First Day of MOPS at CBC

Cole and I have been anxiously awaiting this day for a few months now. Our church offers a Mothers Of PreSchoolers (MOPS) program during the school year so Cole and I decided to join. Today was a meet and greet kind of social with a carnival theme. (All the moms had their kiddos with them for the carnival but on a normal meeting day we will be separated. Moms will get to enjoy guest speakers, a feast for breakfast, make a craft and get to know other ladies in a small group setting. The kiddos will be divided up according to their age and play in the nursery.)There were stations for the kids to go to and receive prizes for participating. Even though Cole was not able to enjoy every station due to his young age, he was able to participate in a few and he got all the prizes anyway.

First we went to the tub-o-ducks where you go fishing for little rubber duckies. They were so cute. Cole dove right in and got elbow deep in water to grab a duck for himself. (I didn't get a picture of Cole at this station but I did capture his friend Lyric having fun.)

Next we went to the Thomas the Train Tunnels. At first Cole didn't want to crawl through but after seeing his friend John give it a try he went right in.

After crawling through the tunnel a few times; even if some attempts were not successful, Cole and John played with a miniature basketball. John rolled the ball and Cole chased after him. It was really cute.

All the excitement built up an appetite so we parked the stroller off to the side next to Cole's friend Micah and snacked on some Cheerios and apple juice. The rest and snack gave us the energy we needed to stroll around and watch the "big" kids having fun.

While strolling the carnival we ran into many old friends and met some future friends. We can't wait until the next meeting.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was packed to the gills with fun. We are a part of a child care co-op with two other couples. The co-op exists so that each couple can have a date (child free) every now and then. This Saturday was our turn to watch Micah with our dear friends The Littles so that our other friends The McLaughlins could go out on a date. Another friend came over to let her two boys play with the rest of the kiddos. In all we had four boys and one girl at our house. Some running, some crawling and some just watching it all. We all went to the swings and let the kiddos burn off some energy there, ate dinner and hung out the rest of the evening. It was wild but it was so much fun. (Sorry I don't have any pics.)

Sunday morning came early (4:30 am). Cole woke up crying and had a runny/stuffy nose. I too had woken up with the crud. I rocked him, sang to him, held him, sucked his nose out with a bulb, washed his face with warm water and gave him a bottle. By 6:30 am he was back asleep and so was I. We didn't wake up again until a little after eight. Needless to say, we played hookie from church that day.

Monday was a new day but Cole and I were still feeling yucky. We had big plans for the day and made ourselves feel better for the sake of others. Since Gustav was headed straight for Louisiana where some of our extended family lives; they headed for higher ground and sought refuge in Houston. It was bitter sweet because it was so good to get to see them but everyone was glued to the TV waiting to see if their house was going to be in the path of the storm.

Here are some pics from Monday:

Cole learns how to fake a sneeze from his Taunt. He thought that was the funniest thing ever.

Cole gets some smooches from his Aunt Nell. (There was a better pic of this but it was too blurry.)

Cole and Daddy go for a swim.

Nanny talks with Cole's Great-Aunt Maryanne.

Donny talks with his Uncle Larry.

After all the excitement from the weekend, today, we are trying to recoup and get well.

Showing Off

Cole has been pulling up on everything lately. I've been encouraging him to walk by coaching him to inch his way along the sofa or holding his hands as he takes steps and praising him the entire time. You might be asking me WHY? WHY would you want him to be more mobile? The answer is; he's my first child and each new thing he does just makes me giddy.

Anyhow, for a few days Cole would try to walk behind one of those push toys but would fall after only a couple of steps. Yesterday he decided to walk a marathon around our living room. I was in shock and disbelief. I looked at him and asked him, "When did you learn how to do this? Yesterday you were only taking a couple of steps. Today, it's back and forth back and forth across the living room." He gave me a huge smile and a giggle and took off again. I was amazed.

Cole was showing off his new skill all day long. I couldn't get him to play with any other toys. And when his Daddy came home he wanted to show him what he'd been working on all day. It was great. Cole got lots of claps, hugs, words of encouragement and kisses for his new accomplishment by both Mama and Daddy.

Playground Swing

On the way back from our morning stroll I decided to stop by the swings and let Cole try them out for the first time. He LOVED the swing. He smiled and giggled the entire time. It was so much fun that I think we'll stop by the swings every morning on the way back from our stroll.

Maybe this weekend Daddy will go with us and watch me (Cole) swing.

My Little Buckaroo

While I was in the laundry room doing chores Cole had wandered off on his own adventure. He always starts off being very interested in what I am doing and plays at my feet but after a while decides to go exploring. He snuck off to see what he could find in the "cowboy" room. (The cowboy room is adjacent to the laundry room so I could keep an eye and ear on him.) He's been in the cowboy room many times but has never really noticed his Great-Granddaddy's cowboy hat and boots on display beside the dresser. Today he noticed them and took a liking to them. When I peaked my head around the corner, this is what I saw:

I just can't help but love my little buckaroo. I think he's the cutest.

100 miles out of one box

Ever since Cole's new car seat came in he has loved playing with the box. Yesterday we set it up in the living room with pillows around it to give it a kind of obstacle course feel. He loved it! He crawled over the pillows and through the box. It was great. Look at my boy play. He is so fun and cute.

Catching Up

A lot has happened in the past few days. First, Cole now has two teeth and is very proud of it. He has quickly learned how to use them to his advantage by biting his food. His favorite thing to do is to take a bite of banana, peach, strawberry or whatever I'm eating. He looks at me after he takes a bite as if to say, "Mama look at me, I'm a big boy". So cute.

Cole is crawling really well now but he loves trying to walk behind one of his toys that he can push. He actually took three steps by himself before falling, the other day. I was shocked and so proud of him for his efforts.
Since Cole is growing like a weed and has out grown his infant car seat, we bought him a new one. After much in-store looking and polling our friends as to which car seat they liked best; we ordered one online. It came in a couple of days ago and Cole couldn't wait to see what was inside this huge box in our hallway. He now has a box-fort and loves crawling in and out of it. Cole got to use the new car seat for the first time yesterday when we went to visit our friends Mrs. Anne and her son, John. He loved it.

Cole's PawPaw had some work in our neck of the woods today so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Cole to get to visit with his PawPaw. He came in last night and brought some fresh fish with him. He caught the fish off of his pier the night before; now you just can't beat that kind of fresh fish. We cooked them on the grill with some vegetables in a foil packet. Oh, it was so yummy.