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.

One Month Till B-Day!!!

Cole turned 11 months on Sunday, and he seems to be growing up before our very eyes. He has made a new ritual of climbing the stairs (with a spotter) after taking his bath. Sunday night he headed right for the stairs before we even got a diaper on him.....extremely daring on our part. Note the remains of the "Teletubbies" tattoo on his belly. I am afraid we are going to get a run for our money with this kid. Anyone who knew Ryan as a kid and believes in karma knows that we are likely doomed. He has attempted to climb the baby gate at the top of the stairs, has attempted many dives off the couch and bed (a couple have been successful), and climbed up his Daddy to reach his blanket and pull it through the crib slats. His crawling has become much faster, sometimes frantic, and keeps us on our toes. Cole had his pre-op physical today to prep him for anesthesia for his tubes to be put into his ears on Thursday. We are hesitant to have to put him "under," but know it is the only way to relieve the pain and pressure in his ears at this point.
Happy 11 month birthday big boy! One month to the big ONE!!!

A Few More Christmas Eve and Christmas Pics (oh, and Happy New Year..)

Here are a few more pictures that we were able to get from Ryan's parents and Aunt Sandy from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at the Sharrow's house. Unfortunately, our New Years Eve and week has mostly consisted of Em laying in bed recovering from surgery. Whoopie!! She had to have her gall bladder removed after the ER docs found stones in there one LATE night a couple of weeks ago. She is on the mend now, although still moving a little slow. She has gotten out of lots of diaper changes this week! Also, poor Colio now has to have tubes put in his ears! After three rounds of antibiotics, his double ear infection is going strong. We are eager to have the procedure done, as he seems to be in quite a bit of pain, particularly at night. Poor thing! 2008 seems to be rivaling 2007 for medical bills in the Sharrow household....thank goodness for health insurance!!

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.