Morning. Colt wiggles all around on the floor and is very close to crawling. We aren't ready for this.

Pumpkin. I meant to post this on Halloween but I was too late. But I figured I'd post it anyway. My pumpkin was a pumpkin for Halloween.

Colt and me. He is keeping me busy. He's happy all the time, and lots of fun.

Little rascal. Aunt Leslie gave Colt this adorable outfit. The hat is one of my favorite things.

Colt and Daddy. Colt has known the word "fly" since we was about 3 months old, and he loves doing this. Must be genetics.

Election day. Colt putting in his vote.

Rug rat. By accident, this photo turned out to be one of my favorites.

My baby Einstein. Since reading about apples, Colt has decided they are also one his very favorite things to eat.

Colt has mastered at least a dozen new noises in the past two weeks. My intent has been to catch several of them on video and post a "collection" of Colt noises, but I have not been steadfast enough with the video camera (and really, we'd probably be the only people amused by it). It all started in New York two weeks ago when I taught him how to make "raspberries." He seemed interested, so I kept repeating the noise, and the next day he did it himself! A LOT! Constantly! (To his own surprise, it seems.) At first he was just practicing. Then he realized it got a good reaction, and he did it to amuse. Now he does it out of joy or excitement. Like - we'll get real animated and silly and ask him if he likes his carrots (solid food - next blog entry) or if he had a good nap, or if wants to be tickled, and this (see video) is the response we get. He certainly thinks he is communicating. It is so cute (in our opinion). He has several spin-offs of this noise too. He can combine it with a clucking sound, he can tighten it up and make a short quick sound, or he might just cluck, or he, well you get the idea. He's working on new ones every day.

Grandma Nancy, Michael's mom, was here in September to meet Colt. He loves his new toys and books that she brought!

My mom was here to watch Colt the week before we went to New York so I could get caught up with work. This was Grandma's fourth visit to Colorado since Colt was born!

We just got back from a way-too-short trip to the Adirondacks. What can I say, we LOVE the Adirondacks. Especially in the fall. The weather could not have been more perfect - we were lucky, as it could have been much colder than it was.

We stayed at an old Adirondack great camp called White Pines. The lake was so beautiful and quiet. Michael would have liked to take Colt canoeing, the unofficial sport of the region. I think God created moms to save boys and daddies from themselves. As it was, we switched out and didn't go far. No need, though, it was perfectly pretty right where we were.

Colt is just barely old enough for his new backpack carrier. He loves it! He didn't pull my hair nearly as much as I expected. Too busy enjoying the view from way up there. This was at a very charming farmer's market in Old Forge. Farmer's markets are one of my favorite leisure activities but not the most practical - getting home the big Thanksgiving cornucopia that I bought was not easy.

One of Colt's new skills - not to be outdone by his mom - is putting his foot in his mouth.

I managed to get up early one morning (well, I have Colt to thank for that) and found the lake covered in a low-hanging mist with a single loon fishing for breakfast. I have not seen a loon in a long time. Their ethereal calls at dawn and dusk was one of my favorite sounds of our Minnesota vacations of yore.

I adore Adirondack design sensibilities.

This is one of two boathouses at the camp. White Pines Camp was President Calvin Coolidge's summer White House in 1926. I think it was a pretty good choice.

What else could you need?

I need to get some pictures of Colt on here! Michael, Colt and I were in DC last week. I was there to work and Michael came to play Mr. Mom. Colt got in lots of Daddy time! Colt is a great traveler and slept on the plane most of the time. This was his second time in an airplane - his first was when he and I went to Iowa when he was 7 weeks old. He is more opinionated now than he was then, so I was glad to have help this time. But even though he travels well, he was very happy to be home. When we went upstairs and flipped on the lights to his room, he grinned from ear to ear, almost laughing in joy and rapidly scanning the room to get a look at his favorites: "My mobile! My changing table! My rocking chair! The ceiling light!"

So I'm not doing a very good job with this blog. The longer I go without posting, the more intimidating it seems to get. But here goes. We just had a visit from my family - Ben, Leslie, Ryan and Mom and Dad. And I got to throw Ryan a birthday party AND bake him a cake! His fourth birthday was the 30th and we celebrated in Ryan style: hot dogs, watermelon, broccoli, and one very big cake. The cake is my invention and a replica of a cake I made in high school during Homecoming. I don't know why I made a cake for Homecoming, but I did. And I've never had cause to make it again until now! I figured Ryan would appreciate it more than most: he is a cake aficionado. He prefers it over any other dessert... I asked him once what his favorite kind of cake is, and without pause he said, "I like lemon cake and carrot cake and white cake and chocolate cake and angel cake and GRASSHOPPER cake!" (he and I had just made a grasshopper cake to add to his repertoire). Anyway, I think he enjoyed eating it almost as much as I did making it (and I'm sure he enjoyed it more than Mom did frosting it).

