Thanksgiving and the couple weeks before and after...

Everytime I sit down to write a post, I can't believe how much Cole has changed from the last time I wrote. He is constantly learning new tricks, getting more personality and becoming more aware of his surrroundings. I just feel so proud of him everyday because he is learning so much! And now he is finally on the move! It all started about 3 or 4 weeks ago when he would sort of drag his body and legs behind him - army crawl. But now it's turned into a pretty good crawl. I think he's still unsure about what to do with his new found freedom. Sometimes he'll start to crawl out of the room and then will turn back to look at me like he's making sure I'm watching where he's going. I'm letting him go explore as safely as possible although I did find him in the bathroom the other day chewing the rug on the floor. He's also drawn to the door stopper to the back door. I guess cuz it's sticking out of the wall. I tell him "no no" about a dozen times a day. Now sometimes when he crawls over there, he'll stop to look at me just before he gets there like he's checking to make sure I'm not watching. He's pretty funny like that. I think I'm going to have my hands full very soon.

This was today - crawling over to his favorite strange thing sticking out of the wall. He can't help himself!

We spent Thanksgiving in Maui with my family this year. Cole was pretty good on the flight out there. He was pretty tired and couldn't get comfortable but managed to take a couple of naps. 5 1/2 hour flight with a constantly moving 20 lb. baby on my lap = Cole is getting his own seat going forward. Flight home was not as good but at least it was shorter. Thanksgiving feast was delicious as always. As usual, we celebrated at KC and Erik's house and Mom and Dad cooked and made 2 yummy desserts (lemon meringue pie and a chocolate peanut butter cake) Thank you Mom & Dad! I don't have any pictures because I got sick when we were in Maui and that day I was feeling the worst so no pics for some reason...

Cole had tons of fun on Maui. He totally loved being in the water and I think as a result splashes like crazy in the bath now. He also managed to put two handfuls of sand in his mouth while we were sitting in the water at baby beach. I didn't realize he was grabbing the sand while we were sitting there. Guess it tasted salty. He also liked playing with the grass with his cousin Maya. 



Cole having fun at Flemings. Vere is coming back from body boarding.

  

Hanging out with grandpa at the condo

Loving the water (and sand) at baby beach

 

Henry Kapono at Dukes. Mom and Dad babysat Cole while Vere and I went to watch him



Cole is a little dare devil. He loves to be thrown up in the air. It's just one of those things that makes him laugh.

 

You can't see it but he has a big smile on his face

  

And here, he's laughing/screaming

  

Playing with the grass with Maya



Us at the pool

  

Maya, KC, Me and Cole in the pool. Look at the tummy!

  

He was pooped after a long day at the beach and pool



Hanging out with Kalia and Maya. Those two gush over him! He seriously doesn't know how good he has it.

 

with Kalia

 

So Cole is eating all sorts of things now. He loves bananas! In fact he eats a banana a day. It's his favorite thing to eat so far. The things he likes: bananas of course, pears, sweet potato, butternut squash (in the mornings only), brown rice and cinnamon. Things he DOES NOT like: carrots, avocado and butternut squash (in the evenings).

He is also eating these little rice rusks - totally self feeding himself! There were a couple times where it seemed like he ate it so fast that I looked around for where it went.  



This is what happens when Cole is fed butternut squash at night before bedtime. The best time to give him the things he's not so thrilled about is in the morning. His head it wet from sweat and food.

  

avocados... in the morning so it wasn't as dramatic as the butternut squash photo.




Finally, something he likes!... rice rusks.


We also got our Christmas tree last weekend for Cole's 1st Christmas!



Me, Cole and our xmas tree



Us at the xmas tree place

Cole in the back of the car with the tree

On a separate note... tonight when Vere came home, Cole crawled over to his feet and waited there until he was picked up. It was cute.

Does this sound bother anyone? It bothers me A LOT. I can feel it in my jaws almost like when you eat a sour candy. I think it's kind of like how people feel about nails on a chalkboard. Cole likes to chew on this teething toy right in my face while leaning on my stomach. The things you do you for your kids...

At almost 7 1/2 months, Cole is now 21 pounds, 7 ounces. I took him to the doctor a couple days ago because he had gotten sick over Thanksgiving too and was still pretty stuffed up two weeks later. The doctor gave him a prescription for antibiotics if he didn't get better in the next day or two. Luckily I didn't have to get it filled. Anyways, he basically gained 2 pounds, 7 ounces in 6 weeks. Guess it's all those bananas!

Here are some other photos of Cole from the last few weeks...



Eating more rice rusks

  

This was Cole a couple weeks ago sitting in the swing that he never liked



This was Cole in the same swing when he was about 7 weeks old! I can't believe how little he used to be!



Oh ya... Cole's latest obsession - his socks.



He's always moving his feet around so his socks never stay on. Needless to say, he keeps finding them everywhere.

Another sock...

Watching daddy

Vegas baby...with a baby...

So Vere had a conference in Vegas and wanted Cole and I to come with him. At first I didn't want to go because it seemed like such a pain to fly to Vegas for two nights and who knew how Cole was going to sleep and if it was bad, how long it would take him to get back on track. But we had a really good time. Cole loved the hotel room for some reason. Maybe it was just the new environment but with all his familiar toys. I don't know but he was having a good time. We basically spent the first day in the room hanging out while Vere was in meetings and the dinner function. I didn't feel up for taking Cole down the strip by myself but I was happy just to chill out in the room. We stayed at Encore and the rooms were super nice. They were all suites so Cole kinda had his own little room with a view. They had the cutest crib and Cole seemed to like it! He slept about 10 - 10 1/2 hours straight on both nights and took a couple naps that were longer than an hour (he usually only naps for 30 minutes now).

