Ducks!

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so we headed down to Starker Park to feed the ducks. Cory started throwing out pieces of bread (some of them landing dangerously close to me) and the ducks were all over it, as you can see. Most of you know that Cory and I are not exactly bird lovers, so it was a bit of a test for us.

Cole checking out the ducks, the ducks checking out the bread.

Cole gets into the bread throwing action! Thankfully the ducks didn't try to eat it out of his hand.

Going for a walk around the pond.

our little gorilla

Keli is fond of saying that Cole was born a little monkey (covered in hair and a bit wild from the very beginning) and now he's a little gorilla, which is oh so true. I had to laugh the other morning when I realized that he was wearing his monkey pjs and eating a banana.

what IS that all over his face?

Cole has been an eating machine these days. He's been loving most everything that we put in front of him. Here's his recent encounter with black beans.

Mmmmm .... black beans.

These are good!

You want some?

Oh, man, they're all gone!

On to the crackers. Now these are a bit harder to get with my spork!

The end result. A messy, but satisfied, little boy!

vocabulary

These days it seems like Cole is learning a new word, either a sign or a verbal word, every day. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted a cracker, and he said, very clearly, "cracker." His list of verbal words includes uh-oh (not sure if that can be counted as a word, but he says it all of the time), duck, da-da, and cracker. He signs milk, eat, water, bath, cat, dog, monkey, gentle, more, tired, hat, hot, and touchdown Beavers (both hands up in the air). I love that he is able to communicate with us and can tell that he loves it, too.

one year check-up

On Thursday we went in to see the doctor for Cole's one year check-up. He's a healthy and growing boy!

Height: 32.75" (99%)
Weight: 25 lbs (81%)
Head: 19.72" (99.8%) -- this one cracks us up!

@ work

Here's a cute picture of Megan and Cole at our office. That day he was really into the Pantone fan and ribbon.

spork!

Tonight after dinner Cole came to sit on my lap and ended up helping me clean my plate. He started by picking up tomatoes and black beans with his fingers, and then reached over and began using my fork. I was surprised when he was able to get a bean on the fork and then almost into his mouth ... and almost into his eye. Cory quickly pointed out that it wasn't a good idea for him to use a regular fork, so we got him a spork. And he went to town!

clean teeth

Cole is really into brushing his teeth these days, especially now that he has his very own cool Tigger toothbrush, thanks to Aunt Lorrie.

Can you imagine getting this excited about a toothbrush? It's the little things in life ...

sunny Fall day

It was the perfect Fall day today, so Cole and I headed to the park to enjoy the weather. He spent most of the time on the swings, but we also took a couple of rides down the slide together, which he loved!

Cole's first birthday

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since we welcomed Cole into the world. What a difference a year makes! He has grown and changed and learned so much and has turned into such a wonderful little boy. We feel so lucky to call him our son.

We celebrated his birthday with friends and family at our community center. Such a fun afternoon! I'm including just a few of the photos below. To see the full collection (there are over 100!).

One year ago.

The birthday boy arrives, a bit unsure what to think about everything. Sticking close to Grandpa.

The kids made party hats.


The birthday boy in his hat.

Dog!

Opening gifts.

He's warmed up now! This is a classic Cole expression.

Signing "eat" -- bring on the cupcakes!

Why is everyone looking at me and singing?

A little help from Mom to blow out the candle.

Very serious about his cake.

mmmm ... this is pretty good (still pretty serious about it, though)

Yay for birthdays and cupcakes!

Testing out his new Rody horse. Thanks Rob, Keli and Macadam!

A truck full of fun. Thanks, everyone, for the great gifts!

At home, playing with his toys.

Being very gentle with his buddy Macadam.

first art project

First of all, hello! I'm back. I took a little blog hiatus, but that's not to say that there hasn't been anything blog-worthy going on. Life has been very busy, Cole has been up to all sorts of new things, and the big first birthday is right around the corner. I've got a lot posts to catch up on. Tonight I just wanted to share with everyone Cole's first art project. A couple of weeks ago he spent an afternoon with Krista and the kids and they had art time. I love, love, love kid art! This one went immediately into one of the frames in his room. Next one is going on my office wall.