No No NO!

(Okay so this post is way overdue, too many issues with cameras and such, but wanted to post it anyhow so I can move forward and get caught up with new updates!)

It has begun. The "No" period. It really started the end of May and has been in FULL FORCE every day. That and "Huh?" which drives me a little batty too. "What are you doing Colton?" "Huh?" "Where is the butterfly?" "Huh?"

Always wanting to be like his cool parents, here Colton is trying to walk in my shoes:

We got a new entertainment center and Colton was really enjoying his new hallway "jungle gym" before we moved it into the hall bedroom.

Good place for a snack!

Missed events: Easter
I think we missed Easter photos, so wanted to make sure to include those. This was the first easter egg hunt, and Colton proved himself to be a master egg hunter. He still enjoys this game when he finds my stash of plastic eggs or finds a random one he lost in his toy pile.Poor child, Easter ended up being a long day for Colton and by the time we got around to doing our egg hunt at home, he was super tired (note the red eyes) and a little cranky. He did NOT want to wait for Poppa to finish his shower to play once he saw that basket!

Easter Camping trip:

We actually camped the weekend of Easter at Stone Mountain and had a great time. The weather was actually nice and we had a fun time on our first tent camping trip as a family!

Sunrise Easter Service on the lawn

Yes, he is in his PJs as we had to wake him up to go.

He enjoyed running on the lawn and running and running...

Helping Poppa put the tent together

Hmm, wonder if Poppa is going to need these tent stakes I took off with?

Fun in the tent!

Such carefully laid blankets and he ends up like this in the morning

Bungee cords are awesome!!

I love trees!


Mother's Day!

We had a lovely brunch with the Y grandparents and family. Colton and Justin bought me a much loved Frapaccino and the other gift Colton gave me was that he pooped in the potty!

He has been doing pretty well with using the potty. Sometimes he tells you he has to go but usually we ask him if he needs/wants to go and (if he doesn't say NO!) he usually tries and we have been impressed with how well he is doing. He thinks it is great fun and giggles and wiggles his feet during the 'event' and of course it is very exciting with all the cheering when he is done. Let's hope this continues and I'm heading to my favorite store, Full Bloom Parent, for some cloth training pants!

Zoo!




A big mouth sighting...


Big helper!

Zoo Atlanta is doing this awesome program with county libraries and we were able to get in for free! Colton was already free so we found a man with two kids and got his kids in for free with us! Bargain for all! Colton had a blast seeing the animals and all the people. He also greatly enjoyed helping push the stroller. I wondered when we would get to that.

Me Mouse!

Colton doesn't watch much TV, but a couple months ago he caught a few Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes and is hooked. He LOVES ''Me Mouse'' and wants you to turn it to that whenever the TV is on, or whenever he can get a hold of the remote. My mother says she is going to record episodes with their DVR for watching whenever he wants, but I think I'd rather be old school and let him learn that sometimes it just isn't on when he wants to see it. At any rate, he enjoys dancing to the Hot Dog Dance and is super excited whenever 'Me Mouse' is on!

The boys relaxing in bed, probably watching "Me Mouse!"

Big Trucks!

Colton loves to see tractor trailers on the road, or any large vehicles for that matter. He gets very excited and says, "Big!" "More big!" He can actually say, "Big Truck" if prompted, but prefers to refer to them as just "big." If he is getting cranky in the car, we can usually distract him with a nearby big truck or just the idea of looking for one, at least temporarily!

Fun Pictures!

He refused to take the hat off to take a bath. It was just too funny.


We got a new armoire for our bedroom, and again, Colton enjoyed this new jungle gym. The video is hilarious of his confusion about how to hide and say, "Boo!"

Wasn't quite done with his nap in the crib..

Mmm, burritos!

Summer time fun in the pool!

"RACE!!" is a daily activity that usually involves Colton chasing us around the house. We all crack up and he just LOVES it!

Already have my 2 year birthday post pending, I promise!!

Mine That!!

Colton has been saying "Mine" for a several months, and brings to mind a funny sign my mother has in her house now about Toddler Rules, which is similar to this list:

Toddler Rules
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it is mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.

