Honey anyone?

We haven't slept in four days. Cole has been coughing for about 96 hours. I took him to the doctor because I thought something had to be wrong when he was not only coughing but coughing so hard he was throwing up multiple times a day. No such luck. The only advice the doctor gave me was to try and give him some honey. So, I started out with it in a little medicine cup and told him the doctor gave us some more medicine. He wouldn't take it. I whipped up some milk with a LOT of hot chocolate and slipped some honey in it. He wouldn't touch it. Then I tried to warm up the honey and put it in cold milk and he instantly said, "That is making me sick." I even put it in a different sippy cup so I could at least get two sips out of him, but he wasn't fooled by my trick.

As the kid only has about five foods on his menu it isn't an option to spread it on top of anything. If you have a miracle cure for a cough or a tricky way to get a picky eater to eat honey let me know. I already had to bust out the chocolate chips this afternoon for some sanity and that just isn't cutting it. Especially since Ethan has come down with the same cold.

Farm Tots

One of the things I love about living in Seattle are all of the great programs for kids. There is a farm that runs a tot program every week. You make a craft, go for a wagon ride, feed the animals and pick some produce. This year we hit the last week of the fall and had a great time.

Cake and Salsa

Cole has been a little bit slow to discover yummy things as he is very hesitant to try new foods. However, I got him to lick a cake pan and there was no turning back!

Ethan on the other hand will eat and try anything! This is him licking salsa because dipping it just wasn't enough!

Halloween!

This was the first year that Cole loved Halloween! We had a great time all day. He was thrilled to be wearing his costume. We started out by going to Microsoft to trick or treat where Ethan quickly figured out what it meant with the buckets of candy sitting out. It is amazing how quickly the second child catches on. I don't think Cole even knew what candy was until he was 2! I tried to get the boys to pose for a picture, but it was a pretty hopeless cause! Here is the best I got.



That night we did some customized trick or treating and then went home! I let the boys eat all the candy they wanted the day of and then it mysteriously disappeared the next day! We had a great day.

Halloween Party

Cole was very excited about Halloween this year and picked out everyone's costumes. He started with him as Batman of course and then he decided Ethan had to be Robyn. This was all based on a little tiny picture that he saw in his comic book of two boys in a Batman and Robyn costume. He would talk about it and talk about it so of course we all joined in. This means I got to be Bat girl and Matt was Joker. We got to wear our stuff to a fun Halloween Party!

I am divorcing my shows.

A while ago I posted a blog about Cole and TV. Truth be told he comes from a long line of TV watchers! My TV watching waxes and wanes with good health and bad, pregnancy and nursing. Last season I had lots of time on the couch with little Ethan so my TV was at a high rate. However, this year, I don't have an excuse to sit on the couch so I have slowly started to divorce myself from my shows. It all started with "Wheel of Fortune." We still have a slightly bad taste in our mouth as we were rejected at the tryouts and we just can't bring ourselves to watch it any more. Then, as my time became more restricted (I needed more time to blog) I started evaluating my priorities. So, I have now cut "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice," and have refused to join Matt in watching any new shows. The only ones that I am faithful about putting on my Tivo now are "Life" and "ER". It is ER's last season so I figure I have to give it one more year and if you haven't caught "Life" it is a worthy addition. I will take advantage of my current wane and enjoy being off my couch!

Princess for an evening in honor of turning 30.

This year I had one birthday wish. I wanted to sit down through three meals. That didn't happen, (maybe in my next life if I am really good) however, I was spoiled by family and friends and had a great time! A few days before my birthday I got to go out to the Melting Pot and was treated like a princess with the jewelry and all. It is a fondue place that we went to for the dessert of course. What can be better than dipping food in chocolate? I can't think of anything.


I was joined by some of my girlfriends for some really good laughs!


I started my day out really early and enjoyed some time at the temple. During the day we were busy trying to get things done, but I ended the evening with a date out with Matt. We went out with our friends Dan and Shelley to Indian food and had chocolate lava cake for dessert. It was a great day and really, I don't feel a day older!

Who doesn't want to visit a fake Bavarian town?

There is a little city here in Washington called Leavenworth. It truly is a fake Bavarian town. All the shops, architecture and employees pretend like they are Bavarian. However, it is quite cute and made for a fun day vacation. We went out with our friends Kami and Alex Smith and their two kids Allie and Boden. We happened to take the trip on Matt and Alex's birthday so we were able to have a little birthday celebration and we even decorated the motel room. We did a little shopping and spent most of our time in the Christmas shop and then went down to the park and let the kids play. We ate a lot of food and had a good time with our friends. The quote of the trip was this: "Allie and Cole, don't lick each others tongues." Um yeah, never thought you actually had to point that out to your kids.

Our friends Kami and Alex with baby Boden. (We didn't take any other photos!)


Cole blowing out the candles with the help of Allie and Cole

Ethan's first year of life

The first few months of Ethan's life seem to be a blur. I think it is owed mostly to the unfortunate fact that he spent most of his waking time crying and during the day he didn't sleep much. For his first two weeks of life he set himself up as the perfect baby so I was sorely disappointed when the crying started. Poor little guy has reflux which explains the crying, but nonetheless it made things a little difficult. At 10 months we finally decided to switch his medication and he became a new baby. We were so sad it took us that long to do it. Now he is very happy and easily entertains himself. He actually plays with toys and will do it often.

He is a typical second child and delights in teasing Cole. He gets a big smile on his face when he takes his toys or purposefully walks in front of him. He loves it when Cole reacts and they are found on the floor wrestling on a regular basis.

He loves us so much we couldn't leave him often. The few times we tried he cried the entire time. I never left him but a few hours until he was six months old. At that point for my sanity I started leaving him with Matt to work out. We came to find out he survived after all and we are working on leaving him more and more.

He has a great smile and very big brown eyes! He is tall and has lots of extra fat to love. He loves to be outside and wants to do everything brother does. We are grateful for what he brings to our family and we look forward to learning more about his personality!

Cole's 2nd year of life

Cole's 2nd year of life started with a bang and didn't quite settle down for a long time. I think some kids don't notice the birth and displacement another child creates, but Cole surely felt every minute of it! He has since adjusted quite well and now mostly enjoys his little brother Ethan.

It was a big year for learning. His language exploded. I went to having a kid who enjoyed sitting in silence to someone who is always asking why. Sometimes I am not quite sure how to answer so I have resorted to saying that is just the way it is! He likes to coordinate and plan and even picked out all of the families Halloween costumes this year. He can do most of his colors, a few numbers and recognizes a lot of letters. He loves to sit and read. Excluding the summer we hit the library about once a week and his favorites are the batman books and comics.

He went from being a big Spiderman fan to now a huge Batman fan with Spiderman coming in second and if need be Superman and Hulk coming in later. We have several pictures of him dressed in all kinds of costumes. He wears his outfits all over town and especially likes it when people talk to him about it. He will pose and even shoot a web at you if you are lucky. We are definitely going to hit the after Halloween sales.

He became potty trained, untrained, trained, untrained, trained, untrained and trained again for good we hope! We had to do quite a bit of traveling and he just didn't like to be potty trained on vacation. Who can blame him, we all like to relax a little more when we are out of town.

He still is an extremely picky eater and hasn't added many foods to his menu. We have finally resorted to taking him to the doctor to rule out any allergies or stomach problems. If we find nothing then we will look into working on the behavioral issue.

He is a very active boy and loves to explore and play. We spent hours and hours out on the swing set this year. Usually he is wearing a cape for good effect.

Cole is a very determined child and will usually do whatever it is to get what he wants. He gives hugs and kisses freely and now enjoys a good snuggle. He loves his Dad and really enjoys bedtime when they get to read together at night.

It was a good year and we look forward to what the 3's will bring!

Batman Birthday Party

This post is a little late, but happening none the less! For the last two years Cole's birthday has been interrupted! For his second birthday he woke up to a babysitter because Matt and I were occupied at the hospital with Ethan. Then this last year he spent the day sick on the couch all day long! We had been planning his party for a long time and finally got it rescheduled. He didn't even realize that he had to share the party with Ethan. We had Cole and Ethan's friends over for a pinata and cake and ice-cream. Cole was thrilled to be the center of attention in his batman outfit and enjoyed all of his new toys. Ethan was happy to enjoy the party.

Cole took a turn hitting the Batman pinata.

Cole getting his candy stash! Ethan was also in the middle of things but we didn't get it on camera. It is amazing how quickly the younger kids pick up on candy.

The friends. Macy in her princess dress taking a turn!The cake! It survived the freezer and looked pretty good! (yes, I made this and cut out the bat shape myself!)
Cole eating his cake!

Ethan eating his cake by himself. He kept complaing about something and I couldn't figure out what he wanted. I kept trying to feed him cake, but he still complained. I finally figured out that he remembered eating cake by himself and that is what he wanted!
The boys got their first set of guns and they love them!