Too bright!!!

What do you think of our new shades?

On the move!

Greyson officially started crawling yesterday. He is on a mission to at least try to keep up with his big brothers. It happened in the kitchen. He was on all fours rocking near the oven and made a break for it toward the open dishwasher door. He made the smallest movements but he was making forward progress instead of moving backward, which is the direction in which he has been moving for the last few weeks. I know it has only been a day since that happened but he has already gotten much better at it! It's amazing how fast they learn. I think he's pretty proud of himself!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our friend Becky's daughter was born on St. Patrick's Day and she had a themed birthday party. She requested that everyone get in the spirit so The Collins Clan played along!

First food!

A few days ago I gave Greyson his first "food" if you can even call it that. In the beginning it's pretty much 95% breast milk and 5% cereal, which makes it pretty tough to even get on a spoon. At one point while I was feeding it to him I thought I should just put it in a bottle. It would have been easier I'll tell ya. Most of it ended up on his bib. Speaking of his bib, he was wearing one that was mine when I was a baby for extra sentiment.

When I mentioned to Tyler and Brody that Greyson was going to have his first cereal Brody said, "Ooo...Lucky Charms?" I'm ashamed to admit that they even know what Lucky Charms are but I only let them have two marshmallows per bowl so don't judge me!

Here are some pictures of the occasion. At first little Greyson was confused...then came the tongue...then more of the tongue...then Brody came over and was trying to make him laugh, and finally he was more interested in eating the bib than eating the cereal. I think all in all he may have actually eaten about a half a tablespoon. However, thinking of how my other boys eat (and eat and eat) I'm not concerned in the least that this stage will last. Before long he will be eating mass amounts like the rest of them. I think we should open up a grocery store. Honestly!

Slow down there buddy!

As of about a week ago (maybe even longer) Greyson is trying to crawl. He just better slow down here a bit. I am NOT ready for that. I don't know if he realizes it or not but he is JUST A BABY!!! Babies don't crawl!! Right around the corner from that is walking and babies certainly do not walk. Toddlers walk...well, they toddle. So someone better clue him in that he is not allowed to start down that path. He is clearly not listening to me. I thought it was bad enough that he had learned how to roll over and is now rolling all over the place. Five months old is several months earlier than I had anticipated this to happen. Hunter learned how to crawl at 7 months. And since that first year of the twin's lives is just a blur to me I assume they crawled about the same time or later. He is getting his knees up under himself and rocking back and forth. NOT GOOD!!! And he is actually making progress...moving backwards. ALSO NOT GOOD!!! I have set him down on the floor on one place, left the room for a few minutes to finish preparing breakfast for the rest of the gang and come back to find him six feet from where I had left him. And one time I came back in the room and he wasn't even there!!! Then after a near heart attack I found him under the chair. This Momma is not prepared for this.

Toothless

Hunter lost his other front tooth a few days ago. He looks pretty cute as a toothless little guy. He was very excited that it happened at school. It was a classmate's birthday and he lost it while biting into the cupcake that she brought in for everyone to celebrate. That night he made a sign for the tooth fairy that read, "Tooth costs $3.00" with an arrow pointing to the pillow where he had placed his "Twinkle Toof" (storage container for his tooth).

Pinewood Derby

Until a few weeks ago I had never even heard of the Pinewood Derby. Hunter's Den Leader handed us the rules and guidelines for the event and a block of wood packaged in a cardboard box and I was clueless. Thank goodness John's dad is a master woodworker!! John handed over the block of wood with the sketch he drew that Hunter chose and hours later it came back looking like a car! Amazing!! What a fantastic and useful talent. We are so lucky!

Hunter helped paint it and told John he wanted lightning bolts on the side. John did some research and added weight to the car. Before heading out to the derby he said, "This is the best car ever!" He was pretty excited to put his car to the test. John hoped that Hunter would at least win one of the three heats he raced.

When we arrived and Hunter saw the trophies his eyes lit up. "I hope I win a trophy!" he kept saying. I tried to bring him back down to Earth. Afterall, there were at least 30 other racers vying for that prize and this was our first time ever attending such a race. When we registered his car it came out to weigh about 4.5 oz. John asked, "Is that good?" and the guy said, "Well, you want it to weigh as close to 5 as you can. Why don't you tape a couple of coins to the top and see if that helps?" So we got a few quarters and some tape and bingo! It was five oz. exactly. It didn't look as cute as before but if it made the car faster and was legal, who cares?

There were three lanes on the track so each heat had three cars racing. Hunter came in second in his first heat and he was pretty excited...but not as excited as when he came in first on the second two!

They average out your speed on all three lanes and award top three times for each den as well as top three overall for the pack. Hunter came in second place in his den and fourth overall for the pack. He won his very first trophy! You would have thought that he had just won a million dollars in the lottery by his reaction. It was so much fun to watch. The little boy who won first place in his den won second place overall so he had pretty tough competition. He missed third overall by less than a tenth of a second. He didn't seem to care at all. He was so proud to have won that trophy! Tyler and Brody had a blast too. They brought along their hot wheels and were racing them on the floor. What a great family outing!