Fun Friday!

Today started off a little slow with a lot of indecision, but finally Aidan and I decided we wanted to go use one of my Mother's Day gifts at All Fired Up. Lucky for us, my sister Steph had off and wanted to give it a try too!

We got there and had so many choices to make, what piece to paint, what colors, what piece to have Aidan put his handprints on, how to have that decorated, what tools to use, etc. We sat down and got to work. Aidan was up first. We were happy to have Kim help us out with painting and putting his handprints on a flower pot I picked out. He wasn't so sure what she was doing to his hands at first, but then when it was time for the second one he acted like an old pro. His handprints look cute and I can't wait to see the finished product. It's going to say "Growing hands, growing mind" and his hands will be the leaves and stems and then she'll put some flowers toward the top. The great thing is that all we had to do was put his handprints on and they'll decorate it for us for a small fee. I probably could have done it on my own but since it was my first time I wasn't sure how I would make it turn out. Maybe next time now that I'm a little more comfortable with it. I think it will be a fabulous decoration for my desk at school...now I just need to figure out what kind of flower I'll plant in it. Any ideas?

Steph chose a serving plate to decorate. She chose a golden yellow color as the background color with a reddish color to put hearts and dots on with. She then wrote "Made with Love" around the edge of the plate. Trust me it looks much better than I've described. Since I wasn't decorating the flower pot I picked another piece to paint. I chose a really simple pencil holder since I needed one for my desk and I figured it would be simple enough to do even while entertaining Aidan. I picked out a specked blue for the background and then made daisies on top of that. I'm interested to see how it turns out since I have no idea how many coats I put on but know that it wasn't even! It's tough to paint pottery while feeding Aidan goldfish/puffs/juice and getting him a book/magna doodle jr./another book/paper towel. Thank goodness he sat in his seat the whole time!

Once we were all done decorating we left our mess (they clean it all up!) and our almost finished projects for them to take care of. They said it would take about a week for the items to be fired and ready for us to pick up. I can't wait! We were hungry at this point and decided we'd take a stroll to The Pop Shop to get some lunch. I had been wanting to try this place ever since I had seen it on The Food Network. After a short wait (yes, this place was packed even at 2pm!) we got seated and Aidan wore his special hat just enough for us to take a few pictures. Steph ordered the Maple grilled cheese sandwich (chicken, bacon, cheese on sourdough) and I got the Collings (cheese on country white) thinking I could share with the little guy. We split a basket of fries and each splurged for a milkshake. That was the strawberriest milkshake I've had in a while. Aidan loved the whipped cream and had a taste of the milkshake. He refused to try Steph's chocoloate one, a man after my own heart. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious! Our waitress and the environment was great! I would love to go back there again, maybe for breakfast.

Aidan fell asleep on the way to drop off Steph and slept a whopping 25 minutes. That turned out to be the only nap he had today. I was really concerned about how his mood (okay, mine) would be without anymore rest but he was so pleasant and playful! We had a great time this afternoon and finished our night out with a trip to Applebee's with Sean and his mom. I had to run into Acme really quick so I brought him in with me without a cart. He was so giddy to be walking around the store. He was pointing and talking and singing and laughing. It was hilarious. If only he were that happy on all of our Acme trips! hah! We returned home and got a little more playtime in before him hitting the sheets at almost 10pm!

Oh, by the way, we've made it TWO whole entire days without using bottles!!! He's transitioned pretty well. Yesterday was fantastic because he still drank the same amount of milk he would normally have. Today he didn't drink as much, but still did well. I'm most excited that the night time routine isn't so bad. After he drinks his milk I brush his teeth and then give him his flouride. He's got that routine down as if we've always done it. So cute.

My thoughts on life right now:
Painting pottery is fun and calming, but expensive.
Having a sister *like mine* is the best.
It's great to be able to take Aidan places and him enjoy it.
No bottles means less dishes to wash! woohoo!
Time to enjoy the weekend!

