Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cole's 6 Month Pictures

Today I attempted to take some 6-month pictures of Cole. Attempted would be the key word. He wasn't feeling too generous with the smiles or personality. :) I got him all ready and was waiting for Cort to come home to help me spot him (for sitting pictures since we were on the kitchen floor), and I think I missed my window. Despite all my best tricks, noises and funny faces, the smiles just weren't coming so I gave up. After that he took a long nap-figures! Anyhow, if I get motivated I will try round 2. Until then, here you go....



This is the "Why are you torturing me?" pose
This pretty much sums it up :)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Cole-6 Months

I do not know how it is possible, but Cole is 6 months old (actually a bit more than that-I am a little behind!).

Here are his stats:

Length: 27 5/8 inches (90%!!!)
Weight: 17 pounds, 4 ounces (50%)
Head: 17 1/8 in.

These days Cole is working on several new things. The first one is sitting. We have been putting Cole in a tripod position, but he really honestly isn't totally into it yet. He much prefer to fling himself backward, so you have to be by him at all times! :) The picture above was taken very, very, very quickly!! On the other hand, he is all about trying to get crawling. When he is on his stomach, his legs and arms flail wildly as he wills himself to move. He is SLOWLY starting to figure it out and has managed to take a couple of scoots. He is also at that point where he scoots himself backwards rather than forward. :) He is pushing up on his arms so well, which is funny because Mia rarely did that and was all about the army crawl.

Cole has also hit a stage where he has become a bit of a mommy-clinger. :) If he doesn't see me, I am fine. But if I am in the same room and so much dare as to turn my back on him for 5 seconds, he starts to get upset and think I am going away. Ahhhh, I am hoping this phase passes quickly! Cole has had a pretty decent transition to daycare, although we are still working on stretching out that first nap and being a bit more consistent with the length of it. He is in different places on different days, so I am hoping after another week or two he will be settled into a routine.

Although he has been a bit fussier since his ear infection, Cole still is pretty laid-back most of the time. The nurses couldn't believe that he barely cried when he got his shots. That being said, he still has that Graske energy, and both the nurses and doctors couldn't get over his wild flailing on the exam table. :)

Hard to believe, but in 6 more months, he will be 1!!!!

Bye Bye Crib!

Recently Mia's crib was part of a large recall. The way the recall was run was that we had to disassemble her crib and send the hardware to the company before they would send us a voucher for a new crib. Lovely! Anyhow, we completed the rebate as quickly as possible and we have already ordered a new crib (a different brand this time!). The plan is that we will probably just convert the crib into a bed as soon as we get it. The problem is that the rails that convert the crib will not be in for up to 3 months, even though the crib will be in soon.

So what are we doing in the meantime? Well, we have set up my old twin mattress that we had on the floor in Mia's room. It is not the nicest looking thing, but it will do for the time being! I have to say though, the first couple nights of trying out this new "bed" were hilarious. The first night Mia rolled out, into her Christmas tree and knocked it over. The next night when I went in to check her before bed, she was laying in the middle of the floor fast asleep. Too funny!! Anyhow, my coworker had some bed rails, so we got those pronto and haven't had any issues since.

Mia is pretty adaptable when it comes to things like this, and she did awesome with the transition. She continues to have no clue that she could just walk right out of her bed and room in the morning, but that is okay by me! :) She is thrilled to have a "big girl bed," and likes to show it off to people who come over.

Helping dad take the crib apart (she was so excited and I was so sad! It seems like yesterday we put it up-time really flies!)
Seeing what to do next
The famous "smile"
These crack me up-Mia asleep in the middle of the floor (she also likes her holiday pjs, what can I say???)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Meeting Baby Bella

Recently we got to unexpectedly meet Mike and Sarah's little girl Bella. They were in town for a memorial service and we happened to be around, so we popped into Kristy's to say a quick hello. Of course while I was there I had to snap some pictures. I was very sad that Mike and Sarah didn't get to meet Cole (Sarah and Ian were gracious enough to watch him so Cort and I could both stop by) since he was sick and I didn't want to spread germs. But they were able to meet Mia for the first time!!! I think the first thing Mike said was, "She looks just like she looks on the blog!" Ha, ha!

