Colin-man

My baby was seven months old yesterday. I'm still not sure where the time has gone. Part of me feels like he's been part of our family forever & another part feels like we were just getting ready to head over to the hospital for his arrival mere days ago.

It's been a quick seven months. Colin remains the happiest baby on the planet. He's all smiles & giggles & has no sign of stranger-anxiety as of yet, although, he's beginning to really NOT like it when Mommy leaves the room. If he can't see me, he's content to play with his toys endlessly, but once he catches a glimpse, he remembers that he kind of likes to have me around & starts to protest a bit! He's sitting up very well & has figured out how to rock in sit (NOT a good thing for those of us who are hoping he'll remain immobile for a few more months!) and is starting to put both hands on the floor in front of him. He can reach WAYYYYY out for a toy & come back. He's gotten so good that we no longer feel the need to sit next to him while he's playing as he very rarely falls over anymore (unless, of course, he's laughing hysterically at his brothers!). He's rolling all over the place in his crib, but for some reason doesn't realize when he's laying on the floor playing that he has the ability to get back over onto his belly. It's actually pretty comical as he gets very frustrated trying to flip back over. He's trying to pull his knees up under him when he's playing on his tummy, but we try desperately to discourage that ;-)

He's finally decided he LOVES food & has gotten quite adept at making his wishes known. We are not allowed to sit down to eat without feeding him, too. I'm not kidding when I say that if we sit down at the table & leave him in the den, he starts to protest--LOUDLY! (Not sure how he knows we're eating, but somehow he does.) And, heaven help you if you put him in his high chair & place his bowl on the table without IMMEDIATELY trying to feed him!! He's still not one for very textured food, but he's not met a fruit or vegetable he doesn't like as of yet.

He loves his brothers dearly & just lights up when they come into the room. No one is as adept at making him giggle (or scaring the pants off of him!) as William is. Colin can often be seen craning his neck to find William & Daniel when he hears their voices. I imagine it will only be a matter of time before he's attempting to chase them around the house, heaven help me! Here are a couple of pretty funny videos of crazy, insane-o baby giggles. The second one catches the end of his giggle-fit, and please excuse me on the phone, but the baby giggles are just too cute to pass up! The first one is the shorter of the two.

From videos

From videos

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree.....

...how early can we find you??? The answer to that question is "very early"!! Since our weekends are beginning to be filled with all kinds of early holiday fun and it's very dark after Daddy gets off of work, we headed over to a nearby Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving to find the perfect tree. Our original intention was to cut it down ourselves, but the very nice lady running the farm informed us that the trees still left to be cut down might be found lacking. Since the boys were so excited about seeing the trees BEFORE they were cut, we headed out into the field anyway:

From Decorating the tree

After a long time running from tree to tree with all the little legs getting tired,

From Decorating the tree

we finally had to admit defeat & that the very nice lady was right--they were, um, not very nice-looking! Fortunately, the boys were willing to settle for one that had already been cut & we were able to find the perfect one that met the criteria of being "shorter than Daddy":

From Decorating the tree

Daddy proceeded to grab a saw & hack off the end of it:

From Decorating the tree

and then we hoisted it onto the top of our van, tied it in place, and drove 20 mph for the .9 miles home!

From Decorating the tree

We must've done a good job (or we just drove slowly enough) because we didn't lose many needles & the tree didn't fall off. I think we must've resembled the Griswold Family Christmas, tho, on our way home, judging by the strange looks we were getting while on the highway. Or maybe everyone was just trying to control their road rage while following behind us--did I mention we were driving 20 mph???????

Here's the finished product!!

From Dec 2009

Our Little Family Thanksgiving

So, most of our friends hit the road for Thanksgiving this year. I had to work the weekend after, so heading home to Louisiana wasn't an option. As a result, we had our very first "family-only" Thanksgiving. It was nice & quiet (or as quiet as a day can be with three boys under 5 running around!) and there was no pressure on me to cook anything fabulous. If something didn't turn out to be edible, there was always the lunch meat in the fridge ;-) I tried a lot of new recipes, and, surprisingly enough, most of them were a hit with our two finicky eaters. Colin even got to try his first sweet potato casserole! He wasn't a big fan (not one for weird textures, that boy), but he ate a fair bit of it. We set the formal table & ate in the dining room, which William & Daniel got a big kick out of. Here are a few snaps from our big dinner.

The table, pre-dinner:

From Thanksgiving 2009

Colin, patiently waiting for someone to FEED him:

From Thanksgiving 2009

Turkey breast and gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, and corn for Daniel (the only vegetable he'll eat without protest), as well as a couple of cocktails for Mommy & Daddy :-O

From Thanksgiving 2009

Yummy green bean casserole made from a Good Housekeeping recipe & actually "William-friendly":

From Thanksgiving 2009

Traditional sweet potato casserole:

From Thanksgiving 2009

My four handsome boys!

From Thanksgiving 2009

Christmas Lights, Camels, and Donkeys

This year, we continued our Christmas tradition of heading over to Our Lady of the Snows Shrine for the Way of Lights Christmas spectacular. Since Scott was deployed last holiday season, this was his first time to see it all. We went so early in the year that we missed the crowds & were able to see everything at our leisure. It was the first REALLY cold night of the year, so we all bundled up for some early winter fun. Colin got really snuggly under my baby carrier fleece--he couldn't stop looking at all of the sights!!

