9 days till the BIG 1

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

So I cannot believe Cole is going to be a year old next week. It's really crazy how time can fly! Looking back on the last year, he and I learned so many things together. When we were running errands the other day, I was thinking about how scared I felt when we first brought him home from the hospital. I just had no idea how to take care of him. And now, he's my little buddy and we do everything together.

Some funny things about Cole that still haven't changed after (almost) 12 months:

• He still hates getting his diaper changed. After all those diaper changes, it is still a fight every time.
• When he's tired, he still pulls at the hair on the top of his head.
• His naps still suck. 30 minutes on the dot (unless he falls asleep in the car)
• He still takes his best naps in the carseat

Cole has had a busy couple of weeks. He's learned how to open a closed door and the house is no longer safe. Toilet paper is sitting on the bathroom counters, the door to the garage must remain locked at all times and I have to the make sure he does not go into the office or the laundry room because those are serious danger zones. I have to re-babyproof the house which I had no idea I was going to have to do?!? He has also managed to open 2 babyproof bottles this week. One of vitamins and one of zyrtec. The next thing I know he'll be opening the childproof gate and going up and down the stairs himself. He is also busy moving things around the house. He likes to push the barstools around the island in the kitchen, move his highchair across the dining room and push his big toys from one room to the other. He's pretty funny. Vere says maybe he'll be an interior designer...

Cole goes through phases of sounds he likes to say over and over. Before it was ba ba ba or ra ra ra and at one point, ma ma ma. But right now he likes da da da. And Vere is loving it. He asks Cole "who do you love?" and of course Cole says "da". And of course Vere asks me every time if I heard it. But seriously... I think Cole's first official word was "HA!" He says it a lot and loud, like it has meaning. Today at the grocery store, he yelled it 4 times to the woman in front of us until she turned around and looked at him, then he stopped. She asked if he was mad and I told her no, he just likes to say HA! 

Cole also likes to put things in other things. He puts little toys in his stacking cups. He even puts the little cups into the bigger cups. He puts his toys in his toy bins, but not as many as he takes out of course. He likes to put his food in my hand or in my mouth. He just likes to see what happens I guess.



I thought his was funny. He lined up his rubber basketball with this other set of balls. Clever boy...


Last weekend was hot so we took him to the beach. I didn't even put him in swimmers because I know he doesn't like cold water. But he LOVED IT! He was splashing around for a long time. We had to hold both his hands because he was charging into the ocean! I was scared for him! He was waist deep and would have gone all the way in if we didn't stop him. At one point we were getting tired so we tried to go back to the beach for some rest, but Cole started to throw a tantrum because he didn't want to get out of the water so we stayed for a little bit more. It was crazy!


Happy for beach weather...finally!

  

He thought this big pile of seaweed was very interesting.



He even tried to take it home.

Enjoying the cold water. You can't see them in this video because they were so small. But there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of tiny creatures that kept burrowing into the sand. Cole was going crazy on them. They were disgusting. I've never seen them before but they were everywhere!

I am still struggling to feed Cole nutritious meals. He just doesn't like to try new foods. When I give him something new, he just picks it up and drops it on the floor. Sometimes I spend a lot of time making him something new to try and he just tosses it aside. We have had a couple of major breakthroughs this week. He finally ate pasta after about 25 tries. I don't know what happened that day and I don't know if it will happen again but it was a messy messy business. He also ate about 5 bites of baked beans and mashed potatoes today and a couple bites of a chicken nugget. Maybe things are looking up...

Pasta! His clothes are still soaking. I didn't have a bib on him at first because I didn't think he was actually going to eat it.

Today we had our Easter Egg Hunt with our moms group. 30 baby mamas RSVP'd for the event! Cole had fun. He was pretty excited that I was letting him wander around and just pick up these things that were on the ground. He kept walking around shaking an egg in his hand, then he would suddenly see another egg and drop the one he had to go over to the new one. I had to follow him around and put them in his basket for him. One of the moms knew a photographer so I signed Cole up for a photo session. I'll post the pics when I get them. For now, here are a few I took...



Eggs are cool!

 

Shake shake shake the eggs!


 

Looking for more eggs...


A few more pics of Cole...




Peanut butter!



A day at the park...

Guess he ate a sour grape. Notice how all of his carrots are pushed to the edge of his placemat. At least they didn't wind up on the floor.

