.  He says "I love you", and "thank you for helping me <>" which melts me every time.  He has learned "I want" which is just about two of the worst words in our home since they often times lead to extreme yelling.  He loves when all his people are in the same room.  He has learned to move over on the sidewalk to let people pass, but sometimes that means waiting for all the people he can see for multiple blocks have passed us "more peoples mama, more peoples... wait".  But goodness do we have fun.  He loves puzzles, and singing songs.  He often sings to us, and always loves a good rendition of "animals on the bus" which is apparently much more interesting than "wheels on the bus".  When he comes into our bed in the morning and wakes up in a good mood, those are some of my favorite moments of the day.  He'll lay there between us and just talk - he'll count, sing, go through the ABC's, list off all the animals he knows, all the people in his family, anything he can think of.  It's pretty awesome.

We'll catch up more later... this is just a start.

A year in review - Part 2

I looked at my work computer and realized I had a bunch of pictures there... but I still don't have the 12 month ones.  I know they exist, and I know they are somewhere, but I just don't know where!  

So until I locate those, I leave you with the 5 month-11 month video... I can't believe how little he used to be.. and how immobile.  But he's growing fast and we are LOVING it.  

I have too many posts in my head to count - daycare, things no one ever told me about having kids, how genius my kid is (obviously - have you seen that head?  It MUST have a huge brain in there). Ok, that last one is probably just me being a bragging parent.  Ha.  But he's super fun and we are loving him.  He will be 18 months.... 1 1/2 years old.... in 2 days.  I'm not exactly ready, but I'm excited.  He's pretty awesome.

I found his 12 month photo shoot... I know you were all worried... I feel like I've finally (sort of) caught up.

Hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I do watching these videos... I love this kid.  It took me a while to fall completely in love with him, but man, I did fall hard.  :)

It's been 5 months.. It's about time

I'm finally getting around to posting at least a LITTLE something for Colin's first birthday... a little bit of a year in review.  Unfortunately our pictures are spread across multiple computers/devices/clouds, and so I haven't been able to put everything together as well as I would have liked.  This means there will be parts.  So this is Part 1.

It's so crazy what a year can bring.  We were so excited leading up to Colin being born and so excited to meet him.  He was so little and so perfect.  Looking back at the pictures I can't believe how squishy and small he was, so many emotions from a few hundred pictures.  We were so nervous coming home and doing it all on our own.  We were unsure about bassinets and where he would sleep.  Like the nervous parents we were, we called UppaBaby first thing to see if he could actually sleep in his bassinet from our stroller... in the 24 hrs it took them to get back to me (honestly, INSANE customer service - they called me on a SATURDAY!) we were so paranoid we blew up the air mattress and slept on the floor of his room because we knew he was safe in his crib.  A year later we sometimes don't even turn on the monitor and just trust that we'll hear him if something really goes wrong.  

He has tried our patience, driven us crazy, but been so amazing all at once.  I didn't realize I could go through so many emotions in one day, in one year.  Every day we love him more and more.  He is so much fun and we have loved every milestone he has hit, worried every time that he wasn't hitting them fast enough, and been relieved when he finally reaches them.  He's finally walking, he talks up a storm, and just ingests everything so quickly.  It's unbelievable how much our lives have changed, and we are so grateful we had so many years together to weather the storm that is raising a strong-willed, previously colicky, loud, biting little boy.  

I have to keep reminding myself that eventually he'll eat, eventually he'll sleep (he's down to only 1-2 wake-ups per night!!!), and eventually he won't be our little baby... so until then I will appreciate what we have, appreciate where we are, and look forward to where we are going.

Good (Medieval) Times

What's a 30 year old to do for her birthday?  Watch jousting, eat with her fingers, and cheer on the Red Knight of course!  

For Katie's part of the shared 30th birthday she decided on Medieval Times for her celebration.  I hadn't been there since another friend's birthday a few years earlier, and this time it would not involve alcohol.  I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous.  All that was for naught, as it turned out to be a pretty entertaining time.  We sat right next to the King and his daughter, we rooted for the Red Knight (who didn't end up winning) and switched our allegiance to the Rogue Knight... and of course gambled on who we thought would win the various jousts and who would come out the victor.  Not too shabby for a Saturday night.

John and I in our Red Knight crown glory.

The King and his daughter - they got to eat pizza - not fair.

Chris got a carnation from the Red Knight - he was pretty psyched - the knight even kissed it before throwing it to him.

The birthday girl!!  

After Medieval Times, we went out in Rosemont.  They just opened an entertainment district which has about 6 or 7 bars in a small area.  The Monster Truck Rally had just gotten out at Allstate Arena, so Toby Keith's was packed with a line out the door (yes, those are all real things that happened... monster trucks and a bar called Toby Keith's).  So instead we headed over to Hofbrauhaus, a German beer hall modeled after the original in Munich.  They have a live band and litres of beer, and apparently a large contingent of Jersey Shore rejects.  I swear 80% of the people we saw were overly-fakely tanned, wearing Ed Hardy v-neck t-shirts, with faux-hawks, and just looked ridiculous.  I have never seen so many of the same person in the same place.  It was hilarious... and bizarre.  

The big drama of the night was Katie losing her diamond in her engagement ring..... that was a terrifying 5 minutes of when I looked up and saw Katie sobbing into her hands, not knowing what was going on, then transitioning to reassurance that it had to be in the car or somewhere easy to find, to John looking under the table and seeing it on the floor of the beer hall underneath Katie's seat on the bench.  That was one of the biggest floods of relief I have ever had, so I can't imagine how Marla and Katie felt.  It all ended well though, and we had a great time.  If only Hofbrau wasn't so far away, it would be a fun place to go out for a couple of beers.  We got one of our friends to go in the conga line, heard the best reason to not have or want kids ("I like pickles").  Loved every minute of it, but geez was I happy to get home and go to bed.