Woo hoo! I finally got to the Christmas day post! This will be the longest BY FAR because we did so much in one day, but it was certainly a culmination of all of the days surrounding Christmas that made it all so much fun. I had a
lot of expectations surrounding Christmas day with Colin opening his gifts from Santa, but the whole experience didn't
quite live up to that this year...don't get me wrong, I had a LOT of fun with him Christmas morning, but I DID think he would be more into ripping and opening than he was. He has definitely enjoyed all of his gifts (our family rom is evidence of that) and maybe it was just the fact we took him from bed to the tree to open gifts...
Colin crawled down the hall to check out what Santa had left for him. If you ask him what Santa says...he says "ho ho ho" (will show you that video in another post!) which I think is the cutest thing ever!
...All of the presents from Santa Claus! He was good to everyone this year!
He wasn't sure where to start and definitely liked helping Daddy pull his gifts out of his stocking.
Check out his new table! This was a recommendation from one of his therapists which Santa immediately jumped on and I really like it except I think it makes him nervous since his feet don't touch the floor. I'm going to take another blog friend's advice and put a stool under his feet so he will be more comfortable when sitting there.
Is this where I eat?? (Obviously not because when Mommy tried to give him pancakes at the table, he just threw them on the floor. When I switched him to the high chair, was a perfect little angel.)
The easel was another suggestion by Colin's physical therapist (notice Santa jumped on all of these suggestions) with hopes that it would encourage more standing. He's been iffy so far, but also because he has been iffy about how long he wants to stand up for...
Once you asked Colin to help rip, he was pretty into it....
Thanks Santa! I like my gifts!!
Family self-portrait in front of the tree!
Ok, so brace yourself for major cuteness! I couldn't stop laughing from the moment I got him into this outfit. It was by far my most favorite outfit Colin has worn to date! We tried to put him in his chair to take pictures, but he thought it was also "cute" to just dive/freefall out of the chair forward (fortunately Mommy is quick)
expecting that he would be caught...so that picture shoot didn't last long...
So we had to switch to the couch, but I couldn't get ONE normal smiling picture from him...although some of these are pretty cute.
MY FAVORITE :)
Christmas morning was exhausting apparently, so Colin decided to take a snooze on his way to my Grandparents house. We have been celebrating Christmas at their house for as long as I can remember and the number of people found there has certainly grown throughout the years. It's the ONE time of year where it's pretty much guaranteed to find everyone from my Mom's side of the family in one place at one time...what a tradition!
My Grandfather is 86 years old and served in World War II. It's amazing to see
my little boy on his lap and I feel so lucky that Colin still has 3 great-grandparents in his life! Poppy, as I have always called him, was singing War tunes to Colin (the fun ones) and Colin was
very intently listening along. It was so cute!
Colin had a lot of fun and took to exploring Grandma and Poppy's house. The have 2 steps down into the dining room from the kitchen which Colin took without a second thought, face forward, even though it wasn't the smoothest way down.
Posing with my little boy...
After Grandma and Poppy's house, the next stop was my parent's house so that we could exchange gifts amongst my siblings and with my parents. Some of my most classic family pictures growing up were in front of the fireplace, so we had to get a few...
Uncle Tim...
Aunt Kimmy...
Uncle Pat...
Nana and Grandad...
...we are starting to get better with taking pictures of us again. When I go through all of my pictures to frame some, it's hard to find pictures of just Chris and I anymore!
Colin got a new piano from Nana and Grandad and had fun rocking out...his first piano recital!
It also encouraged standing!
Ta Da!!
Next he was off trying another gift from Aunt Kimmy which was a ride on car. Unfortuately, lazy man likes being
pushed instead of propelling himself which we know he can do!
He was a great help at opening gifts the rest of the night!
Snuggling with Aunt Kristine...
After Colin went to bed, we had a fun time playing RLC (I think that's the order of the initials)...it's a great game!
What a fun three days we had! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!
...we finger painted and made a big ole mess!
...we snuggled and snuggled and snuggled....
...and took a long time to get all bundled up to go outside in the snow...
...which unfortunately only lasted about 10 minutes TOPS because I did not have appropriate snow gear for Colin OR boots that fit. He actually LOVED the snow, but every time he crawled somewhere, he lost a boot since it was literally a size too big!
...we played in the bathtub with bath crayons...
and practiced standing and other exercises for physical therapy (since he didn't see ANY therapists this week due to the snow and vacation)...
...and then worked on fine motor skills with playdo!
...Miss Regina would be proud of the things we worked on!
It was fun until someone decided to take a big bite out of the yellow playdo and then SWALLOW...so it took 15 minutes to dangerously stick our fingers in his mouth to get it out. Eventually, I used a tooth brush to scrape it off the roof of his mouth since he hated the taste, was spitting and drooling yellow, and whining. 
...signing "milk" to wash it down...
...ahh, thanks for helping me Mommy and Daddy...
...it took more work with baby food to help wash the bad taste down...
...and we put (we as in I) put together Colin's new car from the Gallagher family. I think it was a hit! 
Colin also enjoyed playing with his shadow in the doorway....
