Double the Pleasure Double the Fun

Our Sunday School class is all but the root of our church growth plan. We have proven that we know how to be fruitful and multiply :) Baby showers have become a common occurrence in our group. Recently, I was a part of a fantabulous double shower. It was for two girls in class, Brittany’s second baby, Mandy’s third, and neither wanted to find out if they were having a boy or a girl.

Here began the task of finding cute, gender neutral, invitations for a double shower. (It’s near impossible) So I took to the computer and designed one myself, thus setting the theme for the shower.

 

 *Like my phone number??? For blog purposes of course.

Here are a few pictures from the day. It was absolutely perfect. Our vision couldn’t have been executed any better.

The cake (done by a friend of Mandy)

The hostesses with the guests of honor

The “head” of the table, for Brittany and Mandy

 

One side of the table (we had it set up for 40+ guests). The centerpieces have orange and lime slices in them!

 

An activity/door prize: write a message on a diaper. A diaper was drawn from each basket (one for each mommy) and a prize was given :)

Yummy food

 

The Guests of Honor (Notice the color coordination in their camis!)

The hostesses (Also color coordinated!)

Enjoying the yummy food and punch

Brittany’s gift table, and one of our beautimus diaper cakes

Present time!

 

This was a massive shower and a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and even more love went into planning and executing it. Hands down, one of the BEST showers/events I’ve ever been to :) It was an honor to be a part of this shower for Brittany and Mandy.

Happy Half Birthday Collin!

My little man is six months old today! I took him for his checkup Monday. At four months he weighed 17.04 lbs and was 26 inches long. Now he’s 17.15 lbs and 27 inches long. Since he hasn’t gained any weight the doctor wants to see him in a month for a weight check. I was kind of worried about it at first, but after thinking about it, he’s moving all the time now, and trust me when I say he’s not being starved, by any means. So here’s the 411 on Collin at six months old :)

• Starts getting fussy around 7:00 PM
• Usually in bed by 8:00 (9:00 at the very latest)
• Wakes up between 3:00 and 5:00 AM, depending out how he napped during the day. (The better the naps, the later he sleeps)
• Get up again at 7:00, I bring him in bed with me, and we sleep until at least 9:00 :)
• Wants a nap again around 11:00 for about 30 minutes
• Takes a GOOD nap around 2:00, he’ll sleep at least an hour, sometimes two
• Nurses every three hours, at least
• Wears size 3 diapers

• Can wear clothes ranging in size from 6 months to 12 months, depending on the brand
• Remembered a few days ago he knows how to fake cough (which is so cute, hehe)
• Rolls over constantly
• Sits up on his own, for long amounts of time (he will fall over and lay down when he’s tired of sitting up)
• Can reach for things while he’s sitting without toppling over anymore
• Can turn almost all the way around to reach for something without toppling over
• Will give me kisses. He puts his arms out, opens his mouth really wide and shakes his head as he leans in…. I LOVE THIS
• Plays in his crib while I’m in the kitchen (because he can see me)
• LOVES Carly

• Is interested in the cats, but they aren’t so interested in letting him “petting” them
• Is going to crawl ANY DAY NOW
• Gets into the crawling position and bounces back and forth until he ends up on his belly
• Will hold onto the couch/table/chair and stand
• Has learned to pull himself up
• We had to lower his crib mattress because he was starting to pull up on the side rail. I was in the shower and when I came out he was holding on and bouncing to pull himself up.
• Loves bath time
• Got a new Yellow Rubber Ducky blowup bathtub, and uses the ducks head to try and stand
• Loves applesauce
• Is eating homemade breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and nursing in between)
• Still loves his toes
• Discovered his “manhood”
• The second I realized this my reaction was “ah crap!”
• Spent one afternoon with Dallas and learned to spit raspberries
• Will drink juice and water from a sippie cup
• Talks all-the-time

• I’m positive he’ll say “Da-Da” before “Ma'-Ma”
• Has the best smile and laugh EVER
• Puts his arms up to be picked up (SO CUTE! I LOVE THIS TOO!)
• LOVES all of his cousins, especially Cassidy
• Plays with toys and puts all of them in his mouth
• Everything goes in his mouth if he can get his hands on it
• Will pull his toys out of the basket I keep them in
• Wants to play with the basket more than the toys
• Wants to play with anything that isn’t a toy

5 Month 2 Weeks and 5 Days

I don’t even know where to start! Collin has started so many new things in the last few weeks, it’s amazing! I wanted to wait until his six month check up to do a post like this but I just can’t keep this in another week and a half!

