Our First Swim!

With this past weekend being my last weekend before school started, we thought it would be fun to finally take Cole to our pool. I had heard that it's best if you can wait till they are at least 6 months for a couple reasons: 1. babies can't control their own body temperature before then and if the water is too cold, that isn't good on their little bodies. 2. Using sunscreen before 6 months is recommended either....so that is why I have put it off.
However, we all had a blast, Cole didn't really know what to think about it but started to enjoy it more and more towards the end. Auntie Emily and Blake came up and went with us and it really was a lot of fun. We are definitely looking forward to more trips to the pool. ALTHOUGH, I was just informed by my friend Amanda that the blow-up crab that we had him in was recalled this summer. Awesome! Apparently there were some infant drownings. Um, do parents not watch their children? I mean, I hardly took my eyes off him and always made sure someone was right next to him. Oh well, guess we'll take it back and try to find a different one.
Here are some pictures and also a video of him babbling while playing with Nick in the pool.

6 Month Stats

Cole had his official 6 month well check today, just a couple weeks late. It's always kind of a bittersweet appointment because I love seeing his progress and hearing the new things we can do with him, but then I hate him getting shots. Again, he only gets 2 at a time instead of 6, but still...

Here are his measurements and percentiles:

Weight: 22lbs - 96%
Height: 29 Inches - 98%
Head: 19 Inches - 100% - good things his head wasn't this gigantic when he was born! ha!!

The doctor just kinda laughs at how big he is, she said I must have a "high-calorie milk supply". She said we can also cut down on his feedings during the day, I think to 4 feedings and offer him more fruits and veggies. We can also start offering him a little bit of water when he eats his solids. I'm not too worried about the water right now though because if babies are still breastfeeding, they typically get all the water they need from that.
All in all, he is a very healthy boy and is right on track with his milestones (sitting, rolling over, etc.) However, she informed us that we will soon need to baby proof our house!!! AHHH!!! We have so much stuff we'll have to put up and lock up, I don't even know where to begin. If any of our friends want to bring over their toddlers and let them play around our house so we can see what needs to be put up, please feel free!!!

Fun Bath Time and Sitting

We have been so lucky that Cole LOVES his baths! He has also now graduated to his duck bath. It's kinda like a blow-up pool, so that if he falls over, it won't hurt. With him sitting now, we thought it would be good to put him in the duck since he grew out of his infant tub like 4 months ago...ha! Here are some pictures of his bathtime.
Also, here are some pictures of Cole sitting. He's so good at it now, he'll sit there for an hour if I let him. You can also see in a couple of these pictures that he has his tongue sticking out. I think he might be getting his bottom teeth in because he's been constantly sucking on his lower lip or sticking his tongue out. It's funny!

Wisconsin 2009

Last week we flew to Milwaukee and spent the week there and also in Green Bay for a few days. It sure was a whirlwind of a week, but we all had a great time and definitely stayed busy.
We first stayed at my Uncle Randy and Aunt Pam's house and had so much fun hanging out with everyone, my parents even flew in from Colorado to see everyone. We ate lots of good food and just hung out. It's also pretty typical for everyone to play kickball, and at least this time Nick didn't break the ball!!!
Here are some pictures of our time with Randy and Pam's family...

Aunt Pam with Cole

Grammy giving Cole a bottle

Cousin Brett with Cole

Cecelia, Abby, Nick and my dad...getting ready for kickball

What Cole would look like as girl....haha!!! Thanks Betsy and Abby!!!

Abby bouncing with Cole...his favorite thing, can you tell??

We then spent a couple days with Nick's Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy. They have 2 girls, Anna and Emma, that just couldn't get enough of Cole. Literally, they would fight over him...ha! :) Cole experienced his first trip to a park and his first pool. Although, he didn't really get in the pool, just his feet. Here are some pictures of our time with Dan and Judy's family.

Emma and Anna with Cole

Anna with Cole

Emma swinging with Cole

Aunt Judy showing Cole some fun things at the playground

Aunt Judy playing horsey

After our time in Milwaukee, we drove to Green Bay to visit some of Nick's family. We stayed with his grandma and grandpa and also got to see his other grandpa Bob, Norma, Uncle Rob and Aunt Kae, Jake and Kerry and their 2 sets of twins and also Doug and Vickie, Brianne and her fiance Phil. We definitely did not go hungry staying with Grandma and Grandpa Seeman, she sure cooked some great food and we also enjoyed playing cards with them. Unfortunately, the boys beat the girls at all the games...ugh!
When we got to Grandma and Grandpa Seeman's, we had a little surprise for Grandpa. Judy had made a shirt for Cole and one for Grandpa to match.

