Collin's 18 Month Pictures

We went to a cute little park here in town to get some pictures for Collin now that he's 18 months old. It's been so rainy here that we were happy to finally be able to be outside and take his pictures! I have a collage of both Benjamin and Anna when they're 18 months of pictures of them and us outside and I'm excited to have a Collin collage to hang next to it soon. Here's our cute little monkey......

They're all making different expressions here than they normally would for a picture, but I still think it's a pretty cute picture....

Collin is such a good talker. He's talking in phrases a lot. Some of his favorites are: All wet!, So Big! (he puts his hands up while saying this), Burr, Cold!, Stinky Diaper!, Wake up!, wuv ooh (love you). He's even saying some three word sentences. He is also starting to sing. He likes ABCs - he sings "abcbabcb" over and over and if you sing along with him he knows a lot of the letters and will sing them with you. He also likes Twinkle, Twinkle and his favorite (and the first song he sang) is Rockabye Baby. He walks around singing "Rah-a-bye baby. Rah-a-bye baby" in the sweetest little voice. Sometimes he does it while rocking Anna's baby doll. He is learning more and more songs too and is singing along to his toys. He will now put out one finger and respond "One!" when you ask him how old he is. He is such a great talker but can't say his own name. This past week he started saying it - "Cah-in". It's so cute! That's what he's doing in this picture......

This past month he has started running which is pretty adorable to watch!

Saying "All wet!!!"

We managed to get a pretty good family picture using the tripod and automatic timer. It's so funny how excited the kids get by this process!

I loved the stone walls everywhere so I caught some Collin pictures next to it.

He loved the ants that were there. Here he is excitedly declaring, "Bug!!!"

One of his favorite words right now is "walk" or "walkin". He loves to be on the move just like his brother and sister.

Pointing out the water fountain.

He is at such a fun age of discovery. He's been starting to count. In a cute little voice he says, "One, two, one, two, one, two", usually while bobbing his head from side to side.

You can see his bottom tooth has come in quite quickly making him an even four on top and four on bottom. He's also working on his bottom two molars. You can also see here that he is quite the cheeser!

He's a very sweet little guy (who also isn't afraid to show us his attitude).

You don't see it as often as Benjamin's, but little Collin does have a dimple just like his siblings....

He loves animals right now. He points out all the animals in his word books and knows so many of them, even the hard ones. One of the funniest things he does is his alligator chomp. I used to tell him, "Here comes the alligator. Chomp, chomp, chomp." while making a chomping mouth with my hands until I get to him and tickle him. One day he started doing it to himself. It makes the older kids laugh so hard. He goes, "Chomp, chomp, ahhhh!" and squeals as he gets himself. He's quite the character!

So much to discover in this world!

He loves his blankie. It sounds like he calls it "gammy" and he sleeps with it, his monkey blanket, and his Elmo every nap time and bedtime. He's very particular about the set-up too....monkey blanket in one arm, Elmo in the other and his blankie over him. The Elmo he sleeps with was Benjamin's first stuffed animal that he slept with and he gave it to Collin and it's the only stuffed animal Collin is attached to.

Love this expression....

Lovingly looking at his "Nana".

They had a great time throwing rocks into the water.

Momma hugs.

I'm so blessed!

A boy and his blankey.

Time for tag!

They caught Daddy!

Collin was going through a big Momma phase for awhile but the last week or two he has definitely been a Daddy's boy!

Our beautiful Anna! She is such a wonderful girl! She's this amazing combination of adventurous and free-spirited (she gets hurt more often than her brothers combined) and loves cowgirl type things but also loves being super girly.....she loves princesses and fairies and dressing up. If she's at home and awake she almost always has "slippers" (her dress-up high heels) and jewelry on and would prefer to wear a dress or skirt everyday. I love how her little mind works too. She is always off pretending in fun worlds from Rapunzel to Peter Pan to riding her horse. She tells me the funniest things. When we were out for a walk one morning, she bluntly told me, "Just so you know Mommy, I'm going to be really busy when we get home." One (finally warm) day Anna was wearing capri pants for the first time this year. She told me, "Momma I think I must be getting so big. My pants are too short!" I really love the way she talks to Benjamin too. When we pick him up from school she talks to him in such a "mom voice" and asks him all about his day: Did you have a good day today Benjamin? Did you have a job today? What did you have for snack? Did you miss me? etc. I don't know if Benjamin appreciates it, but I sure enjoy it! She's been more emotional lately. She will break into tears over the smallest thing and will just break down. You can see the panic in her eyes as even she doesn't seem to understand why she's so upset. Thankfully, she's also full of lots of other emotions as well. She's so affectionate and gives hugs and kisses and "I just love you so much!" declarations all day everyday. She is full of so much joy!

She always looks so pretty in black and white (I think its her eyes, they just pop)!

Our big five year-old Benjamin!

He is growing up so much lately. He is so good at math and loves to add things. He's getting so much better at sounding out and spelling words too. A few months ago he really got writing his name down. The poor guy has such a long name that it was pretty hard for him to learn. He could write Anna, Max, and a few other words before he could write Benjamin. We recently moved he and Collin to the back of the van together and he is such an amazing big brother to him! He helps him with more patience that I would imagine someone his age having for a sibling. He takes such good care of him that Collin will even ask Benjamin to help him with something instead of Dave or I when we're all together. One morning on the way to school, Benjamin told me, "If you can remember, Momma....I'd like to have my cup in the car when you pick me up from school. I play hard on the playground and get thirsty. But I just want you to know that it's okay if you don't remember because I don't remember things sometimes too." He just has this super sweet way about him. He can also say some pretty funny things too. One morning I told him he had milk on his mouth and he asked, "You mean a milk-stache?"