Weddings and babies

It has been busy here!

This past weekend, one of my favorite girls got married. Laura was a beautiful bride who planned a beautiful wedding. All of the details were meticulously planned. Well done, L Dawg. (I'm so proud of this picture I took).
Because I was a bridesmaid, I had to be in the Cities on Friday night for rehearsal. My favorite friend Kristin (also a bridesmaid) picked me up Friday afternoon. But before that, not only did I have to pack my own bag (plus remember the most important pieces--the dress and shoes!), but I also had to pack Colin's bag. He joined me on Saturday, after being picked up by my parents. Kev went to his brother's bachelor party that night, so he wasn't able to join us. I'm telling you, it's hard to pack a 1 yr old's bag, especially when you're not the one who "finalizes" it before it gets put in the car. I did as much as I could on Thursday night, and turns out I didn't forget anything, and Kevin didn't forget anything I wrote on the "remember to pack..." list either. Whew. We did the usual bridesmaid things. We got our hair done, hung out with the bride, posed for pictures, had a blast, you know. (Me, Laura, Laura's mom, Kristin)
Kristin and I made this AMAZING trail mix for snacking on Saturday. Peanuts, M&Ms, dried cranberries, pretzels, white chocolate chips, and vanilla graham Goldfish. Yummers.

Colin did amazingly well at both the ceremony and reception, despite only having a short nap on the ride there. He was very mellow, not the usual rambunctious bundle of noise he usually is. He wore his tie and stayed up late (past 8:00!), and slept pretty well in the hotel room with my parents.
I had a blast at the reception. I got to catch up with friends, friends' parents, college friends, danced, took pictures in the photo booth, drank a couple of glasses of wine, ate de.li.cious cake, and helped Laura and Joe celebrate their first hours together as husband and wife.

I always tell myself I'm going to take a lot of pictures when I go to big events, but I never do.

On Sunday, my parents, Colin, another favorite friend Stephie, and I hung out at the hotel for awhile, killing time until we could meet my first pseudo-niece, Taylor Hope! Favorite friend Brooke had her baby girl on Thursday, so it was fun to see the mommy and the little lady. Then it was time to head home. I feel like I could've used a day off after the busy weekend. The house is a disaster. You know how it is when you're away for the weekend, and all you want to do when you come home is drop your bag and empty it out later? Yeah. That. Things are finally coming together again, and laundry is slowly getting done.

Birthday Festivities

On Saturday, Colin's family and godparents came over to celebrate his birthday. He did very well considering he only napped for 3o minutes prior to guests arriving, and 30 minutes after most of them left.

He wore his snazzy birthday shirt.
He played on (and under) the climber we bought him.
He enjoyed a hamburger, italian pasta salad, and mixed fruit salad with all of his favorite fruits (bananas, blueberries, peaches, pears, mangoes, grapes, and for the first time--strawberries!).
He started digging into his presents.
So we decided it was time that he opened them.
And then I opened his presents while he played.
He saw this yummy banana flavored cake.
And then he ate it. He shared some with Rocket, too.
This was the end result ("I'm done! Get me out of this chair!").
He had a rough night. I'm sure he was re-living every moment of his party, wishing he could do it again. He ended up sleeping in bed with us from 4 am-6:30 am.

Today, to celebrate his real birthday, we went to the Armory to have a pancake breakfast with the veterans. Colin had (whole) eggs for the first time, and really liked eating them off of my fork, too! We also went to church, and then came home for Colin's nap. After a lunch of party leftovers, we went swimming. Colin had a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I don't have any great pictures because we were all too busy to take any! This is the best I've got.
He loved holding onto the noodle, and he loved when one of us was far away and swam up to him. He lay on his back as I held him, AND he even blew bubbles in the water. This makes me very happy that he's not afraid to put his face in the water. Once I get my summer piano lesson schedule figured out, I'm going to sign up for swim classes for him and I to take together. I think he'll really like it.

After swimming, we came home and Colin took a nice, long nap (thanks to that chlorine!). Later on, he slid down the slide on his climber. I have one brave little one-year-old.

Only because it's tradition, this is the best monthday picture I could get out of him today.
He was just too worn out from his busy weekend.

