So my resolve to write more about Cole didn't hold up...oh well.
Here's the latest:
Cole turned 15 months on Feb. 10. We went to the doc and he was 32 inches (he grew 4 inches in 3 months...seems like a lot to me...) and 24 lbs. He has his front 8 teeth, 4 molars, and all four of his canines have been working their way out for the past week. His eyes are getting greener rather than bluer, but they still have hints of brown. So we still have no idea what color they will turn out to be. They are pretty, though. :)
Cole has had some trouble with constipation, to the point of having a couple of hemmorhoids. The first one I saw completely freaked me out...it was like a hard blue bubble where a bubble should never be...I called the nurse and she advised me to give him a warm bath. Fortunately both times I have seen a hemorrhoid, it has gone back in on its own...the nurse told me I might have to push it back in sometimes. Yuck. Hoping that time will never come. :) I've changed his diet somewhat and it has helped tremendously. He hasn't had a banana in months, which is sad because he LOVES them. But he loves all fruit, so I don't think he has missed them. I also cut down his cheese intake and I give him applesauce or yogurt mixed with baby prunes. It looks nasty, but Cole seems to like it.
He is truly a toddler when it comes to food preference. Long gone are the days where he will eat anything and everything. Some days he loves black beans; the next day he won't touch them. Other days it is rice that he wants, and then he'll turn up his nose at it the next day. He likes most anything that Lee and I are eating; but if we don't take a bite, he may or may not be interested. The one food group that he will always eat more of is fruit. I haven't found a fruit he doesn't like yet.
Recently we have pushed his nap back a couple of hours. He used to take one at 9, and it was really making Sundays difficult, because he would be cranky and needing a nap, but wouldn't take one if there were people around (like at church). So now he goes down around 11 or 12, and it has really helped. It makes my mornings better, too, because he's used to being awake now and we can run errands early, instead of trying to fit it in between morning and noon naps. He still takes an afternoon nap, but it is closer to 3, and he sleeps for 2 hours then (morning nap is usually right at an hour).
Cole sat through church this past Sunday for the first time! We occupied him with goldfish, sippy cup, legos, and Veggietales on the ipod. I was leery of that last one, but I guess if it gets him used to sitting still in church, it is something we will faze out as we can.
He is still in the 4 mo.-12 mo. class at church. Supposedly it is because the children his own age cry too much, and it upsets him...I'm afraid they are sugarcoating that and really he's just a crybaby himself. :) But Miss LeAnn in the baby class is so good with Cole that I really don't mind if he's in there...as long as he's not in the way or a burden.
He loves blowing raspberries, poking belly buttons, and building with Legos. He gets frustrated easily--I have to encourage him to not quit and help him to figure out his problem, but I try to make him solve it himself, with minimal help from me.
He's becoming a big helper. I'm still having to do some training when it comes to trash receptacles, but he knows that Kleenex goes in the trash, Water bottles go in the Recycling, and diapers go in the diaper genie. I test him on all these and he is consistent about it. Occasionally he will try to put something where it doesn't belong (bibs in the trash, for example), but those 3 items he never gets wrong. He is getting good at cleaning up: today he put 2 books away after he was done using them. He like to organize things and is starting to notice and fix things that are out of place.
There is one of my pairs of shoes that he always gets out if I leave the closet door open. They are brown fuzzy plaid clogs and for some reason he is very attached to them. I have probably 40 pairs of shoes, and he always grabs that same pair and will carry them around the house. He can now put them on, too, so sometimes he will clump around with them on his feet. I don't understand the attachment, but it's pretty cute. I'm just glad they aren't my 5 inch stilletos. Lee is too.:)
Cole is very attached to the blanket my mom made him. If he gets in trouble and is upset, he will run to his crib and pull it out from between the crib rails. He drags it all around the house and I have to be sneaky if I want to wash it.
He hates that we can't go outside (it's been a cold, windy winter) so I can't wait for spring! He will go to the big sliding doors in the dining room and look outside and talk to the outside world. It's kinda sad.
Oh, and he will pucker up and give me a kiss when I ask him to. I love those little lips! :)