Love this mischevious look!
Bella has the best eyes!
While mommy visited with Bella, Mia hung out with Payton
and got a tour of his room and his cool car bed....
Sarah and Bella
Me with Bella
Mia loving up Bella :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Mia's 1st Day of "School"

So yesterday was Mia's first day of "school," and I wasn't quite sure what to anticipate. Mia is pretty outgoing and doesn't seem to have a ton of attachment issues, but you never know what you will get when you are in a new environment with a toddler!

To prepare Mia, we talked up going to school, and she had already been there a couple times when we were doing our tour, dropping off paperwork, etc. She seemed pretty excited that morning, although she was a bit tired after getting out the door early (7:30!!!). We got there and I walked her down to her classroom. Pretty much right away she found an activity (puzzle) and started working on it. After that a teacher brought a group of kids over to look at something and when I tried to say goodbye to her, she barely looked up and acknowledged me! I finally got her attention to say goodbye, blew her a kiss, and left. There were no tears, no drama, nothing! When I came to pick her up she was actually a little upset because she wanted to nap there (the kids that stay all day were getting ready to nap)-too funny! When I talked to her on the way home, she told me that her favorite thing to play with there was "the castle." :)

I have heard from both my mom and the center director that things may get harder once the kids realize this is the new routine, but today again went off without a hitch. I am keeping my fingers crossed that things continue this way!

The only bump in the road the first day was that Mia was a little upset that she spilled some water on her (they use real cups) and wanted a new shirt. :) Mia hates to get stuff on her! She also has been a little picky with the lunch, but I think this is a great opportunity for her to expand her food horizons! I am sad that Mia seems like such a big girl, but also feel so happy that she is in an environment that will help her develop even more socially and academically (as much as you can at 2!). She really just seems so happy and excited.

Of course I had to snap a couple of quick pictures her first day, but be forewarned that they are BAD. I don't know what was going on with my flash, they are a little crazy looking.

Playing with a puzzle
Our big girlThis is what you get when you ask Mia to smile these days :)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Lots Going On!

I realize once again I have been absent from blogging and promise to try and get back on the bandwagon again. This will be a picture-less post, but I do have a bunch of pictures I have to go through and get posted.

Until then, an update will have to do. Things have been a little crazy in our household over the last week or two. To begin with, we found out Mia's crib had been recalled. This would be fine except for the fact that the recall requires you to take apart the crib and send back all the hardware before they will issue a voucher for a new one-lovely. So we decided to pull out the twin matress we have (from when we had an "extra" bedroom) and place that on the floor for Mia. We have it surrounded by pillows, but little Miss Mia finds a way to roll off of it nightly. I did just get some bedrails today! This is a post for a later time though as I have some pictures to go along with that. :) I do have my voucher now so I will be hitting up Babies R Us this weekend to pick out a new crib, which we will probably just convert straight into a bed.

To add to that, Cole has been sick for about the past week. It started out as a cold, with a major snotty nose, which Cole was none to pleased about having wiped. It then settled into a cough and finally into an ear infection. My normally very mellow, laid-back child has been VERY needy thoughout the day and waking up throughout the night. Finally yesterday I decided to call the doctor and see if they would just do a quick ear-check. Sure enough, his right ear is infected. He has now had 2 doses of antibiotic and already seems better (by the way Meijer gives free antibiotics for kids if you didn't know that).