Thank you to everyone who made his first birthday so special. He is loved by so many, and if he could, he would thank you! So in the meantime, I'll thank you instead.

What C's been up to

Today was the big birthday bash, but I'll write more about that tomorrow. First, I'd like to share a few more happenings in the haus.

We bought Colin a potty chair. Last weekend, he squatted and grunted and I knew he was pooping. When he was finished, I asked him if he needed a new diaper. He walked over to me and pointed towards the hallway to go to his bedroom to change his diaper. So...without any pressure on him whatsoever, we're going to try...on the weekends only...to catch him in the act and see if we can get him to do his 8 a.m. poop on his potty chair. So far, no luck. He's being sneaky about it.
Here he is testing it out (uhhh....backwards. We'll work on that one):
And here he is in his diaper chillin' while mommy's watching his every move like a villain, waiting for that magical moment. The toy he's holding is a remote control. So he's a little man in his skivvies, baseball hat, and remote in hand:

And Colin got out all of the mops and brooms and decided to clean the floors for me.

Little man had a strange hairdo going on. It was all fuzzy in the back, with some long mullet-ish hairs growing down his nape. Constant bedhead. I didn't mind the long front hairs so much, but if you cut the back, the front has to go too. So we got out the clippers. He actually did a great job getting his hair cut!
During:

After:
I'd like to find a clipper attachment that is longer. I feel like he just got his head shaved to join the Army or something. And no, he didn't magically get a few birthmarks. On Thursday night, Colin fell on the sidewalk and scraped up his forehead. He only cried for a minute while I rushed him into the house, covering his head with kisses the whole way. I popped his nuk in his mouth and he was fine after that. But you know I freaked out and immediately thought he for SURE had a concussion.

Tonight before bed, I rocked my baby for the last time. Tomorrow, he'll wake up and be a toddler. A toddler who still likes to be rocked before bed.

365 days ago this very moment, I was going to bed not knowing how my life was about to change within a span of 8 hours.

Day 362 stats

Colin had his 1 year appointment today. Here's what's shakin'.

Weight: 22 lbs, 6 oz (50th percentile) with his diaper on. I was so thinking he'd be at least 23 lbs.
Height: A bit over 30 inches (55th percentile)

Today when he got his weight checked, he stood on the regular digital scale rather than lying on the baby scale, which was super cute.

He couldn't get any shots because he's not officially 12 months yet, so we have to schedule a separate appointment for that (thanks for the advance warning, appointment desk lady. not). BUT, he did get a blood test to check for lead and hemoglobin levels. The quick result hemoglobin test said he may be a bit low (.5) in iron. So if this is truly the case, when I talk to his doctor when she calls me for the results, I'm going to ask her if the numbers will improve once he's drinking whole milk. We'll see.

I don't know...it was pretty uneventful. Am I supposed to feel "fulfilled" after these appointments? I feel like they're so ho-hum and so NON informative.

Summer wish list

It has only hit 70* a couple of times so far, but I'm already pining for some super cool "wants" for our patio. Granted, only if I had about $2,000. Only $2,000. That's not a (whole) lot in the grand scheme of things! But it all can't be justified all in one summer.

My inspiration is from the patio at Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove, MN. We were at Justin and Jen's wedding there in August, 2008 and I STILL can't get their awesome patio out of my memory. The ambiance there was amazing. I've scoured the internet looking for pictures, but I couldn't find any. So what do I do? Become a fan of Rush Creek just so I can ask them where I can find similar items. Shameless. But I don't care.

#1: A gas fire pit. Because I love the idea of campfire, but hate the smell and how it makes my poor asthmatic lungs feel. And because our patio is thisclose to the house, there would be no smokey smell filtering inside. I have used these arguments to convince Kevin that LP is the way to go. He now agrees :) Don't you just want to put your toes up near the flames? Seriously. The turn of a switch, and this thing is roaring. Want to go back inside? Just turn it off. No pouring water on it or waiting until it's smoldering.
#2. Sweet patio furniture set. We have the infamous foldable camping chairs right now. What we want someday is so hard to explain. I'm thinking I want weather-resistant wood--most likely cedar because it's a bug-deterrent. And with fabric cushions, please.
#3. Pair those with a couple of these mosquito-suckers, because believe me, our backyard is no fun some days, even during the day time (we're for real getting these on Friday, by the way. If Colin's going to make me play outside all summer, bygoneit, I refuse to let him or me get bit)...
Put me in my favorite sweatshirt,
Get out the 'mallows, the grahams, and the Hersheys and roast me up a golden-brown smore, please!
Ahhh. The life. 30-some school days left 'til summer vacay!

