Country Roads... take me home

Well we are finally out of WV! It was a long weekend but we are finally done... for now at least. Colin, Brent and I left Friday afternoon after Colin's gymnastics class - (there are more boys than girls in it - its mainly a gym class for his age, but for those of you who are horrified I put my son in a gymnastics class... he LOVED it and it tired him out for the trip) Colin fell asleep in the car and slept until we got to DC and hit traffic -for some reason once the car slows down or stops he always wakes up. He was so good though and after playing some games, reading stories, and coloring we turned on the DVD player (bought just for this trip) and we all enjoyed the trip much more! We got to our house around 7:30 and Colin had fun exploring this new place. He was so funny since we left his old crib in his room (he broke it from jumping up and down so much on it) and bought him a new one when we moved last year - but the crib was for a "BABY" as he is now in a toddler bed. And he wouldn't go near the crib - that was for a "baby." The pack-n-play was his new playground as he liked to climb in and out of it. We had a lot of help moving all of our stuff out and had fun visiting with some friends as well. It was fun to see them after a year and also for them to play with Colin. He loved the boys who came over - although Adam Z did teach him to pick his nose! The guys were great and a huge help. We couldn't have done it without them. All but one of Brent's old bible study guys were there helping. Colin loved helping anyone fix things and took all of Brent's tools out of the toolbox and lined them up to use. He also liked running up and down the ramp for the truck. Brent drove the truck back Sunday and I had to stay until Monday to close our bank accounts and also wait for the gas meter man to come shut off the gas. And since I couldn't convince my friend Beth to come from KY to stay with Colin and I in an empty house - who could blame her - we stayed in a hotel and had fun playing in the pool.... or rather just splashing our legs in the water (Colin didn't want to go in the water - just sit on the side) We had some friends come visit us in the hotel and Colin had fun entertaining them with his somersaults and even made them march around. Colin was a perfect angel though and I was so proud of him. He never complained even when we were so busy cleaning and packing the house as he didn't really get play time in. He also didn't complain about the long car trip. He and I came home in the rain Monday and the only video he wanted to watch was his Bob the Builder video. I think he needs a new one for his birthday - or at least mommy needs a new one! We will miss our friends dearly but are very excited about finding our new home.
Marching and doing somersaults in the hotel for jess, michelle, christina and karen

I love Rachel

Making soup - we had to pack our spoons when he was asleep as he kept getting them out to feed everyone

Helping Matt Kim take apart the bed

With Victor

With Destiny or Des-deee as Colin called her. (we got ice cream with Destiny and Colin was VERY sad to see her go... especially since she took some ice cream home with her!)

could it really be true???

After 11 months on the market I think our house has finally sold! We have had a steady flow of people looking at our house all year and had our hopes crushed almost monthly it seemed as people loved our house but for various reasons didn't buy it. We love our realtor and have gotten to know her even better this year and I will miss her weekly, sometimes daily phone calls. We had a contract on the house in October but once the home inspection was done the couple backed out. The inspectors report would've scared me! Our Realtor had never heard of the company and we've been worried about the state of our roof ever since. But we finally got another offer a few weeks ago and after countering and more counter offers we accepted their offer only to worry about the home inspection. But the inspection was last Friday and not only did the home inspection go great, but the wife's father (who is a contractor) went along too and didn't find anything to scare them away. They said the house was in great shape. So we've worried for nothing the past few weeks. We will get a copy of the report today but we are planning on moving out next weekend as the closing is April 30th. We are going to put our stuff in storage down in VA beach and then take our time looking for the perfect home. We loved our first home but are very excited about what our new home will look like.

ewwwww

This morning Colin was lying on the floor going "ewww" which usually means he has spotted a bug (or lately it could mean a piece of fuzz, dirt, leaf, etc) but Brent hadn't left for work yet so when he walked in the room I told Colin to show dada the bug since I don't like bugs either and Colin pointed to his mouth! Brent asked him if he ate the bug and he said yes and went yummmm. I really do hope he didn't eat the bug but we will never know for sure but whatever Colin ate it was yummy!

Fun with bubbles

kitty

Colin loves kitty. We give kitty kisses, play with kitty, feed kitty, talk to kitty, read books to kitty. (when we read books sometimes colin makes kitty's head move to tell me if yes he wants that book or no choose another one... I think Colin's preferences sway kitty's true feelings sometimes. haha) This cat is slowly becoming Colin's favorite stuffed animal. And the funny thing is its one of Mary's old stuffed animals he found - not one of his new ones people have given him. This is a well loved cat.

