Colby James: 2 Years

Sometimes I just sit and look at Colby, marveling that I got to be a part of creating something so perfect.

:: He's sweet and sensitive  

:: Loves to learn and explore

:: My alarm clock in the morning and bedtime snuggle at night
:: My ever-willing helper
:: And my reminder to find joy in the little things

:: With an easy laugh and his daddy's silly sense of humor

Happy birthday, Colby-boy! We're so grateful you're ours.

To celebrate two wonderful years of Colby we had a very small party with strawberry-cream cupcakes (apparently the icing was highlight) and a load of presents that made his eyes get big with excitement.

And in case my heart wasn't already full with how much I love this boy, the next morning he ran up to me (in his diaper, we were working on getting dressed for the day) and spent the next ten minutes giving me kisses alternating with hugs. Motherhood is amazing.

Colby Update

I can't believe he's almost two.

:: Colby learned how to climb off and onto our bed independently and likes to snuggle up there and lounge with our pillows

:: We upgraded Colby to a toddler bed after we went to bed one night and heard a loud thud come from Colby's room, followed by his door opening, and the soft pat-pat of little feet making their way across the kitchen floor. I struggled during his first night in the new bed. I loved the routine of putting him into his crib and cuddling him when he first got up in the morning. The idea that he was too big to need that anymore got to me. But he isn't. Despite the fact he knows he can get out of bed independently, he waits for us to get him and snuggles are still mandatory.

:: He's my workout buddy

:: And Robb's fellow musician

:: He's obsessed with Thomas the Train (he saw some Thomas underwear at Target and insisted on holding them until check-out)

:: He loves our new park and we try to make it out there before Robb gets home (so he can go with Colby down the slides...Robb made me promise to stop now that I'm so far along).

:: He loves to hang out in the backyard. Unfortunately, there's not much to do there (yet), so we're improvising.

:: He randomly started saying the letters of the alphabet one day, which surprised me because at the time he only knew a handful of words. Now he can say all but 4 letters and identify all of them (I think it's because of the Endless Alphabet game we let him play on my phone because I haven't been pushing this at all) and he loves finding letters in books and on signs.

Here he is reading the tag on his Teddy

:: And suddenly he's started talking and expressing opinions, which is amazing and challenging at the same time. My favorite of his new words: Alice (usually said while patting my belly).

Recap of October

:: It took three weeks to get rid of all the moving boxes and another week to find homes for the random odds and ends I couldn't justify shoving in our closet. Then we moved on to painting. I've never been a huge fan of beige and the previous owners used it, in varying hues, in every. single. room (with the exception of the dining room, which is red). So we went to Lowe's, cleared out their grey paint chip selection, picked a color, painted a sample on the wall, bought 5 gallons, and realized our first wall of Suburban Sunrise was unmistakably blue. So we repeated the same process (minus buying 5 gallons) with three other colors before committing to Filtered Shade. It makes me happy and is 85% exactly the color we want...there may be a slight blue tinge the other 15%, but I've made peace with it.

We're 2/3rds of the way through painting. Once we're completely done I'll post pictures

Colby on one of our many trips to Lowe's

:: Sahuarita Lake: We finally took a walk around the man-made lake (bodies of water don't seem to occur naturally around here) that marks the center of the community. They're in the process of of draining it right now, but it still makes me happy.

:: We found the library! It's small and shares a building with our water company, but it has a great board book section, weekly storytimes for Colby, and an effective system for borrowing books from the larger libraries. I love it.

:: Canadian Thanksgiving:
Usually we celebrate this with my mom's side of the family, but since there's the issue of distance, we invited our friends, the Caltons, over and partied it up with them. Robb and I made a detailed plan of attack:

1:00 - Prep turkey Robb

1:00 - Prep bread pudding Lakin

1:45 - Put turkey in oven Robb

1:45 - Start slow cooker for bread pudding Lakin

1:45 - Start cranberry sauce prep Either

2:00 - Put cranberry sauce in oven Either

3:30 - Start stuffing prep Person 1

3:45 - Start mashed potatoes prep Person 2

4:10 - Put stuffing in oven Person 1

4:45 - Start gravy Lakin

4:45 - Prep veggies Robb

5:00 - Carve turkey Robb

And for our 2nd solo Thanksgiving dinner, I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out. I was also exhausted and hence forgot to take any pictures until the next day (mmm, leftovers).

:: Halloween: Honestly didn't turn out the way I expected it to. We carved pumpkins the Monday before (and cooked some spectacular pumpkin seeds), Colby spent most of the time watching from a distance before coming over to "help" with my pumpkin. By Thursday both pumpkins were rotting, mine was filled with hair-like mold and Robb's looked like an old man with tooth decay. The night of, Robb got dressed while I attempted to get Colby in his costume. He was supposed to be a werewolf. The ears stayed on 30 seconds and he wouldn't let me get anywhere near him with the furry feet covers (thank goodness we bought face paint). We hit up three houses before Colby was done and then we came back and passed out 250 pieces of candy in 2 hours. Robb eventually set up camp next to the door with a football game because there wasn't time to leave the door.

The next day we went to our ward's Trunk or Treat and I managed to throw a costume on this time (I'm a mummy).  I was kind of relieved  the next day when everything was over and we could throw the remains of our decomposing pumpkins away.

:: On a happier note: I love Arizona skies