Happy Halloween!!

I was so excited for Halloween this year because I knew Colin would love his costume! He has been very into trains... and is having a train birthday party. After our train ride to the pumpkin patch I knew I'd tie everything together and he'd be a conductor for Halloween!!  

His costume literally cost $10.87.  The $10 was for his hat... and the 87 cents was for the can of spray paint I had to buy because we ran out of what we had in the garage! Ha!!   The train is, an old diaper box, an round oatmeal box, a kleenex box and a paper towel roll all taped together!

  He got to dress up twice, the first for his music class yesterday, but we didn't bring the train... just took pictures before class! :)  He was soo excited about his choo choo!  We walked the neighborhood tonight, but it was rather cold!! I was so worried about putting enough clothes on him that I forgot his red hankerchief, so when we got back home I put it on and took more pictures... poor kid! :)  He had fun and wore his train for an hour after we got back from trick or treating. And ALL he cared about were BaPops (Lollipops) and he would take them out of the bowl before handing out candy to kids that came to our door! Ha!!  

2 years old

Well sweet boy, you are 2 years old today. I cannot believe how time has flown.

What has amazed me the most over the past several months is your speech. At your 18 month apt I was struggling for words that you said. I think there were 8 or 9... Including animal sounds! Lol The other night I was trying to think of words you say now and count them all. I think it is safe to say I don't need to count anymore. You can easily say about 100 words! What an improvement from 6 months ago! 

Not only can you say words but you can now put 3 words together. Yesterday you said, Mommy hand mote ( you wanted me to put your favorite show on tv with the remote) and every morning you say Mama Nummies bed when you wake up to nurse in my bed.

You are taking an interest in potty training but I'm not pressuring you. You have peed in the potty twice and both times it was your idea.

You now sleep in a big boy bed. You started climbing out of your crib a few months ago and we converted it into a toddler bed which you've wanted nothing to do with. You sleep on the twin bed in your room even though the toddler bed is still set up! Speaking of sleep you were regularly sleeping 8 hour stretches at night until the dang time change! But you will get back into the groove it just takes time. I'm so glad you are finally sleeping better! 

Your favorite things are playing with trucks, the pbs kids app on the iPad and watching Daniel tiger on tv. You also love playing with your truck outside and bailey who you call B.

You love our play dates with our friends because you are pretty obsessed with their baby! But that's ok because it warms my heart to see you so tender with a baby!!

You love to eat. Your breakfast is pretty standard: oatmeal, yogurt and berries with milk. But on the weekend we make eggs and you eat an entire egg by yourself! You love eating salads with me for lunch and i got you hooked on kale chips and smoothies! You are doing better at eating dinner with us and I discoverd that if I roll your food up in a tortilla you will eat it no matter what!! Ha! You also love beans... Both green beans and regular beans. We had beans and quinoa for dinner tonight just for you and you ate seconds!

You are an entertainer and you enjoy making people laugh! You can be a very silly boy!

I can tell that you will also be very into music when you get older! You pretend to play the trumpet by making sounds out of your mouth and love drum sticks!!

You are also into pretending and enjoy making me food at the kitchen in the children's museum as well as pretending wth your animals here at home. Ney (your horse) has been your favorite lately. You pretend to ride him, feed him apples and make him go night night. Elmo is your go to stuffed animal that you can't go to sleep without.

You have just discovered the word MY... Lord help me!  My Elmo! My Ney! My truck! My milk!! I suppose that comes with turning 2!  

You are the light of my life little boy and I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you! Happy Birthday!

1 day old, 1 year and 2 years!

This morning he slept in until 9:30! Unheard of! He's been waking up at 6 the past week I guess it caught up with him! 

Big boy at the bounce place for his bday! Climbing fearlessly!

Mommy loves you!

Reflecting on 2 years of parenthood

I've been reflecting a lot lately on parenthood. 

