nana

Colin's aunt Mary came home this weekend and Colin had a great time playing with "Nana" as he calls her. She thinks its a grandma's name but Colin lovingly calls her Nana (since she would chase him around going "nana nana nana") and has since wandered around looking for nana.

Birthday present

Last week I celebrated my 28th birthday and here is Colin helping my mom make me brownies. Colin was so excited to eat the brownies the next day that he woke up at 4am on my birthday but I got to sleep in while Brent got up with him. What a great gift! but Colin was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me when I woke up and dragged me running into the kitchen where they had balloons and especially a Thomas birthday balloon! Colin was so excited. I think he thought the Thomas balloon was for him not FROM him.

proof

Since we posted that Colin learned how to crawl out of his crib it seemed like he didn't want to anymore. So we put away the bed railing and decided not to convert his crib into a toddler bed yet since the crib contained him (at least for the moment) But this week he has decided instead to climb out at any possible moment. He likes to play in his crib with all his stuffed animals - mostly his aunt Mary's animals but he calls them his "ahlo ahlo's". And if he notices one missing now he just swings down off the crib and goes and gets it. He used to ask me to go get the missing animal. He also wakes up now and just climbs out instead of calling for mama......so the toddler bed might be coming out this weekend. We are having a hard time figuring out how to keep him in his room since the door sometimes doesn't catch the latch, and if he can swing over his crib like this, think of what he does to a smaller gate! It is keeping me up at night worried about him wandering down the stairs but we've made sure to really close the door and have one of those safety door knob things that are usually more trouble than they are worth. It seems to help (although our smart boy has figured out those too - at least a few times and I heard him yesterday morning going "uh-oh" since he was half asleep and couldn't remember his trick to it I guess since he couldn't get the door opened)

Here he is swinging his legs over and in a few seconds - before you can usually blink - he is like this

Whooo....whoooo

So one of Colin's favorite things right now is trains. Many mornings Colin will ask for his "woo woo" (aka Thomas the train) video to watch as he's waking up. When we heard about this yearly train show that goes on in Hampton, we knew right away that Colin wouldn't want to miss it. It was pretty amazing with tons of model trains set up. Hours and lots of money went into these collections that we certainly enjoyed looking at. Colin loved it when the trains went into a tunnel and then came back out. We have since made makeshift tunnels out of pillows for his trains to go in and out.

As a kid growing up, I had always thought having a train set would be so much fun. Especially being able to put it up around a Christmas tree. So for me this was a fun idea too. We heard there was a big train kids could ride, as well as hundreds of Thomas trains that kids could play with. What a deal! So we spent a few hours there and of course Colin loved it. He was probably overwhelmed by all the trains, but at least it kept his attention! He got to pull the whistle in a little train setup, as well as push buttons to make another train go forwards and backwards. It was really cool. Colin was too small the ride the kiddie train but there was an area where he could play with over 100 Thomas trains. He would put all the trains back on the track that other kids derailed. There was a common "Thomas the train" theme to most of the toys there, so we hoped Colin didn't feel left out as almost every other kid there had a Thomas shirt on! So we bought him a Thomas whistle which he proudly blew.... and blew..... and blew.. on the ride home. It was perfect - combines his love for music and trains all in one! He's building up his lungs each time he makes it whistles and he's so proud of himself. Its also much quieter than his cymbals which the whole family enjoys.

Green and Gold!

So I know its a week late, but better than never! Last weekend was a very proud moment for this GMU Grad. Seven of us made the trek (okay only 3 of you really had to travel) to Norfolk to experience the great George Mason basketball team play ODU. Now, the overall outcome was very dissapointing as GMU lost (they haven't beaten ODU at the T.E.D since '04), but I couldn't have been prouder to be part of a school that really treats their alumni well.

For $10 a person we got a ticket in club seating (face value $13) with about 40 other GMU fans, and a all-u-can-eat (that phrase invokes much joy to my heart) food bar with chicken fingers, hotdogs, and chips. Also all the soda you want. Then at half time they had 3 drawings to win a few t-shirts and an autographed jersey by the head coach! We also were given a 2008 GMU calendar, a GMU alumni pen, and a alumni car sticker! So the $10 we paid per person wasn't even as much as the face value of the ticket seats we had! Unbelievable.... I might even give to the alumni association after being treated like that! Maybe thats what they were thinking... ha

So Mason's two top players played very well, but the rest of the team didn't. They ended up loosing by like 13, but Regis and I were keeping score of another statistic in which GMU won hands down. GMU had 5 dunks to ODU's ZERO!!!!! YEA!!! It's the small victories that count in life.The rest of the weekend was a blast as well as we walked around VA Beach and ended up at an unforgetable mexican restaurant that i'm sure we'll all talk about for years to come.

dah-ta dah-ta da ta da-ta da

As you know, Colin loves marching bands and even leads his own. He loves to march around the house with some sort of stick and go "dah-ta dah-ta da ta da-ta da" He is always the band director as he has his stick out in front and moves it like they do in parades. He watches marching bands on the computer and memorizes all their moves. He makes everyone follow after him but his favorite thing is to march outside. Outside there are millions of sticks he can use and he is even allowed to drum the sticks on just about everything. He will even stop halfway, raise his stick in the air and yell "Rahrah" and then change directions. Only everyone else marching with him has to do the same. And everyone who comes over and goes outside with him is asked to march around. He is also very specific on which end of the stick you hold and always shows me the correct way to hold my stick of the day. (I love the picture above showing his little mohawk. He had rather crazy hair this day. Someone asked me the other day if I cut his hair like that! haha nope but its so cute in the humidity it curls up into the cutest curls right into a perfect little mohawk)

Guess what I can do!

A week ago exactly Colin surprised us all with his amazing athletic abilities yet again. It was 6am and Brent had just left for work as I heard Colin waking up. A few minutes later he got quiet and I thought he put himself back to sleep only to have him WALK into my room. He had climbed out of his crib, opened his door and then my door, and walked right in with the proudest smile on his face. Now he sleeps at night with a sleeper blanket (its a blanket that we zip him up in so he stays nice and warm as he likes to kick all the blankets off); so I should really say he shuffled in (imagine Sweet Pea). I couldn't figure out how he did it but the next day after he woke up from his nap, he met me on the stairs after I heard him from downstairs! Very scary. He's fast. So I immediately put him back in and told him to show me how he did it. He listened and did it for me. I wish I had a camera to capture his face as he was incredibly proud of himself and his new found independence. He uses the headboard on either side since it is higher than the railings, almost jumps up and grabs it, then swings his whole body over the side of the crib railing and then flops down to the ground. Very strong for a little boy and very scary for his mommy. We were going to transition him into his toddler bed but waited a few days and he hasn't tried to climb out again. We are now ready as I went and bought bed railings so he won't fall out of the bed. He is a very active sleeper and doesn't stay in one place very long. We are trying not to make a big deal about it so he doesn't think this is something you do all the time. However, we would like to get a video of him flinging his little body over the side of the crib before we move him into his toddler bed!