What Was I Thinking?: January 2009

1/25/09

Why we have parents

So, this weekend, my parents came down, mostly to help celebrate my brother's birthday, and also to see Collin. I truly have the greatest parents in the world. Not only did they do those two things, they also TOTALLY cleaned out our mood storage room (they even mopped the floor), rearranged a deep freezer so we can freeze more of my breast milk for Collin, my mom braved cleaning our bathrooms (including toilets which were FAR overdue for a cleaning), took us out to eat, made Sunday dinner, and basically just spoiled me. It was SO nice to have them visit.

Friday night at 945pm, my mom and dad and I made a quick trip so they could get in my "good deal" experience. I think they weren't expecting what it was quite like. Since Target was closing in 15 minutes, I ran around like a crazy lady finding all the things, my mom helped me find the coupons in my coupon stash (not an easy job), and my dad was just laughing. He was going to feel guilty for buying his bags of peanut m&ms, which he thought were going to be more than the things in my cart....and he was right!

Yes, I have never really grocery shopped at Target, but I got all of the above for less than $2.00, and my dad got his peanut m&m bags, that cost above $5.00. My dad actually joked that he may have to pay me to find good deals for him. That made me smile! My dad and mom seriously were in shock about what I paid for what I got...

Thanks so much for coming to visit us mom and dad. Collin and I miss you already!

Collin graduates to high chairs and more slobber

For Christmas, my parents gave Collin his first high chair. It's one that attaches to the chair, and Ryan set it up... he doesn't TOTALLY love hanging out in it, and so far, haven't gotten him to get any rice cereal in his body yet (I guess he is waiting for the 6 month mark!) but I still just loved this picture of him hanging out in it. My favorite part of the high chair is that now we can 'kind of' eat dinner as a family, all "sitting" around the table.

He has also discovered in a serious manner....his feet. Yes, this is him every second of every day if I let him. Plus he sucks on his toes, which I know is TOTALLY normal for babies, but still makes me laugh.

Fun tummy time slobber...he has always been a slobberer, but he is giving slobber a whole new meaning now. I keep thinking he is teething, but alas, no teeth yet.

1/21/09

Happy 5 months Collin

The little dog is a gift from Grandpa Johnson that he gave Collin for Christmas. He is SO soft.... and this is after a half hour wait, a blow out and a spit up. What a cutie!

1/17/09

Almost a full out smile

Yes, we are in the car seat, yes in our pajamas, but hey, almost a full out smile with our camera. We are getting there!

Random thoughts and resolutions

Okay, I am behind on blog posting.... I have found that once again, like I realize quite often in my life, I have problems in priorities. Every time New Years rolls around, I find myself pondering that I don't really set "New Years resolutions" per say, but seem to find myself once again getting mixed up in priorities. Sound familiar?

I am not sure how I do this, because I really do understand what is most important in life, but sometimes I find myself getting caught up in what is not....like having a clean house, a super nice dinner (instead of random clean out the fridge), or even other even less important things.... since my current state of life requires me to be working (no job yet for Ryan, but we keep hoping and praying something soon comes!), I have found this to be even more the case in my life. I come home from work, and see cute little Collin (which is TOTALLY a priority in life), but then tend to get bogged down in the other things that aren't important. Now, I know when I was pregnant, and even still, (and I understand this, I really do) people tell me that it's okay not to do everything, nor can you do everything, the most important thing is to play with and take care of that baby.... but somehow, it's hard for me to find balance. HELP!

In other fun Collin news, we are trying to help him learn how to sit better. It's so funny, he will sit for awhile, then he just face plants forward. Too funny.

Here is a rattle Santa got Collin for Christmas. He puts everything in his mouth these days, and recently discovered his feet and toes.

The last couple of weeks, we have graduated Collin to the infant tub (versus the baby sponge thing-a-ma-jigger we were using...at first he was like "Whoa---what is this?" but now, he thinks he's all that because he can push up on the little bottom part and move. And what's even better to mommy, is that when he pees while taking a bath, it has always managed to go outside the infant tub, and saved us from having to get all new water and everything. YEAH!

We are getting a little better at capturing Collin's smile on camera, and just wait until you see his 5 month old picture we got taken at JCPenney....when I pick them up and scan them in, you can hear the story behind that outfit :)

1/8/09

Collin's 5 months

Collin got his first vaccine on his 5 month birthday---how mean am I? He did great... it was his first shot ever, so because of my personal feelings and research, he is not getting all the vaccines in the time frame that most babies do. Ryan actually took him and said he did great. This outfit he came to visit me at work before the shot and though he was so smiley, of course, the picture, the stare down, not smile.

