We have always wanted to have at least 2 children and we knew that we wanted to give Colin a sibling at some point. The timing was something that we put a lot of thought into. Having kids close in age made a lot of sense to me. I wanted them to be close so that they could hopefully have a close bond and it would mean less time out of work for me. In the spring as Colin started crawling and getting so big, I started to get baby fever. Mario was not as convinced though. ;) Then he randomly told me that he had baby fever and that he was ready to start trying for baby #2! It happened to be April 1st, so I really thought he was playing a joke on me! He promised that he was serious and that he wouldn't joke about something like that. We wanted to wait a bit to avoid a Christmas birthday. I got the idea to buy a Big Brother T-shirt for Colin so that we could use it to surprise Mario whenever the time did come.
The shirt arrived on Friday and I tested early on that Sunday morning (May 20th) just in case. Well I was shocked to see that 2nd line start to appear on the test! I put the shirt on Colin and took him into our room to see Mario. It took Mario quite a while to figure out what the shirt meant. When he did, he was completely shocked and being half asleep didn't help his ability to comprehend everything! He and Colin went to the store to buy a digital test. The line tests can make you think you are imagining that 2nd line, but there's no doubting when the test says "pregnant!" Well, that's exactly what the test said! We were definitely excited, but also shocked that it happened so fast and that we were taking this next step!
Baby Cruz's due date is January 28th, 2013. Our first appointment was on June 12 and we saw a healthy baby and heard its heartbeat. We then told our families over the next few weeks. Their reactions ranged from shocked to super excited! We decided to go early to find out the gender. We went on August 13 when I was 16 weeks pregnant. They did the 3D ultrasound and it was very clear that this baby is a BOY! We didn't care either way, but we know that Colin will be super happy to have a baby brother. On September 10 we had the big 20 week ultrasound. The baby weighed about 11 ounces and looked completely healthy. I have already been feeling him move around and kick which is so amazing to feel again. Colin has no idea what's going on, but we still have a few months to keep talking about it to him. Hopefully he will be a great big brother!
Colin turned 15 months old a few days ago and he is more active than ever! Here's what he's up to at 15 months old:
-Wearing size 18 months mostly, but can still wear some size 12 months outfits
-Walking, running, walking backwards, and spinning around
-Climbing on everything
-Says bye-bye and waves and says papá
-Still sleeping 11-12 hours at night
-Taking 1 or 2 naps a day, depending on what time he wakes up, how tired he is, and what our plans for the day are (he's in the middle of transitioning from 2 naps to 1)
-Eating any and everything
-He loves green smoothies (banana, spinach, and almond milk) and cries when it's all gone
-His other favorite foods are grapes, cheese, pears, bananas, goldfish, ham, chicken, peas, carrots, raspberries, spaghetti, peaches, and yogurt.
-He screams and does an alligator turn just about every time we change his diaper. :( The changing table used to be his happy place!
-He loves shoes! He will bring me shoes to put on him and will just walk around carrying them. He even took his Lightning McQueen slippers to his crib with him and fell asleep holding one in each hand!
-He is still nursing twice a day and sleeping with his paci. We plan on working on weaning from those in the next couple of months.
-Even though he doesn't say many words, he understands a lot! If I say, "Let's eat/go outside/change your diaper/take a nap/go to the store, etc." he runs to the appropriate room or area of the house.
Colin turned 13 months old today. He is into everything and has changed so much in the last few months. Here are some of the things he's doing lately:
-He was 22 lbs, 1 oz (62%) and 29.5 inches (37%) at his last checkup on June 19th
-Wearing some 12 months clothing still, but is mainly in size 18 months
-Sleeping about 11 hours at night (7:30/8:00 pm until 6:30/7:00 am)
-Takes 2 naps
-Is walking everywhere (he started about a week after his 1st birthday)
When he first started walking
Running around the yard today
-He loves playing with the dogs and they love being close to him...when he has food!
-He likes to build and tear down structures with his Mega Blocks
-He can turn the TV on and off (even despite me covering up the power button!)
-All of the cabinets are locked so now he's moved on to opening drawers and reaching on his tippy toes to see what he can grab!
-He's eating really well and loves everything, but his favorites are peaches, peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and strawberries
-Has started trying to use a fork and spoon to eat
-Knows when we are leaving and goes to the door
-Is climbing on everything!
-Loves riding along with his Daddy on his bike
-Has started drinking almond milk from his sippy cup (in addition to water which he has been drinking for a while) but is still nursing 3-4 times a day
-"Talks" all day but still doesn't say any real words consistently -Has figured out how to get through the doggie door of the gate that keeps him out of our room (and away from the dogs' food and water)
-Loves going to the pool even though it has been too hot to enjoy it lately!
-Really enjoys going outside, playing in the dirt, walking in the grass, and playing in the water
Photos from his 13 month photoshoot (it was impossible to get a good picture now that he knows how to get down from the chair!)
We repeated this sequence about 20 times trying to get a good pic!
Colin turned one year old on June 10th! I can't believe it has already been a year since our little guy came into our lives! We celebrated by having a little party for him at home on that day. The theme was monkeys of course! We decorated monkey cupcakes and a smash cake for him. He loved his cake and we actually had to take it away from him because we were afraid he would eat the whole thing! He enjoyed playing with his friends that came and it was wonderful to have so many friends and family members there to celebrate our sweet boy. Here are some pictures from that day.
His 12 month photo
Wreath on the front door
Some of the decorations...we just used all of his monkey toys and green and yellow stuff to decorate!
My 2 favorite monkeys!
The smash cake we decorated
Enjoying his cake
Family photo
The cake after Colin destroyed it!
