Addicted to mom blogs

I don't know if you know it or not but there is a wealth of information out there in the form of other people's blogs. I must admit, I am addicted to mom blogs! Who would have ever thought? I am fascinated by the creative stuff moms do with their kids. It actually makes me feel a little inadequate. I don't know where these moms find the time. They come up with the ideas, execute them, blog about them, read other blogs and still find the time to be supermom. I'm getting lots of great ideas though.

One of the new ideas I am trying is called "Muffin Tin Monday". This is when you serve your child's meal in a muffin tin so it is a variety of little bits of different kinds of foods. It encourages kids to try different foods since they are presented in a new way. This is pretty much the way Collin eats all the time BUT not in the muffin tin. And, he eats just about anything so I have a hard time thinking of new foods to feed him.

For his first "Muffin Tin Monday" he had ham,colby jack cheese chunks, celery, turkey, raisins, peanut butter, carrots, apple slices, grapes, bananas, yogurt and mixed nuts. The kids LOVES nuts!! As you can see he dumped all of the food out of the muffin tin so it just looked like the same old lunch BUT in the end it makes me feel like a cool and creative mom!!!






We are preparing to leave for Jamaica on August 4th-just a little over 1 week away! I can't wait. I hope everyone behaves on the plane!



Last weekend I took Collin to an outdoor concert at a park close to home. Ms. Sparkles was performing. She sings kids songs and acts crazy-they love it. They had blow up jumping houses, balloon artists, face painting and a bubble machine.



We went to Chik-Fila and met Elmo. While we were there we filled out an entry form to win a party for 50 people and guess what...we won!! So get ready to eat some chicken! I'm not sure when we are going to have this party but we will let everyone know when we do.





We went to the Police Picnic at Zoombezi Bay. Collin could have cared less. I think he is just as happy at the Hilliard pool. Nana and Pop were kind enough to take him home with them when they left so Mom and Dad could enjoy a little adult time, aka, ride the slides! Good Times!


Collin is a brand new kid since he has started walking! He is everywhere and he is starting to display classic toddler behavior. It can be slightly embarrassing when your child flings his body on the ground or arches his back. stiffens his entire body and screams bloody murder while you try to put him into his stroller.If you aren't doing what Collin wants to do he lets you know he doesn't like it!! Help us Super Nanny!!



Next week we have our final post adoption update.It seems so strange that we still have to report to someone. It seems like Collin has been here forever. We will be celebrating his homecoming on September 13th-1 year!! Time really does fly and he is getting so big. It seems like he is having a learning explosion! We are so very lucky!!!

No more pacifier face!!

I recently noticed that in almost all of the recent pictures of Collin he has a pacifier in his mouth. I thought it was time to get rid of it all though it has been a great friend to Collin!! Everyone has an opinion on how to do it. We decided to go cold turkey so it required my mom to agree to get rid of all pacifiers in her house too. In other words, no pacifiers for my nieces either. My 3 year old niece still used one and you can tell it is messing up her teeth. She stopped a couple of times but the smaller kids always had one and so they eventually would reappear in her mouth.

So about a week ago we began the torture. Actually for the first few days it didn't seem too bad until bedtime. He goes to sleep but he doesn't stay asleep. He was such a good sleeper but that has all changed. I'm hoping things will get back to normal soon. Of course he is teething again so he is extra fussy.

It is nice to be able to see his smile instead of seeing the pacifier. He is also trying to talk more so hopefully not having that thing in his mouth all the time will help with that.

Peyton and Alexis have been over the last few days. Those kids are really a big help. Collin loves having them around, he has constant playmates and they love to entertain him. Alexis babysat for him all day on Friday so I could spend the day with my mom. That seemed to go well.

It has been so cute the last couple of mornings. We usually put him in our bed when he wakes up early in the morning.When he decides it's time to get up he crawls over me and slides off the bed. He will stand there and look at me until I open my eyes and then he says "bye bye" and waves. His next stop is Peyton's room. He pushes open Peyton's door and goes in his room and starts yelling until Peyton wakes up. He steals one of Peyton baseball hats and then says "bye bye", waves and heads back to our room. He has to put the hat on someone which makes him laugh and then he does the bye bye and heads back to Peyton's room. Poor Peyton gets about as much sleep as we do, which isn't much lately!