@ the pop shop

After painting pottery

Wondering why on earth i stopped the swing to take his picture.

Lunch Date

Aidan and I had a lunch date today with Tracy, a teacher I work with. We went to Cracker Barrel and Aidan was very good. He sat so nicely in the adorable little old-fashioned high chairs they have and snacked while we talked and had lunch. Then after lunch and right about when he was getting antsy, we went out front and rocked on the rocking chairs. Aidan didn't do much rocking but he did love moving the checker pieces from the table to a rocking chair and back again. He also found a chair that was sized just right for him. Check out the pictures below! We had a really great time and it was good to catch up!

My thoughts on life right now:
Lunch was yummy.
Aidan loves people.
Friends are fabulous.

He loved the rockers! (and the checkers too!)

Cracker Barrel

15 month check-up

Yesterday Aidan had his 15 month check-up. The reason it took me an entire day to blog about it is because I heard a few words that I just didn't want to hear. "He has a slight murmur." Yeah, those are the words that turned a good appointment into a not so good day. The pediatrician listened to his heart and heard a slight heart murmur, one that hasn't been heard in him before, and wants us to get it checked by a pediatric cardiologist. So yesterday after our appointment I called CHOP to get an appointment. The earliest we can get in is September 11th at their Voorhees site. I then called Dupont to see if we could get in any earlier and the woman was not only a complete witch, but she couldn't give me an earlier appointment so I really didn't like her much. So, say a prayer or two for our little guy that this is just something minor and the pediatrician's ears weren't working well or it's something that will fix itself.

As for the rest of the appointment, that went really well; well, except for the scale. I think he's getting to the point where he's not so into being laid down on the scale to get weighed. He'd rather stand on the big kid scale since he's a big-bad-walker now. He wasn't happy about sitting there naked having some strange woman closer to him than mommy. The first time she weighed him he was 23.5 pounds which is less than his 12 month weight. Then we had to do it again. Finally a little more normal read and once I picked him up he gave me the biggest hug ever. So cute.

His stats this month were:

Weight: 25 pounds 14 ounces (75th percentile)

Height: 32 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumference: 49cm (97th percentile)

He gained one pound and one inch since his 12 month check-up. He used to be in the 75th-90th for his weight, 95th for his height and was always off the charts with his head, so he moved down in the percentiles a bit. My great big guy isn't so big on the charts any more due to all that movement!

She said that he is developing very well and that he looks just perfect (we already knew that!). When it was time for the nurse to give him his vaccine he laid down fine and then screamed like she cut off his leg when she stuck him. Poor guy. I feel so bad doing it to him but it's far better than getting any of the diseases. He was fine within a few minutes and after a little juice. He even held my hand and walked out even though the nurse said his leg might be too sore to walk today. I guess he was just showing her just how tough he is.

My thoughts on life right now:

Health is priceless.

Prayer is powerful.

Aidan is everything.

Bye Bye Bottles!

Today at Aidan's 15 month check-up Dr. Liao said it was time to kick the bottles to the curb. She said "out of sight, out of mind". We unsuccessfully tried to do this right before vacation and it did not work at all. Since then we've got him down from four bottles to two, just a morning and night time bottle. The late afternoon one was fairly easy to get rid of. Well, tonight will be his last bottle with Daddy. As I type this tears come to my eyes. Seriously. As much as we will love not having to wash all 6 parts of one bottle, we will greatly miss the time spent cuddling with him as he drinks each one. He never was a child that held his own bottle, unless it was done. He just cuddled and played with his bib or our hands as he drank. That time was priceless and now that it's going away it's really sad. I'm not quite ready for my baby to grow up yet. Heck, we get a kick out of him walking over to the chair to get his bib for us to put on him. It's his way of letting us know he's thirsty. I know that just because the bottle is gone doesn't mean he's all that grown up, it's just hard to believe my baby isn't such a baby anymore. Thankfully he's naturally a cuddler, but I'm really going to miss those bottle feedings. I know Sean is too. Let's hope this goes smoothly for all of us.

