October Happenings

Collin started swim lessons on Monday the 27th with his 2nd cousin Brylea at the YMCA in Howard. Of course we had to take pictures of the poor kids in the locker room (Cheryl and I were hoping nobody thought we were weirdos). Cheryl's friend Brooke works at the Y and she watched our class. We were hoping she would be able to catch some pics of the kids in the pool, but it didn't work out. Collin had suuuuuch a blast! He loved being in the water and was all smiles. Our instructor, Ms. Kate, started working on some new skills with us. We had the kids trying to learn how to climb out of the pool, jump back in, and blow bubbles in the water. We also got to have some free play time and learned some new songs. We'll be taking our swim class every Monday evening for the next 6 weeks!

Sunday the 26th we carved our pumpkins that we got at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. We started with Collin's pumpkin and he was just so excited! He watched us for a few seconds as we pulled out all the seeds and guts and then he dug right in! He loved the feeling of the goopy mess and thought the whole thing was pretty funny. His pumpkin had a ton of seeds in it and as I was putting them in a pan to roast he was taking them out of the pan and putting them back into the pumpkin. It was really cute! He also had a good time putting a water bottle and marker into the pumpkin also. I thought he would have lost interest a lot sooner, but he stuck with us the whole time we were carving. He thought it was pretty cool to stand up with Maurice's pumpkin and drop things way down into it. It ended up taking so long and we had made such a mess that we decided to wait to actually carve faces into the pumpkins for Halloween.

We raked leaves in our backyard on Sunday afternoon. Collin loves being outside so he was content to just crawl around in the yard. Once we got a big leaf pile together we through him in and he thought it was pretty cool! He was a little leary when it was time to crawl out of the pile, I think he was a little overwhelmed by the massive amount of leaves! We brought the wheelbarrow out to bring the leaves to the curb and Collin was such a good helper! He picked up one leaf at a time and placed them ever so gently into the wheelbarrow. We had a jolly old time enjoying one of the last nice days of the season!

Maurice and I went to the wedding of my cousin Shellie on Sat, October 18th. Collin spent the night at his grandpa's house. We had a blast at the wedding, we (yes Maurice also) danced all night long. Shellie looked beautiful and her and Jeff are awesome together!

The Pumpkin Patch

This past Saturday we stopped at the Berryland Pumpkin Patch in Abrams. They had all kinds of fun stuff going on; lots of pumpkins and gourds, games, face painting, a corn maze, giant hay bales to climb on, and a haunted hayride! Collin really enjoyed the corn maze, he thought it was pretty hilarious. He was also pretty brave and crawled through the tunnels in the hay. The tractor that brought us on the hayride was probably the highlight for him though, he was all "wooh, wooh, wooh!" We picked out 3 fat pumpkins and a couple of squash. We are looking forward to carving them and letting Collin dig in!

10 Months Old!

Collin turned 10 months old on 10/3. He is changing every day now!! He crawls around the house like a maniac, and he is now starting to do the bear crawl (on his hands and feet, instead of hands and knees). It won't be long before he attempts to take some steps! Collin is also starting to get a little attitude. He does not like to be told no, and he will try over and over again to touch the stereo, the plants, the garbage, the toilet... He is becoming more vocal with his attitude also, if he doesn't like something, he will let you know with an "eh!" He doesn't say too many words yet, lots of dada. And I hear 'bub' quite often, not sure if he's referring to his bottle, bathtub, or bubbles. Or maybe something completely different, who knows, but it's pretty darn cute! Collin continues to eat like a porker too. He shovels his food in so fast, I don't even think he tastes or chews. He's often almost done eating before I even sit down to start eating!

Apple Picking- 9/21/08

We went apple picking last weekend with our friends Heather and Alissa, Mandie, Kamara and Amani, and Lilly. We went to an orchard in Oneida. We picked Macintosh apples and they were so good! Collin loved chewing on the apples and had a good time hanging out with his friends. We didn't pick too many; I wasn't feeling very motivated to make or bake anything with the apples, so we just picked enough to snack on. After apple picking we headed to Pamperin Park. After taking turns crying for the entire ride to the park, Collin and Alissa swung in the baby swings for quite a while. We had a good day with our friends that we don't get to see often enough!

