Fireworks for the Fourth

For the 4th of July, Jamie spent the morning on the golf course with my dad and Derrick, my mom kept the boys for me and I spent several hours relaxing pool-side at our country club's swimming pool.  Ahhh.. it was nice having some time to myself to soak up the sun, catch up on the latest celebrity gossip, and finish up a book I've been reading on my Nook.  However, a couple of hours was all I could handle because it was insanely hot and humid!  Later that evening we grilled out at Chris and Stacey's house, along with Haley, Wes, Madelyn and a few friends.  We enjoyed delicious steaks grilled to perfection by Chef Chris and his Green Egg grill, all the traditional 4th of July foods, such as baked beans and potato salad, and topped it off with yummy red, white and blue cupcakes.  We enjoyed letting the kids play until late in the evening because as soon as it got dark enough, Chris pulled out an array of fireworks and put on his own mini-Fourth of July firework celebration.  It's safe to say that Noah thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks as he oh'ed, ah'ed and squealed throughout the whole show and clapped his hands after it was over.  I was surprised to discover that Collier handled them well, too.  I was afraid the noise would scare him however, he never once got upset and watched in awe as the colorful explosion of sparkly lights lit up the sky.

 

Simple Pleasures

What started off as helping Mimi water her flowers ended up with Noah having a blast with the water hose, slinging it all over the place, spraying himself, attempting a drink straight from the hose, and managing to get himself completely soaked in the process!  Isn't this the kind of thing that summer is all about?

Shadow Puppets

I found Collier playing with the shadows that were cast on the floor from the sun streaming in through our kitchen blinds.  He had lots of fun watching his hands make shadows on the floor.  And he found it so entertaining to crawl across the shadows to the other side.  It surprises me the things that catch his attention at such a young age!

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My sweet little boy's profile

It's a ZOO out there...

Saturday morning, we loaded up our boys and headed north to the Nashville Zoo with Jamie's mom, Debbie, as well as Jamie's brother, Wes, his wife, Haley and their little girl, Madelyn.  Tony, Jamie's dad, was originally going to go with us, but decided to stay behind since his dad, Papa Jim had to be admitted into the hospital.  We arrived at the zoo to drizzling rain, however it was actually kind of nice because it cooled everything off and we weren't dealing with the sweltering heat that we've had the past few days.  Their zoo is set up to imitate the natural habitat of where each animal is from rather than the animals being in different cages.  It was really neat because you could get so close to the animals!  The only downfall to the "natural habitat" was the mosquitos... they were EVERYWHERE and Noah and I got eaten up!  Funny how mosquitos are attracted to some people and not others; Collier and Jamie didn't have a single bite!  Poor Noah looks like he has the chicken pox because he has so many bites.  Their gift shop needs to carry bug spray because they would make a fortune off of it!  Madelyn and Noah really enjoyed themselves and took in all the sights and sounds.  Madelyn liked the meerkat and Noah liked the reptiles.  Collier was perfect the entire time and enjoyed riding along in his stroller.  In fact, none of the kids had naps but all behaved wonderfully.  After several hours at the zoo, we headed to our hotel for check-in.  I was able to get Collier to take a nap but Noah was still going strong so he played with Madelyn and everyone else in one of the other hotel rooms.  We later enjoyed a delicious dinner at the restaurant in our hotel, Omaha Steaks (and bumped in to a friend from college that we haven't seen in YEARS) and then ended the night with cupcakes from GiGi's!  Noah had the BEST time; he was in a great mood and loved being at the hotel with everyone.  After going all day without a nap, Noah finally starting wearing down while we were at dinner and he CRASHED as soon as we returned to our room and his head hit the pillow.  We all had such a great time together and enjoyed the fun memories that were made.  Hopefully, this will be something that we can do each summer with the kids!

         

Happy 8 Months, Collier!

My sweet little baby turned 8 months old this week (on Wednesday, the 22nd)!  Yet again, another month has blown right before my eyes.  Collier is so much fun and has become quite the wild man!  He has lots of energy and if his little eyes are open, he's going non-stop.  He crawls from one end of the room to the other just looking for something to get into.  He loves to head off down the hallway and if I say, "Collier, no no no" or ask him to come back, he'll turn around and give me the biggest smile, then head off!  He's a MESS.  If Noah is ever laying in the floor, Collier will literally attack him, crawling all over him, planting kisses on his face, just about anything to get some attention from his big brother.  It's so funny and sweet at the same time.  Collier has began pulling up to standing.  Already (I kind of wish he would slow down a tad bit; he's still supposed to be my baby!)  This new skill combined with the crawling equals LOTS of bumps on the head!  There are days where he'll bump his head almost hourly!  He loves to crawl under, between and behind furniture. I've had to use pillows to block him from getting behind the end tables in the den because he loves playing with the cords.  He and Noah are beginning to play together some but Collier also entertains himself very well! 

He still doesn't have a single tooth although he chews on everything and is drooling like crazy.  I check his mouth daily, because I expect one to come through any day now.  He is still just the friendliest little guy!  Last week, we ate lunch at Sweet Basil and had several different tables of women come up to talk with him because he kept smiling at them.  If he ever hears anyone laughing, then he'll join in and laugh right along with them.  It's hilarious!  It's as though he thinks he's participating in the conversation.  He babbles constantly and his favorites sounds are "hee" and "gee gee gee" and the occasional 'm' and 'b' sounds but still no words.  He has also begun making this clucking sound with his tongue.  He is now feeding himself puffs and drinking juice and water from a sippy cup.  We've attempted real food (mushed up of course) but he's not quite ready for that yet.  We are still on the same schedule except that we cut out the late afternoon nap about 2 weeks ago.  He began waking up around 5am for a week solid so I decided to cut down to just two naps and see if that made a difference.. it did, thank goodness.  Although the early evenings are sometimes his "fussy" period because he starts getting tired but it's too early to put him down for bed.  Instead, we just distract him with toys, dinner, anything that works! 

Collier is our little angel.  I'm in love with his happy, joyful personality and his eagerness and curiosity for well, everything!  He's so much fun and such an enjoyable baby.  As bittersweet as it is that his 1st birthday is swiftly approaching, I look forward to watching him grow and learn even more in these next few months.  I'm especially excited about this upcoming month because we have a lot to look forward to... a trip to the zoo, as well as a week-long vacation in Sandestin!