5 months!

I can hardly believe that it's been almost half a year since this handsome guy made his appearance.   

And what a fun 5 months it has been!  I see more of Colin's personality every day.  He's such a fun and focused little guy.  I love when he notices something for the first time, he forgets everything else and focuses.  It's so much fun.

Sleep is still a major topic of conversation at our house, although some nights it goes great.  (Currently great is defined as one short wake up).

Colin is becoming slightly less easy to work with during our monthly photos with the Lion, but still so much fun.

 There is just so much to see and od in his room! He's still incredibly excited about his feet and yesterday he got them both simultaneously for the first time! (He little belly rolls get in the way (okay they aren't that little...))

Actually, he seems to be thinning out a little bit.  Of course when I see him next to his friend Jax, he's still a round little guy!  And mommy loves his chubby checks.

This month I was also working quite a bit as things were quite hectic.  That meant lots of time for Colin and daddy!

I can't wait to see what next month holds!

Casper Babypants

Our doctor recommended choosing the same lullaby to sing to Colin at bed time.  He suggested twinkle twinkle little star.  I tried it once and decided we needed some new material.  Also, whenever I try to sing lullabies I tend to stray into Christmas songs.  Not sure which synapse is crossed to cause that.

As I sometimes do when I'm looking for a new parenting perspective, I hopped over to Nathalie's blog archives (Thanks Nathalie!).   She mentioned Casper Babypants and I went hunting.  Colin's current nighttime lullaby is Bright Bug.  It's hard to resist a song that's main refrain is I love you.  And Colin is my bright bug.  Perfect fit.

I was a little disappointed to realize I knew exactly one bath time song and it wasn't very long (Rubber Ducky from Sesame Street).  Then I found "Too Dirty to Love" by Capser Babypants!




I sing to Colin all of the time.  He loves it.  So I started exploring some of the other Babypants songs and found lots of them I like.

We have lots of favorites now.  Funny Bone, I found you, Baby Getting up, Run baby run, Butterfly driving a truck...  We want to buy his CD all of his CDs but that seems like overkill and we are having a tough time choosing!

Gavin likes to tell me he doesn't like a song I sing to Colin, then wait until he knows the lyrics and steal it... so now he's singing him babypants songs all day, too!  Then Grandma joined the fun.  I'm sure by the end of her visit, Buma will be singing Babypants with us too!

Sensory Learning.

We've noticed the last few weeks that Colin is becoming more and more aware and interested in his surroundings.  So we decided it was time to introduce some intentional sensory experiences.

Our friend Kate mentioned that her son loves bubbles at daycare.  They were a hit with Colin as well!

This week I decided to show him the spice rack.  We haven't introduced solids yet, but after we redid our spice rack during my nesting phase, Gavin pointed out how fun and colorful it was.

Colin thought it was incredibly fascinating.  He rattled the jars and spun the rack.  We smelled several of the spices.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of his reactions.  He was so funny when I would hold up the spice for him to smell; he would stop what he was doing, get very still, and breath softly.  Then he would make these funny faces.  I started with Cinnamon because it seemed to me to be the one he'd like best.  Nope.  He hated it. His favorite was cloves, followed by Allspice.  He reached out to sniff again!  He didn't like garlic powder.  I loved watching him explore and exploring myself.  We had so much fun!

I can't wait to keep exploring the world through his eyes.

Good Night, Colin.

I love routines.  So I was completely on board with the idea of a bedtime routine for baby.

We started our first semblance of a bedtime routine on the first of the year.  Colin was a month old, we had gotten into a little bit of a groove, and our visitor flow was slowing down.

Our routine has evolved quite a bit since then.  And since Colin has recently moved to his nursery, it's a bit more solid.

Our current routine usually starts with bath time, but that deserves a post on it's own!

After bath, it's time for a baby massage and hair training.  Hair training is (mostly) a joke.  Colin has the same cowlick as his daddy and I'm trying to help his hair to pick a direction.

Good luck with that mom....

Ambiance is important.  If baby doesn't seem sleepy, I still turn on the night time mood lighting and let him play for a bit.

Moon in my room light

Night Light.

Next, it's book time.  We currently read either Good Night Moon or Snuggle Up, Sleep Ones.  On the Night You Were Born was a contender for bedtime book, but I can't read it without crying.

Finally, we sing "Bright Bug" by Casper Baby Pants (another topic deserving it's own post).  Although I just listened to the song for the first time in a few weeks and realized I sing it quite a bit slower.

If we are lucky that results in this:

If you are wondering about the 80's style Walkman in the baby's bed, it's his white noise.  I read some advice that actual radio static was better than a white noise machine because it's easier to replicate in a pinch.  Sounded reasonable to me, so there you have it.

Night time is still a struggle.  Some nights he wakes up once (which we are all happy with) and other nights it's significantly more.

Good night, Colin!

Aunt Cheryl

Aunt Cheryl came to visit us!  Fresh from Texas complete with her y'alls and all.

It wasn't a long enough trip, although I'm sure there isn't one that would be.  She left us with an adorable gift to remember her while she's away:

My sister's is an incredibly talented yarn artist and I'm trying to convince her to start blogging about her projects.  Stay tuned!

We miss you already, Auntie!

Book Club: Paris in Love

I missed book club this month.  (Thanks a lot unscheduled shift hour change...)  It was a really hectic week at our house anyway, as I worked full time this week for the first time since Colin was born.

