what they dream

I have always wondered what Colin has been dreaming at times. He always used to smile and laugh in his sleep and now he mumbles things only his blankie can understand. There are still nights I can hear him laughing in his sleep. He also has nightmares too which is so sad as he can't separate reality with dreams. But last night Colin woke up whimpering so I went in, and got him back asleep and then went back to my bed only I could tell he was still upset and this time he woke up crying really hard. So back into his room. Usually he doesn't say what makes him so upset since he's half alseep most times. But this time he kept repeating "Me want green M&M's" and I said you can have green m&m's and he's still half asleep and yelled "momma said NO!!!! Me no want BLUE m&M's." And an hour and a half later I finally got him back asleep. I tried not to laugh when he kept repeating it and its honestly easier to get him back asleep when he has dreams about lions after him but not getting green m&m's is pretty awful :) For breakfast he got green m&m's with his cereal.

no privacy

We have made some progress on the potty training lately but really Colin just isn't interested. He knows exactly when he needs to go and tells me when he's peeing in his pullup, or diaper and big boy pants but unless he's really focused on it he just doesn't care. I guess for him there are better things to be doing and going potty slows him down. So I'm trying to be patient and we work every day on it. One of these days he'll just start going but until then he is in charge and he knows it. But since we've been working on it I have no privacy when I have to go to the bathroom. Here is a look into my day:

Me: Colin Do you have to go potty?
Colin: nope
Me: well I'm going to go potty (i go so much now with this baby bouncing on my bladder sometimes Colin rolls his eyes and gives me a look like really? Do you have to go again? you just went!)
Colin: Me come too - Me like to watch
Me: Ok but then you're next
Colin: oooo Momma - pee-peeing or poo-pooing? (to which i have to give an answer)
Colin dancing and yelling pee-peeing or poo-pooing or some song with those words he made up
Colin: don't forget to wipe
Colin: Let me see (when I'm all done he has to inspect the toilet)
Colin: Me flush - yea momma! Bye bye pee-pee
Me: Ok Colin now its your turn.
Colin: nope and runs into the other room to continue playing with what he was playing with before

haha sometimes I'd like my privacy but I just have to laugh during these times. Its especially funny to go into a public restroom and having him do the same thing and hear other women in the restroom giggling at our conversation.

flooding the sink

Last week I brought out Colin's water table and let him play in it since the weather was so nice. Today was cold and dreary so I wouldn't let Colin play with his water table. Instead I put a little water in the sink and let him float his boats and fish in there to play while I made dinner. Well I turned around and I saw the sink almost overflowing. (the first picture - the camera was right next to me so I was able to catch his expression when I noticed the flooding) So since he wasn't allowed to have any more water he decided to splash and make bubbles. (I hadn't told him not to splash - which resulted in the bottom picture when I felt some water hit me) Life is never boring here. He helped me mop the floor afterwards and that was almost as fun for him... I should just give him the mop next time.

Its a....

BOY! We found out today and are very excited. The noise level in our house has just increased. haha The baby had the hiccups which were cute to see on the ultrasound and Colin's favorite part was seeing the heart beat - "up down up down" as he kept calling it. Everything looked fine. And we were even able to get one of those 3D pictures and he had his hands around his face like he was praying. From what we can see he looks like he has the same nose as Colin. This baby boy LOVES to kick and is very active - almost more active than Colin which is amazing since even as a baby Colin never wanted to be still. And if he is MORE active than Colin we're in trouble! But the sweetest thing for me is that he kicks the most when Colin is cuddled up next to me talking. Almost like he knows his big brother is right there. Colin is still in love with the baby and loves to pretend his lego men are the baby and big brother and the big brother always has to find the baby. Although the other day Colin dragged me to his room and told me he had made me food in his play kitchen. He opened up the oven and there was my baby doll cooking and Colin told me to eat it. haha yuck and lets hope he doesn't try that with the real baby. But we are very excited about our new little boy and can't wait until he is born. Or as Colin tells him almost every day "baby come out and play now!"

A light dusting

Yesterday when Brent went to work (he leaves the house a little after 6am Monday mornings) he came back in to tell me we had gotten some snow. A light dusting. I'm not sure what the official measurements were but it was just a little snow. As soon as Colin woke up I had him dressed and outside within minutes so he could play in it before it all melted. He was so excited about the snow and ran around the back to make a snowman. (our front yard has a huge tree which caused NO snow to fall underneath it) But it was the crunchy snow so you couldn't even gather any of it up to make even the tiniest of snowman. Colin's response to not being able to make a snow man was"aww man - go back inside momma" The snow melted less than an hour later. It might be the only snow we get here but at least he got to see snow.

