Swim lessons

We had our first swim "lesson" today, and it was an interesting experience. We headed to the local community center for the class, which consisted of about 15 moms and babies. The pool was HUGE....2 olympic sized indoor pools as well as a separate section for kids, and another area for water aerobics.

This would be Colby's first pool experience, so I wanted him to enjoy it. However, my internal mommy alarm went off when I saw the instructor. She looked to be about 16....and not very professional....meaning, she might have been in a gang. I know, I'm being very judgemental. But that's ok- I'm getting old and that's what old people do. The most alarming thing about her was that she had large safety pins through each ear. No, not earrings that looked like safety pins, but actual tetanus carrying safety pins. I'm thinking she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, so I file my observations in a safe place as the class begins.

First, we ease the babies into the water. We are sitting in the shallow part of the pool, and Colby is getting used to the idea of it all. All the babies look a little surprised and/or cold, but they are doing well. Within 2 minutes of sitting in the water, the instructor says this:

"Ok, I want you to do something that the babies don't really like. I want you to lay them back in the water until they get water in their ears. It's important when they get older for them to know that it's ok to get water in their ears, so we like to start them as babies. They will probably get upset when you do this."

Ummmm....excuse me?? You want me to dunk my baby? Who has never been in a pool? To get water in his ears? Because I'm sure he won't get his ears wet in the next 45 minutes, while we are splashing around in the water. I just kind of sat there and looked at her, and then chose to ignore everything she said. Surprisingly, most of the moms did the exact same thing and just continued to ease their babies into the water. The lady next to me actually did dunk her 8 month old little girl until she cried, and I felt bad for both of them.

So, for the next 45 minutes, Colby and I continued to ignore most of the requests of this instructor and played in the water. Colby was supposed to hum to himself while I eased his head under the water, so that he could blow bubbles out of his nose....but something told me he would take a gigantic gulp of pool water so we skipped that. (he had already taken several large gulps at this point)

About halfway into the class, Colby discovered something very cool. The echo. The very big and LOUD echo. He spent the next 25 minutes squealing at the TOP OF HIS LUNGS. Somehow, once again, he discovered how to become the center of attention. Everyone was looking at him! Everyone was laughing! Oh, he knew this was good. So he kept going. My ears are still ringing and we've been home for an hour.

Something tells me this baby is going to give me a run for my money in every way possible. Not only is he becoming a professional wrestler, he demands and attracts attention, and he'll do anything for a laugh. Where did he come from? Lee and I were never like that. I was afraid of anyone looking at me when I was little. I'm feeling the gray hairs already.

Uh-Oh

In the past week or so, I've really started to notice that Colby is beginning to....assert his independence. Yeah, that's it...that's all it is. He's not being bad or anything. (insert weak smile here) He is teething, and there's a tooth that's going to pop through any day now, but I'm not sure if that's all that's going on here.

Along with his new-found independence, he has made some decisions about his life.

Here they are straight from Colby's mouth:

1. I will not tolerate diaper changes any longer! If I have to twist and squirm my way out, night after night, day after day, by God I will do it.

2. No more clothes!!! I do not want to be dressed in the morning. I do not want to be dressed at night. Clothing is torture! And pulling a shirt over my head is as close to hell as it gets.

3. I want the spoon! Not the one in the drawer, I want the one you are feeding me with. No, I don't want all the other ones you put on my tray to distract me. I want the one heading towards my mouth and I'm going to grab it every.single.time.

4. Your computer is the absolute best toy in the house. I love that little green button and I'm going to try and push it every time you turn your head.

5. Please give me boxes and boxes of electrical cords for my birthday. I just cannot stay away from them.

So, if any moms are reading this, I need to know: Is this normal behavior? Will this go away? Is the anti-diaper thing just a passing phase? Please don't tell me it gets worse....I'd hate to get kicked out of the Little Gym because I brought him in naked.

So, in order to relieve a little stress and help Colby find his "center", I decided to start Baby Yoga. We put on some music and began working on some beginning breathing exercises. Then, we moved on to poses. Here he is working on his first pose, the one-arm inverted baby triangle.



I'm kidding!

We were playing with bubbles today and I thought this really did look like a yoga pose.

Saturday we are headed to South Carolina for the week and we're really excited. It will be Colby's first trip to the lake, so I hope to take a lot of pictures. Maybe he'll forget how much he hates diapers and clothes!

Trapeze school

Well, I made it to trapeze school. Here's how the class went:

We started with a 5 minute warm-up on a low bar, seen here. When I say 5 minutes, I mean about 1 minute per person. Not much!


After being told what to do, I watched and waited my turn....a bit anxiously.


And up I went.....it seemed a little higher than I thought.


