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Colin is so excited these days about going to bed. It is kind of fun!

Anyway, we were in North Carolina this past week and Colin decided that he wanted to sleep on the bottom bunk of one of the rooms instead of in his pack’n'play (which was fine with his mother and I because he is a bit large for that these days anyway, he has to fold himself up to sleep). We got really excited the first night since he seemed like he wasn’t going to wander away from bed and went to sleep very quickly. Cool! Big boy bed!

All was well until Thursday night. Indeed, Colin never had trouble going to sleep or getting up and wandering out of his bedroom or anything. Thursday night he had an issue with—and this never occurred to us—staying in the bed once he was asleep. Yeah. He fell out. Ouchies.

And tomorrow he’s going in for an x-ray. We thought maybe it was just “muscle pain” but the poor thing has been walking around like a wounded bird with his arm tucked in to his side. He’ll use his left (”ouchies”) arm, but heavily favors his right. And he wants to sleep all the time. Deb had a doctor’s appointment for Hannah Monday, so we figured since he wasn’t crying all the time (which we thought was a pre-req for a break) we’d just get him checked out then… Actually we thought he’d wake up the next day and it would be fine. Whatever. We’re bad parents.

All of that to say… Colin loves going to bed now! As soon as we got home we re-jiggered the crib into the toddler bed. He’s so proud of his big boy bed. And has been so excited to go in and go to bed. Such a little boy!

Random aside—as if this whole post isn’t a random aside—we watched Pooh’s Heffalump Movie and it talks about making friends and blah blah feel good movie. Anyway, we asked Colin who his best friend was, even suggested Ceci and some of the kids from daycare and he said “No, Hannah is my best friend…” Cutie.

We went to Pennsylvania today. First up: Crayons. Next: Ditches. Colin loved the modeling clay that mommy turned into a shark (that he could subsequently color)… and the Canal Museum was a lot of fun for him—he even got to play with a boat.

The Canal Museum also had a big train section downstairs (the Coal part). I love this photo. You’d think from the look on Colin’s face that he had just smacked Hannah on the head and that’s why his smile is as big as Hannah’s frown is pitiful.

I’m not certain it’s the Beatles, but it does serve as a quick teaser to the photos we’ll be posting soon about our trip to Iowa.

SATURDAY: Point Pleasant Beach, Jersey Shore

We had a great time driving down to get Colin some sand-throwing-time. And, as Deb can attest to from the evening bath, he certainly threw some sand (into his hair)! Colin really enjoyed the sand, but no so much the water. The waves were pretty big and made a pretty dramatic crashing sound as they broke and I think that kind of scared Colin. Even as we were burying him in the sand, he would nervously look towards the water if a wave was particularly noisy. As you can see—when we were near the water (or in the water), Colin was very clingy. He did like sitting in the sand as the waves came up to us, but we’re thinking next time we’ll find a more protected beach to dampen the waves…

SUNDAY: New York Aquarium, Coney Island

I don’t think you can really see it in these pictures, but Colin was ready to go for his day at the Aquarium. He had his Bruce (from Finding Nemo) hat and a generic shark on his shirt. Colin really enjoyed the Aquarium when we took him the first time and as he gets older it just gets better. The diver feeding the fish even swam up to him and waved.

The Shark Tank is his favorite by far. He liked all of the fish—particularly ones he “recognized” from Nemo—but the Sharks are his favorite. We spent a long time (twice!) with him standing on the ledge while he pointed excitedly and yelled “Sharky! Sharky! Rrrraarrr.”

I love this picture of Colin quite plainly wondering, “why are you interrupting me from eating just to take a silly picture?!?!” Since we were at Coney Island, we figured we should eat at the original Nathan’s Famous, famous for their July Fourth Hotdog Eating Competition… Anyway, Colin overdosed on the yum-yum and promptly fell into a food coma while reading his Big Trucks book.

Finally, the long awaited pictures from the Denmark/Sweden trip. John, Matt’s cousin, and Amanda, John’s wife, were both our wonderful hosts and tour guides for the Danish part of our trip. We are very grateful for their hospitality.

Day 1 - Copenhagen
Our trip started out with sightseeing in Copenhagen after a few hour nap once we landed. One of our first sights was probably Matt’s favorite from the whole trip, The Little Mermaid. The original story isn’t quite as happy go lucky as the Disney version. This statue is not based on the Disney version.

We also walked around the Kastellet and Gefion Fountain. We stopped for dinner and then headed back home for some more much needed sleep.

Day 2 - Copenhagen
Our second day of sightseeing was spent walking around downtown Copenhagen. We started in Fredericksberg which is actually not in Copenhagen but just on the outskirts. Here we walked around a park with a summer castle and lots of wildlife. The most interesting thing to us, as parents of a toddler, was the Pacifier tree. Apparently rather than giving your pacifier to Santa or mailing it to kids in need to get a toddler to stop using theirs, Danish children bring it to this tree. We are going to have Colin send his to this tree as well.

After a bite to eat outside, we walked past Tivoli but since we aren’t big on amusement parks we decided to explore other areas.

Next we headed over to the Stroget. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip since it’s a humongous pedestrian shopping area outside! We passed by the Museum Erotica, however despite Joakim and Tara’s recommendation our day was so packed we didn’t have a chance to stop in. Next I suffered as Matt took a shot of me next to yarn for my mom. LOL

We also walked along the Nyhavn, a very picturesque part of Copenhagen. One you may recognize since it’s often the picture used when one talks about Copenhagen.

Finally we headed to Christiania a self-governing part of Copenhagen that has up until recent years sold pot out in the open. Two of the funniest observations were the sign that said “Say No to hard drugs” and the satellite dish connected to one of the buildings.

Day 4 - Copenhagen (yes, I skipped a day, that will be in the next post)

Our last morning in Copenhagen was spent walking around the graveyard near John and Amanda’s apartment. We saw the graves of H.C. Anderson (that’s what they call him in Denmark) and Kierkegaard

Merry Christmas! Colin, Deb and I had a great trip back to Michigan, despite my playing the role of Patient Zero in a bad Dustin Hoffman movie and spreading the Norovirus to no fewer than 5 people on the trip.

In any event, Christmas morning was a dream. Colin was as wide awake as the rest of us when we got up extra early and—after he really woke up—enjoyed the electric guitar from his grandparents. He had been making a habit of strumming the heat registers in the apartment, so we thought he might like the guitar. I think he digs it even if he doesn’t quite “get” it…

We had another Christmas with David and his family at mom and dad’s house. That’s Colin making friends with Samantha who was really good with him and David with his son Andrew. Though you can’t see it, Andrew got a remote control snake to scare his new sisters with, but when I overheard them asking to play with it, I gathered it wasn’t going to have the intended effect.

I imagine the last pictures are “obvious”… Deb and I were pretty happy about John’s t-shirt, though because I was engaging in my own little epidemiology experiment and getting people sick we had to wait longer than we wanted to give it to him. Our last Christmas was with Uncle John, Aunt Amy and Cousin Jake. We’ve always known Colin to be a bit of ham for the camera, but I think Christmas #3 turned him into a monster…

In any case, we really did have a wonderful time visiting family in Michigan. We will probably be quarantined for the first 48 hours the next time we visit, but hopefully it will be soon!

Bonus points to anyone who can figure out what this is a re-enactment of. Even more bonus points to the funniest response.

Okay, I’ll admit it, the main reason I am posting this—aside from the fact that it is kind of neat we got a picture of Colin meeting the artist of the painting we bought for him on our Boston trip—was so that I could stop looking at my idiot face and the rest of the smokers…