My thoughts on life right now:
I'm afraid of Aidan growing up.
I'm afraid Aidan is going to scream at me tomorrow when I hand him a cup.
This should be interesting.

He's growing up...

Today was Baby's Way to Books at the library and Aidan loves going but once we're there he gets so shy. He doesn't want to leave my side to dance or get his own musical instrument at the end. Usually the format is a few songs to start, a couple of stories read aloud, a simple craft (coloring, painting, etc), free play with musical instruments, and then a few songs to end it. Well, after clutching onto my leg and sitting on my lap instead of his carpet square we finally make it to the instruments part and he came out of his shell a little bit. I got him bells to start with since he did not look interested in all at getting up to get anything and then after a few minutes (and watching a couple of other little ones safely move away from their mommies to get their own instrument) he crawled to the box that was oh-so-far away (4 feet) and got his own instrument. To my surprise he stayed at the box and started taking each thing out one-by-one. The little guy next to him thought it was more fun to put them back in the box. So as they continued this pack-unpack game with a little bit of playing in between, I watched my 15 month in awe as he finally felt comfortable enough to let go a bit. I think he enjoyed the freedom and I certainly enjoyed watching him. We came back to our carpet square after cleaning up, today it was Hh with a house picture, and stood to do "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", a song he knows well at home and will touch his head and shoulders and sometimes toes, but at the library he acts like he's never heard it before. (I hope he doesn't become like me in the aspect of worrying what others will think all the time) We do a few more songs and then it's time to say goodbye and put the carpet away. Usually we walk it over together but "Mr. ILikeThisIndependenceThing" decided he would put it away on his own today after I handed it to him and instructed him to go put it away. Did I really think he'd walk all the way across that great big room (okay, so it's only about a 10ft walk) all by himself and put the mat down? No way! I thought he'd want his mommy to hold his hand and walk him over there. Well, he proved me wrong. Way wrong. He took that Hh mat from me with such confidence and walked right over where the other little guy was nicely stacking his mat on top of the others and from about 2ft away he gave his Hh carpet square a nice toss right to the top of the pile. Hah! He's so good he didn't even have to walk all the way there. Nice job buddy! Mommy is so proud! :-)

Weekend Recap

I'm beat, but maybe it's because this was a pretty productive weekend. Friday evening we did a little bit of yard work before the storm blew in and forced us to stop working and go have dinner at the best Chinese place in town with some pretty good company. We ordered chicken nuggets for Aidan...his first meal ordered out. He ate about a half a nugget, but this could be due to the fact that he already had dinner before we came out and had a few snacks too. He was very good though and kept waving at our waitress. Sean and I watched The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller after Aidan went to bed. Pretty good movie.

Saturday we all slept in! Aidan didn't wake up until almost 10am! He's such a good sleeper, well, lately he's been stirring a little more at night, but still sleeping quite well for us. Our plans of a trip to Home Depot and getting yard work started early went by the wayside and we got started much later. Sean made it to HD but I never got outside to do any work before we had to get ready for Dawn's 40th birthday party over in PA. It was a great time and Aidan and I even went for a dip in the pool! He loves water. I swear he's a little fish. We borrowed a baby float from another couple that was there and he seemed to really like that as well. He was just kicking and kicking those legs of his. He slept quite well once he finally got to bed and Sean and I watched another movie, Stepbrothers. I think that's a record for us...two movies in one weekend. It was kind of nice actually. Usually it's just sports on TV.

Today Aidan got up a little early and Sean was wonderful and let me go back to sleep for a bit. Mornings like that are FABULOUS! Once we were all up and moving we started getting ready to do more lawn stuff. Sean got outside and got to work and Aidan and I decided it would be a good idea to hang outside on the patio and play with a little water track that has boats in it.