Most recently he has started saying, "Mine that!!" If you have something he wants or thinks he needs (usually food!) you will see him pointing and calling out, "Mine that! Mine that!" It is really funny! We have also been working on saying, "Please" and "Thank you," but we know that will be an ongoing teaching point. It is so sweet to hear him respond to "Can you ask nicely?" with "Peas!" "Thank you" sounds more like "Na Noo" (maybe he is actually from Ork!).

This is an old picture from February of our little hiker on Stone Mountain! We rarely make it further than 1/2 way up when we hike there due to the need to pick up ALL rocks on our way. Takes up a lot of time!

I love to eat! Well, today I do...tomorrow I will not be satistfied with anything you offer me and the next day I will eat hardly anything...I'm unique!

Hard work, playing in the yard! Got to cover up that white boy with big hats!


Always checking things out, getting new perspective!


Ha ha!! Shorty robe!!

It seems like Colton remembers everything. If you show him something once, he remembers next time. Show him where to throw the weeds when he is 'helping' Poppa in the yard, he'll keep taking things to the exact spot all day. Give him a granola bar out of the box on the kitchen island, he'll head right back there later in the day to ask for another. Speaking of those granola bars, we had one box over a month ago. Just got some over the weekend and when he saw them on the shelf, he remembered what they were and (of course) wanted those! "Mine that!!"

He LOVES to look for "Atz" (ants) or any bugs outside and wants to either pick them up or, "step" and smash them. Or will try to lift up your shoe and get you to "step" on it. Lovely. He likes to get you to pick things up too. Yesterday I told him I didn't want to pick up the bug and he went over to the grass, found a weed stem and proceeded to try to get the bug on it so we could look at it but not actually hold it. I'm sure we have shown him this before, but come on! :-) The weather was nice this week and it was fun to watch him wander around the yard, checking out this and that, getting excited over finding a seed or something else super amazing. We are so blessed.

Ball! Big ball! Where's ball? EVERYDAY!! :-) (Yes that is Darth Vader on his cool hat)

Colton is getting very frustrated with his communication difficulties in that we have no clue what he wants or is hollaring for. We are running into the mood swings of a soon-to-be-two-year-old. He is a dear when he is a dear, but the boy can flail and stomp with the best of them when he wants! We also are dealing with sepeartion anxity at daycare when we leave, as well as issues as they prepare to move him to the next age group room. So sad to leave crying baby at daycare. :-)

Who is it?

Poppa is coming! Let me jump out of the truck bed in excitement!


Some fun videos:

Colton loves to see anyone sweep (or vacuum), and really enjoys being allowed to do it himself!

Go Go Go!!

This video is from January but is SO cute, had to share! Colton normally does not actually like to be on the swing, usually he is "all done" really fast but for some reason this day he was really enjoying swinging!

Food
Colton usually loves to eat, but it usually also takes forever for him to finish, especially breakfast. I read somewhere that it should last about 30 minutes for a toddler to eat a meal. Ha Ha!! We're lucky if it is 45 minutes! Foods he is loving these days: yogurt (any kind) and more fun if you give him something to dip in it (like cereal) so it can be even MORE messy, spaghetti (again with the super messy), scrambled eggs (he could eat 3 eggs no problem), granola (I make up a trail mix and he will eat all of it) and granola bars, meatballs (I think he enjoys saying that one), homemade macaroni and cheese, brown rice, and waffles (again the messier the better and he can polish off almost a whole Belgian waffle or two of the small square type). He also usually enjoys most fruits and cheese (just like Mummy).

So, Justin gave Colton the yogurt container for dinner one night and I was on the phone. Normally I don't let him have the container because it tends to get messy but he was doing very good with the spoon. Well, I turned around after a minute and this is what I saw:






More updates on the way with spring holiday fun!

Hoppy Spring!

Enjoying the spring bunnies at Tractor Supply!


