The Big Gift

Matt surprised me with something awesome for Mother's Day. I'm late in posting about it because it wasn't quite ready for pictures until a few days ago.

He bought a piano on craigslist and completely refinished it. Look how beautiful it is!

Ever wondered what the inside of a piano looks like?
Unfortunately, this is the only before shot we have.

And the finished product. It looks even better in person!

I haven't played the piano much in the last 5 years, but I love being able to sit down and play whenever I want now. Now I just need to get some more sheet music.

Colin especially loves this new addition. Almost every time we walk past the piano (which probably happens 20 times a day) he looks at it and lets me know he wants to play. He loves to hit/pat everything, so he really loves the piano because his hitting/patting makes noise!

Matt took this cute video of Colin playing the piano. The piece of the piano is missing because Matt hadn't finished staining it yet. This view was even better for Colin because he could see movement every time he hit a key. I think we might have a pianist on our hands!

Bumps and Bruises

Not to mention being dirty.

That's the phase Colin has just entered.
And when exactly will this phase end?
I'm guessing years.

Last weekend he decided to throw caution to the wind and see what life was like standing on his own two feet. Since then, we haven't been able to get him to stop pulling himself up on anything and everything. In fact, I now find him standing up in his crib every time I go get him up.

He's gotten a few bumps on the head and a scratch on his cheek (the scratch we have our brick fireplace to thank for), but Colin is determined, and he gets extremely happy when he succeeds.

With his new sense of adventure, he has taken to opening the bottom drawers throughout the house. This one in the kitchen is a favorite of his because of all the fun things inside.

And he is quite the helper...look at him helping me fold the laundry :)

In other news, his third tooth just popped through the other day, and according to our home scale, he weighs about 17 lbs. He's growing up so fast!

Trip to the Zoo

Colin and I go to a play group on Wednesday mornings with some women from church. We do lots of fun things like going to different parks, the Children's Museum, and a few weeks ago we went to the zoo. Colin doesn't care too much about any of it, but it gives us something to do, and it has helped me make some friends around here.

My friend Melanie took a few pictures while we were there, so I thought I would share.

Watching the tortoises. Previous to this, Colin pulled off one of his socks and dropped it over the side of the stroller... 

We stopped for a snack along the way.

The empty strollers during the snack break. Can you imagine this parade of strollers walking through the zoo?

The kids enjoying the penguins.

I've never been a big fan of zoos because I don't particularly like animals, and this zoo trip was not much better. Most of the animals were sleeping or otherwise boring. The penguins were by far my favorite because there were a bunch of them, and they were swimming and waddling all over the place. Despite my feelings, I can see how the zoo is fun for little kids, and I'm sure in a few years Colin and I will be spending a lot more time there!

More Visitors!

This post is almost a week late, but better that than never!

Last week weekend Matt's sister and her husband, Kristy and Kyle, came back to Oklahoma for a visit. We managed to cram quite a bit into those few days, and here are a few pictures I took.

One of the things on my 101 list was to go to an Oklahoma tourist site I hadn't been to yet, and this weekend helped me cross that off! We visited Pawnee Bill's Ranch in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Never heard of Pawnee Bill? I hadn't either, but check out the link, and you'll learn a few things. We have him to thank for Wild West shows. The Ranch has a museum and several old buildings including his mansion. The mansion was completed in 1910 and cost $100,000 to build. It was built with electricity and running water while the rest of the town of Pawnee still had dirt roads and horses and buggies. A little Oklahoma history for you :)

Colin on a little saddle. Adorable!

Here's another bit of Oklahoma history for you. Tabouli, a Lebanese dish, is very popular around here. Weird, right? That is because of a restaurant started by Fred Joseph. His ancestors brought a recipe for it with them to the United States, and when he opened his restaurant, he started serving it. Although his restaurant burned down, one of his nephews opened a new restaurant on the same site and called it Joseph's. They still serve the same tabouli, and over the years, many other restaurants have started serving it too.

We went to Joseph's on Saturday night as a pre-Mother's Day event. Here's a shot of Colin with his Grandpa!

And for the record, I think tabouli is disgusting. 

Friday they went to the aquarium. I opted out, but they took Colin and gave me a few baby-free hours! I guess Colin really liked it, but he was mad because the plexi-glass was keeping him out!

There's not much of a story behind this one, but I had to include it because he's so cute! We had a fun visit, and we can't wait for Kristy to have her baby in November so Colin has a cousin on the Tiner side!

A Little Laugh

Most teenagers these days have cell phones, and with those cell phones they do a lot of texting. In an attempt for parents to communicate better with their children, many adults have also started texting. If you are one of them, here's a bit of advice...make sure you have your child's phone number programmed into your phone correctly.

I got some text messages from a number I didn't recognize a few weeks ago, and I thought this was too funny not to share. Here's the first one that I got on a Thursday morning.

This one I got on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I don't know why this mother didn't change the programmed number after the first time I told her she had the wrong number...but I haven't gotten anymore since then, so hopefully she figured it out.

I wonder how much trouble this kid got into...

Motherhood

I love being a mom more than I ever thought I would. It is even better now that we have a bit of a routine and I can usually understand what Colin needs. With motherhood came the anticipated changes and hardships, but I have encountered many things over the last several months that I never even imagined.

For instance, hello hormones! Those first 3 or 4 months were full of crying and mood swings, and all I can say is I'm so glad I'm past that stage now.

I never considered the worry I would feel about, well, everything, but mostly concerning my child. Will he get hurt? Will he get sick? Is he sleeping okay? It never ends.

Breastfeeding is really painful at the beginning. Fair warning, skip to the next section if you have no desire to learn more about this :) Before Colin was born, I had little desire to breastfeed, but I had decided to give it at least a try because it was a cheaper option, and he would benefit from it. My plan was to do it for about a month, and during that time, pump as much as I could in order to continue giving him breast milk for a little longer than that. Well, he's 7 months old, and I'm still going strong and loving it! This didn't come without hardship the first month though. It hurt a LOT the first several weeks, once so much that I cried (and I consider myself to have high tolerance for pain). I even suffered from mastitis for several days, and my nipples cracked and bled a lot despite my frequent use of lanolin. In the end, the pain was well worth it, but it was quite a surprise for me when I started. I've read that breastfeeding isn't supposed to hurt, and if it does, you're not doing it right. I do NOT believe that.

Leaving the house takes a lot of work. I know--this is a given. But I had to come to terms with this many months ago, and in so doing, I always tell myself that I plan to leave 15 minutes earlier than I need to. This usually means that I will leave the house on time.

We are always wanting him to learn the next thing, but I need to slow down and enjoy what he's doing right now. He gets older every day, and I don't want to miss a minute of it. Not to mention, the more mobile he gets, the more trouble he can get into...

He can't walk or talk, but boy, does he have personality. Colin is extremely opinionated, and he lets me know when he's not happy. I love that at even such a young age, I can tell what sort of characteristics he will have even when he gets older.

I really wanted a cuddly baby, and for the first few months Colin was happy to oblige. Now, however, he refuses. In fact, it is almost impossible to get him to fall asleep if he is being held. Except when he was sick last week--I loved that I got to cuddle with him during his nap.

When my floors are littered with toys, I have no motivation to pick them up because they will just be pulled right back out.

If you made it to the end of this very long list, congratulations! I'm sure these things aren't all that interesting to most people, but I wanted to document a few of my feelings--especially because I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a mom yesterday.

I hope you all enjoyed the day as well!

A Visit From the Bagwells

The Bagwells used to be our next door neighbors in Provo when we first got married, and we became good friends with them during the 2 years be both lived in those apartments. This past week they packed up all of their stuff and are currently driving to the east coast, where Buck will start his new job in Connecticut.

Lucky for us, they decided to stop at our house along the way and stay for a few days! It was so great to see them, and although Millie is quite a bit older than Colin, I think he really enjoyed having her around to play with.

We did several things while they were here, but I only managed to take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Thank you Aquarium App on the iPad for occupying them for a few minutes

This is serious talent: wrangling two small children while talking on the phone.

Millie really liked the walk-through of Western Auto.

Buck and Colin before our tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.
We got to eat ice cream fresh off the line. Amazing.

Millie enjoyed the tour, but apparently not the Blue Bell Ice Cream hat.