Nov 2012 Album

Apparently Santa visits Home Depot.  We went to get a couple things and there was Santa.  Colin gave some waves and smiles but wanted nothing to do with him up close.  He shook his head at anything to do with getting close or touching Santa.  I guess Santa is okay from a distance this year.

Colin's imagination is working pretty well.  He will spend quite a bit of time on the ground being a dog, crawling and panting.  If someone is nearby then there is a good chance they will be commanded to join in with a very direct "doot" or "do it" in Colin language.  He will feed and give water to his animals and have them be dogs as well.  Hobie seems to be rubbing off on him.  He also is working on his cooking skills.  Whatever it is he makes he finds it to be tasty.

Besides his creativity he also understands most of what we say and will be able to respond a lot of the time.  He also knows what he doesn't want and will communicate this as well.  If it is us that he doesn't want to listen to then he will ignore us or go back to whatever he was doing right away.  The 'time outs' have kind of started.  He's not to happy with being moved and sat down in the middle of his mischief.

Here's a video of him joining in with his current favorite song:

And the Nov Album:

October 2011

Colin had an okay Halloween.  He's not old enough to get what is going on.  He didn't have trouble showing off his costume(s).  He did like the attention he received from adults.  Going up to houses wasn't a hit.  He shook off candy that was offered to him as well.  Apparently he's already learned that you don't take candy from strangers.  Good job Colin.

His 'little person' development is moving along.  He understands what we ask him and will usually do what we ask.  He has realized that he can say no and ignore us though.  That should be something fun to look forward to. Colin is also working on verbally responding.  He definitely tries, it's just hard to understand him. He's working on his coordination too.  He likes trying to stand things up and is very proud when it works.  During meal times a baby spork and a cup are used a little.  They are still difficult but he does try and use them.  Books are also more interesting.  He will react to books.  For example, he will make gremlin noises when he hears "noisey".  He will find characters in the pictures when asked.  He is right only some of the time but he likes looking for things in the pictures. Overall Colin seems to be a happy, observant little boy that likes to try and figure out how things work.

He is October's album:


we may have some video or pictures later this month. We'll see.

Happy fall!

Well, it is fall so it is cold and wet here.  We went from some very hot days hanging out in the AC to flirting with the idea of turning on the heat.  The season change seemed to come suddenly.  Went from dressing like this on the left to that over on the right.

We've noticed that the changes Colin shows aren't happening the same way as before.  It was almost like each week he would be able to do something new.  Now they are more gradual and sneak up on us.  He mostly improves what he can do.  He walks great, running isn't too far away.  He does try to.  His single syllable language is his own.  Da (with pointing)= down, Da = dad, Da = dog (usually finger wagging too), Mam = mom, Bap = nap Ba = bath.  You get the idea.

Colin's internal conversations/thoughts must be hilarious because he will just walk around then break into laughter.  This will happen a lot during the day.  He will also break out in dance if there is music playing from his toys or the stereo.  His dance/bounce is getting pretty good.

We have the Topsfield Fair and apple picking coming up next so those should be some good pictures in the Oct album.  Here is the Sept. album:

Colin was going over to Bigfoot and falling onto its belly.  It was quite adorable.  We couldn't get him to duplicate that, but this was pretty amusing and cute.

Colin has a thing for blindly falling onto or into things like his stuffed animals or mommy and daddy.  Here he does it going into his crawling tubes (a bit slower than normal).  It's his normal entrance into them.

PEANUT WARNING!!!!

Colin had his 1 year check up and he doing great.  He's small but growing fine.  He's got his little chubby legs and baby gut (which he's not afraid to show off as demonstrated in the pictures).  We tried out a peanut butter sandwich which made him itch his cheek where he was smearing the sandwich.  A welt formed  later on.  He was breathing fine, playing happily.  He was just itchy.  We gave him some benedryl and called the doctor.   We were just sent to 911 and they all came out.  We had the ambulance, fire chief and 2 cop cars.  Middleton is slow for crime and danger.  They checked him and and said he was fine.  The next day we went to the hospital to have blood drawn to test for the peanut allergy.  That was an experience we don't care to repeat.  I'm sure Colin would agree.  Today we saw an allergist so we are all caught up on what needs to happen.  Soooo, on a scale of  'peanuts are delicious' to 'for pete's sake, that peanut across the street looked at me', Colin is moderate.  That means we just need to make sure he doesn't eat or touch peanut products and we need to clean up after we do.  He can eat foods that are made in factories that make peanut foods and peanuts can be in the house.  We just have to be careful he doesn't eat or come in contact with them.  We'll go back next year and see if he grew out of it.  We are glad it's not severe but we're hoping it will go away.

