Halloween

Have I really not posted anything since July? Shameful. I have no excuse only explaination - work has been really, really, really consuming.

I will start with Halloween and catch up later. We had a fun Halloween with Colin this year. Once again we were in Madison and went to the mall's indoor trick-or-treating. It's safe and warm. Mostly Colin liked to run (true to costume) and watch the older kids. Most stores gave out tootsie rolls and other hard candy, but some had stickers and Colin was just excited to play the "please put something in my bucket" game. We're in an apartment now (not the hotel anymore - more on that another time) so I was excited to have kids come to the door later, but no one came :(

Off to Daycare

We've all been enjoying our time in Massachusetts (imagine! a whole week at home!). We had a good 4th of July with family on the South Shore, complete with lobstah :) Colin wasn't quite able to stay awake for the fireworks but maybe next year.

Juan and I always struggle with care for Colin while we're home. Generally it's a combination of taking time off from work, tag-teaming in between meetings and help from grammie Carla. This week we decided to try day care for Colin for 2 days. our company offers a backup care plan which does all the work for us to find and schedule at a facility and we only pay a small co-pay. Despite mommy's initial misgivings, Colin seemed to really enjoy his time there - sooooo many new toys and people and things to explore. The only quasi-difficult time seemed to be nap time where the toddlers are on mats already, not cribs.

Ready to go to day care - complete with sack lunch

Summer fun with Colin

Yes, I realize that half of Colin's pictures are with him in a swing....but he really does love it! Here are some of my favorites that Jenn has taken of Colin over the past few weeks.

The Wedding!!!

On the Beach

Colin and Roberta joined Trish, Jon, Syd, Charlotte and Ella at a very cute beach house in Galveston for vacation the week before BnA's wedding. It was pretty hot but a nice wind kept it relatively comfortable and kept the mosquitos away. Colin LOVED the beach and had tons of fun running in and out of the waves. The kids did get a little sick (and most of the adults except Trish) but it really was a relaxing week and we look forward to the next vacation.

Leading up to the Wedding ...

About 2 weeks before Bill and Avanti's wedding, we threw a small shower for the couple-to-be in Massachusetts. Erin hosted at her house and it was a beautiful day. Avanti was totally surprised!

May Day

We had tons of fun on a very windy 1st of May with our $1.50 kite from the grocery store :)

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter in Madison. Colin hasn't been feeling very well for a few days so Church was a bit difficult. However, after a long nap, he was ready for a little Easter egg hunt. We used the open courtyard at the hotel and Colin was about as interested as expected. He found 4 or 5 out of the 2 dozen eggs on his own and daddy helped with the rest. He was especially interested in taking the "found" eggs out of the basket to play with.

It was important for us to have a traditional dinner and avoid a restaurant if possible. We don't have an oven here (just a stove top) so we improvised with a new crock pot and the roast wasn't half bad. After dinner, we took a nice walk to the park (It's been a mild couple of weeks). Some friends from the hotel were flying a kite - Colin also got a kite in his Easter basket so we were happy that he was so excited about it and can't wait to fly his!

This is about 30 seconds before Colin trips into a puddle of water.

But he looked cute in his Easter outfit most of the day!

Colin finds the grand prize - a clown-in-the-box

A look back to Easter 2009

Spring in Wisconsin

Colin has a packed social calendar these days. He enjoys Kindermusik, story time at Barnes & Nobels, painting, playing outside (now that the weather is nice), and playdates. It's much easier going out and about now without the extra layers of clothes, pacifiers, baby food ...

A recent beautiful day in Madison. 60 degrees then it snowed 3 days later. Reminds me of home :)

Fun with fingerpaints

Colin didn't like the Easter Bunny at first, but warmed up when the eggs were brought out.

...and more travel

Colin broadened his horizons a bit more with a recent trip down to Texas. We all went to Austin the 1st week of March to visit Carlos and Krissy (our soon-to-be sister-in-law). We had a wonderful time in their beautiful home, nice restaurants, at parks with choo choo trains ... Then I headed about an hour down to San Antonio for a conference while Juan and Colin stayed in Austin a bit longer.

Juan took many pictures with his phone's camera to send to me while I was away, but most are too grainy for posting. Here's one of the better ones.

My joy that they hung out in a book store is nearly nullified by the pinstripes Juan dressed him in when I wasn't around.

He's walking!

Colin took his first steps right before the new year and now he's walking all over the place.