• He sleeps through most nights, for the most part. We usually start the bedtime routine around 7:00, when he starts to fuss: It’s vitamins, light the lavender-vanilla candle, a bath, diaper cream and Vaseline with a fresh diaper, Cortisone on eczema breakouts (if needed), Eucerin lotion all over, footie pajamas, hugs and kisses for Dad, and then one last time to nurse before he lays down (and the candle gets blown out). He’s generally in bed between 7:30 and 8:30. He will sleep (depending on what kind of naps he got during the day, the better the nap the longer he sleeps at night.  Weird.) until about 4:00 or 5:00. On a really good night, like last night, it’s 6:00. He wants to nurse and then go back to bed. After Devin leaves, he wakes up anywhere from 7:00-8:00. At this point I bring him into bed with me. He nurses again and falls asleep next to me. It’s one of my favorite things, to sleep in bed with him in the mornings. He’ll sleep another hour, maybe two and wake up babbling. I generally will lay there and let him talk and play for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes more, depending on how lazy I want to be, or how productive.
• He LOVES the bath, his rubber ducky, and cups. We had to get a second cup just for him to play with it while he was in there because he kept reaching for the one we use to rinse him with. He has been kicking and splashing with his legs for a while, but has now discovered he can do it with his arms and   hands too. It’s too cute. A few nights ago, my child actually crawled out of the baby tub. Yes. He reached out and grabbed onto the end and just hoisted himself right out. He face planted in the big tub because neither Devin nor myself really thought he would do it. Needless to say, we don’t underestimate this little boy anymore.
• He will sleep though the night without eating solid food. So I can wait until he’s 6 months to start that. Except, I didn’t. Because he wants EVERYTHING that I have. I’ll give him a french fry and he’ll suck on it. He reaching for anything that is in front of him. So we started him on real food. It was just some regular Gerber pureed stuff at first to see what he thought about it. He loved everything. Some nights he will finish an entire container, other nights it’s only half. Just  depends on his mood. This makes going out to dinner easier, to a point. If we are eating, Collin wants to eat. So, of course he does. I ran out of Gerber food one day and was going out and opted for some applesauce I had in the fridge. It was more textured than anything he had before. LOVED IT. I could shovel it into his mouth fast enough. I recently stole Mom’s VitaMix and made my first homemade baby food. Acorn squash. Tomorrow will be the first time he tries is so, we’ll see how that goes.
• Has a sippy cup. But it’s not so much a sippy cup yet, as it is a teething toy that water comes out of. If I hold it for him though he will drink out of it. One day he’ll get it.
• Loves Puffs. He gums them until they dissolve and then wants more.
• Tummy time is nonexistent. If he is placed on his tummy, he flips over to his back, then rolls to his tummy, and then to his back, his tummy, and just rolls until he' runs out of room.
• He sits up all by himself. He was a little wobbly for a while, and still is sometimes. But now I can sit him on the floor with toys in front of him and he will play. I don’t have to sit there because I know he he going to fall over. He has more of a “controlled topple” now. I was sick a few days ago. I laid on the couch behind him for about an hour and he just sat and checked out/chewed on all of his toys I set out for him.
• He’s going to crawl. And I’m sure it’s going to happen soon. When he is sitting on the floor, rather than just topple over, he will lean forward with his hands in front of him and bounce back and forth. Trying with all his might to move forward. He’s got all the right motions, but he can’t seem to get one foot out from under him. As soon as he figures it out, he’ll be gone. And there will be no turning back.
• TODAY he started pulling himself up. Or at least trying too. I put him in his crib with some toys to play and walked into the other room for a few minutes. He started to fuss, I assumed he had toppled over and was upset about it. Boy was I wrong. When I walked back in his room I was not expecting to see him. Never mind see him with both hands on the crib rail bouncing and rocking trying to stand up. He was sitting next to his swing later in the day and tried the same thing, with the swing. Much to his dismay the swing, well, swings and isn’t good for  pulling up. So I thought to myself. He holds onto my hand and stand up all the time. He’s trying REALLY hard to crawl, and to pull himself up. I wonder if he could hold onto something himself and stand. So I grabbed the camera (just incase) and put him at the entertainment center. I had enough time to snap like 5 or 6 pictures and get a 30 second video before he plopped down to his bottom. He was so proud of himself. He had the biggest grin ever when he was done.

Ok, I think that’s the bulk of the exciting new stuff that’s been going on. An updated weight and height will come after his six month appointment in a couple more weeks. I can’t believe he is almost SIX MONTHS OLD! That’s HALF of a year! When I was six month pregnant people were telling me I was almost done! SIX MONTHS! Geez…

And of course, just because I think he’s too stinking cute… some more pictures :)

 

 

Collin’s First Easter

First of all, let me start by saying, YES! I know the real meaning of Easter and YES we will be teaching Collin the real meaning of Easter.

I wanted to make Collin and Easter basket but didn’t want to spend a ton of money on it, you know since he doesn’t really know what it is and he will be interested in it for all of five minutes. I was in Target (surprise, surprise, right?) and just happen to find myself in the Easter section in the back. I saw all the baskets and little “basket stuffer” and couldn’t help myself. I NEEDED to make a basket for Collin. First I came across the cutest little Tonka basket, but didn’t want to spend $10 on it. So I kept looking. THEN I came across the BEST basket, a baseball! But still wasn’t willing to spend $8 on a basket. I finally found a basket I was willing to purchase for $1.50. I got him to board books from the Dollar Spot, two little write rattles (because he’s into waving his arm to make things make noise), and a pacifier clip (to keep his toys clipped to him so he doesn’t throw them on the floor). My work of art has been sitting on the entertainment center all week long. I waited for Sunday very impatiently. Devin and I had been looking for the perfect Easter outfit for weeks. But couldn’t seem to find anything. Finally, on a whim, one day I ended up at Burlington Coat Factory. JACKPOT! I got the CUTEST outfit for him. He was SUCH A LITTLE MAN! Sunday morning we got him up, dressed, and let him dig into his basket. I KNOW for a fact that I enjoyed it WAY MORE than Collin or Devin. My mom and brother came to church with us and sat with Devin, while I worked the attendance welcome center. After church we had yummy leftovers at my mom’s, came home and had an awesome Sunday Afternoon Nap. All in all, it was a GREAT Collin’s first Easter :)

Mommy and Collin Easter Morning 2010

 

Collin with is Easter basket, I love Love LOVE his suit and tie!

   

Collin digging into his basket

and checkin’ out the contents

Is he not the CUTEST LITTLE MAN EVER?!?!?!