Finally, the biggest news is probably that Cort is back to work!! He was supposed to have gone back yesterday, but we ended up with a snow day/cold day. I think he is happy to get back and be with grown-ups, but he has commented how he will really miss the kids and how he is so thankful that he got to have this opportunity. Going along with this, after a LONG search and much obsessing, we have finally settled on daycare for the kids. Mia will be attending a center that is on my way to school and Cole will be watched by Sarah's mom 3 days a week and Cort's mom 2 days a week. While it is not ideal to make 2 drop-offs (although Cort's mom will come to our house), I do feel that both kids will be in the best possible environment for each of them.

Both Cort and I feel like Mia is so ready for "school." She is so into reading, books, pretending, etc., and just loves to be around other kids. I am both excited and nervous for this next big step. I even have to get her a backpack!!! The center she is going to seems like a good fit for us, and I was happy to hear that it is also where my pediatrician sends her kids. She will do snack and lunch there and they have some enrichment things like music. They even say they will email me pictures some days of Mia-so of course you know I love that!! As far as Cole, I still feel like he is too little to send to a center (plus most don't take infants 1/2 days), so to have Cole be either at our house or houses he is familiar with is a great fit. We will offically start daycare on Tuesday (since Monday is MLK day). I have already determined that I am going to need to get up a 3 a.m. to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door on time! :) The good news is this is only for the next 5 months and then we can re-evaluate to see if this has worked for us.

So anyhow, that is why we have been so busy lately, but I promise that I will get on the ball and get some pictures posted soon!!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Blog!!

Can you believe it?? It has been 2 years since I have started this blog! 2 years ago at Christmas I had just received my Nikon D40 as a wonderful Christmas gift from Cort, and figured a blog would be a good way to share pictures. Along the way, it pretty much became my baby book for Mia and Cole-just not as traditional as usual. It has served the purpose of combining 2 of my loves-my family and taking pictures. I missed 300, but today is post number 302!! That is an average of 150 posts a year-not too bad!

Today I decided to take a little walk down memory lane. Here is my first post to the blog, 2 years ago. I can't believe what a little chunker Mia was in those pictures. In case you don't want to click back, I just went into my computer and pulled a picture that was taken almost exactly 2 years ago-would you look at Mia!!! The first thing I notice is her chub and how blue her eyes were. We really thought she was going to have blue eyes for quite awhile, but they have turned more of a greenish/hazel color, which is what I think they will stay. It is funny seeing her eyes so blue, because Cole's have never been this blue. I think he will be our brown-eyed boy for sure. I look at this picture and feel like it was a lifetime ago, but it has not been that long. It is truly amazing how quickly children grow up. I should add this is Mia at about the same age Cole is right now (from the pics yesterday).


Continuing the walk down memory lane, here is a posting from the blog about 1 year ago-New Years Eve. I was a little slow on the blogging around this time last year because I was sooooo fatigued from being pregnant with Cole. Of course nobody knew yet and everyone just thought I was a slacker. :) I cannot believe how little Mia and Ava look!

And just for entertainment's sake, I went back and pulled a picture that was taken almost exactly 1 year ago, again if you don't feel like clicking back. 1 year ago Mia had just been walking for a short time (she was a late walker). I look at this picture and truly can't believe how much Mia has grown in the last year. Most noticeably how much her HAIR has grown in the last year-Wowza!! I remember being excited that Mia actually had hair at this point-little did I know the curl explosion that was coming my way! Here she is sporting her "I have a secret" shirt.


And that brings us to today. Here is Mia as I was playing around with some different settings on my camera (she has been my guinea pig lately). You can see her eyes are no longer really blue and she now has enough hair that I can put in true pigtails-woo hoo!!! There is nothing about her that seems "babyish" to me anymore, it is more like she is a little girl, a little person. Time sure flies (sorry she is a little magenta-like I said I was practicing)!!