That lasted for all of 5 minutes before he was splashing himself and dumped it onto the blanket we were sitting on. Toby enjoyed the warm sun too!

So I decided since it was hot out and he wasn't ready for a nap yet that it would be a great idea to fill his pool and let him play for a bit.

He was not happy watching it fill so he got in and helped the hose out.

He played in there for a while, spent some time on his swing set and then on the big swing before getting ready for lunch.

He ate fairly well but I could tell he was exhausted. Little did I know, he was so exhausted that he fell asleep in his high chair minutes after he was done eating lunch. It was adorable!

He ended up taking over a 3 hour nap before Sean woke him up to get ready to leave and go to dinner at his parent's house. My mom and Mike stopped by to drop off a couple of things and got to see the sleepyhead for a few minutes before we left. Dinner was yummy and the company was great. Our little guy is now sleeping peacefully in his crib and we're pretty exhausted too. No movie tonight.

My thoughts on life right now:
It was a great weekend.
Being productive makes me happy.
Aidan is AWESOME!
Aidan is adorable and very, VERY loved.
I/We need to be productive this week!

a few favorites...

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Aidan from vacation, where we wish we all were right now...

I love how he's looking directly at the camera and smiling...so cute.

He's up to no good here, as usual.

He's just so darn cute.

My thoughts on life right now:

I wish I were still on vacation.

I'm so excited to have been able to paint my toenails today.

I really need to clean, but hate cleaning.

Staying up until 2am last night is finally catching up to me, just as Aidan's nap is about to end.

Celebrating pop-pop's birthday.

I have the coolest kid.

Aidan has to be the coolest kid in the world. I have to take and give some credit to both myself and Sean. If it weren't for us he wouldn't have the personality or mentality that he has. He's laid back and flexible enough to take just about anywhere. I can't tell you how many people find it unbelievable that we take Aidan to so many sports events and we are able to stay the entire time without major fits. Yesterday I took Aidan to Sea Isle with my sister and her most-likely future mother-in-law, and my sister's boyfriend's aunt and cousins. Aidan was wonderful. He was great on the ride down, sat in the wagon on the beach while I got everything set up, and then was just perfect the rest of the day. The were all impressed at how good he was.
Today after a nice walk to the park in our new all terrain stroller, I took him to Bed Bath & Beyond and the mall with my mom. He's so curious and wants to help out by putting things in the cart...sometimes a good thing, sometimes it's things that Mommy doesn't want though. :-) We got to the mall and he sat so nice in the food court and ate his lunch then waited for us to finish ours. The only problem with this little guy is that he's still afraid of that darn metal foot measuring thing at the shoe stores. Can't they figure out a way to make them warmer or more kid friendly? Every time one of those things comes near him he starts yelling and waving at it to go away. Quite funny, but I needed to find out if his rather large feet got larger. They did. He's a 6 wide. Nope, still havent' grown out of the wide yet. His feet are getting slimmer though, so it'll be soon which gives us hope of a much larger shoe selection.
He fell asleep on the ride to drop off my mom then managed to stay sleeping when we got home and I transferred him from comfy carseat into the house with our noisy dog that was too excited to see us, and up to his crib. He's still snoozing. Lucky for Sean, it gave me time to make some mini-meatloaves. Now onto the online search for cool sneakers for Aidan!

Walk in the new stroller

nap time in Sea Isle

long night...

After a very long evening out at the Gold Cup soccer doubleheader with an awesome OT win by penalty kick by USA, I'm exhausted. We had a great time with the rest of the Collins family and Aidan was wonderful as usual. He's such a little sports fan! We all came home and got ready for bed. Sean put on Knocked Up for the bazillionth time and every time I see it I think of how badly I wanted to see it and it was shortly before we found out we were pregnant with Aidan. I guess it was mommy instinct.

I just looked over and both are sleeping so peacefully in the chair together. Just adorable. These moments are the ones I just want to bottle up and save for when he gets older and thinks he's too cool to cuddle.

