15 month check-up

Colt had his 15 month check-up and he is a growing boy! He weighed in at 24.5 lbs and 33 inches. He is 50% for weight and 95% for height. He had one shot and he screamed, I can remember taking him to his 6 month appt. when they gave him 4 shots and he never made a peep. He even smiled at the nurse. It makes a difference when they don't really understand pain!! He got a book and a toy so the crying did not last long.

15 months

Colt is 15 months old and growing and learning new things every day. He is soooooo much fun to have in our lives and we are enjoying every minute that we get to spend time with him.

Dave and him have a pretty special relationship, once Dave gets home from work Colt wants to do nothing but crawl all over him. They have this little routine of going upstairs together while Dave changes out of his work clothes, then they play with his football (Dave taught him how to "go long") and Colt runs away from him then turns around to try and catch the ball (which sofar he still can not catch very well). Dave also taught him how to do the "stiff arm," high five, and give knuckles:) After dinner when I am cleaning up Colt will come in and point to the freezer over and over again until I get him a popsicle, he then takes it to Dave and they share a popsicle together every night.

He is getting really good at following directions, he knows how to throw things away, he knows how to put his dirty diaper in the diaper genie, he knows where to find his toothbrush and then will put it back when he is done brushing his teeth. I have taught him where to put his milk when he is done drinking it, so now everytime I give him a sippy cup he will take a drink and then put it down on this little shelf, go play, and then come back and take another drink, put it back on the shelf and the process starts all over again. He is also getting much better at cleaning up his toys but that is still a work in progress. He also loves shoes and he knows which shoes belong to who. If I ask him to bring me my shoes he will go grab my tennis shoes, if I ask him to bring me his shoes he will go pick out a pair of his shoes and bring them to me. I can't believe what kids learn at such a young age!

In the evening when I ask him if he wants to take a bath he will nod his head and then run to the stairs and turn around to make sure I am following him. Then when we get in the bathroom I always turn the water on and then put my hand under the water to check the temperature, Colt has started doing that too. Its so funny, he puts his hand under the water and then nods his head like "yep that's about right."

He has had a cold pretty much since I went back to work because that's when he went back to daycare. I think its cleared up and then another one comes! I caught some type of bug this past Sunday and have been pretty sick this week, I ended up losing my voice on Tuesday and we had open house that night for school. I am sure the parents were wondering why I was even there:) I am starting to feel better but looking forward to the weekend so we can just rest and hopefully start feeling better. I take Colt to his 15 month check-up on Monday so the doctor can look at him there and decide if he needs medicine to fight this cold. I really feel like its just a cold, he has been in a good mood for the most part and sleeping really well so it does not seem to bother him too bad.

All right its almost 9:00 and Grey's Anatomy is on tonight, I will probably not stay awake for the entire show (its 2 hours long!!) but I am recording it so I will have a good show to watch tomorrow night after Colt goes to sleep! If you are as addicted to blogging as I am and get a chance go on over to My Charming Kids blog, she is a mom with 3 kids and one on the way all under 4! Its so entertaining and something fun to do when your husband's stuck in front of the television watching USC play Oregon State!

Dad's Back......with FISH!!

Dave came home this evening with LOTS of FISH!! Him and my dad went to the Little White Salmon and fished for 4 days.
Between the two of them they caught 8 fish, the biggest was 38 inches and the smallest was 26 inches. I am not much of a fisherman but they sure looked like big fish!
Colt was a little unsure about the fish and he was not real happy about us having him stand next to one. He did finally it touch it. This fish was 38 inches long and Colt is about 33 inches so you can see how big the fish really were!
Colt was SO EXCITED to see Dave. He wore a permanent smile on his face the rest of the evening.
They sure love each other. Its so fun to watch them play together, Dave kept calling while he was gone (and he never usually calls much when he is fishing) and wanted to talk to Colt on the phone:) They both really missed each other!

