A promise

*This is prompted by an episode of "Datetime20/20" (not sure of the television newsmagazine) I saw about 6 weeks ago*

Dear Colin,

I promise to not use my cell phone to gab (or text--eep!) while I'm driving. Very rarely I have to call Daddy really quickly to ask him a 30-second question that just can't wait. But I will not call my girlfriends to chat or text anyone when I'm behind the wheel. No conversation is worth risking our lives for.

I am a cautious driver, but I know that the distraction of a cell phone diverts my attention to the conversation and off the road. Even hands-free is distracting, so I won't go there either.

I am an example for you. Even though you won't be driving for another 15 years, you are watching my every move. Because I want you to be an attentive driver when that time comes, I will show you what one looks like.

I love talking to my girlfriends, but I love even more to hear your sweet little voice after a long day at work. Even though I hear hundreds of little voices in the 9 hours I am away from you, yours is undoubtedly, obviously, my favorite. I can always chat with my friends and family when we're home, safe and sound, with our feet on the ground.

I know I can keep this promise because I've already done it for over a month. It was hard that first week, but now it's just the way it is. I don't want to get us into a car accident and have the worst happen and make Daddy and all our family and friends be all alone without us.

This I promise you, Colin.

Love,
Mommy
*Picture taken in July from the passenger's seat when we were stopped at a gas station while Kev was pumping gas; not while I was driving ;)*

Thankful

Thanksgiving 2010 is history, but it's never to late to be thankful.

For the little oneand the big one
and the furry one
and the ones who raised me (circa 2000)
and the ones who I will always, without a doubt, call friends (circa 2006).
and e-mealz
and Dave Ramsey
and my job

And for material things. Like...
the best wine ever, a moscato d'asti called Marco Negriand my favorite sweatshirt
and the House of Bounce which was a super duper fun treat for Colin (and me!) yesterday.
(that word he says is "Bapa" which means Grandpa)

and oh-so-much more.

Forgive the Christmas background.

My old one was too summery. If I changed it to Thanksgiving, I'd have to change it in a week. Since it's already a winter wonderland outside, I may as well go all out. Not that I don't respect the turkey. He tastes delicious.

Also forgive the plug to Shutterfly in the previous post. They have a special offers to bloggers who write about them. I couldn't resist. I really want 50 free Christmas cards.

Speaking of Christmas, I woke up early this morning and bought one of Colin's Christmas presents today.
A Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair off ebay.
The cover I got was an aqua blue and has his name monogrammed. It's going to take every bone in my body not to put it together when it comes and just hand it over to Colin a month early. But I won't do it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It's time to think about Christmas cards!

I'm a big fan of ordering our Christmas cards online. I love to use Shutterfly because of all of the options I have! I can order them from home and either get them shipped to my door, or if I want them earlier I can pick them up at Target. You can even have Shutterfly stamp and mail them for you!

In our house, we're fans of cards that say Merry Christmas over Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. Here is one of the cards Shutterfly offers that say Merry Christmas.However, if you like a card but not what it says, you can change the text on it! Other photo card sites I've used don't let you change the set text.

If you like a card but want more or less pictures on it, you can change the layout to accommodate your needs, like this one. If 6 pictures is too many for your needs, you can have anywhere from 1-5 instead.Here's a link to their entire selection of cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
Calendars make a great gift! http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars
And Shutterfly isn't just for Christmas! You can create invitations to your next soiree too. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/invitations

Look for one of these fantastic designs in your mailbox from our family this Christmas. I hope to see one from your family as well.

A Creature of Habit

Colin seems to thrive on the routine and predictable. Every morning, one of the first 3 words he says is banana ("nanny"). That's what he eats every morning if we have bananas. If we don't, he eats a cinnamon Eggo waffle. Every morning on our way to daycare, we pass a farm with cows. We say "moo" to them, and then Colin says, "more." I tell him to keep watching for more cows, even though we both know we won't see any more.

Every afternoon on our drive home, we pass a parking lot that used to house a big, bright blue truck. We're not sure what happened to it, but every day we talk about it. At some point, Colin asks, "Daddy?" and I say that Daddy's at work. Then Colin says, "bye bye." When we pass by the construction site by our house, we check to see if the dig-digs are working. They usually aren't, so Colin says "done."

At 5:00, crankiness sets in and dinner is made. He's feeling good again at 5:30 when food is on the table. At 7:00 he's ready to take a bath and he likes to make the children in Africa who have no clean water cringe because he likes to keep the water running.