The first year of my son's life I questioned everything I did. I was unsure of everything and often felt like I was doing it all wrong. As you know from reading my blog my son doesn't sleep well and I tried everything to figure out why, including changing our diets during that first year. We were gluten free and dairy free at one point in time. In fact he had a gluten and dairy free birthday cake on his first bday and he didn't touch it!!  Poor kid! He doesn't have an allergy to anything that we know of but he does prefer to sleep near his mama! 

Now a year later I am amazed at how much I have changed. I am not the mother I was a year ago. I am a confident  mom who knows she is doing everything (or most things) right. 

I honestly think a lot of it has to do with my decision to be a stay at home Mom. It helped me become a more confident mom. No second guessing anything. 

The other thing I think has helped is doing some reading and research on different parenting techniques. I read a book written by The La Leche League and it was like a revelation. Everything I thought I was doing wrong as a parent according to that book, I was actually doing right. It helped me feel like a confident parent and confident in my parenting. 

I feel like society puts a lot of pressure on moms. There are so many things that are expected of us. 

You should breastfeed, but not too long because then it is weird.

 You should give your child lots of love and cuddles, but not at bedtime or they will never learn to sleep. 

Those are just two of many we hear daily, but the two that I am most affected by. 

I am still nursing my almost 2 year old. And guess what, I don't care what anyone thinks about it! I know in our society it isn't "normal" and that's ok. It works for us. My son is small, but healthy and happy. He has only been sick a handful of times and it was always very quick because he still gets lots of antibodies from me. And I think he is pretty smart too, but I guess I'm pretty prejudice on that spectrum!

The other thing is sleep. I know many people disagree with me on the sleep issue. But I made a decision about a year ago that my child would learn to sleep without crying himself to sleep. I knew there had to be another way. It may not be as affective, but over time with lots of love and snuggles Colin now sleeps a lot better. Last year we were lucky if we had a few 3 or 4 hour stretches of sleep a night. Now we consistently have about a 7 hour stretch a night. I've determined that some kids just need extra love at bedtime than others. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that we are still nursing. We don't nurse to sleep anymore but we did for a very long time. He still needs that security to fall asleep and that is ok because guess what? He is only going to be little for a short time and very soon he isn't going to want me anywhere near him, especially at bedtime and I am going to have to force a teenager to get out of bed before noon. These are inevitable things that will happen regardless of whether my son learned to sleep by crying it out or by snuggling near his mama.  

These are his baby years and they will be gone very soon. I plan on treasuring every moment because for now he needs me! And very soon there will be a day where he doesn't need me like he does now. I provide him with a sense of security that nobody else can provide to him. My parenting is lots of love, snuggles and encouragement and less worrying and second guessing.  We are moms. We do what works for us so we can get by. These baby years are short and we need to spend more time treasuring and embracing them and less time worrying and second guessing! 

Mommy 1 Colin 720

So last night was a first for us. Colin fell asleep on his own, in his own bed, all by himself and then slept for 7 hrs and 45 mins. 

This was the first time he has fallen asleep on his own. Since he's been sleeping in the big boy bed I go in with him and lay with him until he falls asleep.

I've started to notice that he has been better about letting me leave the room. I will say I have to go to the bathroom and will be back and he will say ok. Previously he would scream if I left the room. Last night he was having a hard time falling asleep and taking a long time to settle down. So I said I had to go pee and never returned, hoping he'd get tired of waiting for me and pass out. He was out within 15 minutes!

I sat outside his door until I didn't hear any sounds and then went in and tucked him in and put a pillow by the edge so he didn't roll off. (I need to invest in a rail! Lol)

I hope to try this every night and he will get used to falling asleep on his own, finally. I can still snuggle him before I leave. We talk about our day and pray and then I will sneak away. 

So proud of my monkey. I never thought I'd see the day! He is growing up! 

Pumpkin carving!

Colin and I carved pumpkins last night!!

My hubby hates Halloween and didn't want any part of it, so I did it myself! I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid and even then I'm pretty sure my parents did it! Lol  But I was pretty proud of my W!!!   Colin enjoyed taking the tops on and off and looking in and saying, Eewwwww! Ha ha! 

