First Day of Summer Camp

Collin loved camp! They spent most of the day outside playing in the sprinkler with 'water squirters' (a.k.a. squirt guns) as Collin calls them. Two of his friends from school attend the day camp, so he felt right at home there. They also sang songs, read a story, and ate food. Sounds good to me!

While Collin was at camp from 9-2, I got to spend some one-on-one time with Olivia (well, after her nap, of course). We shared some giggles at lunch, and I watched her figure out how to scoot backwards on her bottom across the kitchen floor.. ;)

Somebody Is Growing Up!

Took Collin to Target today to pick out a special something to commemorate officially leaving his baby ways behind. Now that he gave up his paci, is using the potty regularly, can ride his tricycle, gets in and out of his carseat unassisted, and is able to get on a swing by himself, he is truly a big boy. He is even another inch taller! At 31 months, Collin weighs 33lbs. and is 38" tall. Strangers are always surprised that he isn't older because of his physique (and language skills if they hear him talk). I told Collin that we need to celebrate his big boy-ness, so he could have a toy, some books, or a DVD of his choice. He said he wanted a story and picked a nice Curious George anthology, which seems appropriate for our little monkey. I threw in the Curious George movie for good measure. ;)

Myrtle Beach Vacation

June 21-25: Mommy, Collin, and Olivia drove all day to North Myrtle Beach (Crescent Beach) to meet up with Grampy, ShaSha, and Auntie Sarah at the oceanfront family timeshare. We arrived a little after 9:00 on Tuesday night after stopping at a Pizza Hut for dinner, which Collin loved because it was buffet style. He was jumping off the walls, literally, when we finally got to our destination, so happy to see his family in the flesh rather than on the computer, phone, or via imagination.

This was his first night away from home since his upgrade to a twin bed back in October. He did great (minus falling out of bed the first night)! He even gave up his cherished paci (not planned but a pleasant surprise). Early mornings were spent seashelling with ShaSha (he can tell you all the names of the shells in his collection), late mornings were spent braving the ocean waves with Grampy, and the rest of the time was spent making forts and cuddling with Auntie. Collin also got to fly his first kite, an activity that proved to look much easier than it actually is. You have to be strong in that seaside wind as well as patient, two qualities that the Collin Monster does not possess as of yet. All six of us checked out Le Cirque's "Adrenaline" show one afternoon. The mime did not make a very good first impression with Collin as he snatched Grampy away for a few laughs. Luckily Auntie Sarah and Sammy Cat were there to comfort the little guy, and by the end of the show when the stunt motorcycles were out and zooming around the "big blue fing" as he called the featured attraction, he was loving the entertainment. This was his first circus and also his first taste of Dippin' Dots, an obvious hit due to the close resemblance to ice cream.

So what can I say about Olivia? She had never been to the ocean or felt sand before, so it was exciting to see how she'd react. She of course had to taste-test the sand but soon decided it wasn't really for eating and opted for her food-based snacks instead (good girl). Olivia is definitely a water/beach baby, as she was happy to sit either at the water's edge or on the beach blanket and just take it all in. A simple water bottle occupied her for 30 minutes at one point. Content she was to people watch, feel the ocean breeze in her face, and let the salty sea lap at her toes and thighs.

Was it worth the 12+ hour drive (with stops for the potty trainer and to feed/change the baby) alone with the two kids to spend time with my beloved fam in North Myrtle Beach? ABSOLUTELY! Would I do again without an adult companion in the car? Probably not. Lol! That was a looonnnng time in the car even though the kids were pretty well-behaved. Driving through the night is THE way to travel if you are going anywhere with young children farther than six hours away -- they don't need to eat, which means they don't need to use the bathroom or be changed (as much), and they are either sleeping or zoning out because it's 3am. You can actually make it close to the estimated GPS time. We will be heading up to NH at the end of July, and you bet we're leaving VA at 7:00pm so that we can arrive in NH at 4:30am. Who knew it would take longer to get to Myrtle than it does to get to NH?

