Our Colin

Since my last blog update was dedicated to Eli and how he humors us, this one is dedicated to "our Colin" (as his brother calls him). He is 14 months old today. Although he isn't moving yet (which has its pros and cons), he is doing a lot of fun things. His vocabulary currently primarily consists of Mama, Dada, and STOP. I would say the STOP is the most commonly used (big surprise), usually used when Callie is barking or Eli is doing something he doesn't like (but not hurting him – then he cries). He talks A LOT, usually quite loudly, but there are only a few words we can actually understand. Otherwise, it's mostly just noise.

Colin is getting quite pudgy as well. He eats WAY more than his older brother and at some meals eats more than me! He's become quite a beggar for food, he knows when someone is eating and usually wants to take part. He'll typically eat almost anything – a quality that I'm sure he'll outgrow too soon!

His personality shows more and more every day. I predict that he is going to be a very sweet boy, with a temper. He is very sweet and loves to cuddle, which I love. Give him his puppy and his thumb goes in his mouth and his head down to your shoulder. The kid is like a light switch though – one second he will be happy and laughing and the next he'll be so mad you don't even know what to do with him. Doesn't take much to make him mad – he is starting to throw things that he doesn't want, etc. It's becoming more apparent that he is entering the toddler years. The best is when we have 2 tantrums going on in our house at once (JK!).

He really likes to sit and play with buckets, balls, and anything else that he can either take in and out of a bucket or bang together. He also loves to read books – he gets the biggest smile when it's time to read and usually tries to turn the pages faster than I can read them. He LOVES LOVES music, we turn the music on and his face lights up and usually the shoulders start moving, which is pretty hilarious. Between him and Eli and their love of music, we may have a rock band in our basement sometime. Yikes!

I think those are the biggest highlights for him right now. These boys seem to get more entertaining every day so once Colin starts talking more, it's going to be interesting!

Below are some of his 1 year pics that Allison took about a month ago. So cute! (At least I think so)

Some Eli Quotes

Eli has said a few things this past week that have given Travis and I some good laughs and since I am kind of using this as my kids scrapbook I needed to write them down.

1) Getting ready to get out the door before work and Eli finally gets out of bed (which is a struggle every morning) and the first thing out of his mouth "oh man, I should be mowing the lawn". Travis' response "remember that when your sixteen!"

2) Eli is really into doing things "my, by yourself" these days so one night he is getting out of the bath by himself and I am helping him a little. He is standing on the edge of the bath and says "I wanna look at that guy" (because he can see in the mirror in the bathroom). I said "well who is that guy?". His response "that's Eli - he's pretty cute". At that moment I wouldn't say I disagreed one bit.

3) Again in the bath (different night) he is playing with a little water cup and says "mom, I going to pee in my cup" so I took the cup away from him. After a lot of whining and bargaining with him that if I gave it back he would NOT pee in the cup I gave it back to him. He says, "Thank you for listening to me Mommy". I say that to him all the time - I suppose I now need to be careful about the phrases that I use because sooner or later one is going to come back and bite me.

Sorry no pictures this post. Hopefully I will be updating with some pictures soon!

Eli’s First Tractor Ride

I just realized that I still had this post on draft form and never actually posted it. I think Eli's first big farming outing is worth blogging about so here goes.

Between job transitions (which WAS a while ago), I had a week off. So…the boys and I headed to Iowa for a couple days. It was planting season so we finally got Eli in the tractor – not willingly I might add. After a few minutes he realized how much fun he was having. Ryan even let him drive a little. I think the planter was up so hopefully there aren't any crooked rows. Grandpa Cecil wouldn't be too happy about that J

Thank you uncle Ryan – it was so much fun!

We also made a stop to see Maria's new Barbie Car. Also a lot of fun!