Our week in Pictures

Meal times are very entertaining when you get stories told like this
Monday it was in the 60s so we went outside to play in the afternoon. This is right before Colin made a huge mud puddle in the back yard to splash in. Messy but very fun to watch. We spent Monday morning playing with Jamie and Benjamin and that night Colin thanked Jesus for Benjamin, the baby, and cookies and dogs who eat cookies and lick his toes. (Jamie made cookies and her dogs liked the fact that Colin was willing to share) It was such a sweet prayer. A few days later it snowed. The flurries lasted about 15 minutes but we went outside anyways to play in it. Then came back in and I put rice into this pan and let Colin take his trucks and play in it. He loved it. And for those who remember his obsession with putting things in a lines... take a look at his trucks.Since the snow didn't last we made snowmen pictures later. This is Colin's version. He cut the hat, orange nose and cut the length of the scarf. And then glued all the pieces together. I think its wonderful! The next morning I decided to put shaving cream on the table and pretend that was snow (I would love snow once this year) and thought it would be fun. But look at his face. He complained that it was "TOO MESSY" and wouldn't do it. This after a few days ago of jumping in mud puddles. Oh well.Brent and Colin put on a play for me at the playground. Sunday after church we went to the beach as it got to be 75 degrees here. Its so nice to live so close. Colin played in the sand and on the playground they have right on the beach. He even shared his sand toys with everyone. He played so hard he was asleep 5 minutes after we got home. And this is a project yet to come. We spent Sunday afternoon working on his room. I got so many wonderful ideas from everyone on how to display Colin's artwork - so check back soon for the finished result. Its a work in progress but once its done I hope it looks as good as it does in my head. (just a hint - it involves the color GREEN which Colin is very proud of)

George Mason Basketball

We love the George Mason/ ODU game. We have gone the past two years and the alumni association is amazing. The GMU alum reserve box seats and not only give us tickets at a cheaper rate but they feed us some really yummy food. Good food, basketball, great seats - couldn't ask for anything better. Except for a better outcome. Each year our team loses but this year was so close. It came down to the last shot and was the most exciting basketball game I've ever been to. Poor Brent was so disappointed. Colin wasn't sure who to cheer for as we told him we were going to go see his "green team" that he watches at home and this week they wore yellow. oops... but he soon figured it out. But he also loved to cheer with the ODU fans too as it was most of the stadium. He thought it was great to yell and clap and jump up and down. Brent and Toby - they both went to GMU together and we're glad that Toby lives near us now!We took Colin with us and he had a great time. I think he might have eaten about 4 cookies that night :) but they were good. My sister Sarah came down for the game and made it even more fun. She took Colin down to see the ODU lion - or monarch i guess they call it. Colin used to be scared of lions. For the past few weeks he had been going to bed with flashlights so the lions don't bite him and even set out his stuffed animals as 'bait'. I have NO idea where this all came from but when he saw the lion at the game he was a little afraid and always had to know where it was. Then he saw other kids going up to the lion and wanted to go down and say hi. So his beloved Ant Ant took him down (we figured since Brent and I were wearing GMU gear she would have more of a chance at getting close to the ODU mascot) Colin was able to give the lion a high five and get his picture taken with Ant Ant. He later said to me "momma lions no bite - nice now" and has since stopped waking me up in the middle of the night clutching his flashlight in fear of the lion who would bite him. Thank you ant ant for helping him get over his fear. She also got him to go potty that whole day (we're on a potty strike at the moment) Anyone want to hire her? We had a great time and for all you GMU alum who are reading this please come visit next year - it just gets better every year!

complements from a 2 year old

Yesterday Colin gave me a great complement:

"Momma - you wenney" (momma you are Wendy from Bob the Builder)

Isn't he sweet...

