"duper" hero

Lately Colin loves to put on his goggles and race around the house pretending to be a "duper" hero saving all different things, people and animals. When I tell him I feel so safe knowing he is here protecting me, he gets the biggest grin on his face. He goes around saying "if you have a problem just ask me." Its so cute watching him run in the room, get into his "duper" hero outfit, and then race out calling out to the poor person in trouble that he is on "me way" to save them. This morning he wore his cape that I made him for Christmas. He had to run really fast to make it fly in the air, which tired him out for a wonderful nap this afternoon.

waiting... waiting.. waiting

There is a song I made up for Colin that we sing when we're waiting in a long line for something to distract him and also teach him patience. When he's getting impatient it helps distract him and makes the waiting go by much faster. Lately I've been singing it a lot to myself as we wait for this baby to make his appearance. Just about everything is ready and now we just wait. And wait. And wait. Its a lot different than waiting for Colin. With Colin I couldn't wait for him to come and for at least 2 weeks I was dilated at 3cm so any minute he could've come. We also had no clue what it would be like so most of my waiting was spent worried about labor and what to do with a newborn. Now labor doesn't scare me as much - although with every day this baby gets bigger and bigger which does worry me a little :) But its also getting harder and harder to move and play with Colin so anytime this baby wants to come would be fine with me! But its mainly what to do with Colin when I go into labor. Brent is also working most days an hour away so I worry when I start to get a few contractions in a row if I should call Brent to come home or will they go away or how late is too late to call people to come watch Colin in the middle of the night. No one likes to be waken at 3am but should I call or just see if it passes. I've been getting more and more contractions every day but they aren't consistent and end up going away after a while. I do not want to have this baby in the car. But we know that God knows exactly when this baby is going to come and he will come when he's ready. Thats part of the exciting part - and also for planners like me the hard part. So we're hoping he comes today but if not the pool is now open every day and its been fun going with our little swimmer. I know once the baby comes I wont be able to take Colin every day so it would be nice to have a few extra days at the pool. But even nicer to have our little baby here. We have also picked a name. I dont think we've put his name on here yet but we've had it since we found out he was a boy. Joel Christian will be his name. (and yes we do watch jon and kate and they have a colin and a joel but we didnt pick the name for that - it seems to be the common question now) Right after Colin was born we said we liked the name joel and if we ever had another boy that would be in the running for his name. After we found out he was a boy, I was running names by Colin one day and he liked Joel and started calling him baby joel since then. Even when we tried to name him other names Colin insisted his name was Joel. So it stuck. Good thing we liked it :) Christian is a family name and also my brothers middle name. Colin's middle name is Wayne (not Big Boy like he thinks) after my grandfather. So there are our boys names and Baby Joel we'd love for you to come out soon.Colin is going to be our little swimmer. He found my swim cap and loves to wear it around the house. We signed him up for swim lessons which will be fun. Its mainly to get to know the other preschoolers in our neighborhood but his mommy is excited he loves to swim so much!

A friend of mine told me about this great deal one of the movie theaters is having where they show kids movies tues and wed for free. (perfect esp for a little boy who might not sit through the whole thing) So Wednesday Colin and I attempted to go "watch the real big tv" as I told him. Two hours in an air conditioned theater, comfy seat and colin entertained sounded perfect to me. Unfortunately I didn't look at exactly which theater we were going to and went to the one in the mall - not the correct one across from the mall. So we missed it but colin wanted to stay and play on the arcade games at the mall. He had a great time playing on them until a little boy came up and put money in them. Then it wasn't as fun and mommy only had enough quarters for 1 ride. Even though he had more fun playing on it when it wasn't moving. since we've been home he's been taking all the change in the house and putting it in his cash register for next time. Smart kid! here he is talking to "puma" the dog he named on top of the hot dog truck
Last night Colin and I went to his big brother class at the hospital. (still couldn't register then - i have to fax the info in apparently) But Colin learned all about babies, diapered a baby doll and then we took a tour of the hospital. There was a baby in the nursery that all the kids oooed and ahhhed over from the window. It was really cute. At the end while all the pregnant moms are in the restroom taking their toddlers to the bathroom, Colin entertained EVERYONE with "mommy you're hinney is big! why you hinney so big mommy?" As if I don't feel big enough already. Good thing I laughed all the way to the car instead of cry.

