Uh oh!!

Colin's vocabulary is growing quickly.  I think it's really fun to puzzle out Colin's new words for various things around him and I'm amazed at how quickly he picks up new phrases.

He's had a few words for a while, including mama, and dada but lately he's added quite a few.  My favorites include:

buh-ble- bubble.  Not only does he know what it means, he knows where they come from (the bubble machine and containers of bubbles) and he will take you to them when he wants some bubbles!

apple- We weren't sure he knew what it meant, but since he kept getting apples when he said it, I think he's figured it out now!

Dew- Shoes.  Shoes mean you get to go out side and going outside is a favorite activity.  Colin also knows where to get his shoes (the hall closet) and where to put them on (the bottom step.)

bo- Video.  Colin loves to watch videos on himself.  He will grab my phone, say bo over and over again and sit in my lap.  Then he'll move my hand to the screen over and over again until I turn on a bo.  It's hard to refuse since it's some of the best cuddle time I get during the day!

He has a word for dog, but I can figure out exactly how to type it out.  We also aren't sure where it came from.  It isn't really like dog or penny or puppy, although we figure it must be an attempt at one of these.

Colin also says uh-oh.  Mostly when he drops something, even if it's intentional!

Last weekend we had an unforutnate uh oh.  Life with an adventerous toddler is full of uh ohs, but this was a slightly larger than average one!  We took a trip to downtown Disney for Grandma's birthday, and Colin took a bit of a tumble.

Even worse, mommy caught it on camera!! (by accident of course!!)

Uh oh, Colin!!

Colin was okay, although he did get a little bump/scrap.  Poor baby!

Vegan Dinner

We took a turn hosting a Vegan Dinner Party.  We are not vegan, we are not considering becoming vegan or vegetarian, but I do think it's a great occasional experience and opportunity to step out of our comfort zone of cooking and try new things.

We didn't really step too far, though.  Both recipes we made are foods we regularly eat around our house, although one of them was missing the cheese, the other sour cream.  They were good, but both ingredients were missed (by me)!! (Especailly the cheese!!)

We set up a second table in our living room to make sure everyone had space, but because of a last minute cancellation we all just squashed into the main table.

We made bean and tomato stuffed sweet potatoes and Stuffed Green Pepppers. Both are easy and healthy. Ironically, the last time we made stuffed peppers we added sausage because of my OB's concern about my protein intake and lack of weight gain.  This time, we took out the cheese.  The sausage was a better recipe change as it turns out!!

I certainly won't be turning vegan any time soon.  I think it's incredibly difficult (although not impossible) to maintain a healthy diet this way, but I do enjoy trying new foods and creatively excluding some ingredients from my dishes.

Although there are very very few foods Colin won't eat, he was a fan of the leftovers!  Also, he slept great through the entire event!
 

Pretend City, Irvine.

When Colin was born, I was going a bit crazy sitting at home. I googled about every single event for babies.  One of them that kept coming up was Pretend City.  I decided it was probably a bit early for us, but kept it on my radar.

Pretend City is a children's museum in Irvine.  Once a month, they have an event specifically for babies 0-18 months. Now that Colin is so active, I thought it'd be a great way to burn some of that never ending toddler energy.  

Colin loved it!  What's not to love? New toys, lots of kids, (okay, he didn't love the sharing part), and even art.  Colin boycotted the art.  He wanted to run around and play.  

We even saw another Colin there. :)

We will almost certainly return!

Date Night, 2013=Success

In 2013, one of my goals, and one of our family's goals was for Gavin and I to have a date night at least once a month.  At the start of 2013, Colin was barely a month old and it seemed like it would be a very challenging goal to achieve.  The idea was to have an 'actual date' (meaning going out of the house and doing something together) but I did hedge and come up with a few back up plans we could do at home, just in case.

We successfully had a date night out together every month in 2013!!

I already wrote about many of them here and here.

September:  In September we had our very first overnight date!

October:  Carnival Cruise Evening Out

In October, we took a cruise with my parents.  We took advantage of our adjoining rooms and left our sleeping baby to climb around exploring the boat (including the adults only area, not as exciting as it sounded...) and reenacting parts of Titanic. We had recently found out we were pregnant again, so my wished for tropical drink was just a Shirley Temple. :)

November:  Arroyo Trabuco

We had originally planned to go to Flemming's Steak house for dinner.  But we didn't make reservations and when we called, they had a very long wait and no tables.  We ended up eating at Arroyo Trabuco's restaurant.  We love their Sunday brunch, but we were disappointed with our dinner.  Still, we had great conversation and it was nice to dress up for a date!

December: Great Gift Wrap Up

In December, we made a short trip to Vegas mostly to see my parents.  But we went to the Harrah's Great Gift Wrap up for the first time.  We had so much fun wondering around with calculators adding up the point values for things we had no where near enough loyalty points for!  It was much more fun that I would have expected and in the end, we picked several "Nap" items from Brookstone.

I am really proud of us for accomplishing our goal.  To me, it is a concrete way that we affirm our decision to put a priority on our marriage.  Plus in a rushing, chaotic, beautiful life that often involves conversations that revolve mostly around vomit, diapers, medications, the beauty of pregnancy, and every one's sleep habits, it's nice to have a dedicated 'grown up' time together.

For 2014, we continued this goal and changed it a big by adding a "Griffin Family Book Club."  Gavin and I are taking turns choosing books to read that we discuss completely randomly throughout the month.  I suppose it would be a nice back up if we ever ran out of things to talk about at date night, but it's yet to happen.  I'm so lucky I'm married to my best friend.

Play

I know I keep saying it over and over again, but this is SUCH a fun age!  All day everyday is just about play!  I love to watch Colin learning about the world and we have so much fun.

It's been fun and challenging to find new and interesting ways to entertain our ever curious boy.

Shhhh, don't tell anyone we played dorky bridal shower games in the kitchen one day...

The kitchen utensils have been a big hig.  Especially when mom is trying to get dinner ready!  Colin loves to help stir.  One day he took out all of them and put them back one by one.  I didn't know you could do that, Colin!

Colin LOVES being outside and I am very grateful for our incredibly mild (even by California standards) winter.  This was a week ago ro so at the park near our house.  Colin ran around, played in the dirt (and with the bugs) and was generally a little boy.

Don't step on the crack, Colin!!

I'm out of it now and mostly look pregnant, but in these pictures, I notice I'm mostly in that awkward in between phase.  Oh well!  I still love this picture.  It's a reminder that he's watching me all the time and learning based on what I do and say.  What a responsability!

I am so grateful I have the opportunity to rediscover the wonder of everything with Colin and be a part of all of this play!