Chuck went to Austin on Monday so I have been on my own for a couple days. Normally not too much of an issue, but trying to take care of a 2 year old, while 8 months pregnant isn’t all that fun. Thankfully Colin has been pretty good for me – except for a major meltdown in the grocery store today.
I only had to get 3 or 4 things, so he was walking – or should I say refusing to walk anywhere. He is really into planets, space, etc right now and LOVES chocolate – so imagine when he found “chocolate earths” in the bulk section. These are solid chocolate wrapped in globe paper – we already have a couple at home, which I told him, but he just wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t exactly leave him in the bulk food area while I got the one other thing I needed. So here I am, lugging a basket and my purse, wearing a huge, extremely hot coat (it’s like 15 degree out there), huge stomach sticking out and then I had to pick Colin up – who was screaming and crying about his “chocolate earths.” Oh, and I was starving. I think it was quite possibly the worst trip to the grocery store I have ever had. And they didn’t even have any of my favorite chocolate covered raisins…which I can’t find anywhere – I think they are having supply issues…tragic.
Colin has occasionally been asking where daddy is, so I told him and now Colin says a few times a day “Daddy flew plane to Texas. He’s working in Texas. He could be (that is Colin’s phrase of the moment “could be”) coming back tonight to see me.” I think Colin thinks that Chuck actually flew the plane to Texas himself.
Speaking of “could be” – Colin uses it all the time – we will be reading his Solar System book and I will be saying “This is Venus…” and he says “Well, it could be Mars” and I say “Well it could be, but it says that it is Venus right here” and he replies “No, it could be Mars.” In music class yesterday his teacher played a sound of a horse and asked everyone what is was, a bunch of kids said “Horse, horse” and Colin replies “Well, it could be a giraffe.”
Yesterday he also told me that he wanted to turn on the TV so he could “check the score” – of what, I don’t know.
I wanted to throw up a quick ‘funny thing to remember’ post, and I normally look through recent photos to see if there are any I might have missed (grandma likes lots of photos). Came across this one and had to post it up here – as you might have guessed from somewhat newer pictures, he’s gotten a haircut since this one was taken (I’m still angling for a new buzz cut, but Jess won’t let me…for now).
Anyway, one of the numerous great things about kids is that they get hooked on things for a finite period of time, and think it’s the funniest thing ever during that period. Colin’s current favorite? Well, I guess I must have been drying him off from his bath and wrapping him up in the towel, and made a reference to wrapping him up like a burrito. Ever since he insists that after he takes a bath, he must be wrapped up like a burrito. He obliges by holding one end near his chin, and we wrap the towel around him about three times so that he’s pretty well cinched up in there.
The real reason he’s into the burrito is that I would put ‘the burrito’ on the bed, grab the end of the towel and yank it, thus sending him on a rapid spin that makes Jess freak out every time we do it. But Colin loves it; he goes spinning like a top and laughs his head off. Latest in the long string of bathtime rituals, they’re always entertaining.
We took a picture to do a side by side comparison between this pregnancy and Colin. Same shirt, same pose, same place – although it is FREEZING out there. Here are the results – the first picture with snow is now, second is pregnant with Colin:
I feel a bit more “compact” with this baby. Looking back I seem a bit rough around the edges there at 35 weeks with Colin. I haven’t gained as much weight with this baby and I started out a good 6-7 pounds heavier…must be all that running around with Colin and the fact that no longer work in a office surrounded by candy and fast food all day. That definitely helps.
The girl/boy debate is still going strong. Colin had convinced me it was a girl because he always insists he is having a baby sister. However yesterday he told a guy at Trader Joe’s that he was having a baby brother and I had a dream it was a boy…we shall see in a few short (or long as the case may be…) weeks.
Nothing goes together like childhood and ear infections. Colin had a runny nose for the past three or four days, started coughing yesterday, and had a terrible time sleeping (as did Mommy and Daddy as a result) last night. A visit to the doctor confirmed that he managed to turn a cold into his first ear infection, although he wouldn’t admit that his ear hurt until after we’d been to the doctor (flatly denied it before we went).
As a result, Jess’ day off has to be postponed – too bad, because I’d lost any trepidation I had about it earlier in the week, and I know she could use it. She still managed to go for the massage she was going to have, but she’ll have to wait to go see “The Queen” with her friend Kristen and to go out to dinner with me to Bella Ciao (best Italian in Ann Arbor, which is actually saying something for those who aren’t in the know about A2).