Paris in Love Eloisa James

Anyway, I wish I'd known I wasn't going to make it.  I would have quit reading this book on about page 10 and never looked back.  I hate not finishing books.  But, I don't count this as a book, so no problem.  It's NOT a book.  It's literally a bunch of the author's facebook and twitter updates printed!  I am not joking.

Apparently the author is romance author.  She must be quite popular to get away with this atrocity.  If I wanted to read your twitter updates, I'd follow you on twitter.  Now I want my $11.99 back!

I dislike the twitter concept anyway.  Call me out of touch, but I prefer to read a blog post that takes more than half a second to punch out on a cell phone.  But to pick up a book and find it full of these disconnected tidbits was just infuriating.

I won't even give this "book" a real review.  Ug. /end rant.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I also read The Hunger Games Series this month.  I know I'm super behind the curve, but after hanging out with a friend who is very into juvenile fiction, I was inspired to try to read it again.  (I'd tried once, but our Kindle Account blacked out the pages so I ended up reading The Dark Tower series instead).

I enjoyed the book series.  It reminded me of a cross between The Giver by Lois Lowry and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  (As a side note, a found out there is apparently a 4th book in The Giver series looking up the spelling of the Author's name, yay!)  I didn't think The Hunger Games was as good as either of the other series, but that could also be a generational preference.  I expect if I had read it when I was younger, I'd like it as much or more.  I am unlikely to see the movies, although I'm curious how they'd portray the costumes.

I am also in the process of attempting to read the most boring book ever written on the most boring topic ever considered.

The Meaning of Everything  by Simon Winchester

I don't really have any idea why I decided to pick this up, but it might be about time I put it back down...

I'm really lacking in books I'm excited to read at the moment.  Although if our current sleep troubles continue, baby sleep books are going to top the list! :)

Date Night

One of our goals for 2013 was to have a date night every month. I knew this would be challenge with baby, but we thought it was important to strive to have at least a few hours to focus on each other exclusively.  So far, so good!

January:  Drinks and appetizers @ Opa, Mission Viejo

January was by far the most difficult.  Colin was just over a month old.  If it hadn't been my birthday, I'm not sure I could have left him!  We only managed to make it out for drinks and an appetizer, but we did it!  Colin stayed with Grandma and slept peacefully the entire time.  We spent most of our date talking about him, both to each other and the waiter!

February: Dinner @ Yellowtail, Bellagio

In February, we went to Vegas for the World of Concrete Convention.  Gavin made (and won) a superbowl bet, so we decided to head down to the Bellagio to collect the bet and have dinner.  I did much better, but Colin had a tougher time.  Apparently he was pretty happy until about 10 minutes before we arrived.  Overall, it seemed to be harder for Grandma and Grandpa than for him!  He settled immediately after we got home.

March: Lunch @ Cafe Mozart, San Juan Capistrano

In March, we redeemed a long expired gift card for a German Restaurant in San Juan.  They gave us the full value, which I appreciated (I think they are legally required to do so in California.  Still, I appreciated it).  The place was empty when we arrived, but we had a nice meal and enjoyed catching up on the minutiae of our daily lives.  Baby had a good time with Grandma.

April: Dessert @ Chili's, Mission Viejo.

As far as dates go, this one ranks at the bottom for sure.  Colin had been having some trouble sleeping, especially going down at night.  We decided it would be better to wait until after he was asleep.  Chili's had our favorite desert, White Chocolate Molten Lava Cake, and was close, so we decided it'd be a nice treat.   Only they don't have it anymore!  And it was a new, and not very good, bartender.  Plus, it's Chili's so you aren't really getting much ambiance to begin with...  Despite the less than perfect outing, Gavin and I had fun just laughing and talking together.  Colin was fine, but Grandma was disappointed with monitor sitting.  I still contend it's better than trying to put down a fussy baby who really only wants to go to sleep for his mommy.

I really enjoy having an outing together on a regular basis.  It also accomplishes my secondary goal of helping Colin learn that other people love him and can care for him as well.   It helps that my mom comes to visit at least once a month.  

High Chair Time!

Colin loves his high chair.  He sits in it while I cook, clean the kitchen or eat.  Gavin says he looks like the e trade baby when he puts on his serious face and holds into the ledge.

Lately we've also had a few trials of using the high chair for actually eating!  Since Colin is still exclusively breastfed, it's just for fun.

Lets try mom!

I didn't intend to give him the cup, but he seemed interested, so we decided to try!  It was much messier than the photo indicates!  I'm excited for him to start trying new foods, but we'll probably end up waiting at least another month. 

Colin's First Easter

I have to say, holidays are a blast with a baby.  Even though Colin is still too young to care about coloring eggs, or dressing up, or even Easter baskets, I love doing it with him anyway and I am so excited to watch him grow up with these traditions over the years.

Mommy's favorite Easter photo

I love his reaction to his Easter basket which I totally caught on film:

"What?"

"Whoa!"

"Let me at it!"

It was a beautiful day.  We attended an Easter service in the morning, then played outside for a bit.  I can't wait until Colin is running around searching for eggs.  This year, he was mostly interested in looking at mommy. <3

This year the Easter bunny brought bubbles and Colin was fascinated by them.  So was his friend Gucci, but I didn't get any good pictures of that.

We went to visit his friend Jax for Easter dinner.  Jax is just a little over a month older than Colin and I think it will be so much fun to watch them grow up together, although this year they mostly took turns drooling and crying!  

There was also a very sweet Easter Bunny who stopped by Jax's house for Colin!  Thanks Easter Bunny!

These baskets are pretty nifty.

Happy Easter!