Where We're At

So, in case anyone misses us...yep, I know, no one probably cares that much...we're visiting the Granny and the Grandaddy for Christmas in Morro Bay. We are just that lucky you poor Michiganders that we walked on the beach yesterday before our holiday meal and gift-giving extravaganza.

Okay, so we had to wear our fleeces zipped up to our necks and I wish I had a beanie hat on; but I'm a bit of a wuss about the cold. Collin is impervious to temperature, so he'd prance about in his underwear if I didn't put a coat on him. Don't ask him if it's cool here right now. Cool being a relative term to a midwest gal like me; it's in the fifties.

Anyway, lots and lots of cool pictures to come. Collin's having a crazy fun time and so are Mommy and Daddy. He's figured out that presents rock and so do cookies. Mommy has figured out how to con Daddy how to buy her a hutch and that Spode Christmas china DOES have a place in her house...hooray! So, it's been a fun trip. Details to come. Weee!

Cheese (Ball)

Collin is kinda sorta learning this whole camera thing. Get out the camera and he dashes over to my side of the lens and screams "BABY!" because he wants to see the glorious image that is him, captured on the display screen. Of course, if I haven't even had time to turn it on, let alone capture that image yet, there's a problem. I think you'll get the idea from the photo below.

So, since he's becoming more and more sentient to the the world and communication is becoming more of a two-way street these days with his vocabulary increasing at an ever-expanding rate, I've gotten some headway in the whole picture-taking game with him. See, the explanation goes something like this: go over there first, say cheese and then come look. The result is that he dashes to about six inches in front of me, yells cheese and then dashes back. If I'm quick, really quick, I get a picture. I can't always guarantee that he will be looking up; sometimes, he's looking directly at his own stomach, the floor, his fingers, whatever; so long as he's saying cheese he thinks he's fulfilling the obligation. So, we've moved the directions up a notch to include looking up...which results in him staring at the ceiling to say cheese. Nice.

Upon realizing that the dash is faster if he doesn't actually turn around, I had to also include the instruction: turn around. This was owing to the fact that many of my "cheese" photos were side shots or back shots of the kiddo.

Unfortunately "turn around" can be a tad confusing if you are less than two years old. Apparently, this instruction only incites him to turn in endless circles. Yep, although this is a still shot, I think you get the picture. This is Collin, turning around, saying cheese. You may miss the "cheese" moment, as it occurred on the back end of the rotation.

So, I ask you this, how does a mother get a decent shot of her kid if he refuses to let her take one. I think I need a stealth camera.

Collin's Naptime Torture

It's true, I have the perfect child and I've jinxed myself by bragging about my ever so rosy lot in life one too many times. He was a ridiculously easy baby. He never puked on me, peed on me or had super poops that blew through clothes. He slept like a coma patient and he's obviously adorable; anyone can see that. So, as we traipse precariously close to that dreaded two-year birthday, I have gotten cocky with talking about those three hour naps that he still takes. Yep, I've been acting like they'll last forever.

Big mistake. Three times this week THREE! He's acted like a lunatic in his crib. He's not crying or carrying on in there; he's just being a weird-o. He's talking and babbling, practicing EVERY word he knows, in sing-song. He's banging the walls, making animal noises, then crapping his pants and yelling for me to change him so he can continue on with his antics. This is all well and good except I never really realized how much I need that break from him to actually be IN SILENCE!

It's wreaking havoc on him too. See eventually, two hours after he lays down for his nap, he does fall asleep. This means by about 4 or 4:30, I figure, I'd better wake the kid up, otherwise, I'll be getting him up just to put his P.J's on. Weird, right? Thus, he's only sleeping an hour and a half or so. My kid NEEDS three hours or he's ticked. Ticked. Ticked. Ticked. Anyway, he's p.o.'d at me for disturbing his slumber.

But, he cheers up...Moody much?

Then, he takes it out on the cat and on anyone else he sees. His joy in life is scaring the cat lately. He thinks it's part of his mission to keep the cat away from the "teee." I do not discourage this because if I spent all my time keeping Homer out of the Christmas tree, I'd be in diapers too, not having enough personal time to use the facilities; so, the help Collin gives me shooing Homie away from the tree is appreciated. Anyway, he gets joy out of it, as you can see, and it helps with his grumpies.

You can't see Homer in this picture, but you can just call this "Crouching Collin, Hidden Homer." He's under the tree and Collin's going in for the kill.

Alas, we're going on day three this week of crazy nap and I'm getting annoyed. I promised him if he went to sleep like a good boy today, we would take him on a "date" with Daddy tonight. He's not buying it. We'll see. I may have to go in there with a hammer or something heavy to make him go to sleep. I have some of those happy pills left from the hospital from my broken butt...maybe he'll think he's the first lady of France, but at least he'll be asleep!

