Five Months

What an awful picture of me all slumped over, but I love it because it's our night time routine. Rarely does Collins let me rock him like I used to with his head on my shoulder. Sometimes he can't get comfortable on me at all, but sometimes I can turn him to face out and he just hums himself to sleep. It's sweet to feel those little legs and arms slowly go completely limp :)

February 18, 2011

How's that for a creative title?!

I feel bad for not posting about Jake's 30th birthday sooner, but apparently I'm getting old and slow too ;)

We didn't do anything huge for his birthday. I gave him a surprise party for his 25th, so we were more low key this year. I did, however, purchase 30 "gifts" and placed them throughout the house the night before. I say "gifts" because some were things like gum, a weekly pill organizer (which he loves, btw), etc. He also awoke to happy birthday messages written with dry erase marker on just about every mirror or other glass surface in our house. Jake said when he walked in the bathroom first thing in the morning and saw red writing on the mirror he was immediately taken back mentally to Stephen King's movie, The Shining (where redrum was written...which is murder backward...) He is a nut.

Jake's real birthday gift is a rifle of some sort. It's very special to him and it's a fancy-ish one, but does that mean I can remember the name of it? Absolutely not. I think it's a Winchester. Or maybe a Browning. It's pretty, whatever it is. His parents, my parents, Haylee, and I all went in together to get it for him.

Both of our parents spent part of the weekend with us for his birthday. My parents were only here Saturday during the day because they were headed to Samford for a basketball game that night (my cousin, Blake, is the assistant coach at Furman). We had cupcake's from Gigi's and I am totally glad/scared that this new place is in Tuscaloosa. Jake's parents kept Collins for us on Saturday night while we went to Chuck's for dinner.

Side note: Before the baby was born, I'd have sworn our favorite Tuscaloosa restaurant was DePalma's, but we haven't been there one time since Collins. I may need to change my answer to Chuck's Fish. Both are yummy.

Great action shot of H.G. (Hank Goodin)'s ear!

Hank's hand barked birthday wish.

Rollin'

These pictures were taken right before the little toot rolled over for the first time on Sunday (2/13)! I have it on video too, but Blogger never lets me upload videos. Annoying.

Collins rolled from his tummy to his back a few times when he was around 4 weeks old, but we attributed that to gas pains and didn't count it! He knows what he's doing this go round!

Bliss!

Be Mine

Here are pictures of Collins holding the cards he got for his daddy and mommy. His daddy and mommy totally forgot to get one for him. Oops. No offense, son...you totally are the sweetest valentine we've ever had!
(We did get him a cute new outfit :)

The balloon in the picture is mine from Jake. He actually bought it on Friday when I was in bed all day sick with the flu (yuck). I woke up and he had gone to pick up Collins from day care, but had been to the grocery store and CVS. The balloon was tied to the kitchen chair. Sweet, right? It gets better. He went to a lot of trouble for that balloon, I later found out.

Long story short, Jake had forgotten to get something for me at CVS the first time; went back for that and decided to get the balloon; walked outside and almost lost the balloon; leaped for it which made him drop the other item and land on a woman's parked car; woman was in the car; other people in the parking lot witnessed the scene and found it humorous; still lost the balloon so had to go back in CVS to get another one. Bless him!

Proof of a Toof

Dontcha just love John Deer green? I do! Especially when paired with pearly white teeth like these!

This outfit has horses and fringe on it...I thought it was cute and different. It came from a consignment shop in T'town which I'm sure I'll frequent in the coming months/years.

Baby's 1st Snow! (Kinda...)

This was taken this morning, 2.10.11, around 8:30am or so. Collins, Jake, and I are all still a little sick (as you can probably tell by the glistening snot), so this has to suffice as his first snow picture.

Day care workers said he was so happy today and just talked, and talked, and talked to anyone who would listen! One of the other moms told me yesterday that he told her "hi" when she walked in. I assumed that meant he babbled at her like he did all during breakfast that day (my parents and Jake's mom got to talk to him, and he left Haylee a voice mail), but she said, "No, like I walked in and he looked at me and said 'hi'"! I don't think I'll write it down in his baby book as a first word, but it was at least worth blogging about!

I have always heard people say you can tell so much about a child's personality even at this age. If I had to pick some adjectives to describe Collins right now they would be:

Determined

Outgoing

Talkative

Nosey

Tough

Cuddly

Mature


Jake says:

Happy

Playful

Obese ;)

We'll see how (or if?) things change throughout his life. No matter what, I think he has a WONDERFUL personality! As always, I'm not one single bit biased. :)

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Semester Report, Fall 2010

(I sent this to my supervisor yesterday as a joke; it was the last part of our semester report. I really have no idea what to put as my real answers; maybe I should just leave it as is...)

What challenges or difficulties did you have this past semester?

My biggest challenge this year was determining the cause of excessive fussiness, screaming, and kicking/gagging while eating. In addition, I had difficulty sleeping.

How did you come to define these as challenges? What were the points of the activity or process that prevented success?

I defined these as challenges by feeling utterly exhausted and completely crazy. What prevented success was the lack of understandable communication from the prospective student. He demanded instant gratification without providing clear instructions.

What did you learn?

I learned how to take a rectal temperature, how to clean a cool mist humidifier, how to do almost any task with one hand, how to sleep without moving, and I increased/improved my use of ear plugs.

List changes you have made based on your own examination of procedures and activities.

I now pay strangers a lot of money to do most of the work for me.

List assistance or resources you need.

Ideally, my supervisor would add “infant care” to her job description, along with everything else. Of course, she should be the one to decide.

List some Talking Points relative to planning for next semester:

da da da da da da da da da da da….

Other Comments:

ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma….

Weekend Review

Our family had a great time this past weekend. Sadly, I don't think I took the first picture. Here's recap of what made it great:

• Friday night we talked to Mrs. Wilda and the other couple we were waiting on decided to try to keep their baby themselves. So she's available to keep Collins! YAY!!!

• Saturday was beautiful weather. I had to work a few hours in the morning, but then hung out with Collins while Jake hunted for the last time this season. Collins and I went for a stroll and it was wonderful. He likes strolling MUCH better now that he can sit up instead of lying on his back.

• Sunday was our first Sunday back to FPBC as a family. It was so great to be back, even though Jake was still feeling sick-ish :( Collins stayed in the nursery with Mrs. Wilda and Mrs. Tommie, who are both fabulous. We met some of the other kids who will be staying at Mrs. Wilda's with Collins, and it was great to see our friends and hear Ben preach.

• Sunday afternoon we went to visit Mrs. Wilda and Mr. Joe at their home. They are such sweet people and an answer to our prayers. They asked if we needed more references and I told them as far as I'm concerned, God is their reference (since He totally led us to them) and I'm content to stop there!

Collins has recently started splashing more in the tub, still loves his feet a whole lot, and has reverted back a little on the sleeping through the night thing. Apparently, a lot of four month olds do that. So at least it's normal and (hopefully) will pass soon. He's also starting to play by himself more and gets totally sidetracked while eating (watching Hank, etc.) He's a champ at eating with cereal. We never even tried it in the bottle because he does just fine with the spoon. The kid's a natural. ;)

He will stay at day care through the end of February because the church requires a 30 day written notice :( We have now paid for two months of day care that we don't need. But whatever...rules are rules I guess (?)