Three Quarters of a Year Old

Collin turned 9 months on 9/3/08! He received a clean bill of health from his doctor. He is very long for his age (for the parents out there he's in the 97th percentile) and thin (70th percentile). I wonder where he gets that from? The doctor wants us to start eliminating some of his bottles throughout the day and she said we can completly take out his night time bottle. I don't think any of us are ready for that, but we'll start working on it! He doesn't drink very well from a sippy cup for us at home, but of course does it like a champ at daycare.

Collin is crawling all over the place now and getting into lots of trouble. We (Maurice, I should say) childproofed the house, but he still finds plenty to get into. He also has a new fascination with our big fat kitty, Astro. They seek each other out in the house and even though Collin drives him nuts, Astro still loves to be by him. Magnum, our Siamese cat now lives with Collin's Grandma Rita. We miss him, but everyone's better off this way.

Collin is eating pretty much everything these days. He doesn't get a whole lot in the way of baby food anymore. He went through a picky phase, but thankfully that didn't last. His favorite seems to be spaghetti. He's not a huge fan of fruits, but loves vegetables. (He gets that from mom).

Collin is still sleeping through the night, he goes to bed between 730 and 830 and wakes up between 7 and 8 am. He usually takes 2 naps a day, unless he's at daycare, then we are lucky to get one! He's still a super happy kid, it doesn't take much to get him to laugh or smile!

The Farm

Last weekend Collin and I drove up to The Farm in Door County with our friends Becky and Lilly. We met Mandie, Kamara, Amani and their friends Wendy and Trista up there. Collin looooved all the animals! He wasn't scared of them at all and wasn't even bothered when the goats jumped up on him. The Farm is a pretty neat place, it's like a big petting zoo with all farm animals. You can buy bottles of milk to feed the goats who roam free, and corn to feed the other animals. We saw goats, sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, and kitties. After the kids were done with the animals we all sat down to have a snack and Collin munched on Cheetos with the big kids.

First Camping Trip- Labor Day Weekend

Maurice went up north with his brother's Friday evening to go fishing. I had some other things going on (such as a girl's night) so Collin and I hung out together Friday night and Saturday, then headed up north Sunday morning. We also brought Maurice's niece, Taylor, who just turned 9, with us. Thank goodness she was with to keep Collin entertained in the car since we had a loooong drive. We camped on Star Lake, which is about 20 miles northwest of Eagle River, about 3 1/2 hours north of Green Bay. The guys were still fishing when we got up there so I took the kids swimming in the lake. The water is so crystal clear and the beach is really nice. Collin as always loves the water and Talyor had a blast collecting rocks, shells and "crab legs". Maurice and his brothers brought NO food with them so we went out for dinner to Paul Bunyans. Collin had a good time making a disaster of our table and the floor around us! By the time we got back to camp it was pretty late so we made Collin a bottle and he passed out before he even finished drinking it. We put him in his pack n play which was set up in our tent and he stayed sleeping, we were so relieved! The rest of us sat out by the fire for awhile and then headed to bed ourselves. Collin woke up screaming at about 4 am; I'm assuming he was freaked out from being in such a stange place. We layed him down with us where he slept really good until 530 am. Then he was up for the day. UGH... So bright and early Maurice, Collin and I took a walk down by the lake and around the campground. We even saw a deer walking through the woods. I went back to sleep for a little while and then Maurice and his brother John went fishing again with hopes of catching a musky. The kids and I went for a couple walks and I tought Taylor how to play Gin 13. By this time Collin was getting pretty crabby, he was quite over tired. When the guys got back from fishing we packed up and got ready to head home. Collin slept most of the way home and when he was awake he was a very good boy. Normally we camp several times throughout the summer, but this summer it was just hard to fit it in. Now that we know Collin is a camper hopefully we can squeeze in another trip or 2 before the end of the season.