10 years, 10 pictures

Happy New Year! And welcome to the private side of the island. Thanks for joining us in our adventures in the next decade.

I hope you had a great new years! We celebrated by...what else? Going to bed. That's a celebration in and of itself these days. Colin celebrated by sleeping almost 12 hours straight. It was the first time he's done that. He went to bed a little before 7:30, woke up hungry at 3:00, and went back to sleep until 7:10. Awesomesauce. I could get used to this. What was different this time? No background noises in his room. I forgot to turn on his heartbeat noise and the iPod playing lullabies.

For funsies, I put together a trip down memory lane. The last 10 years shown in pictures. It was tricky, but here's the result.

We'll start off this look back with a picture from when I was 19 years old. I was a freshman in college. Here is my family as I defined it then. I was finding my place in the world of friends. I felt stuck between being loyal to high school friends and branching out to find new college friends.
When I was 2o, I was a sophomore in college. I definitely hit the sophomore slump. I wasn't interested in my generals classes, and my grades slipped a little. I made it through, though, and the next year I was interested in my classes again. Here are some of my college friends. We all lived on the same dorm floor. We are at one of our favorite eateries in Eau Claire, Acoustic Cafe. This place introduced me to drinking steamers.
21. That magical age. I had been long distance "dating" a loser I never saw and dumped him. I was so upset, but a few weeks after, I went camping and concert-watching at Country Fest with a group of friends, and we met a group of boys. The group (only half of which is shown here) included my husband who is wearing sunglasses and sitting to my right. He was shrouded in mystery, that boy. I was intrigued by his quietness. Good thing I dumped that loser. I looked him up on facebook, and I was not impressed.
When I was 22, I lived with 5 of the funnest girls EVAH in a house during our senior year. As you can see, we were a hoot to be around. By this time, I was comfortable with my friend niches--both the college one and the high school one. I was still dating Kevin, but long distance. We mostly saw each other on weekends, but things were good.
At 23, after 5 years plus 1 summer of school, I graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Elementary/Middle Level Education and moved to an apartment in small town Wisconsin to live with Kevin. I started subbing in various school districts and worked at the YMCA teaching sports, tumbling, and arts and crafts.When we were 24, we loved seeing each other every day of the week, and not just on the weekends like we were doing before. I was still subbing, working at the Y, and added preschool teacher to my box of hats. Then I landed a 10 week long-term sub job in first grade in the school district I currently work in. We got engaged in April.And then we got married. I was 25. Picture courtesy of the amazing Betsy Cole Photography. We also bought our house around the time we got married. I was still subbing. In the winter, I again long-term subbed in the same school district. This time in 2nd grade, and this time for an entire semester. I quit my job at the YMCA and started teaching piano lessons on the side. At age 26, shortly after getting married, we thought we'd try out parenthood on a non-human. Thus, the Rocket experiment. We think he's turned out pretty well. He's a good poochie pie. If Colin is anything like him, we'll be set.When we were 27, we splurged on a vacation to Jamaica. Read the recap here. We had an amazing time, and it was so great to be able to go on vacation one last time before starting a family. I was teaching 1st grade again, but only under a one-year contract.
When I was 28, I was teaching 4th grade and I was counting down the days until we could meet Colin. This picture is from my baby shower when I was 36 weeks pregnant, and features my closest friends.
And now, at 29 (technically I'm 28 in this picture, but it was taken just recently as you can see from the existence of a Christmas tree in the background) our little family is complete for now. It's amazing how one little life can change your own. All four of us struggle at times with lack of sleep and the resulting moodiness that comes from it, but we're here and we're family. We are so lucky to have each other.
And my extended family unit as I define it today.
The last 10 years have been a whirlwind. I wonder what the next 10 will hold. Colin will be in 4th grade. 4th grade! Oy.

Last chance, people!

It is almost 8 PM CST. If you're here and want to keep reading, please let me know now through email (you'll find my email address to the right) or by commenting. All I need is your email address and you're in! Now go out and celebrate the end of the decade. See ya on the flip side!

