Collin David is TWO!!

Who can believe it is the end of February?! Yup, that's what I thought:) It has certainly gone fast for us. I have been referring to Collin as "almost 2" a lot lately, so his birthday didn't necessarily sneak up on me, but...:) 

Here's a little bit about Mr. Collin these days...

What we hear every day:
"Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom......"

"All aboard!"   "Choo, choo!" 

When we see Daddy's suburban in the drive way - "Daddy HOME!!!!"

When he drops something "Oh, man!" 

He is such a clown. Has a lot of faces/grins. He's a charmer and of course has that grin when he is being mischievous which almost makes you forget what he is doing. He loves trains (we don't watch Thomas) but is pretty obsessed with anything train related. There is a place not far from here where you can ride a real train for a little scenic tour and we definitely need to do this soon! He also pretends he is a fire fighter a lot. (when he puts the Halloween bucket on his head, he is pretending to be a firefighter:) Maybe that will be a family tradition that continues...

Dressing up - what a goon:)

Train book that makes sound - he's in heaven

He is our child with a sweet tooth and is currently on an eating strike. Both kids actually, they are not eating much of their meals though still mysteriously love their snacks. Awesome. Can I stop preparing lunch and dinner? 

He loves to color/do art just like his sister and is no longer in danger of trying to eat any of the craft supplies, but is definitely guilty of using crayons, etc. on things he shouldn't. Kate was really good in this area. I believe there were two instances where she very briefly used a highlighter or something to draw on a wall/log:) We didn't really worry about it. But now I'm finding all kinds of books and things with Collin's artwork on them:( (just looked over and Collin is drawing on his hand with a pen...)

He is gaining more words each day. I'm trying to get him to string two words together more often and in the last two weeks that has really blossomed. He is very polite, as Kate was when learning to speak, with lots of please and thank yous.

He just had a growth spurt, I think his size six shoes are small now! He needs longer pants, 24 months work pretty well for length but are too big in the waist. He jumped up to almost needing a 2T in his tops. I swear I just started putting him in 24 months tops after Christmas. Good grief! 

The big kids at Kate's school (Kate painted the top left picture in art class)

He loves to go to the doctor with Mommy and Ayden. He wants them to do everything to him too. He gets on the scale, wants them to listen to his heart, wants to sit on the table, etc. This is the OPPOSITE of Kate at this age!

He is sleeping much better. He sometimes still gets up early in the morning and we give him some water/a pouch or just have to rub his back and tell him it isn't time to get up.. and I think he is going to have nightmares/night terrors as Kate did (and I did at that age). Sometimes I can't seem to wake him, he is kind of frantic. I HATE it. But my big, big worry of having a baby and dealing with a newborn night schedule and Collin's night antics has not come to fruition. It is very manageable (and Dave is good about going up to see Collin. If I can wake him up to do it:) 

Best Buddies

He wants to do everything his sister does. Everything. EVERYTHING. If she puts on shoes or boots. He has to. If she puts a hat on, he has to put a hat on. He will even jump in and repeat what she says, usually just saying the last word of her sentence. It makes for a quite the dramatic emphasis.

Example:
Kate: "Mom, I just need to put on these shoes. If I run around, I'll slip on the floor. I need shoes."
Collin: "Shoes!"

Kate"Mom, I'm hungry, I need a snack!"
Collin: "Snack!"

Kate: "I'm drawing a rainbow. and Clouds. Clouds have to be blue."
Collin: "Blue!"

He had showed some signs of wanting to potty train around Christmas and had gone on the the potty a couple times, but we haven't successfully done that in awhile. If Kate goes to the bathroom, he runs in there too. Sometimes shrugging his pants down:) But he doesn't want to sit on the toilet (we got those toilet seat covers that have a smaller "regular" seat attached...we like them, I'm not sure Collin does. I was in no rush to potty train him. But wrangling him on the changing table is no bueno. I think we should start working towards potty training. I think Dave should work with him towards potty training:) 

Collin loves to sing. Again, just like his sis. We have a CD in the car that we listen to and I swear he knows all of them. His favorite tunes to sing are Twinkle, Twinkle, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald and ABCs. He gets really mad when the sun is in his eyes. "Mom. Mom. Mom! Shunshine..eyes! Shunshine, no!" 

