Colin

Colin is 110% personality. Either that, or it seems like he's 5 different personalities in one little body. He spends half his day making me die laughing and the other half making me want to strangle him. He is so determined, independent, persistent, obstinent, funny, and full of life. He will run up to me and just hug me for no reason, and he's extremely affectionate and cuddly. I love it. He completely wears me out. I like to complain about how much work he is, but the truth is, I think he's adorable and I'm secretly completely in love with him.

He's extremely verbal, but not yet speaking fluent English. He does say different variations of "uh-oh." When it's bad, it's "UH-ohhhhhh." When he throws food on the floor, it's "uh-oh!". Then when I tell him "No!" he looks down at the food and shakes his head disapprovingly, like it's the food that leapt out of his hand and to the ground. He also says, "ball," "DA!!" (for his dad), and "dat!" for whatever object he wants and is currently pointing at. Until this month, he had his own distinct words for doggy, bird, blankie, and drink, but even with an English degree I'm at a loss as to how to spell them phoenetically. In the past few weeks, he's suddenly picked up a ton of words. Favorites are no!, ow!, yogurt, mine!, bye, truck, book, diaper, dad juice (for any drink), among others. His most useful word is "stuck," usually in reference to himself. When he's looking for someone he walks from room to room yelling "YA YA!". I don't know why.

He is completely obsessed with his dad. If Jason's on the floor he has to be on top of him. If Jason's standing up playing Wii he has to be standing in between Jason's legs. He gets so excited when Jason walks through the door. If Jason walks in the room dressed in his bike gear, Colin runs and gets his shoes and hands them to Jason, even though we don't have a bike trailer, and then cries and cries when he gets left behind. It's really cute and sweet how attached he is.

He worships Ethan and is very competitive with him. He has to be doing exactly what Ethan is doing no matter what that is. He gets very frustrated if he can't keep up. He likes to wrestle with him, though sometimes he walks up and hits him for no reason.

He goes to bed at 6:30 pm without a fuss, although lately he's been talking to himself for an hour or so, and sleeps until 7:00 or later in the morning, then usually naps for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon. He needs this time to recharge since he goes full speed the rest of the day.

He loves the bath and climbs in every single night fully clothed as soon as the water goes on. He LOVES to be outside and we've found him out there, alone, more than once, in various states of dress, including in the freezing cold in only a diaper. We now keep all doors deadbolted, since he can get the doors open.

He was really tough around 15 months...into everything and needing constant supervision. He's getting easier. Now, instead of taking a bite of something and throwing it on the floor if he doesn't like it, he says "yuck" and either hands it to me (thanks Colin!) or, the other day, got down from the table and threw it in the trash himself.

He LOVES to eat, although he prefers to graze throughout the day. He likes to have some of what he's eating in each hand, and hoards food in his mouth like a little chipmunk. He insists on feeding himself, which is often really messy.

He also loves to help out in the kitchen. Here he is rolling out pizza dough, after watching Ethan do it. And occasionally helps himself to a snack. Here, he got Cocoa Puffs out of the pantry, then went and got a tupperware container from the cabinet, then paused to pose for me on his way to the living room, then snacked while watching TV. Even though we don't eat in there. He is such a riot.

I can't imagine life without him!