Monkey cupcakes that we decorated
I put together this slide show of pictures and videos from Colin's 1st year. We played it on loop on our television during the party. I love how it turned out and it is so amazing to see how much he has changed, grown, and learned in this last year!
For Memorial Day weekend we decided to take Colin on his first beach trip! We left Friday morning and drove to Okaloosa Island, FL. Colin did great on the 5.5 hour ride. We only stopped once for lunch and the rest of the time he was napping or watching Shark Tale on his DVD player in the car. We checked into the hotel and headed for a quick trip to the beach. Colin didn't know what to think of the sand at first and was clinging to Mario, but he eventually warmed up to it and started playing with his beach toys.
We spent the rest of the weekend at the beach, at the pool, and hanging out with our friends Chris and Abby and their little girl Avery. They live close by and it was really nice to be able to see them. All went well except for a rough day on Saturday when I fell in the sand carrying Colin (we were both fine, I was just embarrassed!), Mario went into the ocean with his cell phone in his pocket (RIP, Blackberry) and Colin fell at the little water park and hit his eye. He ended up with a bruised eyelid and a little scrape. He was fine, but it broke our hearts to see him get hurt.
We headed home early Monday morning and once again Colin did great. We stopped for lunch in Columbus, GA and then stopped in Barnesville to pick up the dogs. It was a fun weekend getaway and we were so grateful that Colin did so well on his first beach and road trip!
Clinging to his papa
Starting to play
Precious sandy baby feet!
Fun at the water park
Colin playing with his buddy Avery
This is where he slipped and fell into this post :(
Well we've been pretty busy with a couple of illnesses with Colin, teething, a stomach bug for me, lots of birthday parties/weddings/showers/graduations, and a wild and crazy little boy! I never got a chance to do Colin's 10 month update, so I will try to update on everything new he has been doing for the last 2 months.
At 11 months old Colin...
-wears 12 month and some 18 month clothing
-hasn't had a well checkup lately, but he's weighing around 21-22 pounds these days
-crawls everywhere!
-is into everything...we have had to babyproof everything with cabinet locks, outlet plugs, corner cushions, and a baby gate with a doggie door to keep him out of the dogs' food and water
-says "hey," "hey, GiGi" and a bunch of other crazy sounds that we have no idea how to translate!
-understands what "no" means but usually responds by laughing or getting mad and crying and then continuing to do what he isn't supposed to be doing (throwing food, attacking the tomato plant outside, eating dirt, etc.)
-cruising all over the furniture and starting to let go and stand on his own for a few seconds
-eating a good variety of bite-sized foods...chicken, ham, turkey, ground beef, carrots, peas, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, sweet potatoes, blueberries, bananas, strawberries (his favorite!), avocado, kiwi, peaches, and Cheerios
-can wave (sometimes) and give high fives
-nursing 4 times a day (morning, after naps, and before bed)
-taking 2 naps a day for a total of about 3 hours on most days
-sleeping 11 hours or so at night
-is a early riser...he wakes up around 6:30am most days and sometimes as early as 5:30. And there's no convincing him to go back to sleep. Once he's awake, he's ready to go! This is a big change for a night owl like me!
-has 6 teeth now (4 on the top and 2 on the bottom)...they have been SLOWLY coming in for a few months now and giving him lots of trouble :(
-loves his pacis! We are attempting to limit it to sleep, church, and the car, but with him being sick and teething lately, he has used it more. He will sleep with one in his mouth and one in each hand...it's so cute! Then he wakes up and starts throwing him out of the crib!
-laughs when other people laugh, even when they aren't talking to him!
-loves to be outside! We spend a lot of time on the patio under the pergola. He loves to push the ottomans around.
-just recently started venturing out to the grass and will now crawl around the yard. I can't wait for him to walk because that gets messy!
-loves to push toys (and even laundry baskets!) around the house! We bought him several push toys at the Summergrove community yard sale and he has gotten so much use out of them.
-painted his first masterpiece at playgroup at a local art studio
-(speaking of playgroup) is a member of a playgroup with 5 other babies his same age. I joined the Coweta South chapter of the International MOMS Club and we go to weekly playdates and other activities. We've met some really nice moms and lots of adorable babies and children.
-is his Daddy's BFF! When Mario comes home Colin cries if his Daddy doesn't come straight to him to pick him up! And when he tries to go the bathroom or change clothes, Colin stands at the gate like he's in jail until he comes out! Most mornings before work Mario will come in the nursery and share the bananas from his cereal with Colin and then read The Very Busy Spider to him (his animal noises are a lot better than mine!).
-steals toys from the dogs and thinks it's so funny...he tries to "play" with them, but they usually aren't into it.
-does well in the car now thanks to the DVD player we bought. He loves the movie Shark Tale! It was the only animated movie in our collection and then we tried Curious George and he cried until we put Shark Tale back in! I bought Finding Nemo for him and he seems to like it too, so maybe he only likes fish movies!
This was a long update, but Colin is doing so much these days and I can't believe how much he has learned in the last two months. Don't even get me started on the fact that my baby will be a year old in less than a month! Thanks for reading! :)
Here are a few of the monthly photoshoot pics. It's hard to get good photos these days because he wants to throw the monkey off the chair, stand up, pull the blanket down, etc. He's a mess!
Yes, this is late, but I wanted to do a quick post about Colin's 1st Easter. We had a great day and he and Mario were so cute in their matching outfits! My dad came and joined us for church and then lunch. Colin must have been too excited about Easter because he wouldn't fall asleep for his morning nap. He was actually really great to have been up for so long. We came back to the house after lunch, took some pictures, and let Colin open his Easter baskets. He got books, a stuffed duck, a stuffed dog, bubbles, plastic eggs, puffs, yogurt melts, and some bunny ears. We had a great day and we all enjoyed a nice nap after the festivities!
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