This is the "calculator" that we gave Ryan. We had these as kids... Ryan thought it was pretty cool. He had LOTS of birthday presents to open.

Ben wanted to go 4-wheeling this year so they did an all-day adventure in the backcountry near the old ghost town of St. Elmo. Ben, Leslie, Ryan and Michael went and Colt and I hung out in the cabin at Mt. Princeton, which was just fine with me - I did enough 4WDing the last two summers to last a lifetime. They apparently had lots of fun because Ben decided to drive all the way back to St Elmo (2 hours or so) to go a second time. The second time Dad got to go - and they did a 65 mile loop, and it rained all afternoon and was about 50 degrees. And so......

....when they got back they spent quite a long time in the hot tub. Ben, Ryan, Dad and Michael. Don't know what it is about men and hot tubs. Michael keeps ours so hot I can hardly get in it, yet all the guys rave about it.

Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, where we stayed overnight, had a very cool waterslide that reminded me of the waterslides in all those northern Minnesota resort towns that we went to as kids. But they didn't have as good a view! Ryan ended up backwards every time. Ben asked him why he always dumped in backwards, and Ryan said "because I'm not very good at it yet and I need more practice." He's so cute.

And of course we took Ryan to the North Pole. That was a blast. It's such a cute amusement park for little kids. Despite the serious look on his face, he did have fun. This was right before we left and he was thoroughly worn out. It's fun having them visit! The house always seems so quiet after Ryan leaves! :) I guess I didn't get many pictures of Grandma and Grandpa - or of anyone but the boys for that matter.

Colt has become quite adroit with his hands. And everything - everything - that enters his hands goes straight to his mouth. So everything got a good scrubbing last week. How I will keep this up, I have no idea. I probably won't.

Note to self: Don't buy Colt any more baby toys... for a least 1 month. (But he likes them so much and they're so cute!)

Shelli and Aidan left on Thursday but not before Aidan had a heart to heart with the gorillas at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo...

and fed the giraffes....

and went hiking in the Garden of the Gods...

and did some extreme toddler swinging.

Sorry I have been neglecting you. I unwittingly entered the Facebook vortex and am just escaping.

Sincerely,
Lynn

Colt has been laughing for a few weeks now, but not until this weekend did he really LAUGH. He now laughs spontaneously, often at nothing at all. I think he's still working out this new skill, sometimes laughing at laughter itself. Today I heard him laughing in his sleep. He is definitely ticklish, too. The other day I was washing his feet with a washcloth and to my surprise he started cracking up. So of course, I tested his underarms, and sure enough, ticklish. His first little laugh happened a few weeks ago...he laughed at a very animated Daddy singing "eat, sleep, poo" and waving his arms back and forth. In the video he's laughing at Aunt Shelli...

Yesterday we all went to the North Pole, a Christmas-themed amusement park at the foot of Pikes Peak. It did kind of get me in the mood for Christmas! Aidan got to ride the kiddie rides...he especially liked the carousel and had to ride both the horses and the reindeer. And he road in the little boat ride all by himself! For whatever reason, I decided to shoot all the photos in sepia while we were there. It is a rather old-fashioned amusement park (50 years old this year) and it seemed fitting.

Aidan kept his hands on the steering wheel throughout the entire boat ride... He's a natural, just like his uncle!

What a CUTIE!

Michael's sister Shelli and our nephew Aidan are visiting from Georgia. They got here last week and we are so excited to have them here! Aidan is almost two and is such a sweetheart. It's been lots of fun...will post some more pictures tomorrow.

Not much going on here. Colt is now laughing... Daddy can really get him going. His laugh is adorable, but of course I would think so. This morning he was enjoying cooing with his zoo friends.

As I mentioned, we ventured to Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival again...along with my parents and aunt who were visiting from Iowa. Colt went on his first hike.

We all indulged in wildflower photography (well, not the guys). It's hard not to. (Wild Blue Flax, Cina and Mom.)

Colorado Blue Columbine near Lake Irwin. This was the only Columbine we found -- because of late snows in June, most of them weren't blooming yet. So we had to go back and find it after passing it up the first time.