Say Cheese

Saturday we had a photographer come to our house to take some pictures for Cole's 1 year birthday. We took some family pictures with Bella and then headed to a park near our house for some nature shots. Things went pretty smoothly, Bella even semi-cooperated! And then the worst thing ever happened...Cole was sitting on a bench and toppled over, head over feet onto the top of his head on our wood floors. It happened in slow motion, I remember Nick saying, "oh shit!" and scooping him up to console him. If the photographer hadn't been there, and I wasn't trying to keep my cool, I would have screamed and cried all at once. Cole handled it like a champ and really didn't take too long to comfort and get back in the game. He now has an ugly red bump to show off to the ladies and a gory story to tell.

You can see the sneak peek of our photos here. I think they turned out pretty well, except for my crazy wind-blown hair. Enjoy.

I'm makin' a list...and it's not for Santa

Cole is AWFUL while he is being changed and dressed. Seriously, I can’t imagine a kid being a bigger pain. He squirms, yells, and thrashes all around. Usually he ends up with half his diaper in his little baby butt crack. I have learned to dress him in pretty much any position he tosses himself in, but it is still a pain and a ton of work. He must just love being naked and/or sitting in a soiled diaper.

Anyway, the other day he broke his humidifier. I was trying to put him in some jeans when he decided to throw a fit. In the midst of squirming and turning, he kicked a basket, which in turn hit the humidifier, which fell on the floor and broke. Of course, it not only broke but spilled water everywhere. Granted it is his humidifier, but I paid for it, so I thought it was a little out of line when he started crying. I’m the one out the $30.00.

After thinking about the mishap, I realized that it was completely his fault and was simply a result of misbehavior. Therefore, I decided to make a list of things broken by Cole. If he is successful when he is older, I expect to be reimbursed. Although judging by his parents, I realize this is not too likely. I am not going to count money spent on clothes, food, toys, etc., but anything he breaks because he's being a little shit...it's going on the list!

Most recently Cole broke his Air Tran toy airplane...while throwing a tantrum while being changed, of course! So that is the second item on this list, $10 please.

Cole also likes to steal my pennies and hide them deep, deep in his big cheeks. I am counting those too!

We're Back!

We are back from Savannah, GA. It was a good trip, the wedding was nice and it was fun to hang out with friends. A couple days before we left we were getting pretty nervous about leaving Cole. The morning we left, however, was not as tragic as we had imagined. Cole had a rough couple of nights before we left, up screaming and crying all night long for 2 nights in a row. So when we left on Thursday morning we were functioning on about 2 hours of sleep and all we could really think about was the solid night of sleep waiting for us in Savannah. Which was good, because the alternative scenario was Kristin crying and refusing to go to the airport or trying to stuff Cole in her suitcase...which was already way overstuffed.

Some highlights of the trip revolved around playing a punching game in a bar. I had the high score of the group, 842 (no surprise there). The Bride-to-Be beat Brett in the same game (more than once), and Joe whiffed his 1st punch. Another bar related highlight was Brett singing Karaoke Shy Ronnie style. Gregg and I drove to South Carolina and went fishing and saw how the locals live.

You should see the other one - H U G E

Riverfront

Biggest Ship Ever

Wedding

Fancy

Come Sunday, Kristin and I could not wait to get on the airplane back to Milwaukee and we are very happy to be back home with Cole. Sadly, Cole was pretty neutral about our return, which I find odd since we are BFF's (Best Friends FOREVER!). He is also known as my PIC (Partner in Crime). Kristin gets jealous she is not part of any of our associations, but Cole and I don't really care. Thanks to Grandma Chris, Grandpa John and Auntie Jess for watching our little man while we were away!

Halloween Handout

According to Great Grandma Dorothy, back in her day they did not say "Trick or Treat," but rather "Halloween Handout." I have never heard that before, but it sounds funny. I just picture a little British kid getting it wrong. Anyway...Cole had a good 1st Halloween and did get some great Halloween Handouts.

On Friday, the High family stopped by, so Cole could hang with his lady friend, Lucy. We decided he would be festive, and dressed him in his skeleton costume. Sadly, Kristin said it was not okay to paint a baby's face, otherwise his costume would have looked much better.

Cole is getting pretty mobile and is pretty opinionated about picture time. It is hard to get a good one!

Offering to take Lucy for a ride in his car

On Saturday, Cole sported the skeleton outfit one more time to GG Dorothy's house. We surprised her during trick-or-treat and hung out with her while she handed out candy. She is also known as "Candy Grandma."

Then we headed to the Stear's and put Cole in his lamb costume. I will probably have to apologize later in life to Cole for this one. Looks pretty goofy. Debbie borrowed this costume from the Holt's, their daughter Allie wore it when she was Cole's age (she is now 21)...Cole was stylin' in his vintage costume! After listening to Gregg rattle off a bunch of puns about his outfit, off we went. Our first stop was across the street to Cole's babysitter Suzy's house. She had a special snack size applesauce treat for Cole. Cole is in L O V E with this girl and seemed pretty dumbfounded to be at her house.

Then we went down the hill to the Holt's. They were pretty thrilled to see Cole in Allie's old costume. They also had a special pumpkin cookie treat for Cole. Such a spoiled boy! It was pretty cold, and trick-or-treating with a baby is pretty ridiculous, so we headed back to the Stear's for dinner. And that pumpkin cookie!

Cookie Time

What happened when the cookie got taken away

And on a non-Halloween related note we had to include this picture of Cole and Doug (what he calls Bella, his version of "Dog."). Cole is Bella's biggest fan and gets SO excited when he sees her. She is very good with him and allows him to pet hit her while chanting, "Doug-doug-doug-doug" and squealing. She is probably so patient with him because most of his mealtimes include 5 bites for Bella to every 1 bite Cole takes.