Two Friends, Two Parks, One Week

Earlier this week, Cole and Jasmine went to a park that is located within Jasmine's neighborhood. It was loads of fun. Cole wanted to go down the slides, again and again. Marianne and I worked out a system where one of us was at the top of the slide while one of us was at the bottom of the slide so that we could maximize the number of times the kids could ride the slide before we got tired.
Cole even tried to climb back up the slide to have another turn.

Cole spotted this horse from across the playground (I could hardly tell it was a horse but he was certain). He and Jasmine took turns riding the horse.

Today Cole met Lyric at a nearby park and played for hours. The slides, swings and tunnels were a big hit as well as the sand. After a picnic lunch Cole and Lyric headed back to the playground. Lyric is a year older than Cole so she took his hand and lead him to the correct playground. (She's even pointing in the right direction in the next picture.) So cute.

Parks are a really great place to meet up with a friend and have lots of fun. It just wouldn't be the same without you gals (Marianne, Jasmine, Courtney and Lyric).

Animals and Farming

This past week Cole and I got to spend a few days with Pa and Grams. As always, when Donny is unable to come with us, our visits are bitter sweet. Bitter because we miss Donny and wish he could come with us; sweet because we get to visit with Pa and Grams. I think Cole loves the outdoors and animals even more than I do; which is a bunch because I LOVE being outside and with animals.

Pa and Grams took Cole and I to the rodeo grounds to see all the animals one day while we were there. Cole loved being able to touch all of them. I'm not sure he had a favorite. I think if you were to ask him, he'd say they were all his favorite.

This poor pig should have ran the other way (away from Cole). Cole got so excited when the pig ran up to him. The pig stood there for a while letting Cole pet him and grab his snout. Every time Cole grabbed the pig's snout he'd squeal with delight (Cole not the pig).

This cow had a calf in the pen with her. Cole ran right up to the cow and even let the cow lick his hand. He didn't know what to think of the cow's sand paper tongue but liked that the cow liked him and let him touch her.

The petting zoo was wild. Cole didn't know what animal to touch first. He ran from one goat to the next, stopped along the way to meet a deer and chased a duck. This was the first time he'd seen a lama.

Cole and I got to help plant potatoes in Pa and Grams garden. Pa let Cole drive the tractor, preparing the soil for planting.

Grams taught Cole how to turn the potato eye-side up so that they have a better chance of growing and how to space them out and put them in the middle of the row.

Cole had so much fun playing in the dirt.


Every morning when we'd go out to feed the horses, Cole would run straight for them, pointing and saying, "hor" "hor" in excitement. He LOVES his horses.

Socks was my horse as a child. We made a lot of great memories. Cole ran right up to him and motioned for Pa to pick him up and let him get on Socks. Once on Socks' back, Cole grabbed his hair and nudged Socks to move. (I think he thought Socks would work like his rocking horse does at home.) Socks just stood there, probably thinking "I'm too old and tired for this".

Donny and I bought Ace the year before Cole was born. Ace was only a year old then. We wanted Cole to have his very own horse to grow up with. Pa has been working and training Ace for a while now. (I even got to help out with some of the training while I was there. It was so much fun.) Ace is good natured and really a gentle colt. He will be a great horse one day and Cole will have a lot of fun making memories with him.

We look forward to the next time we can visit Pa and Grams. Maybe next time I'll ride Ace. ;)

Superbowl

The Boudreaux's got together with family and watched the Superbowl on Sunday. David and Rachel (Onk and Taunt) are huge Steelers fans and had their home decked out to the nines. They were even sporting their favorite team shirts. They must have cooked and decorated all day. There was such a yummy feast for us to eat, some of which was gumbo, chili, parmesean zucchini, deviled eggs, crawfish dip, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos and on and on. Oh it was fabulous.

Donny and I were kind of rooting for the Cardinals but figured the Steelers would win. I think everyone thought that. It didn't take long before I saw a Steelers shirt on Cole and a fan towel in his hand. Taunt had gotten a hold of Cole and was teaching him to cheer for the winning team. She taught him how to raise his arms and yell for touchdowns. It is really cute.

Thank you David and Rachel for the memories. We had a blast.

