Thanksgiving Break

I had the whole week off for Thanksgiving. We caught up on things around the house, relaxed, and did some Christmas shopping. Jason only worked two days so he was home with us most of the time too!

We did our own photo shoot to try and get a Christmas card photo. Here are some of the pictures we won't be using but are still some of my favorites...

Getting close to nap time. He tells me now, "Mommy, I tired."

Trying to re-create a favorite picture pose when he was 3 months old and I was lifting him over my head. This is the best I can do now that he is 30 pounds!

Waving Hi.
He has become Mickey obsessed ever since we discovered Micky's Club House Adventure on the Disney Channel and made our 2nd visit to the Magic Kingdom the week before.

Out to eat at Steak and Shake. Kids eat free and he got a fun hat and a cardboard 50's car, which kept him entertained. It was right after a UCF football game so the restaurant was filled with rowdy fans. He was mesmerized by faces painted in black and gold.

Video of Colby eating a bagel while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

As Colby was intently watching the Disney float on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Tucker reached up and swiped Colby's bagel out of his hand. Tucker was sent outside to be punished.

Thanksgiving Dinner! Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, apple crisp, pumpkin pie and rolls. Of course he picked at everything but I was amazed he liked cranberry sauce. He asked for more 5 times! The rest of his plate went to Tucker.

His face lit up with the taste of the tart cranberries.

We've been seeing commercials with Santa ("Ho-Ho") and Colby has been getting excited. Especially when I told him Santa brings toys to good little boys. I showed him last years photo with Santa and he really studied it. I asked him if he would like to go see Santa this year and he said "YES!" So we made our way to the mall, but first I had to make a stop at Geico. Inside the insurance office, the lady asked how she could help us, and Colby replied "Where's Santa?!" Once at the mall, Colby climbed out of his stroller and ran up the ramp to Santa's lap. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Colby said "Toys, Santa!" When Santa followed with what kind of toys, he said, "Race cars and Pirate Ship, arrrgh!"

This was from the week before. Just an hour after Jason's wisdom teeth surgery. He was kind of loopy from the drugs. I felt like I was taking care of two toddlers that night. When Colby saw daddy wearing his ice wrap, he grabbed the kitchen towel and tried tying it around his head.

Counting to 14 and Using a Public Potty

Colby surprised me in the car last week by counting all the way to 14. Granted, he does start at 4 but still I was impressed that he kept going as far as he did. I thought for sure he'd stop at 10. I have no idea where he picked this up since we haven't really worked on it.

All this week, we've been counting as we go up and down the stairs. If he starts at 1, he goes 1, 2, 9, 2, 9... Don't know what he has against the #3. He did tell the nurse at the Pediatrician's office yesterday that he was 3 when she asked him how old he was, even though he just turned 2.

Speaking of going to the pediatrician's office. While waiting to see the Doctor, Colby kept telling me he had to go potty. He has been doing great going at home but I cringe about having to let him go on a public potty. I do want to keep encouraging him to go when he has to though. So we left the examining room and dashed to the restroom. As usual, he went right away. We washed up and when we came out, Colby announced to the entire nurses' station as proudly as he could "Colby went pee-pee and poopy on the potty!" They all snickered and applauded. One nurse walked us back to the room and made Colby a special 2 sided sticker on a stick.

Jason has taken Colby to a public restroom a few times and is mortified when Colby loudly shouts "ewwww!" as he (Colby) does his business.

Halloween Weekend

All I can say is thank goodness it was a long, 3 day weekend and we changed the clocks back 1 hour in order to fit in all the Halloween FUN and have extra time to still rest.

I had Friday off from work, so I brought Colby to his daycare so he could participate in the costume parade. Here is his 2 year old class all dressed up in costumes.

He found a toy fire truck right away and tried to sit on it. Then he tried to tell me, "bye mommy!" He wanted me to leave. I'm so happy he is comfortable and having fun at school and was ready for me to leave even though we were just visiting that day.

His teacher asked if I would like to stay and carve a pumpkin. The kids had fun playing in the pumpkin pulp. Every time one of the kids touched the pumpkin, Colby would tell them, "No, my mommy!" I got to see who he hangs out with, 2 cute girls who are next to him in the picture above.

