Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Things I Love Right Now

c’s love of his daddy & how when we are in the car they both make the “vroom vroom” sound every time we speed up or turn a corner

graham cracker kisses & applesauce hugs

this little dance c does when he is really excited…he kind of runs in place and squeals with delight

how he waves “bye-bye” to me now when i put him in the crib for naps or bedtime

how he waves & talks to every single person we pass in the store

his love for beau

his love of being outside…even in the 100+ degree heat

hearing him say a new word

watching him climb on top of anything…and then he is so proud of himself when he’s standing at the top, but wants me to hold his hand while he climbs back down

and so many more little moments that happen every day!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Texas Trip…a preview

Collin & I made the trip to Texas last week to see my family.  We had a great time!  I will fill in more of the details when I have a little time, but here are a few pictures & the highlights…

Dede & Jimbo with Collin

 632010 025 632010 026

632010 027 

Collin’s Aunt Becky…he loves his Aunt Becky!

632010 028

Playing with his golf clubs!

632010 029

His first “real” haircut that didn’t involve mommy trying to trim his hair in the bathtub :)

632010 030

So many toys, so little time…

632010 031

Trying on Jimbo’s shoes

632010 032

Chillin’ in the car with Aunt Becca

632010 033

Cowboys hat from Jimbo :)

632010 034

Collin’s drill toy…I told my mom he loved playing with a toy drill at Son’s parents house…so naturally she ran out to toys r us the next day to get one for her house too :)

Other trip highlights:

  • Collin loves McDonald's french fries!
  • Swinging on the swing set at Dede & Jimbo’s house
  • Luby’s & Schlotzky’s & Jucy’s – yummy!!
  • Shopping with my sister (and no baby)…I actually got to try on my clothes before buying them :)
  • Dede & Jimbo buy Collin some “squeaker shoes” – he LOVES them!!!  Now every morning after we eat breakfast he will go into his closet and get out a pair of shoes and bring them to me for me to put them on him…but his favorite are the “squeakers”

Other Vuong family news:

  • Collin now has a battery powered race car, a bubble lawnmower, a big red playground ball, and a set of leggos thanks to Aunt Kim & Uncle Quoc’s gift card they gave him for his birthday
  • This weekend = backyard!!!!!!  We are FINALLY replacing the grass in the backyard on Saturday – feel free to stop by and help :)
  • We got new couches!!  I love the new couches, but realize after they are here that they really don’t go with anything else in our living room…guess that just means that we will have to get more new furniture…darn!  And I now have some major sewing projects coming up :)

And I will leave you with more pictures of the cutest little boy in the entire world…

632010 037 

632010 036

Saturday, June 5, 2010

so many thoughts…so little time

in case you haven’t noticed i love blogging…but also i have been extremely busy lately (which i also love).  probably once or twice a day i think “oh, i really want to write about _____” or “i should put _____ on the blog” but unfortunately about the best i seem to be able to do is a quick once a week recap with a blur of pictures.

in many cases the blog is the way that i try to make sure to remember little things about collin as he grows.  i am not the type of mom that can tell you the exact date collin started crawling, or when he had his first bite of rice cereal, or how many naps a day he took when he was 3 months old, but that’s what i have the blog and the baby book for, right?

trust me, i can tell you exactly where every single freckle on his body is located, and i can tell you exactly what he smells like after his bath, or the way he will smile at me each morning and do this little bobbing dance when i come into his room to get him out of his crib.  those are the things i will never forget.

anyways…here’s an update on all things collin (my favorite blogging subject)!

i think he is pretty much done with nursing.  he’s really only interested about every other day, so i think we are on borrowed time – i am excited that he is growing, but also a little sad that we will be ending this special part of our relationship.  every time he nurses now i try to really soak it all in knowing that this may be the last time.

he is all boy!  we spent a lot of time with his cousin lilo over memorial day weekend and it really made it more obvious to me what a difference there is.  lilo would be sitting on the floor quietly and gently playing with a toy, and collin would run over, grab it, raise it up over his head (while growling), and then chunk it halfway across the room – that’s my boy :)

he knows what he wants…and i have seen previews of temper tantrums already.  he gets frustrated easily when playing if he knows that a lid is supposed to go on a box, for example, but he has trouble lining it up to fit himself…but most notably over the fact that he is now only allowed to have the pacifier at naptime and bedtime.  some mornings he spits it out willingly but others it can be a battle – one that mommy wins, but it is not fun for either of us.  i think after our texas trip that we will be saying bye-bye to paci for good…but mommy is just not brave enough to try a 3 hour plane ride by myself without it as an emergency back-up plan!  any ideas on how to get rid of it??  should i just go cold turkey??  i have heard to snip the end off and give it to him…then he probably won’t want it anymore??

he is so much fun!  i seriously love playing with him.  he is starting to get hide-n-seek now (though i am always the one who has to hide).  we always have fun at the pool & at the park.  he will always do something silly to make me laugh like blowing a raspberry on my shoulder while i am carrying him around, or grabbing my hands and making me walk backwards.

he love watching & playing with “big kids”.  the past few weeks at church on tuesdays he has been in a room with 3-year-olds and he absolutely loves it.  he has also discovered the playground at chick-fil-a and will just walk around following the bigger kids and staring at them…and trying to keep up :)  he wants me to be there (which was evident by the major meltdown today when i tried to leave to go to the bathroom…poor Whitney was holding collin under one arm and max under the other when i got back) but as long as i don’t leave the playground room he is totally independent in there.  he also loves staring out our window at the teenage boys playing basketball in front of the house.

he is so smart.  he can say “Beau”, “da-da”, and “uh-oh”, and thanks to my friend Elizabeth he can now point out his belly button…and we are working on nose.

and now for some pictures

632010 001

mommy got a great idea from someone to fill up bowls and pans with water to let him play…unfortunately he was only content touching and splashing for about 15 seconds…then it all ends up covering the kitchen floor in about an inch of water!

632010 003

collin trying out beau’s kennel in pensacola.  he loves climbing in and out of anything…baby pool, our shower, the garage door, and now the dog kennel.

632010 004

son’s mom and collin at pensacola beach

632010 006

isn’t lilo just the cutest little girl ever!  and she is so sweet too!

632010 009

lilo and collin playing

632010 012

“the boys” son, cousin tam, cousin thanh, and son’s twin quoc.  such a beautiful sunset that night we took a million pics on the back deck.

632010 013

lilo, kim & quoc

632010 014

awwwww.  my hubby i sso cute :)

632010 017

632010 018

632010 019

my messy eater :)

632010 022

collin sharing his wagon with max on thursday

632010 024  632010 023

we got the bumbo out for max to eat in, and of course collin wanted to play with it too…then he got stuck!

we also had a wonderful date night on friday!  (only our 3rd since collin has been here!)  collin got to play with some of his best friends at church and son took me out to dinner at cheesecake factory – yummy!  then son let me take him shopping and i actually convinced him to go into pottery barn with me…he must have had too much cheesecake or something because usually i can’t get him within 100 yards of a store like that.  he even commented on some of the rugs that i was showing him (and by commented i mean that he said “yes” or “oh” or “uh-hu”) – hey, that’s progress, right?  then we finished out date night by buying collin a surprise at toys-r-us and being the first parents to pick up after date night.  unfortunately, the “wheelie popper” race car that we picked out for him at toys-r-us was a little scary at first, but he had warmed up to it by the end of the day today.

okay…i am up way too late now, so even though i could keep writing, i need at least a few hours of sleep :)  nighty night.

julie