Nate is 2!

It's so hard to believe that Nate is 2!  We started the celebrations by taking these cookies to church Wednesday night to celebrate before his birthday on Thursday.

I also took cookies to school for him to share with his classmates on his actual birthday.

That night we had our family celebration at home.  He opened presents and had balloons and a cupcake!

Instead of a party this year, we opted to take Nate on a special outing just the three of us.  We decided the zoo was a good pick!  We were hoping for nice weather, but ended up with a rather cool morning.  It was really nice though after we had lunch and visited the petting area and rode the carousel and train.

Nate had his 2 year check up the Monday after his birthday.  He weighs in at 28 lb 11.5 oz (50-75%) and is 36.5 inches tall (90-95%).  There is a wives' tale that says if you double your height at age 2 that you will get your adult height...that would have Nate measuring 6' 1"

He is still enjoying coloring and playing with his animals and puzzles.  His language is definitely taking off and he really tries to mimic words now. New words/phrases:
Sorry
Okay (instead of yeah/yes he now says okay....all the time!)
Yellow (sometimes used correctly)
Where are you/there you are--a new game we play, usually when looking for his dog before naptime.  He'll say "are you?" while looking for him and then "there you are" when he finds him.
Lots more....can't wait to do posts on funny things he'll come up with when he really gets talking!

Cole's Birth Announcement

It scanned really grainy, but I love it.  I used a new site mixbook.com because I had purchased a Groupon a while back (LOVE Groupon!)  We used one of his newborn photos taken by Lauren Liese.  You can see all of the photos here!

Cole is 2 months!

I dare say we are starting to get into a groove.  I'm learning what Cole needs to be consoled and to be a little more patient too.  The days go fast, and I know I'll look back and miss holding my little baby.  He is sleeping better, which helps a lot.  At best he'll get up at 2:30/3 and then at 6:30.  At worst it's 12:30/1, 3 and 6...but at least he is sleeping in between feedings!

He has done a lot of growing.  At his checkup he weighed 13 lbs 5.5 oz (90%) and was 23 in long (50%).  He is still wearing some 0-3 months clothes, but quickly moving into the 3-6 month outfits.  We are having lots of "photo sessions" these days because I want to capture him in all of his cute outfits.  Be sure to check our SmugMug site for these!

Cole is really liking his play mat and was actually happy "playing" this morning for over 30 minutes!  This is great! He also still loves his swing and birds that fly on that.  He is sleeping in his basinett now, but will move to the crib soon, since Nate is in his big boy bed (will have to post on that later!)  I know he will love the mobile once he is in the crib and that may buy me some time in the mornings :-)

Some favorites from our photo shoots:

Cole's Dedication

We had Cole's dedication at our church on February 20th.  Aunt Lauren came and took pictures for us.  Both boys did great!  Cole was asleep until we posed for pictures and though he went back and forth between us a few times, Nate didn't cry, yell or run through the choir loft ;-)

Nate's not sure what to think of all these people!

Jim always has great and funny insights

 

His rose was soooo pretty!

Lovies

 Most children have items they become attached to when they are young.  For Nate it is his paci, blankie, but most of all his little stuffed dachshund that I used to call "puppy" but he now calls it dog.  I bought it before I was even pregnant from Gymboree when they had an adorable line of dachshund clothes.  And I only bought one.  It is my sincere fear that "dog" will someday be lost and I won't have another one!  I've scouted ebay to no avail. 

Joel and I both had animals we loved growing up.  Joel's was a stuffed dog named "Mutt."  Mutt still resides at his parents house, so I couldn't take a picture of him, but some googling brought forth this photo- which is very much what Joel's Mutt looks like.

So cute and well-loved to adorn a book on the subject.  I think I need to add this to my Amazon Wish List!

I had a love for Roo- the baby kangaroo from Winnie the Pooh.  Thankfully for my family Roo was in production for many years in the early eighties and when one got a little too loved a new one would appear.  Of course, none of the other Roos would leave, the new one was just added to the pack.  I believe there is a picture of me with no less than 8 Roos.  This one is the one that went on to live a happy, retired life in a bin in our guest room closet.  I'm sure he'll see some love again soon.

For Cole's lovie I thought maybe he would get these hand me down bears from Nate, which I intended to be his lovies (hence there are 3, lest one was lost.)  But Nate never really attached to them.  On a whim I ordered this lovie from My Blankee on my favorite (aka dangerous) kids sale site, Zulily.  It's a little blanket with a snap that you use to put a pacifier on (kind of hard to explain unless you look at the pic.)  Very early on Cole started grabbing for the blanket and it's also nice because if he spits his paci out it doesn't fall far--lost paci is a BAD thing!  He is also starting to be able to push his paci back in when he grabs the blanket.  So, once I saw that he was attaching to it I panicked because we needed more!  They retail for $25-36...insane for a 10x10 piece of cloth with a snap!  I checked their website-which is stocked with many more clearance options now than when I looked- and etsy for some cheaper options.  Thankfully another sale came up on Zulily and I ordered 2 more for the rotation :-) 

Cole's first road trip!

I hit the road pretty often to visit my bestie, Sharla.  For the past few years I have planned a trip around a consignment sale that she shops.  This time I took Cole for his first of many visits and left Nate and Joel at home.  

Cole in his Meredith bib :)  We had fun watching some old Stunt videos!

Rockin the dark frames-old school style!

The consignment sale was kind of a bust...not to say I didn't buy anything, haha.  The sizes they had for Nate & Jackson were really limited and pretty bad selection/quality.  I did get some cute smocked stuff for Cole.  Most of which Sharla cringes at, but she's a good friend and congratulates me on my finds :)

The best part of the visit was going crazy at Target and Old Navy trying on Spring clothes.  We got some good deals and had fun playing dress up.  I don't know the last time we had gone clothes shopping together!

Our pile to try on--people did ask if we had kids under there!

And a big shout out to "Auntie Steph" for getting up way too early on a Saturday morning to watch Cole for me!

Date Night

Joel and I had an awesome date night recently.  Aunt Lauren was nice enough to carve out some time of her busy last semester of grad school schedule to watch the boys.  We have a long list of restaurants in Atlanta we want to try (ideally a nice dinner every quarter) and chose Woodfire Grill.  The chef/owner, Kevin Gillespie, was a finalist on Top Chef (one of our fav shows!) and is up for many up-and-comer awards.  We went all out and chose the 7 course chef's tasting with wine pairings.  We never seem to take a picture of the two of us on date nights, but I did capture this photo on my phone when the glasses were a little backed up on our table.

Our favorite course was the scallop....I always love a good scallop!  You do not see the menu when ordering, so each course is a fun surprise and you have to listen carefully to hear the descriptions.  At the end they give you the menu, which is a fun souvenir.  We are such wannabe foodies and are really looking forward to our anniversary in-town getaway to the 1st Atlanta Food & Wine Festival!