Evening without Dad

Dave has been gone fishing with my dad since Thursday so its just Colt and I. We have had lots of fun but have stayed close to home since we are both sick!! We spent most of the day Saturday at my mom's and let her take care of us:) When we came home we played a little bit before Colt's bedtime.
We got these blocks for him last spring, so far the only thing he really loves about them is dumping them out of the bag and leaving them all over the house.
Tonight he actually sat down and played with them for a little while, and then he HELPED me put them back in the bag! He is getting better about putting things away and we have really been working with him on cleaning up after he is done playing. Not that I am holding my breath on this, I mean after all he is a BOY!!

Julie's 50th Birthday!

Today is Julie's (Memah) 50th birthday.

We all went over to Kenzie and Andy's place to celebrate. Camryn really wanted to show Colt how to roll down the hill but Colt was a little unsure about it.
He loved getting to run down the hill though..........
and was rewarded with a big hug from dad!
Cute Cute Camryn.
Running down again, the kids sure did love doing this.
Camryn's turn!

We grabbed the kids so we could all eat and then gave Julie her birthday present. All the kids had to write down the top 10 things that they love about there mom and read it to her. They went in birth order and it was quite a scene! There were times I thought Julie was going to pee her pants!
Trying not to cry.....
and then enjoying her present (a spa day and a weekend away with her girlfriends).
Group picture minus me and Kenzie.
We were both taking a picture. Its always the mom's that never get in pictures but at least Julie got to be in this one!

Singing Happy Birthday to Colt's Memah.....
and helping her blow out the candles.

Happy 50th birthday Memah! We all love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Colt and Camryn were so funny. They are at the age now where they are really starting to interact and try to play together. Colt was a little pushy with her and tried to grab her hair a couple times but they both had fun together.
Camryn wanting Colt to follow her....
and Colt showing Camryn how to play with the door stop....
and then sharing the cover with her.
Sneaky little kids!!
They kept running back to the laundry room and playing with all the stuff back there. They are going to get in a lot of trouble together as they get older.
Ready for bedtime!

New Guitar

Dave got a brand new electric guitar recently. He traded it for his dunebuggy that he had been trying to sell forever! I hated that dunebuggy, it was huge, it did not run and it took up SO much space in our garage! So when a guy from a local music shop called Dave and told him he would trade it for a brand new electric guitar I told Dave to go for it! An electric guitar is MUCH smaller than a dunebuggy and now I can park my car back in the garage!Colt and Dave both love it! Dave spends lots of evenings playing around with it (and he's not too bad either) and Colt likes to dance to the music and even likes to play it. He is very careful and does it very gently so Dave does not mind sharing. When they both get tired of it I think I will just put it up for sale. I am sure it will sell much faster than the dunebuggy:)

Update

I have gotten many comments and phone calls from people wanting to know more about what is going on with the mole on my leg. I guess I should start at the beginning. Around the end of my pregnancy with Colt I noticed that a mole that I have had for many years on the right side of my leg just above my knee was a little inflamed. About a month after I had him I made an appointment with my dermatologist to have it looked at. She was not concerned about it and said that sometimes pregnancy will cause things like this to happen and to just keep watching it and make sure it does not change anymore. A year later it had not changed at all in looks but I always had this nagging feeling that I really should just have it taken off. I made another appointment to go back to her and she again told me that it did not look like anything that was a problem but if it made me feel better then she would take it off for me. I had a punch biopsy done which was no big deal, a little numbing in my leg and 4 stitches later I left and thought nothing of it. After 9 days I returned to get my stitches out and she told me that the biopsy had come back abnormal. It was not melanoma but it was acting in a way that told her it may be heading that direction. She told me the best thing to do would be to go back in and take out a bigger chunk of my leg to make sure that they take out all the bad cells that may still be left behind. A couple days later I headed back to the doctor for the 2nd procedure and brought Dave with me for support. It was not a real big deal as far as procedures go, she numbed me up a lot more this time and as Dave puts it "took a piece of skin about the size of a small trout" out of my leg. It took 8 stitches underneath and 18 on top to close it back up. I finally got the results back today and they said while there were still some bad cells left in the middle part of the biopsy all of the cells around it looked great and they got all of the "bad stuff" out of me. I go back in tomorrow to get my stitches out. I have basically had stitches in my leg for a month now between the two procedures. Its not that bad but it feels kind of tight and itchy in that spot. I have been able to work out pretty normal for the most part, the only thing I can not do is any type of lunging or squatting as it could break open the incision. I am so glad that I continued to follow up on this and not let it get out of control. However, now I have to go back in every 6 months for a check-up because I am considered higher risk for this to happen again. I am just going to make sure I wear sunscreen daily on my face (even in the winter!!) and stay out of the sun as much as possible! No more laying out and sunbathing for me:)

