Whole Lotta Update

Forgive me for not updating. I died. See. Worst picture of mommy ever (well, not as bad as the others I didn't show you). Collin couldn't resist snuggling up to me and despite the fact that I knew that was sealing my fate in that I would thus have to care for a sick kid in a few days, I couldn't resist allowing it. No, seriously of course I didn't die. However, briefly I thought I might prefer that state to whatever happened to me. I don't think it was the flu because it only lasted a few days, and truthfully the worst of it was only a day. But this was the worst cold EVER. EVER, people. EVER! I have quickly redistributed the germs to the rest of the family though and Daddy recently also died and because of his snuggles, Collin's showing signs of impending death. Not to fear, revival seems to happen within three days. Just like what's his face. Amazing, since we are such heathens around here.

Not to be satisfied with mere death-by-cold-germs, Collin is chasing the ol' death-by-suffocation. We have been getting Christmas presents delivered by the truckload around here (shoot me, I started shopping "early" while trapped on the couch). Collin "helped" me unpack some of them this morning. He learned all about how some packing peanuts are edible and degrade in water. Fascinating. Do you think that he'll be able to distinguish these from other non-edible ones without Mommy's help or do you think we'll be at the E.R. on day in our future?

He also "learned" about the copy shop this week and that sometimes Mommy has ideas that she sticks to despite them not being cost effective. She saw one of his little friends with a homemade sticker book with laminated pages of construction paper and thought it was a great idea. It is. Collin loves stickers and the laminated pages would make them reusable. Store bought sticker books are gay because they are covered in unicorns and rainbows. Collin is a boy. Enough said. Guess how much it costs to laminate a book of construction paper. $113! Is this face worth it? How about if I tell you that while I'm taking this picture, he's breaking rules. He is not allowed to play with doors. Simple rule in our house because some of our doors have locks (with no keys) and we have animals that can get "trapped" in rooms that he decides to randomly close them in. He is pretty obsessed with breaking this ONE rule. Not all the time, just when it's annoying. Gotta love it.

Collin's Punishment

Collin loves school. No, I mean he really looooves it. He loves it so much that I think he's beginning to love it a little more than he loves his parents. This issue may need to be addressed.

Last night, Bryon took him to Fort Mac to check out the conference facility for the commanders' conference next week. He was certain the doors would be unlocked and unarmed because he called our very competent security guards and was assured that they would be. Um, yeah. When he returned home, disgruntled, he was even more frustrated by the fact that Collin repeatedly said the following:

"Miss Fujardo could've gotten in. She can open ANY door." (A story Miss Fujardo found amusing this morning, of course)

So, Mr. Collin, here's your punishment.

You will one day not so much like that mommy has gads of pictures of you in the tub. This one is from two nights ago. Bask in the glory of your nakedness, my boy. BASK! (P.S. yes, that's bathtub paint back there, we are pretty fun, aren't we? Oh, and by "paint," of course I mean squirt it like ketchup and then ask for more) And Daddy, don't ever say that I'm not on your side.

In other news, we saw a lizard on our house. Cool, huh? Ignore the fact that Mommy looks like she needs to be hospitalized. We'd just gotten back from a training run for the half-marathon that I convinced Bryon to do with me. Collin was tired to. It takes a lot of energy to milk a sucker for an hour. Later, he told me, it was "yucky." Apparently yellow is not his favorite flavor. It will be the flavor I give him from now on when I want it to last longer than three seconds. Good to know.

Collin, meanwhile is still training for his first broken leg.

He's planning on using this tree here. It's hard to tell but it drops off sharply to a steep embankment of soft sand and then the abandoned weapons bunkers. He's figuring that's a good place for his first broken bone. I think so too. Still, he's got good balance. Maybe not. I stopped doing that suck-breath thing that parents do when their kids almost fall, long ago because this kid has suction cups in his fingers, so who knows?

A First: Say Cheese!