In all the hubbub around switching the blog over, we neglected to give a shout out to our blogging buddies the Breeds, who were nice enough to stop by with their son Theo while they were visiting friends and family in Michigan. Colin and Theo had fun going through all of Colin’s toys, and we (barely) managed to make it through dinner out at Zingerman’s Roadhouse – thank you nice wait staff.
Jess and I made sure to focus the holiday gift giving on Colin, although we split the stocking stuffing. End result is that we didn’t lavish each other with gifts – we rarely do that anyway, not really our style. But I wanted to give her something, and in the finest tradition of the “Good for 3 back rubs” homemade card type of gift, I offered to give her a day off. A full day to do whatever she wanted, completely relieved of any regular motherly duties. Seemed like a great idea at the time, and she seemed to be pleasantly surprised – all good.
The date she had no hesitancy selecting was Jan. 20th – two days from now. I had been looking forward to this, getting a chance for a “guy’s day” with Colin, free of womanly influence. That is, until the last couple of days. For a few different reasons – yoga class, doctor’s appointments, etc. – I’ve been flying solo with Colin a number of times recently. The constant refrain throughout most of those three-plus hours…”where Mommy is?”
By constant refrain, I mean just that – he must have asked me 50 times if he asked me once yesterday, and no amount of explanation, re-explanation, modified explanation and re-re-explanation made the question go away. Long story short, full day with no Mommy outlet during a clear Mommy-centric phase spells anxious Daddy. Hopefully I’m overreacting.
Dearest readers, thanks for tuning in over the life of the site, we’re approaching our 2 year anniversary with the blog – what better time to make a full switch in blog software (wow, that was fun). We’re now a wordpress shop, and we’ll be figuring out the super cool design/layout we’re going to use shortly (so it could look different every time you come back for a while). Hopefully you like what you see.
On a completely unrelated note, I beg you to comment on Jess’ posts. I guess the majority of comments have been on posts I’ve thrown up here, and she’s getting a complex from it. Commenting on wordpress is vastly simpler than the unnamed blog host we were with previously, so that excuse is gone. Anyway, she’s 34 weeks pregnant today, so do me a favor and chime in on her posts – many thanks.
OK, forgive me for the noting of verbal and mental achievements here, but I just have to do it so I don’t forget when Colin gets older – plus I am his mom so I am allowed to be proud of him right? Plus, every day I really underestimate him.
He is 2 years and 5 months now – he knew all his letters before he was a year and half and we have gotten used to that, but now it appears he can read more and more words every day. Before he was 2 he could read “Stop”, “Go”, “Fun”, and his name. I thought it was all within context but about 2 months ago I just wrote them down on a piece of paper and he could read them all. Stop, Go, Fun, Zoo, Colin, Do, Go, No, Yes, Big, Dog, One Way and sadly (Lowes, Home Depot, Whole Foods and Best Buy – tells you where we take him on the weekends 
I am sure he knows others that I am not aware of yet. Sometimes when we are driving he will just yell out – “Mom- says “Do” – usually it does, like “Do not pass” or “Do not enter”
The other thing of note recently is that he is really into the earth and planets. He likes to take the big world atlas out (a kid after my own heart) and look at pictures of earth. The other day he asked Chuck “What is that?” while pointing at Jupiter. Chuck says “It is a very big planet called Jupiter.” Colin replies “What is a planet?” Chuck kinda faltered at this…how to answer? I said “A planet is a ball of rock and gas.” Colin said “Where is it?” Chuck says “Very far away, in space” Colin replies “What is space?” – OK we had to stop here – not sure how to explain that one. Right after he talked to Chuck about it he turns to me and says “Mommy, Jupiter is very, very, very, very, big and very, very far away.” He points out “earth” all the time – like on the UPS truck we saw today.
He seems to also be able to identify instruments by sound. He can pick out violins/cellos, pianos and the other day there was music on the radio and he goes “Mommy, it is xylophone” – which to my amazement it was…or at least I think…I have to defer to him on that one
Over the weekend it was relatively warm so we went to this little park right down the road an did a like “hike” if you could call it that. Colin thought it was great. He wouldn’t put his gloves on because you can’t pick up sticks to throw in the water when you have mittens on…so his hands were pretty cold, but he was loving it. Sevi also thought it was great to get away from the house for awhile. Even though she is 12 and has had cancer for a year and a half – as Chuck said, she jumped up in the car from 4 feet away like she was a puppy – which is great. Of course she was a bit slow to get up that night – a little sore.