Little Picasso

Colin loves to paint and we have painted a lot the past several weeks. I had to go out and buy more paint because he'll sit there and paint for hours some days. My mom and sisters are very artistic so it runs in the family. I just supply the paint! haha I try to be artistic but have found its better to leave it to the experts. But on Thursday I took him to the Fine Arts Museum for their kids paint days. He loved it and was so excited about going somewhere to paint. It was really fun as they have a lot of different stations and different crafts, games to play with for the kids. Colin and the other kids did a great job sharing the paints and would always trade different colors when they were done with theirs. He loved being able to paint at an easel. His paintings were very good - he drew a cannon on one and titled it "boom boom boom" and made sploches where the cannon went off and left the "boom" (I thought it was very creative) The only thing was they didn't have any way to dry the paintings. I wish they had a hairdryer at least because all of Colin's paintings were sopping with paint So all the moms figured we'd just put the paintings between extra sheets of paper to get them home without getting our cars full of paint. We ended up going to visit my grandparents and then had dinner with my parents. I was halfway home thinking about Colin's paintings in the back when I realized they had dried and stuck to each other. oh well. We'll have more for Colin to add to his collection. I need to come up with some way to hang his creations. I have framed a few in his room and he is so proud of them but not sure how to make it so all his paintings at the time can be displayed neatly and look good. I would love any suggestions.

This is how Colin viewed the paintings at the museum - with his binoculars. Then he flipped them around and kept going "they are too far away"

pregnancy pictures

I didn't take many pictures the last time I was pregnant. I didnt like many of them and probably only have a handful left after I deleted the ones Brent would strategically take when I wasn't looking. I probably do have more pictures than that but there are just a few that I really like. I just felt fat most of the time which could be because I worked with slender college students :) But here is a comparison between pregnancies. In the first two pictures I am about 14/15 weeks along. Can you tell a difference?

Here I am, the one on the end in the brown sweater :) barely showing at this point. This is when I was pregnant with Colin.

And this is now.

And this was yesterday. haha just kidding. I was 6 months pregnant with Colin here but still I'm closer to looking like that now. This baby has grown a lot the past few days. Makes me wonder how big I'll get this time.

staying warm indoors

This week the weather became cold... well cold for this area. We laugh that the high in WV right now is 6 and we're complaining about 30 degree weather now. But thats why we like this area. Colin saw some snow flakes for about 4 minutes today and got really excited about the snowman he would make before it turned to rain. Sorry kiddo that might be the only snow you see all year. We did go outside this week to play but usually my no coat and barefoot boy loves cold weather and its momma who gets too cold but this time he cried and complained about the cold so we found things to do inside.

Brent and Colin demolished the shelf in our closet and we put up new shelving. For around $30 we now have twice the hanging and shelf space. Its SO nice. But Colin had fun with the power tools.

I took Colin to the Aquarium to run around and see some animals. Have to make use of his free under 2 for all these museums. He had a great time and loved pushing all the buttons that tell facts, make animal noises. Only problem was he decided he didn't want to walk halfway through and I had to carry him. Usually when we bring the stroller he still wants to be carried and I end up pushing the stroller and carrying him. So this time I didn't even bring the stroller. I told him I couldn't carry him too much longer because of the baby and he kissed my tummy and yelled "Come out baby and play" haha wish it worked that way. But it was a great time and we practically had the place to ourselves.

Friday we went to the Mariners Museum in Newport NEws. My mom got us free tickets so of course we went. NN is offering an ambassador ticket where for the month of Jan you can go to certain museums in NN on certain days for free. If you are ever in NN you have to go see this museum. They have done an amazing job with it and have a great monitor/Merrimack - or css Virginia :) exhibit that I wish I had been able to read everything and watch all the movies but Colin had a great time. He kept going "wow cool" and loved seeing the boats and his favorite was a part where they ask you which tool is used for different ship making tasks and you push the tool and then they show you how it was used to make the ship. He LOVED It. I love history so its definitely one of those museums thats worth the money to pay to go. But glad we got in free this time! And I brought the stroller and he stayed in it the whole time. Then we went to my grandparents and took naps and played the wii again. Colin the whole way over thought Jeff would be there and was really disappointed when I told him Jeff was at work and wasn't coming. (Jeff you need to come visit again soon!) Then after dinner with my parents we came home and this weekend have just been playing at home and not doing too much. Which has been really nice and relaxing.

And lastly a funny Colin story. He LOVES making bodily nosies (i.e. burps, gas, etc) and usually laughs and goes "ME!" before saying excuse me. Well the other day he passed gas and then in all seriousness looked and me and goes "Oh MOMMA!" Since then I never know if he'll do it in public and then blame me since he's done it several time since then. Haha. Oh well. Life as a mom gets more interesting.

This is the greatest pictures of all time! My dad and Colin
The cousin picture I mentioned in the previous post. I think you can see a family resemblance at least with the girls.