He loves getting on his motorcycle and listening to its radio.

Other than the peanut excitement, he had his 1st birthday, went to baby play group, goes outside to play.  There was all sorts of excitement this month.   

He loves exploring outside.  Bunny is very interesting and so are Hobie's toys.  Colin is improving his ability to use stairs and move around in shoes and move on uneven ground.

One of his baby OCD quirks is that all doors and gates must be closed.  The diaper pail door, bathroom door, gate to the stairs.... He doesn't try charging through open doorways and won't leave a room, willingly, if a door is open somewhere in that room.  

His communication is getting more clear.  He will shake off things he doesn't want like a baseball pitcher to the catcher.  He's pretty good at that and luckily it's usually without noise accompaniment.  He will point to food he wants as well.  He also recognizes a lot more than we thought he would.  He knows outside, upstairs, his room, kitchen, where to eat, where to take a bath and a bunch of others.  Quite the smart little boy.

Next month we have a trip to California planned, so that should be a lot of fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!!

.

 Mr Furious

                     Mr Handsome

Colin had his first birthday today.  He didn't know what to make of the pile of presents we put in front of him this morning, but he managed.  He seems to be a pretty neat/organized boy.  Every scrap of wrapping paper torn off needed to be handed to mommy or daddy.  Things out of place, to him, needed to be moved.  His ginormous bear grew on him as the day went on.  He was tackling/cuddling with it by the end of the day.  His tent and tubes also gain popularity as the day went on.  He had a pretty good day.

He's definitely getting better at everything.  He understands what we say more.  We can ask him for a new object and he sometimes will know what we mean or he figures it out with a few prompts.  Walking is getting better as well.  Obstacles are still tricky but he's getting better at avoiding them.  The step into the kitchen and bathroom are being tackled more boldly now.  He communicates his ideas a bit better with his signs.  A big smile will show up on his face when the stereo is turned on for either his music or ours. Not really an improvement on anything but worth mentioning. He is more confident with Hobie, he'll go up to her and give some good pats.  Colin's temper tantrums have improved as well.  He will sit and push himself around in a circle with one leg while crying.  It's quite cute.  Sometimes he'll listen to us and sometimes he'll ignore us.  The ignore part usually is followed by the tantrum. Poor Colin, life is rough.

For those of you that would like to see him open his presents here is a chopped up version of the video to watch with commentary and theme music:

Some of the comments are a bit early so they may not make sense.

 

 

Present carnage

Tent and tube maze

Birthday bread/cake

Love for the big bear

July 2012

Less than two weeks until Mr Handsome is 1!  He looks like a little boy now rather than a baby.  Here is a video of some play time.  There are a few cute mannerisms that he has.  (things were being difficult so it was split into 2)

Colin is a walking maniac.  He does well unless there are some tricky obstacles on the floor.  He prefers walking where ever he goes.  We are just waiting for him to not want to be held and try wiggling out of our arms or becoming a 'limp fish'.  He also has been developing his sense of humor.  Farts and sometimes burps are funny.

He's a good little boy who sleeps and eats well.  We are excited about his upcoming superhero birthday.  He even got some shirts to build up to the occasion. (at the end of the July album)

1 more month...

Colin has one more month until his 1st birthday!  He's not excited when we try and explain it to him, but I think we are excited enough to count.  We are still thinking about what we are going to do.  We can't wait too long but we know it will be something on either the Sat or Sun (11th or 12th)

Is 53" of bear enough for a 1 year old Colin?

Walking is a breeze now.  Blankets on the ground only pose a little threat to his balance.  He can get himself up on his own although he has only done this a couple times.  The preferred method is to crawl to something to pull himself up and then walk around.  He enjoys his mobility.  He'll walk back and forth across the room making noises being a carefree baby.  It's quite adorable.

His top teeth have finally started coming in after waiting for almost 2 months.  It's been causing some changes in his normal easy sleep routine.  Hopefully this means he'll be more willing to tackle some other foods that he would spit out before because he couldn't break them down.

