Family Fuller

Although Colin changed his mind on a bunch of times about what to be for Halloween, he finally went with Penguin. I was up until about 11:30 last night making his costume and Holden’s - but they turned out pretty well. Then this morning Colin said he didn’t want to wear it - I was rather peeved as you can imagine. He eventually relented when I told him how everyone at school would have one on. He wouldn’t put his hood up for me though.

I dropped him off at preschool, went for a walk and coffee with another mom and then back to go trick or treating around the commerical area near our house (along with all the other preschoolers). Of course once I got back Colin was all decked out, hood up and all - he will do these things for others, just not for mom. He looked really cute and all the kids had a great time.

Once we got back home Colin didn’t want to take the costume off. We are also going out tonight once daddy gets home, but I wanted to get some pics up right away.

Today, while out and about Holden had a dirty diaper. I found a bathroom, but of course no changing table. So I had to change him on the counter while Colin gave “color” commentary.

Colin: “Mommy, oh look Holden’s poop is green.”

Me: “Yes, he ate spinach last night.”

Colin “Oh, peas also make his poop green.” Followed by “I must eat a lot of brown food.”

Immediately followed by “Mommy, I have to poop too.” So once Holden was finished being changed I had to strap him in the carrier and somehow manage to get Colin on the counter to change his diaper while trying to keep Holden out of the poop. Ah, so fun.

Potty training will be coming soon. Colin just refuses to do it and with all of our moves and everything I haven’t been forcing the issue. I might have to resort to M&M bribes.

As Chuck said we are still here - but very busy. I am usually pretty organized but I am having a hard time keeping track of all the things going on. We still have a lot of stuff in boxes, no pictures or decorating of any kind, a whole bunch of toys on the front porch - needless to say the house is looking a little trashy. Meanwhile, we had visitors in town over the weekend (my good college friends Emily and Tracy) and preschool has been keeping me busy, not to mention it is Halloween on Wed and we don’t have any costumes. Colin has been changing his mind between a penguin and a pirate, with astronaut thrown in a time or two. I think I am going with penguin since he says that most often.

These pictures are from Golden Gardens, just about a mile or less from our house. Tuesday it was sunny and 70 so we went to the beach. We also went back today with daddy - not quite as nice today, but still a good time.

Not sure what I have blogged about recently but preschool has been going absolutely great. Last week Colin actually turned the TV off and told me it was time to go to school. When we got there he said “hug and a kiss. OK, go now mom” - I love it. He is making some friends and having a great time. Plus being able to walk over there has been really convenient. Overall Colin’s behavior has really improved since we got a bit settled and I started a little sticker chart for him, so now he more agreeable to say, getting dressed.

Holden is on the move. He still army crawls but he is fast - and yesterday he pulled up on the train table. He doesn’t want to be held anymore. He wants to be down on the floor with you next to him so he can practice standing. I haven’t heard Mama as much, but tonight he said Dada quite a few times.

Over the weekend while our friends were in town, Colin also got another ear infection. This time while eating lunch he just mentioned that his ear hurt. I took him to the dr and she said he had another one. It doesn’t surprise me because we have pretty much all had colds since he started preschool. He seemed to be handling it pretty well.

Colin was absolultely loving it when we had people over to watch the game on Saturday. He is a party boy and was singing and entertaining everyone all day long - it was hilarious. At one point he was playing preschool and sang the “hello” song around the room. Right now he isn’t so sure who is who with the Colleen, Ian and Liam crew so he sang “Hello Holden, Hello Mommy, Hello Daddy, Hello (mumble, mumble, mumble), Hello Tracy, etc… - it was so funny because he just kept in stride like when an adult forgets the words to a song.

On a sad note, Sevi doesn’t seem to be doing very well. She had trouble walking over the weekend. It comes and goes, but it looks bad when it hurts - she just kind of fell over. She also hasn’t wanted to eat as much. We took her to the vet, and the blood work checked out fine, but she just isn’t herself. We are willing her to be OK, but she is getting up there - 12 and a half and has cancer so it isn’t looking good.

I am sure I have a ton more to write, but I am beat and Chuck and I need to watch the last episode of Rome. I will try to write again soon, but until we are more settled it’s going to be hard.

Hello faithful blog followers - we know it has been a while since our last post, but with the move and me out of town and people coming into town this weekend…well, you get the idea. Plus we didn’t have internet access for a few days there, so Jess at least has that excuse.

But things are beginning to settle down. Boxes are getting unpacked and removed (although not all), and the house is starting to take shape. Now if we could just get a bigger kitchen, but I suppose that will have to wait.

To make up for the galley-style kitchen with little storage space, we put pot racks up along one wall to store big items and to hang our pots and pans from. It’s a huge space saver. In the course of putting up the shelves, Colin was inevitably ‘helping’ us, mostly by playing with the hooks that hold the pans and asking questions. While playing with said hooks, he asked Jess “What do you do with these hookers?” You can’t make this stuff up. Anyway, we’ll be back to full blogging strength shortly.

Ok - I am not a fool enough to think that my almost 8 month old son said “Mama” - but on Saturday when we were driving home, Holden who was babbling but upset clearly said “Mama” - both Chuck and I looked right at each other when he said it. Fine. Any baby can make those sounds randomly, however today he was sitting in the living room, we were playing and I walked away. Halfway across the room he said “Ma” I stopped and turned around and he was looking right at me. Then he did it again about 20 minutes later. We will see if he keeps it up - if so he would be beating even Colin in the speaking category. Colin said Mama and Dada between 8 and 9 months.