Since the class Colin has taken his big brother role very serious. By feeding me (really for the baby) and making sure the baby shares his milk. He also wanted to protect his friend RJ at the playground today by making sure he didn't fall off the slide and helped him in the tunnel. Only he went too fast down the slide and made RJ do a face plant on the slide. Poor RJ. He was a good sport about it. Here are the boys playing on the playground together.

Colin and I are getting ready to do some projects at what he calls his project table but notice the blue bug box on the table. he got it for his birthday since his other bug house is currently now the 'worm house' Well he filled it with anything but bugs in the beginning until the other day when he came up to me, lifted his shirt, and showed me a SLUG squirming on his tummy! See my new friend mommy? he said and then went and put it in his bug house. I looked more closely and there were a few slugs and a snail in there as well. I need to keep a better eye on this thing. They are gone for now but who knows whats in it next. He refuses to keep it outside but if another bug gets in it its going in the garage!

getting ready (**Updated)

We are ready now for the baby to come. We have his room all set up, the car seat cleaned, and now just have to wait for him to come. We still haven't registered at the hospital (hopefully tomorrow at Colin's big brother class we can do that) and haven't packed for the hospital but those things we've realized can wait a little bit. We have finished some projects around the house finally that we've been wanting to do since we moved in. The first and what took the longest was installing hooks in the hallway bathroom. It only had one towel bar and we needed one for both boys and guests so we took it off only to discover huge holes in the walls. The previous owners cut out the drywall, shoved in the holder, and then plastered around it. They did the same in our master bath too. So what was going to be an easy fix turned into a DIY project that is finally done in both bathrooms and I'm very proud of myself. Its so much better and Colin has already claimed his hook :) And what everyone keeps asking for, here are some pictures of the baby's room. My sister mary came and painted it for me and my mom made the bumpers. I'll have to get a better picture of those. I love them! I'm still trying to organize a few things but figured I'd better take some pictures now while I'm thinking about it. Its a fun room to be in now and Colin and I play in there a lot lately. The room is more of a softer yellow than it looks in this picture


When Colin and I walked into Bead Retreat Friday they surprised us with a bunch of really cute baby things and gave Colin big brother gifts. It was really sweet of them and a huge surprise - and so many cute things! Colin has not stopped playing with his toys. On his card was a sticker that said "awesome big brother" (As seen in the picture below) He had to wear that sticker on his back all the time, even on his PJ's and when it wouldn't stick anymore we put it on a sign on his door to his room. He is so proud of it.

Well we are all off to the doctors to have an ultrasound to see how big this baby is and to find out whether they are going to induce early or not. I'm excited to see what he looks like now that he has some fat on his cheeks! Colin thinks they are going to "make the hole" today so he will be disappointed we don't come home with the baby but at least he'll get to see the ultrasound.

No baby today :( He is about 7lbs right now and measuring in the 63% for weight. And head down but they aren't going to induce right now. We couldn't get a good look at his face because he was head down and towards the back but he has the chubbiest little hands. So we're praying he comes sooner than later. Especially since he could gain half a pound a week! The doctor said it could be any day now or any week - we're hoping for sooner than later.

Take me out to the ball game

Monday afternoon I got a call from Brent saying that they were giving away free Tides tickets the next hour at a 7-11 near our house. So after we finished eating lunch we rushed over there only to find out it was at a different 7-11 (on the same street just a little ways down) but by the time we get over there the ticket woman had just left. Colin was so disappointed and in a small quivering voice said "me want to go to baseball game tonight" and his lower lip started to tremble and tears welled up. A man who works for ESPN radio was there and saw Colin's disappointment, gave me his card and said to call him later to see if he could get us some tickets. Well he came through and got us free tickets so we all went on a beautiful Monday night to watch some baseball. Colin kept giving the players a thumbs up. Now when we pass a 7-11 (which is about every 5 minutes in virginia beach) Colin keeps asking if the ticket man is there to give us baseball tickets.

Gardening

Picking snow peas.I love how colin looks like he stepped on a plant in this picture! He really is very careful about the plants and can even use his garden tools and not hurt the plants.

