Our Talented Little Man

Patrick and I have got one talented little man on our hands. How many people do you know that can put their toes in their mouth? Well, Mr. Collin can and is obsessed with it. He wants to hold his feet and attempts to get them in his mouth all the time. They are his new favorite toy! He even tries to gnaw on his toes while eating rice cereal. Wow, that is talented:)

Collin has also got Mom and Dad quite in a bind when it comes to sleeping. Recently when we have been getting him up in the morning he has been snuggled up against his bumper. We got a little concerned about this and decided to take the bumper off. Well, to our surprise Mr. Collin got his feet stuck in the crib slates. This did not happen once, but all day long. Apparently it was a game and once he got them stuck he would yell for help. Needless to say, the bumper is back on the crib to prevent any injuries.

We Miss You, Nana

This weekend was the two month anniversary of Collin's Nana, Brooke's mom's, passing. We all miss her so much everyday. I constantly catch myself wanting to pick up the phone and call her to brag about all of the wonderful things Collin is doing or to get advise on things that come up with him. It has been so hard to go through motherhood without her. Although she is not physically here, I know she is looking down on us and is so happy of Collin and his many accomplishments. She is probably in heaven smiling and bragging about everything he is doing. Collin was a source of joy for her and she was such a proud Nana. I know if she were still with us she would be spoiling him rotten right now! Collin has many of her traits including her nose and baby blue eyes to help keep her memory alive. Mom also loved to go to Las Vegas and play the slot machines. Our little Collin must also like them because he will spend forever turning the slots on his Baby Einstein Entertainer. She was such a loving mom and I can only hope I turn out to be half the woman she was.We love you and miss you, Nana.

Our Precious Boy

Playdates

Collin has been a busy little boy having fun with his new friends. On July 10th he had all of his friends over to play. We ended up having six babies and their mommies come over. It was a lot of fun. All of the babies sported their favorite summer hat for the picture. They looked precious! Yesterday Collin went over to play at his friends at Charlie's house. Check out the pictures below.

Rice Cereal

Our little boy has started to eat rice cereal. We tried it for the first time on Sunday, July 13th. To our surprise, Collin really liked it. He ate several spoonfuls of it. I am not sure if he liked eating the rice cereal better or making a mess. We are going to continue feeding him the cereal one to two times a day and then introduce vegetables. Our little boy is growing up so fast.

"Tough Love" Is Working

We are shocked to say it, but "Tough Love" has worked thus far for little Collin. We began on Friday. The first day was hard. Collin cried an average of 30 minutes each time he went down for a nap. He did succeed in falling asleep on his own for 20 minutes for his first nap and slept 11 hours that night by himself. We were shocked. On Saturday he averaged about 20 minutes of crying each time we put him in his bed and took 3 naps. Although the naps were only 30 minutes each, he still fell asleep by himself. Saturday night he cried about 20 minutes then slept 10 1/2 hours without a visit from us. Sunday he averaged about 15 minutes of crying each sleep period and continued with 30 minute naps. Sunday night he slept 10 1/2 hours without a sound. I woke up several times during the night to see if he was breathing since he was being so quiet. Today he has averaged 10 minutes of crying per sleep period and has taken one 40 minute nap and two 30 minute naps. I am hoping the amount of time per nap will increase but I am just happy right now that he is falling asleep and napping alone. This is a huge accomplishment for Collin. We were told by our doctor to stick to this "Tough Love" plan for 10 days and by then he should be fully able to nap and sleep alone at night. We are hoping this is true!

Collin Is Four Months Old

On July 3rd Collin turned four months old. It is amazing how fast the time has flown by. Today he went for his four month doctor's appointment. Collin is now 15 pounds and 1ounce. He is 25 and 1/4 inches long. Our little boy is now in the 50% for his height and weight and 60% for his head size. The doctor said he was very healthy and such a cutie. She had to give him several hugs before she handed him back to us.

Collin has learned so many new things over the past month. He is still smiling all the time. When he wakes up in the morning he always gives Patrick and I a big, toothless grin. He will smile when total strangers smile at him and smile at you to get you to smile. He also loves to talk. He will sit and babble to you all day long. His favorite thing to say is still "ah goo". Collin is also able to support his body weight on his legs now when we support him. In fact, he loves standing up with support and definitely prefers it over laying down or sitting. We have recently put together his Exerciser and he loves it. This allows him to stand up while interacting with different toys. Collin is also becoming less of a "bobble head" and has more head control now. Collin has started to roll over from his back to his side, but has not mastered the full roll over yet. His new fascination is trying to grab anything that is in front of him (including your hair). If we put a rattle in front of him he can grab it with no assistance. He has become such a big boy!

Collin is still having some sleep issues. The doctor suggested we implement what Patrick and I call "Tough Love". Collin will sleep for hours if he is on Patrick or I but not in his crib. He takes his naps on me and ends up with us at 5:30am every morning. With "Tough Love" we are to go through our bedtime/nap time ritual with Collin then put him in his crib. We are to check on him at different increments starting with 3 minutes, then 5, then 10 etc. We are hoping this helps our little man nap better!

4th of July Weekend

Collin had a big weekend celebrating the 4th of July. On Thursday night his Grandmommy and Grandpa (Patrick's parents) arrived. They watched Collin Friday morning so Patrick and I could run the Peachtree Road Race. We were able to finish in a little over an hour, which I am very proud of considering I just had a baby four months ago. When we got home we had a photo session with Collin, and then Patrick and I went out for dinner and took advantage of the free babysitters. We had planned to go see fireworks but Collin decided he was to tired and wanted to sleep. We have learned to adjust a lot of our plans around him:) On Saturday Papa (Brooke's dad) came over to visit Collin and have a cookout with us. Collin had a good time visiting with everyone and getting lots of hugs and kisses.

Play Date

Today Collin went for another play date with his new friends. This time it was at his friend Matney's house and all of the babies had to wear red, white and blue in honor of the Fourth of July. Below is a picture of all the babies looking very patriotic.



Most of the babies in this play group were born within a month of each other. We try to get together once a week so that the moms can get out of the house and have some social time. The babies love getting together too and playing with different toys at the host's house. I feel so blessed that I was able to find such a great group of girls who are in the same situation I am. It is so cool to know that Collin will grow up with these babies and be childhood friends.