Monument Aveunue 10K

(Just before the race)

A few months ago, Sarah talked me into running the Monument Avenue 10k. I used to run 6 miles every day but that was many years ago... and definitely not since I had Colin. It seemed like a great idea at the time and a fun motivation to get into shape for running 6.2 miles. Well April 5th was here before I knew it or was ready for it. I had been running more and thought I was doing good but then I took my car to clock how far I had been running and it was only 2 miles instead of the 4 that I thought I had been running! My friend Tifiny went running with me while she was in town and really encouraged me saying the first 2 miles were the worst - and they were - but that there comes a point where your body gets in it and you can keep going.So leading up to yesterday I just kept telling myself that. So along with 30,000 people Sarah, Mary, Sam and I ran our first 10K. We were able to all run together - or at least start out together Mary took off shortly after we started and we didn't see her until the end. Its a really pretty run down monument avenue and there must have been 25 bands set up along the course playing for us as well as tons of people cheering. It started to downpour after we started but once we were running I really didn't notice the rain. The only hard part was my socks got soaked from the rain and I now have the blisters to remind me of the race. It was amazing seeing 30,000 people running and you just saw a wall of people when you looked ahead of you but I was surprised how well organized this event was. It took me about an hour to finish - as soon as the official times are up I will know for sure but I at least beat Sarah :) I sprinted in right before her! Here we are at the end of the race. The sun did come out - when we were walking to our cars! ha - but it was fun and now I'm looking forward to the next race I run in.

our little climber

Its a good thing Colin is signed up for a toddler gym class in a few weeks because he is a climbing machine. He loves to climb on things/over things and especially stairs. He has also mastered some of the hard climbing things on the playground - much to his mom's anxiety each time. The other morning I went upstairs really fast to get Colin's shirt to change into and this is what I found. I quickly grabbed the camera and was amazed at his abilities. (don't worry I was standing there with him) There is a climbing thing on the playground that has stair steps going up and then a bar at the top to hold onto. And it does resemble the way Colin is climbing the stairs in the picture. He's going to love his gym class where he'll be told to climb on things and mommy won't have to worry about him getting hurt. Although I do worry about what he'll do when he gets home. If he thinks the stairs are like the playground climbing thing(I don't know the official name) imagine what he will do when he gets home from his gym class.


For those who wondered what happened with Colin climbing out of the crib - we converted the crib into a toddler bed and he loves it. We kept his bumpers as he likes to snuggle up to them and put in a little bed railing. It doesn't keep him from climbing out as you can hear him knocking on his door when he wakes up. (and saying COME IN in a really cute voice.... so cute) But at least thats one less worry I have about him falling when trying to climb out of his crib. Here he is asleep. He was too cute not to take a picture.

1st haircut

Today I gave Brent a haircut and against my protests, my mom and brent talked me into cutting off Colin's baby curls as well. They were getting long and most of the time stuck out but the back of his hair would curl up so nice. I called them curls - brent called it his rat-tail or mullet. In his before picture brent made the curls stick out a little more than they normally did! I have loved his little curls all year and now they are gone!!!! (well not really gone - i kept his curls for his scrapbook - he might not appreciate it but I will) It only took a few snips and as you can see it wasn't too exciting for Colin as he ditched the cookie I gave him and clung to my mom. He now looks like such a little boy with his hair cut. But at least brent can't tease him about being a girl anymore.

egg soup pictures

egg soup anyone?

What do you do with the plastic easter eggs now that the candy has been eaten and easter is over? Make egg soup of course! Colin has been pretending to make egg soup the past few days. At first all the eggs went into his dump truck and then he would make his truck noises and then dump them out - then he decided to become a chef and make egg soup with them and feed the whole family. He was stirring the eggs into his little toy cups but then I got a mixing bowl down and a spatula and he had a great time one morning making me huge pots of soup and then feeding me the soup. It was YUMMY every time. Everyone should try it. Haha Well one afternoon I was on the computer and Colin went to get his eggs (from the other room) and make some soup for me. (he goes slurp slurp slurp when he wants to do this game) Well the phone rang and it was my sister Mary so I went to go answer it. In that SHORT time span Colin had taken his mixing bowl with the plastic eggs in them, dragged a chair from the kitchen over to the stove, climbed the chair, put the mixing bowl on the burner and was reaching to the knobs trying to turn on the stove!!!!!! I guess he thought if the soup tasted that good cold, imagine what it would taste like hot. Good thing I caught him. Nothing gets by him and he does help make dinner a lot. And he did watch the food network with Brent the night before. But scary!

Who Me?

Notice the new boots. We had to retire his old boots as they have cracked and defeat the purpose of running through puddles when it rains. But he LOVES his boots and wears them when its not raining. I think because he can put them on himself. So we had to get new ones. But his new boots are giraffes and the bottoms are their faces and Colin has pretended to feed his giraffe boots. So cute!

helicopter easter egg drop!