Asleep in the car. He loves having his sunglasses on

Some light reading with sissy

His favorite foods are: pouches (baby food pouches), crackers (many kinds), goldfish, cheese sticks, berries, cereal. He likes a lot of meat and used to eat most meals I made. He is rebelling a bit now. He used to eat yogurt and cottage cheese every day, but now not as much. His love of salads is also a bit more sporadic, but he LOVED caesar salads:) 

He has had two hair cuts so far (the same as Kate!), a thing he and Daddy do together. He LOVES going outside and gets upset if someone goes out the door and he can't go too. This cold, cold weather has been rather difficult for him:) He loves big trucks and machinery. There are a number houses being built in our neighborhood and I can't wait for the spring when we can go for walks and watch the big trucks. 

For Collin's birthday, we had a very low-key and easy birthday celebration. Gma Merl & Gpa Wally and Andrew and Kylie came up for it and my plan was to open gifts on Saturday and just order pizza and have ice cream for dessert. I am not a big party planner and I take full advantage of the fact that little, little ones will have no memory of the event:) I'm sure the requests will start soon for Kate and the bar will be set high with her school friends, etc. I'm saving my energy for those days! 

Gpa & Ayden

They're matching!

Friday night, everyone arrived we just visited and stayed up until 12:45 a.m.! What were we thinking! Good times:) Collin was such a clown when Andrew and Kylie showed up. He does this thing where he essentially does the Downward Dog pose to greet you. Then he was picking up things and just chucking them onto the ground. It was funny, but I was trying not to laugh:) Saturday was a lazy day, we had a very small cake after nap, opened gifts (so many!), played with a couple balloons and then had pizza and ice cream and watched Monsters, Inc. Sunday was another lazy day with yoga (for Gma and me), play dough, lots of dress up and making a cake for Gpa Wally. 

Birthday breakfast of strawberries and donut holes:)

He was ready to blow out the candle, but it took a number of tries:)

Birthday boys!

It was sort of a parade after he opened gifts:)

Checking in with his brother

He received so many wonderful gifts! From Dave and I (and Kate:) he got a train engineer and fire fighter dress up set, LeapFrog computer and a Mickey Mouse DVD. From Gpa Wally & Gma Merl he received The Little Engine That Could board book, his first baseball glove/ball and another bug for our...bug thing (hard to explain:). Andrew and Kylie gave him some truck pjs a John Deere tool box with tools and a sit and spin! Tara, Tony & Quinn sent a basketball and a special book for boys. Gma Bobbi and Gpa Ron sent him some new Crocs and a raincoat/boots (the yellow boots are ridiculously perfect with his dress up!) The gifts that didn't make it to us by Saturday...Melissa & Doug Fishing Pole Set from Elizabeth & Guy and personalized books and a Brooklyn onesie:) from Laurie!

Watching a movie

Family picture! First one since the hospital? 

Ha ha!!.....a pic of me and my baby

Gma & Gpa and the kiddos

Collin is a great big brother so far. He has been getting more and more interested in Ayden and likes to come up to him and say, "Awwww. Hi Ayden" "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Hi, Ayden" 

I really can't believe Collin is two. He seems older in that he and Kate are attached at the hip and I can barely remember a time when he wasn't here:) but how do I have two boys in the span of two years?!?!?! As I'm nursing and snuggling Ayden I'm trying to remember and reminisce about doing the same with Collin. I remember just feeling like I was falling in love:) and I knew I needed to soak up the time at home with him - my first baby I was able to stay home with from the very beginning! 

Here are the pics for Collin through the years...

Newborn Collin - February 21, 2013

1 year old Collin

2 year old Collin