1st Haircut and Grammy

At 4 months old, Cole has already had his first haircut.


My mom has been here all week, taking care of Cole and we decided that he needed to have a little hair trim, so my mom did a little clean-up and it turned out pretty good. I was a little hesitant to cut off his hair because it's so dang cute, but there were some really long hairs that needed tending to.
It has been absolutely wonderful having my mom here this week. We decided to have her come the last week of school because it has been absolutely crazy. Since I am the senior sponsor at school, I have so much going on for graduation stuff. Last Friday we went to Six Flags for the day, then senior pinning, graduation, etc. I've had to be gone several nights, leaving my mom and Nick to put him to bed. Yeah, Cole's not a big fan of the bottle when going to bed, so there was quite a bit of screaming going on those nights. He's just so used to his momma putting him to bed. However, we are starting to see some bad habits forming and that's why we are starting this "sleep training" thing. Basically Cole needs to learn how to self-soothe and then hopefully he'll stay asleep longer. We'll keep you posted on how it turns out.
My friend Sarita told me about this book called Sleepeasy Solution and it is such an awesome book, I highly recommend it if anyone out there is having sleep issues with their child.
Anyway....my mom leaves tomorrow and we are really going to miss her. She has been such a life saver. It's amazing how when I was staying home with Cole, I really managed to get hardly anything done during the day, but when she's home with him, she does all the laundry, cleaning and cooking....amazing! I guess it's years of experience.

Happy 4 Months Cole!!

Even though we are a few days late (with this being the end of the school year, it got pretty crazy), we want to wish Cole a happy 4 months!!

So Cole, what have you been up to?

• You are huge, not much else I can say about that. You are in the 97% for height and weight
• You weigh 18.5 lbs, you are pretty much the size of a 9 month old
• You have regressed with your night sleeping, so as we speak, we are starting to "sleep train" you. Hopefully this will help you sleep longer than 3-hour spans during the night
• You are wearing 9-12 month clothes
• We are still trying to wean you from your swaddle blanket, but you sure love it!! We have one arm and both legs out, eventually we'll have all the limbs out. Quite funny!
• It is the greatest thing I've heard yet, you've really started to giggle and laugh at people. Especially when they tickle you.
• You absolutely love your jumper, now you just want to jump all the time, mom and dad sure are getting a good arm workout!
• The doctor said we should start giving you some solid foods, but instead of starting with rice cereal, she said to start with avocados and sweet potatoes.
• You love to babble and "talk" to us
• You have been the sweetest baby, can't wait to see all the new things that happen this summer while I'm home with you!! Woohoo!!
  

Happy Baby

How sweet is this face???

Also, before it gets TOO hot here in Texas, I've been trying to take advantage of the nice weather and take Cole outside, so we tried out his new shades and he thinks they are so cool. I'm so thankful that he doesn't mind wearing them! We've been going on lots of walks, because soon the torturous heat of Texas summers will soon be upon us....ugh!!!!

Diaper rash = NAKED TIME!!!!

We have been fighting this diaper rash for awhile. We changed diapers and thought that was the culprit because it cleared up as soon as we switched back, but now it is back and boy does it hurt! We use Butt Paste very religiously, so now we aren't sure what to do. I even use warm wash cloths instead of the cold baby wipes! So....this evening we thought it would be a good idea to just let him air out, so while he was playing in his play-yard, we had NAKED TIME!!!! He loves it! Oh, and don't worry Cole, Mom didn't take any incriminating pictures.....:-)

American Idol

This is our new American Idol...pretty cool!

Jump Around!

Thanks Jenn for getting Cole his jumper!! He loves it!

My First Mother's Day

Today I celebrated my very first Mother's Day and it was such a great day. Nick and Cole gave me a couple gifts....Nick got me a digital photo frame and Cole got me a cute "mother-child" necklace. It's so fun to have another holiday to celebrate and get presents for!!!! weeeee!!!!!
We started off going to church as usual and then we had a wonderful brunch with Nick's family. Here are some fun pictures from brunch.
After brunch we decided to do a little shopping and Nick was nice enough to come along and push Cole around for me....I guess this is the only day this will happen so I had to take advantage of it! Who knows what Nick will make me do on Father's Day...probably go golfing with him and open all his beers for him! :)


Now on to something else....I started back at work last Thursday, normally this coming Monday was supposed to be my first day back, but our school district decided to open early from that whole swine flu thing. As bummed as I was that our "free week" got cut short, I truly think going back to work for the first time was best started on a Thursday like mine was, it made for a short week so it wasn't such a shock. Plus, Nick's mom came up to our house and watched him which made it nice that I didn't have to get all his stuff packed up. My first couple days back were actually pretty good, I only cried a little bit on my drive into work....however, I did become a big cry baby that first night after I put him to bed, I just crawled into bed, pulled the sheets over my head and cried! I think that's pretty normal at first....
THANK GOD that I only have 4 more weeks till summer! Plus, my mom and dad are coming in less than 3 weeks. My dad will be here for the long weekend and my mom is staying over a week to watch Cole. It will be so great to have them here!
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!!!!

Chubby!!!

We took these pictures today and it shows you just how chubby our little Cole is getting. I feel like just in the last couple weeks he has just porked up....I mean, no neck, no wrists, roll after roll!!! He is just so darn cute!!

Here is Cole doing some tummy time and you can see how much he loves it! ha! Although it's pretty funny because Roxy gives him a big kiss in the video. The best time to do tummy time with him is in the morning right after he has eaten. It is getting a little more tolerable each time we do it, but he still isn't crazy about it.

I'm one lucky gal

Now, as bad as I feel for those families that are having to deal with this Swine Flu stuff, I am pretty excited deep down because they have closed my school district all of next week and we don't even have to make it up! I was supposed to be returning to school from my maternity leave this coming Monday, but now I get one free week! I have been so lucky with my maternity leave, I was only intending on taking 12 weeks off, but it has now ended up being 14.5 weeks all together. We had 2 snow days my first 2 days of maternity leave so that didn't count against me, then spring break and now this swine flu stuff...pretty sweet deal for me.
Although, I have been anticipating my return to school for so many weeks now, and now it's just kind of just delaying the inevitable. I was kind of ready for it to be here just to get it over with. I know I'll be a complete basket case the first week, so now I just have one more week to think about it. ha!
I talked to our babysitter and she said I should maybe bring him up one day, or at least part of the day so when my first official days comes it won't be such a shock. I may do that, then I can go get a pedicure and maybe take a LONG nap that day.

Oh, and Cole has been doing pretty good in his own room now...I think it's probably good for all of us to have him in there.