Colorado Cole

Cole did great over the trip too. He was sick when we traveled out, so I gave him benedryl and Tylenol and he actually slept most of the flight. He was so hot. But he was ready to explore Grandma's house the next day. The hard part was the stairs. We put a gate up, but if anyone was down in the basement he just loved to peak over and talk to them. He was a champ taking a nap in the stroller for the zoo, naps in the car to go to the North Pole, his afternoon naps were usually later than normal. He didn't really adjust from TX time. He woke up pretty early every morning. He has a cough for about half the trip so that actually woke him up several times.

He did some new things over the trip. He began shaking his head (not for a purpose, just because), smacking his lips, flushing the toliet (or at least trying) and crawling up an entire flight of stairs. He also contined to attempt eating rocks whenever he had the chance. Very busy trip for the 10-month old.

On the return trip he never stopped moving. Luckly the lady next to me didn't mind how he liked to cruise over and put his hand on her knee for support. Several times I had to retrieve him from crawling under the seats. I think we actually managed to sit in a spot that didn't have anything gross on the floor for him to eat. Hopefully we'll be so lucky on our AZ trip.

Rocky Mountain visit

We recently got back from a great Colorado trip. Right before going, Cole came down with a runny nose for 3 days and then he got pink eye. Luckily, we got him started on drops right aways so his eye didn't look so bad during traveling. We had a little airport delay leaving Dallas, but it wasn't as bad as my sister-in-laws so I can't complain. I'm sure Cole had a fever so I gave him both Benedryl and Tylenol. He slept most of the flight although I had to switch his position because he would stretch and hit the arm rest and wake himself up. He was so hot. But after that he survived a short visit to see my Mom's family even.

In Colorado, we did the zoo, 2 parks, Garden of the Gods, the North Pole and a fountain downtown. We spared them of shopping this trip, they had enough activity. Makaila enjoyed meeting her new friends Marley and Mya. Since they are season pass holders (and she is 8), Marley played tour guide at the zoo. Makaila was quite impressed as I heard her say, "how do you know so much?". Marley fed the giraffe's and Makaila and Mia fed the birds. They all enjoyed all the various monkeys and their babies.

Probably Makaila's favorite day was the North Pole. She got to see Santa and ride on all the rides that were just her size. It took her quite a while to warm up to going on one by herself. She loved doing them with Mommy and Grammy. That was okay most of the time, but those small spinny ones were a little too much to be repeated by the adults. The peppermint slide was pretty fun, even for her Mom. We all rode on the train (including Cole and Grandma Maxine). Her favorite ride was the cars she could drive. I think she rode it 6 times. Her and I were coming to an end of the sky ride and Cole had been ready to go 30 min before so I was talking to her about how I think we did everything and we probably should leave after this and she goes, "after we ride the cars one more time. I LOVE that ride!" It was so cute.

Makaila got spoiled pleanty by her grandparents with dippin dots and donuts and ice cream at home to go with her new ice cream scooper. She also helped grammy water the flowers and played various ball games with a beach ball with Grandpa in the back yard. It was fun to see her roll down the same hill that my sister and I rolled down several decades ago.

Makaila, age 4 - creative, but challenging

Makaila has learned how to make herself a sandwich. And she is just so proud of herself. She for the last 4 days in a row because she is so excited about it. On Sunday she even made it for her Daddy since he was home. She loves to help me by cutting up watermellon for dinner. She loves whenever she can mix something or put the ingredients in. (So not like her mom) She wants "fragile" plates like we use at dinner time. She also wants to use the silverware at dinner instead of her plastic Ikea forks.

She likes doing things for herself, like getting dressed. The other night she got herself dried off and dressed after bath while I nursed Cole. She was so proud at how she had combed her hair too. A few times she has picked up her room before bed by herself. Chad and I try to make a big deal out of that one so it might be seen again.

She loves being a big sister. Loves to get toys out for Cole still. Tries to get him to follow her when she wants him to go in her room with her. Closes the door when she doesn't want him to leave. Will pick him up if necessary (much to Mommy's dismay). She still likes getting Cole's bibs out, helping push the high chair back to the corner (we pretend it is a choo-choo train), and gives him bites when I'm not looking.

