Monday, October 26, 2009

The Stitches are Out!

I have to say I am fortunate to have friends in the medical field. Venessa has checked the kids' ears on a number of occasions for me, and most recently Pam (Auntie Pam, Godmother Pam, Nurse Pam-she plays a lot of roles!) was kind enough to save us a doctor's visit and removed Cole's stitches for us. I cannot say it was pleasant, but she got the job done! I thought waking him up to do it would be more desirable since he would be drowsy, but apparently he had some vivid memories of what happened last time someone was messing with his head and he did not like it. Either way, they are out and his head is healing great! Thank you Pam! And of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of Cole being restrained by Cort while Pam removed the stitches. :)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Cole-15 Months!

Well, it is hard to believe, but time continues to fly and Cole is 15 months old! He had his 15-month appointment last week and here are the stats:

Height: 32 1/2 inches (85%)
Weight: 21 lbs, 4 oz. (10-15%)
Head 18 1/4 inches (25%)

These numbers were not a big surprise since Cole is just a long little string bean. His little pants are always drooping down. :) I have a feeling that Cole will have a lot of adjustable waist pants in his future!

Cole is a busy boy at 15 months. I don't even know that I can say he is my mellow guy anymore. He is pretty wild and crazy, running around, climbing, throwing, trying to jump and generally making me chase after him because he is getting into something he shouldn't be. :) He is such a sweet little guy who likes to lay on you and suck his thumb when he is tired or has something soft and fuzzy to cuddle. He is talking a bit more (although still not a ton of words) and is a good eater. He has already figured out how to annoy his big sister (taking her sippy cup is a big one!) and has even started throwing some fits-yikes! He is a bit of a flirt and gives shy little smiles when he sees people. :)

Here is Cole at 15 months. This is the best I could do, he is fast and my other pictures of him are blurry from chasing after him!!




Saturday, October 24, 2009

2009 School Pictures

About a month ago Mia had school pictures. I always am curious as to how these will turn out since I am not there to fix her hair or make sure she smiles. :) However, given the cheesiness of school pictures, I actually thought hers turned out pretty cute (and of course she has crazy hair!). These are scanned so they really don't look so orange in real life! Thanks also to Venessa who gave Mia this outfit-it has already gotten a lot of mileage. :)
My favorite
Pose 2

Pose 3-not crazy about this one
Class pic (she has a small class and but I think some kids are missing)


Now even though Ava wasn't attending school yet at the time (since she wasn't 3 yet), the school invited her to come. When Sarah and I were filling out the information for pictures there was an area you could check off if you wanted "sibling" pictures. We decided to have Mia and Ava take a picture together in addition to their individual ones.

That day when I picked up Mia, her teacher told me what a great job Mia did when taking her individual pictures. Apparently she was smiley, happy, etc. But then as soon as it was time to take a picture with Ava, she was not having it. After much encouraging and bribery (they said she could set the table for lunch if she took a picture with Ava), she took some pictures. BUT, her teacher warned me, she probably wasn't going to look to happy in them.

I burst out laughing when I picked up the pictures. This is what we got...


I seriously don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. Mia just looks so tortured and sad! It reminds me of pictures that are on Awkward Family Photos. Have you seen this site? It is totally hilarious! Luckily I snapped a couple before hand, although I am sad she did not smile for the school one because I totally would have bought that first one of them!


Friday, October 23, 2009

Our Bookworm

Since she was little Mia has always loved books. I love that she is at the age now that she will look at the pictures in her books and make up stories that go along with them or else retell the story if she already knows the book. It is so cute!

She is also at the stage where she can memorize some basic text and *maybe* a sight word here or there (like "the"). Here she is "reading" her first book. :) Now if I can only get Cole to sit still to read with me!! :)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Cole's Initiation into Boyhood

One of the things about being a little brother is that you rarely are the first to do something. Well, today Cole took matters into his own hands and hit a milestone before Mia-first trip to the ER and first set of stitches-yikes!!

I should start by saying that Cole is VERY physical these days. He walks, runs, climbs, falls, and tumbles off of things with a ton of energy and enthusiasm. Lately he has been all about trying to climb on the sofa, coffee tables and ottomans. Well this morning, he climbed from the sofa, to the side table and promptly fell backwards on the back of his head. He hit the vent on the floor, mainly the part that sticks out that you open and close the vent with. I didn't realize this at first, and put ice on his head and when I pulled away the icepack there was blood. After a momentary freakout, I looked at it and called for Cort. :) While the area was very small (maybe 1/2 inch or so), it looked deep and had that gross flap of skin-ick! We decided that it would probably be best for me to take him to the ER while Cort stayed back with Mia.

The best part of the whole experience was the new Plainfield ER. They were so quick it was amazing. I left the house at about 8am and was home by 8:50, with Cole and 2 stitches in his head. The stitching part itself was not pretty. They wrapped Cole up so that he was restrained and boy did he scream when they gave him the shot to numb his head and actually stitched him up. Afterwards though, he was a total champ. The rest of the day he acted like nothing ever happened and resumed trying to climb all over the furniture. I should add that the end table he tumbled off of is now officially banished to the basement (at least until he is out of this phase!). :)

Here's a quick shot of his war wounds (really not so bad!)...

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Cole's 1st Haircut

On Friday we took Cole for his first haircut. This was so crazy to me considering Mia just got her first haircut a little over 6 months ago. But Cole's hair has been getting longer and longer and looking sort like a mullet in the back, and was needing some work. :) I had been waiting it out since Mia had a haircut fairly recently and I wanted to take them together. But yesterday was the day!

We headed back to Kidsnips and I was a little nervous how he would do since he is quite a mover and shaker these days. He did awesome! He sat well the whole time (with a little help from an Elmo DVD) and really only started fussing at the very end when they take their picture for their official "first haircut certificate." The best was when the stylist started to trim his hair with the clippers after the initial cut. He whipped around and was very curious about the buzzing sound. :) I was actually surprised how much hair was on the floor after his haircut. I guess he really needed it! Here are some pics...

The Before-Shot-notice the LONG hair in the back (and in the front) Hmmm....Not so sure about this
Oh wait! I get to watch Elmo!!
(look at the rack of DVDs in the background-they get to pick out whatever they want to watch)
First snip
Eyes on Elmo
Looking shorter
The After Shot (should have got a better shot of the back, but you can still tell)He looks like such a big boy now! It's like he knows he looks cute :)

And his certificate