Kale Chips

Well its safe to say I am obsessed with Kale.  Most recently Kale chips... I crave them. It is absolutely ridiculous!

When i first tried Kale Chips... I didn't like them. I over salted them and overcooked them.  But I thought I'd try one more time... I found this website,  via pinterest : http://www.refinery29.com/kale-chips?crlt.pid=camp.YUU6WCw5sl5G

It has a bunch of kale chip recipes.  I randomly picked one... The Balsamic Vinagarette one. That basically has Vinagarette and Dijon Mustard and instead of Herbs de Provence I put in Garlic. And it is heavenly. I've made them every week since I discovered it! 

I just made a batch and expected to have leftovers... but Mr. Colin sat beside me and helped me not have any leftovers! And Ryan actually tried them.. and didn't hate them!

Fashion Post: Lace Shirts and Boots

So its a long time coming, but here is my fall fashion post! 

One of my new favorite shirts... a lace 3/4 sleeve shirt from NY and company! I Love LOVE Love it! I bought it on clearance at NY and company and if they would have had more colors I would have bought everyone! When I tried it on I didn't want to take it off!

Mostly just the scarf. I bought this off of Baby Steals on their Mom Steals section. It is a wrap around scarf and I LOVE it! The shirt is a cheapo from Old Navy. 

This is another NY and Company (shocker) from their Eva Mendes Collection. I LOVE the lace on here, it is super cute to wear to work... so since I don't work, it will be a church sweater! Lol

My new boots! I bought them off 6pm.com If you haven't tried that website, I highly recommend it! You can get some steals, especially on shoes!  These boots are rubber on the bottom and wool on the top... perfect for Winter!

My other favorite top!! Another Lace! It is from Anthropologie and I bought it on their rack for 50% off! I love the color and the lace! :)

My  male model Colin... wearing hand me downs! Lol 

My boots from last year. Rider style boots in a khaki color from Sears. I wore them soo much that the toes are scuffed! 

But they are still cute!

Also my last year boots... these are from Shoedazzle. 

They are supposed to be knee high... BUT I feel like my legs are too short for them so I fold them down! 

I am on the hunt for another pair of boots. A different shade of brown and more dressy looking. My husband would prob kill me.. Good thing he doesn't read my blog! ;)

Fall

I wanted to go down to one of the beautiful parks here on the river and take pictures of my Colin. BUT I knew it would be hard to do by myself. So we invited our best friends here out for a combined play date/photoshoot!  We meet up about once a week with our friends and Colin is obsessed with their new baby girl!  He is always talking about the baby!  So I figured it was only fitting to share this beautiful park date with them!

Our friend Brooks. 

Colin "holding" the baby... he was so proud!

Our friends! :)

How lucky we are to spend days under the trees with good company!

And my money shot! ;)

House hope!

Well let's talk about our house! 

Not the one we are living in, but that other one. Ya know, the one we haven't lived in for 10 months, but are still paying for?? Yeah, that one! 

Well we have a new realtor. It has been a long time coming and I am hopeful this will be a good change. Because let's be honest: paying two mortgages sucks! 

Our new realtor was very shocked that we've not even had an offer on our place and kind of seemed like that thought was very surreal to them! Lol   I don't want to bash our old realtor, but I really wasn't happy with them and feel like they weren't doing their job very well. 

I'm really feeling hopeful with this change and I hope and pray that something happens with our house soon!! Please keep your fingers crossed and send positive thoughts and prayers our way!!

Train Ride to the Pumpkin Patch!

We took Colin this weekend to a pumpkin patch. Not just any pumpkin patch, but one that required a train ride on the Silverton Narrow-gauge Railroad to get to the pumpkin patch.

He was very excited about the train and the patch was a little old for him, but he definitely enjoyed the hay maze! He kept going back again and again! We would go in with him and he thought it was so funny hiding behind the hay bales and running around the maze. The other favorites were the tractor rides and they had a giant corn/sand box... basically a sand box filled with corn for the kids to play in and he thought that was pretty neat!

I'm glad we went! We all had a blast and it was a fun little family activity!