When I told Dave about the biopsy being abnormal his remark is "that's no big deal NOBODY dies from melanoma anymore." So I then go and start reading about it online and find all these articles that talk about how cases of melanoma have risen 50% in the last 25 years! One article stated that women between the ages of 15 and 39 have a 1 in 389 change of being diagnosed with melanoma. Melanoma is also the #1 cancer in women ages 25-29 and second behind breast cancer for women ages 30-34. I am not trying to say any of this to scare any of you, but just be aware of what it is and check your body regulary for any irregular moles or moles that have changed shape or color. This article is a great source for early detection.

Sundays, Football and Nice Weather

The weather has been so warm the past week, today it was in the low 90's!! I am so ready for the cooler fall days but for now I will have to be happy with the cooler fall mornings. Colt has been enjoying the weather and doing lots of playing outside. I think he would spend all day outside if we would let him. We have all his trucks, bats, balls and his slide out on the back patio area so he can just go right out and play when he wants.
Since it is Sunday and we are spending the entire day watching football I put him in his Peyton Manning jersey. I think it was good luck because the Colts won this week (though barely!). So we will have to continue to do this every time they play. He wore this exact same jersey last year during football season and it was a little too big (its size 18 months) this year it fits him perfectly! The Price's got this for him before he was even born and he has put it to good use.

Go Colts!

Love the mornings!

The mornings during the weekend are my favorite time right now. Since I went back to work this is the only time Colt and I can really spend relaxing mornings together. We usually get up around 7 and I give him some milk and we hit the road together for a morning run. The fall mornings are nice and cool here but not too cold for Colt. It is perfect!

I taught Colt to tell us how old he is. Now whenever we ask him how old are you he will put his finger in the air like this. I get the biggest kick out of his personality! Every meal is never complete until Byson gets his share too. This usually means that Colt is full and ready to get down. It starts with him feeding Byson and then if we let him sit too long he stars throwing his food on the floor. So NAUGHTY!! We have been trying to work on this with him but he still does it.

Back to School!

It's been awhile! I bet you can all tell that I am back to working and no longer enjoying my summer break:( We have been back to school for 3 weeks now and I feel like those wonderful 8 weeks off never happened. We have picked back up our busy schedule of getting up early, dropping Colt off at daycare, working all day, picking Colt up from daycare, fixing dinner, eating dinner, giving Colt a bath and storytime, putting Colt to bed and then running around the house trying to clean, do laundry, or work on school stuff for the next day and finally falling into bed and falling fast asleep until we do it all over again!

My school year has started off fantastic, I have a great group of classes this year and feel like I have the best group of kids that I have ever had since I started teaching 6 years ago. I teach a 6 period day but I only teach 5 classes since one of those periods is my planning period. I do not have one bad class and that is unusual as I usually have at least 1 that challenges me and most years 2! I was really not looking forward to going back to work but the transition has gone really smoothly and the students remind me why I like being here at work everyday!