Below is a picture of my belly – 33 weeks down, 7 to go. I think at this point with Colin I was already packed for the hospital, but we have hardly even thought about the birth at this point. My stepmom called to ask about the plans yesterday and I honestly haven’t thought much about them…guess we should get in gear soon As you can see whenever I take a picture of my stomach Colin likes to show off his 6-pack abs too.
Yesterday on our way home from music class (for Colin) I was super hungry so I made (I can’t believe I will admit this…) but a run to the border for a burrito. Colin is very well acquainted with mexican food terms because we make it pretty often and we have gone to a local mex place called tios…so he knows all about burritos, chips and salsa, chimichangas, etc. Anyway, I said “I am starving, I have to go to the taco store to get a burrito..” So today I am putting him down for a nap and he has started to ask what I am going to do while he sleeps…today he asked me “mommy, are you starving? going to eat a burrito?” I told him no, I was going to take a nap. Usually I tell him I am doing something boring like cleaning so he won’t feel like he is missing out on anything…and that is usually true.
So, true to my word, I am off to take a nap.
Few things I had written down that I wanted to blog about:
A few days ago Colin happened to look up at some pictures we have on the wall (which have been there for about 2 years) of him as a baby. He turns to me and says “Mommy, those are a-dor-able.”
We have also turned Colin into a shower lover. He used to take baths every night, then one night he took a shower with Dad and from then on, right after dinner he hops off his chair and says “OK, time for a shower.” So Chuck now has to shower twice a day. Once Colin is done with the shower, he runs around upstairs and says “naked boy, naked boy” – until he puts on his ultra cute PJs that Grandma Sheila got him:
Another short story…A couple of days before Christmas we went driving to see the Christmas lights around town. It seemed that a lot of people had these lighted hanging balls/orbs that looked like ornaments. Chuck and I were talking about all the balls on the tree and Colin yells out from the back of the car “I want big balls! I want big balls!” Childishly, Chuck and I laughed and laughed about that one. That same night, we parked and I was singing a Christmas song. Chuck went to get Colin out of the car and Colin goes “Oh no…(in a very sad way)” – Chuck says “What?” and Colin replies “Mommy singing.” I thought they weren’t supposed to get embarrassed by parents singing until they were teenagers.
And finally, we made the switch to the big boy bed right before Christmas – it was very trying the first fews nights – he just wouldn’t stay in bed. He would take a book, open the door to let the light in from our bedroom and read then play. We learned to turn off all the lights – and he decided playing in the dark was no fun so he should just go to bed. I am glad we did it – now the baby’s room is all set. Of course this baby is already getting the shaft – we haven’t really decorated the room at all – but since we don’t know if it is a girl or boy and I don’t want another yellow/green room we decide to wait until the baby is here.
It has taken us a little while to get this post up…sorry Grandma and Grandpa Colin was pretty overwhelmed – Santa brought a lot of presents. We had been telling him about what was going to happen on Christmas Eve and I wasn’t sure if he was really going to get it, but when he woke up Christmas morning the first thing he said was “Santa?? presents?” When we went downstairs he gasped and put his hands up to his mouth – it was great.
We let him open his stocking and as soon as he saw his chocolate Santa’s it was all over. That was all he was interested in for a while. Then he figured it was time to open the presents. He opened one ( a small digger) and decided that was good enough. All he wanted to do was play with that. And on went the morning – us trying to persuade him to open more presents and Colin ignoring us. At the end, Chuck and I were just opening the presents for him. I think his favorites were the violin (which he had asked Santa for), these cool blocks from Grandma and Grandpa and a little portable kitchen.
We played with all of the toys for the rest of the morning – and then he had a total meltdown. Probably a combination of too many chocolate Santas and too many presents. He needed a nap bad.
After the nap, we went out to my Dad’s house for a Mexican Christmas Fiesta and to repeat the whole presents saga again. It was crazy with 5 kids under the age of 6 and so many more presents. The best was at the end of the evening, when things were a bit calmer, Colin and his cousin Jackson found the tub of popcorn and proceeded to stand under the tree for about 20 minutes shoveling popcorn in their mouths.
Colin is a very lucky boy to have so many people who care about him and to give him all those great presents. It has been fun for mommy and daddy to have some new toys to play with also! All in all we had a great Christmas and haven’t been doing much since then
