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!