Busy, busy!

The past week has been crazy. It takes a little doing to try to keep up with the pace of our now, 8 month old. The different classes we have started are helping alot with this. Swimming lessons have been great at teaching us little things to do with Cole for fun in the water that I wouldn't have thought to do... like standing him on the side of the pool and "jumping" him into the water, he loves this! Baby sign language is a 1/2 hr class each week. I'm not sure yet whether or not we're going to have any success implementing it. Regardless, it's a great out and we're meeting a good group of mom and babies there. Last week a bunch of us went out for lunch after class it was so nice to sit back relax and have some adult conversation and good food. The Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme class is a fun time for Cole but he has a problem staying in one spot for the hour length that it runs that paired with the timing of it, right before his second nap... well, it's a bit of a difficult hour so far for both of us but we'll keep going to one or two more and see if we can make it work.
Our lower level is ready for paint then flooring! We found someone to do the mudding at the end of last week and he squeezed this job in on the weekend and the beginning of this week. He did a great job and I know Jeff's glad from a time and workwise perspective that he didn't attempt it himself.
Cole, Sandie and Jeff: We met up with Sandie on the weekend at the bowling alley here in town, she used to be Jeff's babysitter and he hadn't seen her in a number of years

bathtime!

Daddy and Cole glued to the tv, Treehouse!

Cole trying to pull himself up after seeing his friend Lukas doing it when we visited him and his parents on the weekend, still no success but he's trying hard!

Cole going after the cat! Austin and Duke are both well-loved by Cole. I would have never guessed the cat would put up with so much from him... yet he keeps coming back for more and if Cole is playing on the floor Austin is usually close by.

Cole with a frozen bagel, I read that it works well for teething... I don't know about the teething part but he always welcomes a new toy of any sort!

Wednesday Already!

This week is flying by, and that's always a good thing nowadays:) Last night David and I were grabbing a bite to eat at Superstore before heading out to take in a movie. While we were there I saw that the GoodLife gym there looked like it had a daycare. I decided to pop in and check it out. Although the daycare isn't open during the afternoons I thought Cole and I would still get lots of use out of the mornings, nights and weekends that it is available... so I signed up! Gym memberships haven't worked out very well for me in the past (I'm one of the chronic people that sign up and go for the first month then never go back!) I really do think this time will be different though since it will be a good way to break up the day for both Cole and me. This morning we went for an hour or so and I just stayed with him in the daycare so that he'd have a chance to get used to it! He loved it and it seems to have worn him out well for his first nap! After he wakes up it'll be a quick lunch and then we're off to our Mother Goose group this afternoon.
My brother David headed back to Barrie this morning. The basement is ready for the next step and we're having someone in today to quote for the mudding that needs to be done. We're sooo grateful to David for his help here... it definetely wouldn't have happened this fast without him plus Cole enjoyed spending some time with his uncle!

Cole having a laugh with Uncle David

cruising around some of his toys, you can leave him a bit now but have to watch him closely (and it's usually a plus to keep on his helmet since it lessens the blow if he does take a tumble!!)

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2010! The new year was brought in pretty quietly this year at the Sarazen household... Jeff and I (and Cole, thankfully) slept right through it. In our defense Cole had a couple really rough nights so we weren't going to gamble with much needed sleep hours! The only one that was still up was my brother David who has been down to help us out with basement renovations.
Thanks to David's help the basement is progressing. As of 7:30 this evening the last piece of drywall has been put up! Next step is to get someone in to do the mudding. From there, we are hoping to have my other brother Daniel down to paint and install the flooring (we found some really nice stuff already-boxing week sale).
Pictured below on New Years Day, Jeff and David with Cole in his walker... he enjoyed scooting around the basement checking out the boys using all the different power tools! I am relieved to have an unaswered question finally settled. I had previously tried numerous times to freeze up a store of breastmilk. Always, whenever I would go to defrost and use it Cole wouldn't drink it. I could never figure out why until once when he first starting eating cereal I had heated some up and noticed a foul smell coming from the pot. I did not understand how the milk could possibly go bad... I'd always been so careful to sterilize and keep everything sanitary. But after realizing that I could unknowingly be feeding him bad milk I had to (yuck!) try my breastmilk before I gave it to him. Generally the milk that was kept in the fridge would be fine but sometimes it would get a soapy taste to it. The other night I was once again searching online for what it could be and happened upon an article that described my situation exactly. Turns out my breastmilk is high in lipase, an enzyme that breaks down the fat in milk. There are a couple ways I can try to store it so that it doesn't turn but once the composition changes there's nothing you can do with it and although they don't believe it's bad for the baby to drink most times they will refuse it.
This has really made me wonder if all of Cole's issues spitting up and gas stemmed from being fed stored breastmilk and not an allergy to dairy like I had previously thought. The past couple days I've added back in some dairy slowly, he's had a little bit of spitup but other than that it seems to be fine.
Well, after a week and a half of holidays Jeff is back to work tomorrow. I know Cole will miss him here... he loves it when there's lots going on. It should be a good week for both of us at home though since classes start this week for swimming, nursery rhymes and baby sign language.

