little bird

We had an unexpected house guest this morning. My mom came up to me this morning while she was holding Cole and said, "I think there's a bird in the house." Random. But there he was huddled under our dining room table.

He looked a little under the weather with his eyes closed and head cocked to one side. Brian scooped him up into our makeshift birdie triage -- Stone IPA box with bread, water, and a package of pot feet to weigh it down. Shortly after, he perked up and fluttered up to the top of the box, then to the wisteria pot where he took another little nap in the sun.

Suspecting he was still a young bird, Brian said, "He can't fly." On cue, our little friend flew off into the trees. Perhaps he also had a little chick in his nest who was crying all night and just needed to catch up on some zzz's before going about with his day. I totally understand, little bird.

hamburglar

When I got home from work tonight, I was greeted by a very talkative Cole. "Mum" has now become a very common word for him, plus he introduced a series of "rah-bah, rah-bah, rah-bah" which sounds like some sort of hamburglar-speak. He was very animated during our conversation and had a lot to share of what he did today. I think we was especially excited to tell me about his new EyePet monkey friend his dad introduced him to. If he could remember back to the other week, I'm sure he'd be using his words to tell me how much he disliked being a monkey.

ten months old

Last week, Cole took his first steps and tonight he said, "Momo". That's close enough for me!

His menu of food is expanding again now that he's able to chew chunkier food. Chicken and stars seem to be a new fave. This weekend he literally bit off more than he could chew of his teething cookie. I watched his head shake and body wiggle when he swallowed a piece of cookie that probably could've been chewed up a little more before going down the pipe. It's kinda funny to watch and scary at the same time.

Our baby proofing effort went into full swing over the Labor Day weekend -- shortly after we discovered that he could climb the entire flight of stairs on his own. Now, we live in a house with a series of gates. Maybe it'll be good early training for slalom skiing for Cole. After all, I was half joking about naming him Bodhi.

He's also growing into a great play mate. This morning, he and I had so much fun playing under our blanket fort. Grandma always giggles when Cole crawls through the round window of his play tent. He's also starting to strum and pluck the uke strings (even with his toes!) which is making his dad very proud. Up until now, it was a percussion instrument he banged on.

The funniest thing he did this month:

Cole likes to "sing". The Sound of Music was on in the background while we were rearranging furniture in our family room. During one the scenes Cole belted out a duet with one of the nuns! We were all so surprised and awesomely entertained!

He continues to fill the house with screams, loud cries, and most importantly his infectious laughter!

pop, pop, pop

This weekend I had a few false alarms when I thought Cole was able to sneak something past me and was chewing on something. Turns out he was just making the motions of chewing, but didn't have anything in his mouth. Maybe this is what one does when they have FOUR teeth coming in at the same time!?!

It's been over a week since the top two front teeth first broke through. We're just about able to see the tips of them now whenever he smiles. This morning, I freaked out when I noticed the other two! Though I've been sympathetic through the sleepless nights, I'll have even more patience when trying to comfort him when he wails in the middle of the night and early morning.

Despite the teeth coming through and the congestion he's had because of it, Le Bebe has been an absolute sweetie with our guests these past two weekends. He especially loved his play date with Yoko, Uncle Dave and Auntie Tess' little puppy.

nine months old

He's mobile! Last weekend, Cole took the plunge from reaching out far for his toys and started to crawl. He still has a stronger interest to pulling himself up and learning to walk than to crawl, but I'm suspecting once he realizes the power of being able to quickly scoot away from us or go beyond the boundaries of his pillow fort, he'll take to crawling a lot more.

This past month, he also learned how to pick up and feed himself puffs, yogurt melts, and other small food pieces. It's been so great to watch him progress from just pushing around the mashed food on his high chair tray to actually being able to pick it up and put it in his mouth. Cole also went on his first flight to visit the fam in the Bay Area.

My favorite thing we do together these days is play a game of monster. When I'm the monster, he gets tickled a lot while I nosh on his tummy making nom-nom sounds. When he's the monster, he makes the cutest roar-like sound then lays a sloppy slobber on my face. Thanks, son.

first laptop

I've been holding off on getting this for Cole 'cause I didn't want to be that geeky mom, but each time I'm on my laptop it seems so unfair to tease him with the key tapping noises that make it seem like a big toy. However, when I thought it was harmless to let him play with my keyboard, I lost my left shift key. Those little fingers sure do get in there quite easily! Auntie Winn learned this lesson the hard way when she chose not to heed my warning when we were in the Bay Area for a visit. At first, she thought it was the cutest thing to watch Cole type away on her laptop until she lost the enter key.

Now that he's a lot more curious and determined to reach out for the things he wants (read: my things), I arrived home with his first laptop.

He couldn't contain his excitement with his first keystrokes. His reaction ranks up there with the best so far. He couldn't even use his "words" and just kept humming "mmm, mmm, mmm". Occasionally he'd stop and just give a big toothy grin. Adorable!

I'm sure if there was an internet for babies he'd have blogged, tweeted, and updated his status about his new device before bedtime.

eight months old

We have one monkey in a barrel. When I bought this ottoman I thought it'd be a nifty source of extra storage. I just didn't think we'd be storing Cole in it. Leave it up to Cole and his dad to come up with fun games. The other game they showed me this morning was Cole as a Scone where he wears our (acrylic) cake dome as a hat.