Guess Who Finally Got a Tooth??

The last 2 weeks have been a little rough in the Graske household. First Mia got an ear infection and I got sick at the same time. Then poor Cole got a double ear infection last week! Mia recovered quickly, but needless to say Cole has been a bit of a bear!! I was thinking that the amoxicillin wasn't doing the trick and so I scheduled a follow-up today. It turns out that his ears are getting better, but before the appointment I realized he had FINALLY cut his first tooth. So no wonder the poor guy has been so crabby-he was getting his first tooth on top of a double ear infection-yikes!!!

Anyhow, today was a bit of a better day, so I am hopeful that Cole is finally on the road to recovery! I mentioned in my last post on Cole how he has become a thumb-sucker, and I was able to capture it the other day (doesn't he just look sick in these pictures???)....

Going to the Chapel.....

I am beyond thrilled and excited to share the wonderful news that PAM AND RYAN ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!

This past weekend I got the shock of my life when Mia came upstairs with Cort and Cole and had a present for me with a note on it. I was so confused until I read the last line "I'm getting married!!! " I started freaking out asking Cort if Pam was at our house and he (playing along with Pam and Ryan) said no. I went frantically running downstairs for my phone when I saw them standing at the door. I let out the loudest scream, making poor Cole burst into tears. :)

Pam has been my bestest friend for many years and there is truly not a more kind, caring compassionate person in the world! It is apparent that she has found her match! Ryan planned a wonderfully thoughtful engagement that you can view in pictures here. You will have to log in, but it shows how much thought he put into it. I am so happy that Pam and Ryan have found one another-they are such a great match! Congrats to you both!!!!

Here are a couple more pictures....

The happy couple showing off the ring

I think Pam is going to need to find a good pair of heels to go with her wedding dress. :)

Mia and Pam showing off their "bling"

Mia and her godmother

Bling, Bling!!

Bass Pro Easter Bunny

Since I am so behind, I am going to back up to Easter and share a couple of posts about our various Easter festivities. First off, we had heard that Bass Pro was going to be having an Easter Bunny. Since this is one of Mia's favorite places to go anyhow (she loves the fish and tents!), we figured we would take the kids there to get a picture with the Easter Bunny. I wasn't so sure how it would go. A couple of days earlier we had an Easter Egg hunt in our neighborhood and the Easter Bunny made an appearance. While Cole was more than happy to sit with the Easter Bunny, Mia was not having it. I figured we would give it a try anyhow. This is what we got:

and just so you can get the full effect, I cropped in a little closer

While Cole is as happy as can be, Mia was not having it and totally freaking out. In order for us to even get a picture, Cort and I had to sit there too. And as you can see, we were obviously not expecting to have our picture taken. :)

We decided to relax a bit and check out the fish and tents, and as we were walking around I asked Mia why she didn't like the Easter Bunny. She told me that she was scared of him. I then explained that he was nice and like Santa and would bring her treats on Easter morning. Suddenly she had a change if heart and wanted to go see him again (funny how that works!). Luckily the line was short, so we tried again. Here is what we got the second time around....

and the close-up

Cole--9-10 Months

Today Cole is 10 months old!! That is great except the fact that last month when he turned 9 months old, he had a checkup and I never got around to blogging it. Sooooo, here it is a month late!

First with the 9 month stats....

Weight: 19 lbs--25%
Height: 28 7/8 inches--75%
Head Circumference 17 1/2 inches--25%

Cole dropped a bit in percentile on his weight, but that isn't all surprising when you see him. He is just our long, skinny guy. Now if he didn't eat I would be concerned, but it is quite the opposite. This boy likes to eat! He pretty much started rejecting pureed baby food right around 9 months, so we went ahead and started him on some basic table food. He loved it! Ever since then he has pretty much transitioned to all table food and is doing great. I swear sometimes he eats more than Mia which is crazy!! He does great feeding himself with his hands, although he is quite the messy eater!

