Music Man

Recently Cole has started to really like music...even this little piano. Usually he is the one playing it but today as Rhonald started messing with it we noticed Cole bouncing. When Rhonald would stop Cole would stop. It was so cute we had to share it. He did not do it as much once he knew I was filming him but I got as much of it as I could. Maybe, just maybe, he has gotten some of his daddy's musical ability!

And He's Off....

Cole started crawling a little over a week ago. It is so much fun and so exhausting all at the same time! We are quickly learning about all of the things that we need to move or hide. It is so cute to watch him find his way around the house. Cole loves following Rhonald around. He does not do that much with me but whenever Rhonald leaves the room Cole is right behind him and he is laughing the whole way! I know Rhonald loves it so much. A new game that he and I play is "where is mommy?" I will hide around a corner and say "where is mommy?" and poke my head out so he can see me. He quickly starts coming after me and, again, he laughs the whole time! We played this for almost an hour yesterday. Watching Cole crawl around is really making me realize how fast he is changing and growing up. I have been much more sad about that than I ever thought I would. I knew it would happen...I know there will be many more things to happen that will make me realize he will not be a baby forever. I never thought I would be "that mom" who is so sentimental about her kids but I totally am "that mom" and you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Priceless!!!

Meal time has become one of my favorite times with Cole. He loves it and it is neat to sit there with him and talk to him and watch him enjoy his food. We have been working with him to start feeding some things to himself...mainly cheerios. We place a few on his tray while we feed him his fruits and veggies. He has really gotten in to trying to get those silly little things in his mouth...about 3 times out of 10 he manages to do so. He makes a huge mess trying though - food is in his mouth, his fingers are in this mouth and then all over his face as well! I love it...the bigger the mess the better. After all, isn't that what being a baby boy is all about???

My Boys and Their Toys

Rhonald has been talking about getting a Wii for awhile now and if you have been looking for one you will know that they are VERY hard to come by. He decided that finding and buying a Wii was our mission last weekend. We finally found one on Sunday at the very last store we tried. He has enjoyed playing it ever since. We also found this neat tunnel for Cole. He was not sure about it at first but now he seems to really like crawling in and out of it. He likes when we crawl in and out of it too. It has been fun watching both of my boys enjoy their new things!

Best Friends

Cole is discovering new things every day now that he is mobile. The most fun thing to him is chasing Mason...notice I said "to him" because I don't think Mason likes it very much. Cole has even learned to crawl over to the window when Mason is outside and he waits there for him to come over and see him. Whenever Mason does come to the window Cole laughs and laughs. He loves that dog so much!!!!

YEAH!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Rhonald passed his boards!!! Rhonald is now officially a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician! Yeah - no more tests for 7 years (that is when he has to be re-certified).

The Big 8

Cole turned 8 months old on September 11th. He has become an even busier little boy these days...and I say "little boy" because he does not seem like so much of a baby anymore. I know he is still a baby but he can do so many things and is getting so big! Speaking of...Cole weighs 20 lbs and 2 oz. I am not sure of his length but we will get that next month at the dr. He is in a size 4 diaper and a size 4 shoe. He is saying "ma ma" and "da da" and he loves to babble. He is crawling...watch out world!!! He started off crawling backwards and just this past weekend has started moving forward. He smiles at everyone and teaches me every day that I need to be more like him in that way. Cole simply loves other people and never meets a stranger...how funny that at 8 months he is already teaching us so much about the kind of people that we should be. Cole has 6 teeth. He loves to eat. He has been spoiled with homemade baby food...to the point that he refuses to eat store bought baby food! He sits himself up. Cole is putting himself to sleep for naps and bedtime which is amazing! I am so proud of him for that because I think that was the toughest thing for him to learn. Now if he would just stay asleep for several hours at a time we would be golden! He has been going to the nursery at church on Sunday mornings and does well...they say he likes to be held most of the time (that may have been a bigger milestone for me than Cole...I am not sure). Cole also has Miss Amy, his babysitter (also a big milestone for me), who has helped us out so much. We are now able to go to an evening Bible study with a few other couples and even go on a few dates. It is amazing and wonderful to watch him grow and change each day. We love him so much!!!!

My Husband Rocks...

Today I have been both inspired and encouraged to start a new "tradition." Some of my girlfriends have been doing something called "my husband rocks Friday" and starting today I am joining in! It is so easy to focus on the negative in life...especially in marriage. It is so easy to start complaining about things when you are with other people who are complaining. It is so easy to forget what a blessing being married really is. I love being married to Rhonald so much. He is everything that I ever dreamed a husband would be. To me, he is perfect.

Rhonald does so many big and little things each week...each day...that make him "rock." I am going to try my best to share something with you each Friday about how Rhonald rocks!!! I encourage you to do the same with your husbands...whether you blog about it or just think about it I think it will be well worth your time. Rhonald has recently started a new job and with that has come a lot of stress but he has manged to always come home in a great mood, ready to play with Cole and love on me. He begins each evening asking about our day instead of complaining about his, or sharing about his. He is honestly that interested in our day. That is so great but the thing that melts my heart about him is that after dinner has been eaten, Cole has played until he can no longer keep his eyes open, his bath has been given and he has been fed I am usually the one to put him to bed. I give that time to Rhonald as his "down time" since things can get so hectic once he gets home. Each night when I am busy putting Cole down Rhonald (without being asked) picks up all of the toys and puts them in the correct place, cleans up all of the dishes and even wipes down all of the counters. When I come out of Cole's room everything is done so that I get to enjoy some down time too. I don't think I could ever express to him how much that means to me and how much that helps me.