Party prep

I'm throwing a party next weekend. Just thought I'd get some family together. Have some cake. People can bring presents. Eat some food. Hang out. Hopefully enjoy some nice weather. Oh...and celebrate a certain someone's special day. It's bittersweet. Here's what's happening so far:

Food: Grilling out! Burgers, brats, hot dogs.... picnic food!
Cake: Banana flavored cake from the neighborhood bakery. Colin's loving bananas (he'll eat a whole one if we let him) so I thought he'd dig that.
Guests: Strictly close family. That brings us to a total of 20 people, which is PLENTY for a 1 year old's sensory system.
Colin's birthday suit. The 1 was appliqued on by yours truly. I had his name embroidered. The L is a little hard to see, unfortch:
Present: We're thinking of getting him a climber. Something we can have outside. I have a feeling we're going to be out there A LOT this summer, if the mosquitoes will let us. We can also put this in the basement in the winter so he can still climb on it. Something like this (but not necessarily this one)If we decide to forgo the climber this year, we'll probably get him a wagon.

QT with Mommy and Daddy on his real birthday: We're thinking of taking him swimming at the indoor pool for the first time. My first time in a bathing suit since 2008. God help me and my extra loose skin. I've really been wanting to do this though, so I hope he enjoys it.

And just for fun, Colin on the phone this afternoon. He looks like he's in a trance, so it must be a telemarketer, or maybe he's on hold and he's being hypnotized by muzak:

An Easter Story by Colin

I went to my Great-Grandma's house today. We were a little late because I decided I wanted to take a nap right about the time Mommy and Daddy were ready to leave. So I slept for about a half hour, then they SO RUDELY woke me up.

We got there, and I had a few bites of ham, a few beans, and then I was ready to hunt for eggs. My 3 older second (or is it third?) cousins Mason, Frankie, and Lucas have done it before, but it was my first time.

Oh look! An egg!

Forget the egg! Look at all the woodchips!

Who cares about the eggs? I can't eat the candy inside them anyway. I'm happy hitting these two pieces of wood together.
Grandma and Grandpa F. said the Easter Bunny was at their house this morning. He gave me my own phone and a dump truck with some sand toys. I'll have a lot of fun playing with those this summer!

The Easter Bunny is one busy rabbit, because a few weeks ago when I was visiting Grandma and Grandpa J., he went there too! He gave me my own vacuum (you know how I love to vacuum!). Here I am playing with it. This is a really old video. So long ago, I wasn't even walking then!

Anyway, back to my story. Then Grandpa F. and Daddy showed me around the "farm." I had a lot of fun seeing all the cool stuff. Grandma joined us later. Then Mommy came and said we had to leave because I was tired. So eventually, we got back in the car. I fell asleep within 1 minute of being buckled in. I went right to my crib when I got home. Hopefully nobody will wake me up this time!

Happy Easter everyone!

Walking and baseball

He's getting ready for the big Easter egg hunt tomorrow!

And...enjoying his first Twins game of the 2010 season (it was a spring training game against the Cardinals at the new Target Field). He really did watch it for a while! I guess he wants me to take him to a game :)
Notice the messy DVDs. Our once-alphabetically-organized collection is now Colinified. Do you see how much I care though?

I made something.

It's for his 1 year photo shoot next weekend with my friend Leah.



It took me all of 15 minutes to make. Super easy.

I got the directions and tie pattern here.

Cost? Probably about $8 total onesie, heat n bond, and I spent $1.98 on a piece of "quarters" fabric at our local Ace Hardware (which also sells fabric, etc).

I'm also making a t-shirt for his birthday party. Stay tuned.