The crazy part about him totally being into table foods is that he still does not have SINGLE TOOTH!! I do not know what is going on up in those gums of his, but no teeth have decided to make their appearance yet. We have sworn that he has been teething for the last 5 months, but apparently we are wrong! :)

Cole has had some major changes though in getting around. He mastered crawling around 8-9 months and very quickly moved onto pulling up and cruising around furniture!!! He loves to pull himself up and has stood without holding on to anything for a couple seconds. I am thinking that we may not have to wait until 15/16 months for him to walk!! It is so exciting for Cole to see things from a different perspective, but boy is he into everything! I don't know if it is him being the second born, or a boy, but he finds and does things that his big sister never dreamed of! Anything he can find on the floor immediately goes in his mouth. We have to be SO careful with what is out on the floor. The floor plants in the house have some sort of magnetic pull on Cole and he has been caught with dirt in his hands, heading towards his mouth many times. He frequently flips over his learning table and finds that rather amusing. He dives over the step into our step-down living room with reckless abandon and just smiles. He is quite the rough and tumble little boy!

One area of concern we do have is with his speech. He doesn't seem to be making the typical babbling sounds that a baby his age normally makes-the buh buh, dada, mama, that sort of thing. Just to be on the safe side we took him to have his hearing screened to make sure that wasn't the reason why. That came up clear, so the next step is that we are going to have an early intervention speech therapist come and observe him to get her input. Depending on if she thinks his speech is discrepant, we may get some speech services for him. Being a teacher and having many friends/family with kiddos in speech, I know how important that early intervention can be so we want to get a jump if there is indeed a delay.

Other random tidbits-Cole pretty much has given up his pacifier. He just generally was never as interested as Mia and he has taken to his thumb when he is tired instead. Cole is quite the squirmy little guy. He is hard to hold still, he likes to constantly be down and moving, unless he is tired. Then he will snuggle up into your chest with his thumb in his mouth. :) Cole is a mama's boy. He could be as happy as could be playing in a room without me, but the second I walk by, he needs to be by me. :) Cole continues to be a good night sleeper, averaging about12 hours a night and an ok napper. We would love some of his naps to be longer, but I am happy to get good sleep each night too!

Kudos if you made it this far, now onto the pictures....

Crawling-with his eye on the prize-shoes!

And of course Zip too!

Look at that determination :)

Eating-string cheese and peas-yum!

LOVING the swing at the park

Standing!!! (I have to get a better picture than this)

Hamming it up

And enjoying the nice weather-finally!

A Rare Picture

It is a rare thing to get a picture of Mia and Cole together. Yesterday the kids were playing and I asked Mia if she wanted to hold Cole while I took a picture. She very excitedly answered "Yes!" I ran for the camera and here is what I got:

It's a total snapshot with Zip and various pairs of shoes in the background, but I love it!! Eye contact and smiles from both children=happy mama!

Mia in the Dandelions

Last weekend I took Mia out to a field of dandelions to take some Mother's Day pictures. Mia is a big fan of dandelions, so I figured that was a good incentive to get her to cooperate and have her picture taken. I had a vision of what I wanted, and suprisingly it worked out! :) Some M&Ms that were stashed in the car also helped do the trick!

11th Annual Heart for Life-Sign Up!

Here's a little reminder that it is that time of year again-time to sign up for the Heart for Life Run/Walk. If you have never done it and you are interested in joining us, sign up here and let me know. Basically you can run a 5K or walk a 2-mile fitness walk, and there is also a kids run at the end for kids 2 and up (the kids get medals-it is too cute). It is totally free and is sponsored by the cardiologist group I see. You can click here and here to see pictures from previous years. When I signed up for this year, I saw a link to pictures from last year and found this (go down to the 9th row and click on the 2nd picture):

Midwest Heart Community Foundation

I am not sure if this picture was before or after Cort shot the Dasbach kids out of the jogging stroller, but either way it made me laugh (only because they were okay!!). I am going to put it out there that I am hoping to run at least most of the 5K this year. Hopefully by writing that and posting it here, it will keep me honest and force me to start training-I only have 2 months!!

