Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, Back To The Doc We Go!

No lie, Colton has been back and forth to the doctor's office about a bizillion times since late November/early December.

We have been battling ear infection after ear infection, breathing issues, and various degrees of cold sickness ever since he started daycare.

Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing daycare.

In fact, the daycare Colton attends is wonderful and the people are great.

It's just that...well, you know, it's daycare.

Need I say more?

Nopedidn'tthinkso!

Anyway, last Friday, guess where we were?

Yep, you betcha!

The good ole' doctor's office.

Seriously, I think that with one more doctor's visit my medical expense flexible spending account coordinator is going to send me a taunting e-mail.

"Yoo hoo, Tracey...you just thought you had deducted enough for the year?!

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!"

But hey, that's nothing compared to what my sweet little boy is thinking...

Am I back here again?!

And just what is it with all this paper?

There's just sooooo much of it!

HELP! It's trying to gobble me up!

I'll show you Mr. Paper...You are absolutely no match when it comes to my mighty mini ripping hands!

Hmmm, I wonder if I can try out my Origami skills with this stuff?

What? You think I'm too young to know Origami?

Well, c'mon now Mom.

Whaddya' think I was going to do while waiting on the doctor, just sit here?!

So What Does Mommy Know?!

Well, forget me trying to figure out my baby.

I just posted, like literally in the immediate post before this one, that Colton was only cutting bottom teeth and not top teeth.

Let me also add that for the past 5 days, he's been feverish with a nasty cough, runny poops, an icky facial rash and just outright not being himself.

Being that his bottom tooth had broken through, I was just thinking that his cold and perpetual ear infection had not gone away (more about that in another post to come) and that's why he was continuing to have these symptoms.

Well, guess what? Boy, was I wrong (not about the cold and ear infection), but this...


Excuse the blurry picture (have you ever tried to get an 8 month old to stay still while trying to capture an inside of his mouth shot?!!!)

So there it was in all its breaking through the red gum glory...a TOP tooth.

But wait, there's more, much more.

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the other three, yes, you read that correctly, THREE more of Colton's top teeth are on the verge of breaking through as well.

Honestly, I about died when I saw those other white tips along his top gum line getting really close to busting free.

No wonder he's been outta' sorts?!

Poor little guy.

So what does mommy know about baby?

Evidently not much unless its staring me right in the face...LOL!

And Then There Were 3

Teeth that is!


Yep, saw this little pearly white peaking through my little one's gums last night.

And true to Colton form, he is not following suit with ANYTHING along the same lines as his big brother did...not even tooth debuts!

Top teeth?

Nah, who needs em'?!

Not "Focusing" In On Valentine's Day

Not because of the lack of relevance, but rather the lack of not having my digital camera handy.

I know, I know, blame it on Mommy scatter brain!

I took my camera to work yesterday to download some pictures onto the computer and guess where I left it?

Not wanting to completely miss this Valentine photo op or worse yet, miss a Colton's "first" milestone...

Out came my cell phone.

And yes, from the quality of the pictures you can certainly tell that (1) I was in a rush, and (2) I do not have a funky smart phone with all the bells & whistles including a mega pixel camera.

But hey, it is what it is and what it is IS that I did not let Valentine's Day go completely by with out capturing it in some media form (no matter how blurry)...LOL!

Oh, if only I could capture moments in pictures like Kelle Hampton does on her blog.

Seriously, she is an awesome (and I might add, very hip) mommy, blogger, and photographer.

Me likey her, me likey her alot!!!

Okay, back to my phone photography 101 shots.

At least my subjects are completely A-DOR-A-BLE!!!!

With A Smile Like That, Of Course My Heart Flutters!

Gotta' Capture What The Shirt Says

My Sweet R.J.

He's The Very Best Kind of Valentine Gift A Mommy Could Have

And He Knows How To Make Me Laugh Too!

He's My Brother

With genetics being as it is, it’s usually not a hard stretch to look at biological siblings in a family and realize, “Yes, they are definitely brothers/sisters!”

Mothers, even ones with identical offspring, are innately keen enough to be able to detect a difference (however slight) that might exist in each child and thus usually cannot be fooled when put to a, “Which child is that?” test.

Fathers innate ability to identify, well sometimes that’s another story...LOL!

Enter my husband...in a moment.

Let me explain.

The other day when I was bathing Colton in our kitchen sink (where else?!), and I had a case of déjà vu.

As I was looking at Colton, our 8 month old, enjoying his sink time, I could have sworn I was looking at our now 8 year old son, R.J.

That got me to thinking and later that evening, I started to scour the computer for pictures I knew I had of R.J. bathing in the sink when he was a baby.

I found some.

And just for kicks I sent the following to Michael at work the other day via his work e-mail...

In the reply he said, “Those pictures of Colton were really cute, but why did you send me so many?”

To which I replied, “Yes, the pictures of Colton are really cute and so are the ones of R.J. too!”

Michael's next reply, “WOW! I seriously thought those were all of Colton. I cannot believe how much they look alike!

Even my mother-in-law said (when I sent her the pictures), "It’s like you and Michael had twins 7½ years apart!”

Of course, the two boys are different looking, but I must admit if you are glancing fast, they really do look like the same child.

Although Colton is a bit more "baby fluffy" than R.J. was at the time.

But, let’s be honest, there’s no doubt they are biologically related - - that’s for sure!

As for sink baths, R.J. always enjoyed relaxing and being in the water and never, ever wanted to get out.

Come to think of it, he’s still that way about bath time until this day!

Colton on the other hand, definitely seems to be more fascinated with the whole stream of water thing and could care less about the relaxing aspect of being in the water.




Hey, ya' wanna' know Mommy’s favorite part of sink baths?

Drying baby off with his froggy towel...

And getting him all "jammied" up and ready for bed.


Whoa, wait a sec!

Back up Mommy...


But not before he catches a little bit of play time on mommy and daddy's bed that is!

What I've Learned

From parenting my 8 year old son, I have learned (seriously darling hubby, I really have learned) that my children's collection of play things does not need to resemble three six complete toy aisles at Toys-R-Us.

And, if you could just take a look into our play room (which at the moment is solely filled with R.J.’s toys) you would know EX-ACT-LY what I am talking about.

Okay, I must admit that I certainly did not take back or refuse any of the toys that Colton got at the baby shower or the few things Santa brought him this Christmas, but I most definitely have NOT added to his toy stash with every trip I make to Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.

Can’t say the same with regard to my oldest son, but Hey, chalk that up to guilt purchases.

You see, my husband was on active military duty from the time R.J. was 18 months old until he turned 5½ and I guess I was trying to compensate for Michael not being here on a daily basis by filling that void for R.J. with “stuff”.

All kinds of stuff...electronic doo-dad stuff, soft plushy stuff, multi-piece put together stuff, DVD stuff, coloring stuff, reading stuff, game stuff, etc.

You get the picture, right?!

Anyway, fast forward to son number #2 and well, as you can see below…why buy toys when a child can happily entertain himself for 30 minutes simply by gnawing on a plastic measuring cup?!

I mean c’mon, is there really as much joy (and runny snot and drool) with a Toy Story flashing light thingy?

I think not!

Oh, and there’s one more something I need to mention (if you haven't already figured it out)...guess who is sitting up all by his sweet little self now?!!!



Atta' boy!

Come to think of it...that's a really big accomplishment.

Hmmmm, mommy thinks it may possibly even deserve some sort of toy reward?

Nah, just kidding!!

I've got an entire Tupperware cabinet that's his for the taking...lids and all!