A Scolding

Okay. So I've been "scolded through the grapevine" by my in-laws and others (ahem, Sandra) for not continuing to fulfill my original purpose for blogging--keeping you long-distance loved-ones updated on Cole. I realize that most of you care nothing about reading my ramblings but check the website in hopes of getting a glimpse at my cute boy. So I do have some pictures to post, and I thought many of you would like to see how our baby has quickly turned into a big boy.

We just returned a few days ago from a spring break trip to south Alabama to visit Gilbert's parents. We'd talked it up for a long time to him, promising that he could put to use the Superman fishing pole he'd gotten for Christmas, and he could not wait. Just a few days before we left he started asking when he would go fishing with his Paw-paw. It escalated from asking daily, to a few times daily, to several times a day. The night before we left, he was praying and he said, "Thank you for Paw-paw, thank you for fishing." As he said fishing, he did his little hand motions for reeling a fish in. He even told a lady in a Tennessee Zaxby's about fishing. He was beyond excited. To build his anticipation even more, he had his very own tackle box, complete with his very own rubber worms, waiting for him when he woke up on Monday morning. He hauled a worm around with him every second we were there, even to bed each night. And finally, he got to fish. Here are a few pictures from the week.


This picture isn't the easiest to see, but Gilbert took it on his phone because I, of course, left my camera in the van for this excursion. Cole "caught" this one with Gilbert's help. He was so very excited.

This was the second day on the boat, when I did remember my camera. We did not catch one single thing this day, but I did get some cute pictures anyway. Cole amused himself (and I think annoyed others) by constantly checking on the minnows we were using as bait. He got very brave and ended up spending most of the time waiting for someone to need a new minnow so he could use the net to pull out some fish, stick his hand into the net with the flopping little things, get a good grip on one, and take it over to the person who needed it.

He was also a very good car rider. We traveled the entire eleven hour trip home with only a two hour nap and two short stops.



We had a good time. The boys got a fishing fix, and I had time to read for enjoyment. Now it's back to the real world next week for a few more weeks of school, and then some summertime fun! I can't wait.

Kate's Top 3 Things

Top 3 things I should have posted on my blog in the last month or so:

1. Cole has been totally paci free for the last few weeks. He's pretty much been an "only-when-sleeping" paci user for the majority of his life, but I have been ready for him to get rid of it. Especially before a new paci user enters the picture (refer to #3). He came home from daycare about 3 weeks or so ago with a note that said, "Cole's paci has disappeared. Could you please send another? P.S. He DID go to sleep without it." That was the extra nudge I needed to attempt to help him kick the habit. So that night we put him to bed without, and not a single tear was shed. He drifted right off to sleep, and has only simply inquired about it a handful of times since.

2. A cute Cole story, as told by Gilbert: Cole calls my bras "boobies." When he sees me getting undressed he says, "Mom, you gonna take your boobies off?" So the other day Gilbert and Cole went to the store. As they walked down an aisle, they had a straight shot of the lingerie section. Just as the bras come into sight, Cole, at the top of his lungs, and with great excitement, says, "BOOBIES!!!" Gilbert almost died. I can imagine. I would have loved to be there.

3. As referenced in #1, we are expecting a younger sibling for our sweet Cole in September. I'm sure that you've probably all heard that at this point, but there may be a few of you who aren't facebookers. This pregnancy, so far, has been a little different from the first. I am just as weepy as I was with Cole (maybe even a little more) but I am a good bit snippier than I was before. When I was carrying Cole, I was, I think, much kinder than when I wasn't pregnant. Not the case this time. I am a roller-coaster, completely. My only hope is that this means I'm having a girl and the extra estrogen isn't treating me (or those who come into close range) too well. I had my second dr. visit last week and when I told the dr. that I'd had some sickness, he asked if I had the same with my first pregnancy. When I told him no, he said, "You know what they say that means..." Then when we heard the heartbeat and it was 160, he said, "You know what they say that means..." I'm trying not to listen to all that; especially since Cole's heartbeat was usually in the 160 range. Although I must admit that I do have plans to check the Chinese conception chart when I get done here.

I'm sure those can't be the only important or interesting things that have happened in the last month, but, as usual, I think of a ton of ideas and when I finally get on to post, it all disappears from my brain. So I guess that will have to tide you over for a bit. I'll try to get back to you if another comes to me. But, as you've learned in the last 6 months or so, you probably shouldn't hold your breath.

It's Time

Just because I'm trying to blog once a week, I'm going to bore you with some details of my day...
The exciting news (I guess) is that I'm off today because it's a snow day. We have about 5 inches. But on the negative side (which I'm disturbed to admit I can usually find), this means one day closer to June before school's out. Oh well. I guess a sanity day peppered into the spring semester is nice.
A perk of the day is that I have time to do some school work that I wasn't sure I'd ever have the chance to get started on, much less finish. Because I have a doctor's appointment today at 1:30, I had Gilbert take Cole to daycare (they just had a 2 hour delay) so I wouldn't have to find a sitter during nap time so I could go to my appointment. What that means, although I'm a little sad Cole doesn't get to play in the snow, is that I had time to work on my central office mandated assignment that I'd been refusing to do, and it's as done as it can be right now (although getting it done that quickly probably means I did it poorly. Oh well. At least I feel better about it, right?) Anyway, sorry to bore you. I just felt obligated to post. Hope your day is happy! (By the way, in proofreading this, I think I "sound" quite a bit like Ben Stein. Anyone else "hear" it?)

