Will he ever talk???

That is the question I have been asking every day for MONTHS now. For almost a year now, I have worried that he isn't saying enough. I waited until he was 18 months old since everyone said "Give him time. Boys talk slower that girls." I had him evaluated at by EI and they said he was extremely smart but yes, he did need to be saying some words but he was not far enough behind to get therapy. At that time, he probably said 10 or 12 words. Now 6 months later and a week shy of his 2nd birthday, he MAYBE says 15. All he does is either agree with my saying "uh-uh" or he says "no". You ask if he wants milk, he says "uh-huh", but he will NOT ask for it. You ask if he wants a cookie or fruit snacks and he says "uh-huh"--WELL WHICH ONE DO YOU WANT? I am getting more and more frustrated. I am sure he is frustrated as well. I think some of his pinching lately is DEFINITELY due to lack of being able to communicate. I know you are not supposed to "compare" kids to one another, but I am constantly doing so. My nephew, who is 1 month older than Colton, talks in two or three word sentences. He repeats what you say and talks up a storm. I see other kids his age at the park an out places and he is so far behind them. I called EI and spoke with the lady that came out in June and she said that he sounds like he will qualify for speech therapy this time, but to wait until January to call and have them come back out. They have a much "harder" test for age 24-36 months. I feel like such a failure. Like something I did or didn't do, caused this. Everyone says "my son didn't talk as early as my girl" or "my son just started talking on day about 22 month sor 23 months. They had a vocabulary explosion." No explosion here. As I said, we are trying to potty train. How I am supposed to know if he has to go potty if he doesn't even say "pee" or "poop" or even "potty"? I feel like we have made almost no "improvements" since he was a year to 15 months old. His birthday is next week and I feel like it is his year old birthday all over again.

Thanksgiving wrap-up

• Thursday we got to sleep in a little--I say a little because Colton still gets up about 7:00 even on days we can sleep in. We hung out the house for a while and then I went over to Mom's to take him on a bike ride. Went to the barn and then home for lunch and naptime. Once he got up, we all went back over to Mom and Dad's to eat. He was all excited and wanted food, until it was ready and time to eat--then he wanted no part of it. Typical for him--he rarely eats well at dinner time. On the way back home, we stopped at Wal-Mart so Steve could scope out when things were in preparation for Friday morning.

• Friday I set the alarm to 4:00 so Steve could get up and get to Wal-Mart by 4:30. He was going to get a portable DVD player for me for Christmas. He also went to Beall's and Fred's to do some shopping. He got home about 7:30 and brought Colton and I breakfast. He said it was crazy packed in Wal-Mart, but he got what he went for. After breakfast, Colton and I got dressed and we all headed over to my parents so we could do some more shopping. Steve went with Dad and Mom, Colton and I set out on our own. I should add here that Colton is in the midst of potty training. He has been wearing underwear intermitingly all week up to this point, but usually not out in public. Well I had his portable potty in my bag so off we went. I ask him every 30 minutes or so if he has to go. Since he still doesn't really say anything, he either says uh-uh or no. I took him while in Beall's and we got out of the bathroom and caught back up with Grammy, he gave her a thumbs up!! He did really well staying dry all day. I put him in a pull-up for his naps because that seems to be the time that he poops and he still wears a diaper at night. Steve and Dad left on Friday afternoon to go down to Daytona for some big car show, so it was just me and my little guy that night.

• Saturday was quite a busy day. I put Colton in a pull-up because we had such a crazy day planned I wasn't sure we could get to the potty as frequently as he needs. We started out shopping at the Carter's and Gap outlet in Lake Park and then we went to Wild Adventures. We took him potty at the store and then we got to the park. He went on the potty both times. After we got in the park, we started riding all the rides. His favorite was of course the roller coaster. He had to be 36" to ride it and he just made it. It is a pretty fast twisty, turny coaster for the kids. Of course we had to ride with him. The ride operator said "that little guy wants to ride this?" I said yep and off we went. He grinned and laughed the entire time and said "weeeeee." One little girl that was probably about 3 or 4 wet her pants she was so scared--not Colton. He kept saying "more" and we rode that ride probably 10 times total. He rode all the rides that he could and then Mom and I took turns riding and staying with him. Of course he got no nap. On the way home, he fell asleep about 20 minutes from home. He woke up when we got home and was of course cranky. He changed his mood when I told him we could get pizza for dinner. After dinner we went downtown for the lighting of the tree and to see Santa. Up until this point he has not liked Santa in the least!! When Santa came we kind of "stalked" him and Colton got used to seeing him and watch the other little kids talk to him and sit with him. Santa was sitting on a bench so i took Colton over there and told Colton I would give him a candy cane if he would sit with me and talk to Santa--which he did!! I was very proud of him. Santa led a walk downtown around to the different businesses and Colton was perfectly fine with him. Once we got home, he crashed in his bed!!