If you look to the right, you will see...

that I finally set up an account through gmail so that my readers can contact me. ajkevrain@gmail.com. 3 days until we build the privacy fence! Thank you to all of my lovely readers out there taking the leap with us!

And thank you, nlvaden :)

Colin's first Christmas

Boy, were we busy! On Thursday night, we headed over to Kev's parents' house for our first family get together of the season. Colin opened up some bath toys from Grandma and Grandpa F. He loooves to be squirted at bath time with the fish!
He also got a shopping cart for his future stash of felt food, a See n Say, blocks and more gifts that spoiled him silly!

On Friday morning, Colin opened up a present from Santa and a few presents from us. The lucky boy got a whole pile of new books to read! Good thing, because I think he was starting to get bored of the old rotation.

On Friday afternoon, we headed over to Kev's Grandma and Grandpa's house. Colin has 3 older boy "cousins" there. And by cousins I mean Kevin's cousins' sons. It was fun to see him interact with Lucas, who is the closest in age to Colin by about 4 months or so.

When we got home, my parents had already arrived. That night, my brother and his girlfriend came up and we had our own small family Christmas. Colin got spoiled again. He got a CAT truck from Uncle Scott. Here he is, pretending to be Grandpa J. the diesel mechanic.
and another truck from Grandma and Grandpa J. He loves to sit on it and get pushed around the house. It's quite the workout for me too!
along with other toys and clothes as well.

My dad's extended family came up on Saturday. Most of them, that is. My aunt had to stay home because the roads were too icy down in her neck of the woods. We missed her homemade pies! It was my first time hosting Christmas, and I think it was pretty successful. It was nice to be able to stay home and let Colin nap in his own crib and not have to worry about those kinds of logistics this year.

Today was the first day Colin and I have stayed home alone together since August. It was definitely different than August, where I was trying to entertain him all day. Now that he's mobile and interacts more, he can entertain both himself and me while he's at it. We both took a nice nap this morning, and then he fought taking 2nd nap the rest of the day. He didn't want to play, be held, eat, sleep, nothing. When Kev and Rocket came home from work, he was all smiles again.

We'll chalk up the first Christmas as a good one. And the first time our living room looks like Babies R Us threw up in it. In a good way, of course.

***ANNOYING REMINDER: THE BLOG IS GOING PRIVATE IN 4 DAYS! IF YOU WANT IN, PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH EMAIL, FACEBOOK, THE BLOG, BUMP, ETC. NO CONTACT = NO LOOKIE IN 2010. If you're a regular reader, I do want you to continue reading. I'm not kicking you out of the cool kids club by any means!***

Babylegs sale!

Because I have to share it with the whole world. Go here: http://www.mybatonrougemommy.com/2009/12/reader-find-6-pairs-of-leg-warmers-for.html and follow the directions to buy 6 pairs of babylegs (4 regular, 2 supersoft) for $16.40. No shipping fee! My self-control over the past 8+ months to NOT buy any and wait for a great sale has finally paid off.

Victory.

8 months old

Okay...so maybe this was a day ago. I'm a busy lady these days! Onto the letter.

Dearest Colin J,

You are now 8 months old. 2/3 of a year.
This has been a very busy month for you. You went from rolling to army crawling to crawling in about a week's time, and now you're also pulling yourself up like a pro,
and just in the last few days, you've started to cruise a few steps (walk along furniture). We're leaving the DVDs out and going on wishful thinking that moving you away from them and saying "no" will teach you to leave them alone. You'd rather spend time on the floor than in your exersaucer now. Since you like to pull yourself up on it, we almost assembled the 3rd stage of it today. Before Daddy started reading the directions, I put you in the seat to see what you'd do, and you still jumped like a wild man in it, so we'll leave it alone for now.

