Cole's First Christmas

Well, we had four Christmases really. We had Christmas Eve, which we always spend with the Sharrow (Truedson) family. After church (which Cole slept through), we went back to Grandpa and Grandma Sharrow's house for dinner. There were 21 of us with Cole. After a delicious ham dinner, we got to open presents with the entire extended family. Cole had a blast eating the wrapping paper, but stayed up way too late. The next morning we had Christmas morning with just the three of us at our house. It was fun to have Cole open his presents in his pajamas. After we had opened presents, gotten dressed, had coffee, and fed Cole breakfast, people were finally starting to wake up back at Grandpa and Grandma Sharrow's house, so we went back there for immediate family presents (immediate family being Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Scott and Mikala, Uncle Todd and Stephanie, and the three of us). After presents we had another delicious meal of steak and shrimp before we headed down to Grandpa and Grandma Iverson's house in Forest Lake for yet more presents and food. Uncle Brad had flown in earlier Christmas day from California. Unfortunately, we are still getting used to the idea that we are parents now and obligated to catch every moment of our son's childhood on camera, so we are relying on our blog-stalking family members to email us some pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at the Sharrow house. Send them on to us, please, you know who you are (ahem, Sandy!)! These pictures are mostly from the Iverson Christmas.

Bentleyville

On the Saturday before Christmas, which I am certain was also the coldest day on record in Minnesota, we all decided to go to Bentleyville. We took three cars on some "back way" to the Cloquet area to see this place. If you can find it, you park and get on a school bus which shuttles you to "Bentleyville." There you find the biggest Christmas lights display you can imagine. They start setting up the lights in September every year. There is a huge entrance, an uptown, a downtown, a Santa, and Elvis impersonator, a S'more-making station with firepits, a popcorn house, a hot cider and cookies house, you name it. We were all about the food. Mostly because we needed the extra calories to stay warm. We were wondering whether the whole thing would be worth the trouble, and it turned out it was. We all came back to our house and had pizza and warmed up our chilled bones in the hot tub.

Oh Christmas Tree

Okay, so most of you will see this picture on our Christmas card (whenever we get those sent out), but it was worth posting anyway. We had to put the tree in the corner between the couch and loveseat with the ottoman in front of it as a barricade in order to keep curious hands from playing with the various hazards that our tree presents...electrical wires, glass ornaments, a thing full of water, a toppling risk...need I go on? Not to mention the very tempting presents that are wrapped in colorful paper just waiting to be torn open!

Smile for Santa?

Cole went to see Santa for the first time, and do you think he would smile for the picture? No. He was far more interested in pulling Santa's beard. As soon as he left Santa's lap, the trauma of the whole experience set in and the crying began. We were clearly torturing him, poor thing. We opted out on seeing the live reindeer after the tears...besides it was like a blizzard outside where good ol' Rudolph was. Maybe next year.

Happy Turkey Day!

Em's parents came up from Forest Lake and we cooked up a feast at our house - then Ryan took Cole sledding for his very first time to burn off some turkey fat!! You can't tell in the video, but he really is having a good time (we think, anyways). Oh, and he started waving goodbye over the weekend!!

CRAWLING!! (God help us)

Well, Cole figured it out - he's crawling. Sort of. You see, he's not really any good at it yet, which is a good thing because the baby gate is on order and hasn't arrived yet! Sunday the 11th was the first day he crawled, and this video was taken then. He's actually gone quite a bit farther than this, but true to form he's more interested in looking at the camera than doing anything worth recording. So this is all we have for now, but stay tuned...




Cole is nine months old today! Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!

Happy Halloween!

Cole was dressed as Tigger for his first Halloween. He got to wear his costume to Nora's house yesterday for their celebration. He was so pooped out from all the festivities that he wouldn't have made it until the trick-or-treaters came...even if we had HAD any! We were wondering whether we would have any at our new house. We were thinking strategically like candy hoarders, and figured that our area does not have a high enough house density to attract the die hard trick-or-treaters. Too much walking in between too few houses. Much more bang for your buck in some of the neighborhoods with lots of houses close together.

Anyway, we also had to take this cute picture of Cole sleeping in his little onesie with his ankles crossed this morning. How cute?

And this week we also had our brand-new hot tub delivered. We couldn't figure out what else we could possibly do with that big brick patio, so we decided we had no choice. It holds 6-7 people, so we are expecting to have some soakers this winter when it is 40 below!

Our Little Pumpkin

Check out Cole's new Halloween outfit! It says "Daddy's Little Monster" on it.

Lazy Weekend

Snuggling in our lazy-day pjs

Bath time! Cole will not be embarrassed by this picture when he is a teenager as he has strategically placed the fish toy. Smart kid.

All clean! Fortunately you cannot tell from this pic that Cole had his toenails painted by some boys at Nora's preschool this past week.

Cole's Halloween pajamas....they say, "I want my Mummy!" on them!

We enjoyed a relaxing lazy weekend, for the most part. Friday night we brought Cole (aka Tigger) to the Cooper Costume Ball. We were all a little overwhelmed by all of the kindergarten through fifth graders running around in costumes. Between that and the food, DJ, and parents, it is quite a sight. Cole stayed amused by all of the action and attention he received from doting fifth graders wanting to get a long-awaited glimpse of Cole in person....much better than the picture on my desk!

Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Iverson came up to visit. They spent time with Cole while Ryan went to get some firewood for our pit with his cousin Dan and I got to take a trip to Target alone! Dan and his girlfriend April came over and my parents took us all out for dinner. Then they left and April hooked up her new Nintendo Wii. Have you ever played? Really fun. After a bonfire and sleepover, we had breakfast in the morning and spent most of the day in our pjs.

Bayfield Apple Fest (another late post)

The first weekend in October we went to Bayfield for the annual Apple Festival. The three of us (Cole took Bailey's spot this year) went with our friends Josh and Steph (no Evan this year) and Drew and Betsy. After roaming Bayfield eating tons of junk, we checked out the boats at the dock and then on to the orchard to pick delicious apples.

Sunday we went to our friend Celia's first birthday party in Elk River. It was fun to see her running around, opening presents, and making a mess out of her cake. It's hard to believe she's a year old already....although even harder to believe Cole is not far behind her! Happy Belated Birthday Celia! We had fun celebrating with you!

Another Late Entry: Twins

A couple of weeks ago Cole and mommy went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Iverson again while Ryan was out hunting with his buddies for the weekend. Since Grandpa Iverson is obsessed with pugs (only the stuffed kind that require minimum maintenance) he decided to get Cole his own pug just like his in a miniature version. They also happened to be dressed the same -- although different brand loyalties (my dad is wearing Polo and Cole is wearing Guess). How cute is that?

The Jersey Shore

Yeah, we know this is disturbing. Funny joke, guys.

This is the place we stayed. Did we mention it runs $10,000 per week in the summer????

Cole and Grandma Sharrow at the reception

Starting to look a little sleepy......

and....out like a light....and we hadn't even gotten our entrees yet!

Last weekend, all three of us flew (along with most of Ryan's extended family) to Avalon, New Jersey for Ryan's cousin Jason's wedding. We stayed in a giant beach house on the ocean with about 20 of Ryan's family. The weather was gorgeous. We got to enjoy a little beach vacation while we were there, and Cole had his first plane ride! The flight attendant even gave us some wings for his baby book. Ryan and I also drove to Atlantic City for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. The wedding was on the beach and was beautiful. Congratulations Jason and Kathi!!



On another note, Cole was scheduled to have surgery on his eye October 12 due to his clogged tear duct that he's had since birth. Ironically, the pressure changes in the cabin of the plane seem to have cleared the tear duct! We're waiting to cancel the surgery, just in case, but hooray!! We're pretty sure it's cured permanently! What good timing!



Sorry for the delay in updating the blog...it's been a busy week with getting back into town (did I also mention that we missed our flight out of Philadelphia on our way home and spent about 17 hours trying to get back to Duluth???) and parent-teacher conferences this week. Augh....September.

Happy Seven-Month Birthday Cole!

Our baby is seven months old today! He is turning into such a big boy. He now has two teeth and is nearly crawling. Here he is wearing a cute puppy hat that Miss Nora (his teacher) gave him. He also tried some corn (actual kernals) tonight at supper. He tried to pick them up and feed them to himself, but the fine motor skills are not quite there yet. There was some minor gagging...what a drama king!

Tonight we also had a slight mishap in the bathtub when the water suddenly became a sludgy brown color. We had to abort the bath, drain the water, and start over. Oh, the fun times with babies! Never a dull moment. Fortunately for you, there are no pictures of the swamp bath.

Chomp, Chomp!!

Toofers?!?! Cole cut his first TWO teeth today! Nora texted me at work this afternoon asking if Cole had teeth this morning....Nope!! Grandma Iverson mentioned yesterday that she thought she saw some teeth below the surface of the gums, but it seems it has been that way for awhile, so we thought little of it. Today, they made their first appearance! Here are some pathetic attempts to capture the teeth on camera....if you click on the pictures, you may be able to see the slivers of teeth poking through his gums.

P.S. Cole is also days, if not hours, away from crawling....thanks to his slave-driving physical therapist father.

P.P.S. Nora also mentioned (and we heard it first-hand as well) that he has been saying "mamamama" all day long. Ryan is also pretty sure he said "Obama," signaling that he will be a democrat.

Visit to Grandpa and Grandma Iverson's House

Ryan went to Detroit this weekend for his cousin Greg's wedding. Cole and I couldn't go (I couldn't take the days off from work and a 12-hour drive with Cole didn't sound very appealing), so he and I went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Iverson in Forest Lake, MN. Cole got to swing at the park. I apologize for the low-quality pics....I took these with my cell phone as Ryan had the camera in Detroit with him. Congratulations Greg and Maren!!

Family Portraits

Today we went and had our first family portraits taken. It was amazing to find even a couple in which we all looked pretty good. Here are a few of our favorites.

Some Cute Pics

Here is a variety of pictures of Cole that we've taken over the past week or so. Now that we are more settled into our new house, we should be able to keep up better with the blog....although Mommy is heading back to work in a couple of weeks....so we'll see. Note the blue, BLUE eyes. I thought BROWN was supposed to be dominant?!?!

P.S.

Cole weighed 18 pounds, 14 ounces yesterday, on his 6-month birthday!

Six Months!!

Our baby boy is getting so old! He's sitting up on his own (for short periods until he faceplants), and is even able to stay on hands and knees for a second or two. Still drooling like a madman, by the way. It's hard to believe that just six short months ago we were bringing him home for the first time! We're still short of sleep, but slowly trying to catch up. He's worth every blurry-eyed moment. Thanks to all our family and friends who have given us such tremendous support. We feel as lucky as Cole would feel if he had a clue what was going on around him.