Christmas Day

The three of us had a great day celebrating Christmas together. We were all spoiled, Cole with more toys, Jeff with a new toolchest and me with styling new boots and other clothes! Later on in the day we had a big dinner with turkey, potatoes, stuffing and veggies. Mmmm!

above: Cole and Mommy, waiting to open gifts!

below: Cole clapping his hands, he's been doing this for a little while now, sometimes spontaneously but also when you clap he usually mimics it

below: Cole with all his Christmas loot!
below: Cole and Daddy, Cole honking the horn on his walker!

below: Cole and his stocking

Christmas Eve

For the first year ever I spent the beginning of Christmas Eve day running around getting groceries and finishing my Christmas shopping. I was reminded that there's a good reason I don't leave things that last minute when it comes to Christmas! Despite the crowds, by early afternoon I was home and we enjoyed the rest of the day together. A few pics below: bathtime with the cute towel Cole got from Aunt Sarah and one reading "The Night Before Christmas" that we got from Alison... we're planning on reading this book as a tradition every Christmas eve.

Family Christmas's

Grandma and Miriam with the girls

Cole and Aunt Sarah

Caitlin and Mackenzie having fun on the mini trampoline

Daddy feeding Cole

Caitlin eating her marshmellow chocolate santa... was all smiles!

Caitlin and her elephant
Cole discovering he can open cupboard doors
and he's pretty excited about it...

Cole getting lots of hugs from the twins

Cole in the sweater/hat that Grandma knitted for him

Cole watching tv with Uncle Matt and Uncle Benjamin

Cole and Aunt Miriam

Caitlin and Mackenzie trying to get a santa hat on their mama

family pic

Cole and my good friend Alison

Cole hanging out with my cousin, Heather

Once again we are WAY overdue for an update on here!
December 12/13th was my family Christmas back home on the farm.(pictures above) Cole and I stayed there for the week following that while Jeff came back to Windsor for the work week. It was nice to be able to stay over for the week. Cole definitely enjoyed the extra attention from Grandma and Grandpa and was all smiles for them. If Cole could talk I'm sure he would say his favourite thing was eating a piece of shortbread (Grandpa!) I guess baby's first sugar won't be at his one year mark afterall. In all fairness I wasn't around to calm him and desperate situations call for desperate measures. My favourite part was going for a facial, a treat my Mom arranged for me.
This past weekend was Jeff's side family Christmas in London at his Aunt Anne and Uncle Gerry's.(pictures below) Cole took a long nap in the morning before we took off but because dinner started around 2:00 he never got down for his afternoon nap. That, in combination with him cutting four teeth all at once right now didn't lead to such a great ride home last night. It was a good visit and great food though and we were happy he lasted for the time he did well he was there.

Well, Christmas day is still 4 days away but Cole has been spoiled with presents already. Now to find a home for everything... :)

Uncle Roger and Jeff

Cole with cousins Kristen and Noah

more fun with cousins: Kristen and Sarah

Cole and Aunt Kim

cute hat/bib set from Cole's great uncle Roger

while Cole and I were away Jeff went to work on the basement, drywall is almost complete! Yay!

Our week so far...

Cole changes so much everyday but in particular these past couple of weeks. He no longer wants anything to do with his exersaucer or jumperoo which he previously adored. Now, a majority of the time he fusses unless you stand him up! He can support his own weight fine (pictures above from this morning) but doesn't have enough balance to really move about on his own yet. I don't know if he's going to do the whole crawling bit... he doesn't show any signs of working towards it and I've read that some babies skip that milestone. Actually, Cole's sitter Katie never crawled, just started walking a little earlier than others and it never affected her. This afternoon we took a trip to Toys R Us and picked up a little harness thing they have there called "walking wings" we just tried it out tonight and I think it's going to help our backs out if this carries on for much longer! Will post a picture soon. Below, more pictures from earlier this week.

don't know about the "good ALL year" shirt but he is napping sooo much better with the static radio so mommy couldn't be happier for the time being!

snuggling with his bear