You are LOVING puffs and yogurt melts. You can pick them up and put them in your mouth very well, and as soon as another is on your high chair tray, you grab for it and stuff it in. We've moved up to 3rd foods now. You like the fruits a lot, but you're not so keen on the veggies or the "dinners." If you don't like the food, you push the spoon away. Since you love the idea of finger foods, we're going to try out some more of those. I've given you little bits of bread, which you like, but you didn't like the sweet potato fries or the little piece of cooked carrot I gave you last night. We'll keep trying.

Christmas is coming up. Today we went to the mall to see Santa. He's a very nice man, but you weren't too fond of him. You had your squirmy pants on and just wouldn't settle in to Santa's comfy lap.
That's okay though. You already did better than Mommy, because I didn't get my picture taken with Santa until I was in my early 20s. I took your and Rocket's picture by our Christmas tree today. Rocket sat very patiently, but you got bored very quickly and crawled away.
So I gave you a piece of paper to play with so you'd sit still.
Speaking of Rocket, he's becoming a little more tolerant of you. He even lets you pet him every now and then, as long as you don't pull his hair.
You have fallen out of your nice, stable bedtime routine. It happened when we went to Grandma and Grandpa J's over Thanksgiving. Then you got that nasty stuffy nose which kept you up. We're starting to get back on track now, but we've had to let you cry a little bit in the middle of the night. It's heart wrenching for us, but slowly you're sleeping longer stretches. Daycare reports that you are taking both of your naps in your crib now, and we put you in your crib for nap times at home without much of a fuss now too.

You weigh about 20 lbs now, so I had to wash your 12 month clothes today. I've started putting the 9 month clothes that you're busting out of away. Every 3 months, your clothes get bigger and bigger. I know it's exciting to get a new wardrobe four times a year, but I hate putting your "little" clothes away!

You LOVE to play with and chew on strings from sweatshirts, and even the string on Mommy's pajama pants (that's what that blue string is from that you're holding).
Santa's coming soon, little man. Remember to stay on his nice list and sleep a little more at night time, okay? He can't come if you're not sleeping!

Love,
Mommy

***ANNOYING REMINDER: THE BLOG IS GOING PRIVATE IN 2010. IF YOU WANT IN, PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH EMAIL, FACEBOOK, THE BLOG, BUMP, ETC. NO CONTACT = NO LOOKIE IN 2010. If you're a regular reader, I do want you to continue reading. I'm not kicking you out of the cool kids club by any means!***

Busy weekend

My parents came to visit Saturday and Sunday. We baked cookies, took some pictures for Christmas cards, ate some steak and homemade french fries (some of which were more like chips), and indulged in some Cookie Dough Delirium Cold Stone cake. I got a kick-butt sewing machine from my parents that I'm going to be making some projects with in the near future:
Felt food and toys, which I LOVE.(Grocery store by buggabuggs on etsy.com)
(Donuts by sweetiepiebakery on etsy.com)

And THIS which is called Moose Creek Camp and it's a box that opens up with a bunch of play things in it.

And then, for when Colin's a little older and needs to be entertained in church, or in the car, an iSpy bag:
More examples of iSpy bags

My brother and his girlfriend Mandy visited too. He gave me a hair dryer, which sounds lame, but is actually quite fabulous since I dropped mine 2 years ago and cracked it.

And to conclude...some sweetness:
***ANNOYING REMINDER: THE BLOG IS GOING PRIVATE IN 2010. IF YOU WANT IN, PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH EMAIL, FACEBOOK, THE BLOG, BUMP, ETC. NO CONTACT = NO LOOKIE IN 2010. If you're a regular reader, I do want you to continue reading. I'm not kicking you out of the cool kids club by any means!***

Picture time!

Our little Mozart. He loooves to "play" the piano.Today was Grandpa J's birthday and he played him a song over the phone.
Time to retire the swing to the basement! (Yes, he's strapped in)
First fauxhawk. We can tell when Colin is tired because he gets red circles around his eyes.

Wedding stuff for sale

I spent my snow day cleaning out the basement and found a bunch of wedding stuff. I had every intention of trying to sell it 3 years ago, but obviously didn't get around to it. If you want anything, make an offer! (And hello MN Knottie visitors!)

