15 Months

These pictures are actually from last month, but I wanted to be sure and post them. Papaw took Colton and I to the balloon festival. We had a great time seeing all the beautiful ballooons!

Watching the balloons launch with Papaw.

This past Friday, we met Maria and Madden at Firewheel for a playdate. We had a great time shopping and visiting! Thanks for meeting us.

Sweet Madden smiling for the camera. Maria, you are a wonderful mom!

Colton has always liked apples. Usually I cut them up and peel them, but one day while the refrigerator door was open, he reached into the fruit drawer and pulled out an apple. He then proceeded to eat the entire thing, peel and all. Since then he has had about 3 full apples. He can eat on them for hours :) Healthy boy!

I'm loving being home on Fridays again with my little man. Sometimes, Mom needs to spice up the routine so this Friday we had a picnic on the kitchen floor. Notice he had another apple with his meal.

Here are Madden and Colton together.

Here are a few things to remember about 15 months:

• Saying "Amen!" with the song, "If you're happy and you know it" or after bedtime prayers. He says it in the sweetest way (Mamen).
• Saying "hi" whenever he sees me and smiling.
• Pretending to talk on the phone and saying "hello". The other day he picked up a domino and used it as a phone.
• Started waving like a big boy.
• Completely off the bottle. That was harder on Mommy I think. That was my only cudddle time with Colton. He has done great and doesn't complain as long as we keep the bottles out of sight. And he does let me hold him while he has his night sippy cup.
• Waking up at 4 or 5 am most mornings recently.... WHAT IS THIS ABOUT??? Yikes! Sometimes he will go back to sleep until 6 but then he is ready to start the day. He used to sleep til 7 or 7:30. This going to one nap has been such a weird transition. I read today that we need to put him to bed extra early until the transition time is over. He usually is asleep by 7:30 but tonight we put him down at 6:45. We'll see how the moring goes.
• Started "ROARING" when he sees a lion, tiger or polar bear.
• "Whoo, whoooing" when he sees his owl book.
• Still loves birds, outside, airplanes, cars, balls, climbing, Sonic ice, music, Praise Baby and dogs.
• Can point to the moon.
• Says "hot" a lot! When I'm cooking, I hear this constant little voice saying "hot, hot, hot, hot..." and then when he eats... too funny.
• The pacifier is supposed to go next...that may take a while. He loves it so.

We got our 4th haircut Tuesday. I thought I would save some money so I took him to a "regular" haircut place. I don't know a thing about boy's haircuts so when she said she would use the clippers on a 6, I didn't think a thing about it... then she started the cut and his hair was just gone! It's soooooooo short! Lesson learned. I don't have a picture yet, but here's a video of him looking in the mirror and saying Hi.

Blame it On the Rain...yeah, yeah!

Today was Fair Day for our district so we enjoyed a nice rainy day at home. How do you tell a 14 month old that we can't go outside because water is falling from the sky? Well, you can't! They do not understand. We took a walk in the rain this morning. Right before noon the rain stopped so I thought we could go outside and not get wet. Boy was I wrong. Colton found and stomped in every puddle on our street. He was soaked...but very happy!

14 months...

This is one of my favorite recent pictures of Colton. I think it captures his passion for life :) Or at least the bath anyways. Yes, we are finally back in favor of bathtime again (as long as it is in the duck tub). This is Colton in his duck tub catching his reflection in the drain cover. Apparently he likes what he sees.

I can't get enough of that little grin!

Here we are in one of Mommy's favorite places in the whole world. We've just recently discovered Breckinridge Park. It has acres of lush grassy areas (remember my affinity for the green stuff), a pond with ducks and cool playgrounds tucked among the trees. We've been there twice and are thinking about making it a weekly trip. Here is Colton after playing a round of "Ring Around the Rosy".

This is from Monday - Grandma and Grandad came by for a quick visit. Grandad was kind enough to take Colton out in the rain for a short walk. Colton also got to spend last Friday with Grandad while Mom went to work. Colton wasn't well enough to go to school but not sick enough to need Mommy. Grandad and Colton went to visit Grandma at the elementary school she works at, took several walks and had a great time playing! He stayed Friday night and all day Saturday with Grandma and Grandad, too! I know he had a wonderful time! In fact he had such a good time that he called Grandma today without me knowing. I thought he was just playing with the phone and he kept saying, "Hello", "hello" over and over - turns out Grandma was really on the other line! Too cute! So this is a day to remember - October 6 - Colton made his first phone call!

More Memories from September...

Colton and I planned a surprise party for Jack last weekend. He was truly surprised and we had a great time. We had a cookout in the backyard complete with fun patio lights but of course I didn't get one picture of the backyard... Thanks Don & Tianay for taking him to A&M for the day so we could get everything ready. And thanks Bunny for ALL your help that day! You should start a side business for party planning and set-up! You're the best!

Colton in the ice bucket sans ice.

One of Colton's first masterpieces from school. He actually painted the brick and put Humpty on the page. Let's just say that Colton couldn't put Humpty together again, either, so its a literal interpretation of the story :)

14 months...

Colton has also learned how to use his parents as ride-on toys and finds it highly entertaining.

Poor Daddy... I can't imagine why he's all tuckered out.

Showing us his tummy. It's amazing how much he understands. We're about 50/50 on pointing out our eyes, nose and mouth.

14 months...

Showing off his many, many teeth!

