Birthday Party

The four-year old birthday party was a huge success. I get so nervous about hosting, especially big events (especially when all her friends don't really know each other). The kids painted pots and planted a flower in them. They jumped all over the new trampoline and the bounce house we barrowed. They also had a blast with the water balloons and hose. We had great weather, good attendence, good gifts and Cole slept through most of it. Only one pot broke and I did kind of forget to serve the ice cream with the cake, but oh well. Chocolate or Vanilla anyone?

Crawls, teeth, hi

Cole totally crawls. He has crawled about 2 feet several times today and once yesterday. He just loves to be down and moving. He is now better at rolling himself out of tight spots until he gets over to his tummy to try to crawl or sit.

He also broke tooth number 6 today. That may not be so impressive to those outside the Swank home, but he just broke #4 and #5 this week! He also is working on his jabbering and trying to make things sound like words. His 2 favorite sounds or almost words are Dada and hi. All three of us swear that Cole has said, "hi" to us in response to our talking to him. Does this get a sticker on the calendar?

Teeth and crawling

Cole broke through tooth #5 today. He just got #4 in yesterday.

He's just on the verge of really crawling. He has had forward motion several times, but not very far. But he travels all over the floor with rolling, pivoting, rocking, comando crawling backwards, pivot and roll again, etc. He manages to wedge himself under the furniture pretty good sometimes since he's so good at going backwards. He really enjoys being down on the floor moving around. He also really likes the jumper and still the exersaucer (but he jumps in that too).

Cole really wants me when I come home at night and it is usually time for him to nurse and go to bed. I came home Monday night from work and everyone was in the family room. I really needed to go to the bathroom so when Makaila distracted Cole I ran past to the bathroom. Cole did not like that at all. His happy to see Mom expression turned to "Mom, where are you and why aren't you picking me up?" real quick. It is nice to be needed sometimes.

Upcoming Birthday

Makaila has been counting down the days until her birthday. She is very excited for both the day and the party so we made a paper chain counting down to both. Today we had service on our bathroom and Makail even had to tell the service man that her birthday is tomorrow. It changes all the time as she is more aware of what's going on and time.

She has been a little challenging on her attitude and talking back to her mother. She has pulled out the pattened Makaila foot stomp when she is really frustrated or not getting her way. If you can imagine a big, "I don't WANT to do it" with a foot stomp timed with want. We've also been very busy the last several days and she hasn't had any nap (she's down to 1-2 a week) when she has probably needed one. So combine the over-tired with her being more opinionated and we get a really bad 5:00p.m. hour. Needless to say we've had some time outs again. Makaila even said to me on the first one "I don't usually get a time out." I think that was Monday and there's been at least three since then.

This is not a drill

Friday night we actually heard the sirens! There were tornados touching down in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. We knew it was supposed to come, we just didn't expect to have to take cover ourselves. We were cleaning up from dinner and we heard the sirens. We packed up a few candles, toys, books and water bottles and took cover in Chad's closet. Luckily, it was good timing for our kids. We were in the closet from about 6:45 to 7:30. Makaila loved it! She had the full, undevided attention of BOTH parents. She didn't care too much about the confined space, it was like hiding! Cole played with his basket of toys and then did some non-stop rolling until I put on his pjs and nursed him. We heard a some loud stuff passing overhead, but nothing hit right here. We just got small hail, but on the news later we saw egg-baseball hail and a grocery store lost 1/3 of it's roof.

And this just after having a few snow flakes the day before Easter and Easter being too cold for Makaila to wear a dress last Sunday. This Sunday it got up to 70 and I took the kids for a walk in the stroller. Crazy Dallas weather.

sleep, roll, crawl

Finally! Cole is back to sleeping through the night and NOT waking up at strange times crying for 1-2 hours. Why do they do it? I don't know. I can guess. First learning to roll (occassionally rolling into corners), then cutting his top right tooth (he has 3 now) and then possibly learning to crawl. . . who knows. All I know is that I was so excited last Friday when the first time I woke up was when the alarm went off for Chad. Then shocked to realize when I woke up to Cole it was actually 7:24 a.m.

So keeping this in mind, Sunday was ALMOST commical. Since Cole typically wakes up between 7 and 7:30 I try to wake up a little early to shower and dry my hair before the kids wake up. At 6:40 I hear this faint beeping in the distance. I'm lying in bed thinking that isn't as loud as my alarm, what could it be? Then it hits me - it must be the alarm clock in Cole's room! I haven't heard him yet so I'm up in 2 seconds and crawling in Cole's room faster than an army ranger trying to make it to the clock before he wakes up. I get in unseen, reach up and hit the snooze and just as I think I'm safe I hear him kick his legs up and down in his bed and make a little coo. BUMMER! Later I ask Makaila if she's played with Cole's clock lately. She smiles and said, "yeah, I was pretending it was my video game!".

But why did he wake up at 6 a.m. and then his a.m. nap was only 45 min instead of the usual 1hr 15 min-2 hr nap? I don't know. I just know the kid has the best smile ever when I go get him out of his bed that it almost makes me forget I'm totally exhausted some days.

And did I mention he is trying to crawl? So close. He had motion, just not foward. He rolls all over. He goes into hands and knees and rocks all the time. He either does one or two crawl steps backwards or he tries to go fowards and kind of face plants himself. But he doesn't care. He pivots

Layton Grandparents visit

After Chad's parents visited my parents and Grandma came out too. We kept them busy. One of our main outings was to the Science Place to see Body Worlds the Natural History Museum. Makaila liked the dinosaur that looked like an armodillo and Cole took a nap in his stroller. Makaila also got to enjoy some of her favorite places like Toys R Us, Barnes and Noble and the kids' library. We also went to dinner, hit the mall (grand kids always need a new outfit, right?) and Makaila dyed Easter Eggs with Grammy and Grandma Maxine. Cole showed off his rolling, got to be fed by his Grammy and Great Grandma and got extra cuddles from extra hands. Grandpa T got to come to the Easter Egg Hunt before leaving town.