We are going to be going up to northern Maine to see some Findlen family for a few days so we should have some nice pictures from there to share at the end of the month.

Summer time!

As you could tell from our last post, he decided to walk right after he turned 10 months.  He improved everyday.  He will venture out a little more and try things a bit more daring each day.  This video is to show his improvement since the video from just a week or so ago.

Besides the walking, Colin has learned a couple other tricks.  He will give kisses.  There is a good fish-face picture in the album.  Although he doesn't wait long, he'll pull blanket or whatever to play peek-a-boo.   He's getting into more big boy foods like sandwiches and things mommy and daddy are eating for that meal.

It's finally been getting summer-like here so we've been doing more outside stuff.  Daddy got a bike seat for Colin to go riding in.  Colin got a kiddie pool that he is cautious about, but that should change.  He does love playing in water.  He is doing swimming lessons again, which are awesome if he has had enough sleep.

We have a couple trips/things coming up in July.  That album should have more pictures than this month.  Not a lot of activities to take pictures of this month.

Here is a bonus video.  We found this hilarious.  Socks just don't belong on mommy.

We've got a walker!!

Colin took his first steps a week ago.  We've been trying to get a good video of him walking, which was a bit difficult.  If he wanted to or not was hit or miss.  Tonight he was all about walking.  He stumbles around looking like Frankenstein after too much to drink.  He's getting better at it all the time.  Good job Colin!

The big 1-0

Ten moths old and Colin is still doing new things all the time.  He's extended his standing time but not bold enough to try to take any steps yet.  We are working on his vocabulary or at least trying to.  Here's a video of him doing some 'Colin-speak'

As you can see 'dad' or some variation of it is everything.  If he's frustrated, upset, sad or excited we get hit with a tirade of "DA DAD DAT DA spit DADT DADT spit".  It's pretty amusing but he isn't predictable enough to capture it yet.

We've been trying new foods quite a bit.  We are waiting for those 4 top teeth to break through still.  That may help him chew some things up better.  If he can't break it down enough, out it comes.  That is usually meats.  He loves bread and zucchini as well as his old favorites.

Here are a few June pictures:

Standing Colin

Colin has a pretty good laugh that shakes his body.

So Colin can stand on his own pretty well.  He does it whenever he has the opportunity now.  He can hold it for a good 5 count when he's not clapping or doing 'So Big'.  He's pretty proud of himself and so are we.  Walking shouldn't be too far away.

Traveling in a plane with a 9 month old was relatively easy.  Colin didn't give any trouble on the trip to or from VA for Uncle Sean's graduation.  We spent a lot of time in the car and around new people.  He got to spend a lot more time in the car with mommy so now that we are home, mommy is not allowed out of the room when she is here.  Everyone from CA came out to see Sean graduate and Colin did well visiting.  Don't think the faces are going to stick yet so we'll have to do it all again next time we see everyone.

Colin was able to get another stamp for his NP passport book at Shenandoah NP.  It was mostly foggy but we were able to see some bits on our 60mile drive through (I don't recommend that).

We also got to meet up with the Johnson's.  Colin had a full day play date with Rhys who is a bit more than a week older.  They played and traveled around DC very well together.

Before we left on this trip the doctor gave the okay to try a lot more foods.  I'd say about 25% makes in into his mouth and only 10% stays.  We are learning a few tricks to help get the food in and stay in but it seems that most foods just aren't good the first time.  Hobie loves coming in after meals to clean the floor.

He still mimics things, just not for very long.  They change pretty frequently.  He's sleeping a bit longer and better at night, which we are thrilled with.  There does seem to be this inborn behavior for destruction.  If something is stacked up or built Colin has to come over and knock it down and then go right back to whatever he was doing before.  He's not into creating, just making sure everything is as flat on the ground as possible.

Here are the May pictures:

9 months old

I guess there isn't a whole lot of new stuff going on since the end of last month.  He is improving all of the things he can do though.  He is much better at "saying" more and mimicking things.  He's increased his vocabulary of things he recognizes and can go grab.  We were able to get a decent video of him doing this.

We had our nine month check up and Colin is growing fine, although he is on the small side.  He's doing the things he should be.  His food menu has increased to more big people foods.  It also looks like his top 4 teeth should be coming in all together and pretty soon.