Helping Daddy make the coffee. Tonight Colton kept "grunting" about something and pointing to the coffee maker. Well, apparently Colton remembered that he didn't get to help Daddy make coffee this morning so he wanted to make it tonight.

Football Season is upon us...pray for me. Just kidding - Colton is not that interested yet, but someday I can envision having a lot of time on my hands while my 2 men are happily watching football.

It's getting harder and harder to get ready in the mornings. Colton can now reach my make-up drawer and about 2/3 of the counter. So, I've deemed my getting ready time as Sesame Street time for Colton. However; Colton cannot just watch Sesame Street quietly in my bed. He needs toys to play with while he's watching. So, I've learned that dominoes, re-usable ice cubes (shown above) and plastic stacking cups make good toys for him to keep busy (for 5 minutes at least...)

Bye Bye September (14 months)

Here's a look back at September and Colton at 14 months.

This is one of our favorite parks at Firewheel. It's win-win for Mommy and Colton. I get to shop, Colton gets to be outside in the stroller and we usually end the day at the little playground that just happens to be across from the Nestle' Toll House store (I can neither confirm or deny if we've partaken any treats from there.)

"Helping" Papaw put together our new patio chairs. He was really interested in the inner workings of the chair :)

Colton and Daddy just hanging out on the couch. His hair reminds me of the "spiky, baby hair" days.

Life is good at 14 months!

Here are a few things I want to remember about Colton: (Then stay tuned for a picture post barrage. I used picasa and it will only let me post 4 pics at a time, but it's way faster than blogger so bear with me...)

• 
  
  New words: Says go when we say "Ready, Set", hello, ducky, doggie, me-me (milk), singing "e-i-e-i-o", uh-oh (constantly), no-no-no (very dramatically)...


• 
  
  Colton has never liked to hold our hand (even when beginning to walk). He is super independent which result in some forced hand-holding when I need him to go in the needed direction!


• 
  
  Has had 3 warnings at school... Colton tends to be very passionate when he's around other kids. He's the youngest in his class and wonder too if that makes him frustrated. He's been warned about biting (thankfully that has stopped), pulling hair and pushing. If said behavior continues he will be put in the "hot seat". Yikes... We're working on being gentle and personal space! It's been several weeks since we've had a "notice" so I'm not too worried now. However; I did panic when he got his first "bad report" from school and my mind flashed to all the sad faces I had ever written on a student's behavior folder - I hope I didn't cause those parents too much worry!


• 
  
  The other day Colton was "uh-uh-uh-uhing" as he usually does when he wants something. I followed him in to the kitchen where he proceeded to beat on the oven. The poor kid was hungry :) How funny that he knew to go to the oven to indicate food.


• 
  
  Ring Around the Rosy is a very funny game right now.


• 
  
  Loves OUTSIDE!!!! We can be outside for an hour then get inside and take our shoes off and he'll immediately go to back door/front door/garage door - whichever door we didn't just come in and want to go out again...


• 
  
  I don't mind too much - the weather has been great and we've found some cool parks around the area.


• 
  
  We've caught several viruses the past few weeks and have made a record number of trips to the pediatrician. Runny nose, runny (you know what), fevers...just general yuk. I hope we are on the mend now.


• 
  
  **Colton has begun taking 2+ hour naps at school!!! I had begun to give up hope that I would ever see a nap longer than an hour.


• 
  
  TEETH! This boy has a mouth full of teeth. Seriously the only spaces left are the 2 on the bottom next to his molar closest to the front of his mouth and the 2 on the top in the same position (eye teeth- maybe?). The molars were tough (came in around our trip to Branson) and these last 4 are showing through the gum but won't come out already. Poor baby. Please tell me we can rest a while after this.

Summer Vacation Part 3...

OK, I'm a little embarrassed that I'm still posting about the summer in October. Oh well! I'll try to alternate between past and current events so you can see how much our little man has grown! This installment covers our trip to Abilene around July 4th.

First taste of watermelon! He loved it!
Bunny, C, and Meme visiting the family fireworks stand!


Visiting my cousin Michelle.

Any guesses where this sweet picture was taken?
Any guesses now?

We're at ACU!!!! Colton and I took a little tour of the campus while we were in Abilene. It was so fun to show him Momm's alma mater. I'm sure he appreciated it too!
Amphitheater...
Bible Building
More watermelon goodness - this picture is out of order.

Not thrilled about this photo shoot.
Playing with 2nd cousin Sadie (Michelle's youngest daughter)
Seeing "Jacob's Dream" at ACU for the first time. It was spectacular! I love being on the campus of ACU, but being able to be there with Colton and getting to witness such an amazing piece of art was truly breathtaking!

The Quiet Place (in the Bible building of ACU). I spend many hours in this place praying, journaling, studying and just trying to figure out life in my 20's. The Quiet Place was really special to me during my time at ACU.

This was from late May. Colton swimming at Grandma's house with cousins, Wilkin and Henry.
Sweet, smiley Henry! This little boy is so happy!
Aunt Paige teaching Colton how to jump off the coffee table!
The boys "helping" Grandad put his new picnic table together!

Doesn't this picture just scream Summer!!!
More swimming in our backyard with Jazmin!
Our favorite swimming buddies! We need to see you guys soon - we miss you tons!
Happy Henry is too cool for school!
Henry and Colton enjoying the pool.