Like I said earlier, I encourage you to look at your husband in a different way. After all, how many times do we sit and think about how amazing they are...not nearly enough. God has blessed us all so much and I hope this helps you to remember all of the awesome things your hubby does for you!!!

Finally!!!!

He finally said it....I finally heard it with my very own ears....Cole said "ma ma" twice this morning while we were playing! Of course he said it while looking at a stuffed lion but hey - at least he said it!!!!

A Weekend Away

(For some reason I am not able to add text above these pictures so sorry for that!) This past weekend Rhonald, Cole and I headed to Kansas City for a weekend away. We had never been to Kansas City before but I can promise you we will be going back! We had such a great time. We spent a beautiful morning at the zoo. It was one of the nicest zoos we have been to. As you can see from the picture above Cole was more interested in his stroller and new shoes than he was in the animals but we had fun showing him everything just the same! There were so many animals to see and they even had a petting zoo. We were exhausted by the time we got to that point but I was determined to have Cole pet something. He seemed to really like the sheep. I felt bad for them when I moved his hand away and saw a big chunk of wool in his hand but they seemed ok with it. He also laughed when he saw the lions and the meerkats of all things!

We spent all of our time in the Country Club Plaza district of Kansas City. There were so many parks and beautiful fountains and statues all over the area! The weather was perfect for walking and just enjoying being together. There are millions of cool restaurants in that district and we enjoyed several of them. We had a FANTASTIC dinner and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory on Friday night. We actually got our piece of cheesecake (white chocolate raspberry truffle) to go so that we could put Cole to bed. That turned out to be fun - we watched TV and ate yummy cheesecake very quietly in our hotel room! Saturday morning we shopped till we dropped (window shopped that is) and loved looking at all of the stores...some we have here, many we don't.
Saturday afternoon it rained - a light rain but a rain all the same. It was the perfect excuse to head back to the hotel and take a nap! Once we woke up we headed over to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art which was a lot of fun. Many of you may not know that Rhonald was very close to being an art major...he loves art (and is very good at it too) so he really enjoyed our time there. Of course Cole was especially talkative in the very quiet museum. Luckily most people thought he was super cute and did not mind the extra noise. We saw so many beautiful pieces of art...from Monet to Van Gough!

Sunday morning before Rhonald woke up Cole and I had fun playing with the huge mirror in our room. Cole loves (and I do mean LOVES) looking at himself and everyone else in the mirror. This was the first mirror he could get really close to and he thought that was so neat! We played there for about an hour and he never got tired of it!

We were glad to be home but we are so thankful for the time we had together. That was our first trip as just the 3 of us and I am happy to report that it was wonderful! There were some interesting moments...Cole slept in our bed the first night because he was too wound up to sleep in his pack 'n' play. At one point I woke up with his hitting my cheek saying "da da" over and over. I told him if he was not going to say "ma ma" he needed to go back to sleep. A few hours later I woke up to find him sitting up in the middle of the bed bouncing around. Thank goodness the next night he slept in his bed! Another funny but embarrassing thing happened at the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant that I have wanted to go to for so long. I was so excited that we were able to get a table and only had to wait 30 minutes. Well, it was later than we usually eat and Cole had only had 1 nap that day but still, we were excited to try this new and fun place. Before we even got our drinks Cole was finished eating his baby food, had smeared some of it on the table and was already fussing to get in my lap. Once I held him then he was happy and bouncing around with a plastic bag in his hand and talking a mile a minute. That is when everyone started staring at us with that look...you know the one. It is the "I cannot believe they brought that baby here" look. We then found out that a typical dinner there lasts about 2 hours. After much debate we decided to call the waiter over and tell him that although we hated to, we needed to leave. He was so nice and made us feel better. We ended up at Panera Bread (Rhonald's least favorite place) where we laughed about our night and let Cole be as loud as he wanted. After all, on a Saturday night we were the only family there! We will always look back on this weekend and laugh....it was a great time and I hope we get to go back soon!

Cole's New Trick

Ok, so it may not be a real trick but it is something that Cole is very proud of! When I was getting ready the other morning I heard a thumping sound through the baby monitor. As I got closer to Cole's room I could also hear the sweetest giggle coming from inside. This is what I found when I opened up his door! The sound was him bouncing up and down! He had never actually sat himself up without help before so this was a very big thing to learn! Rhonald and I were thrilled because he was getting so frustrated by the fact that he was not able to do this one thing! All of these milestones are so much fun but also kindof sad....our baby boy is growing up so fast!!!

Friends Forever

When Emily and I first became friends one of the first things that we found out that we had in common was our desire to be moms. We spent many, many afternoons talking about our future babies and what being a mom was going to be like. I remember when they came over and we stood in our kitchen and told them we were going to have a baby...they were almost as happy as we were! And I will never forget sitting with Em at the doctor's office while we saw little Ben for the first time...a tiny yoke sac! Both Rhonald and I are still close with our childhood friends and we always wanted that kind of relationship for Cole. It is so neat to watch Cole and Ben's friendship develop...even at this young age. Last night when we were at the Burrow house Cole and Ben actually seemed to be talking to one another and playing together. They even seemed to shake hands at one point! I can't wait to watch them grow up and see who they become...and all of the trouble they get in to together!