• Sunday we went to church and then we went grocery shopping. At Wal-Mart, there was a Santa there to take pictures with and you got a free 5x7. I took him over there with the promise of another candy cane and he actually sat with Santa and had his picture done. So maybe his fear of Santa is waning.

Gender disappontment

I watched a show on Sunday night called "8 boys and wanting a girl". It featured 4 moms, all of which had boys and wanted a girl.

One lady had 8 sons and had been trying for 21 years to have a girl. She and her husband did not want to get the girl by any "artificial" means. She was 43 at the time of the show and believe they were no longer trying.

The other 3 ladies had 4 boys each and wanted a girl. Two of the women had a varied form of IVF where they harvest your eggs and fertilize them in a dish and grow them up for a week. At that time they are 8 celled "beings" and you can tell the gender based on DNA at that time--which to me is amazing that at 1 week "gestation" the baby is already a he or she. They harvest the girls and implant them back in the mom. For each treatment, it is $20,000. One woman had it three times and the other had it twice I believe. For one woman it worked and she had twin girls. The other woman, who has already in her early 40s, did not take. They implanted the female egg back in, but I guess it didn't "stick". For the woman who did have the little girls, she doted on them and seemed to totally ignore her boys.

The other woman, who couldn't afford the IVF procedure, was 14 weeks at the time filming began. She had 4 little boys that were all about a year apart. As the show progressed, she went in to have her ultrasound and to find out the sex of the baby. As usual, they did an anatomy scan first and everything was perfect and the baby looked healthy. Then they looked to find the sex and it was another boy. The lady just started balling and her husband had to comfort her. The first thought that popped into my head was, OMG she has 4 healthy and happy kids and a fifth one on the way that looks to be perfect as well and here she is crying and carrying on.

Steve and I certainly "wanted" a boy, but in all honestly, I just wanted a healthy baby. If we had been told that I was having a girl, sure we would have been disappointed for a spilt second, but once that moment passed and everything looked good with the baby, I still would have been just as excited seeing "her" on the ultrasound as I was seeing Colton. There are plenty of women out there struggling to even conceive and these women are just doing it as a game so to speak. Babies are born will all kinds of illness and malformations and these ladies had 20 healthy babies and were still not satisfied.

My question here is, if you could choose, would you? I think that it can turn quite complicated if we begin to play "creator" for ourselves. Who says one gender is better than the other? We open it up for a "super gender" by doing this. If boys become the desired choice, will little girls think that something is wrong with them since they are not boys. We make so many choices in our everyday life, I found it quite refreshing to leave that "decision" up to someone else.

Elf Yourself

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/CnHEXtKW3yhi6AhA

In case you have never seen this, it is HILARIOUS!!! Steve would kill me if he knew what I did to him though--so no one tell him!! I hope everyone has a great weekend. We don't have much planned. I really need to start getting for Colton's party in a couple weeks and I still have Christmas shopping to do.

Regrets--

One of my fellow mommy bloggers, Heather over at http://0103durant.blogspot.com/, posted today about regrets and it got me thinking. Do I have regrets? Of course I do. They range from small little regrets to pretty big ones. For example, a "big" regret would that I didn't follow my "dream" of becoming a vet. I was tired of being in school and I didn't really care at the time. Looking back, it would have changed my entire life had I gone on to vet school. I certainly wouldn't be where I am now, so consequently I wouldn't know who I know now and there would be no Colton. Sure, there would probably be kids, but they wouldn't be the mix of DNA that makes up my little man. I have regret every day. I regret when I yell at Colton and I see his little face change into one that is about to burst in tears. Most of the time, it is due to my lack of patience. Sometimes I am taking out my frustration with others out on him and he doesn't deserve that. That is my work in progress.......

