10 Months

Coley is 10 months old today!  I guess I better start thinking about first birthday planning - it'll be here before we know it!

Here are 10 things about our man as he welcomes in his 10th month:

• His eight tooth appeared this week!  After 1.5 teething kiddos (Jackson + 1/2 of Cole, since only half of his teeth are in at this point), we are finally able to very accurately predict the arrival of new teeth.
• His scooting has gotten even faster and he travels from room to room at lightening speeds.
• He's loud and is extremely curious - we're predicting he'll be our rambunctious, rowdy, and potentially rule-breaking kiddo. (Troublemaker? Climber?  Who knows!)
• He's finally moved past "da-da-da" sounds and I heard some "ma-ma-ma" sounds while he was rolling around in his crib this morning!
• He recently started pulling himself to a stand and already knows how to sit himself back down.  He has also started standing in his crib - he'll do this in the morning at the foot of his crib and loves to greet us with big toothy grins when we come in.
• He's finally figured out how to lay back down after sitting up in his crib...even though sometimes it means he sleeps folded in half (it looks horribly uncomfortable).
• His favorite hobbies are playing  with Jackson's cleaning set (something about scrubbing floors and swinging a map or swiffer around is really fun) or an old pinwheel, looking at books, chasing after Roxy and/or her toys.
• Loves driving one of the ride-on cars we keep in the house and get upset when you stop pushing him. He's even figured out how to make himself go on the battery operated one.
• While he likes pureed baby food with pumpkin in it, we learned today that he much prefers Brussels sprouts to pumpkin pie. He eagerly opened wide for some bites of pie, but promptly spit them out.  Apparently he has his Daddy's taste when it comes to pumpkin pie.
• Enjoys looking out the windows that are within his reach, and knocking on them to get our attention when we're on the other side.

Looking forward to the next month with this cutie - it'll bring his first trip (we head to Maui on Sunday!), his first visit with Santa Clause and his first Christmas.  

Soccer Saturdays

Over the past few months, Jackson's taken soccer lessons every Saturday morning. He's come a long a way, and while he doesn't quite understand how to run while dribbling/kicking or that he shouldn't pick the ball up, his aim has gotten much better, as has his comfort on the field, especially when on his own.

The class he's in had parents on the field for the first half of the series but then over the last few weeks, parents spent more time off the field than on.  The first time this happened, Jackson did well with directions, but spent much of his solo time on the field holding his coach's hand or sitting in her lap during down time.  After we had some chats with him about the fact that she has lots of kids to help and can't only spend time with him, he did awesome at his next practice.  He was actually the only kiddo that followed all directions and did everything he was supposed to.  (At one point nearly all the other kiddos were running around doing their own thing, but not J - he just kept going right along with whatever Coach Chandler was asking.)

It's always exciting to see him try and learn new things and soccer was no different.  Next up, we'll take December off and then both boys will take swimming lessons beginning in January.

'

Listening oh so well

Team huddle at the end of practice, just after getting stamps on his hands, arms and tummy

And here are a few action clips.  Nothing fancy but shows J in action. My favorite is the clip with the little kicks - he took those directions VERY literally.

Mini Morans in Action

Cole's been doing this around the house lately.  Is it a sign that perhaps he'll play golf or hockey some day?

And it's no secret that Jackson loves to dance.  Corey found some dance instruction videos online awhile back, and J recently asked to watch them.

Bellingham Birthday Celebration

Last weekend, Jackson and I joined my parents on a quick overnight trip to Bellingham to celebrate my brother's recent birthday.  Corey stayed home with Cole, knowing that it would be tough to squeeze naps and feedings in while on the go all weekend.

Jackson did amazing especially considering a late night the night before we left (up late after enjoying lots of candy on Halloween), skipping his nap on Saturday in favor of puzzles and chatting with my parents, and not going to bed until after 10 p.m. that night.  He was a great traveling buddy, and was such a trooper and had a blast at all of our stops, which included lunch at Kulshan Brewery where my brother works, a Fred Meyer trip, visiting Aunt Anya at her work, a pit stop at one of my brother's friend's houses, a nice dinner out, and birthday dessert at Anya's parent's house.

Dinner was at Giuseppe's Al Porto and was delicious.  While you could get away with casual attire, it was actually Jackson's first "nice" restaurant meaning white tablecloths, no kids' menu, water glasses (not his usual kids' cups with a straw).  Jackson and I shared caprese salad and lasagna and he ate a surprising amount, he didn't spill anything, and kept himself entertained by coloring.

It was a great weekend with the family and am so glad it all went so smoothly!

J got a sneak peek at all the brewing equipment at Kulshan.

Jackson INSISTED on pulling our suitcase. Such a gentleman!

Scott hid from J in the hotel wardrobe, which then led to some playtime in there. Who knew a wardrobe could be so much fun?

The pit stop at my brother's friend Andrew's meant getting to see his hairless cats. J had never seen anything like them, and loved chasing them around.

He also made himself at home in front of the computer while there, too.

Seriously these carts are fun for people of all ages.

J's favorite hobby these days is working on puzzles.  This one kept him busy for an hour.

Hanging with Gramma and Grampa, showing off a silly smile.

More fun at Kulshan.

Halloween 2014

Leading up to Halloween, we hit up the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, decorated our house a bit, roasted and ate pumpkin seeds, and dressed the boys in festive shirts my parents bought for them.  We talked a lot about Halloween, and Jackson couldn't wait to wear his costume and enjoy all kinds of candy.

It was fun to have two kiddos to dress up this year.  While I have all of Jackson's old costumes and using one of those for Cole would have been easy, I really wanted to do some sort of theme for the two of them.After Jackson looked through the options on Amazon and settled on Elmo, it was an obvious choice to find a Cookie Monster costume for Cole. 

On Halloween day, Jackson wore his costume to school and enjoyed trick-or-treating, photos, and a party.  Cole got dressed up in his costume (we took in J's old dragon costume, since the Cookie one is a bit hard to get on), and had a great photo taken. 

After a quick dinner with Grampa Kent and Gramma Linda, we headed out for some trick-or-treating. 

Last year, Jackson was still pretty shy and only made it to a few houses for trick-or-treating before calling it a night.  This year though, he was so excited and did a great job saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!" or "Happy Halloween" at each of the houses we went to.  Cole enjoyed the walk and he did a great job keeping his head piece on (after dry runs at our house, we weren't sure it would stay on for long).

Then Corey and I headed to a Halloween party (he was a monkey, I was a panda, thanks to his co-workers who loaned us costumes) while the kiddos stayed behind with my parents. J loved snacking on his sweets and opening the door to give candy to other trick-or-treaters.

Another successful holiday!