It was Collin's first picture day today. It wasn't a school day for him, but I had to take him there anyway for the photographer. Can you believe he's old enough for picture day at school? Oh my goodness!

He wanted to wear the sweater that goes with this shirt (thanks Granny!). I decided, eh, no, since it has reindeer on it and I thought maybe Christmas year 'round is a bit weird. I also decided that a child that is insistent on his wardrobe choices, so much so, that he knows that a shirt came with a sweater that he saw all of one time over a month ago, is clearly a child of mine.

He refused to sit nice for a pre-picture. That's my boy. He was a little nervous for the photographer at school but once he calmed down, I think they will turn out kind of nice in that "weird school picture kind of way." At least he wasn't crying hysterically like the kid they had to remove (in that kid's defence, he's also the kid that cried hysterically at the Halloween party when the cops came and pulled him aside...I'm intensely curious about this child). Anyway, I'm a little excited. Nothing says "school" like goofy brown/grey background!

But, we did "finger paint" when we got home with the color wonder stuff which made him happy and take a better picture. This is another first because the last time we used it, he freaked out about his fingers getting gooey; apparently, school has taught him, among other things, it's okay to get your hands dirty.

So far, he's learned his letters and some colors, all things I've tried endlessly to teach him but he refused to learn from me. Amazingly, when someone else tells him these things, they sink in immediately. Apparently, this is a lesson that I will have to learn to accept: parents know nothing, right?

Trick or Treat!

Before we get all ahead of ourselves and talk about the big trick or treat, we carved our pumpkin! That's right Daddy got home reasonably early finally! The ORI is over! Weeee! So, we got to see Daddy for dinnertime for the first time in two weeks. What better way to celebrate than with large knives?

No safety-serrated safety knives in this household. No sireee. We're all about letting our kid sit inches from the pumpkin and just hoping that we don't loose control of the knife and accidentally slice his face off.

Halloween morning started off with our little guy wondering why it wasn't time to go trick or treating yet. You could say that yes, he understood what Halloween was all about this year. In fact, he is wondering why he can't still be Peter Pan today.


He was, to say the least, slightly excited.


He RAN to every house. RAN for an hour and a half straight.

At thirty minutes, Daddy suggested that we go back home now, as if that was enough. Silly, Daddy!

And, in case Collin's not cute enough for you, look at Ben! Despite his vehement dislike for the hat portion of his costume, he looks awfully adorable as a puppy, doesn't he? He was quite the little trouper too. He put up with a lot of trick or treating for no candy.

Thank Goodness Cap'n Hook Wasn't There!

Collin had his first preschool Halloween parade/party today. I thought that maybe, he shouldn't bring his sword with him. When I took it out of the holster, he freaked!

"What if Cap'n hook is there! I won't be able to fight him! I'm Peter Pan!" He said. Seriously.

All that cuteness aside. Here's more.

And some more.
And just a smidge more. This, by the way, is Miss Monica. I realize she's pretty adorable and all but I don't really see how she's come to dominate my son's every waking thought. Anyone else see it?

So, they had games and all sorts of fun. Collin was suspicious of their rigging the games to ensure that everyone got a prize. He was also pretty protective of his treat bag.

But hey, they had cupcakes! The kid was happy.

In other news, we painted our pumpkins yesterday afternoon, sans Daddy who is still working until about 8 every night lately. Grrr, stupid ORI. Almost over! We're hoping to be able to carve our big pumpkin with him tonight though. Collin's pumpkin has no face, only hair. Apparently, it's a dirty hippie.

P.S. Abby, the one girl NOT dressed as a princess/fairy you won my heart, little girl. She was Spiderman. SPIDERMAN! You rock on sweet thing!

We Have Sunglass-Acceptance!

It's official. Collin has accepted the fact that yes, sunglasses DO work in preventing the sun from burning his retina. You'd think the year of our living here so far, where we've had approximately six hours of cloud cover might've convinced him; but no. Alas, he's been practicing indoor use.

