18 months

Colson, I can't believe that you are 18 months old already!  You definitely know what you want at this age and expect us to know as well.  You are happy and silly most of the time, but dramatic when things don't go your way (screaming really loud and swinging your arms or hitting).  You are a pretty good eater-breakfast is probably your favorite meal, not shocking since it's mine, daddy and Livi's too!  Fruit and veggies are good, but it's hard to get you to eat meat.   You are wearing size 18 month clothes and some 24 month shirts and a size 5 or 6 shoe.   I took you to the pediatrician on March 21st and you weighed 22 lbs. 8 oz. and were 31.75 inches long.  You are still in about the 20th percentile for height and weight, although you don't look small to me :)  Dr. Galbreath was a little concerned about your speech, so we are going to have you screened for some possible speech therapy.  You are definitely vocal, you just don't have a lot of words yet.  Yesterday you started saying "beep, beep", right after I beeped the car horn!   You call all dogs "Ma" (for Max), shake your head no (but won't say it), say "yeah" on occasion (but appropriately) say "bye" and wave, say "hi" (only when you feel like it), blow kisses for thank you (which is the sweetest thing), yell "BAAAAA" when the dogs bark (I think you are yelling at them) and  point to and say "Ga" for pretty much everything else.  You always get your point across though!   I'm sure when you do start talking a lot, it will be LOUD :)  You are sleeping from about 8 pm to between 7:30 & 8 a.m. and you take a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  I think Alyvia is still your favorite person to play with, you have to try anything and everything that she does.  EVERYONE tells us how cute you are, and we couldn't agree more!   We love more every day Colson Thomas!

Give A Dog A Bone

The kids and I went to Target today and while we were there, we bought Max and Sonja some new chew toys.

Max is really possessive of chew toys, so nobody was taking his away!  Sonja, however, wanders away and gets distracted from hers.  Colson took that opportunity to go and grab Sonja's new toy and, with a mean look on his face, yelled "MI" (mine)! 

He screamed when Max tried to take it away from him!!!  He's so silly :)

Luck O' the "Irish"

I was supposed to work all day today, BUT I got a call this morning and I had the first 8 hours off!  I was so happy to be able to take the kids to the St. Patrick's Day parade : )  Alyvia woke up and asked "Where's Daddy?"  Me: "He went to work because Mommy is going to be home this morning"  Livi: "Are you taking me to Aunt Cheryl's to go to the parade?"  Me: "No, I thought I would take you to the parade"  Livi: "But I'm supposed to go with Aunt Cheryl!"  Well, I thought she would be a little excited to go with me, but I was obviously mistaken!  So we called Aunt Cheryl and we all went to the parade together.

 

 We had a fun time at the parade.  We left a little early because it is a loooooong parade!  We got some McDonald's for lunch and then I had to go to work at 3.  I was so happy that I got to spend the morning with my favorite leprechauns!

A Little Getaway

Livi has been having some issues at school the past 2 weeks.  Little girls can be so hateful, somehow they just know how to hurt each other.  It has been one of the few things that made me nervous about having a little girl.  And it's already happening....in preschool.  The little girls have been telling her "no Alyvia's allowed", "you can't play with us", "I don't want to be your friend" and so on and so forth.  Livi was in tears when the babysitter picked her up on Thursday.  SO, after a big pep talk for Livi (and a talk with the teacher), I decided that she was skipping school on Friday and we were going to have a fun day!  We went to lunch with Nana and then to the zoo!

Took a picture of the Tamarins for Nana :)

 

Colson LOVED the giraffes!  He kept laughing at them :)

 We had a super fun day together and are completely enjoying this 70+ degree weather in MARCH!!  We're going to regroup over the weekend and "attack" school with confidence!  Because my girl is beautiful, brave, strong and kind :)  (That's our new mantra)

It's Vegas Baby!

On Monday Alan and I left, by ourselves, for a little getaway.  Alan is now a seed adviser for Syngenta.  The company had a conference in Las Vegas and paid for Alan and I to go! 

Livi was pretty sad when we left Monday morning :(  Our babysitter Meaghan said she moped around most of the morning saying she wanted  her "real" mommy (not the picture I drew for her)!  Luckily, Livi perked up-spending most of the time with her cousins while we were gone helped a lot!  I'm not sure Colson even realized what was going on.  I'm sure he knew he wasn't at home, but everyone said he was super happy and slept well, so that makes me happy :)

Alan and I were supposed to fly out of Peoria at 9:30 Monday morning and connect in Chicago to Las Vegas.  Our flight was over an hour late in Peoria and we thought we would miss our flight out of Ohare.  We were "lucky" the Chicago flight was delayed too so we got on the plane and thought we would only be about an hour behind our expected arrival in Vegas.  Well, after sitting on the plane for over an hour, we had to taxi back to the gate so a mechanic could fix somebody's seat back-Aaargh!  After fueling up (again), we finally made it out to the runway and left over 2 hours late.   We thought flying over the mountains was super cool (we're dorks, I know)

We finally arrived in sunny Las Vegas, albeit a little later than expected....

We stayed at The Mirage-super nice. 

We upgraded to a suite, because that's how we roll :)

The living area

2 bathrooms and an entry way!

 Monday night we went to the welcome dinner and then walked the strip a little bit.  Tuesday, Alan had meetings from 8:30 to 2 p.m.  I relaxed in the room until about 10 and then did some shopping!

After lunch, I went and laid by the pool, read my Kindle and just relaxed-it was great!!! That afternoon we went to Seigfried and Roy's Secret Garden at The Mirage.  It had dolphins, tigers, white lions and leopards-it was really neat.

You could get so close to the dolphin pool!

My phone battery died so I didn't get any other pictures of the animals :(  That night Syngenta had a dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe.  They had an Elvis impersonator for entertainment-ha!  We did a little more gambling that night, but we're not very good at it.  I wanted to play craps, but neither of us have any idea how!  The next morning Alan had a short meeting and I headed back to the pool for some more sun and relaxation :)  We flew back home that afternoon, all of our flights were on time and we got home around 10:30 that night.  It was a really quick trip, but it was worth it for sure!  Alan and I don't do a whole lot without the kids and it was nice for just us to go somewhere together.  This seed adviser thing might have more perks than I thought!! 

Double Date Day

I had not one, but TWO dates today-ha!  My first date was an all day affair with my favorite little guy :) 

This guy and I started out the morning by sleeping in-woo hoo!  (We deserved it because Colson was up from 12:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., I think his molars are still bothering him)  We got up, got ready and went to Mommy's eye doctor appointment.  Colson was so good, just stood next to the chair while I got my exam done.  Then we met Nana for lunch at Avanti's, yummy!  After lunch Cole and I went and got Papaw a birthday present (finally), did some returning (and shopping) at Old Navy and then picked up my new glasses (love 'em!).  We did a lot and it was really good to spend one on one time with Colson, he's such a funny boy :)  We came back just in time to pick up Alyvia from school and then Cole took a much deserved nap-he was really tired from our date!

Daddy came home around 4:30 and I got ready to leave for my second date :)  My favorite girl and I got to have a dinner date together!

No, I didn't let her wear this :)

We met Kristin and Lizzie at Old Chicago and then saw The Lorax-so cute! 

Livi got M & M's and I got movie theater popcorn,  it was a great date!  We got home in time for Livi and Cole to have a dance party before bed : )  I didn't get much done at home, but it was so worth it to spend the day with my kids, one on one.  I love them so much <3