18-month-old Collin

Weight: 24 lbs 6 oz (30%)
Height: 33" (71%)
Head Circumference: 47 cm (28%)

Collin won't let me take his picture anymore. He always comes racing at me to take the camera away. So here are two that I managed to get that I think show quite a bit of his personality.

1 - Collin loves to get dressed up, especially when Daddy puts gel in his hair. He gets tons of compliments at Church, the store, the doctor's office, and story times about his blond hair and blue eyes. His hair gets all curly now in the humidity, and it is hard for me not to constantly kiss those little, pink cheeks.

He also loves his sippies. His drink of choice is definitely orange juice, but he loves his whole milk and apple juice too. If he can get a hold of more than one, all the more joy!

2 - I took this picture at my parents' house. We'd had homemade fried chicken for dinner, and Collin was obsessed with gnawing the bone to death. Despite his skinniness, he is quite the little eater, and he has to have what we are having. No more specially-catered meals for him!And even though I know it is bad, I can't help but laugh when he puts his feet on the table. I always tell him no and take them down, but he seems to think he's a monkey: if he is barefoot, he uses his feet to hold his cup, grip his cars and trains, catch a ball, etc. I'm hoping I have a little soccer player on my hands. Oh, and when he's done eating, he always wants to help wipe the table and his hands... and his feet. Buddy, you toes aren't for eating!

And unfortunately, that is exactly how many cute pictures I have of my toddler this past month. Silly, rowdy boy.

Horribly Hilly Hundreds

We went to Madison a few weekends ago for Ryan to participate in the Horribly Hilly Hundreds bike ride. He found out only 2 weeks earlier that a friend of his knew a friend who'd dropped out, so even though he was able to register in his place, he wasn't able to train as much as he would have liked. His longest bike ride in his life - previous to this ride - was 60 miles. And his longest bike ride in preparation for this ride was only 35 miles.

And how many miles did my Ryan ride???? He rode 110 Horribly Hilly miles through the back-country of Wisconsin. It took him about 10 1/2 hours. That's right: On a bike seat, pedaling and pedaling for more than ten hours! What a champ!

I am so proud of him. The guys he rode with had all done the race before, and they said this year seemed harder because of all the wind. Luckily, the night before the ride, a storm came through and dropped the humidity a bit, but it was still 81 degrees and the humidity certainly wasn't gone altogether.

Silly me didn't take my camera so I have very little to document his feat. Here's a picture of Collin the night before we left town trying on some of Ry's gear.

And all the other pictures were done by the official photographer, thus the "proof" slathered across each one. Sorry.

Congrats, Ry! You are amazing!

Odie

We have a new member of our family.

Welcome, Odie!

With all the work that our 4Runner needed (brakes, tires, alignment, detailing), we decided to just trade it in and get what we've known we wanted for some time. It is a green 2007 Honda Odyssey.

And so as strange as it may seem, I am now a stay-at-home mom WITH a mini-van all before the tender age of 29. Yikes, never thought I'd be at this point just ten years ago at my high school graduation.

If you need a good laugh today, search You Tube for "Swagger Wagon." It made me laugh so hard I cried. Good times.

We love our new van. Collin loves that the door opens on its own, and he climbs right in. Sometimes he wants to play in there instead of with his own toys when we go out to the garage. Of course he loves all the buttons to push on the dash.

We drove to Madison last weekend (the subject of my next post), and it was super comfortable. I loved being able to easily climb in the back to help Collin with his dinner and/or take a nap, and then easily slide right back up to the front. The trunk space is great (I was a little worried about that sacrifice with the loss of the Runner), and the third row was nice when we took friends to the park last weekend.

So long Yoda; unfortunately, you are not being missed. Welcome to the family, Odie. We look forward to many years and many road trips.