I'm also excited because I figured out how to add a layout to my blog. Yay me!

My thoughts on life right now:
My husband and son are AWESOME!!!
Knocked Up is a great movie...my favorite line: "F*C* you hormones!" (such a true statement)
Time for bed.

USA

Gold Cup Soccer game

nap time @ the mall

Despite the face he likes apple slices.

North Wildwood 2009 (299 photos), by Staci Collins

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=877151247717909343/l=2788881008/g=29280399/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=1424346008/a=29280399_29280399/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=299%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

NWW 2009 pics/playdate

I am so proud of myself. I actually uploaded all of the pictures from our vacation less than a week after we got home. Whew. That rarely happens. Usually it's a month or so after the big occasion before they find a way off of my camera. But, I was completely out of space and missing out on some good pictures.
Today Aidan and I had a playdate at an awesome indoor playcenter with a few teacher friends and their kids. Aidan particularly enjoyed time with Mikey and Lily since they are all so close in age. Lily is a little chatterbox and even said Aidan's name after calling him baby a bunch of times. It sort of came out "Aiday". It was adorable! Mikey had a blast running around and climbing on everything. Aidan enjoyed people watching and playing on all of the new equipment and toys. He loved the ball pit too! Unfortunately due to the fact I was out of memory and I forgot to bring my camera, I've got no pics. But we all loved it so much that we want to go back again. Next time I promise to have pictures. Aidan really enjoyed playing and wore himself out.
After playtime we headed right over to the new Target, which I LOVE. It's got the cadillac of carts and is so open and clean. Aidan enjoyed his packed lunch and I enjoyed my snack. We grabbed a few Aidan related items and walked around the store for a bit. Aidan was so worn out from all the walking and climbing that he started to fall asleep in the cart with his head resting on the handle. I only wish I had my camera because it was just too cute. I guess the cart seat cover is pretty comfy (one of my most useful shower gifts by far). After checking out, a quick diaper change in the car, and music and A/C on, Aidan was asleep within 5 minutes and out for a nap for the next two hours. Enough time for me to get a couple of things done and take a short nap to rest up for a trip to Acme with Aidan since there wasn't much to choose from at home.

My thoughts on life right now:
Time goes by way too fast.
Aidan is the best.
I love being a mom.
Find some motivation to get a lot accomplished this summer.

first time out golfing and got a 58 at Clayton Park. Only 28 over par. No Tiger Woods here.

There's no place like home...

or is there? Because honestly I'd much rather be back down in NWW on vacation again. I'd give up my 2 1/2 bathrooms, comfy bed, and extra amenities here at home to be a block from the beach again. There's something about being at the beach that is so relaxing. Now I'm home with a mile-long to do list that is not getting accomplished. And being on the internet is definitely not on that to-do list other than to upload pictures, which will get done later. Aidan is napping, and doing it well, the dog is snoozing next to me and Sean's very hard at work. I bet thoughts of the waves crashing and sand against our toes is crossing everyone's mind path right now. Well, maybe not the dog, but I bet he'd enjoy it if he went. One thing that was nice about getting back home was taking Aidan to the library for the Baby's Way to Books session. We met up with our friends Lori and Mikey and enjoyed a nice storytime, songs, and coloring project. Aidan loved playing with the musical instruments but I've got to work on the kid songs with him. Right now his favorite jam is "Boom Boom Pow". The kid even says "boom boom boom". Funny, but not so funny when your kid only dances to Q102's music instead of kid music. Time for me to get back to the real world.....

My thoughts on life right now:
My house is bigger than I thought, especially after sharing a 4BR/1Bath house with 8 other people.
I love the beach.
I can't wait until next summer.
The internet sucks the time out of my day.
I've got tons of things to get done and no motivation to get them done.
My little guy is growing so fast!

Hopefully the pics from vaca came through. Plenty more to come.