Both shirts have a picture of Cole with a massive amount of poo on his back and it says, "Just like Great G'pa Ed". ha! We all got a kick out of it!!Great Grandma Betty really enjoyed playing with Cole. The first morning we were there, Cole had a really rough night so Nick and I were extremely tired!! She came in around 7:00 am and took Cole and we got to sleep till close to 10:00!! It felt so great! Cole had so many new things to look at and had so much fun with them.

KROLLS!!!!!!

I think Nick's favorite hamburger by far is from Krolls. It is a restaurant that is right across the street from Lambeau Field (where the Packers play). Nick talks about this place all the time and he was so excited to go. I think what makes the burgers so good is that they put a glob of butter inside.

Like I said earlier, Krolls is right across the street from Lambeau Field, so we thought it was only appropriate for Cole to wear his Vikings gear right in front of the stadium! ha! All our Green Bay relatives were pretty disgusted with us, but we got a kick out of it.

This is our little family getting ready to leave Wisconsin. Cole was zonked out....
We had so much fun, thanks to all our family who housed and fed us, we truly appreciate seeing everyone!!! Can't wait for next summer!!!

Fun with Food

We really have been enjoying watching Cole eat. As much as I try to keep him semi clean during the process, it never seems to happen. Here is a video and some pictures that show how he gets food in his eyes. He's a mess! :)

6 Months!!

Cole was 6 months yesterday July 29th, besides being the size of a 2 year old, what else have you been up to??

• You are almost in size 4 diapers. You wear a size 4 "overnight" diaper, that has helped with the peeing all over at night.
• You weigh about 22 lbs, not sure how long you are
• You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes now, where did my little baby go??
• Nighttime: bedtime is usually 7:30ish, then we still give you one last feeding before we go to bed, then you can usually last till about 5:00, then you'll go back to sleep till about 7:30 am
• We finally started you on rice cereal and fruit. Up until now, you were mainly eating veggies. You seem to like all food so far!
  
• You still go to sleep and take naps like a champ! All we have to do is lay you down, play some music and you'll fall right to sleep. None of this bouncing you around till you fall asleep anymore! Thanks Sarita for the book suggestion!!!
• You are pretty much sitting up now, we still make a few tumbles though
• You really are a world traveler! I think you have been on 7-8 flights already. We should probably get you a frequent flyer card soon.
• You love more than anything for people to sing and talk to you. You love it when dad sings, "The Ants go Marching One by One" to you after your bath
• Your hair has gotten super curly, I tell people we got the Donald Trump hairstyle going on. Yours is way cuter though!
• You truly are such a happy baby and we can't believe half a year has gone by already!! So sad! But we can't wait for the upcoming months, we know there will be so many new things going on.
  

Camp...where to begin....