Father's Day!

Before getting into how we celebrated Father's Day, I'd like to dish out a little useful advice to other moms out there: Don't give your kid prune juice even if he says it's the best juice he's ever had and insists on having seconds. There's a reason the stuff is recommended only to those who can't get the troops to move out. We've been keeping track of Collin's potty usage with stickers on a chart, and I simply ran out of room today. The kid couldn't hop on a toilet fast enough all day. The positive side about the whole experience is that he had a lot of potty practice, and going #2 definitely isn't a problem for him, not that it ever was. Ask Collin about prune juice now, and he'll tell you straight up it makes you poop...a lot. Okay, lesson learned.

Daddy came home to the aroma of cinnamon rolls around 8:45 a.m. from a little guys' night out the night before. After breakfast, Collin helped Mike open his cards and presents - a road bike maintenance book, bike maintenance tools, chain cleaning system, and chain lube - and then proceeded to tell Mike unprompted, "Thank you for being my dad." Awww. Then it was time for Olivia's nap, and clearly Daddy needed one too, so I took Collin on a walk to the playground for about an hour (pre-prune poop, thank God). Lunchtime kind of crept up on us somehow, so I jumped right into making some chicken parmesan for the man of honor because it's one of his favorites. That night, we went to GamB and Grandpa's house for a little cookout and to celebrate the senior Jennings father. Quality fam time is always nice, isn't it? Miss my dad, but I'll get to see him in just a few days at Myrtle Beach.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! And Mike! And Dad J! And Grandpa! And all the other dads out there!

Photoshoot

Jenne Barron, a teacher friend of mine who also happens to have a baby boy exactly one month younger than Olivia, just started up her own photography business. We both thought C and O would make good models to showcase her talent, so we set up a little photo shoot. Jenne got quite the greeting when she came to my door. There was Collin behind the glass, saying a boisterous hi! with a big smile and buck naked from the waist down, telling Jenne that Mommy was in the shower and would be right down. Well, at least it was her and not some random UPS man. Just a warning to all of my friends out there who are thinking about stopping by for a visit: There is a good chance Collin will not be wearing pants as long as he's still learning to use the potty regularly. 

After a little homemade pizza (pepperoni, mushroom, broccoli, and tomato basil were all of Collin's requested ingredients), we set out to the pond area across the street for some camera! action! minus the lights plus the heat, humidity, and some sleepy children. Hmmm, could very well be the ingredients for a huge meltdown. Jenne was great, though, and kept the kids busy with bubbles, silly mustache masks, pinwheels, and blocks. We sought refuge under a tree, which I thought was a perfect backdrop for pictures. My favorite, and I haven't seen any yet, will probably be the ones of Collin strategically placing alphabet blocks into the various elbows of the tree. Photography books are always talking about telling a story and evoking emotion. For me, I see the block and tree picture as the crossroads between toddler and little boy, and that is exactly the stage of life where Collin is right now. A little too old for stacking ABC blocks but not quite old enough to be an expert tree climber, a childhood pastime that I know he will grow to love. Obviously I am excited to see all the images Jenne created, but I am most anticipating the symbolic tree and block photos.

Bright Eyes Photography on Facebook

In other news, Olivia said 'da-da' for the first time today. During her dinner, I was talking about how Daddy went to a baseball game with Daddy's friends, and Daddy would be home tomorrow for Father's Day, which is when we tell Daddy how much we love Daddy. I think she picked up on my repetitive usage of the word 'daddy' and tried to imitate me. It was the cutest thing, and of course Mike wasn't home to see it, so I did make a quick video to show him later. She must have thought it sounded good because she kept repeating it over and over and hasn't really stopped since!

Sprinkle Playdate

How excited am I to have two mommy friends who each have two children, one for each of my ankle biters?!? Beth's Andrew is a few months older than Collin, and her Bridgette is a few months younger than Olivia. Megan's Anna is only a couple of weeks older than Collin, and baby Luke is a little over six months younger than Olivia. We decided to get everyone together to play, mainly to give the big kids something to do other than watch their moms breastfeed and change diapers all day. Haha. 

