BC & AC

I was thinking today how different life is with Collin – most of it is wonderful, but some of them can be humorous. Here are a few of the normal life activities and how they differ Before Collin “BC” and After Collin “AC”.

Date Night
BC – Dinner for 2 at one of our favorite fancy restaurants (Marker 32 maybe?) followed by a movie & then a stop for dessert on the way home
AC – Going to Outback & taking turns eating / entertaining Collin, with at least 1 diaper change during the meal (yummy!), and then going immediately home because it’s time to feed him again.

Productive Saturday
BC – Waking up, cleaning the house together, making a grocery list then going to do the shopping for the week while Son works in the yard & washes the cars, then doing laundry, paying bills, and finally having friends over for dinner & a game night.
AC – doing at least 1 load of laundry or accomplishing a few chores during nap times

Intimacy
BC – use your imagination
AC – Uh oh - is that the baby crying?

Going to the store
BC – Get in the car & go, get what you need & come home
AC – remember what time he ate last & make a judgment call on if he can make it, or if you need to wait for about 30 minutes until he gets hungry & feed him. Then inventory the diaper bag & replenish supplies, make sure you have at least 1 spare paci & bib. Strap baby in carseat, put carseat in car & drive to store. Circle around parking lot to find closest spot to a shopping cart. Lug 50lb carseat with baby to nearest shopping cart & make sure that it is snapped in. Enter store. Shop & place items in cart leaving 1 hand on carseat at all times. Keep the buggy moving at all times to keep baby happy. Checkout & get help out to the car (this does not apply at Wal-Mart where it is do-it-yourself). Lift 50lb carseat into car. Drive home. Lift 50lb carseat and baby out of car & into house. Hope hubby is home to unload groceries :)

My Favorite Thing To Do on Saturday Mornings
BC – Sleep in!
AC – Hanging out in bed around 6am with Son & Collin – he is always so happy in the mornings when he gets to wake up on his own schedule & we have fun just snuggling with him & “talking” to him!!

Family
BC – My Family & Son’s Family
AC – Our Family :)

Another Monday

I hate Mondays! Why do they seem to drag on & on? And I always seem to miss Son & Collin more on Mondays after having all weekend together. Some good news today is that I think I am going to buy our plane tickets for our December Texas trip tomorrow! We can restart the countdown…just 11 weeks!! We are going to celebrate Christmas early this year. Since Son & I both have limited vacation time & we won’t both be able to take off around Christmas, we are going to make our long trip December 4th – 12th this year. The only bad news is that since we are flying, we will have to put Beau in the kennel - poor baby!

Sick!

Okay, I just remembered something from my mommy sleep-walking last night that really grosses me out! Last night Collin woke up about 3:00am and was hungry, so I was feeding him when all of a sudden I looked down and he had the biggest clump of snot all over his face...we are talking about major boggers! I took the inside of my shirt and wiped his face, intending to just pull off the shirt when he was done eating & change before I went back to bed.

Well, I forgot about the baby snot all over my shirt until just now - so I slept in baby snot last night, sick!

Happy Friday!

Pictures!

Here is latest trick - spitting out the rice cereal that I try to give him!

His very own indoor swimming pool!

Collin loves his Aunt Becca!

The sip-n-see party hostesses - Jane & Midge

The outdoor pool on a warmer day - we had to ditch the swimsuit...it was a 3-6 months size, but already too small!

Meeting great-grandparents Nana & Grandaddy on Friday night when we got to Tyler - Collin had his own welcome committee & got to stay up past bedtime!

This picture was taken today when we were getting ready to go to church for the missionary commissioning service...also his 5 month old picture.

Five Months & Counting

I can't believe it, but today Collin is 5 months old! I know that everyone always says "it flies by", but I did not realize how fast until I experienced it myself.


He is now "eating" (tasting & spitting out) rice cereal every night before bedtime and he has once again started rolling over consistently (he rolled over for the first time about 6 weeks ago, but went on strike until a few days ago) except this time he is rolling from his back to his stomach instead of stomach to back that he was doing before. He can sit up propped on his hands for almost a minute now without tumbling over, and he is now too big for the infant sling in his baby bathtub, so he gets a bath in the baby tub with a towel rolled up under his head (he is still not sitting up well enough to sit on his own in the slippery tub).

He has tummy time & play time with daddy every day from 4:30 until I get home around 5:30...they really are a cute pair. I absolutely love walking in the door each day and seeing Son on the floor in Collin's room playing their little games together. Collin really is a daddy's boy - Son is the one that gets the biggest laughs, the best smiles, and Collin is constantly watching him.

I take Collin & Beau for a walk almost every night after dinner, and he loves feeling the breeze on his face & kicking his legs almost the entire time while we walk. Maybe he thinks that by kicking his legs he is the one making the stroller move??

He has never met a stranger - each morning when I drop him off at school I am standing there at the door saying "bye Collin", "mommy loves you", "be a good boy", etc. & usually he doesn't even acknowledge me. I know it is a good thing that he doesn't cry when I go, but could he at least acknowledge that the woman who carried you for 9 months, provides all of your milk, takes care of your every need, and changes your poopy diapers is leaving? Oh well, the smile I get when I get home from work, or get him up in the morning more than makes up for it!

He now wears a bib almost constantly - it is either that or change his outfit 10 times a day. There has definitely been an increase in the amount of drool in the past few weeks!! Some people say he is probably teething, some say he is too young to teeth, so who knows?

So that is the 5 month update :)

Yea for Texas!

This past weekend in Texas was awesome – we got Collin’s pictures taken, I went shopping with my sister to find some jeans that actually fit me, and we did everything on my list from the last post that I was looking forward to!

I also went with my sister to look at some rings, but didn’t find exactly what I am looking for. Since I have lost some weight, my wedding ring no longer fits. Eventually if I keep the weight off I will get my ring re-sized, but since I think that it is mostly due to breastfeeding, I don’t want to do anything too drastic until I can keep it off for about 6 months after I stop breastfeeding. Anyways, I hate walking around without a ring on my finger, but I had to stop wearing my wedding ring when it fell off in the parking lot at Quizno’s…I do not want to risk losing something so valuable! Any ideas for a ring for the meantime? The main problem is that my finger is now a size 4 ½ and the fake rings you see in Dillard’s, etc. don’t ever come that small – and I also don’t want to spend much money on it (think less than $100).

Collin’s pictures turned out AMAZING! You can check them out at www.battenphotography.com/collin5 if you want to, but I have a few disclaimers:

1. I was not expecting to be in any of the pictures, so I look terrible (no makeup, etc!)
2. There is a picture of me feeding Collin that my mom made me take – you can’t see any skin, but just an FYI.

Overall we had a great trip, but we missed Son terribly. That was the only thing that made it easier to leave. I will try to get time to post some pictures from the trip soon. We are already planning our next trip in December!