She can't wait for school to start. Every time we drive by her school she will point it out. She doesn't really need naps, but often tries to take one. And when she does, she doesn't wake up really happy. And that evening is followed by mulitple get up excuses after bedtime. And occassionally we get the "I'm scared" at 5:00 a.m. That's hard when Mommy can't go back to sleep after putting her back to bed and praying with her. Whether there is a nap or not we get the "what are we going to do in the morning?" trying to delay us leaving the room. We also have the tackle and no tackle routine with Daddy. After praying she has to look on her "calendar" and see if it is a tackle day or not. Of course her caledar leans towards more tackle days than no tackle days.

Seattle trip

The kids did so great on the Seattle trip. Both going and coming were two long days of travel (a good 12 hours both ways). We flew, drove, ferried and then drove some more. Makaila did ask us if the ferry (we assume she thought fairy) was a boy or girl before we got to it. Cole woke up each morning at 7 (if you're in Central time), which would be 5 a.m. considering we were on west coast time. Makaila woke up the first morning about an hour later (having a sleep over with Grammy) and Grammy tried to convince her that it wasn't seven yet (the rule at home) and Makaila asked her, "but is it 7 where I live?". Can't get anything by my kids!

On Saturday we went to a brunch and Makaila had been complaining of her stomach hurting her earlier. We thought she was just really hungry or needed to go to the bathroom, but it turned out we were wrong. She threw up for the first time not as a baby outside the resturant. Then she lied down and slept on the floor in the corner. Luckily she was back to herself after that. Cole did well until the yummy pizza dinner and then he just couldn't handle the time difference. Chad took both kids back to the hotel and put them down. The good thing is that our family had most of the hotel and Chad could hang out in the next room and watch the basketball game while the kids went to bed. It gave us plenty of time to play games and hang out with my family in the evening.

Sunday was my sister, Jamie's wedding. The weather was a little cold, but at least it didn't rain! We had our umbrellas thanks to her just in case. Makaila was quite interested to get to see Aunt Jamie's dog that walked with her down the isle. Cole slept through the entire wedding, but woke up in time to enjoy (eat and craw all over the floor) at the reception.

Overall it was a great weekend getting to see a lot of my family. The senery was beautiful and I went to a town I wouldn't have been to otherwise. I got to see 3 of my cousins I don't see very often. The kids did really well for the long travel. As with any trip with kids, we were all ready to be back in our own beds.

Cooking

I got our first watermellon of the season. Makaila remembered helping me last year by cutting some of the watermellon with her plastic knife. She sees me cutting this one and she quickly gets a knife and brings over a chair to help. So I give her some strips she can cut into pieces and she cuts away. Then she is eating a skinny carrot while waiting for me to get dinner ready and she starts cutting that too. All of the sudden she stops and says, "is cutting cooking?". I tell her "Cutting is an important part of cooking, so I guess yes, cutting is cooking." She goes, "then I'm cooking!" It was so cute. She was so excited. She told Chad she did cooking when he got home. She put all these tiny, cut up carrots into a tuperware and she brought them to the dinner table. She got a spoon and served Chad and I each a spoonful. She even told us she was going to keep them right by her in case we wanted some more.

Differences

We've definitely seen differences in girls and boys (or first and second children). Cole is an eater. He puts grass, bark, leaves, and stickers in his mouth. I never had to worry about Makaila and dirt clods or other things outside. Cole gets sweaty easily. He can just be playing around in his room and he will feel sweaty. His head might be from just sleeping. He also has transitioned through baby food very quickly. That was probably because we just gave him stuff sooner. She was getting Cheerioes cut in half at first. He's already on to meatballs and watermellon! And he's not too happy to finish out the baby food we have left. Makaila was sleeping until 7-8. Cole is typically up around 6:30. Today was good because he made it until 7:15 a.m. He plays alone better. But I really think that has to do with him having the built in entertainment of sister. I can be getting dinner ready in the kitchen and he will happily play in the the family room (of course sister is doing stuff near by and is fun for him to follow).

