First Day of Part Time

On June 25th, I officially became a part-time worker.  So far it is a complete joy.  I work Tuesday through Thursday and then head into four-day weekends.  I walked out of the office on Thursday with this big, goofy grin, thrilled to know I wouldn't be returning until Tuesday.  I truly enjoy my job but missed this incredible development time with Collin, so with 2 weeks under my belt, this schedule seems to be a perfect fit.

We are praising God for orchestrating this, as my company has no part-time program and while I'm sure there are exceptions like me, I don't know of any of them, especially not any of them with a customer-facing role like I have.  I'm so thankful to Cas for working so hard to support our family and to my bosses for giving me this flexibility.

I'm sure there will be some days where I'd rather be at work than negotiating with a toddler, but on our first day, our only big showdown was leaving the house with his cowboy boots.  We landed on wearing them in the car, but switching to sandals when we headed out in public-

I started my first day of part-time by picking up my grandma and meeting my mom at the Children's Museum. So neat for four generations to experience the magic of the museum. Collin quite intense when offering the life saving care of nose pinching -

Zooming around outside -

Cooking with the help of the hand puppet chicken -

With Grammy showing his age -

Can you tell I LOVE my new part-time status?!?

Back at home (and back in our boots) that afternoon, we tried a new craft, water coloring.  Collin lasted about 5 minutes, which is his typical arts-and-crafts limit.   

Deep in concentration as he painted his brontosaurus -

We had a wonderful first day, and since, have had play dates on every single day off.  We've hit up the Children's Museum 3 times in 2 weeks (what can I say, it's free thanks to our membership & it's air conditioned), met with my friends for play dates, and went to the zoo this morning.  One of these days, we're going to stay at home in our pajamas all day, but so far the planner in me has had us on the go.

Some of my current favorite expressions of Collin's are:

How are you, Collin?  I'm fine.  I'm better than fine, I'm awesome. 

Pretty sure he learned "I'm fine" from a song, and we tried to explain that if we're somewhere great like the zoo, he can say he's great or he's wonderful, etc.  So everytime we ask how he is, he automatically responds with "I'm fine" and then clarifies if he's actually better than fine.

Um, I'm going to say I don't know.  I don't know. 

He used to say "ehhh" on repeat when he didn't know the answer.  Trying to get that out of his vocabulary, we recommended him telling us when he doesn't know.  So now he'll forewarn us that he's going to say "I don't know" and then say it. 

Pinky toe - ay caramba!

This is how he responds when his pinky toe is on the wrong side of his sandals when we are putting them on, which happens about half the time.  Pretty sure he picked this up from his Grandma Libia.  I love it so much it makes me want to intentionally put his shoe on crooked!

We're in that stage where I don't want to correct how he says "amimals" or these silly expressions, because I know all too soon he'll be sounding too grown up.  His favorite things at 2 1/2 are playing with trucks and trains, reading, and recently watching gymnastics on TV.  I'm sure my excitement of the women's gymnastics Olympic trials rubbed off on him, and for the past week he has requested daily doses of gymnastics, cheering for the Olympians by name.     

Couch Conductor

It's funny how without any prodding, Collin is naturally drawn to automobiles.  He points out every big truck, city bus, motorcycle, sports car, tracktor, airplane and helicopter he sees.  When we go to the Children's Museum, he hoards the big trucks, often navigating the tot spot with one per hand. 

So on a Thursday afternoon, the matching newsboy hat that Grammy gave us became his train conductor hat.  He always navigates the couch train first to the rodeo, I guess because we rode a tram to the rodeo this year.  As passengers, we have to provide him a ticket, and by the end of the ride, all of our couch cushions are normally on the floor.  Smiling with green ticket in hand -

Being sweet -

And then being silly -

Mommy wanted in on the matching hat, train ride action -

Enough photos already, I've got better things to do!

Father's Day twins

On the day before Father's Day, Brownie and Grammy came to baby-sit while Cas, Aunt Debbie and I went to a comedy show and dinner.  They were perfectly dressed for some pre-Father's Day posing -

 The promise of goldfish elicited some "cheese" smiles -

 Proud grandpa & grandson -

On Sunday, Cas and Collin dressed as twinkies for church.  Collin stayed in the 3-year-old Sunday School room where we teach monthly.  It was interesting to see him with the older kids, at times intimated but for the most part holding his own.  He did pretty well until we did individual interviews with each of the children, asking them questions about their fathers (what is your favorite thing to do with your daddy, what is your daddy best at doing, etc).  And then he was jealous of all the attention his parents were giving other children, at one point walking up behind me, getting ignored, and then slamming a block on my head.  Maybe God knows what He's doing giving him this long to be an only child!

We tried the next day after church for some pictures with Daddy but the results weren't as impressive.  I guess right before nap time is not the ideal photo schedule -

 The most natural smiles came with the help of tickles from Daddy -