Our garden is starting to really take off. As of right now we have picked 147 snowpeas with more to come. We also have corn, tons of tomatoes, peppers, cantalope, pumpkins (although something keeps eating them), romaine lettuce, iceburg lettuce, two huge sunflowers, cucumbers, and basil. Colin's watermelon didn't make it but he has forgotten about it which is good. Everything but the snowpeas still have a ways to go before we can start harvesting them. But it shouldn't be too long. Every night after dinner Colin and Brent go out and work in the garden. Colin loves it and shows me all the weeds they took out the next day. I know it makes it slower for Brent to have Colin "help" but Colin is so proud of what they do and waits all day for daddy to come home and work in the garden. The week after Brent put his garden in our neighbor decided to put one in as well. We love this couple - they are our age and its been fun to get to know them. They have a huge dog that Colin loves to play with. Its so funny for me to watch Jim go outside the minute he gets home and check his garden. And then an hour later Brent comes walking in the backyard as soon as he gets home to see his garden. (And i'm not a neighborhood stalker - I just happen to be outside a lot with Colin) We had a huge thunderstorm the other day and both Brent and Jim were out inspecting the damage right after the rain stopped. Bonding over gardening.Here is a picture of Colin and RJ at the zoo this week. RJ and his family just moved here from NJ and are friends with some of our friends in NJ. The boys are a year apart and play so great together and they are having a baby this summer as well - a girl - so our kids will have lots of fun together in the future. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and are so glad they were transfered here! (notice colin's hat - he cried for days because he couldnt find his hokie hat and then we found it and he wore it for at least two days straight)

Strong Sticks

The past week we have been eating fresh green beans and for Colin to eat them we have named them "strong sticks" telling him that if he eats them they make him really strong. He will eat 15-20 at a time and then show us his muscles right after each one. Now we just have to come up with other names for the foods he doesn't eat to make them more appealing. But tonight Brent asked him "what happens when you eat so many strong sticks that you get stronger than daddy?" To which Colin replied "then me be strong like mommy!" haha poor Brent but very funny.
Our friend Destiny came down last week and spent a few days with us. It was so nice. Colin couldn't get enough of Destiny. She always had to sit next to him and be right there with him. Colin loved having someone to play with and keeps asking when she will come back. But such a help for me to have someone else to entertain Colin and to talk to during the day :) We went down to the beach Friday morning and had a great time relaxing and watching Colin play. Colin's favorite part was when we cooked hotdogs and smores on our firepit. He got to be the fireman and put out the fire. Then on Sunday my wonderful family and friends threw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun and made having this baby seem more real. Not that I can't feel it every minute of the day but now we're really ready for the baby. Colin thought it was fun and helped open presents and all the toys he claimed as his saying "baby's not here yet" and then today was helping me put them all way and claimed another stuffed giraffe saying "but this one's me buddy" so we'll see. He still has a few weeks until he has to start sharing. The sweetest thing was a book of letters people wrote to the baby and Brent and I have had fun reading through them as I tear up at every one. During the party I think my sister asked Colin what her last name was - he is very interested in people's last names and first names. What mommy's other name is (abigail) and someone asked him what daddy's other name was and at first he said last name but then they said what does mommy call daddy? To which Colin proudly said "pooper scooper or stinkweed!" Which is sadly true...Brent and I have a puppet show for Colin and my puppet has to call brents puppet pooper scooper or stinkweed and my puppet always smells like petunias. I made the same game sort of for my little sister when she was this age and she loved it. Stinkweed is a funny word for toddlers. And poop is always a funny word for kids. Poor Brent. He really should eat more strong sticks. haha but Colin has been going around saying "daddy you're a genius!" Which Brent loves of course.

Sco-goo Diver

Colin loves to put this mask on and "swim" through the grass like a "sco-goo diver" and find all sorts of fish and different things underwater. I love to just sit and watch.

We spent a very busy memorial weekend getting most of the things crossed off our To Do Before the Baby Comes List. We still have a few things on the list that we want to get done soon but they weren't at the top so we feel like we're a little ahead right now. And we got our new computer. Very exciting. Colin and Brent also went to the pool Monday and Colin loved it of course. I also got this sprinkler ball thing to entertain colin and also keep me cool for the next few weeks and Colin loved it.And speaking of baby - he is head down and running out of room :) The other day Colin walked into the room carrying his doctors kit, opened the kit, took out his scissors and said in a very loud voice "Its time to get the baby out now!" And started coming toward my stomach with the scissors. "Dr. Colin" was going to make the hole. A little scary and funny too! Colin is very ready for this baby and is so sweet. He talks to his brother all the time and makes sure the baby likes what we're doing and tries to make the baby laugh. And when we're in the car driving and he sees something interesting I hear Colin yell "do you see that baby?" I hope that the baby will still be as exciting to him when he really does come out.

