Cole Carlson: 10 Months Old

Cole Baby is ten months old!  Hard to believe that he's going to be ONE so very soon.  He is on the move every minute that he's not being held or in his walker or booster chair.  Here's what he's up to:

• He has his two bottom teeth.  He is going to get his top two soon.
• He is clapping and waving all the time.  He claps for everything and gives us a big grin!
• He loves his sisters, even when Harper is tackling him to the ground.  I am just waiting for the day he's bigger than her (which will be sooner than later!)...I don't think she'll be tackling him anymore.
• He is wearing size 9 months and 12 months clothes. 
• We haven't bought him any shoes yet, but will need to soon! He is pulling up on everything and has made it all the way up our stairs. He hasn't attempted to stand on his own or walk yet.
• He is weighing in at 17 pounds 7 ounces.
• We are still battling his eczema.  I'm going to try coconut oil next. Poor little guy has spots on both ankles, arms, and his ears.
• His hair is filling in and sometimes curls in the back. 
• He has the longest eyelashes! Like the girls, he has beautiful blue eyes.  His eyes have a little of my hazel in them...at least that's what I say.
• He is now eating everything that we eat.  He totally skipped the whole baby food phase.  He refused everything until we finally just started feeding him whatever we had.  Now, he's a great eater.
• We are learning that he is persistent and has a bit of a temper.  It's fun to see bits of each of his sisters' personalities in him.  When he's mad, he screams!
• He hates getting dressed and is constantly trying to roll over and kick his legs.  It is even harder to change his diaper. No matter how hard we try to distract him the little bugger is trying to roll away.  Before we know it he's crawling away and we have poop all over our hands! Seriously, it's gross and when we can we always have two people on diaper duty.
• He loves to jump, bounce, and dance. 
• He is drinking water from a sippy cup.
• He is drinking 5 ounce bottles.  We can't get him to eat any more than that, and sometimes he only eats 3 ounces.
• We are trying really hard to get him to sleep through the night.  He always wakes up at least once.  Some nights we can give him a paci and turn his glow worm on (which we keep on the floor under his crib) and he will fall back asleep until 4:30.  Other nights, we feed him one ounce and he's back to sleep.  We are struggling with this.  Riley was a terrible sleeper (up every 3 hours) and we eventually  had to let her cry it out.  Then Harper came along and was a great sleeper.  Now we have Cole who really needs to just cry it out, but his room shares a wall with his sisters.  The last thing we want to do is wake the whole family up when we can just give him an ounce and head back to bed.  So, we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.  We may just suck it up and give it a go.

Fall Fun 2013

We have had a fun fall so far. The weather has been great and we have spent a lot of time outside. We enjoyed the zoo on a cool morning. The kids loved seeing all of the animals so active. We celebrated Grandpa Kevin's birthday. We have taken many walks to the park. We've picked lots of veggies from the garden. And, we've celebrated several weddings with friends.

Cole Carlson: 9 Months Old

Cole Baby is 9 months old! Here's what's new:
- He really is a sweet little guy, but sure has a temper. Don't take anything away from him or he'll raise hell!
- he has his first tooth! It's on the bottom right. I'm pretty sure the other bottom tooth will be breaking through any day.
- he had recurring ear infections, but they are thankfully cleared up.
- he weighs in at 17 lb 7 oz.
- He is crawling everywhere, and is pulling up on anything he can.
- he is a handsome little guy. His hair is starting to fill in, but its very thin.
- he is not interested in his walker or saucer anymore. He wants to move around and explore.
- we have had a few successful nights without bottles. He still wakes up at least once for his paci.
- he is drinking all formula. I quit pumping about a month ago.
- he is finally showing some interest in food. We went straight to real table food for him. His favorites are turkey deli meat, broccoli, cheese, cheerios, and puffs. I think he is our picky eater.
- he hates his car seat. Every time we put him in it he arches his back and pushes himself up so we can't buckle him.  It can take a couple minutes to get him strapped in sometimes.
- he waves hi, bye, and good night.
- he loves to bounce to music.

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Riley's First Day of Pre-Kindergarten 2013

Riley Started pre-k at Westview Church Preschool. She goes Monday through Thursday from 12:30-3. She is loving it so far, and we haven't had any tears so far. Poor Harper doesn't like her big sis being gone. Other than their website and a tour of the school we didn't know anything about Westview, but we've been really impressed. I think it is perfect for Riley and we are confident that she is where she needs to be this year!