We are getting ready for our trip down to VA and DC.  We've been brainstorming about what to pack and not pack for Colin.  We put in a doggie door and stairs for Hobie to get in and out on her own.  The deck area is also fenced in now too.  We have our neighbors taking care of her while we are away (and bunny too).  Hopefully we don't come back to any surprises.

Here are a couple of pictures of his new favorite things to do to hold you over until the end of the month.

all toys that fit must be stuffed under the couch

a little head cock to the side with a smile, a favorite pose

racing mommy for toys

Bye-Bye April

April is over and we are looking forward to May.  We'll get to try out another plane trip down to see Uncle Sean graduate.  All of our California family will be coming out too so they'll get to see a more active and speedy Colin.

Colin has been improving his crawling skills and has ventured a bit into the standing arena.  It's a bit like the cartoons that don't know they ran off the cliff and should be falling, until they look down.  He'll accidentally let go or need to grab a toy with two hands and stand for a couple seconds.  When he notices he's standing...down he goes.  He's learning the rules of the road and some laws of physics as he's received a couple bumps and bruises in his travels.

He's more into toys, or rather hair, buttons, boxes, furniture, sticks, empty mayonnaise container, book corners, tethers holding toys and some random things on the ground.  Everything goes into his mouth.  "Yucky" is now a contender for first word.  He's also recognizing a lot of what we say.  He'll recognize names of toys and things.  He'll also mimic some actions.  Shaking the head is a fun game and the hand sign for 'more' are the most commonly mimicked.  New things pop up almost daily.

Here is the April album:

Happy Easter

Colin is approaching 8 months and celebrated his first Easter. He did very well grabbing eggs and try to eat them. The Easter Bunny left plenty of eggs to find and a basket that was nowhere near as interesting as things that had tags on them. He's a busy crawler keeping mommy and daddy on our toes. He's also quite the chatter box, don't know which side that came from.  The "D" and "T" sounds are pretty good as are any sounds from the tongue.  We are taking guesses on his first word/phrase. 

1. Da-da
2. Ma-ma
3. Hobie, no
4. Hi
5. I love you
6. Antidisestablishmentarianism

What is your guess?  Post a comment and hopefully we won't have to wait too long.


 Here are a few pictures from his Easter day.

The egg hunting ground

Stuff from the Easter Bunny

Trying on his Easter hat

plastic eggs are delicious

Stupid video upload

It wouldn't allow the video to upload in the last post and I didn't want to lose all the work.  I made a new post with the video that was supposed to be in the last post.

Speed Demon Daredevil

Colin is now fully mobile with "Baby ADHD". He doesn't really care where he's going as long as he is going.  He does love his mobility.  He throws caution to the wind and just goes.  He's figuring out that the floor and the table legs don't feel good when he runs into them.  He recovers quickly and is back at it again.  When he's tired of crawling he'll fuss his way over to pull himself up with help to walk around.  He's got a pretty good stomp/walk.  We had a week of beautiful weather and so we were outside on the grass.  He's pretty cautious about the grass.  I guess the texture just isn't right.  We'll be able to enjoy it again when it warms up more.  It's pretty incredible the progress he's made over the last week or two.


He tried some more foods now as well.  Yogurt is an okay addition to food as long as it isn't too strong.  Cauliflower is okay too.   We're figuring out the list of foods to some, little by little.

Colin's vocabulary is growing too.  Spitting and raspberry's are what he does mostly but he'll surprise us with some various sounds now and then.  He's concentrating more on what mommy and daddy are doing and trying to mimic  sometimes (at least it seems that way).

He also is developing some games to play too.  Peek-a-boo is still a big hit.  He'll swing a toy around toward our faces and giggle when we 'eat' it, then try it again.  He plays his own baby version of fetch.  He'll crawl around chasing a toy and then grab at it or swing his arm around until it moves and then chase it down to repeat again.

And here is March's album:

Colin's a Crawlin'

Spring is here - at least it feels like it.  Colin has been spending his time enjoying walks in the stroller, playing with Hobie at the beach and just hanging out on the porch.  He loves the warm weather.

Some great news is that Mr. Furious no longer makes an appearance at bed time, which is around 7:00 just after reading a book and getting a last bit of milk for the night.  Colin loves bedtime and falls to sleep quickly after laying down in his crib.  The bad news is that Mr. Furious now arrives sometime between 4:00 and 4:30 and isn't replaced by Mr. Handsome until he gets up for the day, around 6:00 or 6:30.  We're hoping that daylight savings will push out his furious time close enough to wake-up time so that we can just get up for the day then.  We'll keep you posted :)

Happy 7 month birthday Colin!

