Laid Low

Our house is the sick house these days. Collin and I have been hit with a nasty cold and he is also suffering from a bit of an ear infection. The ear infection is a mild one and this is his first...we made it to about 13 months with no real illnesses. Not too shabby! The thing with Collin is that although he is sick, I don't think it has occured to him that he should be resting. How do you get a 1 year old to rest if he is not so inclined? I've pretty much determined that it can't be done. So, he is just bopping around from thing to thing leaving a trail of drool and snot behind him. The worst part of the whole thing has been getting him to submit to the saline spray up his nose. The physical strength and his capacity to squirm away continue to astound me! If I weren't sick too, it wouldn't be such a big deal ...but, I do want to rest! My wonderful husband is coming home early from work this afternoon to spend time with the boy while I try to get an extra snooze in. The plan is try and lay low for the weekend so were in better shape for the big family vacation next week. Jamaica here we come!

Watch Those Chompers!

Collin has developed a disturbing habit of late. He has taken to biting anything of interest that catches his fancy. I think it's related to the fact that we are now (thank you Jesus!) completely weaned. It was my goal to get there before our vacation at the end of the month and we just eliminated the evening breastfeeding session 4 nights ago. On a different note, I can't wait to go bra shopping ASAP. I have been up and down the bra size roller coaster for the last year and a half. My breasts (which were small to begin with) are now even smaller than their original size and I require a whole new wardrobe of undergarments. The cost is coming out of the family budget!

Anyway, since then the biting has escalated quite a bit. He'll bite anything....me, his father, the couch, the kitchen table, the storytime lady at the library. Yup...he went after her like a great white shark who just spotted a yummy looking seal swimming past. Collin couldn't really resist because she squatted down to pick something up and exposed a patch of flesh at the bottom of her shirt line. Collin just loves that little spot and he made a bee line for it. I managed to jump in and snatch him away before he actually made contact, but the storytime lady was a bit startled.

I asked the doctor about this at Collin's 1 year check up earlier in the week and the doctor assured us it was a normal behavior for this age. Still, it's disconcerting because Collin seems to really get a kick out of inflicting pain. We're just trying to be consistent about our response to Collin when he does it....obviously, that it's not ok. So far, he doesn't seem to care.

Activist Motherhood

I've always been one to cheer for the underdog, fight the power, fight the good fight, kind of woman. As a social worker I've dedicated my professional life to working with the underprivileged and disempowered members of our society. I'm big on the concept of social justice. For the vast majority of my career I've worked for women's organizations supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. As a matter of fact that's what I do part-time right now, counsel survivors of rape and incest. Let me tell you...there is not too much justice out there for these women (and men). It makes me so mad sometimes I could just spit.

All of that being said, motherhood has put a new spin on my thinking in regard to these matters. It's not that I didn't realize how important things were before, it's just that I feel like I have a bigger investment in them now. I'm raising a son who will be going out into the world and leaving his own mark on it. I want him to know that I did my little part to do something about all the crap that goes on. Before Collin was born it never occurred to me that I would become something of an activist mother, but here I am, definitely headed in that direction...if only in my own small ways.

Motherhood has also made me feel a sort of new and intense bond with all the other mothers of the world. Only with the arrival of Collin have I realized what the heartbreak of losing a child must be like. I can't imagine how I would go on without him...Especially if I lost him to a war not of my own making. I know everyone has their opinion on the Iraq war and what we've been doing over there, but it makes me sick to think of all those Iraqi mothers losing their babies to bombs. I also can't imagine being an American Mom with a son or daughter fighting in this war. How would I sleep at night to think of my kid in such harms way? So, with all of this being said and in the spirit of activist motherhood, I'm adding a couple of buttons to The Collin Chronicles introducing some grassroots organizations I support. Check them out if you're so inclined....

MomsRising.org

Code Pink-Women For Peace

Remind me again....What month is this?

I'm not exactly an expert on weather, but the kind of weather we have been experiencing here makes it kind of hard not to take global warming seriously. This is January, right? It was a very sunny 70 degrees here at the Jersey Shore (as we like to call it) today. It's downright bizarre to me. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but there's something not quite right about it. We took the boy out to the beach and walked the boardwalk for a while. There were tons of people out and about. Everyone was in a great mood. Is this what it's like to live in southern climes or do people just start to take the warm weather for granted?


Collin seemed to forget that we spent a good amount of time on the beach this past summer....He acted like he had never seen sand before! He did go a bit crazy for the slide though. His primary interest was in climbing back up the slide after his ride down. I was none too steady on the slide myself and almost went flying over tie side when I took a ride down with Collin. The boy looked so tiny amongst all those "big" kids on the playground, but he was in no way daunted. I think he forgets that he is all of one year old!

Collin's long lost Aunt Amanda visited us at the playground for a while too. Seems as though she is missing her little nephew since leaving him to go back to college! She had the audacity to hint that she might be considering taking another childcare position. I told her that Collin would never forgive her and that as it was he seems to be forgetting her more each day. I suppose it was obvious that I'm still a bit bitter over her departure.

It's Been A While!

The whole holiday season definitely got away with me this year! I've made several attempts to write some posts the last few weeks and just never got it done. I can't lie...I'm glad the season is behind us. We also celebrated the boy's BIG ONE birthday on New Year's Eve. I'll just try to catch up with the next few posts.

Last you heard from me we were adjusting to our new heating system...well, things have improved on that front, but we've still got some minor heating issues. The last 2 nights I've woken up in what feels like the Sahara because our heat shot up to 77 degrees in our bedroom. CJ is like a pitbull when it comes to these things (aka contractors)...which is a good thing because I would have just given up a long time ago.

The boy is now officially a WALKER. He walks everywhere with wild and giddy abandon. There seemed to be little transition time. He just woke up one morning and did it. He moves at a pretty quick clip too, so I have no doubt that he'll soon be running. Not only that, he seems to be really learning stuff all of the sudden. He'll do things if you ask him to. Like tonight I asked him to go to his dad's office and knock on his door....and he actually did it! It's hard to believe he's one.

Here's a couple of pics from the last weeks...