6 flat-ish, round vases:5 red, wavy, IKEA vases:
50 white/ivoryish IKEA Floating candles:
42 Orange, dark brown, and light brown IKEA tealights--they are scented, and I can't exactly pinpoint what they're supposed to smell like:1 Spool of ribbon (approximately 6 ft):
Unity candle holder (NOW TAKEN):

I do know my child, you know.

Daycare thought Colin had another ear infection because he was "off" all last week. I didn't think so, but I appeased them and made him an appointment last night. No ear infection, thankyouverymuch. The reason he's not eating as much and why he's crabtastic is probably due to his teeth moving. We, of course, do things to help his teething, but daycare doesn't seem to buy into my claims. Our favorite PA gave us a boatload of sample-sized Dimetapp Cold and Allergy for his stuffy nose. He said that every parent should have a gallon of it. I do believe he's right. No more stuffiness!

...Which means Colin slept sooo much better last night. I was up for only (!) 1 hour last night, which is a huge improvement. At one point, I put Colin in his crib asleep, and 5 minutes later he started fussing, and then crying. I went into his room to check on him, and he was standing up. The little stinkbutt! We adjusted the crib to the middle setting this past weekend because he could go from lying to sitting up, but now we have to adjust it to the lowest setting tonight so he doesn't flip himself over the rail. Dude's only 7.5 months old! He's been waiting to stand like this for 7 months though. His scooting/crawling has drastically improved over the past week. Last night he went for the Christmas tree skirt. We baby proofed the fireplace this weekend and put outlet covers in. He's on the move!

We're so fortunate

A baby message board I frequent has experienced numerous losses of babies and children in the recent past. A few girls went into early labor and their babies passed away hours after birth. One little boy died because he was sick with high fever, but otherwise seemed fine and was sent home from the clinic numerous times. I'm not sure if his parents have an answer yet. Early this morning, one girl from Boston gave birth to a 24 week old little girl named Jillian. She's in the NICU fighting and growing. Please keep all of these family in your thoughts and prayers as they grieve their losses, and for Jillian and her family to stay strong.

It is out of others' times of struggle and pain that we realize we how fortunate we are. This is one of those times. It is because of little Jillian that I haven't minded rocking or sleeping with a restless Colin for part of every night this weekend.

I'm not even going to speculate

Colin got sent home from daycare on Friday with a "fever" of 100.8. After a dose of Tylenol, it went down and hasn't gone back up since.

He didn't sleep a wink in his crib last night. He slept with either Kev or I on either the couch or in the rocking chair. His nose was so runny/stuffy (a crazy combo) that he had to sleep upright to breathe. We thought about elevating one side of his crib again, but he'd most likely end up with his head facing down and his butt up.

We bought some Vicks Baby Rub today and put it on him before he went to bed with the hope that it keeps his nose relatively clear so we can get a relatively good nights' sleep.

He's a drooling machine. He has a little rash on his chin. He has a bit of a diaper rash. He has runny poops. I'm telling myself it's just a cold.

The last two weeks in a nutshell the size of Texas

I'm sorry I haven't been a very good blogger lately. My reason, which I shamefully admit, is Farmville. I got obsessed with becoming a master grape and soybean farmer, and the amount of time it took to do that ate into my blogging time. Now I'm mastering pineapples, which take 2 days to grow, so I really only have to farm every other day which is a happy medium for me. Call me a nerdycake, it's okay.

Since I have so much to update you on, I'll keep it as short as possible. So much happened in 2 weeks, though! I can't make any guarantees.

Sleeping--Colin's bad habit of waking up hungry 1-2 times a night has returned. For the past 2 weeks, we've struggled with this. Tonight before he went to bed, he drank 8 oz of milk (as opposed to me just nursing him=who knows how much he was drinking, but probably about 3-4 oz), so hopefully that will satisfy him until 6 am. If it does, you can bet your buttons he'll be drinking 8 oz every night. Colin has even napped in his crib at home a few more times!

