You thought Dinosaurs were Extinct . . .

Though Collin has a lot of his dad's features, we know he has my blood . . . unfortunately for him that blood is attractive to mosquitoes. Here's what I returned home to see - Do you see all the mosquitoes bites on my poor baby's forehead? There were 7 bites. Cas had him outside in the stroller one night when our electricity was out, and because the mosquitoes weren't biting Cas, he didn't realize his son was being eaten alive inside the cocoon of his stroller.

Collin doesn't seem to be too upset by the bites. Here he is laughing away with Grandma Libia -
After his bath, Collin got to wear his dinosaur robe.

And to further his dinosaur interpretation, he had to move around on his hands and knees.

He's finally started to put crawling together and can now get any toy that catches his eye. Unfortunately, it's rarely a toy that he's after - normally it's my cell phone or an open glass of water or a shoe. He's surrounded by toys but always wants the one thing he's not supposed to put in his mouth.

My brother Alex was very interested in dinosaurs when he was young. I remember him telling adults he wanted to be a paleontologist and some of them didn't know what he was talking about! His girlfriend Coady gifted Collin with this wonderful children's book called Dinosaurs Roar. Between the dinosaur robe and rhyming book of dinosaur opposites, we'll see if paleontologist will be on Collin's future occupations list as well.

Uninterrupted sleep and other highlights from my weekend in Chicago

I have a work conference in Chicago and went up the weekend before to spend time with family and explore the city. Here are some of my highlights:

1. Second City comedy show. It was one of those experiences where my cheeks hurt from smiling & laughing for 3 hours. I haven't even left Chicago and I'm already looking forward to a new show at my next visit.

2. On Saturday and Sunday morning, I slept past 9am. Even though I've occasionally been able to nurse Collin and hand him off, it was the first time since he was born that I've had uninterrupted sleep past 7:30am!!

3. Touring the city - On Saturday we walked to the aquarium. Coady was her typical joyful self, even in the overcast, drizzly morning weather -

We enjoyed Shedd aquarium - the penguins, seahorses, and other sea creatures


4. The great weather - Saturday afternoon and Sunday were GORGEOUS - 50s to mid-70s. Perfect weather to take pictures in the parks. Here are Coady & Alex in Grant Park -

And posing like America's Next Top Model contestants -

We had to continue the pose created by Alex and Coady. I really hope it's the posing or camera angle because otherwise my rear is HUGE and I've been ignorant of this fact. Oh well, at least you can see we were having a lot of fun!

At the Silver Bean structure in Millennium Park - so cool! As Coady is posing, you can see me snapping the photo in the mirror above her. I was delighted by the bean, a fairly new and clearly popular landmark in Chicago.

5. Watching Alex and Coady so happy and in love -

6. Getting to listen to my cousin Bryce's band practice in their studio (Bryce is on the drums.)

Bryce, his friend Danny and I had a wonderful afternoon in Lincoln Park, walking through the zoo and throwing Frisbees in the botanical gardens -

I miss my boys but I've had a wonderful time in the Windy City!

While I was busy exploring Chicago, I have a feeling Collin and Cas were watching way too much football. And I'm one of those crazy anti-tv for babies moms, so I think anything more than 1 minute is way too much football. We took pictures of Collin checking out his first NFL game before I left. At first I was worried that he was too interested in tv.

But the game held his interest for just a minute. Then he moved on to posing for the camera, followed by crawling practice.

Breakfast for dinner

Normally we give Collin Cheerios to keep him occupied while we eat dinner, but he much prefers leftover blueberry pancakes.
Unfortunately they're a bit messier than Cheerios. The super-fruit qualities of blueberries brought out the silly side of Collin -

My brother and I grew up quite spoiled when it comes to breakfast. My dad is such a morning person and was always offering to whip up pancakes, waffles or omelets in the morning. Alex and I normally chose cereal as we'd sit in zombie fashion, using the breakfast time to help us wake up rather than feast.

Once we moved away, we realized how good we had it with a short-order breakfast chef as a dad. We'll see if Cas or I get the breakfast-cooking desire once Collin is able to eat regular food. It's not looking good for Collin though, because neither Cas or I remotely fall in the "morning person" category.