I just weighed Collin on our technical weight machine again (me weighing myself, and then holding Collin) and he weighed 14.2 pounds, which means he is in the 5-10th percentile still...and once again I tried to upload an ADORABLE video of him laughing, but alas, still doesn't accept our camera video. But now he loves to play with his lips (I know, hard to explain, but it's like he is trying to suck his lips in), loves to slobber, and loves to hear EEEEE squealed by his daddy.

Best deal yet

2 boxes Golden Grahams

2 bananas

1 Bisquick mix

1 Honey Bunches of Oats cereal

6 boxes of Cheerios

4 bags of MaltoMeal Frosted Mini Spooners

2 real butter

1 Pillsbury Toaster Strudels

1 Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls

6 Green Giant frozen veggies, random types

2 packs Betty Crocker Warm Delights (never tried, but had to because I could get them for free!)

1 Betty Crocker extra blueberry muffin mix

Can you tell we go through cereal a lot at our house?

The best deal is that Collin and I survived an hour in Albertson's trying to figure everything out, but rather than spend the $100.00 for what I got, I spend $22.00! WAHOO! Bring on the couponing! I seriously have decided you should never have to pay full price for most things. And though I usually never shop at Albertson's, I LOVE that they did this double coupon promotion, even though I only got to do 6 coupons on it yet.

1/4/09

Cute outfits...

DO NOT LAST LONG on a baby. I swear, every time I put Collin in a cute outfit, and say you look so cute, we have to take your picture....an hour later, he either has a blowout in said outfit or pees and soaks his clothes. From now on, I'm not saying cute on ANY outfit :) Oh, and my outfit in the above picture, yes, it's my pajamas, and yes, I wore them all day long (even into stores) and yes, they don't match.

The above pictures were of outfits that were considered "cute" until today.

1/3/09

Fun times with Collin

Happy New Year! Here is Collin with his Auntie Shanna. We partied at their house until 1210am... even though I slept through some of the partying, and so did Collin :)

Here is where I sing silly songs to Collin in his room. I have decided I could go on Broadway with all the silly songs I sing...including the most recent, "I like it hot....H...O...T... I like it hot" (sang to while heating up blueberry pie)

I am Superman! Collin sometimes likes to be superman with his daddy.

We got Collin an exersaucer for Christmas (given to us from his auntie Shanna) and this week he is REALLY discovering things on it. Just today he discovered the mirror.... TOO hilarious to watch him laugh and smile at himself in the mirror, but then scare himself sometimes with his faces. Only bad thing... he can have "explosions" in said Exersaucer and be SO happy that his mommy and daddy don't notice, until yes, too late. He had one of those today that required a serious bath.... and a ruined oneise :( but Collin was smiling and happy the whole time, you would have never known it. The funny thing is when I was changing his diaper, at first, I just saw a little bit of yellow and thought, we can save the Onesie, then when things got closer, uhh...no.

1/2/09

A good day

Have you ever had one of those days that everything just seems to be good? I had one yesterday, which makes me be encouraged for 2009….

First off, Collin. He was the most PERFECT baby…..seriously. Maybe he just hasn’t had one of these days in awhile that I have been around the whole day to know (and I'm not saying he isn't a good baby, he is a very good baby)…. But he got up at 715am, then he went down for a nap around 815 and slept until about 1015, ate and played, then slept from about 1145-130ish, then ate and played, then went down again from 3-515pm, ate, played, and then his power nap (normally about 20 minutes) went from about 730-845… I was worried he wouldn’t even be tired, but he ate, played in the bath, and then went down again at 1015, and we didn’t hear a PEEP from him until I went in to feed him at 715 this morning. I was worried (just a little bit this morning that he had died!) HELLO CHILD! I couldn’t get over it and kept saying he must be growing to Ryan, because it has been a LONG while that that has happened….. so I was so grateful for a little baby boy that had such a great day.

Secondly, because Collin had such great naps, I was able to play with him, but also get a couple of major projects done I have been wanting to get done on a day off. Like getting all the Christmas stuff taken down. What a project! Doing a load of laundry, okay, not a huge project, but still :) I actually even got to watch a movie during some of Collin’s naps, and didn’t fall asleep (which is practically unheard of), and we had some fun family come over for a visit…..

All in all, I had a GREAT start to the New Year. Hope you do too!

1/1/09

Happy New Year

Even though this picture was taken the last week of 2008, it's my Happy New Year picture...I especially like it because it is one of the FEW (and I mean few) pictures we ever get of Collin smiling....at the camera! YEAH!

Christmas 2008

Yes, finally I'm getting around to posting pictures from Christmas. Here is our tree after I finally got my Christmas shopping done. This year, we had 2 Christmas trees, since we got a great deal on a second tree last year, and thanks to my sister-in-law, had a more "formal" tree upstairs.