Dear Colin,

Happy 13th month birthday kiddo. Somehow 13th seems younger than 1 year and 1 month, so 13th it is. It has been an interesting month. Colin, sometimes the word interesting is used when you want to say a stronger word but you are trying to be polite. Interesting this time is code for frustrating. You learned how to throw a world class temper tantrum literally over night. Seriously, sweet happy go lucky Colin one day. The next day, a child who wildly whips himself on the floor and throws toys clear across the room in frustration the next day. What the heck happened little man?!?! I am blaming it on the fact that you are getting your molars but I have a feeling it might stick around long after those buggers finally push all the way through. Common phrases used around the house this month include: "Don't Bite Colin" "No Biting Colin" "Yucky Colin, Don't Bite." "No Colin" "Don't Touch That Colin." Are you seeing a trend? As much as we feel we've baby proofed this house, you find everything you shouldn't find. You love turning the DVD Player and the TV on and off, on and off, on and off. You bite literally everything. We've had to stop allowing you to read books alone because all you do is chew the corners off. You bite furniture, toys, silverware, and people. Ms. Cher calls you O'Beaver O'Beaver and its very fitting. To be repetitive, we are hoping this phase shall too pass. Your vocabulary is growing. Although there are still days where everything is "dada" all day long, you can say quite a few words and are really showing signs that you understand a lot of what we say. You 'talk' all day long and it's fun to hear real words and new sounds popping into your blabbering. You can make the following animal sounds: monkey, frog, puppy dog, and lion. You can say: buh bye, hi, bottle, drop it, whats this, all done. If you ask you to find your pipey, you will lift up your blankets in your crib looking for it. When we ask you where woof woof is, you grab him from your crib and squeeze him against his face. During dinner when you are thirsty, you will point at your bottle or sippy cup and ask for your bottle. You are becoming such a little boy. Over the past few weeks, you started doing the most adorable new thing. You love to lie your head down on random things. If you see a blanket on the floor, you will lay your head down and contently sigh. You cuddle your little people animals against the crook of your neck and happily sigh. The sweetest is you place your head on our shoulders and just quietly sigh. You do it often with me lately; when you are sad, when you are don't want me to leave, when you are excited to see me, when you are happy, when you are proud. In these sweet moments Colin, I am reminded that you are just a baby. A baby who gets frustrated because we can't communicate perfectly. A baby who doesn't understands why he can't stare at his reflection in the hot oven and give the baby a kiss. A baby who has two molars coming in at once and is in a lot of pain and sometimes just needs to chop down on something. Colin when your head is on my shoulder you are just a baby - my baby and I couldn't ask for anything more.

With all my love,
Mommy

Miles have been accrued. Flights have been booked. Hotels have been secured.

Puerto Rico we will be seeing you in December.

(yup, we are giving this trip another shot!)

The incredibly talented Kristen took Colin's pictures last Saturday. He was a little fussy and extremely drool-y but they seemed to go well. Kristen just put up Colin's blog preview for his 1 year pictures! I'm so happy with how they turned out! See them for yourself at http://khollystudios.com/blog/

If you like what you see, be sure to leave Kristen a comment (your website is NOT required).

I'll be sending an email out with details to see the full shot. If you don't get the email, please email me and I'll fwd along the information.

So I can admit it. I'm video taping challenged today. I took a couple videos of Colin tonight and all but 1 of them I took the wrong way. Ooops! I wanted to get the full length of his body not thinking that you'd have to either tilt your head or your computer to see it.

So this is the best we have...

I've been dying to post these pictures. I needed to get a few other posts done before doing this one.

I have too many pictures to show on here, so I'll post a few on here (realistically it will be more than just a few) and then you can check out the rest on my newly created shutterfly site.

Florida Trip:

Colin and Angela

Colin loved the elevators. Here's him taking a ride down in Tampa.

Family Photo in Clearwater. Mike and I have a picture standing in the exact location when we went on our first vacation together 4 years earlier.

This is one of my favorite pictures. Mike feeding Colin at Animal Kingdom waiting for the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom. It was the coldest day in 8 years and temps never reaching 45 degrees. Brrr!

Colin and I posing in the fake Dumbo after his fun ride on the 'real' Dumbo.

Fun family picture with Chip and Dale.

Getting creative with toys.

Birthday Party (thanks Merridith for taking many of these):

Birthday Boy!!

Drooly Colin

Colin's smash cake and the cupcakes that my mom and I spent entirely too long making. It was worth every minute of it.

Starting to get into it.

My expressive lil boy.

Cake time - official over!

All pictures can be seen on my shutterfly site: www.ourlilcorneroftheworld.shutterfly.com. A password IS required. It is our last name in all LOWER CASE letters. Comment or email me with questions about getting access.

Colin had his 1 Year Well Baby Appointment today. Everything went well. He's "shrinking" down the growth chart. He's now only in the 75% for height and weight. His head is still in the 97%!
His stats:
Weight: 24lbs 2oz (I think he lost some after being sick last week)
Height: 30 3/4"
Head Circumference: 50cm

He is becoming more daring and brave when it comes to walking. He still is not walking independently but he is wanting to walk more than crawl. He will walk holding just one of my fingers. At times he will stand alone and will take the occasional step alone.

Update: Sunday, Feb 8: He is taking steps!! He is holding onto things less and less. Numerous times today, he took multiple steps unassisted! Slowly but surely we are getting there.

I woke up feeling worn out. You know the day ... when your body aches from being tired and every position feels incredibly comfortable. That was how I felt this morning. I didn't have to work until 11am but Mike worked at 9. Colin started showing signs of needing a nap around 9ish, so I laid him down awake and started getting ready for work. After less than an hour nap, I had to wake him to take him to daycare. I could tell he was still sleepy but I knew the time crunch I was under and hurried to get us out the door semi-on-time.

We got to daycare and as soon as I put him on the floor, he cried. He cried so hard, I started looking around the room to see which child was crying. I was shocked to see it was my child. I walked over to him and gave him a walking/push toy. I watched in dismay that he continued standing in one place. Normally he would have been half way across the room by now. He just stood there almost frozen in his tracks. He looked at "P" and then looked at me and started crying. Big crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks. I picked him up again and offered him his pipey. I carried him as I put his bottles in the fridge and stored away his belongings. I put him back on the floor and played with him for a minute. His regular teacher was on lunch when I dropped him off, so Ms. Katie was in the room. Colin crawled over to me as I hung up his daily sheet, grabbed my leg and started crying yet again. Ms. Katie picked him up joking about how he likes Ms. Cher more than her. As she held crying Colin, he was reaching his arms out to me wanting me to hold him. It broke my heart. I think I may have felt it shattering as I had to leave him. He has never ... never once ... cried as we have left. He's never been as much as scared of anyone holding him. It seemed so out of character of him and it broke my heart.

Fast forward to the delight part of this post. I get to work and am going through my pile of stuff. There is a big manilla envelope on my desk addressed to me. The address vaguely looks familiar. As I begin to open it, I see red construction paper peaking out and immediately realize what it is. My first Valentine from my son ...
Thank you Colin (and Ms. Cher)!!! It totally made my day!