"Go Go Go!!"
Running with his little shoulders up and his arms up high, so cute! Colton runs full force everywhere and goes way faster than he can control. Poor child is constantly covered in bumps and bruises on his head, face, legs, arms. Here is a CLOSE up after he ran as fast as he could to me and knocked me over, laughing hysterically (you can actually see his upper teeth here, as they are usually hidden when he smiles):


Here are a few pics of him running around the house, doing one of his favorite things. "KICK!!" He loves to kick, loves balls "BahLL!" and even likes to say and practice kicking, just anywhere: walking around the house, in the highchair...



We're on our third turn trying to get rid of a nasty ear infection. Keep your fingers crossed that this does it and that he doesnt' have to get surgery to put tubes in his ears!

Books
We read read read at our house and Colton loves it! One of my favorite joys of Colton at this age is that he will walk in front of you (if you are sitting on the floor) and then back up to you so he can sit in your lap. Sometimes he backs up from quite a bit off. It is SO ADORABLE and one of my favorite things for the past 6 months or so. He likes to do certain things with certain books, his own little spin on some of the classics:

The Little Engine that Could: He looks at you crazy when you change your voice with characters and about 1/2 through there is a toy that is in the pictures that looks like Humpty Dumpty and he starts wiggling his arms up and down and wants you to sing the rhyme. Right then in the middle of the regular story. Humpty is on about 4 pages and he wants you to sing it each time.

Just one more swim: twice during the reading he will take the book and turn it over on certain pages, apparently he does not like the provided visual perspective on those pages!

Brushing Teeth
When we first started brushing with the actual tooth brush, he thought it was super cool. These days he hates it. Refusing to open his mouth, turning away, biting the brush, almost in tears. He got this stupid book about getting clean with Elmo that he LOVES and they talk about brushing their teeth and he correlates the two, and I try to use that as why he should like it, but alas, he does not agree and mostly fights us every time. Wouldn't take so long if he would just give in! Poor child, the torture! Still has 3 teeth in the middle on the bottom, which is funny, but the matching tooth on the right side is finally peeking out (more teething fun at night).

BBQ Sauce, It's what's for breakfast...



More pudding please!


Takes after Nana L with his multiple drinks!


Tearful bedtimes


So far this year we have had a really good time getting Colton to bed at night. Read stories, several, and drink some water, cuddle/kisses, and off to bed awake but ready for bed and not a peep out of him. Almost twice this past month we ended up having to put him in bed crying hysterically til he finally calmed down and feel asleep. Without any stories or cuddling, made me so sad! But he was all hugs and giggles in the morning and all was forgiven. The "almost" other time of nighttime tears involved a library book of mine that I would not let Colton hold on his own (wouldn't sit with me while I held the book). I had to go hide it from him and he sobbed and cried hysterically, running up and down the hall to our bedroom (where it was hidden), calling out, "Boook! Boook!" Such a mean parent, denying my child a book! :-)


Didn't quite finish his nap in his crib so he wrapped it up with me on the couch. I was mostly faking it. Please ignore the hair frizzies!!


Cuteness!



Circus


Colton was able to go to the circus with all his cousins last month. I haven't been since the week before Justin and I had our blind date over 10 years ago and Justin hadn't been since maybe middle school, so we all had a fun time. I wasn't sure how Colton would do, trapped on our laps, in semi-dark for TWO HOURS but...he did great and really seemed to have a good time.

Raising a Tree Hugger! This picture was actually taken after he was running off a little steam after the circus. He was following around two little girls who were running around and doing little antics, including hugging the trees and he wanted to play along! Too cute.

Date night
Justin and I got to enjoy a fun night 'on the town' in March. We went to a fabulous Bryan Adams' concert in Atlanta (Christmas present from Justin) and had an adventurous dinner downtown Atlanta. I'll leave out the details of the adventure but it involves crazy public transit and a reminder to be sure which way you need to travel on a street if you are walking. Here we are tired on the train ride back:

Quality play time with Poppa:


Colton, the tourist!


There are all these pictures of him in this cute outfit because it was a rainy day and he was just too adorable not to photograph. Here he is going in the bathroom, shutting the door, and just hanging out in the dark hiding from me. I got a hilarious video of him slamming the door shut every time I would push it open and ask him if he was coming out. Too silly!!

Hope your spring has started off well!! We have had colds, allergies and weird HOT/COLD weather but hopefully it will all even out soon.