Slacker

Okay, so I'm an awful slacker. Horrible. I feel so guilty for having abandoned my blog. Honestly, I'm not even checking others' blogs on a regular basis. I feel awful. I may have mentioned this before (although when would I because it's not like I've been updating this thing) but I've been gallivanting around with Facebook instead. I should do better. I actually had a walk down memory lane today, which caused me to consider my relationship with my blog, because I put a year's worth of pictures in Cole's photo albums today. (Those hadn't been updated since August 2007, his first birthday. I guess you could say that Facebook isn't my first love affair. My child's photo albums took the back seat to my blog.) Anyway, I found pictures that I'd published on my blog and realized that I need to get back on the blogging track. So I'm thinking I could at least commit to once a week blogging, right? I'm going to try. We'll see how it goes...

No Love Lost

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted anything; it's been that long since I've even checked for comments or looked at other people's blogs. I guess it is the season to be busy. But I want you all to know, I haven't lost any love for my blogging pals. I thought about you on Sunday morning at about 12:45 when I was cleaning up puke. And then I thought about you again at about 2 a.m. and again at about 3...

I was considering the fact that many of you who read my blog are moms or will be moms in the future. I was also thinking about all the blog posts I've read about sick babies or grandbabies. Honestly, I couldn't really relate. Until this weekend, I've only once had to clean up my own child's puke. But in the last 48 hours, I have truly become a real, honest-to-goodness mom. So many of you have reached this stage before me, even with children younger than mine. Just want you to know that now I'm a member of your club.

I have found myself to be grateful to be among you official mothers at this point in my career. Cole picked up on the concept of hitting the trash or toilet pretty easily as a two-year-old. I know that this would not be the case if he were much younger. Don't get me wrong. He rarely hit the can with the first heave of the spell (sorry for the graphics), but those that came after usually landed in the garbage can. I know that saved me a lot of mess. My three loads of laundry from this ordeal could have turned quickly to six or more.

More good news is that the only time he's felt bad in all of this is about 5-15 minutes before he gets sick again. Between those times (which has gotten to be every 3-5 hours), he feels fine: eating popsicles, drinking Sprite, watching Little Einsteins, and riding his bicycle in circles around the kitchen. But the trash can has lurched behind him wherever he's gone.

I'm writing, though, after sleeping almost the entire night in my own bed (I was in his floor the night before) uninterrupted. The only sheets changed were at 8:45, just after he'd fallen asleep. The next time he woke up was at 5 a.m., thirsty. So I'm hoping that he'll be in good shape today. Nurse Daddy will be on duty for the day. And another bit of good news, as if a boy on the road to recovery and joining your club isn't good enough: I was greeted by a two-hour school delay. How else would I get a chance to fill you in on my news?

Just when you thought...

Just when you thought it didn't get any cuter than that hiney in those Halloween leggings...just when I thought I couldn't be prouder of my little guy than I am...just when I thought I had maxed out on my love for him, here comes a story like this one:
I fixed chili for dinner tonight (irrelevant, but you know me). Gilbert had taken Cole over to his seat and I brought over his bowl, as well as a hot dog that I'd cut up for him. Gilbert was fixing his own bowl while I got Cole situated. Cole started saying, "Mom, pray? Pray, Mom?" It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying, but when I saw his hands folded, I got the idea. I told him to hang on and when the three of us sat down, we'd pray. He agreed, but he kept sitting there with his hands folded, so I asked Gilbert to come over so we could go ahead and pray. I expected Gilbert to come over and lead the prayer as usual, but instead he asked Cole if he wanted to pray. Cole agreed. I thought he'd sit there without saying anything, but I was wrong. As soon as we bowed our heads, this is what we heard: "God, [jibberish] food, [jibberish] hot dog, [more jibberish]." Then he lifted his head and grinned. I couldn't believe it. It was the sweetest thing I think I've ever heard, and trust me, living with this child, I've heard lots of sweet things. But I think this tops it. It's like I told Gilbert--each day I can't imagine that I'll be more shocked at his big boy-hood than I was the day before, but somehow I am. It's amazing.

Finally!

Okay. I'm finally ready to share pictures of the house. I took some before we officially moved in but never got around to posting them. Then it looked so much better when we started to fix things up, so I intended to take more, but then we moved the real stuff in, and it was a wreck (yes, I took pictures of that for you to see but my camera somehow deleted them. Seriously. I promise). But now the downstairs is cleaned up and I took some more yesterday. Take a look. Our dining room and kitchen. I chose this color and I love it. Some of you know the drama that preceded the choice, however. Our very cool living room; my personal favorite. That's a painting of my grandparents' house over the fireplace, which I love. Our bedroom's pretty cool too (we painted it red) but considering the fact that the bed is never, ever made, and it has a quilt on it now that totally clashes with the color, I'll spare you the picture.

And since it's Halloween and my husband bought me a cool new camera as an early birthday gift, I'll share some photos of Cole's costume. This is the first holiday we've had that he's been able to really get into, and he's had so much fun. I can't wait until Christmas time.
I had to get a shot of that cute booty in those (ahem) leggings I had him in. Before he broke into the candy
And after
What a fun night!