make fries

It's been so long since my last post that it's hard to figure out where to begin. Cole is an explosion of growth and activity. His jeans that required 3 cuffs in December, no longer need cuffs at all. His vocabulary includes whole sentences and his imagination and expressions are growing just as quickly. Last week while eating a snack of raisin toast with cream cheese, he grabbed a toy dinosaur and pretended it was eating his toast too. He smiled and said, "Dinosaur likes raisin toast too!". That was his longest sentence to date.

My mom and grandmother visited last week and they were amazed by how much more Cole is talking. They had seen him a little over a month ago. I had to do some translating for them, but after a day they were fairly fluent in Colese too. Today Cole started saying "Come on Mommy" a lot in a whiny, pushy voice. He learned that one after a long day with Tony yesterday. Tony has a habit of saying "Come on Cole" when he's completely exasperated. He didn't realize how much he says it until our little parrot started to repeat it.

Cole's favorite game right now is "Make Fries" which translates to Playdoh time. The source of that nickname is Cole's favorite Playdoh tool. I spend a good part of my day proposing alternatives to Make Fries because I'm tired of the game after about 4 months straight of Playdoh. The trouble is Cole doesn't really make anything, instead he wants me or Tony to make things for him and it lasts for at least an hour at a time, oh and he wants to play 2 or 3 times a day. Today I succeeded in distracting him with a couple rounds of Memory, one successful game of Candyland, and few new books. We still had Playdoh time but it wasn't until 6:30 p.m.

We started potty training and after some initial success, we had to back off. Cole started trying to not poop at all in order to avoid the potty, so we've put the process on hold for a little while. I'm trying to get started again, but it takes a lot of discipline on my part too. Also with the frequent hour long car trips, I know traveling is going to become more complicated and I'm not looking forward to that part of things. We'll just take it day by day.

Cole's eating a little better, but lately he's been on a hopeless sweets kick. He knows how to open the pantry door and it's tempting to throw out all the sweets just to avoid the tantrums and temptation. Some of Cole's favorite words are "em-ems" for M&Ms and he can also say "chocolate." We still supplement with some jarred baby food just to sneak meat and veggies into his diet. The only meat he will eat is chicken nuggets and even that is rare. His best meal is still breakfast as long as it's cereal, waffles or pancakes. He won't go near eggs, no matter how I cook them.

He still loves music and dancing and will bob his head to any kind of beat. Tonight we had on American Idol and he clapped and said "good job" at the end of a performance. He could easily replace Paula at the judges table. Cole makes up one word songs all the time by chanting whatever pops into his head. During a recent car trip he serenaded me with "truck, truck, truck, truck, tree, tree, tree, ooooo, bus, bus, bus, bus, look plane, plane, plane..."

Cole has been with me for my recent doctor appointments, and he has been really well behaved at the office. I was worried when I had to put him in my lap during a blood draw. He was scared at first but he just cuddled up to me and watched. When it was over he asked "Mommy, boo boo?". I told him yes, but it was just a small one and I was fine. He gave the band-aid a kiss. When Tony came home he told him, "Mommy, boo, boo. It's fine." with a too-serious for a two-year-old expression. He held my hand during my long ultrasound because he needed comforting, but it was nice for me too. I'm excited about sharing this experience with Cole and seeing it through his eyes.

Christmas eve morning, Cole ate pancakes for the second time ever. Before Cole even turned one, the lovely Peppermint Tina sent him a care package with a fish pancake mold thingy, and she said "before you know it he'll be clamoring for pancakes!" Well, I wouldn't say he's clamoring, but if I make them in the shape of a fish and add a generous amount of chocolate chips, he will at least eat them!

*In the photo, Cole is saying "Ffffisssssshhhhhttttthhhh" as he displays his ffffisssssshhhhhttttthhh.

Fish is part of the traditional Italian Christmas eve feast, and this was as close as Cole got to eating any. All of us nearly missed our fish dinner when the power went out while I was cooking. My many nights of working late in the downstairs office came in handy because I was the only one who could safely navigate the house in complete darkness. By the light of my flashlight/nightlight and Cole's tiger and dog flashlights we ate what we could salvage of the meal. No electric meant no heat too, so we put on our warmest PJs and all snuggled in bed together. Sounds cozy? Well, then you've never shared a full-size bed with my family. It was a restless night for all of us, but one we'll remember.

halloween

At least I'm getting these photos up before the next holiday gets here...