P.J.'s and sunglasses are best pulled of by a two-year-old. Or, a 90-year-old. Most things weird, or incontinent, are best done at either end of the age spectrum, I find.

Anyway, I thought today was a good a day as any to bust out the real use of the sunglasses, so we road tested them at the beach. He was all for it.

Oh yeah, we can comfortably hang out at the beach, in October, in sweatshirts and jeans. Wah-wah to cold. Blech.
Also in October at the beach? 'piders! Well, what Collin thinks are 'piders (aka: Spiders). He is pretty sure he found thousands of them in this little structure. He's making sure I stay away from there because he says they are dangerous.

This is Collin, pondering why he's been sitting still for eighteen whole seconds in a row atop a clearly fun-to-climb rock. Mommy, on the other hand, is thankful for a super fast shutter, and again, thinking, gee, I'm glad this time my camera has a neck strap so it won't fall into this same ocean and get wrecked like the last time I brought a camera here.

Disappointingly, after the gale force winds last night, nothing exciting blew ashore. I thought maybe we'd find the Titanic or something. Nope. We found a couple crabs. That's about it. Collin was amazed. Wheeeee! This is the least steep the walk is. It's also the only part that is paved. Can you guess how much energy he has for the walk back up? Yeah. None. Can you guess how many times he asks to be carried? Can you guess who does NOT get carried?

What You Don't See

When Mommy has her first grad school paper due this week, all her coherent-sentence-forming energy last week was spent on that. Sorry grandparents! So, there wasn't any Collin updates. I know, I'm a slacker. I did, however churn out a 22 page monster for a 12-15 page assignment. Oops. It has been trimmed...to 17 pages. It's the best I could do! I'll let you know how I cope with the fallout when I get my grade because I'm pretty sure it will be the first time ever that I don't get an A and I'm already bracing myself for the meltdown. I know, poor Rachel. Sniff, sniff.

Anyway, Collin had his first lunch at preschool last week. He's loving school, I'm loving his being at school and I decided I was being weird by not letting him do it in the first place. He was the only kid getting picked up early. He's still the only kid getting picked up for nap time. But, I'm standing firm on that because it still seems weird. Anyway, he LOOOOOVES it. I did, however, refuse to let him pick out his own lunchbox because he insisted, flat out, that he wanted, wait for it, the princess one! His reasoning? "Because those ladies are beautiful." Supportive of my son's choices? Yes. Supportive of my son getting pushed around? No.

Also this week, Pumpkins. We had grand plans of going to Irvine for the pumpkin patch with the choo-choo and the coolness that is the Irvine pumpkin patch. Uhhhh, ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection for everyone who doesn't know what that means...it means Bryon's worked until AT LEAST eight all week and he went in on Saturday most of the day too). We are exhausted! And, I took the kid to Disneyland on Saturday, half the day by myself, so we decided the little pumpkin patch by the house would suffice.

Collin wasn't too disappointed. Bryon's sleeping in this picture. You just can't tell. He's so tired, he's perfected the art of sleeping sitting up and looking completely awake. We actually ran into some Colonel at the pumpkin patch too. Work is EVERYWHERE!

Maybe it's because we didn't tell him what he was missing. Look, Mom! Pumpkins in a shanty! This is great! Shhh! Don't tell him we could've ridden a train!

Maybe it's because we let him pull the wagon and didn't tell him that we were emptying the wagon of the pumpkins he kept adding. If we bought EVERY pumpkin he put in there, I'd currently be selling my body to pay for them all.

Oh, and did I mention Disneyland? For the second time in a row, we ran into people we know! Bryon's Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nancy and their kids and grand kids. It was fun! Collin has decided that even more people think he's fantastic and he had a blast. So, what don't you see, a la post title? That Bryon took the camera home (aka to the office) with him when he left us at Disneyland midday so we didn't get a picture of the sacred event of Collin's first face painting. It was hilarious! Collin as a blue-faced Dragon! Priceless. I have it on my phone but it's just not the same, is it?