Deja Vu

This was Cole last summer at our old house playing with his trucks in the mulch. It was something that he did, with joy, every single day.

These pictures are of Cole today, playing with his trucks in the mulch at our new house and loving every minute of it. First of all...holy cow has he grown up over the past year! WOW! Anyway, back to today...I think today he found about 4 worms which made his day! He gets so excited about that. Cole always says he is going to save them to use when he goes fishing but then he always puts them back in the dirt a few minutes later. He spent Lily Kate's entire nap time (2 1/2 hours) filling up his dump trucks with mulch and pouring it out ... over and over. It is the cutest and most innocent thing to watch. I swear, that boy steals my heart in one way or another every day!

Too Cool For School

Lily Kate at 6 Months

I cannot believe she is 6 months old! Holy Cow! This month is starting out with a bang! Lily had her 6 month check up yesterday and she now weighs 17 lbs 3 oz and is 26 1/4 inches tall. We took her to a new doctor and I am in love with her! Lily was too. Dr. F was so sweet with her and said she is right on track. She was impressed that Lily can sit by herself so well and was in awe of her beautiful smile. So many firsts for our sweet girl already...she can sit up by herself pretty well, she had her first ride in the stroller without her car seat and she totally loved that! She is using her high chair now which is so funny. I did not think she would care about sitting in it but now when she eats she squeals and laughs like she is so happy to be with us at the table! She has started using a sippy cup...just practicing but she can actually get it in her mouth and she gums it too death. Lily Kate has been after Cole's cups for weeks now so he it beyond thrilled that she has her own. She almost has 2 teeth. I say almost because her gums are so swollen and Dr. F said it should be any day. She could feel one of them right under the skin. Cole was a great teether and so far Lily does not seem too bothered by them either. Lily is basically mobile by rolling around everywhere. Dr. F even said she has seen babies as rolly polly as Lily never learn to crawl because there was not a need. Lily already lays on her tummy and kicks her legs like she is trying to crawl so badly that I think she will do it...and maybe soon. Better get baby proofing! Rhonald and I were talking the other night about how Lily Kate is seriously the happiest baby we have ever seen in our lives. She is so full of love and smiles every day that you can't help but be happy around her. I am so excited to see what else she learns this month. It seems like every day brings something new.

Oh Lily Kate...we adore you and cherish you and love you so much. Your sweet spirit is the most amazing thing in this world and I thank God, that out of all of the little girls in this world, he chose me to be your mama.

Baby Food...The Homemade Kind

For some reason I love making baby food! I made all of Cole's food when he was a baby and I plan to make most of Lily's as well. I say most because one problem we ran in to with Cole was that he refused to eat store bought baby food and that made traveling tough. We had to take a cooler full of ice with us to Kansas City one weekend and it was a huge hassle. Anyway...I love it. It is so easy, and cheap and most importantly healthy. I was going to start Lily Kate on sweet potatoes but Cole really wanted her to try carrots first so I went with that. If you have a baby and you have never done this I suggest you try it. As she gets older and the meals become more complex it does take some time but these stage 1 foods are so simple! Needless to say she loved the carrots! She made a few funny faces right at first but soon caught on that they were yummy and ate them up! Cole still loves to help us feed her and loves that she sits next to him to eat. She is now eating 3 meals a day. Oatmeal for breakfast, carrots for lunch and carrots and oatmeal for dinner. Along with that she is drinking about 24-26 oz of formula a day. I'd say she is doing great!!! This is such a fun stage and I am so excited to try every new food with her. Thursday = sweet potatoes and then so on. Cole has a list made up in his head so if you are ever curious what Lily will be eating next just ask him :).

Morning Smiles

My cup runneth over with love for these two little sweethearts! Have a great day!

"No Cavities!!! Wait, What?"

awesome and huge fish tank

movie room

video game station

toddler games

Today marked a first for my Cole....his first trip to the dentist! Let me tell you, we both had a total blast! My dad is a dentist and although I grew up in a dentist office Cole had no idea what we were going to do today. I made Cole an appointment at a pediatric dental office in our area and Rhonald and I have been talking it up ever since. I was nervous that he would be afraid but as soon as we walked in I knew I had nothing to worry about. The waiting room was filled with cool things to do and things to take their minds off of being at the dentist. While we waited Cole looked at the fish, watched Scooby Doo and played video games with some bigger boys. When his name was called he was so excited!!! Miss Whitney took us back to the X ray area and was so sweet and fun that Cole jumped up and let her take X rays of his teeth with no problem. Next she polished them, flossed them and put fluoride on them. Cole was amazing. He loved that there was a sign with his name on it at his seat. The only thing that he was not too sure about was laying on the table but Miss Whitney let him sit up and play with all of her tools and warm up to the place and then he was fine. There was a TV above his chair and he got to wear headphones and watch Toy Story 3 the entire time. It was so cool! Then Dr. Jerry came over and counted Cole's teeth and talked with me about some things and still Cole watched his show. It was so cute - when Dr. Jerry told Cole that he did not have any cavities Cole was super excited and said, "No cavities! yeah! Wait, what are cavities?" After we all had a good laugh Dr. Jerry explained it to Cole and then he bragged about it to everyone! He was beyond thrilled to get a Diego toothbrush but declined the Spongebob toothpaste since he is not allowed to watch that show. That's my boy! He had such a great experience that he is already excited to go back! Thank goodness for places like that...it made both of us feel at ease.

Young Love???

We got to spend some fun time with the Stearle boys last week. While Jackson and Cole were busy playing trains, Lily Kate and Ethan were busy getting to know each other. Ethan is 8 months old and loved crawling over to Lily. She loved him just as much. It was so super cute to watch!!! I feel so blessed to have so many friends with kids that are both Cole's age and Lily"s age. It makes play dates all the more fun.