Cole was Plankton (from SpongeBob Squarepants, if you're not hip to Nick) this year, and there were 2 big surprises related to his costume. The first surprise was that Cole kept his antennae on his head during all of his trick or treating. He cried when I took them off to put him the car. You would've thought I had stolen all of his candy from the way he reacted.

The second surprise was that no one at a 2-year-old's birthday party held the Saturday before Halloween knew who Plankton was. But then again, not a single person at the same celebration recognized his Charlie Brown costume last year. The best part of the party was the Moon Bounce. Cole loves to jump whether it be hopping on the ground or flying high in his crib. It was so much fun to see him just throw himself around and not worry about him getting hurt. If only I could pad his whole room...

2 years!

The hustle and bustle of moving is behind us and the drywall dust began to settle just in time for Cole's second birthday. We had 3 consecutive weekends of visitors and his birthday was celebrated 4 times with the last candles being blown out on October 28th with his little friends. I baked our traditional duckie cake again and then a mongo Halloween-themed cake for the kid party, a co-celebration with 2 other October babies. Cole's favorite word is "No" but that was replaced by "cake!" for the last few weeks.

Cole talks constantly now, although, it is not all in English. I'm fairly fluent in Colish though so we can communicate pretty well. He has a new joke where he points to his elbow and says "ELLLLLMMMMMMMMOO" and giggles. He CAN say elbow, he just doesn't want to. He'll also insist on calling something "CAAAAAAKKKE" just so you'll correct him and he can protest by saying "CAAAAAKKKEE" over and over again.

Cole is putting words together now too. "More cookie" is a favorite of his. The other night as I crawled into bed at 6 a.m. I was greeted with my favorite sentence "Hi Momma." I had no idea Tony had brought him into the bed until I heard his little voice. It was so cute that it ALMOST made no sleep okay.

Cole's love of music is now expressed through song as well as dance. We can perform a lovely duet of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Row, Row, Row your Boat" with Cole singing the last word of each line. He surprised me the other day by singing along to "Loco Man" from the Mighty Wind soundtrack which I guess I have played a lot in the car.

Cole's a helper, and he proudly helps with the laundry and grocery shopping. He'll take things out of the washer (love the front loader!) and hand them to me one-by-one. He'll also push the laundry basket full of clothes into my room for folding, which is where I take over. At the grocery store, Cole insists on putting the items in the cart for me which led to broken glass and embarrassment in Aisle 9 last week. He also helps unpack the groceries when we get home, but I've learned to move the breakables to the counter right away. We're always learning new things together.

naptime

Here's proof that I'm not the only one who's tired. Cole climbed up into Gram's lap on Monday and fell asleep within minutes. I left to go to the grocery store, but Tony told me that my mom fell asleep for a while too. Naps for everyone!

bubble bath

Once Cole was big enough to bathe in the big tub, Tony took over bath time. It's become a fun nightly routine for the two of them. Last week, Tony decided it was time for something new and slipped a bottle of Elmo bubble bath into the shopping cart during our trip to the store. That night, Cole had his first bubble bath and now every night he calls for bub-bo bub-bo. Tony covered his head and then Cole began to add side burns. Within minutes, he was covered with only his face peeking out from the mounds of suds. Cole had a blast, and we all had a good laugh. We've determined that the 3(!) capfuls Tony used the first time is definitely too much especially since the rinse cycle took longer than the bathing part.

I'm the bad guy because I won't let him have a bubble bath every night. Besides, he gets more excited if it's a once a week (or less) treat.

walkie talkie

Cole's vocabulary is growing rapidly now. Tony has been wishing for Cole to "really talk", and now I fear he is regretting that wish. Cole's 2 favorite words right now are "no" and "out". He's creative with his use of "out". He says it when he's done eating and wants to be released from his high chair, and he also uses it when he wants me to come out of my office and play with him. I guess in his mind, he wants me to be freed from my office. Funny thing is when he says it that way, I want out too.

Here's a pic from our big trip out, our vacation in Point Pleasant just a few short weeks ago. Sadly, it feels like it was a year ago already.