"Little boys come in all shapes and sizes, shy and adventurous, full of surprises, with misshapen halos and mischievous grins, small dirty faces, and sweet sticky chins."Oh sweet boy how we love you so. Watching you explore this world with eyes wide open has been the most amazing opportunity of our lives. I hope you always know that we adore you and love you with all of our hearts. We cherish every second of your life and thank God that he chose us to be your parents.
The Saturday before Labor day was absolutely beautiful! We are finally past the 105 degree days and on to better things. One thing that Rhonald loves about our home is that it is about 5 minutes away from a lake. Since Cole loves fishing and the weather was great we decided to spend the afternoon fishing and playing by the water. Usually the boys go to the lake without me so I was quite honored when they asked me to join them! Cole had a blast! He loved learning about how to bait his hook and watching Rhonald throw it out in the water for him. His favorite thing is to reel the line in (or "real it out" as he calls it) so we are constantly reeling it in and throwing it back out. Cole was completely thrilled when Rhonald caught a fish and he got to help reel it in. He touched the fish and talked to it and then helped Rhonald gently put him back in the water. Cole did spend much of his time just staring at the water, daydreaming and playing with the bugs and rocks. He simply loves the outdoors and enjoyed every part of his day. When we were putting him to bed that night we asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he sweetly said "fishing with you guys. I loved it!" Oh how I see many more fishing days in our future.
It is that time of year again....school is in session! I think both Cole and I have missed his Mother's Day Out this summer. And what a difference a year makes! I remember all to well the first day of school last year...Cole with his blankie and paci and having to be held the entire 4 hours. This year Cole was so excited to get to school and talked a mile a minute the whole way there. He marched into his classroom, toured around and began playing. He hardly had time to give me a kiss goodbye. When I got to his class to pick him up I fully expected a warm welcome and what I got was "Mommy I not ready to go home." We are blessed...we know that and we are thankful for this wonderful school where he can go and play and learn and I can have just a little "me" time (for 4 more weeks anyway). Cole came home from school talking about how "A is for apple and Adam" since they had learned about Adam and Eve that day. He gets hugs from his teachers and friends and is truly loved there. I am so excited to see what he learns this year and about all of the fun things they have planned for these little kiddos!
I love these little guys and I love that they are such good buddies. Cole is so blessed to have Ben and Jackson to grow up with and we are so blessed to have their parents as friends. We look forward to many more days of singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and playing with these sweet boys.
A couple of weeks ago we traveled back to White Water for our final summer fling. This time we had two other families with us which made the day even better! It was so much fun watching the kiddos (both big and small) play and enjoy the day. The weather was perfect and we got there early enough to avoid all crowds (the best part of the day for the grown ups). Although Cole, Ben, Katie and Jacob did spend some time apart they mainly played together and had a blast! We all enjoyed a great pizza lunch and frozen lemonade for dessert (something Cole is still asking for) and headed out for more play time. Around 2:30 we were all ready to crash...kids and adults alike so we packed up and headed home. Cole slept the entire way home and even fell back asleep on the couch when we got home. That is how we knew it had been a great day!!! We cannot wait for more White Water adventures next summer.
As soon as Rhonald took this picture he said "Man, you sure are pregnant!" Um..thanks, I think!We have made it to 34 weeks (well, I am a little behind...I'll be 35 weeks tomorrow) and things are going wonderfully! Lily Kate has stopped kicking so much and is now the queen of squirming. She loves, and I do mean loves, to push her bottom as far into my rib cage as she possibly can. While that was sweet at first it now gets uncomfortable enough to wake me up at night. She also has been getting the hiccups a lot lately which is cute! Going up the staitrs make me totally out of breath but I am ok other than that. Cole has started to feel Lily Kate kicking - not sure he understands what it is but as he sees people touch my belly he wants to as well. My blood sugars have been fine and I am still controlling them with my diet. I have had moments where I long for a slush from sonic ... you know, when it is 105 degrees, but for the most part it hasn't been so bad. Her room is all finished and I love it. It is very girly and very sweet...full of flowers and pink and yellow and green (pictures to come soon). We are so very anxious to meet our sweet daughter and get to know her even better. I told Rhonald that I feel like things are really coming together now...I even have my diaper bag (not packed) and some new nursing bras. What more could a mama need???
Potty training is going well...for the most part. Cole is a champ at peeing in the potty! Pooping is another thing...still. We are working on it but so far no progress. One of the many things that we have done is promise Cole a present when he poops on the potty. Cole loves presents so we discuss it all of the time. About a week and a half ago he asked me what present Daddy got when he learned to poop on the potty. On a whim, and knowing my husband, I said "a transformer." And that started the obsession. Right away Cole wanted to know what a transformer was and what they did. Rhonald found some old transformer cartoons on U tube and they have watched one every evening since. Cole sings the Transformer theme song, he knows every transformer by name, what they transform in to and if they are good or bad. Last night when Rhonald and Cole were watching their cartoon I found a box of Rhonald's old transformers. I have never seen anyone as excited as Cole was when he saw the box!!! Oh how they played! It was so cute and so funny - Rhonald was pretty excited about it too. Cole kept saying "you have cool transformers Daddy!" So...we told Cole if he poops in the potty he can pick out his own transformer! Let's hope it works!