Anyhow, thanks if you made it this far on my walk down memory lane. I am always curious who is checking out the blog (I will always run into people who say they have seen it who I had no idea were checking us out), I would love it if you left a comment and let us know. Don't be shy! I would love to see our visitors and get some blog love. :) Also, this blog needs a major facelift as my poor son is not even represented on the banner at the top! I will try to make some changes soon, so stay tuned. Here's to another year of blogging!!!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Cole-5 1/2 Months

So I kind of missed the boat and passed by when Cole hit 5 months. What can I say-life is busy these days!! Anyhow, I thought I would do some catching up here at 5 1/2 months. Cole continues to grow and grow. I am so curious to see what he weighs at his 6 month appointment coming up. I think he will soon be out of his 3-6 month clothes, some are pretty snug right now. He is wearing some of his 6-12 stuff and that just doesn't seem right!! It feels like yesterday he was born.

Cole had been doing good with his sleeping and then all of a sudden it was like we hit a wall-he was waking up WAY earlier, wanting to eat, etc. I figured it was a good time to start cereal (this was about 2-3 weeks ago), and sure enough that did the trick. Cole is doing pretty good sleeping from about 7 at night until 4 or 5ish when he wakes for a feeding. He then goes back down for another couple of hours. Cole is finally falling into a nap schedule, although the length of them leaves a little to be desired. Right now he is taking two 1 1/2 hour naps on average, along with another smaller nap thrown in here or there.

After a week or so with the cereal, we decided to start some solids with Cole. I am trying something different with him that I didn't do with Mia and that is making his baby food. I had heard people talk about this in the past (especially Kristy) and I thought that while I was off over break I would give it a try. It is super-easy and so far Cole has eaten everything I have made (although I will say he was not so crazy about peas the first time he tried them). I think I will just try and designate one day a week where I make his food for the following week. So far Cole has had sweet potatoes, bananas, and peas. I have squash, avacado, and pears waiting for him in the freezer. :)

Cole continues to roll around both ways now and actually puts himself on his stomach a lot. He likes to lay on his stomach and watch what Mia is playing with. This has also become a big motivation for him to try and scoot and get her toys (which Mia loves-ha, ha!). He tries so hard to scoot, crawl, move, whatever you want to call it. He is very motivated watching Mia. He also LOVES to track her and see what she is doing. She can totally make him laugh and smile and she knows just how to do it. He loves his big sister. It is cute sometimes to hear them in the backseat of the car laughing back and forth.

The next milestone we are working towards is sitting up. Cole will sit in his little Bumbo seat and will also tripod, but that inevitably leads to him falling over (I am always there to catch him!). I think it will still be awhile before he is doing this indpendently, but I look forward to him being able to have a different perspective.

While Cole continues to be pretty mellow, he still has his little quirks. When you sit him in your lap sitting up, he thinks it is hilarious to try and throw himself back like a little wild man. When I put him down to sleep at night, he is just a total wiggle worm, so I just stick him in his crib because he does not seem interested in any sort of rocking. He also has been waking himself up by jamming himself in the corner of his crib. After several nights of having to get his arm out of the slats of the crib, we are now borrowing some breathable bumpers from Sarah and Ian.

Well that is our little guy in a nutshell at 5 1/2 months. Here are some pictures from today of our big boy...

A funny one first-this scrunchy face cracks me up
Acting Shy

This one is a little out of focus, but I love it anyway :)
Rocking the double chin-we are feeding him well!



Just hanging out

Congratulations!

I am happy to report congratulations for both Dave and Liz and Heather and Roger.

First off, we are so thrilled that Dave and Liz are expecting their first little on in July-right around Cole's 1st birthday. Congrats to you guys, we know you will make the best parents. Dave is so great with the kids and we like to call Liz the "Baby Whisperer" for how well the little ones take to her. :)

Second, I am excited to report that Heather and Roger welcomed Brynne Adrienne DeHart yesterday after what seems like was a LONG labor/hospital stay for Heather. I am sure they will be updating their blog soon with the story and pictures. We are so happy for you guys and can't wait to meet little Brynne!

I have lots of updates that I hope to be posting soon-pics to come from our annual ISU get-together and New Years Eve-stay tuned!