This is what we are up against.

I was telling someone recently about Cole's determination and ability to figure out mechanical things. We have to be really careful when we are doing things because he is watching and catches on quickly. Recently he even figure out how to open the car door from his car seat! Thankfully we were in a parking lot and it hasn't happened since.

Anyway, this is video of Cole working with the buckles on the high chair at lunch the other day. Mary and I were both equally impressed and scared.

"What is that?"

Cole said his first sentence the other day. We were out to dinner at our neighborhood diner Coco's (Papa, they miss you there) and during dinner Cole said "What is that?". This caught Mary and myself off guard because it was so clear. Normally you have to really interpret Cole's words, but this made both of pause. It was pretty cool.

Below are a couple of random photos from recent days.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What a stud. Getting ready for swim lessons.

Cracking up watching movies of himself. He will laugh hysterically at himself. Pretty cute.

Getting some energy out.

Tulsa Trip

We started the month of March off with a trip to Tulsa, OK. Mary has an office there so we were able to see John's relatives and allowed her to get some work meetings checked off. Grandma and Grandpa Hobson were able to make the trip down to spend time with all of us. Everyone had a great time. On Friday night we were able to see the Grein family....John's Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and their families. It was a big group and lots of fun. Cole really enjoyed the "big kids" and was able to run around playing with them. On Saturday we hit the Tulsa Zoo. The weather wasn't as nice as we had been having, but the zoo was really nice. You are able to get close to the animals and it was bigger than we expected. Of course they have a train and a carousel, which are two of Cole's favorite things. We heard "choo-choo" a lot that day.

Here are some photos from the trip.

"Mom...don't block my view!"

Watching some videos on the computer. One of Cole's favorite past-times.

Reading Thomas with Grandpa.

"Working" with Grandpa.

Cole's Easter present. He still isn't sure about the duck as it is a little scary. It sings a song and dances...which he thinks is the duck chasing him. Have to admit...the eyes are a little scary.

Hanging.

Hanging with mom.

Absolutely fascinated by this lion fountain. Not as fascinated by the real thing behind him.

On the carousel. He would wave and shout "Hi" to us as he passed.

There is a great playground that has wooden trains and trucks for the kids. At this point we were all cold, but there was no getting Cole away from this truck. He loved it.

Discovered the DVD player in the car. I think he likes it. He was also super tired.

At the playground.

Reading with Grandma.

Ready for bed.

Recent Aquarium Visit

Hello!

Can you believe it is March??? Where is the time going? Things are great here. We are gearing up for our trip to Tulsa later this week. Mary has work to do so the whole family is going. We will be able to see my Aunt Judy, the Grein cousins, and also Grandma and Grandpa Hobson...weather permitting. So we are all very excited.

Thought we would share some photos from our recent activities. We went to the aquarium, rode on a carousal, and drove some cars.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Many of the malls around here have carousels and Cole loves to ride. He is just fascinated with how they work, so he spends much of the ride looking at the mechanics of the ride.

Back at Pretend City practicing our driving. He loves these cars.

Fish at the aquarium in Long Beach.

Cole is finally starting to "get" the aquarium. He likes the activity and colors.

Ok, so this is the shark tank full of fascinating sharks. Cole was not interested at all at the huge sharks. Instead he was watching the trainer on the platform who was giving the speech. Very attentive and polite of him.

Driving a boat.

There were a number of school groups at the aquarium and Cole wanted to watch the big kids.

This is a fan that dries you off after you play in the water park. Cole wasn't quite sure what to think of this at first. Then once he figured out how to turn on the fan he thought it was pretty cool.

Lots of Updates

Hello!

It has been far too long since our last post and a lot has happened.  Grammie and Papa left at the end of January and everyone was sad to see them leave.  Cole really enjoyed his time with them.  

Right after Grammie and Papa left Aunt Heather visited for a long weekend.  She was in town for the Surf City Half Marathon.  We were all so excited to see her, but unfortunately Cole came down with a bug.  You would have never known he was sick except for the vomit.  He would get sick and then jump back to whatever he was doing.  What a trooper.  Unfortunately this was a pretty serious bug that lasted about a week.  He would seem to be getting better but then be sick in the middle of the night again.  After a little over a week of this he finally was back to himself and back to eating full meals.  (We knew something was wrong when he wasn't eating his normal volume of food.)   And because Cole loves to share he shared his bug with his dad...who has no tolerance for kid germs at all.  Needless to say SuperBowl Sunday was not as fun as we had hoped.  Thankfully Heather was there to help out with Cole and she didn't get sick.  Nor did Mary.  Probably not as fun of a trip as Heather had hoped for, but the weather was decent!

Mary has been traveling a bit for work, so the boys have had some bachelor time together.  We miss mommy dearly while she is gone.  Especially early in the morning when Cole decides to wake up at 5AM.  

For Valentine's Day we headed to Disneyland to enjoy the park for the morning.  We were able to get there early and leave by mid-afternoon as the park was really starting to get busy.  We went on a number of new rides for us and really enjoyed the nice day.  

Other than that life is just getting back to normal.  Cole has busy days with the playground, music class, swimming and story time.  

Crystal tree project we grew on the table.  Cole loved to watch as it grew through the day.

At Gymboree on one of the toys. 

Hanging at Disney with Pooh.

Disney.  Couldn't get him to look at the camera.

Valentine's Day with his Mommy.  Shirt says "I'm Bananas for Mommy"

And here is Cole being a boy.  On top of table outside.

Again, being a boy.  I was in the other room for two seconds and it got really quiet.  Came out to find him up on his desk.  He really wanted something from the shelf.

Ring Around The Rosie

Grammie taught Cole how to play Ring Around The Rosie and he now loves to play. Here is a quick glimpse of him playing with Mary. Notice that he takes the falling down part seriously.

He has also learned how to to do some exercises. Hopefully I will capture video of that soon.

Cole at Pretend City

Cole is now old enough to really enjoy his time at Pretend City. There is not a vehicle in the place that he doesn't test out. It is really fun to watch him go from activity to activity.

Coleman Dancing at Pretend City

Showing some moves on the dance floor. He really wanted to share maracas with people.

Disney and Fun

Wanted to post some photos from our trip to Disney. As you can see everyone had a great time. Cole really enjoyed himself.

Testing the piano.

He loves, loves, loves merry-go-rounds.

Happy Crew!

Playing with the giant pumpkin that he could crawl into.

Just his size. He wanted to get in and out of this chair for a good 10 minutes. It was also slippery, which he liked.

Enjoying ketchup. He was absolutely covered. The whole restaurant was watching him. This is the first time he has really taken an interest in ketchup.

We are such proud parents!!! He thinks he is so funny.

Cole enjoying slide at Disney

The month is flying by way too quickly.  Grammie and Papa are having a lot of fun with Cole.  We will post a number of pictures soon.  We have been just enjoying the time too much to be in front of the computer for long.  This week we are expecting rain every day so should have some computer time.

Last week we were able to visit Disney and Cole had a lot of fun.  This was the first time where he really was able to enjoy all of the rides and people.  He still doesn't quite get everything, but he loved just looking at all of the colors and how things work.

As the video shows, he has also mastered the slide.  There was an area for young kids and Cole took full advantage of the slide.  (Just don't mind the part where he shoves the little girl out of the way because she was impeding his sliding.)