Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween is one crazy ass holiday. It's an excuse to dress up, bond with strangers, purposely get scared and gain a massive sugar high. As a kid (up until an age that is a little embarrassing), my friends and I stalked the neighborhood with pillowcases to collect handfuls of candy. Ironically I don't even like American (cheapo) candy that much. Hit me up with the sugary chocolate they sell in Britain or Canada and I'm all over it. Still, there's something rewarding about dumping out a pile of candy at the end of the night and sorting it by chocolate, non-chocolate, and the "lame" pile. I'm not sure if the sorting thing is normal, I may have been a slightly OCD kid.

For Collin's first "real" Halloween, he dressed up as a sheriff with mom and dad as his prisoners. Side note: finding a women's prison outfit that was not skanked out proved to be an impossible feat but luckily I found a boy's costume that fit me. Trick-or-treating with my kid is not the time to look like I just walked out of Frederick's of Hollywood.








We ventured out to the 'burbs for a more family friendly neighborhood to go trick-or-treating with Collin's friend Hailey, who was dressed up as an adorable puppy. He also met Owen, aka Spiderman. The three toddlers were definitely some of the cutest trick-or-treaters out and were met with lots of "awwws."







The neighbors were in the Halloween spirit with fog, spooky music, screams and decorations from dancing pirates to hanging skeletons. Collin didn't seem too perturbed by the scary houses, so long as he got to collect his candy. Ringing the doorbell was probably his favorite part, and he pretty much froze whenever anyone opened the door. (Hailey spoke for the group with her cute little girl chant of "twick-or-tweat"). There were a few meltdowns when we tried to convince Collin to refrain from eating the candy as soon as he collected it. We caved in a couple times especially after he got a treasured lollipop.





Trick-or-treating lasted more than half hour and Collin collected a fair amount of candy. Well, it couldn't compare to my pillowcase days, not to brag...



I'm looking forward to many more Halloweens to come as a chaperone with Collin until that fateful day he insists on going by himself.

Oh the hilarity

The Perfect Pumpkin

We visited Baggenstos Farm in Sherwood to find the "one."

Fun at the Beach

We spent a relaxing three days in Seaside with our friends Ben and Sara and their adorable tot, Flynn. Since weather at the Oregon coast is pretty fickle we were lucky to get sunshine and enough warmth to walk barefoot on the sand and wade in the ocean. Collin and Flynn were sweet together and loved playing chase, building sandcastles and of course getting as wet and as dirty as possible. Boys.

I also got to experiment with my digital SLR camera. I took a photography class and am excited to say I can now use the manual setting! And I have a better understanding of aperture, shutter speed and lighting. Of course I still have a lot to learn. Photography is not as intuitive as I thought. I have a definite respect for photographers who do this as a profession.

And then there's Photoshop which brings a whole other complexity. I'm playing around with Photoshop Elements but to get into the more detailed stuff think I'm going to need to take a class. It could take hours wading through all their tutorials...

Here are some of my favorite shots:

Sleepy babe after a hike


Riding the waves (no that's not any of us)


Nothing beats running on the sand with a stick


Ooh yucky


Love the foot prints


In Collin words, "I touch the sky!"


Flynn loves his spaghetti


Gorgeous beach sunset


Lots and lots of seagulls to chase


This looked fun


Let's catch the waves!


Haystack Rock


Up close at Haystack Rock


Can he get any cuter, seriously?


I really like the colors, contrast and composition oh yeah


Cute boys, I wish the background wasn't a tarp though. Maybe I can photoshop this one day to a beach scene.

It's been fun but it's time to move on

Well I'm officially out of the 20's.

My early 20's were full of awkward angst ridden, quasi-child, kind of moments. Feeling lost. Trying new things. Trying to hide who I was. Way too many days of being hungover. Travels. College and graduation. Living on my own for the first time. Trying to find a job I didn't hate.

Then I met THE guy. I found a job I didn't not just hate. I get to wake up every morning and feel good about what I'm doing.

And along came the baby carriage. And of course that was a total game-changer.

I grew up a lot this past decade. I figured out what love means. How friendship evolves. What it feels like to breathe in a newborn's sweet smell and know he's yours. To take risks.

To know I'm a talented writer. To understand that change isn't easy but it's necessary. I learned not to be so quiet. And to stand up. But to also value myself and know it's okay that I'm shy and not miss type A personality.

To the 30's I say bring it on sista. I'm ready for you. I look forward to learning more and trying to make sense of this crazy world.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Collin has gone through many different phases with baths. Our first experience with a sponge bath went like this:


For a while we took him in the shower with us, he actually seemed to find that soothing. But that phase quickly passed and we were back to the baby bath. And then a fun inflatable ducky that went into the bath tub.







Then he graduated to being in the big bath tub all by himself. He was loving that until a few months ago when he would scream and try and claw his way out of the bathtub.

And now he's back to a happy water tot. Mostly because of these annoying water crayons that bleed all over, cost $6 and last about a week.






He stays until his skin is puckered and wrinkly.


How dare you take me away from the tub!

Some mid-august thoughts

I can't believe it's already halfway through August.

It feels like a faster paced summer, more exhausting. I attribute this to several factors:

1. Summer was literally shorter than other years with our June/early July "winter."

2. Collin's energy level. Half the time it's like living with someone whose manic depressive and off their meds. Ups and downs, screams and cuteness. And he's the Energizer Bunny at the same time.

3. Both Mike and I have been working a lot, the house is a never-ending project, and we've done a fair amount of traveling.

We haven't gotten in touch with nature as much as I would've liked but I have to remind myself Collin is at an age where he's just as happy throwing bark chips at the park than he would be at a picturesque mountain that's a two hour car ride and involves lots of planning. And as mentioned previously Collin does not do the best on hikes. I am looking forward to the days we can do more exploring but two year olds are just exhausting little people. For now, we've had lots of fun going to local playgrounds, swimming and visits to the zoo, the Children's Museum and OMSI. He's also at an age where he actually plays with his friends instead of just co-existing. But sharing is a hard concept...

Collin's also officially moved up to preschool! His teachers felt he was ready to transition even though he's not quite two and a half. We were told Collin is bright (pat on the back for good genes) and very much a visual learner. He knows his numbers, letters and shapes and is extremely focused. Apparently Collin asks to be excused, cleans up his messes and is an all around angel. Now if we could just get him to bring the same level of politeness to home that would be awesome. His teacher Jen also told us two and a half year olds usually enter the "Pesky Pete" phase where dumping toys and other items out is fun and boundaries are constantly meant to be tested (and it gets worse as vocabulary progresses).

Now that he's in a slightly more structured environment, we are also trying to pay closer attention to his unilateral hearing loss. Circle time, talking with his friends, taking direction from teachers, all of those involve more careful listening and with a busy environment with lots of noise and conversation, sometimes kids with auditory neuropothy get frustrated and shut down. Still it's pretty hard to tell Collin has any kind of hearing issue. His audiologist and early intervention specialist both say he's doing great. The only times we've noticed something is off is when he seems unsure of where sound is coming from and he covers up his left ear when we put headphones on him. Chances are when he doesn't respond to us, it's not because he doesn't hear us, he's just being a preschooler.

And now some pictures that demonstrate why we don't eat our young: