Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Cole's 1st Christmas







Cole's first Christmas was a success! He was quite the grouchy-pants all day, but was finally in a good mood when it was time to open presents. Because John had to work until 7pm, we didn't open presents until after dinner. Cole got tons of presents from family members and Santa. I didn't realize how many presents a not quite 3 month old could get! My mother got him a mirror to look at and when I put it in front of him, he started smiling at himself! Because he was grouchy all day, he didn't nap much and then was up every 2 hours that night. The next day, he napped much better as you can see! That must have been his Christmas recovery pose!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Someone is ready for Christmas!











As you can see by the pictures, Cole is very excited for his first Christmas! There are already a number of presents under the tree for him and Santa hasn't even been here yet. Cole was a very good sport about getting suited up in the reindeer outfit. As soon as I saw that outfit in Kohl's, I couldn't resist. Plus it was 50% off! I figure in a few years, he'll be too embarrassed to let me put him in something like that, so I better seize the moment!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Bigger by the minute











It's amazing how quickly babies change. Cole is growing bigger every day. Last week, he went to his 2 month check-up and was just shy of 14 lbs at 13 lbs 15 ozs. He has also grown 2 1/2 inches to 24 inches; John and I laugh that he is 2 ft tall! He likes when when we hold him up in a sitting position. He has pretty good neck/head control, but we are still working at getting it to 100%. He loves tummy time, holding up his head and looking around.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Ho Ho Ho!


Even though I think that visiting Santa is a little lame and a lot cheesy, John and I took Cole to see the big man himself today. We got him all dressed up in a sweater vest and even put shoes on him for the first time. He was stylin' in those Vans that he got as an early Christmas present from his great aunt and uncle and cousins! He looked so handsome, even though he seemed to hate his outfit and screamed bloody murder for about 20 minutes after I dressed him this afternoon. When we actually got to the mall, instead of freaking out like I thought he would, he actually was asleep for his little visit, so unfortunately, he didn't get to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. It was super cheesy, but he looked so cute! Also, getting to see Santa is quite the rip-off nowadays. We bought the cheapest thing we could, which was one 4x6 picture for $15!! We figured we could scan it at home and reproduce it ourselves. The poor kid behind us was in a great mood before pictures and proceeded to freak out as soon as he sat on Santa's lap. Our little man decided to wait until after meeting Santa to begin his meltdown in the middle of the mall. For obvious reasons, we chose to leave at that time. Maybe next year, he'll actually be awake to meet Santa, although he will probably be at just the right age to be scared to death of him like the kid behind us.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Waiting for Santa...


Cole's first trip to Chicago


Passed out on cousin Rob's bar




Here is Cole with Uncle Bill and Aunt Nikki (if you look carefully, you can see the bump of Cole's future little buddy!)




Cole with Great-Grandma


Cole had so much fun with Great-Aunt Cindy,
he passed out before Mommy and Daddy got home!



First plane ride!


Last week, we took Cole back to Chicago for the first time. He had a great time meeting all his new family members. It was quite a busy trip trying to fit in everyone and we still didn't get to see everyone that we wanted to. The first two nights we spent in Naperville with my family and a few of my friends. On Saturday, we went up to John's aunt and uncle's house for the night, where Cole got to meet his only great-grandma! A few of John's friends met up with us that night to meet our little guy. On Sunday, we went to Grandma Laura's house for the next two nights until we left on Tuesday.




While we were in town, of course we had to indulge in some authentic Chicago food. We had deep dish pizza from Gino's and we even went to Portillo's, not once, but twice! It was so good; I miss that place...

Friday, November 28, 2008

How you doin'?


Apparently Cole is practicing to be a ladies man in the future... Who wouldn't want a guy with a roly-poly belly like that?

The happy little turkey











I was finally able to capture one of our little guy's smiles! Everytime he would start smiling, I would get the camera and he would get camera shy. He is tricky like that. For some reason, the smiles really get going when he is on his changing pad getting his disper changed. I don't know if he likes getting a fresh diaper or if he likes being naked... who knows?