Iowa State Fair 2013

We went to the Iowa State Fair for a day this year. We were lucky to have beautiful weather and the kids were great. We changed it up this year by going early on a Friday. We left to take naps around 2:00 and went back out for a few hours around 6:00. I have really fond memories of the fair as a child and one of them is the thrill of the fair at night. Here's what we will remember this year:
- Little hands on the farm. Harper was able to go through this year.
- Cole's first time at the fair! He was great.
- the baby animal building.
- corn dogs and hot dogs for breakfast.
- lots of lemonade.
- rides in the midway. Harper was too little for everything but the carousel. Riley loved the big swing ride.
- the hall of law.
- going down the giant slide with Daddy and Grandma Sheryl.

Riley's Fifth Birthday Party

We chose to stick to a family birthday party again this year. We went in search of Despicable Me party supplies, but came home with Monsters University supplies. I made a new egg-free vanilla cupcake recipe and they turned out great. She asked for a fish and a camper. We couldn't fulfill her wish list in entirety, but Grandma Kathy did get her 3 fish. Poor fish all died within 2 days. She also got some shark week toys, roller skates, uno, operation, a pillow you can color, and art supplies.

On the day of her birthday we celebrated with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

Riley Nicole: 5 Years Old!

Ahhhh...my little girl is five years old! How does that happen? Just yesterday we were bringing our firstborn, 4 pound baby, home from the hospital. Now we are getting ready to send her off to her last year of preschool.

Riley has been super excited to turn five because five is so much older than four. Just ask and she'll tell you that half of what you can do now is because she's five. Here's what she's up to now:

- she is 43 inches tall and 42 pounds. She is a solid little girls. It is deceiving how heavy she really is.
-She had a major growth spurt this summer and is wearing a size 5 (sometimes 6). She is wearing a size 10 shoe.
- we have been battling reoccurring bladder infections this spring summer. The only indication is a fever, wetting the bed, and/or side aches. We just finished another round of antibiotics. If it comes back we will most likely be visiting a urologist for testing. We are really hoping we don't have to go there as the test includes a catheter.
- she still has a bit of a lisp. It is mostly noticeable when she says her L's as wees. She also struggles with the TH sounds.
- her favorite toys are animal figures, stuffed animals, ninja turtle toys. She just started really playing and pretending on her own. She loves to play games like Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish, and Candy Land.
- She has become a little mommy to her sister and brother. We obviously spend a lot of time together now that I'm home all day. She is willing to watch Cole for a few minutes so I can run to the bathroom or take Harper up for her nap. I notice her telling Harper if she doesn't do something she's going to go to timeout, or she picks her brother up and "carries" him across the room.
- She has become very independent with some things. She likes to pour her cereal, scoop her own seconds, get her own snacks, etc.
- she has begun to help herself to junk food. If I leave the room for two minutes I can be certain that she's pushed a chair over to the pantry and snuck a couple gummy worms, put the chair back, and run back to whatever she was doing. She will always tell me that she took them.
- she has a major sweet tooth now.
- she is goofy and silly!
- she does what we call "sabotaging."  If she wants something she knows she can't have she will ask Harper is she wants it. Then Harper will proceed to get it or throw a fit, which is always knock down, drag out. She also chooses the most chaotic times to do this.
- we are constantly talking to her about listening, thinking before acting, and following directions.
- she now seems to find a friend to play with whenever we go to then park or play place. She always asks them their name and runs back to tell me. She forgets the name before we leave, but at least she's asking now. She usually picks girls that are a bit younger, or boys to play with.
- she loves to be outside. She climbs the tree by putting the slide under the lowest branch and climbing the stairs up to it. She now has a pet snail in a flower pot in that backyard. She and Daddy found it at the little pond up the street while they were trying to catch frogs. Somehow it has stayed alive for a couple weeks now.
- she loves to swim, but still doesn't like to put her face in the water.
- she says her favorite color is green, but she still favors blue and sometimes pink.
- she now wants to use big utensils because she's a big girl.
- she loves TV, which is a blessing and a curse. She has learned to turn the TV on, find her favorite recorded shows, fast forward, and use the DVD player. She chooses to watch Max and Ruby, Word World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Tom and Jerry. She is always pausing her shows so she doesn't miss anything. We have had to limit TV because she has terrible behavior when she watches more than a couple shows a day.
- Memorization comes very easily for her. She can memorize random facts about sharks or her favorite jokes, but can never remember if we did something yesterday, last week, or last year.
- she is LAZY. She wants others to do things for her always.
- she starts soccer next week and we are both really excited.

Overall, she is just a great little girl and we love her very much.