Saturday, September 24, 2011

Celebrating Baby Girl Sanford

Last weekend we hosted all of Julie's girlfriends from Denver (but we missed those who couldn't make it!!) for a celebration of Baby Girl Sanford who is due on October 28th.  Our friend Emily hosted with me and it ended up being a very nice gathering of different groups of friends (her friends from nursing school, our mutual friends, and her friends from college).  I thought that no one would be bringing their kids so I was sure Colin was going to have to entertain himself (ha ha) but we ended up with 3 kiddos there (and one more later in the evening) so they were as much the center of attention at times as Julie herself.  Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the food spread, but Emily and I put together a menu of pulled pork sliders, shrimp and grit tarts, deviled eggs, veggies and dip, caramelized onion dip with crackers and bread (I think that was the most popular, just as it was the first time Emily made it at Thanksgiving a few years ago) and apples with caramel toffee dip.  It was really a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hang out and see the kiddos interact as well.

College Friends

Nursing School Friends

I'm not sure if you can tell but the flowers are bibs and the flower pot
 is filled with other little things Julie had on her registry
The babies taking over the party

Colin taking a break


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Photography

I am taking an online photography workshop that is helping with my point and shoot and giving me pointers for my (hopefully) eventual DSLR. It also goes over lots about taking pictures on the iPhone and recommended apps to make those pictures look great. And as I have already admitted, the iPhone is my primary camera. I was very excited to snap the following shot then use different apps to make it even better (I don't remember which apps I used specifically for this one though). If you are my Facebook friend you have already seen the final product but I can't help sharing it across multiple platforms because it really is my current favorite picture.

Monday, September 12, 2011

7 months? Already?

I cannot even begin to figure out where the last 7 months have gone.  I look at the pictures from 2 months and hardly remember when he was that small and cuddly.  I miss the days of him falling asleep on me and just wanting to cuddle (he rarely wants to just cuddle unless he's not feeling great) but I absolutely love the grins and belly laughs and the fact that I have to put him in the Exersaucer just to be able to go to the bathroom because he is moving around so much.
I couldn't have done better if I'd done it on purpose - the exact same picture 3 months apart!
Colin has finally taken to some solids.  He is quite a fan of purees but if you put any amount of texture in there, it's a no go.  Thankfully he is eating the peaches I made him;  I got all bummed because he wasn't interested in the sweet potatoes I had made after the first time or two and I thought he would never eat anything I made for him (yes, I know, dramatic all or nothing)... but when we ran out of peaches from the store, which appear to be his favorite along with pears and mango, I thawed out some of my own peaches and luckily he ate them.  He ate all the sweet potatoes from the store, too, so I'm going to try my own again to see what he thinks.  And there are studies showing that children have a taste for whatever mom ate while she was pregnant... maybe that's why Colin will eat yogurt all day every day given the chance.

I really have no idea when babies are supposed to start being mobile, but I feel like Colin is working on it a little early.  And it has seriously all started in just the last week.  He was rocking, then started scooting here and there, but he is on to full fledged combat crawling.  He can make it from one side of the living room to the opposite side of the dining room in no time flat (hmm... maybe I should time it).  I walked in to get him up from a nap last week and he was sitting up in his bed, a first for doing it without help from me (the next day he finally demonstrated his skills so I could see how he did it).  He proceeded to use the rails of the crib to start pulling himself up.  Luckily he didn't actually make it standing but I don't think it's long; he was doing pretty well.  One perk to the combat crawl - his belly does a great job of getting the dirt off the floors!

Sleep continues to be hit or miss.  I feel very thankful that Colin started putting himself to sleep in the crib from about 5 weeks old (that's not to say I always put him down when he was awake but he was capable of it at that point).  We fought with night time sleeping for quite a while and now we are fighting with naps.  Somewhere around 6 months and a week or so, after letting him fuss through his "habit times" of waking up, he started sleeping 10-12 hours at night.  He can only stay awake for 1.5-2 hours at a time during the day with maybe a little longer if we are out of the house.  I have gotten very good at his cues and put him down as soon as he seems sleepy and he will usually go right to sleep but it's the staying asleep that's a problem.  One a rare good day, he will nap 2-2.5 hours but many days it's anywhere from 45 minutes to just over an hour.

And in case you wondered - the best way to show love of something is to attempt to bite it with your toothless gums (or maybe he just can't go 5 seconds without shoving something in his mouth... even during a photo session).

Well Dressed

Colin sure has been looking spiffy the past couple of days! First at a friend's place for dinner last night he modeled a cowboy hat. Then at the park today he was chillin' in his camo hat (daddy picked it out of course) and his shades.

And as an aside, thanks to my cousin Ashley I have found that Blogger has an app (this is new, I have been looking for one for ages). This is quite handy since 90% if my pictures are taken with my phone anyways!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I know, I know, another video...

I know that all I have done lately is post videos, but when family is so far away, I have to take video so they can see Colin grow up just like I do.  That said, here's another video.  It may be long and boring to you, but since this blog is a way to document his days and experiences, I thought I'd share it here.  I have watched it probably 5 times in the last 20 minutes and I still actually laugh out loud at how he continues to push the balls further away from himself.  At least he's practicing moving around!