Video and more

OK, so the video finally posted correctly. I think Blogger has some video issues recently. Anyhow, I wanted to mention that the video of Cole in the bath tub that I wrote about... I mentioned that he was still in the tub as I posted it. Well, that was true, but I should have pointed out that Anne was still there. Sorry to stress you out (Omi and whoever else).

And the video...

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my parent's house in Indianapolis. We ate lots of wonderful food and enjoyed a day full of lots of family we don't get to see too often. It was really relaxing and fun for us.
Cole learned how to dunk Oreo's in milk, and we visited Santa at the Indiana State Museum, too. Along with Santa, the museum has a Christmas Train for kids. Cole rode on the train all by himself!
And last but not least, we continued our new tradition of drumming at the dinner table. Well, tradition may be a strong word, but lately it has become a nightly occurrence whether we are home or not. Cole loves to drum, and the table is perfect. Lately he has been asking others to join in his fun, and he loves to be the one in control. He starts and stops and then everyone else follows his lead. This past Friday, he started adding a quiet shhhh after the drumming, too. It was too funny not to capture on camera! I have a video of it, but I need to get Chris to post it. Stay tuned.

One more thing...
I have been noticing lately that Cole has started to pretend. I'm not sure where he learned this, because it seems a very hard concept to teach. Being a teacher myself, this is fascinating to watch. It must be something that God created inside our hearts, the ability to imagine a reality that includes a mixture of the real and pretend. Here are a few examples:
1. The other day we had pear slices for lunch. Cole took a bite out of the middle of one slice, placed it on the table and said, "It's a boat!"
2. That same day we were painting with watercolors, and Cole painted a long magenta colored line across the paper and said, "It's a dragon!"
3. Tonight in the bathtub (some of our funniest moments happen in the tub) he picked up an empty cup, filled it up with soapy water, drank a sip, and said, "drinking coffee mommy." Then he began to give the rubber duck some coffee, too. He was so proud of himself. I asked him if the duck liked the coffee and he said, "Uh huh, sure!" and then I asked him if the duck liked hot chocolate, too, because Chris and I had some hot chocolate earlier in the day. Cole quickly said, "Of course!" Then he went back to swimming in the bath tub, which tonight he was calling a lake. Hmm.

I'm not kidding folks. This kid is hilarious. The last funny thing you need to know is that we've been teaching Cole about Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus recently, since Christmas is coming soon. Cole has his own nativity set that he's been playing with, and he has been learning about the Christmas story in his class at church. The funniest thing about this is that Cole says JEZUZ instead of JESUS. I guess you have to hear it to know it's hilarious.

Bath time

I just took this video of Cole - it's so cute I had to post it right now. He's still in the tub as I type. By the way, he's talking some of the time about a bear - a toy he has in the tub, which you can only see for a second.

Picture This

A pregnant mom, me, with an energetic on-the-move toddler, Cole, who LOVES tools, sitting on the front porch hammering nails into a random board from our basement. It's cold, leaves are blowing, and Cole is more focused than he has been on anything all day! I got this idea from our friends', the VanArendonks, blog (thanks!), and it was a huge hit! Cole has been super interested in tools since we moved into our house, so I'm not sure why it took me this long to get him practicing with real tools on his own. It's funny how kids know the difference between real and fake tools. Don't worry, no fingers were smashed, and thankfully, Chris showed up a couple minutes after we started so I was only the camera woman after that. Whew! I know so much more about dolls and playing house than I do about tools and cars. Raising boys is definitely going to be a continual adventure for me!
Chris has also been teaching Cole how to snuff candles. When Chris was growing up, his grandparents had a special candle holder on their dining room table. Chris and his sister used to fight over who could snuff the candles after a meal. Well, we now have that famous candle holder on our table, and since Cole has no one to fight with yet, he gets to learn to snuff. He's surprisingly good at it! It's fun to hear him shout, "snuff the candles, daddy!"

Jump in the Leaves!

We had such a fun time this weekend jumping in the leaves! I loved watching Cole run and plop down in the huge piles as we raked. He did it without a lesson, too! Piles must just call out to kids, "jump in me!" And of course, we couldn't just stand by, so we jumped in too! Chris's favorite was covering his entire body up with leaves and hiding from Cole. Cole is really into hiding and being quiet right now, so this was a perfect afternoon activity on a beautiful fall day in Bloomington. He loves to scream, "found you!" as soon as someone is discovered, even if it's himself!

32 Weeks! Time to get ready!

This Week in Pictures

In the pumpkin is fun, but ON the pumpkin is even better, right? Cole thought so! Hmm. He sat down and said, "poopy." We laughed a lot.
Cole has also been in to dental floss and popsicles lately. He calls them pah kiss uls. We're working on it :). When he really wants one he runs to the freezer and yells, "pah kiss ul puh leeeeeeeeeees!" Then we sit on the bench on our front porch and enjoy the sunshine while it still is around. Bloomington is beautiful in the fall!

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated our first real family Halloween this year! Cole dressed up as a tiger, and Chris dressed up as a disco dude from the 70's, and I went along to take pictures and corral the candy. It was a perfect night in Bloomington, and we visited just a few houses on our block. Cole was a little timid at first, but quickly got the hang of saying "trick or treat!" A couple of times he said thank you and a couple of times he even said "more candy!"