toothless wonder

Well, my girl lost her first tooth.  She has been waiting, Waiting, and WAITING to get a wiggly tooth.  She really wanted to lose it at school because the nurse keeps special tooth boxes in her office.  Unfortunately, that did not happen.  But, this summer, when the tooth started wiggling, she could.not.wait for it to fall out.  Finally, at the beach, we knew it would happen any day.  B. made a big deal of taking a picture of her with all of her baby teeth because she would never look the same again.  Of course, that made me tear up...

We were packing to leave and she pushed it with her tongue to show me how loose it was.  "Today is the day A."  I said.  3 minutes later, she came running over.  "MOM, it is OUT."  And just like that, no more baby for me.

On the drive home that day, we talked about the tooth fairy and what she thought would happen.  At first, she asked me if she was real.  "I have never seen her before but my tooth was always gone," was my answer.  I asked if she wanted to set a trap for her.  Her answer, "no, if i catch her no one else will get any money."  I was satisfied with that selfless answer.

She asked me what happens to all of the teeth.  "I don't know, what do you think?"  Here are A.'s thoughts on teeth
1. There are probably 50 tooth fairies.  One for each state
2. She probably uses the teeth for a bed.  Maybe she puts them all together and makes a big giant bed for kids that don't have beds
3.  She probably likes the teeth that people clean the best- its why A. washed her tooth very thoroughly before putting it in her tooth pillow
4. She might also use the teeth for bracelets or tiara's.  The other tooth fairy's probably go shopping for tooth jewelry.

phelps in training

When A. was born, the NICU team was called in for some reason that I have now blocked from my mind.  What I do remember, is the nurses not paying any attention to the child that was forth coming from my body because Michael Phelps was winning his 8th gold medal. Maybe it was a premonition for her future because, according to my husband, that will be the story that Matt Lauer discusses when A. goes to the 2024 or 2028 Olympics for swimming. The other option is that Lauer focuses on the fact that B. will also be there for air rifle and that they are the only father daughter duo.  Since he has yet to pick up an air rifle, I will go for option 1 of the 2 unlikely options.

Olympic bound or not, this girl has loved swimming this summer.  For a kiddo that loses interest quickly, there has not been one day where she tried to avoid practice.

 I can't say that she has won every race, or even that I have left every meet feeling like she tried her hardest.  But, it has been a good lesson for me in finding balance between pushing her a little and letting her enjoy her summer, and a good lesson for her in her first team sport.  During her 3rd meet, she swam 3/4 of the way down and then stopped and looked around.  I found a yell coming out of my mouth to, "KEEP SWIMMING" Then, I appallingly yelled, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KEEP GOING."  Once she finished, I took a deep breath and looked around me to see if anyone noticed.  I'm not sure if they did but no one was giving me the terrible parent award.  I think, I gave that to myself.  Calm down lady, she is only 5.

  The above picture is at the swimathon at the end of the season.  Both sets of grandparents pledged $5 per length since I advised them that 5 laps is probably her max.  Much to my surprise, she did 22 lengths.  Obviously, she stopped at each end; she had 15 seconds before taking off again.  It was awesome and I think my cheering as she finished hopefully made up for my yelling when she didn't.

my favorite weekend

I grew up going different places for vacation every year.  My mother was famous, maybe infamous, for stopping a million different places a lot any trip to visit something. I have seen more museums and randomly placed barns than the average human being.  I think learning to skim the randomly placed civil war informational signs along the roads might be what prepared me for "studying" in college.  Now, I do find myself skimming the weekend pages just as my mom did.  And, I do find myself fighting the magnetic urge of the informational signs.

I also love how we have an annual place to go visit.  Every year we go with Aunt Stacy to "find some fun" at the beach.

nothing says Maryland boy like lacrosse on the beach

 We have a routine where we go on Friday straight to the beach and then head back to the house for dinner and bed.  Saturday is spent with the morning at the beach and then naps followed by dinner out and some "fun"  Up util this year, we were playing on some kiddie rides.  This year, with mixed emotions, we moved from the kiddie rides up to go karts and mini golf.  The kiddos loved it!

Our new addition this year was the firecracker 5k.  With my new addiction of running, races and family runs are so fun to me.  This year, we pushed the double stroller with probably 75 lbs of kid in it.  By we, I mean B. because I pushed it for about 100 feet before the sounds of my breathing made him turn around thinking I was dying.

 I love that we have a routine and at we all look so forward to our time there.  And, I also love thinking about how the kiddos have grown up on this beach!

July, 2009- 10 months

July 2010

June 2011- The sand was so hot that I made her wear her rain boots so she wouldn't burn her little feet

K's first trip.  4 months old.  He had no reaction to the water

July 2012 almost 4 years old

1st time on the kiddie rides.  A. still remembers having to miss her first ride because she wasn't being a good listener.  Apparently, it was a good punishment

July, 2012- what a difference that a year makes!

running from the waves.  Huge change from this year when she can't get enough of the waves

 Thanks Aunt Stacy for letting us come every year.  It is the most wonderful time of the year!

some things that I want to remember

This girl has a fight in her that I was never driven to do.  She volunteered with me at a bike race and then decided that she wanted to be in one.  This picture was after a 6 mile ride.  Now, if only she can keep focused on one thing.  My favorite part of this picture is her pose.  My girl does this for every single picture now.  It was so obvious that Gramps even had to join. 

This little guy is growing so fast.  From March to April he turned 3, learned to ride a 2 wheeler, started preschool, and gave up diapers.  I feel like each month has just as many firsts.  He loves to "do hair like daddy"  But, he is very particular about his spikes.  They have to look like a porcupine.  

It seems like everyday that he puts on someone's shoes, coat, hat etc.  Then walks up and in true Olaf fashion says, "I'm (insert name) and I like warm hugs."  

