My first day with out little Colin.

Little Colin started Mother's day out last Thursday. Colin went into work late so we could both be there to drop him off. He cried a little bit when we got ready to leave but when I got there to pick him up he was sleeping on his nap mat in the middle of the floor (Something I didn't think he would do). His teacher said that he was a good boy. He ate most of his lunch (and some of the child's beside him)loved music time and also enjoyed playing on the playground. He will be going every Monday and Thursday for 5 hours. I missed him almost instantly after leaving. I wasn't sure what I was going to do to keep my mind busy. Im glad that things went well because if they didn't I'm not sure that I would have let him go back. I think it will be good for him to play with other children his age. He has 8 kids in his class 3 of which are triplets(only 2 girls, the rest are boys).

Paper Planes.

Some experts say that a child will be more intelligent if the mother plays classical music while the child is in the womb. Lisa and I do not subscribe to this belief and decided to do her own experiment. She listened to Rap and Pop music for the past 24 months (9 months in the womb, 15 months out). Some might think that this would lead little Colin to be a criminal that curses, pays only $49.99 for motels and is known as a freak of the industry. Only time will tell, but we have noticed odd behavior recently.

Here is a scene of what Little Colin might be thinking these days when he is in the back seat of the car. "What do you want to do with your life?".

Little Colin loves music and dances to particular rap songs and songs with a strong bass beat. In particular he loves the song "Paper Planes" by MIA. If he is crying or moody, if we put this song on and turn it up, he just gets a smile on his face and starts to bob his head and shoulders to the beat. I would guess other kids enjoy music as well, but they probably listen to Barney not 50 cent and Ludacris.

We first noticed this in the car (where he listens to most of this devil music). I tried to get a video of his dancing. His style of dance is very subtle, but he always does it to his favorite songs

He is a little suspicious of daddy sitting in the back seat videotaping him, so he stops a couple of times.



Now that Little Colin is getting older and understanding things more, Lisa is busy updating her playlist with more Disney and edited versions of her songs. I have warned her that she will be in trouble is one of Colin's first words is a curse word or if he calls any girls he knows by a derogatory slang term for women.

We are now planning on getting Rock Band or Guitar Hero so that the boy can be exposed to classic rock and nurture his affinity for music.

The Great Escape

Little Colin is quite mobile now. Since visiting his cousins in California, he has taken to walking 100% and speed walking (no running yet). He rarely crawls although he falls a good bit. Lisa and I had to take more safety precautions with his new found mobility. Shortly after getting back, I had to install a new gate at the bottom of the stairs and we had to get new dog stairs for our bed. (The dogs need something to help them get on the bed and we needed something that we could easily move so that little Colin couldn't climb into the bed). What we didnt know is that Colin would have so much fun playing with the stairs.

He is sitting inside the flipped over stairs.

Colin also minds pretty well. We tell him when he is doing something that we do not approve of and he typically stops. He has a tendency to talk back (Not looking forward to his teenage years) but we are working on that. He has started to try to out smart us. For example he is not allowed to touch the TV or the TV components. This is very difficult for him since they are covered in buttons and blinking lights. To get around this rule, he has begun to roll his toys near the TV and under the entertainment center so that he has a reason to get close. He is good about not touching things, but occasionally tries to use a trip to the TV to retrieve a ball as an opportunity to touch the TV. Lisa is good at keeping him in line, so he just now looks at all the buttons (it only takes one time of turning off "So you think you can Dance" for him to learn that the huge awesome looking button in the middle of the TV is not that awesome at all)

Now on to the great escape. Colin likes to wonder around the house to see what he can find and get into. Recently he discovered the doggy door. When Lisa is around he just hits it so that it opens and closes. But the other day he was under daddy's watch (clearly daddy is a pushover compared to mom), and he decided it was time to make his move. He pulled his typical trick and threw his ball out the doggy door. Although he can't talk enough yet to say it, I pictured him rationalizing it in his head "My ball is out there and I have to go get it before one of the dogs chew it up". He was slow at first testing the doggy door and making sure that I wasn't going to stop him for touching it. He thought I wasn't watching but I was. He got about halfway out and realized it was a little harder than he thought and he might be stuck. He didn't give up and eventually made it all the way out. He wasn't that smooth about the whole ordeal as he was laughing and giggling the whole time. I thought that maybe Tyson had been licking his face on the other side, but it was just that he was excited to have escaped. Once outside he made a mad dash to the play house and climbed the rockwall to the top. I was one proud parent, but now we need to find a way to prevent his escape from the house just like we prevent him from climbing the stairs and the bed.

