Colten's Room

I've been working on Colten's room the past few days, and I'm finally happy enough with it to share pictures. I still need window coverings of some sort, but other than that, I'm pretty stoked with how it's turned out. Just today I added the little fish decals to the walls (thanks Aunt Sandi!).

Silly hair, a long week, and a good dinner

(The picture is of boss-man Mike with Colten while I'm working at the beach!)

So Colten has the most ridiculous hair right now. RIDICULOUS. His head keeps growing and his hair just can't keep up. The result is really long hair in the front middle and sides, with a sort of bald looking patch right in the center. I think I'm going to have to trim around his ears to make the ridiculousness stop. So sad. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I keep not doing it. Tomorrow...

Anyways. We just got back from too many days up at El Capitan Canyon, working for the Adventure Company. I wanted to work this trip so badly, but it ended up being so much more work than one small person can handle. It wasn't the Adventure Co. part that was so difficult...it was that combined with not being able to see Colten all day, not being able to pump for hours, then trying to pump leaned up against a tree off a trail somewhere, then trying to squeeze in nursing Colten in the few minutes I had between working, cooking, eating and cleaning; then sitting in a dark cabin and trying to pump again for the next day while watching my baby and my husband sleep. I'm still tired from it.

Tonight our friends John and Toni came over for dinner. They brought salmon...and it was goood. I made persimmon bread for the first time, and it was just ok. A little too sweet, maybe. But now I know. Someone a few houses down from us has a persimmon tree, so I'll try again real soon.

Colten is good, good, good. He really is great. Tomorrow he'll be four months old!! Yikes! how did that happen?! He's getting really big and very active. He hasn't quite figured out how to roll over yet, but he started working on it for the first time today. He's babbling more and more, and he enjoys batting at things and chewing on anything that comes within reach. I don't have any new pictures at the moment, so I'll have to take some tomorrow and add them later.

Guess that's all for now. I'll be sure to write when he finally figures out how to roll.

I...CAN'T...TAKE...the CRYING!!

I just got Colten down for the night...I hope. I don't know why, but every once in a great while he has these crazy evenings (or afternoons. Or sometimes middle-of-the-nights) where he just cries like a maniac for no apparent reason. It really doesn't happen very often at all, but for some reason he's been doing it all evening. Tim's dad is in the hospital up in Bakersfield right now, so we've been doing a lot of driving back and forth this week. Colten has been SO good when we're up there. And in the car, too. Maybe he's finally just had enough. Well, he'll be with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow -- I've got to help Tim at the shop. He is suddenly so very busy. He's taken on some of the jobs his dad had left open, and then his own work is picking up as well. It's good, just hard right now because we're so up in the air as far as his dad's situation...we're really just waiting for the next phone call. I'm supposed to work this coming week, and feel awful because I had to tell my boss that I can't commit now...even though I'd already commited. He understands...I just feel bad about it. Everyone's stressed and upset. Maybe that's affecting Colten as well.

Other than that, though, Colten is great. We had some great photos taken of him the other day by my friend Dara's friend, Meg Fish (http://www.megfishphotography.com/). I'm pretty sure now that Colten is the cutest baby ever made. I just checked, and he, Tim and Strider are snoring away in bed together. I'm sure the cat will join us later as well. I'm super tired too, so I guess I'll go.

The Three Month Update

I'm writing another post today since the first didn't have much meat to it.

Colten is three months old now, and doing so very, very good. He just gets cuter and more active and alert every single day. Right now he's really into chewing on his fists and he's babbling more than ever. He smiles and laughs a lot, which is fun. He's still pretty easy to take places, thanks to our slings and baby wrap (which are the greatest things ever). As he's getting heavier we've actually started using the stroller a little more, but nothing calms him down like being worn by one of us.

The three of us went to a wedding over the weekend, and Colten was a hit! I can finally say that babies do make everything more fun. Until now, having the baby has just made everything more difficult. Still good...just difficult. But this weekend he was fun.

I'm including some pictures of us from an Adventure Company trip I worked at the end of September. We spent two nights in El Capitan Canyon running a trip for a school group, and Tim, Colten and I got our own cabin to stay in. Stoked! So Tim played superdad and watched the baby ALL day for three days straight. They were long days for me (being away from the baby), but I got to see Colten in the afternoons, and there's some photos of me wearing him while I cooked dinner for 80 highschoolers.

Avocados and Kevin

This weekend was the Avocado Festival here in Carpinteria. We were hanging out there this afternoon when lo and behold - we saw none other than our favorite famous neighbor, Kevin Costner, checking out the festival with his wife and son. With Colten in our newest sling (thanks Dara!), Tim posed in front of the Costners so I could get a picture. Check it out - that's him over Tim's right shoulder!