Collin was sick a few weeks ago with a low grade fever and a nasty cough. 

My first reaction at realizing he was sick was "My poor baby" Then I thought, "wait, he's sick so he'll be cuddly and extra tired for the next few days. Maybe I'll get a break and can take it easy!" WRONG! He didn't slow down at all. In fact he slept less and was extra whiny. 

Since he was running fevers and coughing all over the place we pretty much stayed locked up in the house all week. By day 3 Collin was going crazy and needed some distraction. (besides the tv.)

We filled up his water table with soap suds which he thought was cool. 

 But my favorite thing was when I let him play with shaving cream.

 He was very hesitant at first, but ended up loving it.

 I was mean and asked him where his nose was.

 Guess Michael will now realize why he had an almost empty can of shaving cream the next morning ;)

 And of course we ate lots of ice cream! Ice cream and freezer pops are a must when you're feeling sick.

Michael and I have tried several times to get Collin to lick the ice cream from the cone, but he insists on eating from the bottom up. Still haven't figured that one out yet...

I also thought it would be fun to make bagel pizza's one night. Kinda like a bigger "bagel bites" version. I thought Collin would enjoy helping me put them together. He "helped" alright. Helped all my ingredients disappear!

 My aunt stopped by to visit one day and brought Collin a few toys. His favorite being this stick horse. I actually found him cuddled up with it on the floor during nap time one day.

 And fortunately, he was up for some T.V. watching on occasion too. 

 Happy Birthday Collin!

Collin turned 2 on July 3rd, but we decided to wait an extra day and celebrate on July 4th since we would be getting together with family for fireworks anyways.

Grandma Boyd made Collin this awesome Cars cake. As soon as Collin saw Lightning and Mater he went crazy. He wanted the cake so bad!

Mater's sign says, " Me n' Collin 'r goin' tractor tippin'. (More fun n' eatin' cake)"  

I loved Collin's reaction this year. Last year he cried and wouldn't touch his cake. This year he thought it was hilarious that everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him.

 Both my parents and Michael's parents went in together and got Collin a water table. He LOVES it! I was emptying the water every time we finished playing with it but after filling it up 3 times one day I learned to just leave the water in until the end of the day. It has a cool cover so the water stays fresh and bug free.

 After we let him play in his water table for a little while we headed to down town Winter Garden to watch the fireworks.

 

 

 Collin did a little better with the fireworks this year. He clung to me really tight the entire time and was shaking a little but at least he watched them. And I wasn't complaining about the cuddle time :)

Sad that he will only let me cuddle him when he's scared or sick.

These sweet boys shared their poppers. Collin got super excited when he saw the spark from the pop.

 After our 4th of July festivities it was time to party again because our family from Philly came down for a visit!

 Collin was spoiled rotten once again by Aunt Amy and Uncle Ken. They got him a T ball, a John Deer tractor, and a Thomas bath toy. He was in Heaven.

 Uncle Ed was quite the entertainer.

 All the Cousins

Collin, Shannon, Tiffany, Jason and Mikey.

 Guess who won't come out of the bathtub now?

 On Monday we met back up with the cousins at the beach.

Collin did so good. He really enjoyed it this time.

 These pictures make me laugh. He was standing there all by himself for a while. I told Michael, "it's like he's deep in thought contemplating life." Just about then the tide came in and he took off running. He's getting use to it but the sound of a wave crashing at you is apparently still too much for him ;)

 Jason begged and begged for the boys to bury him in the sand, but I think he thought twice after several mis-thrown shovel fulls ended up in his mouth and the sand started to make him itch.

 As soon as I finished taking the picture he was out of there!

 Our family shadows :)

 See what I mean? Collin became much more adventurous with all the cousins around to follow.

 Ahhh, hard work pays off huh Collin?

 Poor Shannon. Collin would throw a shell into the water and then expect her to retrieve it. She was a good sport though.

Thanks for the fun times guys!

The Long Winded Post

 Warning: This will be an extremely long post for two reasons

1. I'm trying to convince Michael that I absolutely NEED a nicer camera so I've started taking pictures of everything! And

2. We just can't seem to stop partying! It's like Seminary's out for the summer or something :)

In House Entertainment

 I love it when my family comes to visit. 

