11 Months Old!

The pack 'n play is permanently in our living room now, just to keep Colin out of the way sometimes!

Colin is no longer allowed in the kitchen! He actually does a great job at stopping at the edge of the carpet and just watching me from there. And no, he didn't get the bottle of margarita out!

He loves his learning table! (Thanks Aunt Andrea and Uncle Ryan!) He is tall enough that he doesn't have to walk around to play with the other sides, he just leans over.

Another favorite- putting the bucket on his head!

Our Curious Colin

Happy boy listening to Al Roeker! He's just happy to be standing up there. He's only managed to turn the TV off once or twice.

11 months old!

A new stroller- something smaller and easier to get around

What a cutie! :)

Where has this whole year gone?? Colin is going to be one in just a month! I was at my doctor's office the other day and Colin's baby photo was on their bulletin board- it was hard to believe that was my baby! Colin is doing great! He's all over the house of course, but we're glad he's so mobile and able to explore. He stands up on anything he can and crawls all over, and really quickly! He has 7 teeth coming in (4 on bottom all the way out and 3 on top only half way out). He's doing better eating "real" food, mostly fruit pieces, Gerber puffs and crunchies. He's starting to use his front teeth to bite off portions of his food which is progress. He's all too quickly heading towards wearing 24 month clothes and wears size 4 or 5 shoes. Mostly because of his height. He doesn't say much, but babbles all the time. He does call both dogs Dee Dee, and occasionally says what sounds like Doggie. He can say Mama (mostly when he wants out of his crib) and he says Dada all the time. He does say Daddy when he's in the mood to do so. He does have a few bad habits- like head butting things he wants to show love to (us, the dogs, other kids) and biting- not out of meanness, but either uses it to steady himself or again to show love. He also points with his middle finger! Don't know why- just does! I'm trying to fix that. Rodney and I are the same- busy with church and work. We're so excited to have our families come next month for Colin's birthday. Something to look forward to!

Colin's first haircut

All done! Such a handsome boy!

Before...

Well, despite trying to wait until he was 1 for his first haircut, and trying to wait for Grandpa Crowder to go with us, we just couldn't wait. His hair was getting out of control! Big waves sticking out in the back and then every time he woke up he had hair sticking up two inches from his head! Sure looked like a little ragamuffin! So, to Cool Cuts 4 Kids we went today. Martha did a great job cutting, with us watching her every move. We couldn't miss every moment of this occasion! I did almost shed some tears when that first curl went! They even gave us a baggie of his first pieces of hair to keep and a certificate to hold a picture of his first haircut. Colin did a great job. His eye went right to the nametag Martha was wearing (since Daddy wears one too) and she let him play with it and he kept pretty still! So, his hair is much better, and laying down for once!

Happy Easter!

Easter outfit #2 (I can't help myself!)

We hope you all had a joyous Easter! Our day was quiet, but nice! Our church was great and we had over 450 people! Colin and I came home and took our Sunday nap while Rodney went to work to do some very necessary stocking of things for the upcoming Mother's Day/Confirmation/Graduation/Wedding season. We had a diversion from ham for Easter supper and had pot roast instead. We still had bunny cake of course! Colin enjoyed his Easter basket, especially the eggs which we just left empty. I thought I had found the perfect thing for him- a "Taggie" stuffed lion. (On clearance for $1.50!! I was happy! :)) He finds the tags on absolutely everything so I thought he would love it. Nope! Tossed it aside to play with the eggs. Oh well! We can't wait to be able to tell him all about the meaning of Easter and to hear him reply "He is risen indeed!" Other than Easter, we are doing just fine. Colin is moving (too) quickly from just a crawler to trying to stand up on his own. He tries to use his mouth to help in this process on the coffee table. Today he did manage to stand up in his pack and play! Scary! He'll be walking before we know it, and for the longest time we were wondering when he was going to crawl!

April

Nephew TJ (4 mos)

Who needs to stand up to play at the table?? Colin just flips it over!

Cousins playing so nice together!

New fun- pounding on the oven

And we'll flip over the walk 'n ride too

After pounding on the fridge too

April already! Colin is now 10 months old and officially a crawler. He is of course into everything. So much for getting anything done while he's awake! Oh well. He can also wave now when he wants to. That is much better than his little "heil" arm raising when he said hello to someone before! We did go to Vegas last week and had another good trip. I was bad and didn't take hardly any pictures. I'm glad other people took some! Colin had a lot of fun playing with cousin Addison (8 mos). They're stealing toys from each other already, but they also actually played and "talked" to each other too. Grandma Angie said Colin tried to love on Addison by knocking his head into hers. That's how he loves you- knocks his head on yours and then shakes his head on yours. Cousin TJ is still too little to get into the mix, but pretty soon Addison will have two big cousins to contend with! Enjoy these pictures. I'll have more next week after Easter!

Happy St. Pat's!

Well, no big celebrating St. Patrick's Day here. We did wear green- two days in a row! Colin and I were really busy today- running errands, taking Dee Dee to the vet and taking Rodney to work. Colin is all over the place these days. I don't get much done during his awake hours! He's not crawling- yet. He's still rolling, but I think that means he can just get to where he wants faster. He gets up on all fours to crawl really easily now so I'm sure it's not that far behind. He's after everything- the vertical blinds on the back door that are fabric, the baskets on the coffee table, dog toys, opening entertainment center drawers, etc. We think he's going through a growth spurt too. I fed him 6 times today- up from 4 feedings in the past. He kept waking up early from naps obviously still tired. We tried giving him a sizable snack before naps and that seemed to get him back on track. He's getting really good at the sippy cup without handles and is doing a lot better eating some things on his own. He's also sprouted tooth #3 and one more has a corner out, but seems slower coming in. Nothing too much new with Rodney and I. I'm taking over as the playgroup planner for church and send out the weekly e-mail bulletin for church too. Rodney had his review today at work and it was really good. His store was #35 in the country so that's great! Time for bed here. Enjoy these recent pictures of our boy!

9 Months Old!

Such a happy boy!

The next fabulous new toy- measuring cups!

This is what Colin looks like while he's "dancing". He'll look up and shake his head and body around a little bit.

We love how his hair has grown! And those big brown eyes! :)

Well this is backwards. Start at the last picture and this is a good look at his rolling technique right now.

Nothing new to report really, just some pictures taken 2/23 when Colin turned 9 months old. We went to the doctor today for his check up and he weighs 23 lbs. 14 oz. and is 31 inches long. He's a big boy, but perfectly healthy- praise God! He also seems to continue to work on getting 4 new teeth- the two top front ones and two more on the bottom. He's also entered the phase where he cries when you leave him- even if he's rested, fed, and happy, if you leave he'll cry. Not all the time, but it's a sad thing to see! But, you get him involved in a toy and he's better. So, another milestone passes and we march on toward that 1 year mark!

Just a few pictures...

Colin in his new carseat. Not in the car yet, but will be soon I'm sure!

You would have thought it was Christmas when I gave Colin plastic cups to play with. Yes, he's in shorts. I wanted him to get to wear this 12 month outfit before he grew out of it. Don't worry, it was about 75 and sunny this day.

Grandma Angie gave Colin this hat. Finally he has one of his own after envying those of Grandpa Crowder, Uncle Ryan and Uncle Tommy!

...mostly for Grandma Crowder! (Hi, Mom!) These are a few pictures of Colin from this week. He's working on getting his top teeth in and I think maybe more on the bottom too. Church tomorrow and bunco for me tomorrow night! Yay!