And here I go. Some things to note: "READY HEP" means "ready go". They use "hep" instead of "go" because "go" sounds too much like "no". You can hear Colby in the beginning, and then you can hear the "ready hep"....and I don't move a muscle. It was harder than I thought to jump off the platform. You can hear Lee kind of laugh to himself when that happens.


In order to move on to the next challenge, I would need to get dramatically faster at getting my legs on the bar and letting go. Here I am getting some coaching.


After a few rounds of practice, I was ready for the "catch and release". It was a lot of pressure because if I did not go when they said to, I would ruin the whole thing. Notice how my hands hit the platform when I let go for the knee drop. Just a note-to-self that someone my height shouldn't make any long term career plans here.


Afterwards, we stopped in a nice grassy area where Colby sampled some of the local cuisine.

The little patient

Does this look like a sick baby to you??

I don't think so, either!

We're here...

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything so I thought I'd just do a quick check-in. I haven't taken any pictures in a while- Lee was out of town for 11 days and somewhere during that period I lost my blogging motivation. I don't have it back yet because as soon as he got home, Colby caught some sort of virus. He has a fever of 102.5+ and has thrown up 3 times. It's no secret that I have a PHOBIA of anyone throwing up, so this has been very challenging. The first time it happened was last night, and he did it all over me....directly down my front and all over my lap. I have worried about this moment more than childbirth itself. It has been my #1 fear about being a mom. People find that hard to believe, but it's true. I have always worried that if/when it happened, I'd abandon the baby, run out of the house and down the street and get arrested for being such a bad mother. I am not kidding about running out of the house and leaving the baby- that's really what my instincts would tell me to do. But no, that's not how it happened. I did, however, scream as if I were being held at gunpoint, and then I held Colby straight out in front of me...backwards.... to create the most distance between him and myself. There, we waited for Lee to run in and rescue us. I consider this major progress!

Wouldn't you know this is terrible timing, as trapeeze class is tomorrow! We're going to play it by ear and see how Colby is doing in the morning. I promise to post pictures if we make it there....come on Mr. C, get better! Mommy has a circus to join.

A Beef Bonanza

I did a funny thing today. And by funny, I mean stupid. I was reading a month by month book about babies last night, and it said that if I don't let Colby start feeding himself and experimenting with food when he's ready, it could delay his table manners. We don't want that! (who writes these things, anyway?) I guess when he's ready is the key here. Colby has been grabbing the spoon when I try to feed him, so I thought....well, maybe he's telling me he's ready to self-feed. So, I decided to give him a shot at it today. We started with a few diced banana slices, and that went ok. They were a bit slippery, but he liked them, and he liked slapping them with his hands. Next, I added some beef and rice casserole. Colby has never had anything quite this spicy and seasoned, and he thought it was deeeeeeeeelicous. I didn't have my camera at first, so I had to run and get it because he was putting on quite a show. (you really should click on these pictures to get the full effect)

Where has this been all my life?


Oooh! It's really squishy!


Come on....get in there!


What!? What are you looking at? Is there food on my face?


Final Score: Beef: 1 Colby: 0


That's the last time I'll do that for a while. It was quite a challenge to get him clean after that. I thought about taking him in the front yard and hosing him down, but I wasn't sure he'd really like that too much. I gave him a quick sponge bath, but I've been finding rice and beef in little baby crevices all day long. How did it get up there....under there....and in between there?? Something tells me there are things hiding in places that I haven't discovered yet.

Pulling up

Colby has been pulling up for about 5 days now, and he's getting really good at it. It's amazing how quickly he is progressing. This video was taken the first day he was really starting to pull up. This is his favorite toy, and it gets a lot of use. Every morning, this is where he begins his day. Also, the video quality is going to improve soon. Our camcorder does not allow us to download clips onto the computer...or maybe it does, if you have a degree in computer astrophysics. Well, I don't, so all the clips I download are from my small digital camera. So we've ordered a new camcorder so that I can share some decent videos. Until then, the blurry ones will have to do!

Big News

Warning: You may just want to skip the first depressing paragraph and pick up at the second...

