what does a two year old dream?

Every morning, I hear Cole peeping on the baby monitor.

"MAMA! MAMA!"

I check our video monitor and see him sitting up in bed, reading a book intently.

I open his door and peek in at him.

"Good morning, darling!  How are you this morning?"

"YEAH!" he says brightly (around the bink in his mouth), rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Did you sleep well?  Did you have any dreams?

"YEAH!"

"What did you dream about?"

"NEIGH!" he says enthusiastically.

"A horse?! Wow!  What happened?"

"HAND! PET!"

"You pet the horse with your hand?"

"YEAH! HAND!"

"That's so exciting! Did anything else happen in your dream?"
"EAT! GRASS!"

"You gave the horse grass to eat?"

"YEAH! GRASS!"

"Then what happened?"

"BAWK BAWK!"

"You saw a chicken in your dream?"

"YEAH! BAWK BAWK!"

Every morning, it's always the same dream.  A horse, petting it with his hand, feeding it grass, and a chicken.

This son of ours makes me so happy!

oops

um, hi there.

remember me?

your friendly neighborhood blogger?

nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

We've had some MAJOR SICKNESS going on around here, which is why I haven't been blogging.

But don't worry, we will be back to our regularly scheduled blogging very soon!

Father's Day

ok, I KNOW Father's Day was two days ago.

But better late than never, right?

So here are 10 reasons Chris is the BEST dad ever:

1.  The instant, and I mean the INSTANT, he walks in the door from work, he is ready and willing to play with Cole.  No matter how long or hard his day was, he doesn't take a single second for himself - his first thoughts are all about Cole-man. 

2. He works HARD.  Not only does he have a full-time nuclear medicine job, he takes call at the hospital and spends many weekends a year working on our rental house.  He does all this work so that I can stay home and eat bon bons - or, er, take care of Cole. ;)

3.  He's one of those super fun active dad types - always wanting to take Cole along places, introduce him to new experiences.

4.  He's an amazing team parent.  We RARELY disagree on things when it comes to parenting Cole, and if we do, Chris is quick to ask me to explain and discuss our opinions.  I love that we are such a united parenting front.

5. He is the FUN parent in this parenting equation.  He adores wrestling around with Cole, teasing him and playing with him.  He always, always, ALWAYS makes him laugh.

6.  He is so loving with Cole.  He tells him every day how much he loves him, and he's not afraid to dole out kisses and hugs (and even accepts slobbery, drooly smooches from Cole - and waits to wipe off the slobber until Cole looks away.  That's true love.)

7.  He reads to Cole, even though reading is NOT one of his favorite things to do.

8.  He has SO much patience with Cole.  In the mornings, Cole often runs into the bedroom to wake him up and "help" him get ready - even if it hinders his routine, Chris is endlessly patient with him.

9.  He is proud of Cole and eager to show him off to his friends and family.

10.  He is a role model in every way to Cole - how to work hard, how to be healthy, how to be kind and considerate and generous, how to treat a significant other.  Chris is the exact kind of man I would be delighted for Cole to grow up to be.

Happy Father's Day, my husband.  Thank you for being your awesome self. 

Overloaded Mama

Recently, Cole has decided that he is incapable of carrying anything for any length of time...including himself.


So yesterday morning, I needed to do some laundry.  I loaded myself up with two (TWO!) laundry baskets, precariously balanced on top of each other.  And then my cellphone on top (because I KNOW Chris will call during the 3.2 minutes that I am downstairs - Murphy's Law). And a handful of other odds and ends that needed to be transported downstairs.


Basically, I look something like this:

via

(only, I'm not a car, and I'm only carrying overloaded laundry baskets.  But you get the idea.  It was a lot of stuff.)

And Cole is carrying a paper clip.  One, single green paper clip down the stairs.  No joke.


We get to the top of stairs, I balance the towering stack of laundry baskets on my hip and shift the rest of my things so I can use one finger to open the baby gate and hold Cole's hand.


Cole takes one step down the stairs and immediately hands me the paper clip.  Apparently, it's too heavy a load for him to carry.  And apparently I looked like I needed something ELSE to carry down the stairs.


So I was like, ok, it's a paper clip.  No big deal.  We're not going with a straw-that-broke-the-camels-back dealio here.


We take another two steps down.  Cole turns to me, holds his arms up, and says, "UPPA!" (up please).

I guess my hands just weren't full enough. 

(For the record, I managed to talk him into walking down the rest of the stairs [a feat that is of similiar significance to talking down a hostage situation].  Bribery in the form of giving the dogs a treat may or may not have been used.)

making a to-do list

Further proof that my little mister is growing up:

He was standing on a chair at the counter (a normal occurance) and found my to-do list notepad.   and a pen.

I die from the cuteness.

Splash Pad

Sunday was FINALLY some true summer weather - warm and sunny.  We celebrated by taking Cole to the local splash pad.

Taking a snack break and waving at the camera:

 Getting wet!!

 I love watching Cole interact with other little kids.  He always seems so overwhelmed!  it's pretty funny.  At the park, there was an adorable little girl who was trying really hard to boss Cole around - he would just look at her with a sort of confused look on his face, then do what he wanted anyway!

Sooo glad summer is here at last!

Taste of Summer

Chris and I were just saying to each other how much we are enjoying living in our new town - and one of the reasons is because there is SO much to do!  And this weekend did not disappoint - we went with the Connolly's to Jacksonville's Taste of Summer, an opener for the season's Britt Festival.   There was wine tasting, classic cars, good food, and just tons of fun stuff to do!

 They had some artsy type stuff - these were real people, dressed and painted to look like a statue! It was trippy, walking past something you totally think is a statue, then seeing it blink!

 musicians, who all played very cool instruments - cello, mandolin, accordian:

 More "living" art - Sean and Kadance:

 Chris and me - I think he looks pretty good with a mustache! LOL!

 Love these three! :)

 and classic cars lined the street - Cole thought they were pretty awesome!

 Cole and Declan, stroller buddies:

 Our boys loved the tractors!

 "WHOA!!!" Cole said:

 Checking out the birds:

 Sharing an ice cream cone:

 And of course, no day would be complete in Cole's mind without some wrastlin'.  This child of mine is 100% boy!

 "What? This isn't where I'm supposed to hold on?"

 This is one of the reasons we love visiting Jacksonville - adorable architecture like this church, built in the mid 1880's:

 It has a rose garden! with a white picket fence! so cute!

 And leave it to Daddy to help a grumpy two year old perk up on the walk to the car - a game of "let's run into the tree branches!"

 Of course Cole loved it!

 And one more super cool sight to see - a tractor (excavator? backhoe? yellow truck thingy? maybe I need to brush up on my large motor vehicle names...) that Cole was THRILLED to see:

It was a fabulous day in Jacksonville!