American Idol Jr.

I'm so happy to see another season of American Idol on TV, but I am hating the judges. Seriously. I miss Simon, still, and now I also miss Steven and J.Lo. However, I love watching talent shows, so I'm sticking with it.

Maybe in 15 years or so, we'll see this little star take the stage.

First, here's our performer in pajamas singing Doe A Deer from the Sound of Music.

And here she is singing one Randall taught her recently, Old Man Tucker. I'll put the lyrics here in case you love it so much you want to learn it (or if you have trouble understanding her) :)  I've since learned that this is a variation of "Old Dan Tucker" from Little House on the Prairie. Who knew?!

Old Man Tucker was a fine old man
Washed his face in a fryin' pan
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel
Died with a toothpick in his will

Gone away is Old Man Tucker
You're too late to get your supper
Supper's over and dinner's cookin'
Old Man Tucker was just standin' there lookin'

And to finish out this video-filled post, here are our two sweeties the other night when Randall was out of town. I wanted to send him a video. They were going berserk in the tub. It is their favorite time together, I think! Are Collin's little waves not the SWEEEEEETEST things?

Collin's 1st Birthday!

What kind of mother waits weeks to blog about her son's 1st birthday?! Sorry. I'm so sorry :) We had a wonderful celebration of Collin's first year with family and friends in Virginia. We held it at a local church hall and had about 30 folks attend. It was great! Here are some pictures from the occasion.

His invitation turned out so cute, first of all. Thanks to Elle Bee Designs in Arkansas (find her on Facebook!).

 
The room set-up was simple. The cake was vanilla and the cupcakes were chocolate - both were delicious! The cake was made at a local bakery in VA. And we asked Randall's brother's wife's mom (you got that?!) to handle all of the food. She caters on the side and is awesome at it. This turned out to be a very smart decision on our end. She did much better than we would have done, and it was a huge stress relief since we were coming from out of town.

Here are some of my favorites of the birthday boy enjoying cake and presents. Sydney wouldn't touch her cake, and he couldn't get enough.

I loved his little outfit. Kudos to Randall for picking it out!!

 

And here are some shots of some of the guests. It was great to see family and friends; I just wish we had more photos of the attendees!

And of course Sydney was the best helper of the day. Collin's present opening went MUCH faster than at her own first birthday party because she didn't have an older sibling to basically take over the whole process. She had a blast and looked pretty cute in the process, I'd say. :)

At one year old, here are some highlights about our big boy:

• He weighs 25 pounds and is 85th percentile in both height and weight (that's only 7 pounds lighter than his 3-year-old sis!)
• He is walking, cautiously but surely. I think in the next few weeks, he will prefer it over crawling.
• He moved up to a new classroom, where they sit in chairs at a table, and they sleep in cots instead of cribs. He's getting so big!
• He isn't saying much that makes sense, but lots of things that sound like dadda, momma, baba, bye-bye... or something like that :)
• He's facing front in the car (no judgement please) and loves it. We figure he's as big as some 2-year-olds, so we feel ok about our decision.
• He loves all food. ALL. FOOD. I think walking will only help his ever-growing tummy :)
• Collin is convinced his bottle is for milk and his sippy cup is only for juice. We're working hard to get him off the bottle! If his sippy has juice, he drinks it down. If it has milk, he throws it on the floor or just pours it on his face. Lovely.
• He LOVES his sister so very much, even when she's not being a perfect big sister. I hope they continue to be as close as they are right now. They both laugh all the time at each other.
• Collin is just the sweetest boy. I know we say this all the time, but it's true. I couldn't have asked for a better son.

Last but not least, here are our little ones at their first birthday parties. Are they sweet or what?!