streaking

We all knew this day would come. I'm sure every mom has experienced the day when their toddler learns to remove their own diaper and goes running naked through the house. Yup. Today was our day. I changed Collin's diaper this morning and set him loose while I looked for clothes for him to wear. When I walked out of his room he was butt naked in the hallway, laughing and running away from me. I knew it would happen sooner or later cause he's been trying to pull it off for about a week now. Seeing his naked little butt running down the hallway was just too cute. We couldn't help but laugh at him. Luckily I caught him before he had time to pee on anything!

Thankful Tuesday...

I'm thankful today for the beautiful weather we had. We had to take Collin in for his routine blood work and because our doctor's office is only about 6 blocks away, we left early and walked to the park to play before going to the doctor. If only all of winter could be this mild.

a long post Christmas update...

Well Christmas is here and gone already, but I have to say that it was a wonderful holiday. Luckily we still have a whole week off from school before we have to go back. We got to spend time with nearly all of the family and had a great time just getting to be together. (We even got to spend some extra quality time with my grandpa because he came and stayed with my parents for nearly 6 days.) By the end of it all however, Collin was a little overwhelmed. Eventually he gave up on opening presents and left mommy and daddy to do it all.

On Christmas Eve we had the Klein Family Christmas at my parents' house. Santa always makes a visit to this event. Unfortunately, Collin was a little scared of Santa. He loves to say "ho ho ho" when he sees pictures of him, but wasn't so fond of him in person.
On Christmas morning Collin got a new table and chairs from Santa that he LOVES! He opened it first, and the rest of the presents had to come to him at the table because he refused to leave.

At Grammy and Papa's he was done after opening his Handy Manny tool set.

The rest of the day was spent at the Berry Family Christmas enjoying more time with family. By the end of it all we were all exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep.

Fast forward to post Christmas activities...

I have been trying to finish up painting Ronan's room (Dan's brother bought us ALL of our baby furniture for Christmas and I have to finish the room so we can put it all in there) and have found the task to be a lot more time consuming than I orignally anticipated. I had this great idea to paint a striped border around the room that matches the bedding, but took me nearly 2 hours just to paint a 3 foot section. I might be here till March finishing it all. As long as it's done before Ronan arrives!

This is the beautiful snow that fell while I was painting on Saturday...

The next 2 pictures were just too cute to leave out...

This is Collin super excited about the new toy chest that Papa (my dad) just finished making for him.

And this is Collin modeling his new monkey pajamas.

a picture's worth...

Great dinner, mom.More...
please!

super Sunday

You would think a full 48 hours, minus sleep time, would be sufficient for getting the house clean. Somehow it's not.

Maybe it's my adorable toddler that keeps these things from happening... Sometimes picking up toys just seems pointless, but you gotta love him!

I did accomplish some things however. Such as scrubbing the kitchen with a toothbrush. Not the entire kitchen, I'm not superwoman! I also cleaned out my large yarn collection. I was sad to see how many unfinished projects I had. My yarn wouldn't be taking up so much space if I would finish something once in a while. So in the course of cleaning up this mess Collin decided to take up crocheting as well. I think he has a lot of potential.

So after dinner in the evenings Dan and I take turns with who cleans the kitchen and who gives Collin a bath. I love giving Collin baths but sometimes listening to Dan give Collin a bath is even more fun. I can't explain how heartwarming it is to listen to the two of them in there laughing and playing and singing songs. Tonight I had to sneak in and get some pictures of the fun.

Only 1 more week of school and then we get a full 2 weeks to fully enjoy such moments.

my little copy cat

Sometimes words just can't express how absolutely adorable my kid is. So I was doing a little excersizing the other night, trying to keep from gaining the 50 pounds I gained last time I was pregnant, and Collin was standing by watching. He definitely likes to mimic things that mommy and daddy do, so he decided that he was going to excersize too. The best part is that he was wearing only his diaper which only makes it that much cuter. This picture only partially defines how cute the event was.

He's also pretty cute when he is trying to smuggle mint M&M's in his cookie jar. Exactly what you should do after a good workout. He is just like his mommy!

my little spotted leapord

So I got out of another full week of school. I'm getting really good at that. Collin started to develop a rash Saturday evening and the spots continued to multiply. So today I stayed home with him only to find out that it's a viral rash, probably a follow up to his episode last week. I'm glad that he didn't contract chicken pox from having his vaccinations right before Thanksgiving. We got some good cuddle time in today. This morning he took a 2 hour nap and about an hour and 15 minutes of that was on me. I only wish the camera had been close enough to capture how absolutely precious he looked at the time. Today Collin signed "please" for the first time. He's been signing "more" and "all done/all gone" for a while but I was very excited that he's learning to be polite. Most of the time anyhow. Other than signing he has several words that he uses: hi bye baby more mama dada papa mow - when he sees a cat or any other animal that is not a dog (he pants when he sees puppies) He's also very talented at waving and dancing. Oh yes, the boy can dance! Some of his best moves he learned from a dancing/singing reigndeer that we bought for Christmas. As far as following directions goes, he's doing pretty well. He knows what "no" means, but he loves to test it. However, if I tell him it's time to brush his teeth he walks back to the bathroom and gets up on the seat to brush. He's pretty smart, but I'm also just a little biased.

TGIF

Ah the weekend. Is there anything sweeter? Well, yeah. I could name a lot of things, but being able to have time to enjoy them (a.k.a. the weekend) only makes them that much sweeter. Collin is finally back to his happy self. I'm so relieved to have my goofy, hyper little boy back. Being home with him when he is sick can be exhausting, but having to be at school with 24 preschoolers is WAY more exhausting. Here are 5 reasons I am thankful for weekends:

1. I get to spend more time with my sweet little boy and wonderful husband (even though wrestling tournaments start next weekend meaning our time together is drastically shortened.
2. I only have 1 kid to chase around (soon to be 2) and not 24.
3. I can take time to plan and prepare dinner, and actually enjoy doing it.
4. Date night with my hubby - this weekend will probably be the last until wrestling is over.
5. I can stay up past 9:00 and not regret it the next day.

Okay, time for a baby update. We had a doctors appt yesterday and everything is good. We got to drink some sweet "flat sprite" to have a glucose test done, and I got to hear Ronan's sweet heartbeat again. Much like Collin, he doesn't like having the doplar on him. However, instead of moving away from it, he chose to attempt to push it away. What can I say, my baby's a genius already. We're at 27 1/2 weeks right now which means that we now have to start going to the doctor every 2 weeks. This doesn't really seem necessary to me, so I think I'm gonna try to push it to at least 3 weeks. Though I love being able to get away from school, it's not always easy.

baby needs a break

We had another great start to our day this morning. Just after I finished getting dressed Collin decided to decorate me with a little bit of himself all down my front. This only confirmed that a call to the doctor was a priority for the day. Collin spent the day with his grandma, and then I took off early to visit the doctor. We got some medicine that will hopefully help, but for tomorrow daddy is going to stay home with him. The poor kid just can't catch a break though. Just after finishing his dinner of jello and crackers, Collin decided to use his feet to push himself away from the table ending in Collin strapped to a chair laying on the ground. Needless to say he was slightly upset from the whole ordeal. After he calmed down (we checked for bumps and bruised but think his head didn't actually hit) he spent the next hour asleep on my chest. I wish he was cuddly like that all the time, but I would never wish for him to be sick like this again.I think that the hardest part about being a mommy is seeing your baby sick and hurting.