Happy leap day

February has finished and it seems like fall still.  I don't know if the groundhog saw his shadow or not but there should be something about winter not starting.  Our biggest snowfall, which was only a couple inches, was around Halloween.  Maybe it's better that Colin's first winter wasn't a harsh one.

Colin has reached a few big milestones.  He now has his 2 lower teeth.  Taking a picture of them has proven difficult.  When a 'good' one was taken it was difficult to tell if you were looking at teeth.  Hopefully we'll be able to get something for the March album.  We're going to go ahead and call it crawling.  He can prop himself up on his knees and lunge forward.  It usually ends in a faceplant, but not always.  He can move forward, just not very well.  Hopefully the crawling video will be another great March addition.  He has also grown up and moved out.  He sleeps in his room now which he seems okay with.  Naps are no problem but he gets up every couple hours during the night.  He doesn't have his night feeding anymore but he is getting up more often than when he did.

He is definitely recognizing food we eat and that causes the mouth to go into "big-boy mouth" mode.  That is the mouth open as wide as possible and the tongue wiggling around in there.  Luckily he's not fussy when he can't have our food...yet.  He eats plenty of his food.  Sweet potatoes and apples are on the top of the list.

He is more interactive with his environment now.  Mommy's hair is probably at the top of the list but he'll grab for anything in passing.  We've dug into his toy box and he'll play with his toys for a while now.  That usually entails swinging them around until the fly off somewhere and, of course, eating them.  He also seems to enjoy music.  He'll go the the library sometimes to listen to Ms Melissa sing and sing along.  He'll sing along with the baby music or mommy/daddy music on the radio.  Music will often produce a smile.

I guess that is all for now.  Here's the Feb album.

Yea!! 6 Months Old

       So we think that Colin is undergoing training to be a cage fighter.  He spends most of his awake time going through a pretty rigorous workout of push-ups, crunches, pull-ups and rapid leg squats.  He also is working on his attacks with his arms.  We're surprised he hasn't left any black eyes or bruises on us from his vicious arm chops.  Needless to say, he is quite active.  He's still working on crawling and sitting up.  He can sit on his own if he's propped and can scoot backwards pretty good.  His push-up clears the floor all the way to his toes but he doesn't get his knees under him very often.  He rolls quite a bit too but not to move very far.
   After letting us know, at 10p, 10:30, 11, 11:30....(you get the idea), that he was big enough to move out on his own we finally moved the crib to his room.  He's been doing fine but hasn't been sleeping very well for about a week.  That could be teething or just some random baby reason....we only know that we don't sleep.
   He's been eating more real foods.  Apples can be added to the 'like' list and peas (just like his daddy) can be added to the 'gross' list.  He loves eating and taking sips of water.

     We are looking forward to him crawling and adding more sounds to his growing baby vocabulary.  February is a short month so the album of pictures for the month aren't too far off.

We're mobile..kinda

So Colin is able to move around just a bit.  At this point it's more slowly scooting backwards.  He can roll front to back and back to front fairly well.
The other reason for the title is that blogger gave us some options for mobile phone viewing too.  Hopefully that means you can view it on your smartphone too.

 Colin bouncing away

Colin has done pretty well this month.  He becoming more vocal and using new sounds all the time.  He's unfortunately discovered the very high pitch whine.  Most of the others are just adorable.  His mobility was mentioned above.  During the day Colin will usually cook or bake with daddy since it seems to occupy him pretty well.  He's eating some different foods now as well as drinking plenty of milk.  On the list of likes he has: two types of sweet potatoes and banana.  On the dislike or not care for list are: carrots, rice-cereal and avocado.  If those get mixed with one he does like though then it's devoured.  He loves eating foods and taking drips of water from a cup.  The 'present' he'll leave us in his diaper now is just impressive.  I guess that's to be expected when the diet starts to change.

Things have been going well overall.  Colin had to fight off another cold.  We haven't really had much snow.  Bunny and Hobie are still alive and kickin'.  Here are the pictures for Jan:

Missing Dec pics

A couple of pictures were left out of the December album.  Here those are:

Leaving milk and cookies for Santa.

Jumpy seat is pretty awesome