Thursday, March 22, 2012

Long Time No Blog

Okay, I'm a little rusty on blogger but here's some pics of our Cole. He still loves the snow.
He's discovered a love for dressing up on Halloween. Doesn't he make an awesome Harry Potter?
He's losing his baby teeth and gaining permanent ones...
His wish for a baby sister came true roughly 2 1/2 years ago. They love each other soo much!
And, he's very fond of school. He loves all the subjects: reading, math, writing, Spanish, and music but of course looks forward every day to recess the most!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Potty Training Success! Hooray!

So, it's been a week now and as of today we are done with the training. Cole only had accidents during the first 24 hours and was going to the potty on his own the second morning of training! Today marks the final step - he's now doing number 2 on his own and get this - he takes the toilet brush and cleans the toilet after he's done (this is after he's flushed) so that it's totally clean for the next person. How sweet is that, right?

Friday, May 7, 2010

Looking Out a Window

We started potty-training Cole yesterday and it was a really, really rough first day. No matter how strict I was about following a schedule he just kept going on 'off' times (usually while I was getting Sophie or changing Sophie). He peed twice in the front room right in front of the big window and once in the tv room (thank you God for hardwood floors). Anyway, so yesterday was rough. So rough in fact that last night he told me I needed to share the Mother's Day crafts he'd brought home from school with daddy.

Today has been better. We had an incident at a friends' house but we both stayed calm and just changed the wet clothes out for dry and moved on. Then we went to lunch at 'the big W' or Wendy's. We were sitting near a window and suddenly he got up and went over to it. Now, keeping in mind what he did each time he was near our big window yesterday I immediately sprung into action, "What's going on? Cole? Cole, are you peeing? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Cole?"

He turned his head slightly in order to meet my anxious/frantic/harried gaze and said, "I'm just looking out the window." Sometimes looking out the window really is just looking out the window. Good to know.

Moments ago he sprung from his seat and ran into the bathroom and peed. All.on.his.own. And here is where you see myself and Scott leaping up in the stands cheering and whooping and doing handstands and summersaults. We're not in the clear yet but we can see the clearing.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Dusting off the blog

It's been so long since we last updated the blog. I've gotten in the habit of noting anything memorable or timely on Facebook and Scott, well, he's just uber busy. Today I took the kids to the park for a morning playdate. It's been so nice to return to these park playdates! Cole met up with a friend from school who also recently added a baby sister to his family. Sophie is a couple months older than that little bitty but they're already really interested in each other. Cole and D. tore around the park and ran up and down the equipment at lightning speed. After that they both led the way to the little kid park where they were content to cook and dig and just play in the sand. Sophie went on the swings for the second time in her life and was full of smiles until the camera phone came out! She loves being in motion and chuckles when the wind blows on her face.

We have misplaced our cord to download pics from the camera but as soon as it's recovered we'll post lots of new pics for everyone to enjoy.

Happy Spring!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

How did you grow today?

It is late Sunday afternoon, and we are in Sophie's future room clearing out the remainder of what used to be a craft room and catch-all for our household.

We are discussing what to do next and where to put the furniture once it is reassembled, and Cole is in the alcove where the changing table is (loaded with things still on their way out--stacks of magazines, Isabel Blooms, etc.), trying to move it.

He is obviously getting frustrated with the changing table and, likely, our lack of assistance in moving the table to wherever it is that he feels is a better place for it.

I ask him what he's doing and get, "I trying move it."

I ask him where to and get a bit of a rant about it that is hard to make out.

To this point, he has been trying to pick up the table and move it forward, against its length. He lays into this effort some more while we continue to talk about the room and our lack of motivation against the seemingly insurmountable list of to-do work and the ever shortening time (8 weeks) before Sophie shows up.

From the alcove we hear, "Look! I do it. I do it."

Cole has abandoned his headlong shoving of the table and adopted a more effective approach, lifting the end and pivoting the table on its long axis. He is obviously thrilled with his ability and success. Once he has cleared the table from the wall enough to access the back, he ends his Herculean effort and comments gleefully, "I getting my 'eeps n' ow-ns."

We look at each other confused, as he climbs behind the table, continuing,"Teacher Tracy tell me at school. I going 'eeps 'n ounds."

Two things are of note here: 1) he tends to associate a lot of what he knows and thinks to doctors and teachers. The teacher thing has been happening for a while, perhaps because we use the "Teacher Beth" card a bit too much, as in, "Teacher Beth wouldn't be happy to know you're up late on a school night." The doctor thing is more recent and likely the result of the numerous visits to the OB/Gyn, and often manifests itself as, "My doctor say I can't eat it," (referring to one of Melanie's dietary restrictions, and 2) the addition of a consonant makes the difference sometimes.

In this case, a "d" meant that he was growing in leaps and bounds, which made his announcement clear and adorable all at once.

Apparently, Teacher Tracy (one of three) has been remarking to Cole in school (you know, back a couple of month ago) how he has been growing in leaps and bounds. Hence, his being able to move the table translates into a moment where he was "getting" the leaps and bounds.

Up until that moment, I wasn't sure what that phrase meant. Now, I think I do.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Picnic with Cousin Liz

Thought I would post some pics from the picnic we had a couple weeks ago with Cousin Liz. We went to a nature center near our house - it is so peaceful there! They also have a great playground in addition to the usual trails and exhibits. Here's some pics!






Okay and this next one is the resident wild turkey - just in case you've never seen on up close...


And here's just a whole bunch of ones I snapped of Cole that day...


























































































Thursday, June 4, 2009

Mail's Here

Cole has learned a lot while in preschool this year. He's great at letters and numbers. Cole's always been imaginative but now he links it to real-life scenarios that he's observed throughout his day.

While playing yesterday, Cole gathered all of his palm-sized sponge letters and placed them in a sand bucket. Then he went to various points in the living room and placed a different letter at various points in the room. He opened cabinet drawers, reached up high for shelves and table tops and each time he'd call out my name, daddy's name, cow or baby and say, "Mail's here." When he was all done he presented the empty bucket to me and said, "Mama I delivered all my letters!" I know we're biased but Scott and I thought this was pretty clever of our little man.