Preferring to be upright!

Now Cole just wants to crawl and move around all the time. After less than week of crawling, he learned to crawl over people. A few more days after that he was shutting doors. Then he soon was able to pull up on furniture. Now he can pull up anywhere on anything. He crawls after people if you leave the room. But now he will even crawl into a new room if he decides he wants to go in there. He also really likes playing in his room. When he first gained these skills of crawling and pulling up, he did NOT want to take a nap. He would cry bloody murder when you put him down to sleep. Now that they are not so new anymore he's back to going to sleep well.

Crawling machine

Cole is a crawling machine. He just learned to crawl 1 1/2 weeks ago and already he wants to be down and moving. He had learned to shut doors and he can also pull up on furniture. (Sunday he shut the door to his room and Chad couldn't get in to get him dressed. Cole was sitting right in front of the door.) He is still pretty wobbly, but he can cruise a few steps too. With these new skills sleeping has been more of a challenge. We lowered the crib and have to put the rail up. Now that he can pull up he just fights going to sleep or he won't go back to sleep when he's had a short nap. So, we've been having lots of short naps and been getting up a little earlier in the morning too. He also gives louder cries when he's put down to sleep. I think he just wants to be out playing with us instead. I hope he gets back to being a good sleeper soon.

He also eats a ton. That second kid gets the food much quicker- we were only giving Makaila Cheerios to go with her baby food and he eats mango, maccaroni, pears, canned beans, zuccini, bread, cheese, whatever is around and seems soft!

Birthday fun

Makaila has so much enjoyed her birthday and all that came with it. She has a new game named Zingo which we've played a ton. She bounces around the house on her purple princess pogo ball. She loves jumping on the trampoline. Espeically today when we got Cole laughing while we jumped. And she thinks she needs her new microphone whenever we're on the trampoline. She is working really hard at learning to ride her new bike. She also got a quite stylin outfit from Aunt Jamie. He's a few fun picks of her enjoying stuff.

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.

Swank Grandparents visit

We had a nice visit with Nana and Grandpa Rev. We took them to the Aboritum. The weather wasn't too spectacular, but the flowers were nice. Cole behaved like a champ. He slept when he was supposed to, was happy at the Arboritum, was good at a birthday party and didn't do too bad when they watched him during my working on Monday. He showed off his smiles and his rolling.

Makaila quite enjoyed having many books read to her, getting Sonic ice cream treats and chocolate milk, going to the library with Nana, getting chocolate milk at Starbucks, singing songs with Nana, getting a few new spring/summer clothing items, and all around being spoiled as Grandparents like to do. Even though this was a short trip, the non-stop activity has worn her out and I'm glad we get some days of normal routine before the other Grandparents come next week.

Eating machine

Cole is just an eating machine lately. I know he hasn't been on solids (baby food) for that long, but we're ready for him to move to food. This baby food is expensive. I wish I had stock in Gerber right now! Nana and Grandpa Rev were amazed on their recent visit how long some meals can take because he just keeps on eating. And some times I think Chad cuts him off before he is really done eating.

God Questions

Makaila has just been asking some great questions lately. She has been asking Chad about baptism. She has asked why we can't take anything to heaven. She will ask when is God's birthday. We tell her that he doesn't have one, he's always been around. Then she tells me he can't have been here before everything. I told her yes he was. She wants to know how he can create everything and we tell her she'll have to ask him when she gets to heaven. Then asked me what I think Jesus' voice sounds like. She constantly goes back to the issue of the trinity. She will say something about someone knowing everything. We will tell her no person, only God can know everything. She will say but Jesus was a person and he's God (she says this to us a lot). And then she doesn't like it when we answer that a lot of adults don't understand that either.

Roley Poley Coley

Cole is now rolling lots. He doesn't use rolling to move across the floor, but he will be in a different place in his bed when we go get him now. He has begun rolling tummy to back when he's put in tummy time. Now when on his back he will roll to the side to reach for something. In his bed he always has his cuddle toy, but now he will half roll to reach for his frog and that has usally been moved whenever I get him from sleeping.