**cue violins**

I didn't have this blog when Colby was younger, and it's a really good thing. I'm pretty sure I would have scared off any mothers-to-be. Every entry would have said this: "Colby screamed in pain today for 4 hours. I am so physically and emotionally exhausted. We have another doctors appointment tomorrow. I just don't know what to do and I'm so worried." In a nutshell, Colby had Ulcerative Colitis for the first 6+ months of his life and it was TOUGH. He had severe abdominal pain and bloody stools, and he cried....and screamed....and cried some more. Not just colicky crying (he was that, too) but in pain crying, which is horrible to see. I cut dairy, soy, nuts, eggs, and wheat out of my diet because I was breastfeeding. We saw so many doctors....5 pediatricians, 3 Pediatric Gastrointestinal doctors...I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the details. I kept food journals of every.single.bite. And I did not cheat! At Christmas time, I wanted a piece of fudge so badly that I chewed it up and spit it into the trash can and rinsed my mouth out with water. (Lee and his parents never did figure out where the last piece of fudge went) I kept daily and hourly journals of Colby's crying and bloody stools, and tried to tie them together with the food journals. (it never worked) I became an expert poop examiner...a poop conneisuer, if you will. I never knew the look of poop could make or break my day. I thought he would never get better....I thought he would be one of those kids who never got to eat anything normal. I thought we'd be bringing our own "special" cupcakes to birthday parties. I thought I'd have to learn a whole new way of cooking.....with rice powder instead of flour...and other unheard of ingredients. When a kid can't have wheat or dairy, there's not much left. I spent hours and hours on allergy chat boards, learning about what I could eat and how I would cook for Colby. I learned that there are kids much worse off than Colby, but that just scared me more. I was terrified of feeding Colby solids.....so uncertain of what to give him. In some ways, I wish I had all of it documented....but on the other hand, it's probably good that I don't because it would have been so sad to read.

Thankfully, the blood went away when he was about 6 months old, and I started adding foods back into my diet about a month ago.

Which brings me to the big news for today.



******DRUMROLL*********



COLBY ATE CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND HE LOVED IT!!!!!
AND NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think anyone can truly comprehend what this means to me. This is a gigantic weight off of my shoulders. I've been so worried for so long that I don't think I can really wrap my mind around the fact that Colby can eat normal things! So, of course, I had to take a picture of Colby with his cheese.

CONGRATULATIONS, COLBY!

A little about me...

I know this blog is mainly about Colby, but there's something I'd like to share about myself. Something I'm excited about, and something most of you don't know about me. (well, actually, many of you do know this....but I'm trying to be dramatic) I have always had big dreams in life.....aspired to accomplish great things. Some of those dreams were a bit odd or unrealistic, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that. It may surprise you, but one of my greatest dreams in life was to be in the circus. Not just anyone in the circus.....I didn't want to ride a tiger, shoot out from a cannon, or dress up in feathers. And I definitely didn't want to be anywhere near the elephants. No,no... I had bigger aspirations. I wanted to be an acrobat. I had visions of myself....all 5'10 of me....swinging from the ceiling with the other little people. Crowds would travel far and wide to see the Amazon acrobat. Well, truth be told, when I was having these visions I wasn't quite 5'10....maybe 5'6 or something. Anyway, thankfully, God blessed me with a friend who shared my unique passion. Her name was Mindy (AKA Aunt Mindy) and we are still very close friends. When we were in 8th grade, we went to the circus together...and that's where it all began. We spent many a Friday and Saturday night practicing for our big debut....I guess we thought maybe the circus would come to town and hold try-outs? We did a lot of 2 person partner stunts, and they often didn't turn out well. I dug up this old photo as proof....I'm not sure what's happening here.

That's me on the bottom, and Mindy on her way to slamming into the wall. I have no idea who took the picture.....maybe my mom? Did we invite her in for a show? Did we ask her to take photos for some reason? Were we planning on doing something with these pictures? Was Mindy hurt? I don't have any answers....just this picture as proof of our passion and talents.

Anyway, this brings me to the very exciting news. Lee and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary last week....and guess what Lee bought me? Ladies and Gentleman.....uuhh, I mean, Ladies....I and all 5'10 of myself am officially enrolled in trapeze school. Yes, I will be going to the official New York Trapeze School in just 2 short weeks for my first class (they have a branch in Baltimore, MD). I could not have been more shocked and surprised by this gift, and by the fact that Lee has been listening to me all this time....not just nodding his head to get me to stop talking. I imagine I will be amongst other confused and lost souls either going through a mid-life crisis, newly divorced, or having too much time on their hands. But as for me....I have a purpose. I'm going to be someone....in the circus. I just know it. Dream big, people. Dream big.

Update: Mindy read this entry and sent me an e-mail. She remembers the stunt, and apparently it was set to music. Oh, I SO wish we had camcorders back then, but the Kodak Disc was as good as it got. Here's something else she said....."Another fun game at the time was sticking a finger in the other person's mouth, and then trying to remove it before teeth came chomping down." Yes, God really did bless me with an equally weird friend...although we've both turned out pretty normal. You can't make this stuff up.

