My almost 2 year old

He was not really cooperative for the First Day of Daycare picture,

because he wanted the snacks out of his lunchbox!

Collier now goes to daycare! He goes just once a week for 1/2 a day but he really enjoys his time there with other little boys and girls his own age. He goes to a local church so they do incorporate bible stories, as well as work with them on their letters, numbers, colors, etc. and on the day that he goes, they have a music time, which I'm sure he loves. 

Collier is just 4 days away from being 23 months old! He's a smart little boy and it's so fun watching him as he interests and preferences have developed.  He's very independent and will not sit in a high chair anymore, rarely will hold my hand when walking, and wants to brush his teeth, eat and go down the stairs on his own.  He's a bit of a daredevil and climbs up on EVERYTHING.  He has just started climbing up in our barstools and leaping from one to the other.  As you can guess, he gets in big trouble when he tries to pull that little stunt!  He is very in to lining similar items up in a row.   He'll push all the chairs from our kitchen and line them up beside one another; get all of his ride-on toys and park them next to one another; line all his crayons up, etc.  He's also VERY into plugs and electrical sockets.  Drives this momma crazy.  He is always trying to plug things up, such as finding something that he can plug into our laptop, our cell phones, etc. 

He has quite a vocabulary and says lots of words, most are recognizeable and some, well, he makes a good effort! :) He uses 2-3 word phrases, his favorite being "I know" whenever we tell him anything, but no sentences just yet.  One thing that I think is funny is that whenever I'm yelling in the house to get Jamie's attention, I'll say, "Jammiiieeee!" and Collier will follow up with, "Daaaadddddyyyy!" He is beginning to count, but we always have to initiate it by starting him off at 1, in which he follows up with 2 and so on.  I try to work with him on colors and such, but he is just so busy he rarely sits still. He has such a funny personality!  He is infatuated with wearing sunglasses, putting my headbands around his neck as necklaces, and putting things on his head.  He loves his (stuffed) puppy dog, Brownie, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (over and over), coloring and playing with crayons and playing with cars and trains.  He has a good arm! He can now throw the ball and is pretty good at it!  He's very loving and randomly will run up and give us hugs and kisses and he LOVES giving baby Harper attention and always wants to hold her.  His favorite foods are chicken tenders, french fries, blueberry waffles, crackers, and pb&j sandwiches.  He's a finicky eater... sometimes, he will love a particular food and then days later have nothing to do with it.  Hhe sometimes won't try new things strictly based on appearance; he refuses to taste it with having never even tried it.  At church 2 weeks ago, a cute little girl named Charlie, that's about 9 months older than Collier, ran up to him and gave him his first kiss on the lips! Collier took off running and she chased him down the hall.  It was hilarious!

Collier is a funny, bright, amazing kid and such a joy to raise.  He adds so much life to our family and is a real blessing.  We can't wait to celebrate his upcoming 2nd birthday in one short month and we thank God for placing him in our hearts and lives 2 years ago!

A New York State of Mind

I've have been very blessed to have remained close friends with 7 girls that I met in college over 10 years ago, despite the hundreds of miles that now seperate some of us.  We get together whenever we can but it can be hard to get all 8 of us together at once, considering that between our group there is a grand total of 18 kids.  Back in November 2006, when I was just a few months pregnant with Noah (and when the total number of children was MUCH less amongst us) we all decided that we wanted to take a trip together to NYC in October 2007.  We booked our hotel but that's as far as it went.  Once Noah was born and had some complications I knew the trip might not happen for me and then when he was scheduled to have surgery on his skull the very weekend of our trip, the trip was cancelled.  Since then, either someone has been pregnant, had a newborn baby or been out of the country.  So when Sonia (who has been stationed with her husband and kids in Germany for the past 3 years) found out that they would be moving back to the States this summer, we decided to finally plan our trip to NYC...and even better, ALL 8 of us were able to make it happen!!!

