TGIF

It's been a week I'd like to whine about, but instead I'm trying to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thes 5:8). So here are some things we are praising God for this week:

• A few less calories on Friday night - I was all geared up to try Sprinkles cupcakes, but it closed at 7pm. Why does a dessert place close before dessert time? But I certainly did not need the 4+ cupcakes I would have bought and devoured over the weekend.
• Sick days at my company - at former places of employment, all time off - sick or vacation - was grouped together, so I would drag myself to the office feeling terrible to preserve the precious vacation days. But my company now does not count sick days so I was able to sleep much of the day Tuesday and feel significantly better that evening.
• Pink eye medicine & our great nanny -by the time I got home from work, I could not tell which of Collin's eyes had been red and full of gunk that morning.
• Our healthy boy - the pink eye run was the first time he's needed to go to the pediatrician for anything other than scheduled check-ups.
• The silly things Bruno does - when he's barking at a reflection on the ceiling from Collin's exersaucer, it helps me forgive him for rolling in poop in our front yard & then rubbing up against Fergie so they both need baths.
• Facetime on the new iPhones - so that when I'm ending a conversation with Cas with "see you tomorrow" and he notifies me that he'll be out of town for business another night, that at least we can see each other electronically.
• Collin is thankful that we're dressing him in 9 month clothes and he can finally wear the cute dog outfit from our cousins Trish & Craig, Kirk & Kyle -

• And I'm thankful for all our generous friends and family who have passed down clothes to him, like this outfit he sported to church on Sunday from his great Uncle Juan & family -

How great it would be if my mindset was one of gratefulness, rather than complaining about minor inconveniences, since I have so much to be thankful for in my life!

Kale in the nose

All my family has responded with "poor Collin" when we tell them of the latest food on his menu - kale. I felt a little sorry for him too just smelling it cooking. But we mixed it with peaches or kiwi to disguise the flavor and remind Collin of kale's great nutritional benefits when he's making gagging expressions. (Really we just sit there smiling, making "mmm" sounds while we shovel the green mixture into his open & waiting mouth.)

Some kale on the lip -
This is what happens when Collin is able to free a hand from the normally restraining high chair tray - he puts his hand in his mouth & smears his food EVERYWHERE - up his nose, in his hair, in his ear, etc -
Our next food milestone has been a failure so far - finger foods. And who can blame Collin for preferring to spread the cottage cheese pieces all over his tray rather than put forth the effort to pinch the small morsels and bring them to his mouth. Oh no, our smart . . . or spoiled boy would much prefer to have others spoon feed him during mealtime.

Is this a first time parent paranoid action - cutting the Cheerio's in half? Well I'm a scaredy cat and did not want to use my first aid choking techniques, so I chopped the already tiny bits into smaller pieces.

Collin didn't seem to mind, gumming whatever we put in his mouth -

Our little baller

I'm so far from street smart, I had to check with Cas to see if "baller" was an appropriate term to use for Collin in photos with a basketball, but he assured me it was fine.

Cas seems to go a little crazy in Babies 'R Us. On his second trip to the store - of which his shopping list had one item being diapers - he came back with several new unnecessary things and one I acquiesced on - Collin's first basketball. Collin wants to like it, since it has a rattle inside, but since he can't quite get it to fit in his mouth, it's not his current favorite toy. However, he was okay posing with it. With the Michael Jordan tongue out -

My friend Amber said Collin has puppy dog feet - big feet he has yet to grow into -

I'm always a little sad when he moves up a size in clothes. He grows so quickly and sometimes I'm boxing up clothes he's hardly worn. This was the case for this shirt:

Poor guy, it was way too small, but we bought it for him at the San Diego zoo when I was pregnant with him, and so I had to stuff him in it at least once before it was boxed away. He gave the sleeping polar bear a thumbs up.

When we went to San Diego, we hadn't yet told anyone that Collin was a boy. My mom was sure we were having a boy and was starting to tick me off with her confidence. So we took this picture:

And then we could not have planned it better. At my grandma's 85th birthday dinner, I was flipping through the pictures on my camera to show my mom and her mom our trip. I had completely forgotten about the "fake them out" pictures, so when I came to them, I did not have to act surprised. It worked - for the next week until we revealed Collin's gender, my mom really doubted some of the blue clothes she had bought him!

Mom of the Year - first 6 months

My cousin Trish will jokingly award herself "Mom of the Year" when something funny happens with her kids - something that at the time is the opposite of a "mother of the year" occasion, but is funny in retrospect.

Since our blog always focuses on how lovely things are in our life, here are some not-so-perfect memories - my top 3 "mom of the first 6 months" moments -

3. Making a game of rolling off the couch.

2. Collin eating his stroller cards -
Grammy Lesa bought him these cards that have different fabric for Collin to rub (like fake wool on the opposite side of the sheep card). They are supposed to attach to a stroller, but Cas attached them to Collin's arm. We were walking around the house talking, and though I was holding Collin, I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing . . . which was taking a chunk out of the stroller card.

1. My worst mom moment so far - and this is like call CPS horrific - happened on a super fussy day in the first few months. Unable to settle him down and at the end of my rope, I went for the Ergo baby carrier. After a minute, he always settles down in it. But this time, as I lifted Collin up to put him in it, I hit his head on the fan. And not just a stationary fan blade, which would have been bad enough, but the spinning ceiling fan in his room. It was terrible. Collin though did settle down snuggled up against me in the carrier soon after the incident, and now I always look up before I lift him into the air.

