xmas

christmas with cole was amazing. as much as i love xmas, cole made it so much better. the day is filled with smiles, food, gifts, and some of our family. the best way to tell about our day of course is through pictures!!!

cole opened a gift first, but was more excited by the paper. later on though he decided he actually liked the gift he got!


we tried to get him to open a gift on his own, but he pretty much just laughed at us and made fun noises with the gift bag.



all of the gift opening sure did tire him out though.
cole is so lucky to have so much family that loves him.

new friends

cole had a very busy xmas eve. he made great friends with inko and brandi!

disney fan

sorry for the lack of updates, but we are still away for the holidays. we will be home in two days and i will update with lots f pictures. in the meantime i have given birth to a disney fan. he has fallen in love with his gram's coffee mug that just happens to have mickey mouse on it. cole has made friends with the mug. he talks to it, laughs at it and lunges towards it.

ho ho ho disney!!

ups came knocking on our door tonight!! the box, like so many others was addressed to cole. we opened it to find lots of goodies from pop-pop and grammy lynnie!! he has a stuffed rust-eze from the movie cars now. he also has a stuffed goofy, who just happens to be grammy lynnie's favorite! he also has two great new disney t-shirts, including a pirate one. there was also a wooden carved sign that has cole's name on it and a mickey mouse playing soccer, which brad loves! cole took right to the goofy. he smiled, snuggled his face against him, and tried to eat him which he does to all his closest friends!

sucker

we have a thumb sucker! cole never really wants a pacifier. he will sometimes take it for 2 minutes before he sends it shooting out of his mouth. he loves to have one of my fingers though. but today he finally found his own thumb! brad tried to take a pic while holding him and i tried to get one for evidence. they aren't the best pictures but you get the point.

he's a helper

today cole helped me wrapped gifts! he liked sitting up in his chair watching me and smiled as i told him all about xmas and our plans to see everyone. his chair has been a BIG help. last week he didn't want me to get any wrapping done, but today i got most of it done.

kickin' gym

cole got a kickin' gym from his grandma and grandpa this weekend. so far he loves it. he was quick to pick up that if he kicks his feet his toys makes music and lights up. he kicks and then he smiles!! it's much fun to watch him with this new toy.

early xmas

we celebrated xmas early this weekend with brad's family. everyone, but amy, was there. it's always nice when everyone is around. we ate a TON, played board games, played with cole, and opened gifts! since it is his first xmas i of course had to dress him for the occasion, plus take a million pictures!

"mom, stop taking pictures i'm trying to talk to you!"

"ok, mom, here's the smile."

"i'm done mom!"

dr appt

even though we are in the middle of a snow storm we had to venture out. cole had his two month check-up with the doctor today. he is doing well. he now weighs 12 lbs, which makes him in the 60% for weight. he is 24" long, which puts him in the 90% for length. i knew i had a long little man!! he had shots today too. he handled them much better then i did.

new trick

tonight cole held his own rattle! he played with it and tried to eat it for awhile. (sorry the pics are so dark i have a tough time getting pics inside at night with my camera!)

napping

cole doesn't like to nap most days. he takes 10 - 20 minute cat naps when im lucky. i know i shouldn't complain much though because he does sleep really well at night, almost every night. he fell asleep chewing on his burp cloth today. every time i tried to move it away from his face though he'd wake up. i finally gave in and let him nap with it, for all of 12 minutes!

sorry

i'm sorry i haven't updated in a week. we have been busy getting ready for xmas. we also went to niagara falls this weekend for shawn's (brads bestfriend) wedding. grandma came with us to watch cole so we could have a night out, thanks grandma! we didn't take him to the falls, because it was very cold. we only live three hours from there so i am sure we can make the trip again.
cole is holding his head up much better. we decided to try him in his bebe pod today, since he loves to sit up and look around. he did a good job sitting in it. he started to slump to the side though once i grabbed the camera. you can still see how much he enjoyed it though!

2 months

cole is talking to us a lot more now. his favorite word is gah. he enjoys pushing, batting at things with his hands, and kicking. he has a very strong grip. he has to sit so he has a view or he gets fussy. he is not a fan of socks. he almost always will kick one of them off. he has been getting impatient with tummy time, but his head and neck are still getting stronger. napping is his enemy! he is in the habit now of taking 8 - 15 minute naps. he recognizes both mommy and daddy and often tracks us with his eyes when we are moving around. he smiles a ton now. and he LOVES a good ceiling fan!

fun

cole spends a lot more time awake now and is a lot of fun most of the time when he is awake. he loves to stare at lights still, but he also likes to just lay on his tummy or back and take everything in. sometimes when we hold him if he starts to fuss or cry all we have to do is lay him down on the floor or put him in his bounvcer. he's mr. independent! he smiles when we make faces at him and even when i sing to him sometimes. he seems to prefer to be on his own then being held lately while he's awake. luckily, he still loves to cuddle when he gets sleepy.

fists!

cole has now started to explore anything and everything he can with his mouth. hes started to chew on his toys, blankets, and sleeves. his favorite thing to chew on though is his fists, probably because they are the easiest for him to get to.

