It's a BOY!

We are so excited to have another sweet baby boy in June!

January 31- 20 Weeks

Feeling good!  Baby #2 is 20 weeks along, 1/2 way.  We find out Tuesday if we're having a boy or girl!  In mostly maternity clothing now.  It's so comfy!  Some heartburn, and I'm feeling lots of kicks.

January 2014- 17 months

Colin's newest love is Wheels on the Bus.  Any version.  Anytime.  He calls it "e-i-e-i-o", or "yi-yo", because we had Old MacDonald and Wheels on the Bus apps on the iPad for the plane trip to Portland. We listened to both, and he somehow now associates it with Wheels on the Bus.

We went to Portland for a wedding at the beginning of January.  Congrats Nick and Jamie! (fridns from Germany).  First time for Colin on a plane, he did great.  BUT, Colin got sick for the first time. :(  We were up most of the 2nd night we were there, cleaning up sheets in our hotel room.  Luckily the next day he was feeling much better!  I also think he was teething at the same time.

He has gotten 2 top and 2 molars.  At the same time.  Poor guy.  They are both through now!  But, it did cause a huge disruption in his sleep for about a month.  He is, for the most part, back to "normal".  Hopefully.  He has 6 teeth on top, and 6 on bottom, plus a few more side ones coming in.

He's about 23 pounds, and 30 in. tall, which isn't tall.  We think that's weird since Zach and I are both pretty tall!

He's in size 3 diapers.  We're taking a break from cloth since his pooping is random and we're tired of spraying cloth diapers.  He is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, some 12-18 months.  His weight gain  kind of plateaued, which I guess is normal since he has been so active.  

He loves giving kisses and hugs.  He has a bunch of words! Some he'll say on his own, some he'll repeat.  We finally started writing them down so we wouldn't forget- mama, dada, nana (banana), uh-oh, da (dog), ni-ni (night night), hello, no, wow, Al, bye-bye, go, door, ball, car.

Zach enjoyed the student life in December and January, 5 weeks off!  He is back to school now, mostly online classes, so that makes it nice for staying home with Colin!  My mom comes once a week for a whole day, we have a college babysitter, Janae, who he loves, who comes one morning a week, and he still goes to "school" Thursday mornings.  

School is going well!  Fortunately I will be able to take 12 weeks of maternity leave, starting on the first day of school in August.  I'll go back to school in October, so the new baby will be about 4 months old!  We just plan to continue playing daycare by ear.  If Zach has mostly online classes and can stay home, we might just continue with my mom and babysitters, with Colin's Child's Day Out school.  We will just see!

Strike a pose!

Bundled up to walk Portland

Children's museum- culprit of the sick germs?

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Carbaugh!

KU vs. OSU- KU wins! (barely...)

November/December 15/16 Months old

• Colin loves to give hugs and kisses, and his new favorite is coming to grab and hug our legs!
• He loves to tickle my bare feet, and if they're bare, he'll take my slippers off- this is hilarious to him!
• We finally got Colin's hair cut in November!  We went to Campus Hairstyling in Aggieville, and Roger did so well with him.
• He loves feeding himself.  Favorite foods right now- scrambled eggs, pears, bread, cheese, blueberries, yogurt.
• Colin drinks whole milk about 4 times a day- first thing in the morning, before nap, mid afternoon (sometimes), and at bedtime.
• Colin still LOVES to read!  He brings us at least 20 books a day to read.  We love that!  We will also find him reading by himself. :)
• He knows what we're saying to him- if we ask if he's hungry, he'll go to his high chair.  If we ask if he wants milk, he'll go to the fridge.
• He really likes to close doors- fridge, bathroom, front door, closet.
• He can say- mama, dada (all the time :) ), Al (his stuffed alligator), yeah, no, uh oh, bye bye, hello (kinda, but he'll put ANYTHING up to his ear if he thinks he hears any phone sound, and say it).  He says other things he repeats after us, not perfectly, but sometimes  the same amount of syllables.  
• Colin's been "shadow friending" at his little Child's Day Out school. :)  He follows around a little friend, and I guess this is the first step in "playing" with other kiddos!
• He is RUNNING everywhere.  It's so adorable, he rarely walks, he just does a little jog everywhere!
• He's been teething in December, poor baby.  His little gums are just so swollen, but he's a trooper!
• In Nov. he was more often than not taking 2 naps.  Mid to end of Dec. it has moved to 1, mid to late morning.  He still goes to bed around 8pm and will USUALLY sleep until at least 7am.  December has been trying, as it's the first time it's been hard to get Colin to sleep in his life.  We think teething is the culprit.  He's been waking at night, difficult to get to bed.  Poor baby.  We've had to pull a few tricks out of sleeves to get him down!  Hopefully this is a phase and he goes back to being a breeze to get to sleep.  
• Such a happy little boy!
• More good news- Colin will be a big brother in June!  

Welcome to the world, Faye Helen Muenks!

First haircut!

Thanksgiving in Oklahoma!

Big brother- June 2014!

                                                

Christmas 2013

Ugly Sweater Bunco!

Colin's Christmas present to us- he made it at school. :)

Blanket Grandma made!

Pong!

Another Rough Spot

Just 2 weeks after my dad's memorial service, we celebrated the life of his dad, my Opa, Colin's Uber Opa.  Opa had been in failing health for just a short while.  On his last day, he waited for my cousin to visit from Manhattan.  When Blazik walked in, he told Opa (he calls him Poppa) it was ok to leave us and go see Oma (our grandma), and just a few seconds later, he took his last breath.  He had a wonderful life, and he was a great man!  Below is a link to his obituary and what I said at his memorial service.

http://www.penwellgabelhutchinson.com/obituary.aspx?src=choice&obitid=70498&name=Vernon+F.+Martens&city=Hutchinson&st=KS

"To my brother and I he was Opa.  Our sweet Opa, who loved us so much, who grew tomatoes every summer, who took us for drives in his old car, tried to scare us by taking out his teeth or playing the missing finger trick.  He loved photographs, taking them, being in them, collecting them.  One of my favorites is of him and Oma on the steps of the church they were married in.  While Zach and I lived in Europe, we were able to visit Munich and take a photo on those same steps.  Opa loved Zach, talking to him on the phone, asking questions about military life.  Uber Opa loved his first great grandchild, Colin.  He thought he was absolutely perfect.  He loved holding him, talking with him, and, playing with him on the floor.  He would wait until we were all looking away, and somehow get to the floor with him.  He rolled around on the floor and played with Colin.  Then, it would take a few of us to get him back up.  Just a few days before he left us, he was talking about playing on the floor with Colin.  Opa was such a sweet guy.  He loved his family.  He was a good person.  And, because of his love of pictures, we have photographs to go along with the wonderful memories we have of him.  We love you Opa, and we will see you soon!"

The first time Colin & Opa met

Sweet hands

4 Generations 

Opa's favorite shirt!