Congrats!

Congrats to the South Family who welcomed Ava Paige on April 21st. I had the opportunity to go visit her and she is absolutely beautiful! I snapped some pictures, but will only share one right now in case Julie wants to share any first.

Beautiful, Peaceful Ava

Aren't the boys so cute? They were my photography assistants. :)

One of Mia's future boyfriends. :)

Also, congrats to Brian and Cyndi who are expecting their own little bundle of joy this coming October. We are beyond thrilled for them! It is raining babies here!!! :)

Full Circle

I have come to realize things in my life have come full-circle with now having kids. As a child 2 of the more exciting things at school were 1) School Pictures and 2) Getting Book Orders.

Well today, Mia got to experience both. She had Spring Pictures today at school and I turned in her first book order. :) She will be so excited when the books come in and she has some new ones (because we don't have that many here-ha, ha!). Now as for the pictures, I can't wait to see those. So weird to think of someone else taking her pictures while I'm not there. My baby is growing up!

Little Miss Mia

Once again, I have fallen off the blogging wagon, but here's hoping that I can get back on track!

I really have a lot of pictures/video to go through that I recently uploaded, but here are just a couple of random shots of Mia from awhile back that I found on the computer.

Mia is a busy little 2 1/2 year old. She is still VERY into books and reading and has an amazing knack for remembering titles and words in books. I often catch her "reading" her books and using some of the phrases that are in the book-too cute! She also loves to pretend and will often play by herself talking outloud, pretending and acting out different things.

Mia has continued to do great with the potty training. Every once in awhile she has an accident, but they are pretty rare which is awesome.

Mia asks about a million questions daily, and one of her favorites is "why?" The drive to and from school each day is often filled with interesting conversation. :)

Mia has really had a surge in her independence since starting school. Often times when we try to help her with something we get the "I do it" response. She has been motivated to dress and undress herself, although it is not always done sucessfully. :) This indpendence is great, but with it comes some serious stubborness which is a family trait on both sides. :) There are often some battles and tears as we try to go through our daily routines.

Mia has started swim lessons and really seems to like them (more on that in another post). She is a total water baby and reminds me of myself when I was younger (I loved the water!). Mia has no fear of the water which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Mia continues to love her brother and loves to try and make him laugh. Now that he is crawling, she crawls around too and tells him to get her. :) The other day she tried to play hide and seek with him and hid on the couch in the living room under the pillows while Cole was in another room. I tried to expain that he wasn't going to be able to find her, but it is not always easy to reason with a 2-year-old.

However, it is not all roses. If Cole goes after Mia's toys, or god-forbid a Lego castle she has built, look out-it is not pretty. We have told Mia that if she doesn't want Cole to touch something, she needs to put it up high on a table. Otherwise Captain Destructo will get it (more on that in another post!).

Mia is a loud talker. In fact everything she does is loud. I can't figure out where that came from-ha, ha! Speaking of talking, she is talking up a storm, but sometimes is a bit hard for others to decipher. I am a good translator! Mia is into princesses these days and anything girly. She always wants to wear jewelry, nailpolish, hairbows, etc. It is much simpler to get Cole ready in the morning!

In a nutshell, Mia continues to be our spunky, fun, stubborn little firecracker. I cannot believe in a few short months she will be 3-yikes!!

Onto the pictures. Here are a couple when I was testing out my new brown paper courtesy of Pam..

Isn't this hat so cute-thanks Grandma!

Terrible picture, but look how straight Mia's hair is!!

And some pics of Mia hamming it up...

I believe this is the "cheese" face

So Behind!!!

