Who thought "No" could be so sweet?

A few weeks ago Colton finally added No to his vocabulary.  But it isn't that whiny toddler "Na-O!" that you would expect.  Instead, we get this quiet little "no-no-no-no".  It is absolutely adorable. 

Holiday plate

Another Pinterest project without directions.  It took a little googling to ensure I wouldn't have exploded plates or toxic surfaces when I was done, but the basic instructions were really simple.  Execution is another story, but I think it turned out well and the grandparents loved them!

Materials I used:
Porcelain plate
Craft enamel paint - red and green
sponge brush
disposable paint or tray
oven for baking

I found paint at Michaels, they've got several brands but just make sure it is an enamel paint, not just the regular craft paint.   I used Folk Art brand.  If you've got the right kind, it will have baking instructions on the back.   I found 2 Villeroy & Bosch plates at Marshalls that didn't have any lip, so they were perfect.

 

You can just stick your kids hand directly in the paint, but I've found other blogs that recommend using a brush for a cleaner result with handprint crafts.  One coverage is good for 2 or 3 handprints.  Now, this paint dries fast, so if you mess up wash it off immediately using a wet papertowel.  The upside to this is you can also just redo a partial handprint without worrying about smearing the completed part.   At Colton's age, I controlled the hand placement entirely and rotated the plate while I "stamped" his hand on it.   I followed the baking instructions on the paint and they turned out nicely.

 

 

Halloween

Time to resurrect this blog.  I've been slacking big time, and the holiday season probably isn't the best time to attempt to fix this, but I'm going to use this as a space to feed my pinterest addiction in addition to the usual family stuff.

So my original inspiration for Colton's costume was this.




Adorable, right?

So I brainstormed a little and decided that instead of using a onesie as the base, I needed something that could go over a long sleeved outfit.  After ruling out a black hoodie jacket, I settled on an old black t-shirt of Rich's.   While playing around with it, the hood piece became one of the sleeves.

 

I cut off both sleeves and made a Tshirt dress more or less, and sewed giant feather boas to it.  The comb was made from a red Tshirt leftover from last year's crab costume, with some cardboard inside for support.

 

 

The legs were pajama bottoms that I got lucky with finding on amazon...2 toned Dr. Seuss PJs were perfect!  And good old dish gloves for the feet.   The beak was orange felt with a little stuffing sewn to a pacifier.   For about a week before Halloween it didn't look like we were going to get it on him at all, but with a little distraction from neighborhood friends and Rich, we succeeded and he had a blast trick or treating.

 

 

 

The beach and boating.

The past 2 weekends we tried to get in a little experience with the sand and water.   Our beach trip was not as successful as we'd hoped, as the weather was cold and very windy.  We spent all of 20 minutes on the beach but Colton did seem to enjoy it.

Memorial Day weekend we finally got out on the boat and had a great day.  We timed things so Colton got his first nap in the car.   He wasn't entirely thrilled with his life jacket, but once we anchored up and got on a nice little patch of beach he spent the day swimming,

playing,

 and just hanging out.

He was not having any part of his 2nd nap in the afternoon, so as soon as we headed back in he was out!

Farm Animals!

On Wednesday we went to Coverdale Farm with some of the other moms and kids in my Mom's group.  It was really humid out, but all the kids had a blast anyway.

The whole gang.

We saw pigs....

chickens...

cows....

and sheep!

11 months

We've officially entered the independent discovery stage.   Awesome and scary all at once, but the separation anxiety has lessened greatly, so overall a good change!  And along with that, Colton is finally back to sleeping through the night on a regular basis.   I was really beginning to worry that was going to be a permanent change.

While we haven't had any big developmental milestones this month, Colton is very busy learning all kinds of smaller things.  He mastered dumping things out somewhere around 9-10 months, but now he likes to put things into cups, buckets, and bowls (including the toilet if the lid is up...oops).  He will also follow simple intructions, or at least attempt to.  If I point to a hole in the lid of his shapes box, he will attempt to put the block thsrough that hole.   If there aren't any strangers present, saying "clap, clap, clap" will usually get him to clap, and he does it on his own all the time.  We are still working on waving hello and goodbye.

10 months

Hard to believe we are only 2 months away from Colton's first birthday.  My little baby has been replaced by this fast moving, into everything, crawler-working-on-toddler.   He can go up the entire flight of stairs (with me right behind), makes bee lines for light sockets, cords, and pet bowls, and has a strange obsession with chasing the vacuum cleaner.  He is developing a love for games...shrieking and laughing if you crawl after him....or away from him and hide.  Peek-a-boo is still a sure thing for a giggle, but patty-cake could not be less interesting to him.

Seperation anxiety set in a little over a month ago and remains pretty strong, but he loves playing with other kids and is generally good in new places (with us of course).   Sleep is completely hit or miss now, which is normal according to the pediatrician but damn it is hard to go from sleeping all night to waking up at least once, if not 2-3 times.

He was quite the little ham for pictures this month.