Cousins Go To Pretend City

I took my cousins to one of my favorite places in Orange County, Pretend City! Every time I go there I have so much fun. It was especially fun being there with Alex and Kieran. We played and moved around so fast Mommy could barely get any photos.

Colin really enjoyed the place too. There was so much to explore and he was able to crawl anywhere he wanted - such a contrast from the day before at Disneyland. I'm pretty sure he would love to go back!

Disneyland Trip #2

We went down to SoCal for the week of Thanksgiving, and spent a day at Disneyland! It was our second trip and we really packed it in this time, visiting both Disneyland and California Adventure. It was neat to see the parks all decked out for Christmas, especially at night. We were there for almost twelve hours and it was a fun but exhausting day.

It was Colin's first trip and he was a trooper - poor guy spent most of the day either being carried, strapped in the Ergo, or sitting or sleeping in the stroller. I'm sure he would have much rather preferred to crawl around and use his legs. Mommy even mastered how to nurse him while standing in line at the same time.

We were shocked that they let him on the Astro Orbitor ride. He could barely sit up in the seat and couldn't even see over the side!

In front of "It's a Small World." Inside it was all Christmas'd out - I loved it!

Colin slept through the ride, while I watched everything in amazement.

Teacup ride

At Goofy's house. The only time Colin got to explore on his own all day - he was so happy.

Like our first visit, my favorite ride was the roller coaster at Toontown. A close second was the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel at California Adventure. Since I saw it from the park entrance I couldn't stop talking about it, so we upgraded to the park hopper pass. At California Adventure we ended up spending a lot of time in Bugs Land (wasting forty-five minutes in line for this one thirty second ride), walked through Paradise Pier, and watched the Disney Jr. show. We didn't even make it to Cars Land, so we'll have to check it out next time.

No line for the Bugs bumper cars though! I got to ride it twice.

We ended the day back on the Disneyland side. We rode the Dumbo ride, had dinner on Main Street, and caught the parade. Most of the floats were Christmas themed, and I was excited to see the Frozen float with Elsa, Anna, and Olaf on it ("Look! It's Elsa from Alyssa's birthday party!").

Dumbo!

Disneyland is really a magical place during the holidays. Too bad it gets so crowded.

Eight Month Update

I look like such a little young man with my haircut now! This month I spent lots of time crawling, exploring, trying to stand, and eating!

Developments:
I've mastered crawling and am on the move! But that isn't good enough for me. Now I want to walk! I spend most of my time pulling myself up to standing, trying to climb, and trying to walk. I'm very curious and am always looking for the next thing to grab and/or put in my mouth. I just can't sit still. It's especially tiring to go anywhere outdoors with me. During Kaitlyn's soccer classes, I usually spend the whole time fighting Mommy and trying to crawl to the edge of the picnic blanket so I can put fistfuls of grass into my mouth.

Verbally, I still make lots of screechy, squealy sounds, but no real consonant sounds or attempts to imitate others.

Disposition:

I will admit that I am pretty high maintenance. I am constantly demanding Mommy's attention, and both my stranger and separation anxiety have gotten worse this month. Independent play is not my strong suit, and I get mad if Mommy doesn't hold me or entertain me. It gets difficult for her to cook or do anything around the house.

I don't have a lovey but I'm very attached to my muslin swaddle blankets. Whenever I get fussy Mommy will put one near me and I'll bury my face into it to soothe myself. We always have them on hand - in the car seat, around the house, in my crib. I always sleep with one in my crib and it helps me to settle down to sleep.

Teeth:
My first tooth popped out! I now have a bottom left tooth, and am a step closer to being able to chew and eat more!

Eating:
Speaking of eating, I absolutely LOVE to eat! So much that meal time is the most stressful time of day for everyone. As soon as I'm put into the high chair it's like I can't get food fast enough. I'll start screeching and banging my hands on the tray until there is food in my mouth. They were trying to teach me the hand sign for "more" but I think banging my hands on the tray is sufficient.

Following with the baby-led weaning approach, we pretty much skipped the purees and went straight to table food, chopped up into tiny pieces. I love eating foods with texture and have tried all kinds of things, including mac n' cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and rice and beans. My favorites include chicken, especially the rotisserie chicken from Costco, and a baby-friendly version of Daddy's Italian Wedding stew.

Since I never took a bottle, I'm starting to learn to use a sippy cup. But so far, I have no interest in drinking from it. I love chewing the spout, then turning the cup over to chew on the base, and eventually dropping it onto the floor.

Kaitlyn was really excited and proud to share her grilled cheese sandwich with me.

Sleep:
I practically spent the entire month in the Pack n' Play in the spare bedroom, since it was so much easier to not worry about waking Kaitlyn up. It made sleep training easier too, and I can now sleep close to twelve hours (7pm to 7am) at night, with one or two wake-ups in between.

I've also consolidated to two naps a day - I've been following this 2-3-4 schedule (first nap two hours after waking, second nap three hours after the first, and bedtime four hours after the second nap) and it's been working really well. It's nice to finally have some predictability and consistency.

Likes: Puffs, muslin blankets

Dislikes: when meal time is over, wearing socks

This month I rode a swing for the first time and really enjoyed it. Although like everything else, I then put my mouth on it and tried to eat it.

Most of these photos are from before I got my first haircut last week. Here's another quick comparison of before and after. 

First Haircut!

My hair has been growing so long over my ears and was bugging Daddy, so he finally decided he had to give me a trim.

Before:

They distracted me with a teething cracker while Kaitlyn made cuckoo noises at me. I was so entertained by her I didn't even know what was happening.

After!

That was easy!

By the way, let it be known that there will be no bowl haircuts in my future!

A Very Frozen Halloween (Part 2)

Halloween costumes were a success!

On Halloween we were supposed to have a parade at preschool, but it was pouring rain outside so instead all the parents were invited inside the classroom to see our costumes. We all sat in a circle and took turns standing up, saying what we were dressed up as, and doing a spin. 

Wearing a panda hat that we made in class to celebrate the SF Giants winning the World Series

I was very sensitive to scary things this year, especially skeletons, so was really reluctant to go trick-or-treating at night. The plan was to just stay home and pass out candy, but then we ended up going over to the Chiu's house for dinner. And then my friends managed to convince me to go out with them.

That idea was short-lived, however. The first house we went to had a skeleton hanging out in front, so I passed on that one. Then the second house had a giant skeleton too. Pass. Turns out that every house on our street that was decorated had some form of skeleton out front. We didn't even make it to the end of the block before I wanted to go home. The only house I ended up going to was our next door neighbor's that had no decorations. I was happy to stay home for the rest of the night and hand out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that came by. The best was when my friends came back and made a last stop at our house - they were nice enough to take their own candy from trick-or-treating and share them with me!

On a side note, Mommy was very pleased with her Halloween decorations this year - and she didn't even use any skeletons!