Beth just moved into a new home with a HUGE back yard and sizable basement playroom. It is just perfect. The kids chased each other with beach balls in the sprinkler before coming in for a kid-favorite lunch, macNcheese with a juice box, and a show.

Round two was spent downstairs playing trains and trucks on Andrew's awesome Thomas train table. At some point, everyone used the potty, so yay for our potty trainers. We're hoping to keep up this ritual once a week - the potty peer pressure and playtime will be good for the preschoolers and the socialization will be good for the little babies. Oh yeah, and I'm so grateful to have some time to hang out with my friends too!!

Rocknoceros!

My antsy kids and I were hanging around the house mid-morning figuring out what to do, and then I realized it was Thursday! I could take them to see Rocknoceros! This kid-oriented, three-man-band plays at the Dulles Town Center Mall in front of Sears every Thursday from 11:00-11:50. Collin and I went religiously last summer. Come to think of it, Olivia was there too, but she had a warm, cozy seat in my belly rather than up in front of the stage where Collin shook his tambourine and danced around.

http://www.rocknoceros.com/about

About a year ago is when his obsession with music began. Now that he has been to two high school band concerts, listens to music books on CD, watches YouTube videos of people playing various instruments, and reads books about different bands, I thought I'd have to hold him back from jumping on stage with Coach, Williebob, and Boogie as the uninvited fourth member. So we packed up his little Collin Monster backpack with egg shakers for Olivia, bells, a tambourine, and an xylophone, and headed for the mall. When we got there, I had to drag Collin TO the stage, not from it. "Do you want to play your tambourine like Coach, honey?" He threw the thing on the ground and stood there stone-faced as still as could be while 30 or so other children hopped up and down, shaking and playing their noisemakers. Even their catchy tune, "Blast Off" didn't get a rise out of him. Olivia, however, smiled away as she happily shook a green egg shaker. Well, at least someone was enjoying the show. Such a 360 from last summer!

Turns out the poor kid had to go to the bathroom and was holding it for 45 minutes. We ran to the bathroom in JC Penney, and he was still dry when we got there. I thought, "This is it. He's going to have no choice but to pee on this public toilet in this public stall." Nope. He froze. As usual. Nothing. Of course by the time we got home fifteen minutes later, he had peed his pants. Ooops!

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Why didn't I know about this place until now?? Picture winding paths through wide open fields, wooden bridges over ponds with impressive fountains, turtles and colorful Asian fish, wooden benches placed strategically among shady trees, butterfly bushes, gazebos, trellises, and oh yeah, breathtaking flower gardens.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna is a photographer's dream as well as a child's natural playground or a writer's sanctuary. Five bucks bought us almost three hours of the perfect day. Collin was just giddy with delight as he ran around exploring nature. If he could have curled up with the napping geese under the trees by the pond, he would have.

We met up with a mommy friend of mine and her kids for a picnic near the designated kid discovery area where they had a nice sandbox, stick fort, and a place to walk through flowers to touch and smell. The kids quickly gobbled their food and were off to the land of pretend.

Olivia was content to watch from afar and eat her lunch at a more leisurely pace while we mommies chatted and soaked up the sunny, 75-degree weather. I can't wait to go back! 

Allergy Testing

 Having a food allergy with an esophageal allergy disease sucks; having 10+ foods that cause an allergic reaction on top of an already compromised esophagus really sucks. Poor Collin. We did some more allergy testing today (he was SUCH a good sport about it), and we are adding avocado, kidney beans, and lima beans to his growing list of foods to avoid. At least these aren't that difficult to cut out since he didn't eat much of them anyway.

Collin will have an endoscopy done this summer to see how many, if any, allergy cells are invading his esophagus. Hopefully the result will favorable, and we can continue doing what we're doing instead of more testing. It takes an hour to get to the allergist's office, 90 minutes at the office, and an hour to get home. That's a lot to ask of a two-year-old and his baby sister who had to tag along. Needless to say, I had two crying children for the car ride home.

