Collin is 2 1/2!

My sweet baby boy is two and half today. I intended on making cookies or something today, but the day kind of got away from me, so we took him to McDonald's for ice cream tonight.

Here are a few of his favorite things lately:

• "Two minutes" - His new stalling tactic is "two minutes to play".
• Rita's Water Ice - He asks for it all the time.
• Huggles - An extra snuggly hug, I think "huggles" is one of my new favorite things, too.
• Talking to Jenna - Every day he tells me multiple times, "I want to talk it to Jenna." They love to "talk" and play together
  
• Checking on Jenna - "Mommy, I need to check it on Jenna."
• Swinging from anything and everything - Yesterday he swung on a bar at the playground. No big deal, he does that all the time; but this time he swung out over nothing and the bar was over 6 ft high. It freaked his mom out a bit, but he loved it.
• Measuring - In an effort to be like his daddy, he carries a tape measure with him and measures stuff all day long.
  

I took these pictures this weekend. He's definitely turned into a kid and is not a baby anymore.

Collin's Own Special Language

Collin is at such a fun (and exasperating!) stage. He talks all the time! (He gets that from his father - haha). Seriously, I was trying to explain to him today that he would get so much more playing done (and I would get more work done) if he didn't feel the need to report EVERY little thing to me.

I can understand most of what Collin says, but most other people need a translator. Below are some keys to understanding Collin's language (Collinian, maybe?)

• Bob = anyone with a hard hat
  
• cake mu-nin = cupcake
  
• Daddy's toy = any tool
  
• haircut = scissors
• handles = sandals
• heebo = hair bow
• hungries = any restaurant or place with a lot of tables
• make-a-ball = his silly putty
• minn = cinnamon (Every morning we make oatmeal for breakfast, and he tells me, "Need oats. Need sugar. Need minn. Need water."
  
• monster = penguins (We have a Backyardigans episode about a soccer monster to thank for this one).
  
• the need-cook-it = the microwave
• playdoh = cookie cutter
• special juice = any red juice
• stroller bike = the bike trailer
  
• tiger = his toy lizard (Try as I might, I cannot convince him it's not a tiger).
• truck shoes = rollerblades
• tunnel _______ = anything you can go through and/or under (tunnel table, tunnel chair, tunnel trees, etc)
• wee-wees = fishies

I'll leave you with a few things that Collin has said lately that put a smile on my face:

• When Jenna pulled herself up on a toy, "Mommy, she's so big!!"
• When Jenna fell down, "Oh, child" (said while shaking his head)
• "No books, Mommy. Want read Thomas story on Kindle."
• Holding up his white crayon that wouldn't write on white paper: "Mommy, my color broken. Need new one. Please."
• Speaking about his cousins: "Cole has head. Carter? He not have head."
• He asks, "Where'd that come from?" about everything.
• When his shoes were getting too small: "My toes stuck!"
• My personal favorite Trying to convince Jenna she didn't want to play with his bike: "Jenna, no bike. Too pretty ride bikes. Need ride in stroller bike." Where does he get this stuff?!?

How did my baby boy go from this.....

...to this so quickly?

Happy Half Birthday, Collin!

I love half birthdays. It's just an extra day in the year to make those special people feel extra special. (In case you're not sure, your half birthday is the date 6 months from your birthday). My husband thinks I'm crazy, but being his usual amazing self, he doesn't try to fight the insanity. Instead, he embraces it, because he likes to make me happy. In fact, every year I get a 1/2 birthday card (and usually flowers) and he plans a special date. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE him?!?!?) Anyway, yesterday was Collin's 1/2 birthday. I can't believe he is already a year and a half. Where has the time gone? I was just commenting to a friend the other day how he seems to do more "kid stuff" and less "baby stuff" all the time. In honor of Collin being 18 months old, I decided to post a list of 18 of my favorite things about him these days. I haven't posted any family stuff for a while, and I have gotten very few pics of him on facebook lately, so it's time.

18 Favorite Things About Collin:

1. He whistles - It's not often that you see a one year old whistle, but he does. He walks around the house whistling, and he even tries to copy when he hears someone else whistle.
2. He eats pretty much anything - With the exception of hot dogs and mac n cheese, Collin will pretty much eat anything.
3. He's such a dorky dancer - He plays on our keyboard and likes the songs that it plays. Apparently, we have a kid who's a little musical, but he does have his dad's dorky dancing skills. Pretty soon, I'll have to get it on video, because it's pretty comical.
4. He loves when it's time to pray at dinner time - He pretty much loves to copy his daddy, and I'm so thankful for the great example of a Godly man he has right in front of him. Collin bows his head and mumbles something before we eat.
5. He's doing really well with not having the paci - He loves saying bye-bye to things and throwing things, so when we get him out of the bed or car, he throws his paci and tells it "Bye-bye".
6. He's always been a great sleeper - He's down to two naps a day now, but he still sleeps 10-12 hours at night. He also goes to sleep all by himself without crying.
7. He does everything with zeal - This can get to be a problem sometimes, because everything includes his freak outs. However, he gets so excited about everything. He does nothing half-heartedly.
8. He says "Thank you" - I know lots of kids his age say please and thank you, so it's not really a big deal. He also says please, but he usually needs prompted for that. What I like about the fact that he says thank you is that we never pushed the issue. It was just something he picked up and started doing all by himself. He will also say thank you over and over until someone tells him "You're welcome."
9. He likes to clean up after himself - He loves to wipe up spills, put his dishes in the sink, and put stuff in the trash these days.
10. He loves to put on his daddy's work boots - As soon as Matt gets home from work, Collin pulls at the laces of his boots until he takes them off so he can put them on.
11. He likes to drink water - Yes, he likes to drink juice, too, but so many people tell me that there kid won't drink water that I've come to be very thankful that he will drink water quite willingly. :-)
12. He has started noticing things outside during car rides - His favorite things to point out are doggies and buses.
13. He exclaims, "WHOA!!!" whenever he hears a loud noise - We live across the street from a Naval Air Base so we hear a lot of loud noises.
14. He thinks anything that moves that's not a person is a doggie - At the park the other day, he was chasing bugs and butterflies yelling, "Doggie, doggie, doggie!!"
15. He's pretty passsionate about his rubber duckies - He has at least 12, and when he sees one in the bath stuff aisle that he doesn't have, he makes sure to let me know.
16. He loves stories - Unfortunately, he almost always wants a story read to him when we are in a hurry to get out the door, but I'ms still glad he loves them. We've started keeping some in the car, and he loves to "read" his stories in the car.
17. He loves hand sanitizer - Whenever I put some on my hands, he begs for some and loves to rub it into his hands. Who am I to deny my kid hand sanitizer?
18. He doesn't ever try to play with the toilet - Again, this is something that I never thought anything of until I've had friends say that this is a serious problem in their houses. This may change, and I'm sure he may become interested in it later on; but for now, he hardly seems to know it exists.

There's so much more about my sweet boy that I love, but I said I was listing 18 so I'll stop and leave you with some pictures of the half-birthday boy.

Reading stories with daddy

I can't get over how big he looks here!

Daddy's boots

Loving the rubber duckies

Having a serious chat with Daddy

Playing with Mommy

Pretty serious about his coloring at Steak n Shake

Reading books in the car

Playing at the park

Most recent family pic