Cole enjoyed his first Thanksgiving at Grandad's house even though he wasn't able to have any turkey. Unfortunately, John wasn't able to join us because not only did he have to work, he ended up having to work late due to the crazy folk in East Mesa. So unfortunately, he ended up having a burrito for dinner and not able to have his Thanksgiving meal until today for lunch.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Grand Canyon














Last week, we took our first road trip with Cole to the Grand Canyon. Grandma Laura came out to visit as well last week, so she was able to join us on the trip. The Grand Canyon is certainly spectacular. Everyone has seen it in pictures and on TV, but there is no comparison to seeing it in person. I don't think you can really appreciate how large and beautiful it is unless you seen it in person. Cole was great while we were sight-seeing. He actually stayed in his wrap carrier the whole time and just napped, so essentially he missed the whole thing. Because it was freezing cold up there (it actually hit 18 degrees in the morning, but reached the mid-60's in the afternoon) we put him in some adorable fuzzy jammies. As you can see from the picture, he didn't seem to much like the fuzzy white suit, even though he looked adorable. It even had cute little ears on the hood!

What a difference 6 weeks makes!

On October 11th


On November 23rd
Notice the addition of the chubby cheeks and hams for thighs!


Napping with Grandma Laura


Can you get anymore relaxed than this?



Cole is growing like a weed and the proof is in the pictures! As of Friday, he was already 13 lbs, 1 oz . At the rate he is growing, he is going to be enormous! This last week he has started smiling like crazy, but I haven't been able to capture a picture of him yet, except for on my cell phone. Nothing is cuter than seeing his big toothless grin.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Our little porkchop

Cole is officially a chubby baby now. He was 5 weeks old as of yesterday and he has gained 4 lbs since he was born! He is now 12.6 lbs. No wonder he seems so heavy when I carry him in his carseat. I wonder how long it will be before I am physically unable to carry him in there!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Yay for Gilbert!

Our lovely city of Gilbert has been rated the number one place to raise children in Arizona by Businessweek! We had no idea of that when we bought our house almost 5 years ago, but apparently, we picked well. The list was based on affordability, school performance and safety. You can see the article here.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/11/1110_best_places_for_kids/4.htm

Thanks for sending me the link, Marilyn!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Up Up and Away!



Our little monkey is already holding his head up like a pro! It's amazing how quickly he is he changing and developing every day. He was officially one month old on Saturday and he is so different already. As of last week, he had already gained about 2 1/2 lbs since he was born. I haven't been able to measure him, but I am sure that he is longer too.

The dogs just love him. They were initially kind of disinterested in him, but now they are increasingly more interested in him every day. They always want to know what he is up to, so Cole gets a sniffdown by one of them at least once a day. Luckily, both of the dogs listen really well, so if I tell them to back up or lay down, they respond immediately.

Next week, we are taking our very first road trip with Cole to visit the Grand Canyon. It is about 3 1/2-4 hours away, so hopefully he doesn't scream the whole way there! It will also be considerably colder there, so we will have to bundle him up. Neither John or I have ever been to the Grand Canyon before, so it should be interesting.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Our New President


Although I haven't been alive for that many elections that I really paid attention to, this election certainly seemed different to me. I don't ever remember seeing people actually be moved to tears like they were when it was announced that Barack Obama will be our new president. We have finally reached a point where Americans were able to look past the color of someone's skin to see what really counts.


John, Cole and I went to vote on Tuesday afternoon after John got off of work. All morning, the news was reporting people standing in line for hours waiting to vote, so I was quite worried that we would have to stand in line and Cole would grace everyone present with one of his meltdowns. Luckily, our polling place was almost empty and we were in and out in 10 minutes and Cole slept through his first experience with the democratic process. Unfortunately, since John and I are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, our votes essentially cancelled each other out, but since Arizona went to McCain anyways, my vote didn't really count at all (darn electoral votes!).


Even though John was disappointed that John McCain lost, even he said that he was glad that our son is going to grow up in a time with a black president and not think it is a big deal. For most of us, this represents a historical moment in our lifetimes, but for Cole, it won't have any real significance for him.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Our Handsome Son


I just love this picture that my friend Lindsey took of Cole over the weekend. Isn't he handsome? Look at those chubby cheeks! Of course, I am probably biased, but I don't care!