Colt has done well going back to daycare, he cried when we dropped him off for the first 2 weeks but he has gotten better this last week. He sure is excited when we pick him up though, he comes running at us and immediately starts blowing Joyce (she is our daycare provider) "kisses goodbye." He is so cute with his kisses, he knows that when he gets in trouble if he gives us a kiss we will forgive him. So the minute we get mad at him he looks at us and puckers up his lips to give us a kiss. The other day he was playing with his bat and hit the wall with it. Dave looked at him and told him no and he immediately went over to the wall and gave it a kiss:) Too cute! He knows how to kiss now, he puckers up those lips and make the smooching sound and he also loves to blow kisses to random people he sees while we are out and about. He has started to become a little more picky about what he is eating, my theory is if he does not eat what I put on his tray then he just will not eat:) I do make sure he is eating so I always be sure to give him foods that he likes but I try to throw new things on his tray too so he will get used to eating what is in front of him. He has thinned out alot over the past 2 months, I think most of that has to do with the fact that he never stops. From the minute he wakes up until naptime he is moving NON-STOP, he always takes a really good nap though and is then running around non-stop until bedtime. Its no wonder he is getting skinny:) He is also very tall for his age, I can tell when he is around other kids his age because he is always the tallest one. He loves to play outside with his trucks, bat and ball. The other night I had put his truck and train pajamas on him and he ran over to Dave and would point to the truck on his pj's and go "vroom vroom" then he would point to the train and go "woo woo" and make the motion with his hand. This morning I was taking off his pajamas and they have a lion on the chest he points to it and goes "roar." The age he is at right now is so cute and I just laugh at him daily at all the little things he is doing and discovering. It is so fun to watch him grow!

Besides Colt everything with the parents is going well. Dave's work is doing very well, he is loving that football season is here and parks himself on the couch all day on the weekends. He has two fantasy leagues he is in right now so he is always watching to see how he is doing. He also just got an electric guitar and is determined that he will learn how to play that during the football game commercials this season. Colt loves listening to him play and of course wants to help so if anything it will keep Colt busy while he is watching football:)

I had a minor surgery on a mole on my leg this past month. I had noticed a mole that I had always had was changing color so I went and got it looked at. The doctor did not think it was anything but I went ahead and got it removed. Turns out there was some pre-cancerous cells growing in it, I had to go back in and have a nice size chunk taken out of my leg. It required 26 stiches but I am as good as new! I will be taking a lot of precaution for the rest of my life as far as laying out in the sun and just being proactive about any other suspicious moles. I will be posting some pictures within the next day so check back soon!

Labor Day

We decided to get away for Labor Day weekend and drove up to Tollgate and stayed with our good friends Audra and Brent at there cabin. They had 4-wheelers and Dave and Colt wanted to do nothing all weekend but ride those!
Colt loved every second of it and cried when I made him get off. I was not too sure about him being on them because he had no helmet and he is too little. Dave assured me he had it under control and went really really slow and did not go more than 100 yards from the cabin.
While Dave and Brent took the 4-wheelers for a ride; Audra, Colt and I played in the sand next to the lake. Audra was teaching Colt how to throw bread to the ducks.
Colt and Mom.

The weather was so great at the cabin, it was cool the entire time and you needed a sweatshirt and long pants on to stay warm. I love the fall weather. Now if it would hurry up and come to Walla Walla, its still in the high 80's here!
Colt is so intrigued with bats and sticks right now so I bent down to grab it for him before he toppled in himself!
The perfect stick to hit people with:) That stick kept him entertained for at least 30 minutes!
Audra was trying to clean Colt up after the fun with the stick and he was not too happy about it!
It was fun to get away for the weekend and hang out with good friends. We had not seen them all summer because they had spent the summer backpacking Europe! The cabin where we stayed is Audra's dad and its more of a lodge than a cabin. It sleeps 22 people and they just finished building it last November. It was beautiful and so relaxing!