strawberry hunting

Last weekend we went Strawberry hunting as Colin called it. My sister Mary came over to finish painting the baby's room and to go strawberry picking. This year he LOVED it. And the bigger the better. He picked the biggest strawberry I've ever seen and then accidently dropped it and stepped on it in his attempt to pick it back up - he still talks about that big strawbery... But it was a great time to go - not too hot, a great wind and we managed to do it between the rain storms we had Saturday. The place we went to was great. The owner came out and told us to taste all the different rows since there were different types and then took us to the best place to pick them. we will definitely go back to this one. I mean when the owner tells you the best way to pick the berries is one for your mouth, one for your basket you know you're in the right place! He might have been joking but Colin took him to heart and so did I! Brent and I first went 5 years ago with our good friends Mark and Leah and picked so much we made strawberry jam. Yummy! And we thought about making some this year but Colin is always asking for smoothies so we froze the ripest and juiciest and they do make good smoothies. We've also eaten strawberry shortcake almost every night this week. Sadly the strawberries are almost gone but since its less than a 20 minute drive Brent is talking about going back this weekend. We will see how it goes.Brent picks only the perfect strawberiesSaturday morning I found this at a yard sale. Colin loved it and calls it his Caterpillar. And one day when he's older he told me he wants to drive a real big CAT truck. I love the fact that it has pedals so he wears himself out trying to pedal it. His legs aren't quite long enough but he tries so hard. The other day we took it to the lake to feed the ducks. It was a long way back for us since I ended up pushing him back most of the wayWith Nana climbing. Colin LOVES his Nana. Nana and Ant Ant (my sisters) are two of his favorite people. Colin climbs this tree all the time and calls himself climb guy when he's doing it. He gets really far and scares me sometimes with how high he gets. Mary used to climb the same type of tree in my parents front yard when she was this age.

hiccups and potty training

Colin does pretty well right now using the potty - he just won't poop on the potty. "next time mommy" is what he always says. Today he informed me matter of factly (is factly even a word?) that the reason I get the hiccups so much is because I poop on the potty. "mommy its not healthy to poop on potty" he told me. "poop in your diaper like me - no get the hiccups" So just when I think we're getting so close to being out of diapers he tells me this. But I always get the hiccups so if he's convinced that pooping in the potty is what causes it we may have a long wait until we're pull-/diaper free. I'm pretty sure since he wants to be a big boy so much and in fact keeps calling himself Colin big boy (big boy is his last name mostly) that once the baby comes he'll start using the potty since babies use diapers.In baby news we found the hospital. Its very easy to get to. Only not the 5 minute drive like we had with Colin. Brent's so excited because its near the trader joe's that just opened up in VB. I think I'll still go to the one in Newport News though since this one was out of everything we like and apparently a truck comes every night to stock it. So since the whole city is going to this one we'll go back to our regular one. But the only reason we found the hospital last night was because Brent wanted to check out the Trader Joe's store. I'm pretty sure while i'm in the hospital Brent will make a run to get his favorite snacks. Colin was so disappointed that we didn't get the baby last night. "baby why you no come out?" is what he kept saying to the baby and patting my tummy. His latest thing is to tickle my tummy because he wants to tickle his little brother. He did get a little jealous this week when my sister came to paint the baby's room. Baby room no need paint. Just fine. nana play with me - no paint baby's room. But then he got to help paint and we told him how only big boys get to paint and that made him feel special. Then he started singing a song he made up "me love baby ...." and later during his nap time he called me in and said "me want to snuggle with baby brother" and put his head on my stomach and went to sleep. He has moved himself into the baby's room. All his toys are on the changing table and thats become his jungle gym. And he calls it his fire station and keeps his fire trucks in the room. So we'll have to work on that. On june 16th they are going to do an ultrasound to see how big the baby is and if my cervix is ready they will go ahead and induce. If not then we can choose to be induced at 39 weeks. Its coming very fast. I'm excited to see an ultrasound at 37 weeks. A little nervous that its a month away! But according to Colin it can't get here too soon.
Last night Brent kept tossing and turning in his sleep and mumbling something about weeding. haha! Here is Colin trying out his garden hoe. Looks like he and Brent will have some work to do today from what Brent was thinking all night!