Last week we attended our YoungLives camp (ministry for teen moms) with some of our girls. The camp was in Arizona and was at a gorgeous location. Now, getting to and from camp was quite the experience!!!! Let's start from the beginning.....
We all meet to catch our flight at 4:30 AM, flight was great, Cole did great, he pretty much slept the whole time. We arrive at the Phoenix airport around 7:45 AM and now the bad part begins. We have to sit at the airport till 1:30 till the other groups arrive. 6 hours in an airport is bad to begin with, but when you throw in a couple babies, it makes it that much harder. The other groups finally get there and we leave Phoenix at 1:30. We now have a 3 hour bus drive. Again, Cole did great, he slept for most of the drive and then played with the other girls. The girls that were in our group were so good about giving me a break and played with Cole.
We finally arrive at camp....YAY!!!! Wait, not so fast. While we are checking in, the camp finds out that a leader on our bus had flu-like symptoms and because all the YoungLife camps have been taking this whole flu thing very seriously, they decide to quarantine our entire bus. We had to sit on the bus for another 45 minutes and then they transfered us to the gym. We had to sit in the gym for a few hours with no luggage, screaming babies and to make it worse, we had to just sit there and watch the rest of the camp have fun. My mom had also made the trip so that she could babysit Cole so when she was told we were in quarantine and she wasn't going to be able to hold her grandson, she flipped out and decided to be in quarantine with us...ha! We went to bed that night not knowing if they were going to send us home the next day, we were basically waiting on the doctors to tell us what the flu-lady had. If it was super contagious then we were all going to be sent home. However, we woke up the next morning to great news!!! We were no longer in quarantine and we could stay at camp!! We were so excited, because if we were told that we were going to have to go back into quarantine for another day, I think I would have gone crazy.
The rest of the week was amazing! We all had a blast. There were so many fun activities, the food was great and the speakers were awesome, they really hit home with some of these girls. We really got to know our girls and formed some great bonds with them. Having my mom there was a complete life-saver. I would have totally been uncomfortable leaving him with a caretaker that didn't know him, but my mom knows his schedule and tried to keep him on it as much as possible. By the end of the week though, Cole had just about had it and wanted to get home. He was pretty out of sorts and wanted to just be in his bed.
The week winds down and we ended the week with a bang and we all had a great time. We get on the bus for our 3 hour bus ride back to Phoenix and luckily we are the first ones to depart so we don't have to wait at the airport very long. Oh wait...not so fast!!!! We get ready to board and they announce, "there is a hydrolic leak on the plane, we aren't going anywhere". Awesome! Our flight was canceled and because we weren't the first ones in line to make other arrangements, we had to stay the night in Phoenix and catch a flight the next morning. Now, this situation isn't so bad, except for the fact that they send our luggage on another flight, so all our luggage was in Dallas and we were left with nothing. We had babies with us, and we needed baby supplies. The part that got me really upset was that my breast pump was in my luggage and normally it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, I could just exclusively breast feed Cole, but of course he's cutting a tooth and decides that he doesn't want to eat so obviously I have to pump or I'll get engorged or stop producing....I have to have my pump!! So what does the man at the counter say??? "Can't you just give your baby some formula??" I just about jumped over the counter and slapped him across the face! Now, granted he's a guy and doesn't know, but Good Lord! The airline ended up buying me a new pump and also bought us some basic supplies to last us till morning. Again, this situation wouldn't have been so bad but the fact that we had babies with us, I wish the airline would take that into consideration.
We finally got home and it felt so great to be in my own bed! I've been completely exhausted and I'm trying to catch up on sleep.
We only have a week till we leave for Wisconsin, yes, another trip!! I know I'm crazy!

Here are some camp pictures...

Our group during one of our activities

Melody, Casey and Me - the 3 leaders

Meme, Lupe, Caliesta and Angelica

The 3 leaders at our "Rockband" night, No, we don't typically wear that much lipstick

Our group on our dress up night, Cole was more focused on sucking on my shoulder :)

Me and Cole with my mom

Me and Cole

Had to stick this one in here....cute smirk!!

Hilarious!!!

So tonight after I put Cole to bed I went to just check on him because lately he's been moving all over the crib and I wanted to make sure he wasn't stuck somewhere. So here is the first picture...WAIT!!!!! Where are his legs????

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Oh, there they are!!!

Poor baby....but is this not the funniest thing? I called Nick in to take a picture, good thing he didn't wake up!

So a quick update...this has been a crazy busy summer already. We've been to Colorado twice, Cole and I are going to YoungLives camp next Sunday for a week and then the beginning of August we are going to Milwaukee and Green Bay for a week to see some of mine and Nick's family. Before we know it, summer will be over and I have to go back to school...so sad!!!
Our friends Chris and Sharon Bell were up this past weekend from Houston and we had a great time with them. Sharon is pregnant with little Reagan and she is due around thanksgiving. We can't wait for Cole to meet his future bride...are arranged marriages acceptable these days?

Cole has really started doing alot of new things lately. He is now rolling over onto his belly and sleeps on his belly now, which is so funny to me because besides sleep, he hates being on his belly. He's just moving all over the place, ending up in all kinds of crazy positions in his crib, as you can see in the pictures above. He's sitting up better, but still prefers to be standing and bouncing.
I have so enjoyed my summer with Cole and am so sad that in 5 weeks I have to go back to work. I really do have a great job, allowing me great holidays and not real long days, but ideally, I would love to just work part-time.
I will be sure to post some more pictures as the summer goes on. Still trying to decide if I should attempt to take Cole to the swimming pool. He hasn't ever been swimming and I'm debating. It's so dang hot here that I'm sure the water is plenty warm. We might attempt that this week.

Ride Em Grandma Tracy

Nick's parents have been out of town a lot this summer, but we got a chance to spend a little time with them while they were back in town. As you can see, Cole had fun strangling/riding Grandma. ha!!



Here are a couple other pictures of Cole playing with Granddad and Grandma Tracy.