Park-Early Easter

We took advantage of the awesome weather this weekend and spent a lot of it in the stroller and at the park. Turns out Cole is a big fan of the slides.  At first he was scared of the tunnel slide but very quickly decided it was fine and not scary. We were very surprised at how sociable he was with the other kids. He said hi to everyone and even hugged a kid's leg; obviously pretty awkward for everyone around...but mostly for the poor kid who had to stand still while Cole held on for dear life. Cole had so much fun he threw a giant fit when it was time to go home and thrashed and screamed the whole walk home. Luckily it was St. Patty's day and all the drunk kids we passed didn't even seem to notice his meltdown. I, on the other hand, hate the park. It's kind of dirty with stupid parents and their stupid kids. I think once Cole and Henry are older and bigger and can fend for themselves it will be okay, but for now it really seemed like one of the crazy neighborhood kids wielding sticks were going to knock Cole over or poke him in the eye or something. Their stupid parents don't pay attention and stand in the way of everything. Don't even talk to Kristin about the merry-go-round...she is very afraid of that park staple. I think that will be banned even when Cole and Henry have kids of their own.

Henry also enjoyed the park. He loves the swings. He was all smiles and big belly laughs.

Watching Cole gear up for a giant fit

Thankfully on our second trip to the park Cole's departure was much improved. Our thanks to a fancy box of animal crackers from Grandma DJ.

We also went to my parents house on Sunday for an early Easter with all the cousins. My parents are ditching everyone and going to Florida over the real Easter, so we went over to Grandma's and Grandpa's for an early celebration. FYI - Grandma and Grandpa ditch out to Florida for pretty much all holidays and birthdays, not that I hold any grudges. Cole had a blast running around with his cousins and getting over-heated. He ate so much orange Jello he vomited (on Uncle Paul's shoe) and the highlight was playing with the ice in the cooler. What a goof.

Rash-Mania and Barf-O-Rama

This past week the boys have been fighting viruses they keep sharing with each other. Luckily their sharing seems to have stopped there. Henry went to the doctor for his 9 month checkup, which was perfect timing for the doctor to take a look at an ugly rash that was quickly covering his body. As suspected, the rash was part of the virus and we just had to wait it out. Cole had this same rash a week earlier but on a much smaller area. Poor Henry had it every where but his face.

Other news from his doctor appointment; he is not as fat as we thought! He is in the 65th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height..so Hank is no longer such a tank.  He also seems to be in good health, besides his floppy tubes. I'm not sure if we mentioned his floppy tubes before. For lack of a better term, his "throat tubes" are extra floppy. They will firm up over time but in the meantime he sounds raspy, wheezy and we will probably think he is sick/coughing/croupy more than he really is. It is not a concern at all, except for the extra trips to the doctor because we can't tell the difference between a real sickness and floppy tubes.

Looks like a fat belly to me and yes, he is sucking on a Tylenol bottle

As mentioned in a previous post,  just as Henry was getting better Cole got the flu. Someone (Kristin and my Mother) fed Cole about eight pounds of berries. Not so long after we put him to bed Cole started fussing, I went in his room to calm him down and tell him to shut it as usual; although this time I instantly smelled vomit when I opened the door. He doused his crib with berry chunks. Once he was cleaned up we snuggled in bed and watched TV. We ended up watching TV for hours because Cole had to ditch more berries about every 30 minutes. After about five or six times he finally seemed finished. The aftermath was ugly, Cole went through about 3-4 pairs of jammies and Kristin and I had to change at least twice. We had piles of laundry and some serious floor cleaning to do. Thank goodness for hardwood floors. Otherwise this post would be about how Cole owes us money for new carpet.

Grandpa Gregg specifically asked us NOT to post a picture, so this is for him.

Puke 2. Look at all those chunks. Yum!



Pulling out all the stops

Now that Kristin is home full time the kids get pretty attached to her, especially Cole. Or at least it seems that way since he is more verbal than Henry. Therefore, every weekend I have to make it my job and number one priority to win Cole back to my favor and regain my status as the #1 favored parent. Kristin does her best to let me have 100% kid-time on the weekends as she is pretty much done with them come Friday night.

Luring them back to my side isn't an easy task and over the past few weekends I think I am starting to fail.  I feel like I will never be able to compete with "Mommy." I try all the Dad tricks; throwing him up in the air, walking around the house and bumping into walls, falling down and having no part in any disciplining. I've even started to take Cole on Father/Son outings. One weekend we went to the Public Market for lunch. This past weekend Cole and I met Joe and Jason at Mo's in Wauwatosa to watch some basketball. I hate to admit it but Cole's favorite part was the Irish dancers, not the basketball. I am also embarrassed of my parenting at Mo's. I let Cole stand and jump around in a high traffic aisle, crawl on the floor (once eating something), and did not keep him safe from being touched by a couple of strangers. These are all things I would bitch about if I would see someone parenting in such a way.

In the end, weekends just aren't long enough. We have tons of fun and just as it seems Cole and I are BFFs again, the weekend ends. At the end of the day (weekend), more often than not, he still gravitates to his Mother, prefers to be held by her, calls out her name first when he wakes up and goes to her when he gets hurt. I'm not pleased, but until Kristin starts to do her part and bring home some bacon, I will have to learn to live with it.

I think I need to step things up and start coming home with gifts. Presents should do the trick. At least we have two kids. Hopefully Kristin will be so busy with Cole grabbing for attention Henry will have no choice but to choose me as his favorite parent (and thus become my favorite son).

Cole brought his own lunch to the Public Market. Don't worry, it is allowed there.

Cole loved people watching and listening to a guy playing music.

Down Goes Henry!

Henry is now at the stage where he can pull himself up to a standing position, but not at the stage where he can get back down to the ground. This is a horrible stage in life. I can't imagine how many brain cells Henry has lost already. One minute he is fine and standing strong, the next minute you hear a bang and Henry is on the ground crying (bad parenting?). And since he hasn't mastered being able to get himself in a sitting position, he usually crashes flat on the back of his head.

He is always so excited to get crawling and to start being naughty. The minute we put him on the ground he starts giggling and speed crawls away. There is obviously no thought process about safety or gravity. He certainly gets himself in some pretty awkward and unique positions.


Doing a little bump n' grind

He supports himself however he can (e.g. via cheek)

Bella is often used as a pushing off/landing point

Stuck on the bottom shelf of our coffee table - he climbed up there solo and in about .4 seconds