Great Pairing

Like red wine and s'mores, a great pair was united 7 years ago today. Cas and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary a few days early with our first get-away together since Collin was born. We went to Hyatt Lost Pines in Bastrop and had a wonderful time. We played tennis, rode bikes, walked the grounds, and best of all, slept late together two days in a row!

Cas' highlight was either smashing me in tennis or getting a massage. Mine was definitely the s'mores. I was worried I'd be elbowing young children out of the way, but luckily there was plenty of room around the campfire for everyone. I had three s'mores before dinner on Friday night, and probably would have been satisfied with a few more s'mores and red wine as my meal. We talked about how much we've enjoyed being Collin's parents and how we couldn't wait to take him to Lost Pines with us in a few years, when he could enjoy all the family-friendly activities. We knew he was having a great time at Grammy Lesa & Grandpa Brownie's home, and our daily check-up calls confirmed that they were thoroughly enjoying one another.

When we got back home with Collin Saturday evening, I started to feed him his dinner. He kept trying to yank off his bib and threw a baby temper tantrum when I kept velcro-ing back on his neck. Apparently the grandparents let him eat without a bib if that was what he preferred. Poor Collin, stuck with his mean parents and all their unyielding rules.

Speaking of strict parents, we clearly should have been more strict with our dogs. When we pulled up to Grammy & Brownie's backyard, we saw evidence of Bruno & Fergie's presence. Their dog Rudy's chair cushion suffered injury, its stuffing scattered throughout the backyard.Fergie, the assumed perpetrator, looking sweet and innocent - Typical Bruno, his nose in everything, even the camera lens -With the exception of our destructive dogs, we considered the weekend a great success. Everyone but Rudy agreed we'd have to do it again soon!

House Guests

Collin was taken with our house guests during Uncle Libero & Aunt Elida's wedding - Great Aunt Anisja & cousins Espi & Lina. Pictures of Collin with Lina are in the wedding folder which we've yet to tackle.

But I captured some of the fun Collin was having with Anisja & Espi on Saturday and Sunday. Great Aunt Anisja, who has four incredible grandkids, is a pro at keeping babies happy.
It was Collin's first time to meet cousin Espi, and she had him giggling with only a touch to the nose.

Espi shared a room with Collin and I was a little worried that we'd find out that he's not as sound a sleeper as we believed him to be, but fortunately Collin slept through the night without a peep.

Collin loved unwrapping . . . and then eating . . . presents from family -

We traded the tissue paper for the bath toy and he happily chomped away -

We had such a great visit with family and can't wait to see everyone again. I'm sure at some point we'll travel with Collin, but right now just thinking through the logistics of traveling with a 9-month-old stresses me out, so we're delighted when friends and family come to us!

Uncle Libero & Aunt Elida's Rehearsal Dinner

Collin had a great time with the family at Uncle Libero's . . . and now officially AUNT Elida's wedding rehearsal. Our cousin Gabriel had him entertained with peekaboo while the wedding party was practicing the moves.

Collin & Uncle Libero, looking cool -
Collin and Grandma Libia were cracking each other up -
Collin is paying close attention to his dad's athletics lesson.
Our coordinated family in black, white & red -
We dropped Collin off at Grammy and Brownie's to sleep, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing rehearsal dinner.

The groom & bride looking gorgeous and ready for the big day!

Mother of the groom with the best man -

Cas, Aunt Elida & Uncle Libero -

Cas with GGM aka Lita

I made Cas take a full-length photo with me because my shoes made the outfit. At the end of my pregnancy I quit high heels and many of my old heels are collecting dust still in my closet. I felt like the reappearance of these 3.5" beasts deserved photo documentation -

Next up . . . the wedding . . . once I narrow down pictures from the hundreds we took . . .

Too Tall to Turn in the crib

When I was passing by Collin's room the other night, I was amused by his choice of sleeping positions. Cas has found him asleep sitting on his feet with his rear end up in the air. I found him with his feet dangling out of the crib -
Must be from Cas' genes. I sleep on my half of the bed, even when I have the bed to myself in a hotel room, while Cas would splay across the entire king size bed if he didn't have to share it.

Posing in the Pumpkin Patch

While Cas was in Miami with Uncle Libero celebrating his last weekend of singledom, Collin and I spent the weekend with Grammy and Brownie. Saturday morning we joined the 35,000 other walkers and runners at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was fun to see that much pink and inspiring to watch the ladies going through the survivors path at the end of the 5k. Collin was so busy watching the crowd and the high school bands and cheering squads on the sidelines that he forgot to take a morning nap.

Saturday evening we visited a pumpkin patch at a church near my parents' home.
When we weren't making our own sound effects and crazy motions, it was funny to watch the other parents and family members doing their own silly antics to encourage the babies and toddlers to smile.
I was so impressed with Grammy Lesa who was able to get Collin to deliver some huge grins. In this picture, Collin is staring at her in gleeful anticipation as she creeps towards him. Someone should have been recording my mom on her hands and knees crawling through the hay at her grandson. But the resulting smiles where you can see the excitement in Collin's hands & face were worth the effort.

My sweet boy in a rare moment of content stillness . . . before he reached for some hay to eat -

As far as Cas and I know, you have to look through the viewfinder rather than the digital screen to use our camera. So Grammy was doing her creepy crawling to make Collin smile, and then would pop up, look through the camera and shoot. It was nuts but she captured some great photos -

With two top teeth coming in, of course Collin would try to eat the pumpkins -

I'm not sure at what point Collin crosses over from baby to toddler, but I feel like we're fast approaching that switch, as Collin tries to look bigger by pulling up on everything.

I am loving this stage of life. While I can get absolutely nothing accomplished when Collin is awake (with regards to making a meal or picking up our home), it is fun to watch him explore. He crawls from room to room in our house, but the best is when he crawls to my legs to be picked up or crawls on to my lap . . . though that's normally in route to come pull my hair.

Sloppy kisses

Random Collin pictures without any interesting story to accompany them . . .

Toy phones are for babies; Collin wants to play on the real thing - Until he realizes that it doesn't fit in his mouth -

Trying to make a living room escape -

Surrendering to defeat of the child gate -

Going in for a wet one -

Pucker up twin in the mirror

Chew toy mix-up

This picture was my objective - our child and dogs happily enjoying their chew treats on the rug together -

But of course it wasn't that simple. Collin initially had Sofie la Giraffe, his favorite teething object, and the two dogs had their rawhide "chewies." I took a quick step to the side to grab my camera. My eyes left the group for no more than 2 seconds.

When I step back, Bruno is sitting and looking up at me expectantly. He inhales the chewies very quickly, but this would have been a record. When I look to Collin I see the Bruno-slobber-covered rawhide chewie in Collin's hands and going for his mouth. Cas asked me why I didn't get a photo, but I chose to stop my baby from munching on the rawhide over a funny photo - Collin will surely thank me later in life.

However, after a quick taste of the rawhide, Collin decided the plastic Sofie was inferior. Though I situated everyone with their appropriate chew toys, Collin quickly dropped Sofie in pursuit of the dogs' treats. I was so proud of Bruno and Fergie who were not the least bit possessive.

I did manage to snap this before I took it out of Collin's hands. Doesn't he look fierce? His mouth is open and ready for rawhide!
On a more positive pursuit, when I went to pick Collin up from school yesterday, they were outside playing in this toddler playground area. As soon as Collin saw me, he dropped his toy and sprint crawled through the grass to the gate with his teacher chasing after him. What a great way to be greeted!