Christmas Morning

I was so proud of our little man for standing tall for this Christmas morning photo...such a big boy! Now that the holiday season is over with we are happy to have some time to rest and relax (as much as any almost 20 month-old will allow). Santa was very good to all of us and even required us to leave some gifts in PA b/c they were too big to fit in the car! Thanks to Grandma and Pap for that one...yes, yes we know it was on the list!
We're looking forward to our next "projects"...truck shopping for Daddy (he finally is going to get something to replace his 10+ year old high school vehicle) and remodeling the bathroom (ugh!).
Cole is busy working on speech these days. He mumbles a ton, but i still can't understand much. Craig is dictating that bath time pick up by me is preceded by a request from Cole of "Muuuuuuum". It's really cool to hear. I've never thought much about how hard that probably is to say...much more difficult than "ma ma".

The meeting

With the Christmas season in full swing we thought we'd introduce Cole to the person in charge, Good Ole' St. Nick. Well it took about a minute before Cole burst into tears! So much for a good picture :) I wonder how many years its going to take before I can get a good one to put in the cute frame I bought just for the special shot.

We've been busy elves ourselves...decorating the tree, attending holiday parties and of course shopping. Cole has been a super trooper, spending hours in his stroller while Mom shops away. I'm wondering when the awe of the Christmas tree and ornaments is going to go away. He loves to point to them and wait for the answer as to what they are...."giraffe, snowman, santa (mom saying "ho ho ho...hoping to have Cole catch on...no luck!), giraffe, pooh bear......I could go on forever and Cole would keep pointing. He's also pretty intrigued by the wrapped gifts under the tree but doesn't know that they can be opened...thank goodness! Best of all I think he likes the Holiday cookies...but what kid doesn't!

Fa la la la la...la la la la

Cole is gearing up for the holidays in his spiffy reindeer ears (and adidas outfit!). He is enjoying having a tree in the house and lights on all the houses.

Our NFL Beauty King

Cole is at the strangest stage...babbling in what seems like a foreign language (that only his parents are foreign to!) and playing with the oddest things. Recently he has taken an extreme liking to Mardi Gras beads. We have several strands around the house that he puts on...takes off...puts back on. His animals wear them, he takes them to bed, he wants to wear them in the bathtub. One odd little boy!

A mother's right

Okay so Cole will likely hate me someday for subjecting him to the torture of such a girlish costume but you can't deny that this isn't cute!

On to other things...Cole is now 18 months old! Wow...a year and a half, where has it gone? As his 1.5 year milestone, Cole decided he would finally hit the 20lb mark :) So we now legitimately have the car seat forward-facing, although we switched it 6 months ago to allow the little man to have some leg room!

We also wanted to point out our new blog link in the "friends and family" section. A friend of mommy's, Russ, and his wife, Kimmie, just had twin little boys, Jake and Drew. Hopefully Cole, Drew and Jake can meet some day.

That's all for now!

Trick or Treat?

Cole had a great time going out for Halloween last night. He got the hang of the whole thing pretty quickly and amazingly threw away his shyness, if only for an hour! He strutted his little toddling self right up to the front doors and helped himself to 2 pieces of candy, thank you very much....because just one is not enough for this cute of a costume! Of course, many thought he was a rabbit and we also got a few "what a cute little girl" comments (umm...excuse me but he has a BLUE ribbon around his neck!) Maybe next year we'll go for something a little more boyish :)

Fall Sundays are...

football Sundays! It seems fall has finally hit in terms of the weather in the DC area. After 4 continuous days (and 6 inches!) of rain, the cooler temps of the season seem to have settled in. It has taken all our might the last few days to keep the Little Man inside...we definitely have our work cut out for us this winter. I am going to have to invest in some warm clothing for both me and Cole because NOTHING is going to stop him from being outside!

The Wonderous Things...

that a 17 month old can accumulate! Cole is quite a funny guy these days. He is a really sweet little boy blowing kisses, giving kisses and lots of hugs too. His collection of stuffed animals seems to be the biggest receiver of these sweet affections. He has started to drag them off to corners of the room...or under chairs...to shower them with his love and attention. He likes to talk to them, read to them or drag them from place to place. Its quite a hoot to watch!
Cole is also working on knowing where his nose, eyes, ears and mouth are. Since he's such a quick learner we're now moving on to belly, knees and toes. Perhaps the funniest thing to me is how much he seems to "know". We tell him to put something in the garbage and off he goes. He can pretty much follow any command...and don't dare mention going outside or "bye-bye" because he will be instantly at the door. Such a cutie.

Trouble times three

No really these three are no problem when they are together...right now! I can imagine though as the Atkins cousins get older that they may get into some trickery. In the same trip to York, PA, we got together for a nice picnic put together by Nicole and Karen....yummmo! Cole also got to meet up with some of the family that he had yet to meet, particularly his Great Aunt Ramona and Great Uncle Larry.
This past weekend, mom and dad got to go to C'ville, where they were hoping to take Cole to his first live football game at UVA. Unfortunately, the game time was set for 7:00 pm and suddenly taking Mr. Has-to-be-in-bed-by-8pm to the game was out of the question. Instead, Cole spent his first weekend away from mom and dad with his Maw-Maw. I think the whole experience was much tougher on Momma!

Family & Farm Fun

Cole and I spent Saturday with my Nanny's side of the family for a mini-reunion. Her nephew Glen and his wife Linda own 75 acres outside of the DC area where they raise Alpacas for their wool. It was really neat to watch Cole interact with the animals. In fact, he seemed pretty at ease with the whole farming lifestyle.

