Christopher is 1!!

On June 4th, we celebrated Christopher's first birthday. It has been a crazy birthday week in our house! I don't know if I have ever eaten so much cake in my life. Anyway, we woke up at the normal 7 am and I went to get Christopher out of bed. He was screaming by this time to get our attention. I was greeted by a giant poopy diaper up his back. Happy Birthday, buddy.

Probably the best part of the day was when Roger, Sue, and I were standing in the kitchen and Colin and Christopher were playing in Colin's new "Jump-o-lene" in the office. We hear Colin's sweet voice say, "Happy Birthday, Christopher." Kiss. "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday day dear Christopher....Happy Birthday to you. I love you, Christopher." He probably pushed him over or took something from him not long afterwards, but we will always have that memory of him being so sweet to his little brother. Those are the precious moments.

After naps, we opened up gifts and had cake. He wasn't sure what to do with all of the stuff he got. It didn't help that Colin wouldn't let him open half of them without taking over, so we had some disagreements there, but he got the hang of it and when we opened up the toy boxes and he got to play, all was well! Christopher is quite the cake connoisseur these days and he dug right in. He enjoyed us singing to him, but was happy when it was over and he could eat! Here is a short video and the pictures of the wonderful day that was my big boy's 1st birthday!

Colin is 4!

Happy Birthday to my big boy! I am so proud of our 4-year-old. I am so happy to have been blessed with such a sweet, loving, rambunctious boy. We had a wonderful day on Tuesday hanging out at the house. Grandma Sue is in town to help celebrate and everything has been very relaxed.

Colin woke up on his birthday at 6 am (ugh) and said, "Daddy. DADDY!" "Yes, Colin." (still sleeping) "Daddy, am I 4?" "Yes, Colin, you're 4. Now lay down until 7:00." You could hear the excitement inside of him as he laid back down on the air mattress. It was very cute.

Colin had gone to bed with a frog in his throat, and it wasn't better in the morning. He sounded adorable. As the day went on and he got phone calls wishing him a happy birthday, he got to talk to my mom. She sang to him and he said, "Thanks! Grandma, my voice is broken. Eea, eea, eea. Did you hear that?" It was really cute and if you have ever lost your voice you know exactly the sound that he made.

After naptime, we opened presents and ate cake. He had chosen a Wall-E cake and it was really yummy. I think that Christopher enjoyed it the most though. I guess he was practicing for his own day.

Days from...uh, you know where.

Colin has definitely been trying my patience today. Unfortunately he is winning. Roger is out of town again and the kid has decided that it is my fault. Yep, all of it. Roger being gone, he bit his lip earlier, he hit his brother across the head with a toy, he didn't want to wear long sleeves today, he doesn't like sleeping, he won't eat the pizza for dinner because his lip hurts, and I am sure a slew of other things such as the wind is blowing, and the sky is blue, too. He actually said to me earlier, "I want you to go to someone else's house and I want Daddy to stay with me. He won't fight with me." Wow. He has already lost his trains and cars until Roger gets home because he had a red card at school yesterday. He has been in time out twice today, and there have been so many tears I could probably name a river after him. My own role in this has not been totally innocent, I must admit. I have let my temper get the better of me and my raised voice (okay, yelling voice) doesn't ever help manners. I have had my own share of apologies to make. Fortunately, this week will not go on forever, and tomorrow will allow for a deep breath and a new start for both of us. Thankfully Christopher has gone a little bit easier on me. Wonder how long until he wants me to move out, too?

Two weeks after the fact, but who's counting?

My Birthday and Mother's Day weekend was fantastic. I have simply been too lazy to blog about it until now! I was treated like a queen the entire time and could not have felt more special.

