Stroller Strides!

A few weeks ago I joined an exercise group called Stroller Strides. I have been absolutely thrilled with my decision to join. We meet three times a week at the mall,walk/jog 2 miles and use resistance bands as well. The moms there are awesome too and Cole has a good time interacting with the other kids after the workouts. The moms hold a playgroup once a week (we haven't been able to make it to one yet, but I'm looking forward to it) and they have a Mom's Night Out once a month. Afterward we go to Starbucks for our caffeine fix and some good conversation. Not only does it get Cole and me out of the house, I get some exercise and Cole gets to play with kids his age! I cannot say enough about how great this has been so far!

"Diaper"

Cole has been saying "diaper, diaper, diaper" for 3 days now. He walking around all day chanting "diaper". What happened to words like "up" or "milk". For those we get grunts and pointing! I'll try to catch it on video later today.

Vacation, Vacation , Vacation

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We've been away quite a bit. At the end of June we took a vacation with my family to Ocean City, Maryland. Cole loved the pool, but hated the sand and ocean. He tried furiously to get the grains of sand off his feet and clung to whoever was holding him if they walked anywhere near the water. We had a great time seeing everyone there! Here are some pictures of OC.

A few weeks later we headed to Pocono, PA with my college friends. We had a great time grilling out and catching up with friends. Cole played a lot with my friend's son, Anthony, and enjoyed having a playmate around. Here are some pictures of the Poconos.

We got back this week from Carbondale, Kansas. Brien's grandparents live out there and we spent a week visiting them. We also got a change to see the zoo, Kansas U, and a Royal's game. It was so much fun! Cole did great on the plane and was a perfect angel for the entire trip. Here are some pictures of Kansas.

Our next trip will be up to Wayne, NJ to stay with my sister for the weekend. Although I'm pretty tired of packing and unpacking, I'm really looking forward to seeing her!

Happy 4th of July!

Ok, you got me...it's the 9th, but Cole was dressed in red, white, and blue today, so I took some pictures that I can maybe pass off as 4th pics. We didn't do much on the 4th. We bbq'd and watched fireworks from our deck (we can actually see 3 different shows...it's pretty cool). Here are the 4th pictures of Cole (taken the 9th).

Can you say "duck"?

COLE CAN!!

Monday night in the bath he picked up this little rubber duckie (which is one of his favorite bath toys) and proclaimed "duck". (Well after some prompting by Brien). Believing it was just a fluke, I've waited 2 days to post and he's said it a bunch more times since then.

On another note, we got back Sunday from an Ocean City vacation. We had a great time. I am far to lazy to post the pictures right now, so here is a link to some of the pictures from the beach.

Baby Vices

Since Cole is now a toddler, we felt that it was important to get rid of his bottles and pacifier. I am absolutely amazed at how easy this has been. I know for some children it isn't so easy, but Cole doesn't seem to miss his bottle or paci at all and I'm feeling pretty fortunate about how well this is going. I am by no means an expert on taking away the bottle and paci, and am pretty sure it was pure luck, but here is what I did.
Weaning off the bottle:
I decided way back in February to start cutting bottles out gradually. I first introduced the sippy cup with a little water in it. (I recommend the Nuby Soft Spout Sippies because the spout is similar to a bottle nipple). Once Cole got the hang of the sippy, I starting putting his formula in it. I replaced all his bottles of formula with a sippy of formula expect for the 1st feeding of the day and the bedtime feeding. We also switched Cole from the soft spout to a regular sippy cup around this time.

A few weeks later I switched the morning bottle to a sippy as well. At some point we cut back to 3 formula feedings a day (1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch, water with dinner, and 1 at bedtime). I switched Cole to whole milk about 2 weeks before he turned one, which went off without a hitch also.

The day he turned one, we stopped the bedtime feeding all together. He gets his last sippy of milk with dinner and after his bath and story he goes right to bed without liquids. Cole went right to sleep and has since (with the exception of 1 night).

Taking away the paci
I had intended to wait until tomorrow to take Cole's paci away. My reasoning behind tomorrow was Brady's (5 month old I watch) last day was today. Brady takes a paci and I thought it would be too hard to not let Cole have one while Brady sucked away on his. Apparently I was wrong about that! This past weekend we decided to do a trial run. It went well, so I decided not to give it back on Monday. He took Brady's paci a few times these past two days, but only actually got it in his mouth once or twice (quick reacting mommy). He's been napping and riding in the car fine without it.

Tomorrow I will be packing away bottles and pacifiers!

We have a walker!!

Cole is walking!! He still prefers crawling as his main mode of transport, but can walk on his own, as of yesterday!