Doctor Visit and BFFs

The whole family went to visit with my doctor this morning. Donny went into work late and Cole got to check out the "kid's corner" at the doctor's office. It was a kind of family outing. If you remember a couple of months ago I wrote a post about HELLP Syndrome. It was kind a doom and gloom post full of uncertainty and fear. Well today we got to put all of our doubts away. After getting my blood work back and checking my stats today the doctor put it all out on the table. The good, the bad, the not so bad, worst case scenario, etc. We must have exhausted her with an arsenal of questions. She loved that we wanted to be so informed before making any decision though. In short, sparing you all the boring details, the doctor gave us a go. She said that if it were her she'd go ahead and try to have another baby before the age of 35. My liver is functioning (platelets) at a very normal level, my blood pressure is excellent, my weight is decreasing, I had the least severe form of HELLP and it occurred at the very end (full term) of the pregnancy; all is good. She gave us a 30% chance of HELLP reoccurring. There's a 75% chance that it will occur at the same time during the pregnancy as last time, so near the end. Worst case scenario the baby will have to be delivered early but no permanent health damage to me. So, we'll pray that I will not get HELLP again and if I do, I'll get it around the 38th week like last time. Mostly, we will be praying that God's Will be done and that He'd be glorified through it all.

Enough about that. So after the doctor's visit and lunch, Cole and I went to visit with Jasmine and Marianne (Jasmine's Mama). We had such a good time catching up on the events of the week and letting the kids play together. Jasmine started making a new face lately. She squenches up her nose and puckers up her lips. It is the cutest face ever.

Cole chased the cat around and actually caught his tail, once. He also cheered Jasmine on while she practiced walking back and forth between me and her Mama. He was so happy for Jasmine each time she made it. He's such a good friend.

I just love our time with Marianne and Jasmine. It's always a hoot.

Fun with John

Cole always has a great time with his friend John. Today we met up at the local garden nursery. Yes, even though it was less than 40 degrees outside, we went. Anne (John's Mama) and I browsed through the isles of plants daydreaming about our future gardens and backyard oasis' while the boys sat in their strollers and ran around (when possible). It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it again in the spring (when it's warm enough for me to feel my fingers).

We had planned on having a picnic lunch but since the weather was not cooperating we went to the local Chic-fil-A and let the kids play on the indoor playground. It was Cole's first time on an indoor playground. He had a blast. He watched John scale the stairs to the slide with ease and decided to try it himself.

He got up two stairs with little effort and decided that was high enough. These two boys play so well together. I just love watching them interact.

Coley-Moley & Jasmania

Cole and Jasmine are quite the duo. They are only a few weeks apart in age but couldn't be further apart in their personalities. Jasmine is a kind of girly-girl; very content and easy going. Cole is adventurous and a little rambunctious.

Jasmine came over to visit yesterday. She and Cole played and had tons of fun. They shared, passed toys back and forth to each other and played well with the same toy at the same time. They even shared a lap together. All was well until the snacks came out.

It all started with a few goldfish. Once the goldfish ran out, Cole had a snack trap and was sharing cheerios with Jasmine but he wanted to remain in full control of the cup only giving her a few cheerios when he wanted to. I gave the snack trap to Jasmine and let Cole have another container full of cheerios. I thought this would be fine because they were both getting cheerios.

Wrong. The magic snack trap must have had better cheerios in it than the container I gave to Cole. He walked over to Jasmine and tried to steal the snack trap from her. She held on with all her might and they fought over the snack trap. Yes, I said fought. It was kind of cute at first but became serious very quickly. Both children had death grips on the snack trap and were red faced and screaming.

Needless to say, snack time was over.
Cole and Jasmine quickly made up. Seeing that there was no food involved, they could be friends again. Cole hugged Jasmine (or put a choke hold on her, depending on your point of view). These two are going to be great buds for a long time.

(*None of the pictures in this post were taken yesterday.)

Taylor-Maylor

This weekend we had the priviledge of having our niece, Taylor, come spend some time with us. It seemed like the time flew by. We had so much to do.....so little time..... (minus all the boring little details, here's some of the things we did):

On Saturday, we got together with my best friend, Marianne, her Mom and Sister-in-law and our friend Sarah to go see Bride Wars. It was a very cute movie. Definitely a chick flick and something you should see with your closest gal pals.
Donny and I are turning our study into a study/playroom so we got a more grown-up looking TV entertainment center. I think it's beautiful. Donny likes it's functionality. It's perfect. We moved our old entertainment unit (which is basically a shelving unit) to the study. I plan to fill the openings with baskets for Cole's toys and shelves for his books. In part of my search for the perfect size/shape baskets, Taylor, Cole and I went to Garden Ridge.

Taylor carried Cole around the store like a prince on top of her sholders. He had so much fun. They were very cute and caught the eye of many customers.

Cole loves to read and I think Taylor must have read the same five books to him a hundred times while she was here. Sweet Taylor, thank you for loving on my little boy. He adores you. We can't wait for you to come back. We love you!