Family dinner and the wii

I know its a lot of posts in a few days but our computer is on its last legs. I think we've had this lap top for 5 years at least. So lately it seems to crash and not want to work but its working now so I'm trying to get everything in while I can. Last night my aunt and uncle and cousins came in town so we we went over to my grandparents for dinner. Colin was very excited because he remembered on the way over there that Jeff was the one who brought him all those toys before. And they brought more! Colin was so excited. He now has a doctors bag full of instruments and keeps asking me to cough and tell him I'm sick so he can fix me. He wants to be a doctor at the moment ;) Colin had a blast playing with Meredith and Hannah and this morning said he missed them and wants Jeff to come back to play. He loves Jeff and has always just gone right to him. After dinner we brought out the wii fit that my grandparents had gotten for Christmas. Colin had a great time and was pretty good at it with some help from Hannah (who was the pro) I can't wait to go back over there and play it again. We got a great cousins picture that was on other cameras so I'll post that when someone sends it to me :) (Please...) Its so fun for us to be able to go these family events now that we live an hour from family. We had a lot of fun and hope we can all get together again soon. One of the toys Jeff and Kerri brought was a kids binoculars and I caught my grandpa playing with them and using them (backwards) to look at this (his christmas present to himself). haha!

But its no wonder Jeff and Colin get along so well. Being super heros is a tough job! Here is Jeff when I think he was Colin's age getting a superman costume for Christmas.

Where did my little baby go?

Well much to the relief of some of you, and to the great sadness of me, we gave Colin a real hair cut. It was getting really bushy and some of his curl was starting to straighten out. (so sad) But Colin wanted the back trimmed. He looks so grown up. Now it is MUCH shorter in the front than I wanted because Brent took the scissors and started whacking at Colins hair and it needs to be straightened out but Colin was done at that point. I do miss his curls but his hair is still curling up in the back. (which makes me hope he'll always have his curls) But he looks so much older now. Still my cute boy though.This is what Colin got for sitting so still!

Great Big Brother

Colin has taken a big interest in the baby lately. He keeps calling it the "green baby" since his favorite color is green and loves to come in and kiss my tummy and say "hi baby" he also thinks the baby needs a glass of water poured on it but I quickly stopped that. But baby's thirsty is what I get. haha. Colin went with me to my doctors appointment the other day and I told him before that he would get to hear the heartbeat and he was so excited. He sat so still and was so good. It was a little scary though since the doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat and after 20 minutes of trying went to get the ultrasound to look. I tried not to get too upset since Colin was sitting next to me but everything is fine. The baby was just really low and the doctor couldn't find it. (Brent and I joke now that its because Colin likes to come blow his trumpet at my tummy so the baby is hiding) But Colin was in awe seeing the baby move across the screen and then we heard the heart beat and the baby is fine. When Brent got home that night the first thing he did was run in and say "dada - me heard the baby" and was so excited. I told him that one day the baby will be out of my tummy and he told me that it would come out of my mouth. Like Cliffords loose tooth. Then the tooth fairy would come give me a treat. (We read Cliffords loose tooth a lot as he likes that book) Thats a good explaination to me! Last night before he went to bed he had to kiss the baby and tell the baby goodnight. I hope this love for the baby is still as strong when it arrives!

New years and the rest of christmas

We rang in the New Year with my sister, or Ant-Ant as Colin loves to call her. After Brent got off work we drove up to Richmond to spend the night with Sarah and ring in the New Year. We wanted to take Colin downtown to these really cool lighted reindeer but they were turned off! we were so disappointed but went inside next door where they had penguins with a fountain and Colin enjoyed that just as much. He hasn't stopped asking to go see the penguins again. We then went to these amazing houses next door that must have millions of lights just on their house. We got to walk around the yards which was fun. After going to go get ice cream Colin was really tired but didn't go to bed until 11:30pm! He almost made it to midnight because Ant-Ant told him Prince Colin stories at bedtime which turned into many, many Prince Colin stories. He loved them and now every nap time and bed time we have to tell him Prince Colin stories. And sometimes I run out of ideas of new exciting adventures for Prince Colin to go on. The next day we went to the Short Pump mall and let Colin ride the little train. He loved it and picked Ant-ant to go on it with him. After a stop at my grandparents house on the way home for our black-eyed peas we all came home and Colin crashed and so did I. I couldn't even stay up to watch the Hokie game. But Brent kept coming back and waking me up to tell me the score at different points. But it was a great way to start the New Year. We also celebrated Christmas a few days before New Years with Brent's dad. Colin was so excited when he woke up from his nap and there were MORE PRESENTS under the tree. Very exciting and he keeps asking when Christmas will be again so he can open more presents. We drove around to look at Christmas lights and Pops got to hear Colin's WOW, Cool, each time we passed a house with lights on it.