Starting the year 2013

The new year has brought many new experiences and lots of doctor visits. We took Colin to the doctor one night because of problems breathing and found out he had a double ear infection. The doctor gave him a breathing treatment and prescribed some antibiotics and told us if he had more problems breathing to take Colin to a breathing treatment center at the hospital. We bought a warm mist humidifier and some Vicks inhalant and took Colin home. He seemed to be getting better so we didn't worry too much. About a week later we all went to Las Vegas. Brian had a conference for school there and thought it would be fun if we joined him. Colin and I had fun wandering the Casino/Hotel while Brian learned ways to engage and interest his students in learning. He found a great book with activities for teaching math. After getting back to Saint George we took Colin to see the doctor again because his breathing was sounding bad. The doctor took once listen to his lungs and said Colin had RSV. Thank goodness it wasn't bad enough to require hospitalization. Over the next week and a half we did breathing treatment on Colin and he is now over RSV. Colin is getting very close to crawling. He can turn and pull himself on his tummy without and trouble now. He can get up on his hands and knees and rocks. Colin just needs to figure out how to move now. He tries very hard to sit up on his own and is even trying to pull himself into a standing position. Colin has learned how to hold his own bottle now. It is nice to be able to give him the bottle and not have to worry about adjusting or holding it for him. Everything, and I mean everything, Colin touches goes into his mouth. We haven't seen any teeth yet but expect some soon. Colin has a toy piano and a sit-n-spin toy that make music and he loves to play with them. He will look up and listen very intently when the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song is on TV. Colin is definitely ticklish on his sides and love to be tossed in the air. He thinks it's funny when he gets held upside down too. Aimee reads him a short story at bedtime and Colin seems to like that. We are thinking of teaching him some baby sign language.

Ending 2012 on a high note

December was one of those months were you just don't stop. We started December by having Colin's adoption finalized. It was an interesting experience to stand in front of a judge and be told that from this point on Colin was our child and we his parents. We had a real tree for Christmas this year, our first real one, and it made the house smell like pine. Colin liked to look at the lights. Christmas was celebrated a day late because of Aimee's work schedule. Colin got lots of wonderful fun new gifts. Right after Christmas we made a trip up to Salt Lake City. Aimee was insistent on being sealed to Colin in the Salt Lake Temple. It's always been a temple she's liked and wanted to see the inside of. We got back from Salt Lake just in time for Aimee to start work again.

Colin is growing up

As Colin grows, so does his personality. He loves to laugh. He thinks it so funny to get zerberts. It is slowly becoming apparent that his tummy is his ticklish spot. Colin is a smart boy too. He reconigises his bottle and get very upset if it is not given to him right away after he sees it. He is learning what it means when I say "arms up" and "ready" (time to change clothes). He shuts his eyes tight and balls up his fists. We started feeding Colin solid food in small amounts but he already has likes and dislikes. He loves the vegetables, espically squash and green beans, but dosen't seem to like fruit much. He defiently dislikes rice cearel and applesauce. Colin is a good sleeper. We have a bedtime of 9 PM for him (sometimes it's earlier) and he will sleep through the night. We hear him up and moving around 7 or 8 AM but he doesn't get fussy until 9 usually. We know Colin wakes up overnight but he never cries. Sometime we hear him turn his music box on which puts him right back to sleep. Colin is begining to show interest in other things too. He will watch Brian play his online computer game and the other night was fasinated but the fish. Colin also seems to like watching "Mickey's Clubhouse" and "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". I'm glad he likes these shows and not shows like "Barney the purple dinosaur".

Corn Maze Time!

Nearly every year since we were married, Brian and I have gone to the Staheli corn maze in October. This year we took Colin. Every year more games and attractions are added. This year they had a cute little rocking horse and a pirate ship maze. They also added a section to the corn maze for kids. To get through the maze you had to hunt for the posted storybook pages of "Spookly the Square Pumpkin." It was a cute story and fun to find all the pages. We had fun getting lost in the normal corn maze too. We showed Colin all the different farm animals but it was hard to tell if he understood. He did seem intriqued by the donkey and sheep. Maybe next year Colin will be more interested in all there is to do and see at the corn maze.

An old time Halloween

This was Colin first Halloween. We found a cute tiger outfit for him and got a little felt pumpkin sack for treats. Brian and I found our outfits later and said that Colin was our ferious pet tiger. We carve the Jack-o-Latern the night before and were please with how it turned out. We have been doing simple designs since we don't have a pumpkin carving kit. After taking Colin to our ward Trunk-or-Treat we went to Hurricane were Colin got to play dress up with his cousins. It was a late night but we had fun

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Smiles

Colin is growing bigger by the day. He is now in a size 2 diaper. He is laughing more and smiling for everyone. Everyone still says he is the cutest baby. Colin’s hair has gotten thinner in back but we are told that’s normal. We bought a baby bathtub for Colin and he loves it. Colin thinks its wonderful fun to splash and make bubbles. He cries when bath time is over and he has to come out and go to bed. We had a surprise visit from Aimee’s parents as they traveled back from a National Parks tour. Colin really enjoyed seeing them and they were so pleased to see him and how much he has grown. Colin’s pediatrician tells us he is a healthy boy and growing well just like he should. Colin is developing his small motor skills and can almost hold a bottle. He needs a little help adjusting his fingers around the bottle but he has the grasping part down. He has strong legs and good head control so we are debating on getting him an exercisaucer. We tried one that Brian’s parents had and Colin didn’t seem to mind it much but he wasn’t sure what he was suppose to do in it. We noticed the other night that Colin is responded more to his name. He loves going out in the stroller on walks. Colin still loves to be held, especially when he is tired. Brian and I are getting pretty good at deciphering the tired cry from the hungry cry now. There are a couple of big days coming for Colin. He gets his 4 months shots and the chance to celebrate Halloween. Colin’s going to bring in quite the candy haul with just his smile. Brian is working hard with the high schoolers. They are struggling with story problems this month. Story problems are never easy and adding algebra makes them even harder. He is having lots of fun with his Spanish class. They are going to celebrate Dia de los Muertos later this month. Brian even bought a pinata for them. Some days Brian does seem overwhelmed but he is handling being a new teacher really well. Terrisa gives him lots of help and advice. Aimee is working hard too. Work is giving her more and more responsiblities. Now she does more supervisor type work then ever before. It will be interesting to see what the next year brings. At home, Aimee spends most of the time taking care of Colin. With the weather cooling off, she looks forward to going on more walks with Colin and spending time in the garden. Aimee wants to get some quilting done and has a couple of ideas but the little one often has other ideas.

Professional pictures

While wandering around Peach Days we discovered a professional photographer. She offered to take some pictures of Colin and then of the family for a really good price. We figured we'd try it and see how the pictures turned out. Colin looked absolutely darling and drew quite the crowd. She even got a decent picture of all of us together. We picked out the best of the pictures. What I really like about this photographer is that she gave us a CD of the photos so that we can print as many copies as we want.