Finally Some Snow

Colin has been talking about playing in the snow for months.  We finally got some for Thanksgiving and boy was it awesome.  He was so excited.  Too bad it only lasted a couple days.  We'll see when the next snowfall comes.

This month was a bit light with the pictures.  We had some birthday parties for Colin's friends.  We visited a farm and saw some behind the scenes stuff and plenty of cows.  We had Thanksgiving with Yaya and Nan.  Overall the month was a bit quiet.

Preschool is still very exciting.  We still aren't told much of what he does at school.  He is more forthcoming with what he doesn't do such as "I didn't sing the song.  Ms Pelletier did." or "I didn't run around on the playground, I just watched the other kids."  We definitely have an introvert.  He loves to observe others.

He seems to be an information soaking machine right now.  He counts almost everything.  There are a  few puzzles he loves to do.  Some Thomas puzzles, of course, and a states puzzle.  A majority of the states can be named and he can complete the puzzle on his own.  Even some of the states can be placed with no bordering states.  It was pretty amazing watching him do it.  There is still a lot of inquisition about things he's noticing too.

Christmas was here yesterday apparently.  At least according to Colin it was.  It will be interesting to see how excited he gets as it gets closer.  We haven't written to Santa yet but his list as of now is:

A sailboat (Santa was on top of this already)
workgloves
bubbles (Santa has an enormous stock of these)
and presents...

not a big list but we're working on it.

Here's a link for the small Nov album
(hover on the picture for caption)
https://www.flickr.com/gp/129072712@N07/qXwE87/

A Couple Videos

Taking a call on his phone.  Sorry for the crazy camera shooting

Christmas shopping should be interesting this year

Mr Handsome's Conquers His Nemesis

First off, sorry this wasn't out sooner. Halloween was very busy and then Mommy's birthday was also quite packed. So this is getting posted today.

The big news this month is that Colin had blood work done and it came back showing no allergy to peanuts!!  We went in to the allergist and did a peanut challenge (which is very boring...bring toys).  He passed, so peanuts are okay.  Hooray!!

The beginning of the month was quite busy.  We went to the Topsfield Fair which he thoroughly enjoyed.  We then drove up to N. Maine for a few days which he also enjoyed very much.  Colin climbed the 'mountain' up where mommy grew up, Haystack.  It was a bit over 1000 ft with some small areas of climbing boulders.  Colin did great and made it up to the top with no problem.

Colin is quite the debater at home.  Since he's figured out that no is an option and that just "no" is not an acceptable response, we get some arguments from him.  It mostly follows the format:

Not Colin: "Colin, it's time to [do something that needs to be done]"
Colin:  "Wwweeellll, I'm going to do [the exact opposite].  You can do [thing that needed to be done] if you want to."
 We don't know who does the long 'wwweeelllll'.

It's pretty funny watching him pick up or mimic some mannerisms.  We try and figure out which of us is the guilty party.  Sometimes we really don't know where he picks some things up.  He loves to answer his phone and carry on a conversation with someone.  He paces the whole time.  Neither of us do that so we don't know where he picked that up.  He's a little grown up 3yr old


This time we're trying Flickr for the pictures since most sites are cutting their embeding slideshow features.  Even Flickr is but you can work around that.  Hopefully this works out.  You need to click the Show Info tab to see the captions for the images.  At some point in the next couple days there are some videos to get posted as well.

New Superpower???

Colin has developed a superpower.  He has keen sense of selective listening.  It was very strong at the beginning of the month.  There was no reaction after multiple attempts.  Time outs and toys taken were not well received.   Now he doesn't use this power very often.  He's resorted to tantrums that look like demonic possession at times.  We are definitely being kept on our toes as this is a new thing for Colin.  It had to come at some point.  Good thing he's still cute.

Preschool is still going very well.  He still isn't very forthcoming with what goes on.  Luckily they send something home each week to recap what they have been up to.  He's excited to go each time and comes running out after in a great mood.

Earlier this month Colin had some blood work done for his allergist.  The results came back negative for peanut allergy!  We are going in  soon to do a peanut challenge with the allergist.  Maybe peanuts will be okay, we'll see how that goes.