From Our Lady of the Snows

From Our Lady of the Snows

The boys rode a camel:

From Our Lady of the Snows

From Our Lady of the Snows

From Our Lady of the Snows

And, a donkey:

From Our Lady of the Snows

And then headed over to the petting zoo to feed some animals.

Llamas:

From Our Lady of the Snows

Miniature donkeys:

From Our Lady of the Snows

From Our Lady of the Snows

And, lastly, some kind of wooly creature that is called something I can't quite recall at this time:

From Our Lady of the Snows

From Our Lady of the Snows

And waiting for the trolley with Daddy so we could go see some Christmas lights:

From Our Lady of the Snows

No pics of the lights because the flash reflected off of the windows & the lights were blurry without the flash due to the moving trolley. But, they're BEAUTIFUL and if you're ever in the area around the holidays, the Way of Lights is definitely a must-see!!

Road Trip!

So, we decided to hit the road to Tulsa, OK to see Katie & Phil and their kiddos since we haven't met "the other Colin" yet and our Colin hadn't met his other godmother yet! Our GPS said it was just over 6 hours, which sounded very do-able on the front end. One thing we learned on this trip is that once you get over about 3 hours, the time required to get anywhere increases EXPONENTIALLY. Coordinating gas stops and food stops with diaper changes and potty breaks, well, let's just say it didn't quite go as expected! But it was all worth it in the end as we got to see our friends, whom we hadn't seen in a while, and spend the weekend in a very nice hotel that had a "see-through" elevator! Those of you who know my boys know that this was a MAJOR plus. With the little guys' naps (Katie & Phil's Colin is 4 months old), we spent more time in the hotel rooms than we'd have liked, but there was a very nice indoor pool and we had a baby monitor, which made it easy for Katie & me to visit while the babies slept & the daddies took the big kids to the pool.

We arrived Friday night and the kids were so excited to see each other. The babies tried to eat each other while the mommies fended off any eye-pokes and hair-pulls (although, neither has much up top yet!), and the big kids ran around INSANELY excited playing all of the games they invented on our LAST get-together! Here are a few snaps of the two Colins hitting it off:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

We then hit our favorite restaurant for burgers--thank goodness for Red Robin!! I don't think many restaurants can handle the sheer pandemonium associated with 6 kids under 5. We headed back to the hotel in an attempt to get the kids in bed early (ha, ha!) so we could have a full day the next day. The best laid plans and all that..... We ended up at the play area at the mall instead of the aquarium because our middle wild man, aka Daniel, was running on fumes. Of course, I forgot my camera, so no snaps of that, but the kids sure had fun. Then, it was back to the hotel, where a monster nap ruined all hopes of hitting the aquarium that afternoon. But, the kids entertained themselves going up & down the elevator (the ninth floor, or "all the way to the top" was their favorite) and swimming in the hotel pool. We then hit Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. Since it was Claire-bear's fifth birthday (I guess this night, we only had 5 kids "under 5"!!), we got a cake & they were even able to make a pizza with no cheese that William & I could eat. The kids had a blast singing to Claire & even though we didn't sing to HER, it was Katie's birthday, too. So, Happy Birthday to two of our favorite girls!!

After all the activity, the kids crashed hard & slept well, so we were able to hit the aquarium on Sunday. We took a ton of pictures, so if you click this picture, you can scroll through them all:

Tulsa trip

And, some highlights:

We got to feed some turtles! First, they put fish on the end of the feeder:

From Tulsa trip

Then, they put the feeder in the water and the turtles went nutso trying to be the first turtle to get to it:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

The girls got to feed the stingrays! The same principles applied:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

And, the feeding frenzy:

From Tulsa trip

We got to pet stingrays, along with several other varieties of sea life. By the time we were done, Daniel was wet up to his shoulders and the front of his shirt was completely soaked. Needless to say, getting to touch "fith" was one of the highlights for him:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

And, the newest addition to the Tulsa aquarium is the shark tank, complete with walk-through tunnel. Some of these pictures may not be the best quality because I had to lighten them up, but Katie & Phil should have more once they get their blog up-to-date (hint, hint, Guys!). Keep checking here for more pictures. Their camera is a MUCH better quality than ours!!

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

Cool picture THROUGH the tank:

From Tulsa trip

And, here are the kids being silly with one of the shark-trap cages:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

Daniel was very excited to see his friend Nemo (look in the middle at the bottom, right where he's pointing):

From Tulsa trip

And, William LOVED the jellyfish:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

Here are a couple of pictures William took on his own (photography appears to be his newest hobby!):

From Tulsa trip

And, one of his "best friend, Claire":

From Tulsa trip

And, just some random kid cuteness:

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

After the aquarium, we hit a park. Check out how beautiful the weather was!!

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

From Tulsa trip

On Monday, we headed home! The ride home was much smoother than the ride over there. Guess we truly do learn from experience. Overall, it was a great weekend with great friends. Definitely, a success!