Sunday, March 22, 2009

What a day!











Yesterday we drove out to Glendale, on the west side of the valley. The main purpose of the trip was due to the fact that Ron Santo was going to be there signing autographs. Ron seemed like a really nice guy and even asked how old Cole was. Since John was making us go all the way out there, his consolation was to eat dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, where we got to put a parakeet mask on poor little Cole! Apparently Cole was not impressed with Margaritaville because he eventually fell asleep in John's arms after dinner. After that, we visited this hunting/fishing/outdoors store called Cabela's. Everyone made a big deal out of it when it first opened, so we thought we would check it out. It was quite interesting. They had an aquarium full of fish like trout and salmon. In the middle of the store, they had a giant mountain with all these stuffed dead animals. Even though I'm not really into stuff like that, it was pretty interesting. We even found a coon skin cap to put on Cole. He was quite the tropper yesterday!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Night time

We have had our ups and downs with Cole's sleeping over the past few months. He had been sleeping pretty good when I went back to work, getting up once or twice a night to nurse really quickly and then right back to sleep. Then the 4-5 wakings per night started; this went on for several weeks. Eventually we discovered that the poor guy had a double ear infection. Once we started treating that, he started sleeping good again, only getting up once sometimes twice during the night. Well, that changed again this week because he seems to be teething, so he is only sleeping for 3-4 hour stretches at a time, sometimes only 2 if the teeth are really bothering him.

However, I know this might sound crazy, but one of my favorite times to spend with Cole is actually in the middle of the night. Now, I certainly wish he was a better sleeper, but sometimes I just love those moments. There is something about sitting in his dark and quiet room while everyone else (John, Leroy, Ryno and Sammy) are all fast asleep and it is just me and my little guy. He will nurse for about 10-15 minutes and just doze off in my arms. Then I will put him at my shoulder to try to burp him, even though he rarely needs to burp in the middle of the night, but I just love to snuggle with him for a few minutes before I put him back in his crib. Just listening to and feeling his little body breathe is so amazing. I know that as he gets older and actually starts sleeping through the night I am really going to miss those times. However, I am sure that I will appreciate having more sleep at that time, but for now, those moments are usually worth it.

Monday, March 16, 2009

He's growing so fast!











In the past week, Cole has hit two new milestones. He has started sitting up if you put him in a sitting position and he has also started eating some solid foods. He started with rice cereal and then my mom and I gave him his first try with sweet potatoes last night. My mom was genorous enough to buy me this machine called the Beaba Babycook. It steams and purees just about anything into baby food and in under 20 minutes. It was amazing! Cole seemed to love the sweet potatoes even though quite a bit of it got on his face.

The littlest fan











As of today, Cole has already gone to six, yes I said six, spring training games. Since John is now off on Mondays and Tuesdays, it is their new father/son bonding time. Cole is a good little fan. He seems to always be in a good mood at the game and has actually figured out a way to nap while there. John has finally started using the Baby Bjorn and it appears to be a bit hit!

Out of town guests











For the past three weekends, we have had houseguests. Luckily, they have all been lovely guests, so it was lots of fun. We started off with Martinique coming down to visit for an audiology conference, so I got to spend all day Saturday and part of Sunday with her. She got to spend lots of time with the little man and I am pretty sure that I was able to hear her biological clock ticking (watch out Keith!).

The following weekend, our friends Brian and Ashley came down from Colorado with their daughter Ainsley. She is just the sweetest, most well behaved child. She loved Cole and always wanted to talk to him and help feed him. We told her a couple of times that it was her turn to change his diaper, but she wasn't having any of that. While they were here, we went to a Cubbie spring training game, had a bbq, went to the zoo and made it to dinner at the infamous Uncle Sal's. Whew!

This past weekend, my mom came into town and she was in full "Grandma mode". She got to babysit him while I was at work on Friday until I got home around 2pm. She swears that he was a perfect angel the whole time. While she was here, we went to see the Chilhuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden, went shopping, hit another spring training game and just hung out with Cole. I know that she was sad to leave him, but is already planning her next trip to visit.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Spring training is finally here!







Even though John threatened to become a Yankee fan after last baseball season, once again he is caught up in the excitement of Cubs spring training. Today he took Cole to his first ever Cubbie game with Rob and Larz. It sounds like they had lots of fun. Cole wore his Soriano shirt that Grandma Linda bought him, along with his Cubbie hat from our friends Dave and Kristy. I believe there are still 8 more games on the agenda before spring training is over. I will be going with them on Sunday, where we will be tailgating beforehand with our friends Brian, Ashley and their daughter Ainsley that will be in visiting from Colorado, plus some other friends.

Snowboarding







A few weeks ago, John and Evan went to Sun Valley, Idaho for their annual snowboarding trip.

They had to fly into Boise and then drive 2 1/2 hours to get to Sun Valley. It looks like it was a beautiful town. John said that it was probably his favorite resort that he has been to in all the years that he has been skiing and snowboarding.