One positive that came out of today's visit was Collin's first usage of a public toilet! Granted it was at the doctor's office, so the bathroom was comfy cozy just like home (no scary stall, no huge and yucky toilet), which is probably why he was able to take care of business. He made sure to tell both the nurse and receptionist all about it when he was done. Mommy made sure to break out the special lollipops for the occasion.

Food, Songs, and Potty Time

This morning I watched our 7-month-old Olivia shovel in a half a diced banana like it was nothing. Then for lunch, she did half a small sweet potato in the same fashion. The pieces started out teeny tiny because, hey, all I've ever known is feeding Collin, who couldn't handle diced banana until he was two. Then I got brave and tried bigger pieces. I was just sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear the coughing/choking sound that is as familiar as breathing for Collin, but it never came. Of course my logical mind knew it wouldn't, but I still waited for it anyway out of habit. And then I couldn't help but cry when it didn't come because it was such a relief to be able to feed a normal baby regular food. I shouldn't be so shocked because Olivia has normal anatomy, but with all we've been through with her big brother, I am having all these emotions I can't really put into words...over a regular baby and a banana. Something tells me this will not be the last time I get a little choked up (no pun intended) over Olivia’s food progression. She's really quite good at the whole thing!

On a lighter note, the car ride over to the store was quite entertaining thanks to Mr. Comic Relief himself, Collin Jennings. First he declared out of the blue, “Mommy needs a shower after sleepy-sleep time.” Really? My pint-sized kid just told me to take a shower? I replied, “Why? Do I smell bad or something?” You know what that kid said? “Yeah.” I suppose I should take his word for it since he hasn’t lied yet and has a knack for telling it like it is. Then he proceeded to sing “The Letters Song,” another gem he made up on the fly. Same tune as the “Things To Do Song” from yesterday. This time I wrote down some of the lyrics at a red light. “P is for popcorn, D is for during the day, E is for eggs. Eggs are everywhere! Clean up the eggs with a rake and shovelllllll!” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

And now for more potty training news. After yesterday's lack of frequenting the potty, I thought we'd be on another potty training hiatus that I'm come to know well over the past year. But Collin had other plans, thankfully. It's only 3:30, and we've had eight successful potty usages at home, four being #2s (geez, what have I been feeding him?), and only one accident, which happened in the car on the way home from the store because he froze up again in the public restroom. My solution to the public potty problem? A travel potty that he can use in the car. I've heard about and read many positive reviews for this literal porta-potty, so we'll see if it helps. We'll be going on a road trip to Myrtle Beach next week, so it should get some good mileage then. And if not, I've only wasted about $14. Okay, I’d better wrap this up so that I have time to take a shower before the kids wake up. Don’t want to accost my son with my offensive body odor any longer!

Potty Rant & "Things To Do Song"

Potty training is a roller-coaster of highs and lows, positives and negatives, successes and failures. Hmm, a lot like teaching teenagers English, isn't it? I am familiar with the frustration that goes along with trying to teach someone a concept that is challenging, requires effort, and takes practice to learn and master. Today was no exception. First, the positives. The streak of Collin pooping in the pot continued, which means I haven't had to change soiled undergarments in five straight days! We had four successful potty visits at home and three attempts at a restaurant, all of which resulted in dry underpants and shorts. Collin managed to survive a 35-minute car ride home followed by a two-hour nap without any accidents. Hooray!

Okay, the negatives. Today yielded a rise in accidents. They all happened the second half of the day: one in the car on the way to lunch (I don't blame him - I had to go too, but of course I've had some practice with holding it), one playing outside after trying to use the restaurant toilet three times but getting 'potty fright' (he told me he had to go but obviously didn't feel comfortable enough to do it in the bathroom), one before a late dinner (probably too hungry and tired at that point to put forth the effort required to use the potty), and one before bed (Daddy had him in a Pull-up, which is pretty much like saying, "Here, go ahead and pee in this glorified diaper."). Well, now that I've written all that down, I don't feel so defeated as a teacher of pee and poop - wow, quite different from teaching English - because I can understand why the day went down the way it did. Tomorrow is a new day, right?