The Grand Del Mar

Vere had a business trip on Sunday to Tuesday that he thought was going to be in Orange County but ended up being at The Grand Del Mar. Which is right in our neck of the woods! So Cole and I decided to tag along since the weather's been so nice we could go swimming and give the new travel crib a test run. I really wanted to get Cole in the water because we had a pool playdate last week and he was not into it at all.

Cole at playdate and not in the pool. I bought him a new floaty tube thing and everyone played in it except for Cole.

Baby Bjorn Travel Crib Light - Test Night #1 - The Grand Del Mar is gorgeous! Cole had so much fun exploring the room when we first got here. Little did he know this would be where we were spending the next two nights and that thing he's been dropping all his toys into would actually be his bed. Before Vere left for his dinner, I made sure the crib was all set up. We decided to put it in the hallway in between the door and the door to the bathroom. That way I wouldn't have to sit in the dark once Cole fell asleep around 7:30 p.m.

Dinner for Cole went as usually and I ordered myself dinner so it would be there before Cole's bath and I could eat after he went down. We took a bath, read stories, sang songs and I put him down in the crib and that's when the screaming started! It didn't help that the new crib lies right on the ground so it was lower than I'm used to and the transfer wasn't as smooth. After a couple minutes of full-blown high-pitched screaming I decided to pick him up, rock him and put him back down. But when I picked him up, I noticed the mattress was a little hard and realized I put the mattress in the wrong way! So poor Cole had to sit on the ground screaming while I quickly flipped the mattress. I rocked him till he calmed down and tried again...and again the crazy screaming. A couple minutes went by and I decided I'd better move his crib because he was screaming so loud and he was so close to the door. So I moved it over by the window where I ended up rocking him 3 more times before I decided I just needed to let him cry it out. I put him in the crib, grabbed my dinner and went over to the little nook near the bathroom door hoping that our neighbors had not decided to stay in and order room service. While Cole cried himself to sleep, I ate my cold dinner by the light of my iPhone on the floor next to the bathroom and wondered A) if I could still return the crib? and B) if I should just take Cole home?

But an hour and fifteen minutes after I put Cole to bed, he was finally asleep and I was laying in bed, in the dark wondering what to do since the movie I started downloading on the iPad 3 hours before still had 90+ minutes to go. And that's when I decided to write this post about our experiences at The Grand Del Mar. Now looking back, I should have just let him cry in the first place because it took less than 15 minutes for him to go down. And he probably always screams that loud, I just usually turn the volume on the monitor off.


This place is fun!


 

This isn't a good picture of Cole but check out the bathroom!



This is the hallway where Cole was originally going to sleep.



Pulling out every drawer of course.


Day Two - Things were looking up. Cole took an unheard of hour long nap in his crib this morning. It was probably because he still woke up at 5 a.m. even though he fell asleep much later than usual. Vere left for his meetings and I fed Cole breakfast and took him to explore the hotel. He just loves running around in new places. Then we met up with Vere and went to the pool. This hotel was great because it had a kids pool section and within the kids section, they have a super young kids area with 2 pools just for the young-ins and all of their pools are heated to 82 degrees! We spent the whole afternoon there and Cole loved it! He especially liked the baby pool that was 6" - 1' deep! He was splashing like crazy and walking all over the place. He even dunked his head by accident a few times and didn't even care. After a big day at the pool Cole took another hour long nap in his crib. Vere and I hid out in the bathroom while Cole fell asleep. He only cried for 3 minutes. Then Vere took a nap while I continued writing this post. We took another walk around the resort and had an early dinner and Cole went right to sleep. I'm so glad I didn't throw Cole in the car and go home that first night because we had so much fun on our mini vacation!

I could not get Cole away from this area. He just loved walking around and hiding behind the columns.

 

peek-a-boo!

 

These are just some pics I took on our walk.



They had this amazing fire pit.

 

Pool area

 

And their own helipad of course!

 

I had to take a pic of the sinks! Crazy detail!



Cole and daddy hanging out in the pool!



Cole and mommy in the baby pool!

  

Seeing his first live horse at the hotel's stables.



After our walk, we hung out in this big grassy area to let Cole run around. He was so cute because he kept running away and then coming back and giving Vere a hug. And then running away and coming back to hug over and over again. It was funny. We also taught him to be "gentle" to the flowers in this garden. He would totally get it and pat them very softly. But would forget and when he came back to the flowers he would just grab a handful again and we'd have to teach him "gentle" all over again.



