more teeth, rocking dinosaurs and 17 pounds later. . .

We've had a rather boring week. . .but boring is welcomed! Cole got his second tooth but really handled it like a champ. He's been a tiny bit fussy just on the day the tooth breaks. . .besides that he wants to gnaw on every hand he can reach. He's developed quite a bite that hurts if you're not ready for it.

We went for our weight check with Dr. M yesterday and was told we'll need to go back in another 6 weeks. I feel. . .or rather my arms feel that Cole is gaining weight just fine, but he's dipped a little on his 'track' so she would like to check and confirm that the dip is related to his recent increase in activity level. He weighed almost 17 pounds and grew almost another inch from his last check six weeks ago. So long as we have the same growth in October, we'll be all set.

Cole is eating everything I put in front of him. He'll make horrible faces at foods like avocados and peas, but eat them all up and ask for more. All while making a "this is horrible" face. He's having about two servings of fruits and veggies with cereal everyday in addition to his normal milk intake. I'm still convinced I have a future linebacker on my hands.

He's also started to get up on his knees and rock back and forth. We're not quite at the crawling stage yet, but he's scooting everywhere like a pro! I tried to get some pictures this morning of him on all fours, but he laid down every time I tried. He's much more interested in getting a hold of the camera. . .

Cole also sat on his rocking dinosaur this week and loved it. Course he needs to be supported while riding, but I can easily see that this will be one of his favorite toys. He even "pet" the dinosaur nicely when I asked him to! (We finally got rid of both cats this week and Cole has been missing being able to chase them).

Please notice the "wall" of pillows along the drapes so Cole stops pulling on them.

The entire room is lined in pillows!

Finally, I caught Cole playing the bongos this morning on his own. You can see them on the floor in the living room (as every one's set of bongos tends to be!) He crawled over to them and started banging on them and then turned and looked at me and smiled. So of course I grab the camera to take a little video for you of Cole the experienced bongo player and this is what I got:

(and please disregard the Halloween sleep pants I'm wearing. . .)

the campaign trail of losing lotto tickets

Cole hit the campaign trail yesterday with Jennifer Flanagan, the newly elected Massachusetts State Senator! He knows more important people than we do. Here he is with Jen during a final push at the polling centers yesterday. . .

Pops worked for Jen's campaign and can add another win under his belt! (He's quite the catch to have on your campaign and has helped a few other elected officials with their campaigns as well.) Check out her website at http://www.jenflanagan.com/.

Today, we went to the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission. I'll give you the short story. A friend of my grandmother's asked my dad to take her to collect on a winning scratch ticket. Apparently, if you win over $600 but under $50,000 you need to go to their office - an hour away. My dad agreed and Cole and I went for the ride.

It's a safe assumption, and alright for me to tell you that this family friend is a senior citizen. I mean, senior citizen. I needed to help her fill out her paperwork and get her things in order before getting in line at the Commission. I helped her out and then took Cole to get some pictures. It's not everyday my baby is in the Lottery Commission office. . .and I thought it'd be funny to show you.

Cole and I are taking pictures. . .when we hear the man behind the counter say. . ."And what makes you think this is a winning ticket, ma'am?" No way. Ended up she didn't scratch the entire number and somehow mistook a 10 for an 8. . .and dragged my dad, Cole and I on a two hour ride with no pot of gold at the end.

Making matters worse, I got yelled at for taking pictures in the Lottery Commission! Like I was supposed to know that's a no - no. Still got one though. . . hee hee.

Funnier still. . .this picture was taken at the exact time the man in the bottom left corner of the picture is telling the orange-tinted haired woman that her ticket isn't a winner. My dad is actually grimacing in disbelief. . .not really smiling as you might expect.

But I suppose it was worth the picture. . .

check out these sweet potatoes!

I thought I'd let you know how the homemade baby food is going. I'm actually making some - so I'd say it's going pretty amazingly, then. My only darn it! moment came when I paid way too much for an organic avocado. . . (too much in terms of price for one fruit, not really too much considering the price of baby food). . .pureed it, froze it. . .and then forgot it on the counter top overnight when I was thawing the cubes a little bit to transfer them to a freezer bag. Darn it!

I guess it was okay anyway. . .have you ever seen an avocado poop? My goodness. . .

Yesterday I roasted and pureed a sweet potato and it filled an entire ice cube tray! Cole eats about one cube per meal. . .so I'd say that potato did just fine! Considering I paid $2.99 for two tiny jars of organic sweet potatoes last week. . .I think we'll keep up this making baby food thing.