Colby's new friend

Move over, Georgia. Colby has a new friend in town. The great thing about Colby's new friend is that he actually plays back.....he doesn't just lay there and take the abuse. Colby thinks his new friend is awfully cute, and the great thing is that they have so much in common. I have nicknamed Colby's new friend Hizz-self. Hizz-self was discovered a few days ago when we had a new mirror installed. Don't worry, Colby isn't so deprived that he hasn't seen his own reflection in a mirror. However, he's never seen it so up close, in full length, and with complete freedom to explore....and he's quite taken with his new handsome friend.

Colby and Hizz-self like to give each other high five's


They like to touch pointer fingers


They like to kiss....


And kiss some more!

Colby's favorite sport

Colby is a jumping FOOL. He lives for jumping. He will jump on anything and anyone he can find. Here's a vintage video taken when Colby was 8 months old.



Now, flash forward to today. I put Colby in a blow-up swimming pool for the very first time. Can you guess how that turned out?

I was that mom

In case I've given anyone the impression that I'm the perfect mom...*snort*....I need to confess. Today, I was that mom. The mom that other mothers look at and think to themselves "Please control your child, and wipe his face while you're at it!!". It all started at the allergists office. We were sitting in the waiting room, and Colby was a little restless. It was an hour past nap time, and they were an hour late calling us back, so it wasn't his fault that he was a little restless. I tried my hardest to entertain him- he played with my necklace, tugged my hair, sucked on my watch, and managed to toss every toy I handed him onto the floor. Unable to entertain him on my lap any longer, I gave up and put him on the floor. I was watching him closely, but before I could blink, he crawled at lightening speed over to a nearby lady and pulled her keys out of her purse. He preceded to wreak havoc on everything in the waiting room, leaving a drool trail behind him. Feeling like we needed a change of scenery (and I needed a little relief) I decided to take him out to the lobby bathroom. Now, it's a very tricky thing to use the bathroom with a large baby who cannot stand up. It takes great strength, amazing balance, coordination and agility. Elastic pants are always a bonus, but thankfully I gave those up about 10 months ago. Anyway, sorry if this is tmi, but the pants today were a bit trickier. Not just one button, but some other complicated contraption. I could not for the life of me do this one handed, with Colby in my right arm, bicep quivering. I stood there puzzled, not knowing what to do. I surveyed the bathroom floor. Let me just clarify.....NEVER have I put him on the bathroom floor, but today was no ordinary day. I was tired, short on patience, and I had to pee. So, after dusting it off quickly with a wad of toilet paper, I sat him on the floor. Phew! I must have sneezed or closed my eyes or something, because the next thing I knew, Colby was gone. THE HORROR!!! He had crawled under the stall faster than you can say gonorrhea. I could hear delightful squeals on the other side of the stall... and there I was....in mid-stream....unable to do anything about it. (I know, I know- TMI!!) That minute felt like an hour and I was mortified at the thought of someone walking in the bathroom, seeing my drooling baby frolicking in the communicable diseases. Thankfully, no one came in....the child abuse hotline was not called.

The next hour or so was a lot like the first....but the skin test went very well. They pricked his skin with 9 different allergens to see how his body and skin would react. They warned me that he would be upset and that it would hurt, so I was tightly holding him when she came with the first test. And what happened? He actually laughed each time he was pricked. Yes, I was that mom with the baby who laughed during skin testing- something they said has NEVER happened. Now at least that's something I can be proud of! (Oh, and most importantly- he tested negative to everything! Hooray!)

We're Safe....

You know, it's really smart thing, in this day and age, to have a guard dog. We are so lucky to have Georgia around....defending the turf and warding off intruders. Here area just a couple of snapshots of Georgia doing her thing.

View through the window


And she didn't even flinch when I came in for the closeup.....yes, nothing beats a good guard dog.

Momma's Little Secret

I need to confess....I have a baby jail in my house. Deep down in the basement, there's a secret place I lock Colby up. The beauty of it is that he does not know this is prison....and please don't call the child abuse hotline- he thinks it's fun! I set it up right outside the exercise room so that I can see him out of the corner of my eye when I'm on the treadmill. I only put him in here a few days a week, so this makes it a very special treat. While in prison, he throws his toys around, plays with plastic spongey mat pieces, and loves the giant bear. Here are a couple pictures of Colby in prison.

See.....it's really not child abuse!


So excited! (click if you'd like to see tonsils)

The mountains

We took our first trip to the mountain house on Memorial Day weekend, and the whole family was there! It was so much fun, and we're looking forward to many more weekends. Here are just a few pictures.....

Looking in....


Looking out...


Fun with bubbles...


Colby's first official Cuss game


Colby lovin' the dog....


First family hike


We took Colby to "tea time" at the hotel and he went nuts on this carpet. He probably crawled a mile total....and yes, we did bathe him that night. I think.