halloween!

for some odd reason our town held halloween the night before halloween. to celebrate halloween we had the baby friends over for a little pizza party. later in the day we took cole to visit bridget's family for his first trick or treating experience. he loves twizzlers! then we came home to hand out candy to all of the kids in costume. cole had a great time handing out candy and checking out all of the costumes. he stayed in his costume most of the day. he was the cutest monster!

late

i know i never posted the 12 month picture, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. cole has decided sitting still for even a second for me to take a picture is unacceptable. here is how the "shoot" went...

mr. walker

cole has been taking steps here and there, even though he refuses to do it when i have the video camera out. today though was a turning point for our little boy. cole became a walker! he is definitely walking more now than crawling. he is all over the place. here are two little videos from today. the one is pretty dark, but still cute!!

kisses

my sweet little man loves to give kisses! he will kiss books, toys, reflections of himself, and maggie. every once in awhile brad and i are lucky enough to get a kiss, however it is a rare occurrence. but give the boy a book or his cabbage patch and the kisses pour on out!

bye-bye

cole has been zooming around on his push toys and is even so daring to go through the house with one hand now. he's taking more and more steps each day. he will also say hi and bye as he goes in and out of rooms.

friends to the end

bridget asked me to take pictures of her family today out at their cabin and it went really well. i had a blast taking pictures, they were happy with the results, and cole had a great time trying to walk around and playing with ella. i love these pictures i have of ella and cole. the two of them get the biggest smiles around each other and i think it is so cute. i hope they are able to stay good friends as they grow up!

more and more

my big boy is sooo close to walking! he keeps taking more and more steps each day. crawling is still his main way of moving though, walking is just silly to him right now. he laughs while he tries to take his steps. last week was the first time he got up on his own, with no coaxing and took 3 steps on his own. now he likes to get up from his chair and will try to walk to me. here is a series showing him walking towards me. it must have worn him out thought, because he went back to his chair and laid down.

allergy!

after a bad rash coming, going, and then staying around cole's mouth i finally figured out what was wrong with him. cole has an allergy to cows milk. it's his first allergy and luckily it wasn't too awful of a reaction. however, because it wasn't awful it took me awhile to catch on to it. after adding up his behaviors over the past two weeks since he had been drinking it, i realized it had to be the milk. i called the doctor and told him about the symptoms (not sleeping through the night, extremely fussy, loose stools, "spit up" several times, and the rash) he told me to take him off right away. i have started him on soy milk and so far he seems to be doing ok on it and loves it. i didn't take a picture of how bad the rash was, but you can see it going away a little in these pics.

pumpkin patch

we went pumpkin picking again today! yes, that makes two days in a row. cole still had a blast though. one of our friends has family that has a pumpkin patch, so we went there today. it was a small patch, because they just sell them in front of their house and grow them for family. luckily we were able to take advantage of it too. we even got to go on a great hay ride all over their property. cole enjoyed the hay ride a ton! he wouldn't stay seated at all, so i had to hold on to him to mkae sure he didn't climb over or bounce out.

iron kettle farm

today we went with bridget, john, and ella to the iron kettle farm. apparently around here it is a big tradition amongst most families. the weather was amazing and we had a blast! the kids got to see animals, play in the park area, see halloween displays, eat lunch, go through a corn maze, and pick pumpkins out. the farm has a growth chart that apprently people take pictures of their kids each year to compare, this was evident by the poor 12 year old being forced by his mom "just smile and mkae me happy, we can't miss a year".

getting close

cole seems to be getting close to walking. he will walk all over if there is stuff to hold on to like furniture, a push toy or someones hand. if brad and i stand him up in between us, he will take the couple of steps to reach the other one of us. today though all of his friends were over for a craft project and while we were playing in the front room cole got up all on his own and took 5 steps to reach his shopping cart toy!

little peanut

cole is officially a little peanut! we had his yearly check-up today. he weighs 20 lbs and 4 oz (14%) and he is 29.5" long (40%). he had to have a finger prick done, two shots, and blood drawn for some tests, but he was a champ. he only cried for a couple seconds with the shots. the prick and having the blood drawn didn't bother him at all. the doctor said he's doing great! he also said cole is just big enough now to face forward in the car seat. we tried it out and he really loves it!

1st birthday party!!

today was cole's 1st birthday party! it was a truly great day. we were lucky enough to have family and friends come to celebrate with him. he had a blast! i was so busy having a good time and making sure everything was going smoothly i didn't get to take many pictures, but i have enough to remember the day. he loved all the food and even enjoyed opening the gifts with the help of his friends.

one of the only pictures of him in his party shirt!

playing shy while everyone sang happy birthday

he loves to share!

yay cake!

birthday!

today is the day that my baby turned one! i can not believe that it has already been a year. it flew by just like everyone told me it would. i feel like he has grown and changed so much in these 12 months and hope that i will always remember how amazing this year has been with him. he is the most amazing little boy and gives me so much happiness. each day i hope that i am able to give him at least half of all the joy he gives me each day!

bewildered by the happy birthday song

first taste of cake

loving the cake!