After the pre-school stop, we went to Toddler Time at the library. We met up with some friends there. Colby did not want to take off his Fireman outfit so we went to story time in costume. The library was decorated for Halloween and there were employees dressed in costume but Colby was the only kid dressed-up for story time. Here is a video of Colby and his friends running around, dancing, and having fun.

He had fun dancing with his friends, Avery, Justin and Jacob. After story time, we went home to have lunch and nap. I rested too and caught up on TIVO.

At 5:00, we went out again. We went to the Avalon Park's Fall Festival. There were vendor booths set up that passed out candy, a costume parade, and a stage with music and dancing.

We met our friends, the Shanafelts. Here is Colby and Avery checking each other out. Lesley's mother-in-law made this cute little bird costume.

Here's a video of Colby intently watching a belly dancer and then performing a little jig himself!

Jason met up with us after work. It was crowded and so hot. We decided to walk down the sidewalk to a pizza place to sit down and get away from the crowds. It was crowded there too and the service was slow.
The next day, Saturday, was officially Halloween. Our friends, Stephanie and Craig invited us over. We spent last Halloween with them too. Craig has an outdoor smoking pit he built and had been smoking meat all afternoon. We all brought something to eat.
Above is Colby and some of the boys eating their dinner before we went trick-or-treating. Colby saw the other boys eating peas and carrots so I put some on his plate to eat too. He was't happy about it though or when Justin tried to eat some from his plate.

There were 6 boys ranging in age from 20 months to 26 months. This year the boys were actually old enough to Trick or Treat. The first two houses we visited, the boys began to wonder into the houses when the door opened. The parents had to corral them out. They had no idea what they were doing.

Colby wants more CANDY!

Along our trick or treating route, we cam across this fire-pit. Colby let everyone know there was a FIRE. Then he exclaimed "hose!"

So the neighbor at the fire-pit house got out her hose and turned it on and let the little fire-man perform his job.

Book character dress-up day at school. Meredith and I both came dressed as "Fancy Nancy."

Gatorland

Gatorland is offering free addmissionto teachers this month. We have never been so we went this weekend. We also got an $8.00 meal voucher, free petting zoo food, and free train passes. Hundreds of impressive gators and Colby's highlight of the day was the train ride!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Green Meadows Farm

Last year, Colby was so laid back when we visited Green Meadows. This year he had opinions about everything. We learned he prefers tractors and choo-choos over turkeys and chicks. The pictures this year are more comical than photo-book worthy.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Cocoa Beach Air Show

On Sunday we went to Cocoa Beach to see the Air Show. Colby has loved planes and we thought he would be so excited to see so many up-close. But he proved us wrong and found pushing his bull-dozer in the sand more entertaining than a fighter jet, black-hawk helicopters, or parachutes.
I think the noise was a bit confusing for him to follow. We could see the plane but the noise had not caught up to what we were seeing, and when it had, his head would be turned in the direction of the sound instead of the plane straight in front of us.
Colby would run up and down the beach and then plop at the shore and pat the wet sand. He would say, sit, mommy sit. Then we would sit and play in the water.

There were tons of boats watching the air show.

He slept the drive home and for 3 hours after we got home too!

Visit to Our Neighborhood Fire Station

This weekend, we went to out neighborhood fire station. They were having an open house for fire-wise safety. We went in February and had a lot of fun so when we saw it advertised in our neighborhood newsletter, we knew we wanted to go again. Our friends Stephanie and Craig and their boys also met us there. They had a firetruck bounce house, gave out lots of free goodies including a weather radio and a smoke alarm. Colby got a fire hat, ruler, coloring book and a tattoo. We also filled up on hot dogs and hamburgers.

There was a remote-control fire truck that talked, sang, played music and also squirted water. Colby was not a fan. He'd shriek in panic and grab hold of our legs and yell, "help!" He wanted to be held whenever Firetruck Freddy was in sight. Justin and Jacob had no fear and laughed when they were squirted.

Trying to get a cute picture of all 3 toddlers wearing their fire hats was a challenge. Finally, we got them all to sit and hold still.

But not for long!

On our way back to the car, Colby got excited about this Bulldozer Tractor. He sleeps with a toy one every night.

The next morning, he found his hat and came riding into the kitchen on his firetruck. Notice the big boy underpants. No diapers when we are home!