Weekend wrap-up

It really was not too exciting of a weekend really--

• Saturday morning woke up and went to Mom's and took a long bike ride. Hit a couple yard sales going on around town. Rode to the park so Colton could run some energy off. Came home and pulled out the bounce house to access the damage and try and repair it. We ducked taped over all the holes that we could see on the base. I attached the motor and up she went. Colton's eyes got big and jumping he went!! Once it was inflated, we could see some other holes and patched those as well. It held the air and Colton played in for a good 30 minutes, so I guess it is good to go now--it just looks ghetto with silver duck tape all over it!! Colton went in and took his nap while I got dressed and ready for Landen's birthday party. Once he woke up, he was a crazy little boy. He was being VERY NAUGHTY. I almost said forget we aren't going to his party because he was going to be too wild. Once we got there, he wasn't too bad. He got a lot of compliments on his clothes and how he looks like a little boy instead of a baby. He got a little carried away with the Thomas the Train balloon, but after a little talking to, he calmed back down. Ali had grapes set out and think Colton ate his weight in grapes. He played nicely with the other kids there and even shared nicely. To be an only child, he shares extremely well, which surprises me. We ate a turkey sandwich (they had hot dogs and we don't eat them so Ali made us turkey sandwiches) and some cake and headed home. Colton went right to bed and Steve and I watched the Alabama game.
• Sunday started out good. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we got ready for church. About halfway through the service, Kay, one of the nursery workers came in and tapped me on the shoulder and said Colton had cut his lip and I needed to come see about him. She fusses over him and is always worried he is going to get hurt. She was apologizing the whole way back there. I said "don't worry about it. He is a little boy and he gets hurt." When I got in there, he was still crying and had blood coming out of his mouth (it was actually mixed with spit and tears). He had fallen over the basketball shooting toy trying to get a basketball and cut the part of your lip right above your front teeth. Miss Debbie had washed it out and was trying to put ice on it. It was pretty swollen by the time I got there. I held him and comforted him and he calmed down. I gave him his binky and that helped too. Once he had stopped crying, I put him down and he ran around like nothing had happened. When I took him back inside to get blessed, every one was concerned that something bad had happened since Kay had to come and get me. We went on a long walk when we got home and then after his nap, we went and got ice cream and went to the big playground. He was so funny--he would be digging in the dirt or running around and then he would come over, get a spoonful of ice cream and run back off!!! LOL

Colton is a finalist!!!

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/581483

PLEASE vote again for the little guy. A weekend wrap-up post soon!!

50 Free Shutterfly Christmas cards

It is getting to be that time of year again--Christmas card time!!! I love taking pictures and trying to find just the right one to use on our card. Thankfully, Shutterfly is making the card part easy.Even before we had Colton (heck even before I had Steve!!), I used Shutterfly to make my Christmas cards. They have so many different designs it makes it as hard to pick a layout as it is to pick which picture to use!! They have tons of cute photo card designs I have narrowed it down to a few layouts, but you'll have to wait till Christmas to see which one I go with:) I hope to pick one where you can keep trim off the "card" part and keep the picture--who wouldn't want to see my boy's smiling face all year long!!!

Did you know that Shutterfly not only has christmas card designs, http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery, but also wall calendars, http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars (which I have also bought both for myself and as gifts), and even Valentine cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/valentines-day-cards-and-stationery. If you're a fellow blogger and want to receive 50 free cards of your own, help spread the word about Shutterfly's incredible Christmas Card selection. Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly if you click here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Randonmess and 5?s Friday