And just so the grandmas get their credit, both Grandma Libia and Grammy Lesa are incredible chefs. Grandma Libia will often cook us dinner when she comes to watch Collin. She puts together delicious meals based on what is in our pantry. I cannot cook without a recipe, so I'm always amazed. And my mom will tell you that we had to ask her what a tv dinner was because as kids, we always had homemade meals at the dinner table. They've given us quite big shoes to fill when it comes to feeding our son!

Labor Day Getaway

While Cas had a very productive Labor Day, working around the house, Collin and I got away from the home repairs and retreated to Grammy & Brownie's house. Grandpa Brownie introduced Collin to a lizard -

Collin wasn't sure what to make of it, but didn't appreciate it when Grandpa Brownie refused to let the lizard become a chew toy. We quickly gave the lizard its freedom.

My brother and I grew up with lots of critter catching. We'd be taking a bath and my dad would walk by and drop in a frog. We'd be eating dinner and a lizard would be dropped off to scurry across the table. It will be fun to watch Collin learn to catch frogs, lizard and skinks, but hopefully he won't be bringing them to the dinner table . . . at least not at our house.

Later that evening, GGB and Great Uncle Dick came for a fajita dinner. Great Uncle Dick taught Collin his second trick (his first one being to shake his head "no" - something only his dorky first time parents think is thrilling) - high five. It's still a work-in-progress, but here they are practicing -

We told Grandpa Brownie that Collin wakes up around 7am. At 6:45 in the morning, Grandpa Brownie was pacing. Of course it happened to be the Sunday that Collin would sleep a little late, finally making a peep at 7:25. As soon as he was done eating, he was whisked away for more grandparent time and I got to sleep late - yay!

Collin had a blast on the swings with Grammy Lesa. He was squealing and giggling the whole time - Grammy's work threw her a grandma shower when I was pregnant and she got a TON of great baby items - booster chairs, toys, diapers, books, and lots of "I love grandma" paraphernalia. One of the teacher's husbands felt sorry for my dad and bought this onesie, so we had to go outside with Grandpa Brownie for a photo op -

Collin's onesie reads, "Grandpa's my hero."

Practicing his walking skills - though he's yet to get forward crawling mastered.

Collin wondering, "Grandpa Brownie, why do you wear socks with sandals?" We don't know, Collin, we don't know.

We do know that Collin LOVED Grandpa Brownie's breakfast. No bacon for now, but he did try his first blueberry pancake. He ate half of one after his scrambled egg yolk breakfast.

What do you mean that doesn't match?

This is what Collin was wearing when I picked him up from school today:
When I mentioned the outfit to Cas - maroon & navy onesie, green & navy plaid shorts, light blue socks, his response was, "what do you mean that doesn't match." There was one common color running through his top, shorts & socks - navy - but still!

So while Cas is dressing our child like a "what not to wear" candidate, he is also making my day with some sweet treats. Yesterday I had a rough drop off at school with Collin - who was fine by the time I got to my car, but I was not fine - so he brought home a box of:

Sprinkles cupcakes - yum! I know the joke is the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but Cas has learned the way to my heart is with dark chocolate!

Black Bean Boogers

Collin wih a black bean mustache -

The efficient side of me wants to restrain my son when he eats. It would be a much quicker and MUCH cleaner process if he did not munch on his hands between bites, try and grab the spoon, and then smear his food all over everything. But I also don't want to be spoon-feeding him forever, so I am trying to enjoy seeing him develop independence. When he woke up this morning, I noticed some black bean leftovers still in his nose - guess I missed a spot in the clean-up effort.

Finger foods are clearly a work-in-progress, seeing as how half of the puffs ended up on the floor -

Bruno and Fergie would be happy if Collin is a messy eater forever.

Birthday Party Hoppin'

Collin loved going to my best friend's oldest son's birthday party at an indoor inflatables place. There was so much to see and so many children running around, that even though he couldn't join them on the slides and bounce houses, he was highly entertained.

The birthday boy with his grandad. And my godson, the younger brother, enjoying the inflatable slide -

Collin with baby sister, Esmae. Holding hands -

Chase, the world's cutest 2-year-old, was racking up the score in air hockey. Unfortunately no one explained to him that he was supposed to knock the puck in his opponent's goal. Anytime he'd maneuver it into his own goal, he'd clap for himself.

It was hard to eat lunch when there were balloons floating overhead -

But Grammy was able to get some pears and cereal in Collin.