I only had time to note this because it is so great - actually I don’t even have time to do this. We moved over the weekend, the house is full of boxes, I have a cold as does Holden and Chuck is out of town for the week. On a positive note, Colin has been doing great at preschool. He wasn’t upset at all about going this morning.

We signed the papers on our house yesterday - we actually get it Friday. We were going to move next weekend but we decided to just do it this weekend. Partially to be settled once and for all and partially because the house across the street from our rental was broken into yesterday. We just decided it would be best to just get it over with and get settled for Colin’s and all our sakes.

Holden the super chunk.

Colin has been doing better in preschool. I have dropped him off a couple of times and the crying is loud at first, but he settles down in less and less time. When I pick him up he is in a great mood. In fact yesterday I was early so I spied on him a bit at the playground. The little bugger was going down the slide backwards - he won’t even go down the slide when I take him to the park.

Today I had to sub for another mom so I got to see him in school. He is so cute, he wants to be friends with some of the bigger kids. He told me to move away from him when we were playing in the gym and then he went over to these big kids, Jack West and Cooper - they are literally a head taller than Colin. He kept standing next to them, trying to join in - we were playing a game where we all had to hold hands. It was going pretty well until everyone turned to run back and they kinda ran right over Colin. It is hard to see though, because the two boys are pretty rowdy and already friends so they don’t always notice Colin - that is hard to watch as a mom, but I am glad to see Colin making an effort to make friends.

It is also amazing to hear all these things Colin talks about now since he learns at school and I don’t know exactly what they are doing. He talks about magic, getting or not getting stickers depending on if you are good or not, what other kids did, etc. Yesterday after school we were playing trains and Colin said “Mommy do you want to be my very special helper and help me put the train together?” and then “Great job mommy”

Holden is still talking a lot and scooting around with his army crawl. He now notices that when he throws something off his high chair it might be on the floor so he looks for it. He definitely has some seperation issues - but this week alone will have been with a babysitter 3 of the 5 mornings this week so hopefully he is getting used to it.

Friday night Holden went to bed around 7:30.  I went to bed about 11:30 and the next thing I knew it was 6:00 AM.  Holden, and more importantly I, slept the whole night.  It was great - felt like a million dollars on Saturday.

Saturday night I got into bed about 11:15 - and I swear my head hit the pillow and Holden started crying.  I can’t think of many things more disheartening than being really tired, having your kids in bed, laying down and having one of them start crying.  Well, the crying lasted - so I fed and changed him, we gave him the pacifier, we gave him Tylenol for his teeth, Chuck rocked him and eventually, 2 1/2 hours later we let him cry.  He fell asleep about 10 minutes later.  Ugh!  If only we had let him cry at 11:30 instead of 2 AM.

What was different on Saturday?  I have no idea - maybe the apples we gave him for dinner upset his stomach.  Who knows.  Holden ate 4 ices cubes of sweet potatoes and a bowl of oatmeal tonight - hopefully that will keep him full until 6 AM again.

I think Colin is trying to give up his nap.  He can make it until about 5 if he doesn’t get one, but then he gets tired.  Tonight he almost fell asleep at the dinner table so we all had to get up to play blocks in order to keep him up.  If he does take a nap during the day he ends up not falling asleep until about 9:30 or 10 PM, which isn’t great for us.  It is to bad for me because his afternoon nap is a nice little break during the day, but I guess he can’t take naps forever (although I would be happy to do that)

Again sorry for the lack of pictures.  I have been so busy with the kids, preschool, moving, estimates, closing on the house, etc I haven’t had a chance to work on the blog and pictures very much.  I will try to get them uploaded tomorrow!

Holden’s first little tooth popped through today. The lower center right tooth is just coming through and it looks like the other one will be there soon. He is just over 7 months old now. He has been talking a lot, making B and M sounds. He is army crawling all over and never wants to sit still. I haven’t baby proofed the rental house so I am just hoping to keep him at a somewhat slow crawl for a couple more weeks.

I really can’t get over how cute I think Holden is, I just love to hold him. This will sound somewhat cheesy I am sure, but the weight of him now (about 19 lbs) just feels so good. He just totally lets go and relaxes when he falls asleep in my arms - it is really the best.

Colin stayed by himself at preschool yesterday. He cried really hard for about 3 or 4 minutes when I left. Then they said he was pretty subdued for the next 20 minutes or so. After that he got into things and when I spied on him he looked pretty content. When I picked him up and we came home he was in a great mood.

Of course then last night he woke up screaming at 1 AM. We weren’t sure if he had a nightmare or what, but he just couldn’t fall asleep. We brought him in bed with us and he slept for about 20 minutes and woke up again. Then he said “Mommy, my ear hurts - will you rock me?” Chuck ended up sleeping out on the couch/chair in the living room with him. It was a long, sleepless night - I took him to the Dr. at 8 AM and he has an ear infection, so he is on antibiotics and didn’t go to school today. He seems pretty happy overall though, so let’s just hope we get some sleep tonight.

We got some cute new Colin pics and Holden video but I don’t have the energy to get them up tonight…sorry.