er visit

last night was so scary! cole was crying and screaming for over a hour straight. nothing i was trying would work to calm him. he had diarrhea and was miserable. i took his temp but it was fine. i finally called gram to get some help. she told me i should call the doctor. i got in touch with the doctor and he told me to take him right to the er.
well we get in the car to go to the er and he stops crying. i figured i needed to still take him though to make sure everything was ok. when we got into the er he started right back up with the screaming. they took us right in. cole got to see an amazing doctor who was so good with him. he checked him all out and said he would be ok. the doctor said he thought it was probably just a little stomach bug. he told me to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't get dehydrated or get a temperature.
we came home, cole ate, and he calmed right down. he went to sleep and slept great. he woke up this morning all smiles like nothing had happened!

bad mommy

the past week has been quite busy! thanksgiving was great. lots of family and lots of food. im a bad mommy though and somehow missed getting a picture of him in his thanksgiving outfit. i might have to get one this week and just bluff it.
i went shopping on black friday with kim at 4am. cole stayed with his daddy and uncle jeff. they all had a great day of male bonding!
we went to the tree farm and picked out our tree. then brad cut it down. its 9' tall and i love it. brad spent the day hanging up xmas lights outside on his day off sunday. the three of us decorated the xmas tree yesterday and cole loves it! i got a picture of him smiling while checking out the lights on the tree!

likes and dislikes...

likes: staring at lights, nursing, snuggling, talking, the playmat, car rides, the bears on the changing table, the fishy mobile, bath time, the jumping game with his daddy, his bouncer, walks in the stroller, sound machine.

dislikes: the first 15 seconds of getting into the bath, loud noises, gas, getting hot, the camera flash.

first real smile

today cole gave us his first real smile! we have seen smiles in his sleep. we have seen plenty of smiles that we thought might be his first, but ended up just being gas smiles. today though was a real smile! how can i be so sure?? well because it happened during our morning playmat time. i was making all kinds of silly faces and noises and the response i got was....

first snow...

we have had some light flurries the past week, but last night we actually got some snow. we had about 1" this morning. we weren't able to get out that early though so the pictures had to wait. some of the snow melted but we had to get some pictures! he's in his snowsuit which is pretty big on him and he almost looks like it swallows him up. he was not impressed with the snow at all. he actually fell asleep in the 3 minutes we were out there taking the pictures!

santa!

today we took cole to meet santa. we wanted to go a little early in the season to avoid the long lines. luckily when we got there, there was no line at all! cole was awake and alert so we were all set. the weird thing was there was a mrs. clause was there too and in the picture. so after one picture i asked the photographer if we could get a picture with just santa. because seriously who wants a picture with mrs. clause? let alone she looked like a wreck. so the photographer had her move out of the picture, which she didn't seem to happy about. then santa got cole situated, but before they could take the picture cole spit up on santa! there was spit up everywhere. and santa was PISSED! i tried to help clean santa up and apologized a thousand times but he didn't want to hear a thing. you'd think he'd be more used to it. i am sure cole isn't the first. anyway we got cole cleaned up and took the picture. it came out really cute! plus you can see some spit up on santa's chair in the picture. it was a great first visit for us, not so much for santa though! our scanner isn't working so i had to take a picture of the picture, but i figured it was better then nothing.

visits

the three of us ventured to new jersey again this weekend! we went to celebrate thanksgiving a little early. it was a great time and very yummy. cole got some time in with his poppy too!

once again

once again i tortured my little man with the camera. this is just a sneak peek.

wooo hooo

today cole had his first play day! this is cole and his friend garrett.

bouncer

cole now loves his bouncer! he will sit in it and just talk to himself. sometimes i will try to take him out because i feel bad he's jsut sitting there but he will get mad and cry. sometimes if hes upset now all i have to do is put him in the bouncer and he will calm down.

last night brad and i went out to dinner with jeff and kim. yes, without cole. grandma stayed at our house and watched him. it was really nice to go out to a nice dinner. we even went to walmart and bought some xmas lights to decorate the outside of our house. but i was so glad to get home and see my little man. sometimes being with him 24/7 is really hard but it was pretty hard leaving him too.

overprotective

this morning cole woke up with a rash on his arms and legs, so i took him in to see the doctor. our little man is ok. they said the rash was still part of the newborn rash, which is just thier skin adjusting to the air after being in the water for so long. they also told me i could give him more medicine to help out with his gas. apparently i wasn't giving it to him enough so now i need to try giving it to him each time before he eats. cole is`definately growing! he's now up to 10.5 lbs. this is cole after his doctor visit...

great grandparents...

cole is lucky enough to have SIX grandparents! he's also lucky enough to have great grandparents.

one month old!

brad had this weekend off and we decided to take full advantage of it. the three of us went to new jersey for the weekend. we went to celebrate poppy's bday. not only was it poppy's bday, it was cole's one month birthday.

this first month has been amazing and challenging all at the same time. my body has learned to survive on very little sleep and can still function. luckily cole's night time sleep routine is getting much better. we swaddle him and use a sound machine each night, which has had great results. he is now sleeping almost 4 - 5.5 hours each night without waking.
cole now will turn his head to hear certain noises to try and figure but where they are coming from. he has also started to follow his toys with his eyes. he loves to stare at the bears that hang above his head on his changing table too, and every once in awhile is lucky enough to hit them with his hands. cole doesn't mind his tummy time too much, but he also doesn't love it. we do a little every day to try and help build his neck muscles. he is full of personality, as you can see in the picture with his brow furrowing! he's growing so fast!

4 weeks

not only is cole four weeks today, it's his first halloween! happy halloween!!