"Monkeying" Around

We had about 40 adults and kids over on Saturday to celebrate Cole's first birthday. We had so much fun. I was a little worried about how Cole would react to all of the excitement - I have heard and been part of birthday parties where the kid was just a "nightmare" - but Cole was great. He loved all of the kids and all of the balloons. He would have been happy staying inside the bounce house with his friends all day if we would have let him. He did what I thought he would do with his cake - he eats everything with his 2 little pincher fingers and when he gets bored of that, he starts mushing. He ate almost 3 hotdogs for lunch and had lots of sweets for dessert. People think I am crazy for having such a "big" party for our Monkey, but he deserves it. Such a sweet boy, full of love and happiness - how could you not celebrate in a big way for such a big boy!

Pictures Speak For Themselves...

We received part of Cole's birthday present today and while we were waiting for Daddy to put him to sleep, we kind of opened the balls that we bought to fill his little ball pit and put them in the box they came in...I have a feeling he is going to LOVE his birthday present this year.

PURE, PURE JOY!!!

What a Day!

Cutest Bunny Ever! Dumping the Puffs and trying a Peep.

I didn't think Cole would really be into Easter at his age, but by the looks of our living room right now...I think he kind of liked it. He tore through his basket, throwing all of his little things everywhere. He then spotted the eggs that I "hid" around the living room and went from egg to egg - shaking it, opening it, spilling the contents on the floor, eating a few...and then moving onto the next one. I mostly put Puffs, Yogurt Melts, Cheerios, and Goldfish in the eggs...mostly. He did get an egg with mini M&Ms and an egg with gummy Lifesavers (from our neighbor...which he loved). I also let him try a Peep. I don't think I have to tell you if he liked it or not.

Cole is 11 months old today. We have started making plans for his first birthday party. So much fun, so much fun. I have decided our life was pretty boring before Monkey came into it!

First Time Parents

So I realized this week, that I am not normal...OK - keep all comments to yourself. I let my son explore and that means eating things off the floor, crawling around on nasty gym floors, "running" behind his walker totally out of control, and even rolling around on our kitchen floor with our smelly, furry dogs. Isn't that what you are suppose to do to help your children thrive and learn? I let him cry for a minute or two (unless he is hurt) before I run to pick him up, and YES I let him cry it out when he was 5 months old (he now sleeps over 11 hours a night).

I feel like some parents look at me in horror as my son eats goldfish off the floor :) Thank goodness my neighbors already know I am crazy, because they don't even bat an eye when they see my son pick up a Cheerio off of the driveway as he does a crawl by. I will say this... as I knock VERY loudly on wood...my son is almost 11 months old and has ran one fever of only 100 degrees since he was born and that was just this past month. He has to have a strong immune system...I am the Assistant Principal at of campus with 650 children under the age of 8!

I am not one of those moms that doesn't let her kid eat "certain" foods. I don't ban milk products because of infections, I don't think having a sweet food will affect whether my son eats his veggies too. I just am not like that. I am not saying that is bad, but I sometimes feel like other people look at me in horror as I let my son taste cotton candy or take a bite of my baseball park dill pickle. Have you met my son? He eats everything...I do NOT have a picky eater - that is for sure. He will take a bite of a cookie and then eat his broccoli and squash...not so worried at this point.

We have started having family meals now that Cole is not eating baby food anymore. We bought a restaurant style highchair, which is great. We shut the TV off, throw the dogs outside, so Cole is not tempted to share, and we all sit at the kitchen table and he eats what we eat...for example:

Today we had waffles and peaches for breakfast, sliced turkey, veggie crunchies, and dried strawberries and bananas for lunch, and Freebirds for dinner (that was my craving). Cole ate a cheese quesedilla, pinto beans, and yes...part of a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

Dan and I received the best compliment from our neighbor today. She said, "You two do not act like first time parents at all." Sounds like a good thing to me!

Attack of the HAPPY BABY!

This is what happens when we try to film Cole without "support"...

New Routine

Cole has a new "game" he plays every morning when he wakes up and before every bath at night. I am wondering when he will figure out that cute face is his own???

10 Months and Counting

So much going on with this big, big boy...I don't know where to begin.

He is pulling up on everything and taking little steps as he "cruises" along the furniture. A couple of mishaps and one black eye later...he is still unstoppable. He is talking a lot too. He still says MaMa, DaDa, dod (dog), ba (ball), and now has added up to his vocab. He says, "Up, up, up..." as he pulls up on all of the furniture.

He now has 8 teeth - 4 up and 4 down, which is helping him eat just about everything. So far today he has had french toast for breakfast and pizza and a banana for lunch. We just feed him what we eat so we will not have that "picky" kid that we have to make separate meals for. So far, so good...he eats EVERYTHING we give him and EVERYTHING he is not suppose to including a piece of dog food he found on the floor and a rock he found outside. We are pretty good at catching him put things in his mouth, but he is sneaky sometimes and then hides it when we look for it. He is starting to understand our tone too. When I used to say no and move him from something, he would laugh and think it was a game. Now he actually stops and listens...I'm sure it will last - haha!

I decided to post of couple of video clips to show his family how much he has grown in the past few months. We are now Skyping with my parents, Dan's parents, and his cousins Connor and Hallie, but it is not the same as seeing Cole "live" and in person. Dan and I are really looking forward to the next few months as we get to experience lots of firsts with our monkey!