At 7:15 or so, he's out of the tub, into his pjs and ready to climb into his crib. He puts his puppy on his right, and seahorse is to his left. He turns seahorse's music on, gets covered up with a blanket and says, "bye bye" to us. Then, as we're walking out, he'll say, "Mama!" to try to get me to play games with him. I've learned it's best if I walk away. He stops after saying it about 3 times, and then crashes. But if I respond, he gets cranky and doesn't fall asleep quickly.

He usually wakes up at 4-something. Kevin works his magic and Colin goes back to sleep. 60% of the time, he wakes up at 5-something and comes to sleep in our bed with us, although he is getting better at sleeping later in his own crib these days.

Predictability makes life a little easier because you know what to expect. As a teacher, I know that routines are very important to some kids. Others could care less about them.

Colin's newest words are:
Daddy (instead of Dada)
down
no ("mo")
done
snow ("mo")
puppy ("buddy")
banana ("nanny"<--that's his new word for banana. His old word was "nana.")
Sandy ("DeeDee")
play ("pay")
choo choo ("doo-doo" with the arm going up and down too, sometimes)
bubble ("bubbo")
puzzle ("bubbo")
piece ("petes")
ice
plate ("bate")
seat
please ("peese")
apple ("appo")
waffle ("wabbo")
more ("mo")
on
spoon ("boon")
cut ("dut")
boots
hat
mittens ("minis")
socks ("ots")
bounce
boing
ear
feet ("beet")
Grandma ("Amma")
books ("buts" <--with an accent of some sort over the u so it sounds like the /oo/ in books.)
home

In addition, he tends to repeat the last word of whatever we say. So if I say, "Let's go potty," He'll say "potty."

Every day, it seems like he says one more new word. It's amazing this explosion of words that we're seeing right before our eyes. I love it.

18 month appointment

Not much to say because they're always so non-informational (I can't WAIT to switch pediatricians someday!). I'm just recording it here for safe-keeping:
Weight: 27.6 lbs (71 %ile)
Height: 33" (67th %ile)
Head circumference: 48.5 cm (68 %ile)

Note: As soon as the nurse leaves the room after taking his temp, measurements, etc., Colin starts crying, grabbing at the door handle, and begs to leave. It's so fun.

(Kinda) Wordless Wednesday

Or maybe I should call it picture-heavy.
On our way down to Roch this past weekend, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that Colin put his puppy on his head. By the time I had gotten the camera and carefully pointed it in the back seat while looking in the rear view mirror at the picture screen to make sure I was actually taking a picture of Colin, he had put his hands up and started saying, "Cheese!"
Our TV went on the fritz last night, so we pulled a college gem out of the basement. We'll probably deal with the small screen through December, when hopefully we can investigate how much it will cost to repair the old TV.
I bought a size 2T London Fog complete coat/snowpant set from Herbergers last spring. The original price was $80 and I got it for $12! Here is Colin modeling it. It's the perfect size--a tad big, but will definitely still fit him through March. He's ready for snow!
And you bet your booty I'm going to Herbergers next spring to snag a deal on the 3T outerwear!

Life's Little Updates

It has been awhile since I did a grand ol' life-in-general update that doesn't include the happenings of the boy child, so here goes:

Running: I haven't run since Sept. 25th due to my cough/ribcage pain/bronchitis I've had since Sept. 19th (not that I'm keeping track). I finally went to the chiropractor a week ago and I feel like $750,000. That last $250,000 will come when I'm finally done coughing. I'm just glad I can read a story to my sweet first graders without coughing through it now. I should have gone to see Dr. S. a long time ago, and I'm considering seeing him another time to really knock the crap out of my system. I do want to start running again once this cold is gone. I'm just nervous about running outside in the cold weather. Part of me thinks I should join Snap again, and actually go 3x a week so I can get my Health Partners discount.

