Busy Christmas Weekend

Christmas weekend began with a wonderful Christmas Eve day. Brian had to work, unfortunately, but was able to be home for part of the day. Colin and I did some cooking and just hung out making sure things were ready for Santa.

We headed off to church for 4:00 service and Colin did great, especially considering there were tons of people there and mass took a little longer than usual. After church, we headed to Grammie and Granddads for dinner.

Colin is helping Granddad start a fire in the fireplace.

Our family photo on Christmas Eve. Colin looks so grown up to me. Ugh, and you can see my baby bump!

Brian's Grandma Rita was at dinner, too, and here is an attempt at a picture while Colin is sitting still...

Colin with his cousin Olivia who is about 8 weeks older than him. They are such good buddies, they even go to daycare together once a week. Both are such busy kids, hard to catch them sitting down together at one time...

2 seconds after the previous picture was taken...they're off to run and play!

Christmas Morning! Santa was at our house!!

Christmas morning...playing with Jake (his best buddy ever)

Opening his stocking

He couldn't wait to open this big gift from Meemaw

Yeah, a Little People Farm house!

We got this cute handmade train from our Aunt and Uncle in Canada. Colin loved pushing and pulling it around the living room, putting whatever he could in the back of the train.

The treat for Jake that Colin was eating...gross

Another fun gift from Meemaw

Cute PJ's from Great Gramm Gramm Rice (Colin is under them somewhere, holding them up for the camera)

Colin's new lap top from Mom and Dad.

Dad got a pretty cool new camcorder. Mom is waiting on her gift to be delivered...a fancy new camera!! Can't wait to take more great pictures once it gets here.

Cutie baby and Mom

After we did Christmas morning at our house, we headed back to Grammie and Granddads for more fun. We caught the 3 youngest kiddos for some pictures. Olivia, Andrew and Colin

The day after Christmas we got together with Brian's extended family. Here is Colin and Olivia chasing around JJ, a poor little doggy not wanting that much attention.

Colin with his cousin Noah

Colin opening his gift from Great Grandma Rita, a pretty cool airplane ornament!

Cousins Luke and Patrick singing away at the karaoke machine. What a great idea Granddad had to bring it along...

The end of the night...Olivia is pooped! We all had such a great time...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ear Tubes

Colin did such a great job with his first surgery! I know it's a pretty minor one, but it was HUGE for mom and dad. We had to show up at the surgery center at 6:30 am. This is a little early for Colin and we weren't sure how he would handle being up and about that early. Of course, he was fine. It took him a minute to really wake up...but they had lots of toys to entertain him.

The surgery center schedules patients based upon their age, so Colin was 3rd in line that morning. They were very prompt with getting him in and done with quickly. We had heard the surgery was extremely fast, but had no idea that within LITERALLY 6 minutes of leaving Colin, we would be talking with the surgeon about how the procedure went. After that, another 2 minutes passed and we were back holding Colin while he was furious waking up from the anesthesia.

We are so glad that ear tubes essentially mean no more visits to the doctor for ear infections. We will put in ear drops if we see any signs of an ear infection, which means no more antibiotics either. Colin had around 8 ear infections in the span of 10 months, which meant a lot of trips to urgent care and the doctor to get medicine. We are keeping our fingers crossed this procedure will help him feel better!

In the waiting room, playing with the cool toys...

Still waiting...

Back talking to the nurses, surgeon and anesthesia doctor before the procedure. Colin was such a good boy! Especially since he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything since dinner the night before.

After the surgery...Colin was extremely upset coming out of anesthesia. It's not that he was in pain, he just felt funny and obviously didn't know how to express that. It was a rough 35 minutes or so, then we were discharged home and we had a quiet ride in the car. He just wanted to snuggle and wasn't really interested in eating or drinking anything. Colin took a cat nap at 9 am (yes, he was home and asleep a mere 1:15 minutes after his surgery) and woke up his usual, happy self. He played and was just fine all afternoon.

What a wonderful early Christmas present to us!

It's Snowman Time!

Winter season is definitely here...Colin will get to enjoy his first real winter season (at least one that he will remember). We got a dusting of snow a few days ago and it's been very cold ever since. Yesterday, the sun came out and graced us with a 40 degree temperature, so we headed outdoors to play.

Brian had a great idea to build a snowman. The snow was just perfect for it! Colin, ran right up to the snow piles and stuck his hands in it. That worked for a while, until he started crying because his fingers were so cold. The little guy WILL NOT keep gloves or mittens on his hands, he immediately pulls them off. This is a problem when trying to build a snowman. We just had to make it quick, didn't search long for the "perfect" twigs for arms, and just grabbed the first carrot I found in the fridge. But, we think it looks awesome!! Just Colin's size!

Playing around with Daddy's gloves.

Brian working hard, reshaping the head for the 2nd time. Ooops, it fell off when we were pushing the eyes and nose into the snowman's head.

