I think they’re going to be friends!

I keep finding Annie and Cole like this.  She’ll be playing somewhere and he climbs right in to join her.  She loves it (except when he climbs in via her head).

Sometimes he just goes in to say “good morning!”

I think they’re going to be quite a pair.

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year.  Both boys were old enough to “get it”, but not to be obsessed with candy or to make crazy costume requests.

We went to Trunk or Treat the Saturday before, which was fun, but a bit of a chaotic mess. The kids loved wearing their costumes and getting their faces painted (monkey and airplane…in case you can’t tell). 

You may recognize Cole’s elephant costume from past years.  I’m glad we’ve been able to get some mileage out of it as it was such a pain to make!  It’s also kind of dug me a hole…I feel like since I made Jack’s first costume I need to make costumes every year. While I enjoy sewing, I don’t necessarily love the deadline (though, they probably wouldn’t get done otherwise). Jack informed me the day of trunk or treat that his costume was not a dragon.  It was a dinosaur, because dragons have wings.   Luckily, he was good with being a dinosaur

On Halloween we thought we’d go trick or treating  on our street, but there was not a single soul out.  So we drove to a nearby neighborhood where there were lots of people out.  Last year Jack told us he wanted to go to “five houses”, this year he said he wanted to go to “seventy eighty five” houses.  I think he’s got the concept down.  Cole was really into it this year, too. Since we didn’t know the neighborhood at all we went to the one person we knew and houses that were obviously happy to have trick-or-treaters.  Cole did not like skipping houses.  We ended up going to 10-15 , which was perfect !

Cole’s Birthday

Cole’s 2nd birthday was the 27th.  He got spoiled rotten, but had a great day!  He really got into the birthday thing and talked about his “happy birthday” and happy birthday presents” and “happy birthday balloons” all day long.  He probably would have been perfectly happy with a balloon bouquet, but he got lots of great presents.  I think the biggest hit was a Lightening McQueen car from Uncle Chris!

This boy loves trucks…anything with wheels really, so not surprisingly he got quite a few.

He is really into planes right now. He hears and sees them before I do and gets really excited.  So, we did a plane cake.  He thought it was wonderful. (And it came out of the pan on the first try! I only had to make one cake this time!)

We also went to Chuck E. Cheese’s for dinner, which the boys LOVE! Since it was a Thursday night, there was hardly anyone there. (which I loved!)

We sure love having Cole in our family!  He is such a tender heart and loves his brother and sister (he loves Annie so much I worry he will smother her with hugs one day).  He is smart and creative and extremely articulate for a 2 year old.  He loves animals, especially birds and really anything “up in the sky'”.  He is my little helper and especially loves putting things in the garbage.  (If he can’t get to the garbage, he thinks the washing machine is an acceptable alternative…I’ve found many dirty diapers in there!)  He is a joy to  have around and we can’t wait to see him continue to grow!  Happy Birthday, Cole!

What we’ve been up to.

Annie doesn’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time lately.  So, to accommodate my lack of sleep, we stay home a lot. Luckily Jack still loves school and it’s worked out well that he is in the afternoon class (I’m not sure we’d make it in the morning these days).  Good thing we have a nice playroom! 

This is Cole’s latest favorite.  He’ll often ask me, “wanna put cars on the  web with me?”.   He’s like a little spider collecting matchbox bugs.

Jack does a lot of pretending.  Lately it involves shooting ice cream at pirates and giants. (Once we give them ice cream they  are nice and help us shoot the ice cream at everyone else.) He is also into ride on type toys.

Annie likes to hang out in the exersaucer, where she is relatively protected from big brother Cole. (although I’ve caught him trying to climb in with her a couple times…hasn’t worked very well.)

We’re pretty exciting!

Annalee had her first real food last week.  She wasn’t super excited about it, but she definitely was not opposed to opening her mouth for the spoon more than once.

…and, maybe I’m biased, but aren’t those eyes just unreal?

Jack had his first (and sadly, only) field trip yesterday.  We went to a local farm and picked apples, had delicious donuts and cider, learned about pumpkins and other fruits and veggies, rode on a cart behind a tractor, raced some rubber duckies, and went down a really cool big slide.  All three kids were great!  (good thing, too… We were the only ones who brought brothers or sisters, but I think everyone else in his class is the youngest or only child)

I took lots of pictures.

After his first trip down the slide, Cole decided it was a little scary. He still liked hiking up the hill and tried to slide down the dirt path.

Annie was happy or sleeping the whole time!

Jack told me his favorite part was the duck races.  I think they could have played with this all day!  They were cracking me up with how seriously they took it.

These are my favorites.

First Day of Preschool

Jack started school yesterday.  He was excited, but really nervous.  When we asked him if he was a little bit scared he would say, “no, I’m a lot scared!”  This is the picture we took to go on the bulletin board in his classroom.

Here he is getting ready to leave with his backpack.

This is in the parking lot before we walked down to the school.

His school is a little log cabin on 9 acres of mostly wooded land.  It’s awesome!  They go on a nature walk everyday (even all winter) and all their class themes are nature based.

This was an after school shot.  The first thing he told me when I picked him up was, “I can’t wait until I get to come back to school!” He said they had circle time and went for a walk.  He told me there were “lots of leaves and branches and sticks” on the trail.  They ate snack, but didn’t have time to play on the playground.  He also told me all the kids were nice to him, which was something he was worried about.

Cole didn’t much like leaving Jack at school, he was pretty upset with me when we drove away.  He and Annie napped most the time he was gone.

  I put Annie in the chair while I went get something and when I came back Cole had climbed up to sit with her.  He’s getting much better at being gentle with her.  He even lets her chew on his fingers and then acts all grossed out…it’s pretty funny to see.

Zoo

The other day we met some friends from “the other world” (as Jack likes to call Midland) at a zoo about halfway between us. Jack has been missing his friend Julia and he was absolutely thrilled to see her. It turned out to be a really cute little zoo. I have very few pictures of anyone’s face, but I did get some cute ones.

We were so glad they were willing to make the drive down! The boys had so much fun. Cole has been hearing peacocks everywhere and asks if we are going to the zoo to see Julia every time we get in the car.

I didn’t get any pictures of Annalee at the zoo, (she was either sleeping or screaming to be fed the whole time). So….

And have I mentioned Jack is pretty cute with her?

A lot has happened since I last posted!  Matt finished residency,  we had grandparents visit (Matt’s dad, my parents), we blessed Annie and we moved to Kalamazoo!  Of course I have pictures of none of it because our nice camera lens broke the day of Matt’s graduation and our little point and shoot is missing a battery charger.  We’re back in business now with a new lens…so here are some picture randoms!

Blowing bubbles on the back porch.

Cole is a future wrestler/linebacker, I think.  He  loves to knock Jack down and/or sit on him.  Jack is amazingly tolerant, and Cole seriously can’t be stopped (he thinks its funny to get in trouble).  I realize I wasn’t exactly helping matters by taking pictures, but seconds before this Jack was laughing…I promise I rescued him moments after these were taken.

Even Annalee is not exempt from steamroller Cole. (Again, she was rescued soon.)

I just love this one because it is so Cole!

Jack was particularly proud of this Mr. Potatohead and asked me to take a picture.

He loves playing with Annalee, especially when she grabs his finger.

This NEVER happens!  My kids are not ones to fall asleep anywhere but in their beds or maybe the car. (yes, he has a little bit of a black eye, a result of jumping on daddy and catching an elbow in the process)

Cole thought Jack sleeping on the floor was funny, too.