And what did Olivia have to contribute to the show today besides her infectious smiles and cute factor? She did another day of sleeping in until after 6:30 and made it through the day on two naps without having a total meltdown. Good baby! At the Fairfax Corner fountains, she just sat in front of one of the geysers and had a blast getting splashed and sprayed in the hair and face. No fear of water for that one! She was also the inspiration and recipient of Collin's latest song he made up on the car ride over to meet our friends. He proclaimed from the backseat, "I'm going to sing the 'Things To Do Song' for Olivia, Mommy," and proceeded to make up lyrics extemporaneously for a straight twenty minutes while she smiled sweetly at him like he was some Grammy award-winning artist. Here is a little sample from what I can remember: "Hazzy ozzy bozo go to the playground and climb the ladderrrrr baba dooba oh oh oh and whoosh down the sliiiiide hezzy haku doo doo and go for a waaaaalk..." Wish I had recorded the thing, but I was driving. The little breakdown in the middle was the best when he just spouted out random words as he thought of them in stream-of-consciousness fashion, somehow going from trees to fences to various colors to food to ice cream. No surprise there. Anyway, I think it's just adorable how Olivia already looks up to her big brother like he's all that and a bag of Puffs. :)

New Baby, New Blog

Is Olivia still considered a 'new baby' at seven months? Well, bottom line is that I haven't blogged since June 2010. It would be an understatement to say a lot has transpired over the last year - half a pregnancy, the big 3-OH!, labor and delivery, celebration of a two-year-old, the standard holiday craziness, and adjusting to and readjusting to life with two little ones. And I thought taking care of one small child was hard! Now that major milestones are starting to show their faces, I feel the urge to blog again before I forget it all and have twenty-something children yelling at me for not writing anything down. "A Day in the Life of Collin Monster" is dead, but the concept is not, and I intend to keep this blog alive longer.

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just start with the present. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old Collin who is in the midst of potty training, and this time it's for real. The kid has known how to use some form of a toilet for over a year now, but he has finally found some inner strength that motivates him to stop what he's doing and go to the bathroom without any intervention on our parts, at home that is. Yes, there are accidents, and no, we are not even close to conquering the dreaded public toilet, but I am feeling confident that home potty training is going well, even with #2! My first born is talking circles around me, and it's kinda freaking me out. I do think it's cool that he's so into various instruments in the jazz and classical genres, enjoys singing in general and making up parodies for a laugh, puts together 24-piece puzzles like it's no big deal, rides a tricycle like a big boy, and loves a good cat video on YouTube. That's my boy!

In a completely different developmental bracket, I have a seven-month-old Olivia who doesn't care to roll over (she's gone belly to back exactly four times and has never tried the other direction) but manages to propel her body backwards across the living room floor. She is well on her way to eating a variety of finger foods, as she's already mastered Puffs and Cheerios and is working on avocado and banana. She is also transitioning into a new sleep pattern, sleeping in longer and moving from three to two naps a day. Not that I consider 6:30/45 sleeping in, but it's better than 5:45/6:00! And with a bedtime of 6:45/7:00, she's working up to twelve hours of sleep a night. I'll take it. One thing I can't resist about Miss O lately is when she puckers up and makes these kissing sounds. How can I not kiss that little smiley face a hundred times a day?

The downside to a potty trainer and a sleeping baby is that we are homebound most of the time lately, which means Mommy is missing out on her beloved bootcamp. :( I keep telling my body to hang in there just a few more weeks - don't start sagging yet - and I promise to get back to being MommySTRONG. Of course I can't promise to cut out the ice cream or the M&Ms I freely eat without consequence during my usual bootcamp routine. Hmm, something's gotta give, right? C'mon, kiddos! Work with me here.