First the randomness--

• Had the day off yesterday. We didn't do too much. It was also Steve's birthday (and my dog, Taylor). We tried to go to Applebee's for lunch (free entree if you are a Veteran, which both Steve and my dad are). We got there a little later than we wanted to--about 12:15--and they were PACKED. The lady said the wait was 15 minutes so we put our name on the list. Ten minutes went and we went in asked how much longer--the "boys" were all getting restless and she said "about 15 more minutes or so." I decided that we should go somewhere else. Even if it was 15 minutes, by that time it was nearing 12:30 and then once we even got to order it would take forever to get our food and Colton was starving and I knew he would get real cranky being hungry and tired since it was nearing his nap time as well. So we went over to Sonny's instead and it was good.
• I am in the process of planning Colton's 2nd birthday party. I already ordered the decorations--SpongeBob SquarePants-and I will send out the invitations when I get them. Problem is, where to have it. I really want to have it at the park. They have a covered picnic pavilion that is first come first serve or you can reserve it for $25. I was going to reserve it just in case. Only problem with that is that is not until December and I am worried it will be too cold. Yes, we live in FL and we are not talking snow or 20 degrees, but for here it might be chilly. My house is not big enough to accommodate that people inside to sit down and eat. So I thought maybe I would push in Mini out of the big garage and set it up in there. Again it is outside but I can run a heater in there and have at least three sides closed in. But what would the kids do at my house? I don't have Colton a swing set yet (that is a whole other situation) so there is really nothing for them to do except just run around the property. We have a bounce house that we are trying to fix. We has to stored in the garage and Steve put a bag of deer corn in there and attracted the mice and they chewed holes in the house. Hopefully we can patch it up because Colton REALLY likes to bounce.
• We did a "head shot" photo shoot with Kim last Sunday. I can't wait to see the shots. At first, he was playing shy but then he livened up and was smiling and laughing. Kezia needed a new head shot for her clients to see so Kim came over and took probably 1000 shots. The hard part is deciding on which shot to use!! I trust her "photographic" eye much more than my own though.
• We are headed to my nephew's 2nd birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully all will go well. Colton doesn't get to see his cousins very much even though they live in the same small town we do. Oh well, what can you do right? He has his Grammy and Papa and his adopted grandparents, Robert and Maudine, plus his girlfriends down the street, his friends at the park and toddler time, and the ladies at Publix, Fred's and Goody's that all love to see him.

Now to the 5?s Friday---

1. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Well aside from the obvious answer of childbirth--I would have to say getting my leg bitten by a horse (not either of my own by the way). Not your usual bite mind you, this one was a doozy. It occurred on my mid thigh and tore the muscle right off the bone. I still have a dent and have no feeling in that spot on my leg.
2. How much sleep do you get at night?
It varies how much sleep I get. I go to bed about 11:00 and I get up during the week at 6:15. Thankfully Colton has pretty much been a great sleeper. He goes to bed at 7:30 and we don't hear a peep out of him until I go wake him up during the week or he wakes up at about 7:30 on the weekends. I myself am an awful sleeper. I can fall asleep relatively well, but I can't stay asleep. I will wake up about 15 times a night and sometimes can not fall back asleep. There are been nights when I was awake all night. I have made many middle of the night trips to Wal-Mart and let me tell you, some REALLY interesting people are in Wal-Mart at 3 in the morning.
3. How long did you believe in Santa Claus? How did you find out that he does not exist?
I think I was maybe 8 when I stopped believing he was real. Honestly I don't really remember the actual time. I think I figured it out my own, but wouldn't put it past my sister to tell me. We still "celebrate" Santa and still got stockings well into our 20s. Now that there are kids involved, we mainly just do stockings for them.
4. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
It has been soooo long since I have seen a movie in the theater. I am going to say the last time I saw a movie in a theater was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It might have been the last Twlight movie. I can't remember.
5. What do you wear to bed?
In the summer, tanks and boxers. In the winter, long sleeved tees and sleep pants and socks. I don't like nightgowns, they are too drafty and I get all wrapped up in them.

Please vote for Colton!!

http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/kid-of-the-week/2502400009/

Parents is having a Kid of the Week contest. Please vote for my little man as much as possible!!

Thanks!!!!

Halloween 2010

Getting ready

Posing in front of the scary sign.

He and Taylor doing some work before heading out.

Trying to get away so he can get started downtown.

Getting some "loot"

Taking a break--it was 85 degrees outside!

My little monkey man!!

Look mommy a big pumpkin

Showing the big pumpkins to Grammy

Even monkeys ride horses.

All in all we had a good time. It was very warm the last couple days--in the high 80s both days. The town decided to trick-or-treat on Saturday night, I guess since Sunday was a school night and a lot of people go to church on Sunday as well. Colton was very good. He didn't get scared too much by all the weird people and crazy costumes. The were THOUSANDS of people (literally) in Mom's neighborhood. They came in on flatbeds. We stayed out for about an hour and then I put Colton down at Mom's. He spent the night because I knew it woudl take FOREVER to get out of her neighborhood and he goes to bed at 7:30. Next year hopefully he will able to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". This year I got to say "cheese" which sounds like please at least!!