Eating--We started 2nd foods, which includes yummy combinations. I admit to tasting them. If I were on a desert island and the only food available were Apples with Summer Peaches, I wouldn't be sad. Colin's also really loving apples in his mesh feeder. He sucks the juice right out of the apple pieces and bops his little body around happily as he does so. Tonight I gave him a pear, but it wasn't very juicy.

Pooping--Ha! I thought I was kidding when I thought...hm...what topic is next...sleeping, eating,...hmm...oh yes. Pooping. I'll keep it clean by saying now that solid foods = solid poos, our cloth diapering experience has changed. Now we have to rinse out the diapers before we wash them. It's not so bad.

Thanksgiving--We went to Rochester to visit my parents. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma's house.

• On Friday, my mom and I went shopping for the family we "adopted" from the Salvation Army. My mom, dad, my dad's siblings, my grandma, my bro, and of course Kev and I pitched in some money. We went to Kohl's, spent $200 on winter coats, boots, baby/kids' clothes, books, etc. Then we got $40 in Kohl's cash that my mom spent on Monday on a backpack and some other miscellaneous things. We also got a Kohl's gift card so the dad could buy shoes, and we bought some games and toys at Target. I hope the family has a great Christmas and enjoys the things we bought them. One of the kids is actually one of my first graders, so I hope he makes mention of it. He doesn't know we adopted his family.
  
• We had a 2nd smaller Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house Friday night. I gave Colin the tiniest taste of mashed potatoes mixed with some baby food, and he gagged on it and spit the spoonful and then some back up. Better luck in another month or so!
• We also hit up our favorite pizza joint, Mr. Pizza (we almost always eat lunch there when we're in town) for a slice of the day with Stephie, her husband, and my mom's friends.
• Kevin and I did some Christmas shopping as well. We bought some books for Colin at Barnes and Noble and we're done shopping for my family members! We're on a tight budget this year, families, so remember...it's the thought that counts. We just have Kevin's family left to shop for.
• We headed back home on Sunday morning, stopping at Inta Juice (the second place we always hit up) for a Fruit Flirtation on the way out of town. Colin was such a good rider. He slept almost the whole way home. We had about 20 minutes left, and he woke up in good spirits. He realized that his box of toys was on the seat next to him, so he pulled one out and kept himself busy for the last leg of the trip. Ahhh...the sweet sight of a little independence.

Scooting--We officially have a scooter! Colin can go forward, backward, and even spin in circles on the floor. Sometimes he's a grumpy scooter, sometimes he's a determined one. Sometimes he gets his butt up in the air and moves forward a little bit, but then plops his belly back down. Sometimes he looks like he's going to bear crawl. The boy is on the move. Watch out!

Standing--Today, for some entertainment while I was putting his clothes away, Kevin sat Colin in his mini laundry basket, and within 3 seconds, I kid you not, the boy was standing up in it. And he didn't get any help.

Bathtime--I was giving Colin a bath tonight, and the little dude was splashing so much I had to step back to avoid getting soaked! We're talking palms-flat-hitting-the-surface-of-the-water, losing-his-balance splashing. The water was splashing out of his tub. He was having so much fun! I remember when he was a little guy, about 1 month old, and how he was just starting to get used to baths, but wasn't interactive with the water at all, and how I told Kevin how excited I was for him to splash around in the water. That day has arrived.

Whew! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. Actually, I might, but if I do, they're still on my camera. When I get a chance, I'll upload them.

Oh...and Kevin and I have decided to make the blog private starting Jan. 1. If you want to be "invited," you need to let me know. On Jan. 1 you won't be able to read if you're not on "the list." I do want you (yes YOU!) to feel welcome to read. I just don't want the random crazies (no, I don't mean you!) to infiltrate. So, if you're a reader, you're welcome in the elite AJ+Kev+BabyRain club. If you know my email, email me. If you know what PM means, PM me. If you know other ways of contacting me, please do so.

Thank you and good night. ;)