Hot Hot Days

We got Colin this whale pool for his birthday last year, and when they forecasted high temperatures in the 90s for both Saturday and Sunday last weekend...well, we pulled it out.

Colin had so much fun splashing and going down the slide. The water was a bit cold straight from the hose, but he didn't seem to mind too much. We added a few pots of hot water and he was just fine out there.

Colin and Daddy saying Cheese!! I'm so glad Brian is such a good dad because he plays with Colin all the time when I don't have the energy (which is becoming more and more frequent these days!) He just runs and runs and plays horsey and all sorts of games to keep Colin entertained.

A successful slide down!

Practicing their flutter kick in the pool. Splish splash!

Colin's Big Boy Bed

Colin's big boy bed transition has begun (which is why I didn't get any pictures posted on Sunday because that was his first night in his bed and lets just say it didn't go as great as we wanted!).

We were really wanting to get Colin transitioned out of his crib right around now, so that way he was totally comfortable with his new bed by the time the baby would arrive. We had been putting it off (somewhat) due to our house being on the market and not wanting to have to do more transitions than we needed to.

So, Sunday it was. We didn't start earlier in the weekend because Brian works on Saturdays and I couldn't get the crib taken apart and moved by myself.

Sundays nap went great. Didn't get out of bed, slept for hours, awesome! This is going to be easy, right?!

Sunday night....not so easy. He figured out he could get out of his bed and come find us. He thought it was the coolest game ever! We did this for about 1.5 hours (us taking his hand and putting him back in bed, Colin climbing out just seconds after getting on his bed, and opening the door, smiling hugely, saying "Daddy" or "Momma"). He was so proud of himself.

Finally fell asleep, then he rolled out of bed around midnight and just wouldn't go back to sleep. We put him in a pack-n-play around 3:00 am and he slept fine the rest of the night.

Monday, Brian had Colin at home and the same situation started at nap time. So, Brian put on a child-proof doorknob cover and he was upset for about 5 minutes that he couldn't open the door, then marched himself to bed and fell asleep.

Same thing for Monday night, except he cried less at the door, and slept great all night. I did get concerned about him rolling off the bed again, which he would've done had I not gone in and moved him in the middle of the night.

Tuesday night, didn't hardly cry at all (maybe 2 minutes) and was off in bed...

Same thing for Wednesday night...

So, I guess the transition wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, we have such a great kid!

Here's Colin's room before we started moving the beds...

Colin helping Daddy take apart the crib

Putting up the bed frame (and practicing some gymnastics moves)

Colin was so excited once we got it all put together. He has already gotten to know his bed pretty well because it has been up in our spare room for about a month now.

Colin with his stuffed animals...

Making his cheesy smile face, LOVE THIS KID! (And yes, Elephant is wearing the socks that Colin got while in the hospital for RSV & pneumonia, it's been that way for about 2 months now!)

Our newest cousin

Brian's sister, Katie and her husband Michael welcomed their newest family member, John Allen Wells into the world on Tuesday. He was 7 lbs 12 ounces and was 21 inches long.

We visited them in the hospital on Tuesday night, and was really pleased with how Colin was behaving around the baby. He seemed interested, but not TOO interested. When the baby was getting a bath, it really worried him that he was crying. He ran over and grabbed my pant leg and pointed to the baby, as if saying "he's crying, go help him mommy!"

I figure he'll get used to the crying thing before too long.
Can't believe it is only 7 short weeks until our baby is due. We're slowly but surely getting things crossed off our "to do" list and getting ready for the baby.

Colin, Daddy, and Johnny

Mommy, Johnny, Colin and Olivia (Colin was blowing a kiss)

Earlier in the week we headed over to Grammie and Granddads for a birthday dinner for Brian. It was so hot that day, around 90 degrees, but that still wouldn't keep Colin or Olivia inside. They were both running around like crazy. Here is Colin checking out his gas tank on the car. Probably a good idea considering how expensive gas is these days :)

This car is always "the toy" to play with at Grammie and Granddad's house. Looks like Colin got to it first and was making sure Olivia wasn't going to try to move in on it. They really are good friends and it's so nice to see them interact and play together. I have a feeling these two will continue to be great friends throughout their growing years...

Mowing the lawn

Can't believe it's that time of year again...lawn mowing season.

Colin wasn't really old enough last year to know about yardwork, but he's certainly into it this year. Brian and I thought, for sure, Colin would be scared of the lawn mower since he seems to be very hesistant of other noisy things, like our vacuum.

But, out went Brian to cut the grass, and Colin was pretty much stuck to his side like glue the entire time. It was really fun to watch. He would walk beside him, run to get ahead of him a bit, then yell something at him, then run again...

Colin giving Daddy his professional opinion on his lawn mowing technique...

Seriously, he would get right up next to the lawn mower, very surprising to us.

Run buddy Run!

Of course, we had to have a ball with us outside, and I'm pretty sure Colin was trying to get Daddy to play with him instead of mow. Such a bad influence!

Some of Colin's new tricks...

He loves loves loves this fold up step stool I got him for the kitchen. He is also very interested in turning lights/fans on and off, so he figured out that if he stands on his step stool, he can do it all by himself. Very cool!

His "hat" (otherwise known as an empty cereal box). What a goof!

30 Years Ago...

Brian turned 30 on Saturday!!!