Here are some of my 'cubes'. . .can you tell I'm so proud?

Today, I have a bunch of carrots that I picked up at the farmer's market this morning that I'll steam, puree and freeze for Cole. There's also a mango in the fridge that I picked up at the natural foods store this week but I'm unsure quite what to do with one. . .so I'll tread lightly with that.

Cole is really getting around these days! He's mostly army-crawling (no offense Uncle Tim ;-) ) but he's starting to use his knees now, too. I'm seriously considering buying one of those big gate things so I can contain the little speed racer.

Here he is this afternoon being cute for the camera:

sunday openers and sunday mass

Here are some pictures from last Sunday. Let's just say Cole looks much better than the last guy to wear this jersey. .

I actually took the jersey off by the end of the first quarter. . .just superstitious I think.

And since we're talking about Sundays, we finally got a date for Cole's christening - October 5th. Bill and I sat through a hour long "class" where a woman told us it was okay to raise our boy as a Catholic. Hmmm. Then they gave us a date. Apparently they do the ceremony during a regular morning mass. . .so ours will be at the 8:45 a.m. mass, with breakfast after.

After a long discussion with Bill about how many people we could actually invite due to space and breakfast issues, we decided that the best (and most fair) would be to just invite the immediate families. I know that knocks a few of you off the invitation list. . .but think of it this way. . .you don't have to sit through church. . .and a free breakfast isn't that exciting, anyway. :-) Thanks for understanding.

All this planning and preparation for Cole's baptism got Bill and I talking though about something we hadn't even thought of before now - what to do about Cole's faith or spirituality or whatever you want to call it. Neither Bill nor I are practicing Catholics.

I went to years and years of catholic school (lot of good it did me!) and Bill stopped catechism young. In fact, we (or rather, I) wanted to get married in my childhood church but couldn't because Bill hadn't made all the required sacraments. In addition to the hundreds of dollars it was going to cost to put him through the accelerated classes for these sacraments, he didn't have the time it was going to take to "learn" what he needed to so we could be married in the church. So we JP-ed it. And we didn't go to hell. . .yet.

After a surprisingly short discussion, we were both on the same page from the start and figure the most important thing is to make sure Cole knows the importance of spirituality - in whatever form that takes. The church, we figure, is an important institution in our society and it'll be important that Cole knows about the church and also how to behave in one. Regardless if we go to church on a regular basis or not, there will always be weddings and funerals that'll take us back to it. And Cole should know what that's about and not be frightened as I know some young kids can be when they aren't comfortable in that setting.

So what exactly does all that mean? *Sigh* It means mom needs to start taking Cole to Sunday mass. Is this one of those sacrifices you do for your children that you never see coming?

Besides, as Bill and I joked. . .it isn't until you get older that the church tells you that ludicrous thinking that women can't be priests and that gays are horrible people. . .and Cole will know those things are ridiculous long before that. In the meantime though, learning that it's nice to give a leper a helping hand (terrible joke!) is a great thing for a kid to think about.

and he's off!

We've had a busy first week of September - Cole's 7th month! Basically. . .it goes like this. . .Cole crawls away from where I want him to play, finds something gross on the carpet that I missed while vacuuming (again) and puts it in his mouth. Then repeat. All day.


His favorite "thing" to try and put in his mouth are the cats. He'd chase them all day if I'd let him. They have both been good sports about it (yes they. . .we haven't found a new home for Ray yet) but I can see a time coming soon when Cole will feel the pain of a claw. There's a video below of Cole trying to get Orla's paw. Luckily Orla just turns and walks away. (Insider tip: Orla and Ray are the cats. . .I know Orla is a strange cat name. . . I worked with a girl named Orla once and thought it was the strangest thing I'd ever heard).


Most of you know I got a weekend job bar tending. I've been out late a few nights a week now and it's given Bill and Cole some great time together. I get picture texts at work of the fun things they're doing and it makes the night go by a little quicker. Last night it was bongos:

Cole has also been able to sit up lately. Not for very long and not without something to hold onto. . .but it makes him so excited when he can do it. I also caught him trying to pull himself up in his pack and play yesterday. . .

He's got that "you-caught-me-doing-something-bad" face on, doesn't he? Guess it's time to lower the pack and play and the crib mattresses.



And here he is trying to scale the 'wall' of pillows I needed to make to try and contain him.

And finally. . .here's a little action of the crawling lately: