Happy Boy!

Who knew a laundry basket could be so much fun? Go figure. We spent all this time at Toys R Us Christmas shopping for the perfect, most developmentally appropriate toys for Cole, and he is more fascinated by the wrapping paper, boxes, and....a laundry basket? As you can see, our growing boy is getting ready for a haircut...does that mean he's not a baby anymore? Or is it the mouth nearly full of teeth that indicates that?

Anyway, the tubes in his ears seem to be working. The surgery went well on Thursday, and Cole got to spend the whole day at home with Daddy. He is starting to return to the happy-go-lucky boy he was before these terrible ear infections started, and is starting to (allow us) to sleep better at night too, now that his pain seems to have subsided. We were starting to turn into zombies walking around at work with the frequent late-nite crying/screaming episodes....we were starting to think we were parents of a newborn again! Thank goodness, our little guy is feeling better. And he has some hip blue earplugs to wear in the bathtub too!

We are trying to encourage Cole to take his first steps without holding on to anything. He is standing for short periods now (like a minute), but seems to find little interest in walking. Crawling is working great, and since it has become so efficient and second-nature, he seems to prefer it to attempting to walk.

Also, Cole has recently tried to win over Bailey's affection by throwing his dog toys for him. Bailey has been rather indifferent toward Cole since he came along, seeming to view him primarily as a competitor for attention. We are hoping that the new throwing-the-dog-toy trick, along with the dropping-food-from-the-highchair trick, will allow Bailey to grow more fond of Cole....since we're planning on keeping him.