'Winter' in Orange County, California.

Living in Southern California is awesome.  There was about once this winter that I thought, "It would be fun to have some snow for Colin to play in."  Most of the time I thought "How do you survive with a toddler in horrible weather???"

Colin loves being outside.  He likes dirt, grass, rocks, sunshine and puddles.  It's almost a surefire way to cheer him up on a cranky day!

While we enjoyed our beautiful and mild winter, I couldn't help but feel bad for those of you who actually had winter!  Hope you're warming up for spring!!

Nursery 2.0

As I roll into my third trimester, we've started the task of creating another nursery!  Slowly, Colin's room has become "Colin's Room" instead of "The Nursery".

Nursery 2.0, the current "The Nursery," has been a wide range of rooms since we've moved into our house. It started off as 'The Game Room.'   During this phase, it hosted Big Buck Hunter and the inside of the closet got painted red.  Eventually BBH got evicted for loud random comments while I was trying to sleep.  Notabley "You got somethin' against women??"

It then had a short stint as storage for other random things.

In 2010, it housed my wedding dress from a hook that was randomly in the ceiling and had a warning sign on the door for Gavin to NEVER EVER ENTER.

In 2012, it was Cheryl's Room for a while.

Finally, it became "Round Room" after Nursery 1.0 progress started.  Sadly, I don't have pictures of it in this state.  Round bed was sold and Nursery 2.0 offically began!!

I seem to be really really bad at taking before pictures.  I'm not sure why.  Here's what I've got:

Choosing Colors

Hard at work!

One of the bigger challenges for us was the closet.  We needed to get rid of the red and reconfigure the hastily installed shelves. It took two coats of heavy primer, a few hastily drawn sketches, and at least one argument, but we got it done!

I really wanted shelving that would grow with the clothes and needs of a kids room.  I like this so far and I'm optimistic that it will fit the bill.

Next was wall paper.  I'd fallen in love with this sea creatures wall paper border and since we'd decided to skip the chair rail this time, we thought it'd be the perfect way to bring the height of the room down a bit.  Neither of us had ever worked with wall paper before, so of course there was lots of research, measuring, and more sketches! For some reason the border looks grey in this picture.  It's not, it's blue.  The sea green wall matches the shell on the turtle pretty closely and the I think it highlights the 'dolphin grey' walls beautifully.

Installing the wall paper was a bit challenging.  Several times Gavin commented on the advantages of having an Engineer in the family, particularly with setting lines accurately, measuring, and having a good plan.  (he didn't comment on the disadvantages, of which there are a few, especially with my tendency to treat wall paper installation with the same seriousness I devote to bridge construction...).

The specific challenge with installing this wall paper border was the scallop on the top and bottom.  I'd read in the reviews that people said it wouldn't stick at all and it was impossible to get even.  I used a very similiar technique as I'd used with the chair rail to align the paper and it worked really well.  I set my line at the bottom of the top scallop so when installed, the line would be completely hidden, but easy to check for levelness.  It worked great, although it was a two person job and it tried our patience a bit waiting for the glue to set enough for the paper to stick.  also We had to stick each scallop individually.  

So far, I love the results.  The room has a much different feel than Colin's room, but still feels both comfortable for a baby and 'growable.'  I had no idea how difficult it would be to pick out grey paint!  There are as many greys as whites!!  

Next steps are decor and furniture.  And before we know it, the occupant will be here!!

Craig's Wedding: Road Trip

Last weekend we took a road trip to see our cousins wedding in (northern? central? not southern) Califonira. Specifically Lodi, CA.

If you're considered taking a road trip with a toddler and a 7 month pregannt woman, I'd advise you to avoid it.  We did our best to coordinate sleeping/eating/discomfort schedules, but the drive north didn't go very smoothly.  Even worse, once we arrived, Colin didn't want to sleep!  I think Gavin and I got less than 5 hours of sleep total between the two of us and we were a bit worse for wear the next morning.  Colin took a great nap, and by the evening, in time for the wedding, we were mostly functional.

The wedding was lovely.  I had no idea that Lodi had vineyards, and although it's too early for grape vines to be blooming, the cherry trees looked gorgeous!  The wedding was small and my cousin and his new wife looked beautiful.  I've only meet Craig's wife Faith once and ironically it was the weekend between Colin was born!  I told Gavin that girl is going to think I'm ALWAYS pregnant... which isn't that inaccurate over the last 3.5 years or so...

Colin had a fantastic time at the wedding!  Right after dinner he waddled out to the dance floor and started dancing!  It was so adorable.  I love watching that kid explore the world.  I thought everyone laughting and pointing would scare him, but he seemed to love the attention.  So sweet.

It was amazing for Colin to get to spend time to with extended family.  We were especially excited to see Auntie Cheryl who came all the way from Texas and bravely roadtripped home with us!

The ride home was easier.  We ditched the night time drive approach and broke up the drive a bit more.  We are all happy to be home safe and sound.

Congratulations to the Newlyweds, Craig & Faith!  May your marraige bring you as much love and comfort as ours has brought us!

15 month old Colin

I'm a tiny bit late, but I can't believe Colin is already 15 months old.  He's growing and changing so much everyday that it's both imperceptible and overwhelming.

Colin's schedule has always been flexible, but it's a bit more variable than usual because we've had Grandma's around helping (which has been greatly appreciated!)  He typically wakes up around 7 now and eats the exact same breakfast everyday: oatmeal, banana, milk.  We've discussed varying this, but it's difficult because everyone is tried in the morning.  Plus, he loves it, so why mess with a good thing?  We still feed him baby oatmeal (the only baby food he's ever really eaten!) because it's so fast and easy.  Colin wakes up hungry.  Cooking and cooling food isn't really ideal unless you like a morning soundtrack of hungry whining.

Why no Colin?  He took the pictures this time instead...

We doen't really have a set schedule for Colin's day.  We play, read, go outside, sing, and go for walks as it seems best for him and whoever is caring for him. His naps have been a bit of an issue because he really only takes one good nap now, but sometimes it's not quite enough making for very long evenings.  That's tough for me because on work days I feel like sometimes I get only cranky baby.  It's a work in progress.

I've been warned that someday Colin will burn this picture....
I think it's too funny to skip.

Colin is ever the great eater.  He eats pretty much everything.  He's not a huge fan of greens in general, especially lettuce/salad, but he'll occasionally eat it.  He will pick out bread first almost everytime.  We try to make it a priority to eat as a family and Colin likes to steal bites of food of our plates, although we are always eating the same thing.  He's also been very interested in learning to use his spoon and fork, although he's not very successful.  (Penny likes this messy development).

Bos (Videos) are officially Colin's favorite activity.  If he sees my phone, he'll start his mantra, although I can often distract him.  Not my favorite habit, but like I mentioned previously, I love the snuggle time so it's hard to say no!

Colin is a great sleeper now.  He usually goes to sleep around 6:30 and wakes up between 6 and 7.  Sometimes he wakes up for a few minutes at night, but will almost always put himself back to sleep if we let him.

Such a big boy!!

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!