On Friday, we headed to Mandalay Bay to visit Shark Reef. For those of you familiar with Vegas, you know that Mandalay Bay and Encore are not close to each other. We had to walk to Harrah's/Imperial Palace to catch the monorail. Then get off at MGM, walk to Excalibur and take the tram to Mandalay Bay. So three hours, three casinos and about 20 elevators later (we had the stroller and stopped for lunch) we made it to Mandalay Bay. Cole was kind of over the whole outing by then so we breezed through Shark Reef. But it was a pretty cool exhibit. Then we turned around and went back. Only took us an hour, 15 to get back but we hoofed it plus we knew exactly where all the elevators were this time.




Cole was loving the big bed with all his toys!

  

This was funny. He was just kicking back and watching the TV.
It's the angle that make him look so chubs (I think...)



Playing on the bed - Day Two
I decided to put a little barrier up because he is starting to get around.



At first we were just watching the cars go by out the window. Then he flipped over and was laughing and looking up at the ceiling.



Then he was inspecting the couch.
He was really into examining the white trim on the sofa.



Cole's little crib

  

Hanging out on the couch. It was so dry in Vegas that his cheeks were chapped.
That's why they're so red.


 

Us in front of MGM on the way to Mandalay Bay



This was Cole's favorite part of Shark Reef.
He was looking up the entire time when we were in this area.



Me and Cole in the tunnel



Vere, Me and Cole in the tunnel

I think these were manta rays... I'm not even sure because we went through this place so fast. It's kinda choppy cuz I was holding Cole the whole time.

Now I'm not going to talk about Cole's sleep because I don't want to jinx it. But let's just say that he has FINALLY figured out that it's OK to sleep on his tummy. And it has made a world of difference!

Cole loves this show on PBS called Super Why. He will literally stop whatever he's doing when he hears Wyatt's voice. The other day he was crying and Super Why came on and he turned around and started to watch the TV! I know he's young to be watching TV but it's seriously a life saver sometimes.

trick or treat...

Cole was a zebra for Halloween this year. I bought the costume a couple months ago and thought it was going to be way too big for him. It was a 6-12 month size and he was only going to be 6 months. But when Halloween came around, it fit him perfectly. Since he goes to bed early and nobody besides Vere and I would to see him in his costume, I took him down to Vere's work the Friday before when everyone at the office was dressed up. He was a hit! And he was in such a good mood, smiling at everyone and letting strangers hold him. It was fun!


Cole at Vere's office



The cookies I made for Vere to take to work. I'm having a small obsession with royal icing...



Me and C


 

Here is the whole costume with his feet

He also had his 6 month well check on Wednesday. He weighed 19 lbs. (85 percentile) and was 28.5 inches long (97 percentile). Which means he is already almost half as tall as I am! He is also crazy active now. We can no longer change Cole's diaper and expect him to just lie still. He's crazy! He just wants to flip over the entire time. It's almost impossible to change him! I have to start using his changing table exclusively now because it's sort of shaped like a U and it's harder for him to roll over in.

I thought this was funny. Cole is constantly moving, especially his feet. And this ball got stuck in between his feet and he was just moving it around because his feet were moving non stop. It was going on for like 5 minutes so I had to take a video.

Last week Cole started eating sweet potatoes and loves it! He is eating two solid meals a day now. One in the morning/early afternoon and the other just before bedtime. Although I haven't experienced the one or two more hours of sleep that I've been dreaming of. But on a good night, Cole will go 9-10 hours before waking up. Then will go back to sleep for another hour or two. I should probably just go to bed at 6:30 when Cole does and that will solve my sleep deprivation problem. Tomorrow he starts bananas.  

Cole's latest obsession... the tags and labels on anything and everything. He just loves looking at or chewing on the tags that are on his toys, clothes and bibs. And loves to look at the warning labels in his car seat, the mobile on his crib and on his activity center. For some reason they totally catch his eye and he is more interested in the tags then the toys themselves.


Inspecting the tag on his shorts


 

Chewing the tag on his bib


 

Tag on his toy


 

Another tag!




Seriously, it's borderline OCD




Or perhaps he can actually read... who knows!

 Cole is so funny. He has been laughing so much and playing and talking and really experimenting with sounds. He's started to figure out that he can also rollover from front to back. So tonight he was just rolling around on the floor chewing on a teething toy and squealing then grunting and then laughing. It's fun to see him having such a good time. There are two things that always get a laugh out of him: 1. Saying "cuckoo, cuckoo" over and over again. He thinks it's so funny for some reason. And 2. He likes it when I say "boing, boing, boing!" especially when I do it when we're walking down the stairs.

We also went up to C-mont to hang out with Christine and her two kids, Liam (4) and Abbey (1). We went to a cool park that had a huge pond with tons of ducks.




All of us at the park

 

Christine, Liam and Abbey  (Liam is eating a blue ring pop)



Liam pointing at the ducks

 Some other pics...

Vere and Tabatha at the Justin Bieber concert. Vere got major dad points for A) taking Tabatha to the Justin Bieber concert and B) wearing his red skinny jeans (not pictured).

Taking a close look at Tutu. This was before I gave him his haircut...you can kind of see the comb over.



Seriously, I leave him alone for 1 minute.



He can't crawl yet but somehow always manages to make his way to the diaper caddy

Chillin out in his chair that he got from the Haraguchis