Coming back for a daddy hug!



Vere and I waiting in the bathroom for Cole to go down for his nap.

At dinner. We ate so early, we were the only ones there! It was nice because Cole could be as loud as he wanted :)



After dinner photo-op by the fountain.




Gazebo photo-op.

  A few things about Cole today:

• He learned how to drink out of his straw sippy cup that I bought him 2 months ago! And it only took him about 5  minutes of watching me do it. He was so excited he downed the entire cup.
• When he went under the dining table today, he was trying to get out by going under the chair. I told him to be careful and lowered my head. And he did the same thing and crawled safely under the chair!
• Tonight during his bath he was kicking like crazy and I was starting to get mad because everything was getting wet, including myself. I told Cole "no kicking" in my stern mommy voice. He took a long look at my serious face, smiled and kept on kicking and never broke eye contact. I am seriously in for some trouble!

Mr. Independent

So at 11 months, Cole is Mr. Independent. He's just becoming his own little person and likes to do certain things and has his own opinion about things. It's so funny! He's walking pretty much exclusively now. I'm so proud of him and it's cute because you can tell he's proud of himself too. He is loving the freedom of running around different places like the park, the mall, the backyard, etc. and picking things up that he finds and massacring plants. One of his favorite things to do right now is to walk around while holding things in both his hands.

This is a typically day in the life of Cole. Walking around with something in his hands. Here he has his trucks. 

 

Walking with blocks.

 

Walking at Tutu and Grandpa's with stacking cups.
When Cole likes to do something - he is serious about it.



Cruising around...with two water bottles in his hands of course!

Today his new travel crib arrived for our big trip next month. We got the Baby Bjorn Travel Crib Light because it's super lightweight and super easy to set up. So we set it up right away so Cole could get used to it and know that it's his. He took to it right away and pushed it around the entire living room/kitchen. Then he dropped several of his toys inside. Whether or not he will actually sleep in it is still to be determined. But we're testing it out this weekend while we stay at the Grand Del Mar for one of Vere's business trips. And again at Tutu and Grandpa's next week while Vere is in Toronto.


Taking the new crib out for a test drive.



All of the stuff Cole dropped into his new crib.

Cole is in love with Daddy this month. Chases after him when he leaves for work in the morning. Is so excited to see him when he gets home from work. And I'm afraid to say... even prefers Vere to me sometimes :( There have been several occasions when Vere has tried to hand Cole off to me and Cole has clung to him for dear life! And lately Cole has wanted an extra hug from Daddy before Mommy takes him and puts him to bed. It's going to be tough being the disciplinarian vs. the "fun guy" but I will try not to take it personally. I also think Cole is starting to realize that Vere travels and works so much that time with Daddy is precious. Mealtime is no longer fun time. In the last few weeks, several things have occurred with mealtime:

1. Cole does not want Mommy to feed him anymore. Anytime I put a spoonful of something in front of him, he either ignores me or swats it away along with everything that was on the spoon. 
2. Everything must be bite size pieces so he can feed himself.
3. If Cole doesn't like something, he picks up each piece and drops it onto the floor.
4. Before Cole tries something new, he smashes several pieces with his index finger to decide whether he will eat it or not.
5. When Cole is done eating, he takes his hand and swipes his placemat until there is nothing left in front of him.

It's been a little tough figuring out what to feed him because he is also picky.

Things he'll always eat: fruit, toast and snacks

Things I need a back-up meal for: vegetables, pasta, meat and cheese. 

Depending on Cole's mood, he will also eat grilled cheese, tofu with teriyake, avocado and cream cheese spread on bread and sweet potato chunks. I'm stressed out trying to find yummy but healthy solutions....



Eating toast like a big boy!



Mmmmm.... toast.

 

Cole has also decided he doesn't want to sit and drink his bottle anymore.
So he stands, leans against things or walks around.



Bottle time on daddy's head!

This is a quick little video because I only caught the tail end on camera. We bought this toy last weekend. You put the balls in the holes on top and they come out the bottom. I didn't think Cole would actually get it but I thought he would like playing with the balls for now. But he totally gets it! He is so smart! 

Latest cute pics of Cole...


At the park in daddy's hat

 

Wearing daddy's sunglasses!




Very excited about walking with things in his hands

Sporting his new pjs from Tutu and Grandpa



Exploring the backyard