Cool weather is here (except for the 80 degree days last week).  We've made a couple of trips to different farms for apple and raspberry picking.  (Unfortunately some of the pictures didn't save.)  There were some birthday parties.  We had a visit from Grampy.  We had a busy month.  The Topsfield Fair and Halloween are next month.  What will he be for Halloween???

Google keeps killing off some of their software so the album is just a link now rather than the slideshow.  Click the link and that should take you to a page where you can see them all.  There is a slideshow option on the page or you can just click on a picture and go through them one by one.

https://plus.google.com/photos/101037625380986242479/albums/6064840364263277697?authkey=CIvpt7Cl47D9Ng

Preschool

So how was your first day of preschool Colin????  He was really excited before school and when he got picked up.  He seemed to have a great first day with no mommy or daddy.  The hope was that he would still be just as excited when we went to lunch.  He was not.  He was getting a bit sleepy and silly so we couldn't get too much information from him.   Here's what we did get from him:

 

interview with some background music from the restaurant

He did talk a lot about playing in the playground at school.  A couple of names were mentioned, that we are assuming are classmates but it wasn't too clear.   Unfortunately he didn't share that stuff on the video.  Preschool is a big hit and he's ready to go back.

Summer is Finishing Up

We had a pretty busy summer with camping, birthday parties, camping again and people visiting.  That all seems to be coming to a close.  Colin is starting preschool tommorow and no more vacation plans are made.

A lot of time was spent outside playing.  Cities are constantly being worked on with Colin's fleet of tractors out in the sandbox and other dirt areas.  There are frequent walks up and down the street, which are more of runs for Colin.  We spent a week up in Maine camping at a very kid friendly campground with his play group buddies.  A bit on the cool side but definitely worth it.  Both GaMommy and Yaya came on the trip so he had plenty of adults to help him stay busy.  We also went back down to NJ to family camp to meet up with the Flanagans whom we last saw after we left there almost 10 years ago.  We just got back this morning at 3a (it seemed like a good idea at the time) so there may be things forgotten.  Hopefully the pictures cover the detail or maybe we'll post again with more very soon.

Check out the growth comparison chart down at the bottom.  Colin had his 3yr visit and is doing great.  In the 4% for height but everything is lining up and proportional.  He is amazingly similar in growth to his daddy.

The Big 3

 Colin is finally a big boy 3 year old.

He woke up to some birthday balloons.  (Thomas and green ones).  The first order of business was to make his birthday cake.  We spent the last few weeks trying to get some consistency with his answers.  Balloons, sprinkles and chocolate seemed to stick.  So cake pops were made.....and tested.....and cleaned up.

Ready to crush up cake

Each sprinkle on the table needed to be eaten

Outside the museum

 We went to the Wenham Train Museum which had trains, of course, and a couple other exhibits to check out.  Colin loves trains.

studying the train setup

A space ship to sit in

 We then had a delicious lunch

Lunch of ravioli

 After not having a nap, even though there was only 7 hours of sleep the night before, we opened presents.  So much good stuff.  A tent, wind up flash light and boat for camping, build-able cars, a bunch of Thomas books, a tractor/farm set, massive sidewalk chalk and bubbles, and a beach outfit.  He was pretty happy with it all and wanted to stop unwrapping to play with each thing.

Unwrapping presents

Finally getting to play with his loot

Cora and Hazel came down for some special birthday dinner of Mac & Cheese with broccoli (Colin's pick) .

yummy dinner

 Cake pops were enjoyed outside

 

Hugs for mommy

Bubbles with Hazel

Followed by some bubble popping.









We decided to try out an annual interview with Colin.  The idea is to ask the same questions each year.  This had to be tried quite a few times.  The first attempt was the best, but the camera froze up.  We finally got this one:

 

Now it's time to prepare for some camping in Maine and New Jersey and his big birthday party.

Busy Busy

July was a busy month.  We had plenty of visitors and plenty to do.  Now it's time to get ready for camping and more camping next month.

Oh boy does he like to run, especially when there is water involved and just throwing his body around.  He's definitely a little boy.  Don't tell him that because he'll correct you and tell you he's big.

This month Colin went to friend and cousin birthday parties which gave him a better idea of the whole birthday concept.  We tried to figure out if he had cake flavor preference but that didn't work out.  Trying to figure out if he wants anything for his birthday had the same result.  If you are looking, marshmallows and balloons are what he wants.