We are actually ale to decipher some of the things Collin is saying now. He says bye bye and goodbye really well!

Tomorrow we are headed to Zoombezi Bay (the old Wyandotte Lake) for the annual Police Picnic. We are taking all of the kids so it should be a fun time.Wyatt and I both have gone to this picnic since we were kids. We joke that we actually probably met eachother there when we were younger. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post.

New Pictures

We had new pictures taken of Collin. You can click the Flash link to the left and look for Heather Wilson and the password is Collin. He did not have the best session. He was in a great mood in the waiting room but as soon as we went in to the studio that all changed. I probably should have had a reshoot on a later date but I really wanted 4th of July pictures. We need to go back to Tenille King!!

Take a look.

My Favorite Holiday

There are many reasons the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Not only does the holiday include my birthday but it lasts for 3 to 5 days minimum. This year was extra special because Collin is here. I remember this time last year I was really bummed because I had hoped that Collin would be home by my birthday-he would be my best birthday present ever-but no such luck. Instead, Wyatt and I worked for 2 days straight to save money for our next trip to Guatemala.

This year was a different story. My best present ever is here and he started walking! We had a great first Fourth of July together! Thursday we went downtown to Red, White and Boom! I thought the rain might ruin our day but it stopped just in time. We had a prime piece of fireworks watching real estate! We went to a party on top of a parking garage so we didn't have to mix with the "crowd" or fight for parking. The kids had a blast because they could run free and the party was very nice. We took our friends Amy and Em for their first RW&B experience. I think they had a great time. We also took Nana, Uncle B, Brylie,Kahlen, Alexis, Peyton, Greg(Alexis' boyfriend),Niki, Kaitlyn and Austin. Wyatt aka Daddy was able to join us for a while too. We watched the parade and then had dinner and waited for the fireworks. Collin didn't mind the fireworks at all. The kids had a few late nights so we could pay for that for a while. We also made a joint decision to eliminate all pacifiers "cold turkey" last week but all in all everyone did pretty well.

On the 4th we decided to check out the DooDah Parade in the Short North. All the kids spent the night so it was easier to get to a parade that started at 1pm instead of 10am. None of us had ever gone to this parade-it is a parade that anyone who wants to make a statement can join in. As you can imagine there were some very creative entries! It is a humorous parade spoofing current events. It inspired us to think of something to do to be IN the parade next year instead of watching it or at least to make it an annual event-a new tradition! It rained that day as well but it stopped or at lest slowed long enough for us to enjoy the parade. The kids looked so cute in their rain ponchos and Brylie loved catching candy!

The weather cleared up enough for us to enjoy the day. We cooked out with the family and a few friends and then went to the Hilliard Fireworks. We have a secret spot that we sit in every year. It is very close to where the fireworks are set off and the view is spectacular! Hilliard's fireworks rival RW&B every year, they are great! After the fireworks we went back home and had our own fireworks display-very impressive!

Saturday was my birthday. Brylie was very excited because she made me a beautiful pink cake(see above)so I went to my mom and dads and we sang Happy Birthday (at least 6 times, we had to sing to everyone) and dug in. She was very proud of her creation.

Later in the evening we went to Hooter's to watch the UFC fight. Don't laugh-that was Wyatt's idea of the perfect way to spend my birthday!?!?!? What woman wouldn't love to go to Hooter's on her birthday??? ME!!! It was fine but I would have rather just stayed home-oh well! That will teach me to have a birthday on the same day as a UFC fight. Now a trip to Vegas to see the fight might be a different story!

The party was not over yet!! Today we took the Jet Ski and all the kids to Alum Creek Beach. We had a fun day playing in the water and having a picnic! Then we went home and had a cookout and MORE BIRTHDAY CAKE!! This year I scored a total of 3 birthday cakes!! It was a nice, relaxing and fun family day.

What a weekend!! I love the Fourth of July!!!!