Debt: People, I've never felt so at ease about being $32,549 in credit card debt. Yes, that is the current total. Why do I feel so good about it? I'll tell you why.
#1. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. THE best $100 we've ever spent. Should've spent it years ago. In two months' time, it has more than paid for itself in the amount of money we've saved using Dave's techniques, advice, etc. Even if you aren't in debt and just want to live feeling more at peace financially, you should check it out.
#2. A budget. We've never had one. We thought budgets stifled fun. We found out that they are a great tool, and heck--obviously we've had way too much fun in the past. It's time to get serious anyway. We don't feel deprived. We feel in control.
#3. Envelope system. We have an envelope for gas and groceries. A certain amount of money goes into those envelopes--based on the budget--and that's what we have to spend. We get $100 for groceries every week. It doesn't seem like much, but e-mealz coupled with a few coupons stocks the cupboards. I'm the dork that punches numbers into a calculator while shopping to make sure I don't go over the $100. And I always save about $5 to buy milk from KwikTrip ($2.14 per gallon!) halfway through the week.
#4. At the end of December (or maybe before!) we'll have our baby step 1 ($1,000 in the emergency fund) finished. We actually just started putting money in our emergency fund last month, so when it's all said and done, it only will take us 3 months to finish that step. In January, we can start putting that couple hundred extra dollars a month towards our debt. This is huge!
#5. We're seeing huge decreases in our debt. We keep track of our debt balances on a whiteboard in our office. If I look back to June, our total was over $35,000. Now it's down to almost $32,000! We get our statement from Family Means every month, and some balances go down by $300. My most favorite thing is when I can change a number in the thousands place :)
#6. Credit card, shred it card. We have none--we shredded them all--and never looked back. LOVE the freedom.
#7. Paying cash rocks my socks.

School: I still have the sweetest class. I don't have huge behavior issues like I did last year. They're not perfect, but they surely aren't driving me bonkers like my class (read: a certain student and all the chaos that revolved around him) last year did.

This weekend, Colin and I are headed to Roch. I'm visiting my girlyfriends, and C and I are staying at my parents' to hang out. It's deer hunting weekend, so it'll be crazyfuntimes. I haven't partook in this annual tradition for probably a decade. I don't hunt deer. I hunt craft shows and the mall. Only this time, it's only window shopping.

Paci and Potty

We have officially gotten rid of the pacifier! ::insert happy dance here:: We followed the Bye-Bye-Binky method, and within 5 days, the pacifier was down to a 1/2 inch stub. Colin got very frustrated at it and kept signing "help" and kept trying to pull it out more. Then we got the scissors out and asked him if he wanted it cut off, and he said yes. Then there was nothing left except the plastic part. He got really mad then. And he didn't sleep well AT ALL for about 2 or 3 nights. He had grown accustomed to falling asleep without his nukie, but for those first few nights he kept waking up every hour or two wanting it. It's a lot easier to not give in when there's nothing to give :)

I'm telling you people, the change is awesome. When the pacifier was in-use during the wee hours, he'd want to read books and rock for awhile before bed (not that I hated that part! I loved that time we spent together). Now that it's gone, after he gets his pajamas on, he runs out into the hallway to yell, "DADA! Na-nye!" Then he tries to crawl into his crib while he waits for Kevin to comes into his room. Colin gives us each hugs and kisses, and lies down in his crib, gets covered up with his blanket, and says, "bye bye" to us. How freakin' easy is that? And now when he wakes up, it's because one of his teeth is busting through. After a little bit of orajel, he goes right back to sleep.

Colin has been spending an hour every night in underwear for the past few weeks. Over the weekend, Colin wore his training pants for a few hours in the morning and evening. He peed on his potty about 10 times, and pooped once or twice too! He doesn't quite have the foresight set to tell us if he needs to go yet, so he needs to be reminded, but usually he'll go every hour or so. He also knows when he doesn't have to go. I gave Sandy the go-ahead to try it at daycare, and it didn't work out so well. She wants him to wear pants there, otherwise all the other kids want to prance around sans pants, and that's just not going to work. He'll sit on her potty for 10-15 minutes but won't do anything. So we're waiting until he feels comfortable going potty there before we send underwear again. Colin knows how to say "pee," "poop," and "potty" now, and sometimes he tries to pull up his underwear/pants. If he's not trained by Christmas break, my plan is to hit it hard then as much as I can and hopefully start off 2011 with no diaper laundry!

Let me direct your attention to...

My newest favorite blog, Sleep Talkin' Man. It's so hilarious. It's also on the right side in my list of blogs that are fun and sometimes informative. I'll warn you now that the Sleep Talkin' Man has a potty mouth in his sleep (but, apparently not when he's awake).

It is usually updated every day, so if you need a laugh, I recommend going there. And, when you're away from work, click on the audio. The british accent makes it even more funny.

My favorite quote: "Ninjas in stilletos. Fashion assassins! Not so stealthy, but oh so stylish!" Even funnier when you hear him say it.

I have so many more fun things to say, but I thought I'd just share this for now.