Hmmmm.... maybe it's a pirate?!

Colin kept taking the carrot off the face and putting it back in. Eventually, the carrot broke and the poor snowman ended up with a stubby nose.

The finished product, with a sad Colin due to his frozen fingers.

Okay, this ones a little better, everyone seems happy. What should we name him?!

Holiday Party

We had a party weekend this past weekend. On Saturday morning, my work, the Children's Hospital in KC, hosts a holiday party for all the employees and their families. There is Santa, free books, craft stations, magic shows, cariactures, etc that are all free to the attendees. We took Colin to the party last year and quickly learned that we needed extra people to attend with us to help stand in the long lines. So, we recruited Meemaw Dudley and Grammie Teson to come with us.

Colin did great on Santa's lap, didn't cry, just sat there, probably wondering why he was sitting on this strangers lap. We got a few good pics of that. We picked out some free books, a Baby Einstein First Words book and a 3 Little Pigs book. We even attempted a few crafts, although his crafting skills are still very limited at this time. He did enjoy chewing on the fuzzy pipe cleaners!

Our house is all decorated and ready to go for Christmas. Colin is doing a pretty good job keeping his hands off the Christmas tree ornaments, however, he does have a select few that he can't resist pulling off. We have strategically put the "precious" ornaments at the top of the tree where he can't reach them. So far, so good. The stockings continue to amaze him, and he really enjoys being able to unplug the Christmas lights on the tree and on our bannister...makes for a long night of battling with a 17 month old...

Other than that, we have good news that Colin got scheduled to have ear tubes surgically inserted to help with battling ear infections and balancing the pressures in his ears. We have had a terrible time keeping him ear infection-free since he was about 6 months old, so this will be a welcomed change, especially with the winter quickly approaching. It is scheduled for December 22nd, and I'll be sure to put up a post to let everyone know how the surgery goes... Please keep Colin in your prayers that day!!

Colin warming his tootsies by the fire on a cold night...

Colin probably removing the same 4 ornaments he will not leave alone... Maybe they look better on the tree skirt on the floor rather than the tree?

Very fascinated with the fireplace... he knows it's "hot" and not to touch...

At the Holiday Part at work. My 2 favorite boys!!

Colin and Santa...ummmmmm....who is this guy?

Maybe I want to get off his lap now....

Grammie Teson and Colin.

That evening, Tiffany, Chad, Meemaw, Brian, Colin and I all gathered at our house for our Thanksgiving/Meemaw Birthday/Tiffany Birthday party. We had a nice time and plenty of food for a few meals. Of course, Colin was the hit of the party, and Tiff had to try out her new Birthday/Christmas present camera that Chad got her, so there were tons of pictures being taken. I was trying to keep the kitchen somewhat cleaned up, so I will have to get these pictures from Tiff when I get a chance. It's nice having people to entertain Colin while some chores get done!

Colin putting snowflakes on our backdoor. Looks festive, huh?

After running out of snowflakes, Colin is making the sign for "more" in signlanguage. He only knows a few signs, but is picking up more words every day. It makes him feel so good for us to understand what he wants, especially when he can't verbalize his thoughts. What a smartie!!

Thanksgiving with the Parks!

Here are the pictures finally from Thanksgiving holiday. Tiff narrated the pictures for me to let me know the stories behind them. She was laughing so hard telling me all about the pictures. Glad to hear that everyone had such a great time.

Looking at these pictures makes me think that Colin is turning into such a little man right before my eyes. It's sad to think about that...but awesome to see what a good kid he is turning into. He's so fun to play with and he's getting such a great sense of humor.

Tiff and Chad dug out those piano from the basement...however, his favorite button to push appeared to be the power button. Go figure! Chad and Colin had fun dancing to one of the pre-programed songs on there. Nice dance moves guys!

After a fun time playing in the volleyball pit, Colin takes a break and relaxes some, appearing to be "swimming" in the sand.

The first morning at the Parks house, hugging his buddy Scooter!

Colin dragging around his favorite toy at Tiff and Chad's place...this dog went everywhere with him. To Thanksgiving dinner...to the park...to the store...

Playing catch with Tiff and Chad, his favorite place to sit was on the stoop. Couldn't get him to relocate...had to be on that stoop!

Curious Colin! He crawled into the dogs crate and shut the door. He would sit in there and bang on the walls of the cage, even though it was really gross in there!

Playing with the big beach ball! He loved pushing the ball underwater and having it pop up high!

Cleaning with Uncle Chad...he just loves to clean up kitchens. What a good houseguest!

The 3 of them at Thanksgiving dinner at a family members house.

Such a busy baby...he just has to push around the laundry basket and give the ball a ride.

Playing at the community center pool. Such a water baby!

Playing the drums with Uncle Chad. He wasn't scared at all about the loud noises. Too bad we need to work on his rhythm still...