When he isn't wearing women's shoes or clothing, he is running around, biking, jumping, climbing, or something equally as active and somewhat dangerous.  So, we go through at least 3 bandaids a day.  He now knows how to clean up his own wounds, get his own bandaid, and sometimes get ice.  

Whenever I open the door to get him out of his carseat, he hides his face.  He waits for me to look under the car, in the front, or behind his chair before he'll say, "no, I"m right here!"  I know that I will miss it when he stops but wow is it annoying when I'm in a rush!

the adoption contemplation

I have been very contemplative over the last few days, weeks, probably months.  Contemplative about our future goals as a family, about the best ways to work with my husband to provide for our family, about materialism and consumerism vs. simplicity.  I think I have even contemplated about contemplating too much. As a result, I think it is about time to actually come out and say the biggest thing weighing on our family these days... adoption.  It's something that I brought up to B. several years ago and we have s.l.o.w.l.y. been moving in the direction.  The program that we have chosen is the foster care program.  It means that our child will be 2 or older and coming from the foster care system.  It means that there will have been some trauma in our baby's little life before he/she comes to us.  I think in all of this contemplation, and prayer, we have both mostly worked through that.  We, obviously, will have more to deal with once our child comes home, but there isn't much we can do about it now (except start praying for our little one now and specifically pray that his/ her parents love them as much as possible and eventually love them enough to peacefully give him/her to us).

I think the main struggle is financially.  We have to think about how to fund the adoption, fund me being home for 12 weeks (no maternity leave when there is no pregnancy...), fund another kiddo in daycare.  Logistically, we are also thinking about another bedroom added which means finishing the basement.  Some days I say, it's all going to work out or we can live a lot simpler and make it happen.  But, then A. wants to do swim team, K. wants to play soccer, we want them to have a tree house, A. thankfully gets invited to another birthday party and needs a gift, and I really want new running shoes.  Again, all WANTS that we could do with out.  But, is that fair to our kids?

I would be awake at night thinking, "We both work, why can't we make this happen?"  This is what made me think about the stay at home mom.  The truth is, I know, maybe, 2 out of all of my young mom friends.  Everyone else is funding their status by 31, pampered chef, daycare, Etsy shops, art work, photography, and even placing au pairs.  Why is that?  Is it that we push our kids to be in more activities, that we want more toys or tree houses that we think they can't live with out, is it that we as women are more likely to come out of school with student loans?  Is it that we feel more pressure to be working and contributing because we are now allowed?  Again, contemplating everything...

Well, here are the answers that all of this contemplation has given me...
1) There has to be a healthy balance between wanting and receiving.  But, I've yet to curb my desires to "keep up with the Jones's"
2) My kids will be fine with 1 or max 2 activities.  However, that still puts us at 100-200 dollars per month with more coming as our family grows.
3) Logistics do matter to bring home this kiddo because we will then be more focused on providing the most loving and healing environment possible.
4) Neither one of us is getting raises any time soon so... I better join in with all of the other mom's...

Enter AdvoCare...
AdvoCare is a business that provides energy, health, wellness, nutrition, and sports performance products.  It is my choice for a number of reasons
1) It has worked for us.  B. and I both started with a 24 day challenge.  He lost 11.5 inches and I lost 5.5 inches. More than that, we both had more energy and ... I kicked my soda habit after years and years of craving a ice cold fountain soda every day.
2) It's evidenced based.  My science background made me read about the development and research on the products.  My biggest shout out is for the probiotics...research show that a good probiotic should have 4 strains of bacteria.  AdvoCare has 7.
3) It's founders are Christian; the first sentence in the mission statement is to help others honor God through faith, family, and friends.
4) I feel like if I'm going to be asking my friends and family to buy something from  me, it better be useful.  It better be more than pushing more and more materialism and consumerism.  It better be making their lives better in some way.  Healthy is better.
5) Working with the "medicare population" has me checking medications for all of my patients.  I'm sick of seeing everyone on cholesterol and blood pressure medications.  Let's get healthier!

So, there you have it... more insight into the Collin's family.  We are growing. Can you help us by letting us help you?
www.advocarecollins.com  Email me at dsty1213@gmail.com if you have any questions about products or if you want to hear more.  And... don't hate me when I want to share more with you about AdvoCare.  I truly believe in the products and in the way they can help our family!

happy birthday America

Happy 4th of July!  The day we celebrate America.  The day I, again, joined all of the other mom's that want to do something fun; I turned to Pinterest to then feel completely inadequate.  Good thing my kids didn't care.

"Flag toast" The beautiful picture had cream cheese then strawberry jelly with straight rows of precisely cut bananas and blueberries as the stars in the corner.  I've got 1 kiddo "sensitive' to milk so icksnay the cream cheese.  A mom that didn't check the refrigerator first so icksnay the strawberry jelly.  And, 1 kiddo that ate all of our fresh raspberries the night before.  So, frozen berries alternating with apples it was.  

 This lovely picture was supposed to be a star in her hair.  She actually picked it out and asked me to do it.  She also decided that she is growing out her bangs so that each and every clump of hair is uneven.  We tried to help by adding ribbon.  But, again, not the right length.  At least, she can't see the back of her hair!

This gak is made with glue and liquid starch.  It was mostly successful except that the red and blue quickly turned to purple.  

Yes, he wore spiderman all day.  At least it was red, white, and blue

Thankfully, living here, I am fee to worry about pinterest and crafts and not about actually living.  Thankfully, my kids biggest worry was that they couldn't eat cream cheese and jelly or that hair wasn't the right length.  Thankfully, we finished the day with great friends, great food, and great fireworks all in our sweet neighborhood.

Happy Birthday, America!