Vacation Pictures.

Colin and Goofy at dinner.

Colin and I with Jasmine and Aladdin.

My boys at dinner on the cruise.

Our family with Mickey Mouse.

The whole family, all 27 of us.(and Pluto)

Vacation.

Well we just got back from our vacation we go on every 2 years with Colin's family and we are just now getting back to normal. We went to Disneyland (Anaheim, CA)and on a 4 day Carnival cruise to Catalina Island, CA and Ensenada, Mexico. We flew into LAX and went to Disney before going on the cruise and visited Disney again before returning home. BC absolutely loved Disney. His favorite ride was "It's a small world". We tried to make a video of him dancing on the boat but it was too dark. We had dinner one night with the characters and he really enjoyed it. It is such a great feeling to watch your kids have that much fun. The second day at Disney was more about how many rides we could ride before the lines got long. So BC kept his Nanny Susie and Papa Pat busy while we ran from ride to ride before it got busy. We rode several and the last one I rode was "Space Mountain". I always remember this being one of my favorites as a kid but this time I barely made it off the ride with out loosing my breakfast. I guess that just about sums up the Disney portion of our trip, now on with the cruise.... We had quite a ride to the cruise ship terminal. Our shuttle driver, of a company I won't name, was quiet the aggressive driver if I might so say myself. But who am I to complain, he did give BC a disgustingly dirty princess bouncy ball which I wouldn't let him touch. Anyways... We got on the ship and went to our room and took a nap. Did I mention that the whole trip we napped with BC. What, it was a VACATION right? I wanted to try and tough it out this cruise so I decided not to use the motion sickness patch (Also since it made me temporarily blind last time and I forgot to get a patch). I did alright I tried to sleep or stay drunk for most of the cruise while I was on board. Which led to a few later embarrassing moments of Fun ship karaoke. Colin managed to lose at the last hand of poker when he decided to go "all in" and BC was happy just to be chased down the hall. He has really started to walk well and he can stand up from the middle of the room unassisted. We had to switch off who was going to stay out late since BC had to go to bed fairly early until the last night we discovered that our 13 year old niece, Ivy, could babysit for a nominal fee (and she did a great job). I just got the rest of my pictures downloaded so I will share several of them in a later post.

Surprise...

Well recently we have turned into a party house. This past weekend we hosted a surprise blowout that sported 80 years of life to be celebrated. Now this may sound like a bad idea to surprise an 80 year old, but this wasn't one person, but 2 people's surprise birthdays (30 and 50).

Lisa or Hank (Lisa's dad) had the idea to do a duel surprise birthday party for Stephanie (30) and Jackie (50). The premise was that it was supposed to be my birthday party, but then Jackie would think it was a surprise party for Stephanie and Stephanie would think it was a surprise party for Jackie. Now I have no idea how Hank and Lisa kept their stories straight. I for one took the stance that I don't plan anything and never know anything. What actually frightens me is that Hank and Lisa were able to pull it off. When Jackie rolled in she had no idea until she saw a sign that said "50" and was even upset that a friend of hers was coming to Houston "to visit friends" and wasn't coming to see her. She never suspected that her friend was coming to see her.

I think the party was a great success and has solidified our house as the resident party house for Lisa's side of the family.

Although everything went smoothly, I find the whole thing quite troubling. Lisa and Hank have honed their skills at trickery and I am fearful that this will not be the last surprise party in the next few years. My 30th is coming up in 2011 and I better keep my head on a swivel. . .

Baby Steps . . .

"Baby step onto the elevator... baby step into the elevator... I'm *in* the elevator. . . AHHHHH" - Bob Wiley from What about Bob.

Little Colin must be thinking something similar these days but more like "baby step to the toy . . ." I always knew what it meant to take baby steps, but for the last few days the Caughran family has been experiencing it literally and the term has taken on a whole new meaning. A few days ago, little Colin took 2 steps on his own from Lisa to his walker. Prior to this he had been couch surfing and walking with a walker, but when we tried to get him to walk on his own, he would just drop to his knees. He just didn't have the confidence to go it alone until recently.



The next day he took 3-4 steps. Then he took 7-10 to get to his fire truck. Each day he makes it farther and is steadier and more confident. We have taken some videos of him learning to walk. As you can see in the videos, we are coaxing him to walk to his toys on the soft carpet, unlike my parents who taught me to walk to goldfish outside on the concrete!?!?

He isn't officially walking by any means, but he is taking baby steps. . .