Okay, this is a sweet moment. Had to throw it in there because it's cute. He loves the choo choo. He and Daddy look at it pretty much every night. He's using it to con a few more minutes out of the day in the evening these days. Conniving little bugger, isn't he? Bath time? Nope...choo choo dada! And, do you think Dada can so no to choo choo? You tell me....


Yeah, he'll probably kill me for putting that up there...that'll teach him to mess with my camera.

Revelations

Look everyone! It's raining! You'd think that's not news to most people, but it's pretty cool around here!

Things have dawned on me in the past twenty-four hours that I thought I'd share with you...nothing in particular and in no particular order. So, this is random thoughts starting with our trip to Costco last night.

-Costco wrapping paper is awesome! You could wallpaper your bathroom with this stuff if you had to. I was hesitant to spend $10 a roll on wrapping paper; but jeesh, I wrapped all our gifts and the roll was still only half gone and boy, you can't see through that stuff. What do they make their paper with? And, as a side note, Bryon was pretty certain the pattern he picked was okay until I pointed out that all stars and candles are not equal, some of them being Stars of David and Menoras after all and since we're not Jewish, the wrapping paper would be sort of weird.

-Costco stinks at holiday time...like really. It's so crowded. Even on Tuesday night. Even in Torrance, not L.A. proper. What in the world are people buying? Okay, we were there too, but no excuse for everyone else in the city to be there.

-I get my way a lot. We perused the cameras upon entry and "debated" the pros and cons of the expensive model and the less expensive model. I crinkled my nose at the cheaper one and we decided to shop around and then make a decision. Well, what do you think happened? Yep, got the nice one. I didn't have to twirl my hair, bat my eyes or anything. Hey! I'm the one that uses the darn thing EVERY day, right? Anyhoo, broken camera replaced so huzzah, more pictures of Collin.

-Collin is awesome. While waiting for Daddy to bring us our In-N-Out burgers, we sat in the car and had a little chat. Collin bit his own hand and looked up and said, "ow...bite...tace...park...no!" So, unless you know better, "tace," means Grace. But, the point is, we haven't talked about biting in a few days and it's been about a week since the incident, but he still obviously remembers it and FINALLY figured out that it's not so cool. Neat, huh? I have a pretty smart cookie there.

-I want a wife. As I wrapped presents at warp speed today, and with Martha Stewart finesse of cool bows, I realized that without me, that wouldn't get done in time for gift exchange with the grandparents this weekend. And, there will be dinner on the table and all that other crap I do. Every once in a while, it hits me the stuff wives and moms do without being asked and I think it'd be cool to have one of us to ourselves...and the worst part is that at the end of today, I'm going out to play Bunco with the spouses group and although I'm totally going to have fun, half of me feels guilty for leaving Bryon alone with the stinkpot because I know he's been totally exhausted, being in class all week for long days.

-I want to continue dating my son. Every morning now, he gets up and asks, "date?" Today, he managed to finagle a three word sentence, his first. He said, "date, go yes?" So, I figure that's worthy of a reward...another date! I told Bryon we should take him, as a family this time, maybe tomorrow to another movie. So, I'm pretty sure I'll be sitting through Bolt again...anything for that kid. Every time we get in the car now, he shouts, "DATE!" I feel like I'm letting him down so greatly when we pull into the supermarket lot.

Alas, I'm learning the ropes of the camera so enjoy the random shots of nothing, and of Collin playing with Grace today. They were dancing with her mechanical snowman.

Choo Choo Cocks and Mommy's Camera :(

We finally broke down and bought stocking hangers. Nope, no fireplace mantle from which to hang them. Oh well. The little hangers were on sale at Target and they were in the shape of a train; you know Daddy couldn't pass those suckers up now could he! Here's the funny thing: there was a three hanger set and a four hanger set. Which set do you think we bought? Hmmm, there are THREE of us.

Well, you are wrong. We bought the four hanger set. You know, "just in case." Huh? I think someone (aka Daddy...not that I didn't get a bit misty at good ol' Target), deep down, is getting the rumblings. Whatever. He's not the one who has to be pregnant. But, we'll see. Collin is awfully wonderful and I'm pretty sure #2 would be just as awesome. Don't get all excited out there though...#2 wouldn't come along until WAY later. I want to be with Collin all the time, so #2 wouldn't be here until Collin starts school and doesn't need me undivided so much.

P.S. the fourth hanger is socked away somewhere. It would just look silly up there empty, don't you think...not like the sippy cup, that's classy.

Anyway, we hung the stockings from the ledge upstairs and as soon as Collin sees them every morning, he says "choo choo! cocks!" Isn't that hilarious? He's starting to add, "cookie" to the mix on most occasions because, as we know, that's what he thinks Santa is bringing him and we've told him that Santa is bringing him stuff for his STockING. Yes, we (and by we, I mean me) have resorted to sounding it out just like that. I think he figures, what, it looks like a giant cock...I mean sock, to him.