Busy busy day

Saturday was a busy busy day according to Colin (and the rest of us). We went in the morning to see my sister in law graduate with her Masters. She graduated from Regent which is a very pretty campus. It was great to see James and Angela even for just a little while on Saturday. The graduation was outside and very laid back as tons of kids and especially Colin played out by the fountain for most of it. I enjoyed listening to the speakers and enjoyed it until the sun came out in full force. Then it got VERY hot and I got really sick and was so afraid I was going to pass out or get sick to my stomach so we left as soon as we saw Angela walk out. I'm going to have to be careful not to be outside too much this summer until the baby is born. Its funny how Colin didn't have a meltdown the whole day but his mommy sure did that morning. Then we all came to our house to celebrate Colin's birthday. He was so excited about his firetruck cake that he kept opening the fridge and "just a taste mommy" so we decided to start with the cake so there would be some left. It turned out good. I have problems with cakes but thanks to Sarah it looked like a real firetruck. She came over Friday night and decorated the cake. Thank you Sarah. And we played pin the hat on the fireman. Colin got into "helping" everyone and thought it would be funny to steer everyone wrong! But that night he remembered where everyone put their hat. So there must have been a method to his strategy. Rod won and got it perfect (Colin also got the hat on the right place but I'm pretty sure he was cheating!)Rod and Debbie were so great to come too even though right after they were having a big party at their house for Angela. So right afterwards we went and ate yummy food and played at their house the rest of the afternoon. Colin loves Lizzie and likes to feed her and also play with her. They like to chase each other around. The Burley's gave Colin his own digital camera for his birthday and Colin has been taking tons of pictures but his favorite to show me is the one of Lizzie. We'll have to put up the pictures he's been taking. He's getting quite good. Aren't these curly haired boys so cute. They had fun playing together and did very well even though they were both sleepy and Benjamin had been to his aunt's graduation too that morning at another school.

We were all asleep I think within minutes of being home that night. Colin told me "busy busy day mommy but everybody made me SO happy. Me LOVED me party day" So thank you everyone for making our little boy feel so special. I know it made for a longer day for everyone but he hasn't stopped talking about it. Thank you!

This morning I overheard Colin talking to his blankie and telling him "Jesus made you a-ha-ha-ha (his name for his blankie) and Jesus loves you too and He's my friend and when He comes to play I'm going to give him a real big hug.

Colin has been asking for weeks now "mommy who made me" and really wanted to know but had a hard time grasping that God made him - he usually said No mommy made me. But I think he finally got it. And it was very sweet that he wanted his blankie to understand too.

Birthday - round 1

Colin how old are you now?

EIGHT!!!!!

Yes he thinks he's 8 and will get very frustrated and upset when you tell him he's now three. He does know how to count to five but he likes saying 8 and so he's 8. We'll work on that later but for now let him think he's 8.

He had a wonderful birthday. Lots of family members called to sing him happy birthday and at one point he asked me "mommy why they sing hupppy birfffday to me?" "Why is it me birffday?" Who made it me birfffday?" "Why today?" he really wanted to know and what finally satisfied him was that it was the day he made a hole and came out of my tummy like his baby brother will. But he is still skeptical. But he did enjoy all the birthday things we had planned for him. He also thought santa brought presents since Santa brings presents on Jesus' birthday. And we probably confused him by only having christmas wrapping paper in the house to wrap his presents. Oh well . Makes sense to me!Colin and I went to the Zoo in the morning with Jamie and Benjamin. Colin loved having Benjamin there and last night told Brent everything that Benjamin liked at the zoo. AND the rooster they have at the petting zoo cockadoodle dooed THREE times while Colin was there. He calls roosters Joey since he wants one (he got a stuffed one for his birthday which has satisfied him for now) but that was the highlight for him. In fact he cried the whole way home "Me go back and hear Joey cockadoodle doo ONE MORE TIME" Forget the exotic animals - he loves the rooster.Then because it was raining Brent got to come home early so he was there when Colin woke up from his nap and we had balloons and let him open his presents before making his favorite - spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. He LOVED that part :) Each time he opened a present he said "me really really wanted it" haha even if he didn't know what it was at first. We did get him one of those stuffed turtles that project the stars on the ceiling and last night he didn't have to sleep with the light on and had no trouble falling alseep. Just what we wanted. But after cake (I made him an icecream cake) we went and used his new fishing pole at the lake near our house. Nevermind that it was raining - since he also got an umbrella for his birthday he thought the rest of us should go too :)Round Two of Colin's birthday is Saturday after my sister-in-laws graduation and before her celebration party. It will be a busy day but Colin is very excited for his party day as we've been calling it. And we're excited to have the whole family in for even just a brief time.

What happened?

Can someone tell me what happened to this tiny little baby who fit like this...and now can only fit like this? (by the way he came up and wanted to snuggle with his little brother in this picture) Its gone so fast but we have loved every minute of it.

Happy 3rd Birthday Colin!