Happy 1st Birthday & Thanksgiving!!!!

Auntie Aurea, this one is all for you! I'm so glad you told me you check the blog b/c I was considering not updating it anymore thinking no one actually read it! I'm so glad you do :) Well, we celebrated Cole's first Thanksgiving and birthday all in the same weekend! We had a wonderful time hanging with family (finally not working a Thanksgiving!) and showering the little dude with first-birthday gifts! While he didn't enjoy unwrapping the gifts, he did enjoy playing with them all! He is so interested in lights and sounds. He's been walking around tables and walls, he crawls like a champ, and he says quite a few words, mostly dada, mama, yaya (for Aurea!), milk & dog (or a versions thereof) and he clearly said 'uh oh' on his actual birthday!!!! He's grown so much and each new phase is more exciting than the one before! It's been so much fun watching him learn to explore the world!

Happy *Belated* Halloween!

Well, I am waayyy behind on posting, but thankfully not as far behind as I thought! The month of October flew by for us with Halloween & packing. Yes, we made the decision to move our little family back to Tulsa and our house in Austin sold in a week! Soooo, we had to quickly pack and make home repairs in order to close on Nov 16. Cole has handled the transition very well, he had a few days of restlessness and not wanting to nap, but we think we're getting settled now. Here are a few pics from the month of October. Cole wasn't really excited about the pumpkin patch or dressing up for Halloween, but he did enjoy hanging out with the neighborhood kids before the older ones began trick-or-treating!





The picture of him asleep on the couch was out our neighbor's, Jack & Kelli. We had a wonderful goodbye dinner with J&K and Bruce & Angie. Our neighbors became like family over the past 5 years and we miss them dearly already. Hopefully this blog (and facebook) can help keep us connected between visits!

Falling into Fall

Cole has become one little mobile man & is getting into everything! He's learning to fall gracefully as he cautiously lets one hand go of the table (or whatever he's holding onto while standing) and he's quite the curious George. He is fascinated with opening and closing doors and pushing buttons on the stereo, it's quite funny b/c he's made Craig's stereo do things Craig didn't even know it could do! We recently realized he loves anything that makes noise as well as music! We took him to his (and our) very first ACL (Austin City Limits Fesitval...kinda like Edgefest only waaayyyyy better). He did great, even on Saturday when it rained all day! He was 'bubble boy' in his stroller w/the plastic covering! Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks...in a couple of the pics he was helping us change out a sink faucet and hang curtains. There's another of him standing ALL BY HIMSELF!!!! While we were at ACL, Michael (Aurea's brother) was entertaining him and let go to see what he would do and he stood all by himself!!! He hasn't done it again since, but at least we know he can :)

Don't Fall!

Cole will be 10 months this week! I can't believe it's almost time for his first Halloween! I bought a dinosaur costume and figured he could wear it while we hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. He looks hilarious in it, it's so cute! I think it's a stegosaurus, so when he crawls around with it on, it's perfect...we have our own little dino roaming the land! Cole has finally figured out how to do the right-left crawl, although he still gets around faster doing the 'inchworm.' He's got his bottom two teeth and the top ones are sticking through (I, of course, just had to sing 'all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth' and got the song stuck in my head...LOL!). I took this pic last week, we were laughing so much at his hair...it has grown a lot this past month. He was so excited to see the camera he kept climbing the side of the tub & even though he can pull himself up really well, he's not so good at keeping his balance. I think we both have been saying 'don't fall' more than anything else lately...haha!

Family pictures

So, we took Cole's 7-month pictures (supposed to be 6-months, oh well!) at the beginning of July. He was such a little ham & had us laughing the whole time! We're already talking about taking his 1-year pics...how time flies!

Waayyyy behind

I can't believe it's been since July that I have posted anything. Well, in August we traveled to Telluride, Colorado with Mimi, Papa & other family for Carlyn's wedding and had a wonderful time. We visited our friends Jason & Aurea in San Antonio (including the River Walk...yummy TexMex @ Margarita's). Cole & I made a trip up to Tulsa for a long weekend as I transitioned from working nights to days (wooohooo)! Cole had his post-UTI testing done at Dell Children's & we found out that he's one healthy little dude & no surgery is needed (thanks for all the thoughts & prayers)! And, he had his first swim lesson. Meanwhile, Cole had been growing & developing by leaps & bounds! During the months of July & August, he has perfected his army crawl, he pulls up on furniture, doors, walls, anything and is practicing standing on his own by letting go with one hand at a time, he's learning to balance on his feet and walk around holding onto things, and he's also learning to feed himself and eat table food! He talks a little, although it's more of grunts (he has such a raspy little voice!) and the repetitious "dadadadada"! At his 9-month appointment, he weighed a whopping 15 lb 14 oz...and we are officially UNDER the 5%, but he's growing along a curve that our PNP is happy with, so there's no concern. He LOVES his fruits, cheerios, saltine crackers, some of the veggies and we're working on the meats (he makes the funniest faces when he doesn't like something). For all the moms out there (and moms-to-be), Dr Brazelton's Touchpoints books are amazing for guiding you on developmental milestones & supporting you in helping your kiddo meet them (and reassuring you that each child is unique & learning is really all about playing!) Otherwise, we've been busy playing & cutting teeth & learning about life!

I took this video before our little dude got sick. He found one of the last spring-loaded door stoppers in the house (our master bath is the LAST room we have left to update...wooohooo!). Cole is a very curious little man & so much fun to entertain! His laugh makes us laugh, which in turn makes him laugh...it's a lot of fun! He's still mischievous and has pulled a lamp off the end table at least 3 times (you'd think we'd figure out how to move it so he DOESN'T do that) and thankfully has not bonked his head with it. He loves the dog food bowls & I'm constantly moving them, but Zoe does very well with him & doesn't put up a fight (although if she did, maybe it would teach him a lesson...hmmmm????). This past week has been rather crazy, we were at the pedi's office 5 out of 6 days and had multiple shots & labwork done. We're only part-way through this whole ordeal, but hope & pray surgery is NOT the answer. He's back to his smiling & energetic self & we can always rely on the dogs to bring a smile & giggle to his face :) "Man's best friend" may need to be revamped to say "Cole-man's best friend!"