Colin is 9 Months Old!

Colin is becoming quite the charmer as evidenced by the photos below:

If you can imagine these photos were actually taken right before bedtime.  Mommy almost forget to capture Colin's 9 month shots and hurried outside to get a few.  Luckily, no matter what time of day you can almost always find Colin with a huge smile on his face.  Gone are the days of being serious, he is all laughter and smiles now.  I am constantly stopped and told what a happy baby I have.  I am one proud momma!

Colin measured in at 18 pounds 8 ounces and 28 inches at his nine month appointment.  This puts him at the same percentiles as his six month appointment, 25% for weight and 50% for height. The doc raved about how well he was doing and expects him to start crawling soon.  He's had a lot of coaxing from mom and dad but still not getting around too much. He kicks his legs around then goes no where and ends up frustrated.  He's usually content playing with a wrapper of some sort for a half hour anyways.

The big news this month - Colin got his first two teeth! He had a few rough days and nights but we got through it.  It was all worth it because seriously I'm not sure there is anything cuter than your sweet baby's itty bitty teeth.

Sleep became a major struggle again this month as Colin began waking in the night to not only eat but to be held for long periods of time.  After a good solid week of sleep training, we nipped that in the bud and were actually able to get him to stop eating at night and have much longer stretches of sleeping.  Unfortunately, in return, he began taking even longer to go down initially and was often screaming for over an hour before finally falling asleep.  We wish we could just rock him and help him get to sleep but then he'd just wake every 30 minutes, which isn't good for any of us.  I could go on and on about Colin's sleep but that's no fun because other than some sleeping woes he is truly the sweetest baby ever.

Who can resist this??

Easter

We celebrated Easter with just the three of us at home in Charleston and started it off right with warm cinnamon rolls just like we had as kids.  While reminiscing we wondered if Colin will one day fight with his siblings over who gets to have the yummy center piece.

After breakfast it was time for Colin to dig into his Easter basket.  The Easter Bunny knew exactly what he wanted and filled his basket to the brim!

Given Colin's fondness for baskets filled with toys we were pretty sure he would have a blast.

He immediately spotted Elmo and got right to work trying to free him from the basket....

"Oh man, this is harder than it seems."

At last, after at least two full minutes, he finally rescued Elmo from the basket! 

He then proceeded to play with Elmo for a good five minutes before venturing back into the basket for some more goodies...

After taking out all of his gifts from the Easter Bunny, Colin was left with one extra special gift from Nana and Grandpa.

"Wow, thanks for this awesome paper! Paper is my favorite. No really it is."

"Oh wait, the present isn't paper?  It's my very own special Easter Egg complete with my name!  Even better than paper!! Thank you Nana and Grandpa!"

All the Easter basket festivities tired Colin out!  After a refreshing nap, he was ready to go again and we were off to church, dressed in our Easter best.

 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we were so excited to have mass outside.

 

After a beautiful service we had a relaxing day back at home baking a ham and preparing for dinner.  Because of the wonderful weather we figured we'd eat outside.  Unfortunately, we just could not handle the bugs who were totally digging our glazed ham and carrots.  Poor Colin was covered in nats!  Just after I snapped this shot we performed our very own Chinese fire drill to our places inside.

Ahh, much better! 

We were so thankful to have Daddy home for yet another holiday and to enjoy it together with our little family.

Flowertown Fun with Mimi & Miss Ann

After visiting everyone in Pennsylvania, Mimi joined us on our plane ride home to spend a few days in Charleston.  Having Mimi's help on the plane certainly made everything easier!  Getting ourselves an extra seat between us was a plus as well.

Not only did Mommy come down to Charleston but her best friend, Ann, was also in town for work. Daddy graciously took care of Colin while the three of us enjoyed an incredible dinner at the Charleston Place Restaurant.

The next evening, Mommy enjoyed another night out on the town, this time with Daddy while Mimi and Ann babysat.  Daddy had a squadron function downtown at the Francis Marion Hotel. It was fun to get all dressed up and to get out by ourselves!

The next day, we all headed to a park on the Isle of Palms.  Colin immediately wanted to play in the grass.

 

He also enjoyed some time on the swing.  He had been on the swings before but this was the first time he got really excited and smiley.

Miss Ann and Mimi took care of the "grand babies" (Colin & Lilly)....

while Mommy and Daddy had some fun on the playground equipment. (check out that air!)

After some fun in the park, we headed over to Coconut Joe's for an ocean-side lunch.  

On our final day together, we went to the 40th Annual YMCA Flowertown Festival in Summerville.  The event is filled with tons of food and art vendors.  To give you a little idea of the massiveness of this event check out the photo below:

We took a little break from all the people and found a quiet place to relax.  Colin enjoyed doing one of his favorite activities - examining a leaf.

Family photo op:

Lots of hugs and kisses from Mimi!

Colin had so much fun with Mimi and didn't want her to go.  He can't wait to see her again soon!