Sunny Days and Tasty Crackers

Cole and I have been going for walks almost everyday. We've done this really since he's been born. Well, now it's hot, really HOT. It's actually unusually hot even for Austin in June. We were going in the evenings to avoid the heat but I finally realized that at 6 or 7pm, it's still just too hot and too sunny. Cole's little face gets SO red from the heat, but he doesn't complain. Sometimes, when I get him out of the stroller he is a big ball of sweat. So we've switched to morning walks and it seems to have helped a little. The sun doesn't get steaming until about noon so we go sometime before that. These pics were taken about 20 minutes after we got back. His cheeks are still so red and his lips and chin are wet still from him trying to drink water from his sippy cup (he doesn't quite have the hang of it). But he was extremely happy and didn't seem to mind the heat at all. Such a great kid!

I promised a video of Cole eating his crackers. He really loves them. I like that they don't make a crumbly mess and they are relatively clean. His hands get a little sticky, but that's to be expected. They are basically really refined rice cakes.

Cole has started to pull himself up and thinks he's so cool after doing it. He'll look at you with this big grin. It makes me laugh because he tries to do it all with his legs instead of using any upper body strength so he's wobbly. He still prefers to use mom's hands as his stability bar but I'm working on getting him to realize he can hold on to other things as well.

He's also become quite clingy to me (yes, even more so) lately. He doesn't even want me to put him in the high chair to feed him. He will refuse to bend his legs. There are times when I can convince him, but I'm a softy and just resort to holding him to feed him the cereal and baby food. I'll admit, even though at first it was a little frustrating, it's become quite endearing to see him clawing at my shirt and squeezing my neck begging me not to put him down. Thus far, it's only during mealtimes or when he's tired so he still plays on the floor and such by himself. Thank goodness for that!