Hangin out

With all our adventuring this summer, we've also tried to slow things down a little and spend some time at home. It's certainly where Cole shows his true colors and is really in his element. Craig has been trying hard to complete our patio in the backyard and we are finally happy to say that it's done! The last few evenings have been wonderful hanging out back there. Cole participated as much as possible, handing the level and rubber mallot to Dad at every chance he got. He also was quite infatuated with the drainage rock and stonedust base of the patio. Now that the patio's complete, he's moved on to bigger and better things...mulch and flower bloom picking!

Cole is quite the jabber jaw these days. Not too many distinguishable words but he will repeat just about anything. He also likes to feed the squirrels acorns from the neighborhood trees and loves to take walks around the neighborhood.

This past weekend was our first experience watching football as a family. Cole got quite excited, along with his dad, when Penn State scored. He has taken to clapping his hands a lot lately and cheerfully exploded along with Craig when PSU scored. We'll be heading to a UVA game at the end of the month so we'll see what he thinks about live football!

Beach Bum

Check out this bathing beauty! Cole had a blast at our weekend trip to VA Beach. Who wouldn't with all the fishy crackers, juice and sand you could ever want? He seemed to have no fear when it came to the water however despite the beautiful, warm weather and nice water temp too, Cole couldn't help but shiver.

We also made a trip to the aquarium which sent him into another excited frenzy. The seals in the tank outside of the aquarium were a particular favorite.

15 months

Cole is a busy toddler these days. Walking, talking and generally getting into everything. He has refined his use of "da..da..da" to "dat..dat..dat", while pointing. His only other words are "ma-ma" and "da-da" but I could have sworn I heard "shoe" yesterday. The doc says 3-5 words at 15 months are typical. I am amazed at how many words he recognizes (but can't speak). Park, outside, food, upstairs, and night-night all send him into a frenzy.
It's also really neat to see how he recognizes his usual territory. He walks my mom to the park and to the metro to pick me up in the afternoons. I love how the little things send him into a giggle frenzy. I took Cole to the pet store yesterday and he could barely catch his breath laughing as he watched a mouse on an exercise wheel. If I could stand to have one in the house, I'm sure it would be hours of entertainment for him.
Cole continues to be a little guy. At his doctor's appointment on Friday, we were alerted that he has fallen off of his growth line. Looks like our 15 month, 19lb little man needs to eat more (I don't know how though...he is constantly eating!).

Super Strength

We spent a relaxing weekend in PA this past weekend with Craig's family. On Saturday we went to Uncle LJ's graduation party where Cole enjoyed watching the volleyball games. On Sunday, Pap and Grandma had a BBQ for the family. Cole entertained us all with his amazing ability to hang! Everyone thought it the was the funniest sight. He just loves to do it, pointing back up to the hanging devise with this standard "da....da....da" of late.
Speaking of "da...da...da", it has become Cole's way of communicating with us and letting us know what he wants. I hear it so often I'm wondering whether I want to know what he needs or wants at all! But really, it's very cute...until he begins to scream when he doesn't get what he wants.

Lazy Dayz of Summer

The hazy, hot summers typical of DC have set in and in many cases have left us searching out cool (that is as far as temps go!) places to hang out. We found ourselves along Alexandria's waterfront under the shade of a big tree and in the company of this cannon last weekend. Cole rushed to the water at every chance, freaking me out at the 6' drop to its surface. I was not about to jump into the Potomac to rescue him (well okay so I would but I certainly wouldn't like it!). Take care and keep cool.

Keota Street Biker Babes

Happy 4th all! We celebrated America's birthday in our usual fashion with the 12th Annual Keota Street Parade. Cole and Emory headed up the kids group in their red, white and blue attire along with festive tattoos, do-rag, and tiara. This year's Grand Marshall, Max Fix--my granddad, was quite surprised at his appointment to the most prestigious position of the parade. Friends and family gathered to watch the parade, join in the after parade ice cream, water battle and of course the cook-out. By 7:30, our little one was wiped out and so buzzed from sugar it took him an hour to babble his way to sleep in the crib at home!

Camp cook

Well we survived our 3 day adventure in camping with the little guy. In fact, it wasn't the lack of sleep, the park ranger's eviction of the 2nd half of our group or the clingy toddler that proved to be the downfall of the trip, but the COLD! It was a generous 50 degrees at night and I nearly froze to death, despite 2 sleeping bags and the body warmth of Cole and Craig.

Regardless we had a great time in the PA wilderness, hiking and taking in the sites of the Youghiogheny River. Cole loved to walk through the rapids (a lovely 56 degrees!) and even better were all the rocks!

Every Boy needs....

..a set of wheels! Cole's Pap purchased this snazzy ride for him for his first birthday and although it doesn't look like it in this picture, he is totally in love with it. It has become the 'cool' way to ride around old town and is definately saving my back from some heavy lifting!

Just like Dad...

Happy Father's Day to all the male figures in Cole's life. As you can see from this photo, Cole was not so happy at my encouragement to take a photo of him in Dad's shoes and tie. I think the scowl only makes the picture better!

Not much else happening on our end. Enjoying the summer with various outings to the zoo, the pool, and the playground. Next weekend we'll be camping in Pennsylvania...stay tuned for some sure to be good stories!

Cole proofing...

Regardless of what common sense told us, we had put off baby proofing (and even denied that it had to happen) for a long time. A few bruises and a couple occasions of blood coming from somewhere (in some cases, never to be determined), we have the baby gates in place and padding around the edge of the coffee table. Cole has now officially taken over the house, if the toys hadn't before.

I suppose its all in good measure. Cole and dad had oh so much fun installing the gate at the top of the steps. Cole seems to really like his dad's cordless drill! The brackets to attach to the wall were pretty interesting material too, heck any ole' plastic is worthy of chewing on!