On my birthday I was allowed to "sleep in" to the late, late time of 7:30. Even at that very normal wake up time, it was wonderful to hear Colin saying, "Happy Birthday, Mommy!!" Roger and Colin left shortly after I woke up to go and do some last minute preparations for my day. Christopher went down for a nap and I was able to lollygag in the shower as long as I wanted to. It was glorious. I took my sweet time getting ready for the day while Roger and Colin came home and I was beckoned down the stairs. Colin was holding a gorgeous bouquet of bright pink roses for me. He had picked them out all by himself and was insistent that those were the ones I needed. They were perfect! Then I was sent back upstairs so Roger could "set up." In the meantime, Christopher woke up and we spent some time playing while we waited. When I was allowed to go downstairs, I walked into the kitchen to a beautiful spread of a cake with candles (no, he didn't put 31 candles on there, but he had bought the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" letter candles and the numbers 3 and 1). Here is a picture of the spread. It was awesome. I have the best husband (and children, too, I must say)! The rest of the day was spent with our neighbors at the zoo and eating a wonderful pizza dinner at the Mellow Mushroom. It was really yummy and we had a great time!

Christopher REALLY enjoyed the cake...I guess this is practice for his 1 year party!

Colin at the zoo...I had to catch him at random moments because he hates having his picture taken.
Mother's Day was more of the same pampering. Just getting some time outside in the flower garden was a joy for me. It was great. Until I came in from pulling weeds and pruning bushes with dirt under my nails and all over me and realized that I also had a very interesting new tan line (um, shall I say burn line to be more accurate?) on my low back. Apparently my shirt had been exposing my lower back while I bent over pulling weeds and had remained that way the entire time I was out there (probably a total of about 2 hours). I am not a sun worshipper in the slightest sense of the word, so you can imagine what it looked like--and eventually felt like. I am not sure that I have ever had such an oddly shaped burn in such a random place. Who needs sunscreen?? Me, apparently! Other than that, the day was wonderful AND my front flower bed looks fantastic! I am truly loved by all of my boys, as well as my wonderful family and friends. I am a blessed woman and I appreciate every bit of it. Well, except the scorch mark on my back.

Maybe I spoke too soon...

I just got word this afternoon!

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=K4x6hecs5A7UqnUlBFr1rjIzODkz&referred_by=15531713-4VKnaSx&p=moveon

Stripped of Mother of the Year...

Well, 2009 will not be my year. Not only did I forget Easter, but after over a week of raving about how excited I have been about my Mother's Day Tea today at school with Colin, I forgot. Yep, forgot. Not something came up and we had to change plans--FORGOT. I woke up extra tired today for some reason and was lounging around in pajamas, hanging out with Colin, feeding Christopher breakfast, thinking how great it was that I didn't have to do anything until the evening when the "OH, NO!!" moment hit.

I looked at the clock and it was 9:36 am. The Tea started at 9 and ended at 10. I FREAKED OUT!!! I immediately started crying and flew up the stairs to take a 2 minute shower and grab some clothes for the kids so I could try and get there. Keep in mind that we live at least 25 minutes from his school, so I knew we weren't going to make it even close to the time. I called the school bawling my head off and told the director what happened and she said to come on when I could get there because there was stuff for me. She was so sympathetic which made me feel worse! Oh, and the WORST thing was that Colin was much less concerned about missing the Tea, and was very worried about why I was crying. He said "Mommy, why are you crying?? Big girls don't cry...that makes me sad when big girls cry!!" At this he proceeded to cry with me. Oof. He could have punched me in the stomach and it would have hurt less! It was so sweet to know that he was concerned. Granted, I probably scared him to death with my hysterics.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn't make it in time, but I did get to pick up the cutest art that Colin had made for me. I will take pictures and post them in the near future. But after my emotional day, I am going to gorge on some ice cream and lament the loss of my baby's first school Mother's Day event.

Colinisms..

Colin has been talking a lot lately about "when he was big." This afternoon after school we were talking in the car and this is how the conversation went.

Colin: "When I was 20, I was jumping really high."

Me: "Really? What about before you were 20?"

Colin, exasperated: "I was 19!!!"

Dumb question, Mom. Everyone knows 19 is before 20!!!

This weekend we asked Colin about marriage.

Aunt Alicia: "Colin are you going to get married?"

Colin: "No, I'm too little!"

Aunt Alicia: "When you are big, are you going to get married?"

Colin: "Yeah."

Aunt Alicia: "Who are you going to marry?"

Colin: "Mommy."

Awwwwww!!!! He loves me!

Here is another one from the car ride home.

Mommy: "I missed you while you were at school today."

Colin: "I missed you, too. Because I love you."

He is so sweet I could eat him. :)