We've been spending time at parks, going swimming and plenty of playing outside.  Plenty of visitors this month too.  Aunt Coleen flew in from Indiana, the Cockrells from San Diego and Tammy from "the central coast".  There are plenty of pictures to peruse.  We made a few trips into Boston and got some good Boston area food.  Got towed (6years and no issues until now).

I think it's safe to say that Colin is potty trained.  The underwear at night has been tried....with one 'incident'.  No diapers in quite some time now.  It's safe to say they are done...we hope.

Right about the same time the attitude level has gone up.
"Colin, that's mean.  You don't hit Hobie, go sit in time out"
"NO DADDY.  Don't tell me that!", "I don't want to!", "NO NO NO NO NO!"
So, that's fun.  Potty training must have some kind of independence trigger that goes with it.

On to next month with a birthday and more visitors.

Who's Potty Trained?!?!

Colin almost is!  We've had a few dry nights and short trips out.  About  95% of the time he'll let us know he has to go and does so.  We have had a few 'lazy moments'.

"Colin why didn't you want to go on the potty?"
"Um, I didn't want to go on the potty"
"Oh.  Well we like it when you go on the potty like a big boy."
"I like it when I go potty like a big boy"
"Will you tell us when you need to go on the potty next time?"

He still yells loudly after going.  I'm sure if our neighbors weren't at work they'd be aware of his bathroom visits.  He's been pretty good about using the potty this whole month.  It was just a sudden switch one weekend when he informed us he needed to go.  Before that he needed to have nothing on to go.  If he had a diaper or underwear he would choose the easier option.  The first time he told us he needed to go was, of course, on a busy weekend.  We were picking strawberries, quite a walk to the nearest building, when he announced he needed to go.  Surprisingly he made it to bathroom.  The next day we were all on a 10K walk when he announced he needed to go....no luck that time.  Diapers are getting phased out...bed wetting, here we come.

We can't have the whole blog post about Colin peeing.  He had a pretty busy month.
His first time going to a soccer match, which got it's own post.
Colin's first trip to the zoo.  We went on a very rainy day, which worked out well.  He didn't care about getting wet and there was only a couple of school groups so the zoo was pretty empty.  Unfortunately some of the animals were not out yet because of the long winter.  We'll just have to go again some time.
Chief Will's Day is Middleton's 4th of July celebration.  They do a little fair which is the perfect size for Colin.  He was able to try out some kiddie rides, see a parade and get plenty of exercise.

Colin is getting excited about about some upcoming things.  There has been talk of his birthday.  He knows that he wants balloons, presents and cake.  It may be tricky to get him to choose a cake but we'll give it a shot.  His favorite color is green so there may be green frosting.  Camping in August is also talked about quite a bit.  He knows that both are in August so we'll see how confused he gets when finds out its August and he isn't camping or having a birthday that day.

Mr chatterbox playing with trains

First Soccer Match

At Gillette Stadium

Mommy and Colin time

Colin's view

 

 

 

Colin went to watch the New England Revolution play for the first time this past weekend. Being overwhelmed was expected but it didn't happen. We don't plan on a return trip any time soon but it was good that he came. His interview below does a good job of showing what he thought. He was pretty indifferent about the actual game but he was very well behaved and enjoyed taking it all in even though it was a very hot and sunny day.

It's Naked Time...Bing!

   Summer seems to be close, finally and we've taken advantage of the warmer weather to have some naked time.  Colin spends a lot of time with just a shirt and socks on.  The most common phrase this past month has been "Leave your penis alone".  Its a hand magnet for him.  He'll test us too.  His hands will be on his thighs slowly working their way inward and when he is asked to leave his penis alone he is quick to reply, "I am leaving my penis alone.  I'm touching my legs"  He's a tricky one.  The potty propaganda is now being used.  Mommy being impressed is usually a good motivator.  Going on mommy and daddy's potty is pretty cool.  If he is naked then he needs no reminding to go but if any diaper or pants are on then he needs frequent reminders to try and go.  "Colin, do you need to go potty?".  The reply is normally something like "Uuummm, no thanks, I'm okay"  After a bit of discussion and saying how awesome going potty is he'll go.  He is very excited after he goes and has to shout so every room in the house can hear what he did, and maybe the neighbors.  Going potty is a big deal here so there is apparently a lot to write about it.  You write what you know I guess...