On a girl/boy note, I went to this women business thing at work and an executive told a story about a basketball coach that had coached the men & women's teams. He said the biggest difference was that after the game in the locker room, if he said "you played terribly" all of the men would think he was referring to someone other than themselves, while all of the women thought he was talking directly to them. When I was telling Cas about the stroller cards and how I might do a parenting bloopers post, he swore he had no stories to add. Could this be true or does he just have a male-biased, selective memory?

Once every 3 years . . .

Once every 3 years, this appears in the front of our house - doesn't Collin look thrilled -

A few months ago I was really trying to make our yard look decent, weeding and planting flowers. Then I gave up, and things happened to bloom. If our dog-dominated backyard was included in the "yard of the month" contest, we'd never win!

And just in case you think this is at all an impressive award, we only have 80 homes in our neighborhood, and probably half of them put forth any effort on their lawns. So being awarded yard of the month once every 3 years signifies that our address came up in the rotation, not that our yard is anything special this month.

While Collin could care less about an award, he cares a lot about food.

We call him our little bird because if he spots the spoon, he'll just sit there with his mouth open -

Sweet potatoes got his grin of approval -

The teething process isn't one of Collin's favorite experiences so far - shown by the intensity of his chewing on anything he can get his hands on -

Collin's day on the town

Saturday was a full day for Collin, and it made me realize what an insanely sheltered life he leads. After his second round of avocado, he went with me on his first shopping trip. We just went to Carters to get a shirt, but we were there long enough for my bicep to be fatigued from carrying him.

After shopping, we ran by the library. I look forward to library trips with him in another year or so, but seeing as how most of our books end up in his mouth, I think we're going to hold off on library books for the time being.

This boy just doesn't get out much in public. Mostly because it's infinitely easier for me to run to the grocery store without him, and also because we're probably too overprotective and try not to expose him to germs when possible. But it was fun to see strangers' reactions to my son, to overhear them say he's cute or just watch them grin at him because he's a baby.

In the late afternoon, we made a photo stop at a nearby park and made Collin pose for and with us. Get ready for a LOT of photos . . .

He's still perfecting the skill of sitting without falling flat on his face, so I was nearby to grab him if he started leaning. I'll title this shot, "Grinning at Mommy."

And now facing the camera -

Oh, the sacrifices the photographer makes to get "the" shot. Cas thought being at his level would make a better photo . . . and ended up in a huge ant bed. Cas must have been bitten 20+ times, so we quickly scooped Collin up and headed for higher ground.

Since I'm the blog editor and because I'm normally behind the camera, I'm taking advantage of the fact that we finally have some mother & son pictures. Here they come . . .

He's growing so fast- we can't believe we've had him in our lives for six months already!

Dancing in the gazebo . . . not sure who taught him this move, but he's been watching me practice a step aerobics routine all week, so perhaps that was his inspiration.
Flying with Dad -

Father & son with a tongue out

I'm the biased photographer, but I love this photo of my sweet boys. If you put me in this picture and asked which one of these is not like the other, it definitely would be me! We continually hear that he looks just like Cas.

Welcome to the jungle . . . play yard

I was in a photographic mood this weekend. Collin luckily obliged. Friday night, it was pictures in the living room, under the blinking lights of the play yard.

Collin's Great Uncle Juan, Great Aunt Rosalyn and their family passed down a play yard to Collin, and he's enjoyed it since he was an infant. I've been surprised that something that entertained him at 2 months is still interesting to him at almost 6 months, but we're thankful to have it, as we stick Collin underneath its arches as we scarf down meals.

One sock down, one to go -

He is mesmerized by the blinking lights.

And now can reach all of the toys.

Our long-legged boy - we think he's going to be tall like his Daddy.

Taking a Bite out of Crime

Cas grew up a Spiderman fan, so he came home with a "Future Crime Fighter" spiderman onesie for his son. After an avocado-cereal lunch, Collin was in a good mood just hanging out -

What's up guys?

Talking & showing off my TWO teeth -

Decisions, decisions, which foot to put in my mouth -

Left one is tasty -

New flavors and smells

Branching out from infant rice cereal, we moved on to an avocado. I had high hopes for the avocado since I love them. My baby food book recommends freezing the leftover avocado since "adults don't want a whole avocado minus one tablespoon." But I could eat a whole avocado a night. I put them in salads, on tacos, on sandwiches I take to work, etc. However, Collin had his own opinion . . .

I'm hungry parents, I'll eat my bib if you don't give me real food -

Hmm, this is a new flavor. I'm not sure what I think about this -

Okay, I've determined I'm not a fan. What is this green gook and why do you keep putting it in my mouth?

Round one of avocado was not a hit. But we realized it was a brand new flavor for Collin. For the first 6 months of his life, the only flavor he's ever tasted is my milk. Round two - mixed with cereal and mom's milk, was much more successful. A half grin -

A real (messy) grin -

As for new smells, there was a new odor awaiting us after Collin's morning nap. There is now no more questioning whether Collin has a dirty diaper. Food diapers stink! How wild to think this new fragrance will be a part of our lives for the next few years.

Cabbage Patch Kids

Just as Cas is macho enough to wear pink, Collin is tough enough to play with dolls. When we sit up Eric (yes, I still remember the names of all of my old Cabbage Patch Kids), he just grins. He can stare him down for a few minutes of easy entertainment:

He's quite intense!

I wanted to get a picture of them sitting in a staring contest, but we've turned Collin into a photogenic baby, and now he quite often turns to face the camera.

Weee - swinging with Grammy

Our little daredevil loves to fly, and swinging with Grammy drew lots of smiles and squeals of delight -

In one of my no-common-sense moments, Collin was rolling off the couch and I grabbed him as he fell and swung him. So of course the moment I laid him back on the couch, he rolled himself off into my arms for more swinging. Not the smartest game to encourage a baby to roll off objects - I'm praying there will always be arms there to catch him!