Christmas!!

We survived Cole's 1st Christmas....or should I say Cole survived his 1st Christmas?? I can't believe it is almost 2011. That is crazy. This year has flown.

Ok, back to Christmas. Cole really surprised me by really getting into his gifts. He loved ripping the paper and with each toy, there was a new noise/song. So of course he absolutely LOVED this. These pics explain it all.

Christmas Eve

Christmas jammies from grandma

Cole with 2 of his cousins

The kids in their new jammies

Christmas Morning!!!!

His new play mat
Don't mind me...it was EARLY!!



Helping daddy put things together




Chillin in his new couch

His stocking of tissue paper:)

I have lots more, but I will spare you:) I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

SANTA!!!

Our neighbor's dad dresses up as Santa every year and goes around to the houses on our cul-de-sac. I was so excited for Cole to meet Santa! He showed up and as Cole and I were walking to the door, he had a big "O" on his face. The closer we got the more that "O" turned into shear fear! He would look at him, bury his face in me, look up smile....then that smile would turn into cries, back to burying his face, and so on.

Santa brought Cole a stacking toy and a "Baby's First Christmas" bib. Then it came time to put Cole on Santa's lap. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Things started to get a little better....

We survived another....

We survived another cold at the Love house:( Poor Cole woke up 2 Friday's ago every 30-45 minutes. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I listened to him and he was so congested. So I got the boogie sucker out and started our snot sucking routine. Although this time, nothing helped him. He was up so much, I ended up bringing him downstairs to our rocker. When I couldn't sleep in that I brought him to bed with me. For a whole week he slept with me. Longest.Week.Ever! I ended up taking him to the pedi on Monday because he kept waking up gasping and gagging and his little voice was so hoarse. Luckily, when he was awake, he was a happy boy. The pedi said it was ALL in his throat and to give him benadryl and keep him comfortable.

Well, for most children benadryl makes them sleepy. My child is not most children apparently:( I'm not going to lie, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel thinking something might help him sleep through this. NOPE! Luckily I tested it during the day. I figured since we were home together and I could cuddle him all day that sleep is what he needed. Made him wound. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it definitely did not make him tired.

So Monday night, I was up all night with the stomach flu. Luckily I was only extremely nauseous. I woke up Tuesday with a fever feeling horrible. Jared couldn't miss any work because of a big project. I could only lay on the couch. I felt awful. I napped when Cole napped and counted down the seconds until Jared got home so I could go curl up in bed. I don't know how single parents do it. Thank goodness it was only a 24 hr bug.

So, Jared then caught Cole's cold and Wed night I slept between 2 snoring boys who were so congested they couldn't breath through their mouth:( All during this snotty, icky time, our dryer decided to stop working so we couldn't do laundry. What a week!! I know things could have been way worse, but they still sucked for us.

So that's where I have been. Cole still has a little cough, but is pretty good. Oh, did I mention that he was also working on getting his top 2 teeth all during this ordeal. Ugh!!

9 months

Yup, he turned 9 months today. Give me another week and he has been here for as long as I was pregnant with him. How is that stinking possible. He makes me so proud every day. I know that sounds cheesy, but he really does. I love him with every fiber in me!! Is it bad that the longest I have been away from him since he was born is probably 6 long hours. Anytime I am away from him, I just want to be home playing with him. Of course my occasional break is nice, but give me an hour and I'm good to go.

So here are little man's stats. He went for his 9 month well check on Monday. When she came in, he was standing on the table holding on to the window with one hand (just another day with little man). She was very impressed with this and all his motor skills. She said "I have no doubt he will be walking before his first birthday" NO!! I want my baby to stay a baby, but he has bigger and better plans. He is ready to walk...he wants to walk...he thinks he can walk, but he isn't quite ready. He weighed in at a whopping 24lbs 7.5 oz (94%) and 27 3/4 in long (68%).

She said to start having him eat whatever we eat, and most of his nourishment should come from food more then his bottle. That's a lot of pressure. I could just rely on his bottle, but now I have to make sure he gets everything he needs. To most that isn't a worry, but Jared and I are very picky eaters. I definitely don't eat the best. I really want to make sure Cole isn't picky, so I want him to try everything early! The only problem is, I don't know how to prepare a lot of the "healthy" foods he should be having. That's what mom's (as in my mom) are for:) So this week he has tried toast, loves, pancakes, kinda likes, cooked peas and carrots, not a huge fan, and cheese, absolutely hated. I will keep offering him all this plus more so I am sure I will have some food stories.

She checked his gums and sure enough, one tooth is "popping through as we speak" (her words) and the other one is right behind it. Which explains his crappy sleep. He rang in his 9 month birthday sleeping with us. He would sleep for 10 minutes at a time in his crib, then wake up screaming. So I brought him to bed with us where he slept perfect. Then, he rang out his 9 month birthday with a fever of 100.9. I picked him up and noticed he felt warm, sure enough he had a fever. From there he went down hill. He layed on our lap (which is so not like him) for basically an hour. Then when I went to feed him he ate half his carrots, then started crying really hard, then almost falling asleep. When Jared took him up to play on the bed like they do every night while I get the bath ready, he just layed curled up with his head down. He didn't even play with his tug boat friends in the bath! He took a little bit of his bottle before he fell asleep. I gave him some motrin and am really hoping he sleeps good tonight. I know he needs a good night sleep! I just hope this fever is from teething and not something else.