  Colin did very well at his preschool screening.  They did a good job redirecting parents to go fill out a form while they did their screening.  We met some other future classmates and parents and got to see the room and meet the teachers.  We didn't get much feedback from Colin on what the screening entailed.  There was a book with a yellow square apparently.  All we were told from the teachers was that Colin was very well spoken.  He did great going with the teachers and doing whatever he needed to do.  It doesn't seem like the first day of school is going to be too difficult for him.

It's been nice to get outside and play regularly now.  Summer is on it's way and some trips to the beach as well.

Here is May's album:

Spring-ish Time

     It's been nice enough to go outside but on occasion it still feels a bit wintery. It's not snowing any more which is great but we haven't broken out the shorts yet.
  We have a preschool screening meeting next week.  That is exciting, at least for mommy and daddy or maybe just daddy.  Colin doesn't understand it yet and mommy prefers Colin doesn't grow anymore.  Regardless, school this coming fall.  We are working on potty training a bit more now by reminding him to try and go fairly frequently.  Why do that when he has the convenience of a diaper???  He is excited about the watermark still being on his diaper when he checks but not enough to work at keeping the diaper dry.  As soon as warm weather hits we'll be doing some naked time potty training.  We'll see how that goes.
   Easter was a big hit.  This was the first holiday he seemed to understand what was going to happen.  He talked about the Easter Bunny and egg hunting beforehand and for a few days after.

   Colin's playtime has developed quite a bit.  We can listen in to him roleplaying with his trains.  There was a noisy 20 minute play session the other day.  When asked about what was going on his summary was "Percy said good morning to Thomas".  That was 20 minutes of play.  This video is a pretty good sample of train time.

   The terrible two's are not a good description of Colin's second year.  There was really nothing terrible in the first half of the year.  Now that we are past the 2.5 mark there are a few things developing.  He is getting lippy.  "No daddy, NO NO NO!", "I don't want to!".  Tantrums are also getting to be an issue.  If the wrong person comes to his 'rescue' then he goes from crying in pain to screaming bloody murder "NO NO NO, MOMMY DO IT, NO DADDY put me down!".  So that's fun.  He is also beginning to try out the idea of 'one parent says no, let's ask the other one'.

    He is even more curious about things now.  We have real discussions about things.  We've talked about airplanes, snails, babies and a few other things.  It's really interesting to watch.  He will go through his memory of things he's experienced and voice those and then ask intelligent follow up questions to develop a sequence of ideas.  He's retaining most, if not all, of the information.  He'll report about it later on, sometimes days later.   Besides his curiosity, he is doing very well with recognizing and spelling names of family.  He asks how to 'smell' a lot of words too.  Such a curious kid


May album:

Mr Encouragement

If you ever need some positive encouragement, come ask Colin.  We can tell that we give him a lot of encouragement for going potty like a big boy.  When we come out of the bathroom we get a mini inquisition.  "Did you go potty?", "Did you make pee pees?" "Oh, mommy will be sooo impressed.", "Oh good job making pee pees."  Just today daddy was fed pees from Colin's kitchen.  "Get it close to your mouth!!"  "Take bites."  "Hurray, you did it!"  (Daddy was not very cooperative)

The winter is finally ending so we should hopefully be able to get back outside more frequently.  Maybe Colin will be able to reach his tricycle pedals.  Or his bicycle helmet will actually fit now and not make him look like a mushroom head.

There is still shyness when he interacts with other kids, even if they are 1/2 his size.  He is starting to play with them a bit though which is a good thing.  Colin will play on his own for a bit now without any problems.  His trains will race around his table and have accidents which they will apologize to the other train for.  You can tell which books are read most often.  He will correct the reader if a word or phrase is read incorrectly.  Right now the Thomas the Train books are read constantly.  Names are starting to be given out to toys and people.  We have Mater McQueen the tractor, he takes on the roll of mommy or daddy and we are given the roll of Colin or Hobie.

 He has a great imagination and asks a lot of questions to figure out things going on around him.  It's great to see him figuring things out and gaining some independence.

Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider with mommy

 

Here he is jumping into the foam pit

March Album:

forgotten videos

Another month that the videos weren't posted with the main post for the month

If you aren't familiar with the Tigger Song then you may want to google that so you can make some sense out of Colin's version of the song

We'll go ahead and call that swimming.  He's brave in the water and figuring it out quickly now that we've gone back.

Introducing Mr No

"No Mommy, no", "No Daddy...no no no!"
Phrases commonly heard now.  Colin seems to transform into Mr No and not snap out of it until he's had time to calm down.  It doesn't matter what is said or asked, the answer will be a 'no'.  Also depending on the severity of the transformation, he may also include hitting and biting.   Everything and everyone is at risk, Hobie, crayons, blankets and Colin himself has been subject to Mr No's brutality.    I think his alter ego Mr Independent is to blame.  Something as simple as helping him remove his jacket or opening a door he wanted to open will trigger an onslaught of 'no'.

On the positive side he is able to do a lot more things on his own.  He can get himself unclothed put his boots on and take them off, put his dishes away after eating and spend time on his own playing.  We are still waiting to walk in one morning finding a diaper mess in one corner, a naked boy in another and the walls colored on.  So far we've only had to worry about where he decided to hide himself upon waking (hint: it's always under his blue table).

He focuses on emphasis in words.  We helped him with the "l" sound by emphasizing, now if we don't emphasize the "l" we get corrected.  That goes for a lot of words and letter sounds.

Colin is getting smarter.  He can recognize all the letters in the alphabet and numbers 1-10.  He came over to say he spelled our names with refrigerator magnets.  There was a C for Colin and an M, D and H for mommy, daddy and Hobie.   He's getting more confident and trying to explain things to us and ask more questions.  He's getting so smart.

 With that confidence comes bossiness.

"No no daddy, go that way"
"No mommy, that's hot"
"No do this"

oops

Forgot this video 

 

"How do you spell your name?"

"No, but I love...."

This is a common phrase now.  Colin will be involved in some mischievousness, we will tell him it isn't safe or he is not allowed to do it.  What's his response???  "Nooo daddy/mommy, I love hitting/kicking/doing that"  Apparently his passion for mischief  should outweigh the level of destruction or meanness.  The perks of a two year old it seems.  They still aren't 'terrible twos' but there is a lot more policing involved.  Even as this is being typed he's off on the side doing commando rolls off of his stool.

He received his acceptance letter to his first choice of preschool, meaning not enough applied to need a lottery.  He's already exciting about going to school.  He's aware it's not for a long time and after we go camping which is after it gets hot outside.  We are asked frequently about going camping and going to school.  Also, if you have been in his mind while he is thinking about camping then he's asked if you can go too.  Preschool will be good for him to be able to regularly play with other kids.  He has finally started to interact with others more.  He says hi to others in passing and points out that they didn't respond to him.  There doesn't seem to be disappointment but he let's someone know he was ignored. 

Potty training is going a bit better.  There is a bit more awareness of when he needs to go.  He can identify all letters and the numbers 1-10 with almost perfect accuracy.  He gets himself up and down at the table and puts his dirty dishes on the counter.  Swimming has started up again and he has no fear of jumping in and going under.

Our good, smart, energetic boy is growing up so much.

The end of 2013

It's been a good year for Mr Handsome.  It's fun having a toddler running around the house.  All the cute things he says and does make up for his moments as Mr Furious.

This month we went to the open house for preschool for next year.  We should hear back this month if he gets in or if a lottery is needed because too many 3 year olds are on the list.  He wasn't as timid as expected in the classroom and he was happy with the teachers there.  It looks promising.

We also had a trip down to Grampy's in Florida.  Colin has been waiting to get on another airplane since his last flight to California.  Colin really enjoyed the trip and we have the pictures to prove it.

Christmas wasn't as an exciting time as we thought it would be for him.  There was no screaming or attacking the presents.  We had a very civil Christmas. 
Nothing really new in the development area.

 Christmas eve before bed

He still will count his numbers and say his abc's.  He is more active with dancing and jumping around.

   Later on there was running and jumping on mommy

We will see what 2014 brings.  Happy New Year