Leo's Birthday

On Friday we joined the family to celebrate Leo's birthday -
Collin and Edie with their grandmohers - apparently the fan was more interesting to both toddlers than my camera -

Then on to some outdoor skateboard practice. I'm quite pleased with Collin's ignorance resulting in far less bumps and bruising - he currently thinks the skateboard is a push toy rather than a mode of transportation.

Working up a sweat - time for cake and ice cream -

Some icing on the nose of the birthday boy -
The girls - Nika, Annie & Stella -


The next night, Grandpa Brownie invited us to join he and my mom to celebrate their 35th anniversary. After some questioning, he assured me they'd love to have their grandson at their dinner (Cas and I being superfluous).
What could have been a romantic dinner turned into Go Dog Go at the dinner table while we waited for the next course.

We took turns taking Collin outside to let him burn off energy, so quite often Grammy and Brownie were celebrating their anniversary 50 yards apart! At the end of the night, we remembered we had entertainment on our phones in the form of Collin videos - apparently he never gets tired watching himself.

Giggling with Grammy and Brownie

Collin had a great Saturday morning meeting Grammy and Brownie at the children's museum. For the first hour the museum was open to members only, it was lovely and quiet, and Collin enjoyed having run of the tot spot.He dressed up in firefighter clothes . . . to push cars

. . . and serve tea

Of course he spent some time in the book corner, and was quite particular about who read him which story. Mommy was intentionally excluded from reading that day.

Amidst all of the things to do designed perfectly for his age, one of Collin's favorite items was the sink to clean up after arts and crafts. I guess it's the sense of power in controlling the water, but it takes quite a bit of convincing to get him to leave the toddler sink.
When the tot spot began filling up, we headed outside to the boats.
He was quite serious studying the water faucets and spouts.

Since he can't read, he can't be expected to follow the rules yet -
We left, he took a nap at Grammy and Brownie's home, and then he and Brownie went exploring. Only a grandparents' love can withstand the 100+ degree heat to draw with chalk, hunt for lizards, or push trucks up and down the driveway.

Our Little Monster

Collin is a funny little eater. Of course he likes preztles, cookies and ice cream like all normal children. But he has some healthy favorites he calls by name such as mixed nuts and black beans (not kale - he's not that nutritious of an eater)! Post black beans -
Grammy and Brownie came over after their vacation to see Collin. We took that as a baby-sitting offer, and headed out to dinner and a movie while Collin had tickle wars, built block castles, and read lots of books with his grandparents.
A few days later, when Cas was out of town, Great Grandma Betty came over for dinner. Collin saw his monster bath towel hanging to dry and convinced her to put it on and roar.
Looking fierce.
Collin is rarely eager to get out of the bath, so putting on the monster towel to go roar for the dogs has thus far created enough motivation to avoid a bathtub meltdown. Bruno and Fergie completely ignore the 23-pound blue toweled naked monster as he runs around the house exercising his lungs with some ferocious roars.

Wide-eyed at Chuck E Cheese

As we walked up to Edie's second birthday party, Collin clung tightly but was mesmerized as he gazed around his first time in Chuck E Cheese. Soon we found our family, including the birthday cousin just 6 months older than Collin.

Edie was all grins as everyone sang her "Happy Birthday." She was not all grins around Chuck E. Cheese, but who wouldn't be a little frightened by a huge stuffed rat?
Collin wanted to join the robotic band on stage, and I was busy making sure he didn't take out the drum set. Luckily, Great Aunt Rita came to the rescue with a goody bag of entertainment.

Then he borrowed Edie's ballon to beat for awhile. You talking to me, little mouse?

Finally to the rides. Stella joined him in the car. At first, a wide-eyed look of concern -

Then a wide-eyed looked of "rescue me" -

Much more his size, Collin loved the tamer toddler ride, throwing a mini-tantrum when the ride was complete -

What a weekend trasition in 18 months. From sleeping in, dog parks, selfishly wasting my time to my 6:45 a.m. toddler alarm clock, scheduling grocery shopping trips around nap schedules, and Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties. Definitely wouldn't trade it, but if I wasn't before, I am now certainly a boring adult.

Children's Museum: a refuge of adventure and air conditioning

Collin was fortunate to visit the Children's Museum every week with Grammy Lesa and Great Grandma Betty this summer. At each visit, something new would capture his attention, though he always hit up his favorite spots.

Reading with Grammy -
Dancing in the music room and beating the drums -

Throwing balls and maneuvering trucks -

One time Collin met up with Great Uncle Dick and his cousin Edie, who helped him into a costume. Real men can play dress-up and tea party, right?

I joined Grammy and Collin in July and it was fun to see how much more he could do than when we visited at his birthday and he was barely walking. He was zooming around with his trucks like he owned the place, only occasionally glancing up to make sure he could find my mom or I in the crowd.

Why I Shouldn't Talk Sports with my Co-workers

On Monday I took a quick business trip to Columbus, Ohio and knew I'd be traveling with 7 guys. Sometimes I try to do a quick skim of the sports page before I'm that out-numbered by testosterone, but I didn't have a chance. Fortunately, I caught a few minutes of sports updates on the radio as I was driving to the airport.

Monday night after we landed, we watched the tail end of the Texans game together. And with a big, proud grin, I jumped in the conversation with my timely sports knowledge: did they know if Adrian Peterson was going to be out all season from the Texans team due to his hamstring injury.

I was met with looks of utter confusion. One guy just shook his head. The other jumped on his blackberry, because I had sounded so confident in my Adrian Peterson hamstring injury comment that he had to make sure he wasn't crazy. Then they both explained to me that Adrian Peterson wasn't on the Texans, he plays for the Vikings.

We laughed about it, they continued to tease me about our new Texan running back all night, and it would have been forgotten. But I was determined to prove my sports prowess. So back in my hotel room, I googled Adrian Peterson hamstring injury. And the second link to come up, after a fantasy football site, was a "3 days ago" article on his hamstring injury.

Hurrah! I felt vindicated. So I fired off an email. Subject: Hamstring keeps Adrian Peterson out of Vikings practice. Message: Had everything correct except the NFL team!
http://www.mndaily.com/2008/09/19/hamstring-keeps-adrian-peterson-out-vikings-practice
Response the next morning was "impressive." Clearly none of the recipients clicked the link or paid much attention to the link, because this injury occurred in 2008. Something I shamefully realized 3 seconds after the email was sent.

It was a complete failure. And then I worried about them spreading this misinformation at our customer dinner the next day. So I had to come clean. I let them know after a more thorough investigation, that 3 Texans were out with hamstring injuries, but that Adrian Peterson had recovered from his 3 years ago!

On the way home, I continued to make a fool of myself as we played "name that tune." They told me I was going to have to parachute out of the plane if I couldn't guess the artist to a particular song that was sung by Elvis. Had they not given me clues (like it's a song by the King, we'll thank you, thank you very much for guessing) I never would have gotten it correct. Going forward, I will be more accepting of my role on the team, keeping my mouth shut when golf or football is discussed and giving my opinion when they ask for my advice on what to wear!