5k Race














On Sunday, John ran in a 5k race to benefit pancreatic cancer research. For those of you who don't know, John's father, Urban passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2005. Last year, we discovered this 5k race and decided to do it every year. Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, yet it receives the least amount of federal funding for research, so it is important to us to participate in events like this. While I wasn't able to run this year, Cole and I did attend the event. Luckily, John had his two friends Rob and Steven run with him instead.


This year, I also made matching shirts/onesie for John and Cole with a picture of John's father/Cole's grandfather on it from when John was a baby. Both of them wore the shirts to the race.


I'd like to take credit for these pictures but in reality, my friend Lindsey took them, which is why they look so good! Thanks Linds!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Happy Halloween!







Cole celebrated his first Halloween a little earlier this week. John carved his name into a pumpkin and we dressed him up in some Halloween gear. He was not digging on his outfit as you can see from the pictures!

First Real Bath





Since Cole's umbilical cord didn't fall off until Tuesday, he has only been able to receive sponge baths up to this point. Last night we gave him his first real bath and he loved it! I was ready for a massive meltdown, but as soon as we put him into the tub, he was totally relaxed. He looked like he was just lounging at the beach. Of course, the warm water made him promptly pee everywhere right away! It was hilarious! As you can, see he is getting bigger by the minute. I actually weighed him this morning and he is over 10 lbs already!

Grandma Linda left today after a week's stay. I believe that she loved every minute of it, including while he cries. She will be back at Christmas along with Grandma Laura, so we will have all the grandparents together for Cole's first Christmas! Not that he will have any idea what is going on.

Yesterday, my mom and I took him into visit my office. I was a bit worried that he would be on full meltdown mode, but he surprised me by not only being well-behaved, but he was actually awake during the whole visit! Everyone loved him and couldn't believe how much hair he has in person.

As you can see from the picture, Sammy has fully accepted Cole as a member of the family and likes to snuggle with him and John. I thought that she wouldn't care for him at all, but she has warmed up to him completely. She is always interested in what he's doing.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Update on our little man

Lounging around


Playing with Daddy and big brother Leroy


This is our smiling, peace sign waving baby!


Cole is certainly a handful. Most of the time he is a perfect little gentleman, but when he is upset, everybody better watch out! Yesterday he screamed bloody murder at the mall and all the way home until about 3 minutes from the house. Then last night, he chose to only sleep from 1-5am and then fuss the rest of the time. The only good thing was that he wasn't screaming, but he was fussing enough that John and I couldn't sleep at all, which was fun. He finally settled down at around 8am and has been pleasant ever since.

Grandma Linda has been here since last Wednesday and she has been loving on him every minute. She is certainly loving being a grandma, even when does some less than desireable things like spit up or shoot poop out of his rear-end. Cole has been to visit Granddad's house twice now. The first time, he was quite good and this last Saturday, he was a bit fussier and even managed to poop on Granddad's new carpet while Daddy was changing him.

On Wednesday, we went back to the pediatrician for the two-week visit. Our champion eater has already gained another pound and tipped the scales at 9 lbs 12 oz! He is certainly turning out to be a very big boy!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Cole's first week




Cole's first week at home has been quite interesting. He has had a number of nighttime meltdowns even though he is a perfect angel all day long. We think that part of the problem is the fact that when we go to bed at night, that is the only time that the house is quiet. During the day, he falls asleep to us talking, vacuuming, watching tv, etc. So, today Cole and I made our very first mother/son outing by ourselves to Babies R Us to get a sound machine. We will be trying that out tonight so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

We have given him a couple of baths, which he isn't crazy about, but he seems to tolerate and he looks so cute in his little hooded towel! He is also a professional at going through several outfits a day, but that is probably John and my faults due to our apparent inability to always properly get the diaper on him. The future president outfit that he has on in the picture lasted about 15 minutes before it was peed on.
We went to the pediatrician for the first time on Monday to get Cole checked out, as they recommend bringing him in about 2-3 days after being discharged from the hospital. Babies generally lose some weight after birth and then get back up to their birth weight within two weeks. Well, our championship eater was already at 8 lbs 10 oz (one oz less than at birth) already by Monday. Dr. Mike said that is pretty unusual for a breastfed baby to be back up at birth weight so quickly, so apparently I am a professional milk maker! John and I joke that my new main function is being like a gas station for Cole.