It was such a great weekend. My mom came into KC for the weekend to watch Colin while Brian and I (and a few of his family/friends) went out to the baseball stadium and did some tailgating. The weather was great while we were tailgating, around 65 with a nice breeze. We played washers, grilled some burgers, hotdogs, and sausages, and just enjoyed the relaxing morning. After we got to our seats, for some reason, all the clouds disappeared and the sun was out in full force. We all got a bit red from the sun, but it was a fun afternoon. And....the best part of it all.....the ROYALS WON!!!

We stayed after the game for a bit and watched a minor league team warm-up, and Brian got one of the baseballs. What a nice surprise!

Rob, Brian, Chad, and Matt

Marvin, Tiff, and Kathy

Caitlin and Chris

Chad, Tiff, Rob, Andrea, Matt, Caitlin, and Chris

Hot Dog Derby (Mustard won!)

The whole group (minus Marvin who was taking the picture). We had great seats!

After the game, back at our house. The boys played some home run derby and Colin just loved all the extra attention he was getting!

Aunt Tiffey with Colin (and the super cool push cart that she brought for him). He hasn't stopped pushing that thing all over (inside and outside of our house) since Saturday.

Chad and Meemaw comparing socks. I think it's a tie for who has the sexiest legs!

Watching some basketball on TV, just the guys...

Colin helping blow out Daddy's birthday candles

Happy Birthday Brian!!

Hope you had a great day (we were soooo tired after Saturday, we're not used to "partying" like that any more).

Closet organized...check

Project "Spring Cleaning plus Reorganization" is well underway at our house. Now that we have a very good chance of staying in our current house (we're only keeping the house on the market for another week or so), I am figuring out the best use of the space we have.

One of our issues is that we have been using the spare bedroom (soon to be nursery) closet and dresser for extra clothes storage for Brian and I. Well, it can no longer be used in this fashion. So on Saturday I headed out to Target, Michaels, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Home Depot in search of a closet organizing system that could be used in our master closet. Not only is our closet fairly small, it's laid out in the most bizarre way. I was shocked by how expensive the organizers are. Really, nothing was priced below $40 that looked well-built. But, I did manage to find a set of 3 cubes (I bought 3 of them) for around $12 each. Brian built them, stacked them up and bracketed them into our walls. What a cute handyman! :)

We never really used all of our hanging area anyway, so the cube sets didn't really cut back on our utilized closet space much. I really like the look of it. Brian does to. And, it was pretty cheap. Can't get too much better than that!

Now, I am even getting more excited to decorate the nursery. We purchased a very nice sage green color for the walls, and I am going to decorate one of the walls with pink and brown dots. I used the peel & stick wall decals in Colin's room and am hoping to find some great ones for the new nursery as well.

Colin, hard at work with Daddy's drill... in his pajamas of course!

I have 2 cute handymen!! (Daddy & Colin) :)

March Madness!

So glad that March is here. Brian and I love March Madness basketball (mainly just to have bragging rights about who had the better bracket), the weather is slowly changing to spring, and we get to open the windows to our house and let some fresh air in.

This year, it's a little different because we are continually working to prepare for our new addition in a couple months. This meant...Spring Cleaning! I get pretty excited about this because it allows me to re-organize and make sure we don't have a lot of extra junk laying around. Brian...well, he doesn't get so excited, but we get it done. We made a HUGE donation last week, probably 5 big boxes (lots of clothes), a TV, exercise stuff, kitchenware, etc. It's so nice getting that extra stuff out of the house. We don't have much storage space available to use at our house, so freeing up room is great!

Last weekend we visited a friend of mine that also works at Children's Mercy. She has 2 little girls and was very excited to have me "shop" in all of her clothes her girls have outgrown. They always look so stylish, and it was a lot of fun. I sure hope we end up having a girl! :)

Colin playing at the girls' house. He loved the kitchen set, but also managed to find a "boy toy" (notice the drill in his hand) to help balance things out.

Here he is, probably doing some manly chore like fixing the stove or something :)

Colin and this dog...it was a love/hate relationship. The dog has a leash and you can press buttons on the leash and it will walk certain directions. If you don't press it, after a while, it will walk and bark without you. Colin loved pressing the buttons, but didn't like it when it would go off on its own. This led to a few meltdowns. We had to turn the dog off after a bit, it was just too much for him!

Being a good guy and taking his baby doll for a walk (dodging the dog, school bus, tons of other toys, etc). They had so much for him to do/play with. He had a blast!

Some updates on Colin:

He is now sleeping on a "nap mat" at daycare. Miss Robin simply swapped out his pack n' play crib for this mat, where he is not trapped in when he sleeps. We are doing this in anticipation of moving him to his big boy bed in a few more weeks.

Day 1: Didn't move at all, hardly even turned his head...

Day 2: Sat up 3 times in bed, Miss Robin had to remind him to lay down and he did...

Day 3: Walked to the door 3 times, Miss Robin had to take his hand and lead him back to bed, where he stayed the rest of his nap...

Day 4: No Problems!

We are really hoping he does this well for us when we change his bed sometime soon. He is such an easy kid!

While we were Spring Cleaning our garage yesterday, we came across this baseball set that Memaw got Colin for Christmas. We thought we would introduce him to it indoors and then let him loose outside. He had so much fun! Couldn't really get the whole "2 handed grip" idea, but that will come with time...

Colin on his slide. He has really enjoyed this playset recently. We have had it since his birthday last year, but he wasn't quite ready to use it back then. Now that he's gotten into climbing more, he's really having lots of fun. He yells "weeeeee" every time anything goes down the slide (himself, a ball, Daddy, etc).

Working hard to get up on the playset.

Made it!

Oh, and I had to take him to the tub twice yesterday after playing outside. The kid loves Dirt! He got it everywhere. So it begins...