The New Hardware!

We made another trip to Detriot this afternoon to pick up Cole's helmet. We had a much better trip there and back this time around. Cole did so much better travelling and our newly purchased GPS performed well (last time we got a little lost!) Here's a picture, from this evening, of Cole wearing his helmet.

Jeff and I are both ecxited for a bit of a break TOGETHER tomorrow as we are leaving Cole with a sitter for the first time! If things go well we are looking forward to doing this a few times this winter as we are really wanting to get things going with basement renovations. Before we know it Cole will be crawling, then walking, and our living space is already feeling a little small with all the toys!

Going Blonde?!!

The past week or so we've been noticing Cole's hair beginning to lighten. Right now it's mostly on the top of his head and looking at it closely you can see all the light blonde hair that's filling in everywhere even though the dark hair is still there too. I'm actually a little sad... I'm so used to him with dark hair. I'm sure I'll grow to love his blonde hair though!

"Lumberjack Cole" (Jeff)

A tired, not so impressed Cole before his walk yesterday evening! He wouldn't settle in for his last nap of day, thankfully he took a little catnap in the stroller. So maybe it's not the coffee after all?!! I would love some caffeine and cheese right now... not so much together, but you know what I mean!

Got My Feet!

The past week or so Cole has finally managed to manouver himself in such a way that he can grab hold of his feet, or more accurately I should say, his big toe! It's not an easy feat and cannot be accomplished without the demonstrated side roll!
I'm on my second day caffeine free today... I like my coffee and it was not something I wanted to give up. When I initially started drinking a cup of coffee after feeding in the AM (when Cole was about 1 month) it didn't seem to bother him. Somewhere along the way though it does appear that he's become more caffeine sensitive and the little to no napping he was doing was wearing down both of us! I've been trying to troubleshoot this issue for the longest time... I kept reading in books about watching your caffeine intake but dismissed it as it didn't have any effect when I added it in. What a relief it is to have finally determined the cause!
More good news, Jeff's results from his tests have all come back negative. The latest doctor he saw diagnosed him with excessive stomach acid. Similar to reflux but it doesn't actually come up it just stays in his stomach. He's on medication now and feeling much better. "Its like I have a brand new stomach"! (Jeff)
Cole's 1st visit to the orthopedic clinic for his helmet went well. They did a head scan there and printed us off different views as they explained what areas would be focused on. Cole will be getting his helmet this Friday.

Our Weekend

This weekend, like a lot of weekends, we used to get caught up! We also made it out to Toys R Us on Saturday to look for the next stage up carseat for Cole. His current one only goes up to 22lbs and he's a pretty solid 20lbs right now. It's a good thing we went now because the one we want has to be ordered in and it could be as long as 3 wks to get it. The lineup was a little long at the store so Jeff and Cole went to wait outside where I found him a few minutes later promising Cole that twice a year we are going to take him there and let him pick out a toy for himself (as long as it's below a certain price--don't want to blow the budget!) He said he remembers being allowed to do this as a child and it being THE best thing, he didn't have the price cap but now with all the expensive battery operated vehicles there he said we'd have to come up with a limit!
Yesterday, we made it out to catch up with friends. In the picture above, Darlene and her sweet new little one, Charity!... holding her it was so hard to believe that only a few months ago Cole was about that size. Cole did well and is a very social little guy, as Tracy said. By the end of the visit though he was getting pretty overtired... he would laugh for others but fuss if he was with me! His naps are once again thrown off as I think he's working on some more teeth:( His immunization shots on Friday went really well, his new doctor was so fast he was done both needles before any of us realized it, including Cole... so only a short cry afterwards. Whew!
Below, a picture of Jeff and Cole from the weekend... Jeff was calling him "farmer Cole" in the overalls with the hat and he insisted on turning up the beak of the cap so he would look a little less so.

Good Mornings and Days!

Well, I always hesitate to say anything until it's been at least a couple days but I think it's safe to say now that Cole has learned how to put himself to sleep at naptime. Bedtime still needs to be worked on this way, whether it be because he is the most tired at this point I don't know. Still, I'm sooo relieved I don't have to try to rock his almost 20lb self to sleep 4x/day anymore! Some cute pictures from this morning above.

the latest...

above: caught a little giggle, easy to do these days if you mimic a sneeze "achooo"!

below: checking out one of his bears and about grab him

Well, it's been a bit of a rough past week since I've been on here to update. But it started out on a good note, and today has been going pretty well so far. So, I guess there's hope that things have calmed down for a bit:)
The rice cereal really has seemed to make a difference with Cole's daytime sleep. His routine is back to a fairly predictable 3 hrs now.
We have had a couple really rough night putting him to bed though. He has become quite the mama's boy over the past week and is pretty unwilling to let me have my usual evening break. I'm told from some people the attachment is usually worse with boys than girls this way. The jumperoo has also proved to be a mixed blessing as he's now learned how to full-out jump (not just hopping from leg to leg) and is SOOOO into it that when bedtime rolls around he doesn't want to stop, just keeps kicking those legs. One night we were up with him till 12 am... if you tried to put him to bed he shrieked but if you stood him up he was all smiles and trying to jump up and down! I finally ended up putting him into his jumperoo in the dark and after a few minutes he decided it wasn't that exciting at night-time and let me put him to bed.
Cole has another dr's appointment tomorrow to get his 4 mth vaccinations and check on his progress. His cradle cap is now completely gone with the perscription cream we got at our last appointment. His neck excercises have been going well... although he tenses up his neck now and won't let you turn his head, he will turn his head himself almost all the way following a toy and doesn't protest too much at a little extra help getting all the way to the difficult side. After tomorrow's appointment we will be looking to schedule in a consultation at a clinic in Detriot to get Cole's helmet.
Jeff has had some abdominal pains for awhile now. Finally, after a particularily painful night and some more convincing later on, he saw a doctor about it. Today he had an ultrasound and bloodwork done and now we are waiting till next friday to get the results back. We will keep you posted... hopefully it's nothing serious.

Cole doing some tummy time, he's still not a fan of it so we try to get in little sessions a couple times a day vs all at once.