The bad news is my camera is broken. Boo! So, we're replacing it ASAP. Bryon wanted to wait and give me a new one as an additional Christmas present; but I stamped my little feet and pouted a bit and said no! I consider a camera, in this house, with this precious boy to photograph every second, as necessary of an item as milk and bread. So, we should have a new one any second.

Meanwhile, you get a terrible photo of Collin trying to pose for the millionth time as the camera refused to work. He ran out of the frame at the last second when the darn thing finally clicked and I got a shot. Alas, blurry. And, I didn't get a picture of his shoes, the very reason I was trying to take the picture in the first place. They really ARE cute, I swear.

Then, you get a photo of Collin getting so frustrated with the whole picture-taking process that he needed a hug. So, this is what true love looks like in close up. Yep, at least the camera worked for that!

What You Get with a Migraine

For reasons unexplainable to me and every neurologist I've seen since I began having these dastardly things as a teenager, I go through cycles with my headaches, on in the winter, off in the fall, on in the spring. Weird. Anyway, I'm on my on cycle, meaning I get more of them right now than usual. No biggie on the days when I don't have them...biggie on the days when I do. After so many years with these pesky things, I've kind of learned to adapt...except when the HUGE ones hit and I'm forced to quit life for a couple of hours or even the day.

Yesterday, I was down for the count for half the day. This happens in the winter at least a couple of times. I missed my men so much! Okay, you know who I missed the most...and I missed him by the first thing in the morning, when I heard him start to stir in his crib. Since I'd just taken my medicine and I was feeling well enough to stir from the bed, but not so well that I wanted to move too much, I decided to crawl into bed WITH Collin and see if Daddy would notice that he had two of us to take care of. What do you think?

No, I didn't need changing, dressing or a "nanee" for breakfast. But, I did like the whole snuggle trip I got. It gave me a boost of adrenaline that I sorely needed. I'm pretty sure that's what kicked my headache by dinnertime instead of three days from now!

So, dinnertime rolled around and I decided 24 hours is long enough for the same pair of p.j's and underwear. I changed shortly after these pictures were taken. But, I rolled out of bed, feeling groggy but better and Collin and I colored while Daddy made dinner. So, headaches mean no cooking...hmmm, have to remember that one. What a guy! Kidding, Daddy cooks for us a lot, all I have to do is ask.

Then, since I missed my guy all day, I decided to spoil him too...and he got a sucker. Yep, that's right, BEFORE dinner. I swear, I'm worse than a Grandparent sometimes. What can I say, I missed him and he was being cute. He actually modeled his shoes for me when I asked (see below), so I'd say that deserves a sucker, right?

Anyway, I think he's enjoying his first taste of sucker-dom. We took it away shortly after this because I do enjoy the current color of my furniture, walls and carpeting. And, like his Mommy who cannot put any hard candy in her mouth without immediately biting it, he was trying his darndest to break his teeth by chomping it immediately. Yep, he's my son all right.


So, the sum up is that a headache gets you the right to climb right into the crib with your son, a day in bed, dinner cooked for you and the right to spoil your kid. Not a bad deal, right? Oh wait, maybe it does suck since it also gets you pain so bad your hands shake and you can only eat soda crackers because anything else barfs out. Snuggle, barf....hmmmm, tough balance.

Whee! The Big Guy!

So, as promised, I know the G-parent clan are probably chomping at the bit for these pictures...it's the munchkin with Santa Claus. Okay, and if I'm right, and I probably am, I'm sure there's probably thousands of silent fans out there in the blogosphere who are probably dying to see Collin with Santa too...because as we all know, he IS the most adorable, wonderful child on the planet. Wait, other people think that about their children too? You're kidding me!

Anyway, here's the pictures. For some reason, Mr. Santa remembered that we'd been through the line once already; but forgot why we returned a second time. I think he thought that our repeat visit attempt was due to a kid melt down at the sight of giant red man in velvet suit with a jiggly laugh instead of a camera malfunction; so, he insisted on me being in the first picture.

Then, when he noticed Collin was totally NOT freaked out, he seemed to remember our first visit and suggested we take another picture. So, voila, Collin and Santa in all their alone glory. Their first visit together was a little cuter...he did the whole looking directly at him suspiciously thing, where I thought he might yank the beard.

P.S. I HAVE to take pictures of his new shoes for you today...we bought him shoes with laces yesterday! Can you believe it? Laces! Either we're totally mad, or we've taken a big step. I have a major migraine again today, so Daddy took him to the store...alas, no photos yet. You'll have to wait. Silly Daddy wanted to make us wait to give him his shoes for Christmas...WHAT! Shoes for Christmas for a toddler. No wonder Daddy gives Collin nightmares...hee hee!