My Happy Boy

I'm sitting here watching my little boy play with all his toys. He has a little ball pit which he loves to empty and chase the balls all around the living room. He is so focused on them! I think he's really happy to be playing alone again. He LOVED his cousins...Case watched over him as if he was his own brother, and Jake was exciting and playful. But there is nothing like being in your own space, and Cole is a great example of that. He has basically ignored me since he has been home. It is great to see him so happy! Plus, his sixth tooth has almost popped through. He now takes bites of food whenever possible, even if it is already a tiny piece of food-I guess his teeth are really fascinating right now.

Cole was playing at my feet a minute ago, then he got really quiet. I peeked around the computer screen and realized he had fallen asleep, right there on the floor! I think being in a house full of people has taught him that he can go to sleep, no matter what is going on around him. Yay!

Cole and Lee time

Lee got up with Cole this morning and let me sleep in. I think he likes to have a little Daddy/Cole time without Mommy gunking up the works. Cole was sitting behind the recliner, out of site of Lee, but Lee could tell he was just playing with a toy. Then he got kind of quiet, then he started crying. Lee got up to check on him and saw that he had found something black, like grease from the chair, and had smeared it on the chair, carpet, his face, ears, hands. On closer inspection, it turned out to be poop. He had exploded out the back of his diaper and found it. It seemed that he had had fun playing with it, until he put some in his mouth and realized that it tasted pretty nasty...this is when Cole started to cry. He rushed Cole to the tub and proceeded to strip him, awkwardly trying to avoid any more poop from getting on Cole's face. Cole was screaming so hard at this point that I decided to see if my assistance was needed. It was. :) 2 pairs of hands are pretty necessary when dealing with a poo-covered child.

Death to Carpet

Since cole has been crawling, he's been getting into stuff. Duh. That's what babies do, and he is learning quickly what is okay to play with, and what are "No's". He's a very smart baby, but what concerns me is his need to put everything into his mouth. By "concern", I mean daily he eats something that concerns me; I don't constantly worry about him eating inedibles, but I know that it is coming so I try to be ready for the inevitable choking/coughing noises that ring throughout our halls daily. Tonight he starting coughing, and I quickly checked on him (he also chokes on his own spit often, so I never know if the cough is serious, or just a liquid-down-the-wrong-pipe kind of thing). I didn't see anything, so he went back to playing. 20 minutes later, he coughs again, with a bit of gagging noises thrown in. So I pick him up, put him on the counter, and squeeze those little cheeks until I see a little white something on the back of his tongue. I reach in a finger, scrape his tongue, and pull out a ring of carpet pile. He probably had been chewing on it the entire time, just not quite able to swallow it. Carpet, Cole? Really? Why?? I think "watching for things to pass" is going to become a hobby in our house before long. Lee just commented that it is a parents' job function to spend our days making sure our child doesn't kill themselves. :)

Oh also, Cole was playing by himself the other day. He crawled to me with drool all down the front of him, his face shiny with wetness. He smiled and I saw something in his mouth; apparently he'd found a little piece of plastic (like the wrappers magazines come in) and was chewing on it, making him drool excessively. I think he'd gotten into my purse, which is the only item I have that isn't baby proof right now. It's like he knows...