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! We just got back from church and an amazing easter egg drop. Thats right. A helicopter easter egg drop. Our church likes to think outside the box and what better way to draw a crowd than to drop easter eggs from a helicopter. There were 20,000 easter eggs and it seemed like there were 20,000 people there. (probably not that many but it sure seemed like it. It was very exciting to see so many people at church) Colin loved the helicopter at first but then got scared when they told everyone to go get the eggs - thats when the chaos started. They had designated areas for each age group but some people didn't know that I'm sure or there are some VERY BIG 2 year olds :) Colin picked a few eggs and put them in his basket and then we tried to go find more and get to the big piles of eggs but couldn't get around people as most people in his age group (birth to 2) were taking pictures and trying to get their kids to pick up eggs (and the VERY BIG 2 year olds were going crazy and running everywhere). SO we left the egg hunt and went to look at our eggs. The eggs were more interesting when Colin discovered candy inside them and as we were stuck in the parking garage for a while we sat on the grass and enjoyed our candy. He is now sleeping - amazing since he ate a lot of sugar this morning and when he wakes up we are off to my grandparents for some yummy easter dinner.

Our pastor gave an illustration of giving up our firstborn for someone else and I know I couldn't let Colin die in someone's place. It puts a whole new perspective for us when we look at our little boy. Thank you Lord for loving us that much. Happy Easter!

poor boy

Last night Colin started having green stuff oozing from his eyes and we were afraid of pink eye - and after a LONG night for all of us we went to the doctor this morning and thankfully its not pink eye but a really bad sinus infection. The doctor made looking in his ears a little game and Colin just put his finger in my ears and pretending to look in them and he thinks its really funny. He has stuff now oozing from everywhere! Gross but the funny part is his balance. Since he has a lot of fluid in his ears his balance is a little off. He was running around the house this morning and would all of a sudden fall over. He did this several times. It doesn't faze him but hopefully he will be feeling better soon. Its hard seeing him so sick and not himself. We want him energetic and like the bottom picture soon. (he has also been milking the not feeling very good as he got a cookie after the doctors visit and just woke up from a nap and wanted chocolate milk! haha he's a fast learner!)

notice a theme?

Colin has started lining up his toys - and not all of his toys but its not unusual to walk into a room and find something like these pictures. And he is very specific which ones belong in the group or not. For instance his red shovels can't be in the same group as his other shovels. Its cute but should I be worried?And Colin knows his colors! he's a genius I keep saying. But he walked by me yesterday with a blue toy and points to it and said blue, a brown bracelet I had and said brown....We read books about colors and are always matching colors together - but I thought it would be a while before he was saying them. He's growing up.

Snowshoe

This past weekend Brent and I left Colin and went on his company ski trip. It was the first time I had left Colin for a night - let alone a whole day! Aunt Angela came and watched him until my parents got home from work and from what I hear he had a great time with everyone. (except he did give AJ - James and Angela's dog - a concussion with his drum sticks but AJ is doing well now from what I hear) We didn't get to Snowshoe until 11pm and had to go on these awful windy back roads in the fog. There were times I didn't think we were going to make it and we couldn't pull over or turn around as we were on narrow windy mountain roads. But we eventually made it. I dont think I've ever been so scared. And then I had the whole weekend to worry about getting off the mountain! ha! Before we went I had dreams of just sleeping a TON since I haven't slept for 2 years - Colin is getting better and sleeping through the night more consistently but a whole weekend to sleep late and not worry about getting up with him was something I was looking forward to. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I developed a cold during the weekend which kept me from sleeping very well and I guess my body is so used to getting up around 6 that it doesn't know how to sleep in anymore so I didn't get the sleep I wanted. Brent on the other hand can sleep anywhere for as long as he wants.... not fair. But other than that it was a great weekend. Brent and I had a fun time skiing together.
It was the first time we had skied together and Brent is very good. He doesn't think so but he kept flying down the mountains and I was the slow one snowplowing my way down the slope. It was very foggy, windy, and sleeting/snowing half the time we were skiing and I was so afraid I'd fall and break something because of all the ice patches. But neither of us fell! I did get stuck on the ski lift and had to get them to stop it to let me off - sad to say that isn't the first time I have gotten stuck. We did love the fact that we could go into our lodge after skiing instead of having to drive home. That was wonderful and if we go skiing in the future i think we'll definitely do that. I got to know some of the people Brent works with better and also got to hang out with their wives. A very fun group of people to be around the more we get to know them. The sun came out Sunday morning so we were able to get off the mountain. We even stopped by our home in WV to clean and do some yard work so hopefully someone will buy our cute house this weekend! We had a great weekend but I was very glad to get back to our sweet little boy.

Chocolate Milk

Last weekend we went over to my grandparents house to help with yard work and also to visit. Colin discovered a new treat - Chocolate milk!!! My grandma made him some chocolate milk and then made it even better by putting ice cream in it. Colin LOVED it. He has had chocolate milk before but never this good, especially since my grandma put TONS of chocolate in it. Yesterday I went over to their house with Colin (my grandparents are on a cruise and yes they forgot to take Colin and I.... maybe next time) but we went to go clean out their fridge for them. As I'm getting things out of the fridge Colin starts lifting something really heavy out of the fridge (heavy for him) and gets very excited. He then brings me the Hershey syrup and wanted me to make chocolate milk. So I did and even put the ice cream in it. And it was just as good the second time around.

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!