Pics from today...

A couple cute shots as Cole tried to go after the camera!

Chow Time!

Cole's been doing really well with all his solid foods. For the most part Jeff looks after feeding him. I do all the food prep though, which I consider to be the less appealing job of the two. This, particularily due to the fact that I have taken on the work of making a majority of his food at home as opposed to buying the jars. Disadvantages: more dirty dishes, more costly, more time consuming. Advantages: a larger variety of foods. No, I wouldn't advise that you do it!... unless you grow your own food, have lots of time on your hands and love exotic foods. If not, just do the easy thing and buy the jars, organic is always an option now too. Unfortunately, when I decided to make some of Cole's food myself I bought some food cubes for storing it (very practical--consuming less freezer space and perfect 2 oz serving size) these being the reason why I feel I really MUST utulize my purchase and have a go at homemade baby food. I'll let you know if it gets any easier!
For anyone that hasn't seen Cole eat we've been very careful to make a point of never letting him put his hands up in the highchair when we're feeding him pureed foods. This has worked out extremely well and I'm so glad I found this tip in one of my books. As cute as the pictures with food all over the face are, I'm glad we've avoided the frustration. The past few weeks have been more exciting for Cole foodwise as we've started to add in a little bit of finger foods that he can eat himself. We always move him to his booster seat for any of these foods -- the tray is a little lower so it's easier for self feeding and I want there to be a distinction between highchair (being fed) and booster seat (self-fed). Below some pictures of Cole eating from this past week.

sour face: trying grapes (peeled and quartered) for the 1st time. He frequently gets this face whenever he's tring something new!eating some puffs, the ones that dissolve in your mouth... he loves them

A Close Call

We had a bit of a scare today. This morning when I was driving home after dropping Jeff at work we were in an accident with a transport truck. I was right behind the truck when it stopped and turned on its 4ways. I had no idea why it would be stopping and the morning traffic was quickly piling up behind me. Then it started backing up!!! I laid on the horn but it kept coming closer... no room behind to back up and no time to swerve out of the way. It hit the front of the car with a "crunch" then stopped and went forward a bit. Shaken, I pulled off the road and called Jeff. He was there so quick and of course took care of everything. The truck driver said he didn't even see me when he was backing up, nor hear the horn. Actually, he said he didn't even know that he hit me! Turns out the reason he stopped and backed up was due to a sign up ahead saying no trucks on the bridge. Damage to the car was minimal... the bumper and front grill will need to get repaired in the next few weeks once the insurance goes through but in the meantime it's still driveable.
It's hard not to think of how bad things could have turned out. The G6 never seemed so small till I was looking at the backside of a transport coming at it! Thankfully someone was looking after us today.

Aughhh!!

I know who's more frustrated, Cole or me? He's still not crawling or walking but not for lack of trying! Nowadays, when I sit him down to play he almost always immediately goes to his stomach and while he's content for a minute or two there, as he tries desperately to get moving, inevitably he ends up wailing for me to come get him. Then we start the whole process over again. Sure he's able to move around more now... he scoots around on his seat when he does remain seated, he's pulled himself up a couple of times now and he will usually push himself around backwards on the floor, unfortunately it's just not enough to keep him happy these days. And so we all find ourselves looking forward to the beginning of his crawling/walking!

Below, a little photojournal of an attempt made today.

well rested?... check!
good mood?... check!
the look of determination... lets go!

i think i can, i think i can... like this? looks promising...

uh oh, what now?

holding it...one last effort... giving up!

MOMMYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

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.