Aacckk!! I am so behind with updating it is not even funny! I have so many pictures sitting on my computer, but just haven't found the time to weed through them all. Spring Break was last week and was a nice mix of relaxing, doing stuff, and seeing people. I will update more about that in future posts.

So while I should be going back and sharing some older pictures, I am instead posting some from tonight. At dinner Mia asked if she could go to Ava's house. I told her it wasn't polite to invite herself over somewhere, but that I would call Sarah and see if Ava could come over and play. :)

Ava did get to come over and the girls played so well. They are at such a good age for playing and interacting together and generally do great together unless a doll stroller is involved. Then it gets rather ugly! :) Anyway, I had a little Easter craft I did with the girls and then of course I wrangled them into taking a couple of pictures. Here is my favorite.....

It seriously makes me want to cry when I see how far they have come from this...

When did they grow up so fast??? I will say that Mia is so lucky to have cousins that are so close in age. It is something my sister and I never had, and it is awesome she has built-in playmates who she gets to grow up with.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff, moving on....

The girls working on their craft-a fdecorating a foam Easter egg

I love how they are cracking up with one another

Ava and her egg

Mia adding her "jewels" on

The girls with their finished Easter eggs

And posing (color version of the one above)

Mia wanted to hug Ava

And apparently the novelty of me taking pictures of them together only lasts so long...

Cole-8 Months

(For those just interested in pictures, scroll down-this is a long one!)

8 Months!!! I can't believe it but Cole is only 4 months shy of turning one! Actually less than that since I am a little behind on this update. :)

So what is Cole up to these days? Well first off, HE IS CRAWLING!!!! Around the time of the baptism he started tentatively crawling, and now he is pretty much full-speed ahead. He of course heads for everything he shouldn't have-Mia's small toys, the dirt in the floor plant, outlets, nightlights, etc. Don't worry, we are on him like white on rice, as is his sister, who is more than happy to take away things he shouldn't have. :) Along with the crawling, he now can sit great without having to have us nearby to catch him in case of a fall. He also gets himself into a sitting position with ease and when we go to get him out of his crib now, we will find him sitting up.

Spaking of his crib, Cole has been quite the sleeper lately. On average he goes to bed around 6:30 (although several nights recently it was as early as 5:30), will wake up around 6, have a bottle, and then go back to sleep for another 1 1/2 -2 hours. He has finally become a better napper, taking 2 naps that average from 1 1/2-2 hours (and sometimes a shorter 3rd nap of the day). I know that could probably be better, but I am just so glad he seems to have finally stopped the 45 minute nap cycle, that I am not going to complain.

Unbelievably, Cole still does not have any teeth, although we have been convinced for the last month or two that there had to be some coming in. He is a total drool machine, and constantly has a long string of drool hanging from his mouth. Mia was about 8 months when her first tooth came in, so maybe it will be sometime soon.....

Despite the fact that Cole has no teeth, he has officially decided that baby food is no longer desirable. While we can get some of it in him, he really could do without it, so we have moved to offering him some table food as well. One day he put down half a banana, we couldn't believe it! He has had chicken, noodles, fruit, crackers, etc. He seems much happier when this is offered to him rather than the pureed goodness I had been making him. I will try not to take it personally. :)

Cole is mellow with his personality, always watching and often looking a bit concerned. :) He is however in perpetual motion and is our squealy (if that is even a word!), squirmy little baby. Now that he is older, he is sitting forward facing in his stroller and will be moving into his convertible carseat. He loves to be bounced around and to play peek-a-boo, and he LOVES his sister. The two of them make each other laugh and it is just the cutest thing. He will just stare and watch her in the car, or when she is playing, and wants to be a part of what she is doing. Of course, Mia being 2 is not always crazy about that idea! :)

Anyhow, here are some pictures of our big boy...

All the pictures where he is looking off to the side, he was smiling and laughing at Mia who was next to me-she apparently is much more humorous than me!

Love the clenched fists here! He was just so excited. :)

I'm Done!