My mom does my dishes, my dad fixes things around the house, and Collin gets entertained to the point of exhaustion.......well almost.

 I woke up one morning to find Collin pal'n up to Uncle Bryce :)

 Ball Fight!

 Supposedly, the rules were, three hits and you're dead. Poor Logan "died" and his fateful shadow was beside him to the end :)

Collin just HAD to be apart of the fight too. There were a few close calls, but he managed not to get killed. (Not sure how my Uncle Dan napped during all the noise)

 Bryce asked for our biggest cereal bowl and then promptly filled it to the top. If this is a sign of how much teenage boys eat then Collin's gonna have to get two jobs :)

 Collin wanted to grandpa to read to him but Collin has certain "terms" one being that he has to be able to sit on part of the rocker between your legs. He will NOT just sit on your lap. This is proving more challenging as my belly gets bigger and was almost impossible with grandpa. 

I am very happy with our backup plan. Two rockers are better than one!

 Oh! So Collin has been climbing out of his crib lately. The first time he did it I had put Collin in his crib for a time out. I left the room but not a min. later Collin appeared behind me laughing and said "Ta Da!"

In that split second I realized my days of sleeping in until 8:30 were OVER!!! 

So, after contemplating the idea for several weeks we decided to take the front railing off his crib and make it a toddler bed. How did Collin like it???

After we took the railing off I laid it up against the closet door. Collin sat in his new bed for a second and then grabbed Gromit, went behind the propped up rail, and laid down. I guess he felt somewhat exposed without it?

 Now he loves it! However sometimes I hear strange noises after I've put him down and often find he's brought toys into his bed. 

And yes, sadly my new wake up time is 7 :(

 Birthdays!!!

One little stinker found his birthday present early! 

I had hidden it in the spare bedroom where my parents were sleeping. One morning they were awakened by the sound of cars sliding down a track. We decided to just go ahead and let him have it. At least he likes it! 

 Logan turned 11 on June 27th so we celebrated with cake and ice cream.

Collin's face cracks me up in this picture. If he had been a bit closer I'm convinced there would have been spit mingled in with the icing from his stalwart attempts to blow the candles out.

 One of Collin's favorite things about birthdays is to lick the icing off the candles. Logan learned the hard way that if you don't quickly pull it from his mouth, Collin will also eat the candle. 

(There's just something about non edible things that draws Collin in. I caught him eating soap the other day....but that's another post)

 Putting Logan's rubber band planes together.

 They kept finding a plane missing...

We let Collin open his presents from the Arnsdorff's since they wouldn't be able to make it to his birthday.

A ball, new book, and dinosaurs! Collin LOVES the dinosaurs. I however, have a love/hate relationship with one of them. T-Rex has been part of my wake up call these past few mornings. Usually in the form of him being thrown in my face. 

And I have no idea where he learned this but it made me laugh when I stumbled upon it.

Swimming!

 Bryce showing us his back flip skills

 Collin thinking he has back flip skills too :)

 Beach Trip!

 Collin did a lot better than his first trip to the beach. He was still hesitant and wouldn't go near the waves without crying. But it was progress.

 Wow! For being Floridians we're pretty white! Guess we'll need to work on that.

 Dan, Logan, Bryce and Austin braving the rough waves.

 At one point Collin decided he was gonna go back to the canopy with or without us.

 We lured him back with a ride on the board.

 He still preferred eating and visiting OTHER people's umbrellas to playing in the water. The sand sinking under his feet kinda threw him for a loop but at least he actually sat in the water this time!

 Cookout

Teaching Collin how to play beyblades. Did I even say that right?

 Cookout at the Arnsdorff's

 Wanna bite of my massive hotdog?

He ate pretty much the whole thing. I was very surprised.

 Hang'in with cousins and Uncles 

Collin's favorite thing in this room is the metal art.....thingy...on the table. He loves to hit and and make the rods vibrate. I'm just waiting for him to poke his eye out one of these days...

 playing chase with Maya

 Big Brother in Training

We watched twin girls for a day and night after my family had left and I was surprised at how well Collin did.

He was explaining Toy Story to them :)

He still had his moments and doesn't quite get the fact that he can't sit on them or that they won't catch stuff when he throws it at them, but for the most part he did pretty good.

It was fun and the girls were really good however I'm glad my babies come one at a time :)