All About... Colin!

Where to start with Colin? He is growing into such an amazing little boy - there is no baby left about him. He is incredibly smart and his memory is a million times better than my own. He's 3.5yrs old, 41lbs and about 41in.

He is such a sweet kid. He uses "please" and "thank you" almost all the time, and tells me he loves me every night before bed.

His language is phenomenal. Every now and again he'll say something I don't understand, but that's very rare nowadays. And of course with any 3yr old, he tends to repeat phrases that he never should've heard in the first place (like "d*mnit"). I'm not sure where he heard it, but it took awhile to get him to stop : / Of course it took me awhile to figure out how to hide my laughter when he said it too LOL

Things he loves: riding his bike, watching his new Backyard.igans DVD, slurpees (and candy, cookies, ice cream... anything with sugar of course!), helping cut the grass and even picking up the dog poop beforehand (seriously), Mommy's computer, jumping on Mommy's bed (along with his brother), buttered noodles, and hot chocolate.

Here's one last pic of him after his last haircut all styled up ready to go - such a stud doing a classic "Zoolander" pose :) Hardly looks like the same kid from the picture above when his hair's nice & short!

All about... Jackson!

I figured it was time to give an update on the boys, and what they were each up to.

Jackson is now 17 months old and has definitely entered the "terrible 2" stage. He throws the most dramatic tantrums I have ever seen, and within the last 2 days decided it's fun to hit Mommy... in the face. Oy.

That being said, he is still the cutest little toddler I know! He is so much fun and absolutley hilarious. I have no idea where his little personality came from (ok, ok, I know it's my wonderful charm rubbing off on him), but I have a feeling this little guy is going to be one to make people laugh. He knows just how to work the room to get the attention, and makes sure he waves and says "hi" to everyone he walks past. If other people laugh and he doesn't have a clue why, he'll jump in with the funniest fake laugh ever. He is also my little cuddle bug, which I love - he gives lots and lots of hugs, along with saying "awwww" as he does it - what a charmer.

He talks A LOT. I'm sure he's in the "normal" spectrum for speech at his age, but he's so different than Colin was. I'm not even sure how many words he says because he says so many.

Things he loves right now are: Elmo (or "Melmo" as he calls him), being outside, jumping on Mommy's bed, "Nonny" (aka Colin), and Mommy's cell phone (not so fun when he wakes up at 5am yelling to play with it). He's still a huge fan of all fruits and with veggies he rotates what he likes, but green beans are always a hit.

Here's one more pic of my 29lb chunk-a-dunk - and yes, that is "Melmo"s head on his feet ;)

You think you know, but you have no idea...

I thought I knew what I was getting into with working full time and having a commute that's 1hr 20min each way. The first couple days weren't so bad, but now into week 3 I'm feeling the pain from it all. I'm exhausted beyond comprehension and have no clue why I'm on my computer typing this instead of sleeping. I absolutely cannot wait to move closer to work!

On a good note, I love my job (dealing with families who have adopted children with various special needs, and helping them financially). It's insanely busy, which makes time go by fast. They had told us the volume of what we'd be responsible for within our 3500-4000 caseload (each!), but wow. And of course with any new job, there's so much to learn. I remember around 2:45pm looking at the clock and realizing my brain has turned to complete mush. I got so much done but yet I still had about 35 phone messages sitting on my desk, along with about 30 other case files I received various requests and had to research, and another 20 that are sitting waiting for other people to make certain changes I requested so that I can finish my end of the work. And don't even get me started on how many things still need to be filed away. So yes, crazy busy in my office!

The boys are doing great with my cousin babysitting them. Colin was extra needy with me during the first week, but he's settled into the routine now. It's too bad I'll have to throw yet another new routine at them when we finally move. My poor Cousin sure did get dumped on though. Last week (her 2nd week babysitting them), Jackson came down with hand, foot & mouth disease, except that his sores only appeared in & around his mouth. He was miserable. He couldn't eat, drink, or even suck on his binky (which caused me to only get about 3hrs sleep each night last week). It was heartbreaking to see him in so much pain. And his poor gums swelled so bad that you could barely even see his top teeth - all you could see were white specks :( And to top it off, he was also cutting all 4 of his eye teeth at the same time. But he's all better now and the teeth have cut through, so we should be all set. Of course just as Jackson started getting better, Colin came down with a fever and was complaining his throat hurt - that lasted about 3 days. Fortunately he never had any sores, so no hand, foot & mouth disease for him. I also had him checked for strept throat, but that also came back negative. Thankfully, he's all better now too. I love having healthy, happy kids again :)

Here's a pic of Jackson from last weekend when we made our way to the cider mill. This was day 7 (or 8?) of hand, foot & mouth disease. He seemed to be feeling fine, but the sores were still very much there (they're finally fading now, thank goodness):

And Colin just had fun riding on the tractor:

I'm off to bed now... *yawn*