At 9 months Cole is:
- Wearing 12-18 month clothes (bigger on bottom, but still can wear 12 month on top)
- Crawls like a mad man. He is into everything!! He loves crawling up the stairs when we let him (while we are behind him of course)
- Can stand by himself for 5-10 seconds before flopping on his butt
- Says "baba" and as of yesterday "mama!" He knows how to melt my heart
- Starting to sign "more"
- Love "Patty Cake" , "Horsey horsey", and "This little piggy"
- Walks along furniture and transfers from one place to another while holding onto us.
- Loves to give hugs to everyone
- Has his 2 bottom teeth and working on his top 2

Like always, I know there is so much more he can do, but this is all that is on the top of my head. Here are some pics of little man to admire.

Some pics we did by the tree

Christmas Tree

I was so excited to take Cole to cut down our Christmas tree. I remember thinking last year that this Christmas I would have an "outside" baby to take with us. Unfortunately the tree farm we normally go to by Jared's parents was ruined by the deer. So we did a lot of searching for a tree farm close to us that didn't cost $50 (which is very hard!!). We ended up finding a farm about 15 minutes away and any tree there was only $35! Wahoo!

So my mom and dad went with us, so my dad could help cut the tree down and we could use their truck. It ended up being a very cold day, so my mom stayed in the car with Cole while we trekked out to find our Christmas tree. This farm was huge and I am so bummed I left the camera in the car while we searched for our tree. About 40 minutes later we found the perfect tree. They even gave us little sleds so we could drag the tree back on.

I ran to the car to get Cole to get some pictures with our freshly cut tree. Poor kid was so bundled up. He had baby legs, socks, boots, jeans, a long sleeve onesie, sweater, thick down coat, and hat. I'm bad and haven't got him any gloves yet. So poor Cole literally could not put his arms down. He also didn't think he could move/turn his head in all that garb. So anytime he looked at something he looked like he was giving everyone the side eye.

Sorry it's so dark. I had it on the wrong setting. I'll try and fix that later.

Isn't the side eye hilarious?

Isn't this cute? They had gifts and hot chocolate in there.

Unbundled and on our way home.

Bubba in the tub

So Cole is teething...again. I swear he has been teething for the last 6 months and only has 2 teeth to show for it:( When we were at the pedi about a month ago she said his top gums were swollen. Well, at the funeral last week Cole started putting everything frantically in his mouth, drooling, sleeping horrible, the usual "I'm in pain because these teeth want to bust out" things. So motrin and tylenol we go to. I give him motrin before bed and if he starts waking up crying around 2am, I give him a dose of tylenol (pedi said we are fine doing all this:). Well, he has started freaking out when I give him tyenol at night. Like, I have to hold him down to get him to take it. I hate it, but he usually sleeps for 4 hours straight after I give it to him so I know it helps.

Well, fast forward to Sunday night. I went to give him his tylenol, in the dark, at 2:45am. And he freaks, which is no surprise. I go to put it in his mouth, push the syringe, and he turns his head as the tylenol comes out....all over his face running down his neck into his hair. Ugh! I cleaned the best I could with baby wipes. But being the lazy mommy I am in the early morning, I put him back to bed:/ He slept till 7:30 and when he woke up he had crusty hair. Didn't bother him!

So instead of giving him a bath in the tub, I figured we would try the sink. We've never done this before. He LOVED it. At first he was a little confused.


But then he got into it and had a blast. The counter was soaked by the time we were done!




And my three favorite (I'm not one to usually post bare booty, but this was too funny not to).

Thanksgiving

So I'm about a week late with this post (once again I have been a bad blogger...my goal is to do much better!), but we had a great Thanksgiving. Unfortunately the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Jared's grandma passed away. She was 95 years old and lived a long fulfilling life! So it was a bitter sweet week. This is a pic we got with Cole, Jared and his grandma this summer



Last week was just crazy! Monday and Tuesday we drove back and forth an hour away for the funeral. Then on Thursday we went to my families for Thanksgiving and Friday to his families for Thanksgiving. Phew!! I am a huge stickler for Cole's schedule, so I thought I was going to go crazy. But I am so proud of Cole. He went without some naps, but did amazing. Of course by the time it was time to leave....he was done. But still, he was such a good boy! So on top of his schedule being out of whack, he is teething. Yup, working on his top teeth:( So he isn't eating well at all.

We tried giving Cole some of his first "table" foods. Yeah, he HATED them. He was so ticked we messed with his food. Fortunately both dinners I brought him some puree's. Of course I brought sweet potatoes and squash to keep in the holiday mode:) I must say, at the funeral, the puffs were a life saver. He was in a super "I want to talk" mood. So I kept the puffs close by and would give them to him when he got a little too social:)

K mom, I'm all done now!!

Some of my family (my bro and his family weren't there for dinner)

My dad and nephew playing with Cole

The cutest pic of my nephew and Cole

My parents (and their dogs) with Cole

I didn't get any pics at the in laws because he was a very busy boy trying to get into everything. And I did not go black friday shopping this year. I am actually done with all of Cole's Christmas shopping! I usually wait until the week before Christmas to even start shopping, so this is HUGE for me:) Now just a few more things to get for family.