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!