After lots and lots of planning and months of anticipation, the day finally arrived!  Early Friday morning of Labor Day Weekend, we jetted off to the Big Apple and were happily reunited with one another.  We hadn't seen Sonia in TWO years so you can imagine how excited and emotional we all were to not only see her, but spend 4 days together.  For the majority of us, this was our first time in NY so we crammed as much sight-seeing in as we could manage.  Our flight had us arriving at 9:15am so we had a full day ahead of us.  Thankfully our hotel was in a central location, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 40th so we did a little exploring, then headed to Times Square.  We decided to take one of those double decker bus tours to help get our barings as to the layout of the city and to see some of the must-have sights.  That evening we headed over the meat-packing district for a delicious (however, very pricey) dinner at STK.  I must say we did it up for our first night in the Big Apple and managed to rack up over a $600 bill!  Sonia, who still is used to life in Europe where you aren't served tap water, ordered still water which turned out to be a $20 bottle of Fiji water!  Following dinner, we went to the Hotel Gansevoort's rooftop bar where we had a great time, enjoyed amazing views of the city, danced and relished in one another's company.

The next morning we headed to NBC Studios in Rockefeller Plaza where we did the studio tour and went to Top of the Rock.  The studio tour was one of my favorite things we did! We were able to go to the set of the Dr. Oz Show, Jimmy Fallon's studio (which also happens to be Johnny Carson's old studio) and the Saturday Night Live studio.  We also were able to see some behind-the-scenes rooms, such as where they do makeup and HOW they change into their costumes in between SNL sketches.  It was AWESOME!  We had an early dinner at Carmine's, one of NY's famous Italian restaurants and then headed off for the Broadway plays.  Me, Chenequa and Amanda chose Wicked.  We LOVED it.  I enjoyed it so much that I plan to read the book VERY soon.  The rest of the girls went to Mamma Mia, which they all loved as well.  Following the plays, we met up at Junior's for their famous cheesecake.  As most know, everything stays open late in NY.  In fact, you can be walking down the center of Times Square at midnight, but it's so lit up with billboards and lights and bustling with activity that you would literally think it's the middle of the afternoon!  Sleep wasn't a huge priority on our trip and we stayed out late and woke early to see all that there is to see and do.  So even though it was after midnight, we decided to walk to the Empire State Building and were the very last group to go up that night (or should I say morning) at 1:15am.  The view from the Empire State Building, 86 stories high, at night was unbelievable.

The following morning, Sunday, we found ourselves in the midst of a street festival where vendors were set up with delicious food, loud music and cute clothes, purses, watches, jewelry, scarves, cell phone accesories... pretty much anything you can think of.  We all made purchases then continued our walk to Central Park and then on the FAO Schwarz, where we were saluted by an employee dressed like a toy soldier.  We felt like kids as we explored the legendary toy store... the Big Piano, superheros made entirely out of Legos, and life-sized stuffed animals.  Later on that day, we found ourselves in China Town, which was quite an experience of its own!  For our last night in the city, we met up with a friend from college and his fiance for dinner at Morimoto, which happens to be the Iron Chef's flagship restaurant.  The sushi was delicious but the most interested thing of the evening would have to be their restrooms! There was a control panel on the wall for selecting different options while using the restroom.  The toilet seat was heated and you could chose to have it vibrate to enhance your restroom experience!  Not only that, but there was an option for 'frontal' and 'rear' cleansing.  I'm NOT joking.  Needless to say, we were all entertained by the toilets but none of us were willing to try out all of the options. 

The next morning, we woke up really, really early to head over to Rockefeller so we could be at the Today show.  Unfortunately for me, my back was killing me so after an hour, I headed back to the room to lay down.  However, shortly after I left the girls hit it off with the fill-in weather girl (since Al Roker had the day off) and she interviewed them on the show!!! It was awesome and Marianne (who did all the talking) did a fantastic job during the interview.  Following their television debut, we all reconvened at Serendipity 3 for lunch, and of course their infamous Frozzzzen Hot Chocolate.  We made one last stop at Dylan's Candy Shop where we loaded up on candy before our departure that afternoon.  It's true what they say, that New York is the city that never sleeps, because we figured up that over the 4 nights we were together, we got around 18 hours of sleep.  That's an average of around 4 hours a night.  Needless to say, we were worn out!  I was thrilled to return home to Jamie and the boys but I am forever grateful for our experiences in New York City together.  It truly was the trip of a life time with my friends.  It was a blast, such an amazing experience together and has made me that much more thankful for my friendship with each of these girls.  But I have to mention Jamie and just how very thankful I am for him allowing it to happen, for taking off work on Friday, keeping the boys all weekend long and letting me be apart of this experience with my friends. 

WARNING: This post contains ALOT of pictures. 

What else would you expect for a girls trip to NYC?!? :)