Christmas in North Carolina

Here are a few more pictures of our Christmas in North Carolina.

Well, this isn't Christmas but we did put in Cole's new car seat in our car so we could put his infant car seat in the carseat bag already packed for the airport. Cole enjoyed riding in his new car seat but I didn't like it so much because I couldn't readily see him or get to him as easy as I can in his infant car seat. It will be easier when we switch it forward facing. But this picture is of Cole after we opened his new car seat and had it sitting in our living room. He loved to sit and play in it for days until we finally put it in the garage.


Even though Cole, Rick and I all came down with colds while visiting it still was a very relaxing trip. Grandma and Grandpa Solotes totally took over the care of Cole so really Rick and I chilled most of the time and I was able to get some much needed rest with some long naps. We loved seeing North Carolina and enjoying some quality time together. As always, our time together is always cut way too short. However, we were even able to see Rick's dad and brother Jim as they were traveling on their way to Ohio after the holidays. This was the first time Jim and Cole met. Here are the Poling Men!


Cole wasn't in the spirit to open up gifts Christmas morning (a little cranky and tired) but he did open a couple up Christmas Eve - his red Christmas sweater and black pea coat from Grandma and Grandpa. He wore them both to the Christmas devotional that evening. At the devotional they had a real manger scene as well as animals, music, fake snow, and roasted marshmallows. Cole had his first marshmallow and loved it!


Cole warmed up to Grandma, Grandpa and his aunts really quickly even though he didn't feel well most of the time. It was a combination of teething and a cold. Poor guy! Here he is with his runny nose right after a bath.


And on our last evening there eating Daddy's spaghetti and making a mess. Doesn't he look proud of himself?


With Grandma Solotes


With Grandpa Solotes in his racing pj's (which I love).


And finally with Rick and his Aunts Natalie, Kaitlyn and Jillian


Hope everyone had a Christmas as enjoyable as we did!

Holidays and Updates

The past few months Rick has been taking pictures and video with his iPhone. I haven't been able to get them easily since Rick is working in College Station. For the holidays, we traveled to North Carolina to visit Rick's family. We've all been a little sick but it hasn't stopped us from having a relaxing visit and it is so fun to watch Cole with his Grandma and Grandpa Solotes and his young Aunts. I thought I would take advantage of the time with Rick's iPhone and update the blog with some fun pics and video.

Here he is in his raccoon hat and his cup of milk.

And on the slide at the park

Grandpa Poling came to visit before Christmas. We were so happy that Cole warmed up to him very quickly.

Cole playing at Daddy's desk

Cole and Grandpa Solotes

Cute pics of Cole and Daddy




Videos:

This is Cole and Cannon "playing" while we were babysitting for Ryan and Jefra. Cole was being pretty possessive with his toys and attempted to push Cannon away twice. What is so funny to us is he is trying to play AND watch his Baby Signing Time Video. He is a man of many talents!


Rick has a new administrative assistant at Miramont, we don't think he will last long though and he may be needing a new keyboard soon.


Cole is starting to push things to walk and he loves pushing this ottoman that is in the room Rick is staying in at one of the suites at Miramont. (And you can see I'm very pregnant.)


Cole loves the playground. He loves the swings - especially if you stand close where his feet will hit you and he likes to go down the slide but also tries to climb up it. He gets very upset if you don't let him crawl around in the wood chips or small rocks depending on which park we go to. He prefers the rocks and throws them up onto the slide and always attempts to put them in his mouth but gives mom a look before doing so, then slowly drops them as I shake my head no. What a character!

Busy Time of Year

Sorry! I know it's been over a month since my last post. Things have been crazy here with selling the house, searching for a house, Christmas, etc. Rick has got the cutest pictures and video on his iphone that I need to get and post because I have not taken any pictures of late. I will try to do that over the Christmas break because you will LOVE them. :-) In the meantime, my sister-in-law Jefra posted about Cole and Cannon with pictures when she babysat for us so I could spend the day in College Station home shopping. You can see it here: Rees Family. One pic is of Cole with Santa...it makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Well, our home is sold and it only took about a month! Yea! We don't close until January 27th though. So we scurried to go home shopping in College Station before we left for North Carolina to visit Rick's family for Christmas the 23rd. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to shop until January. It's been an exhausting few days but we found a house we love and hopefully the seller accepts our offer. We'll know tomorrow hopefully. It will be so nice to have that done so we can just enjoy the holiday without that worry.

One cute anecdote...last night we stayed in College Station with Rick. Well, Rick had forgotten to ask housekeeping to bring the Pack N'Play up for Cole and he couldn't find it so he was just going to have him sleep in our bed. He was actually a little excited because he has wanted to snuggle and sleep with Cole for a little while now and I wouldn't let him because I can't sleep with Cole next to me. So Rick kept him on his side and I'm sure he dozed off dreamily snuggling with his son (which I'm sure he loved - I get to do it so much with Cole for his naps - I'm so lucky!) Anyway, Cole started fussing about 4:30AM and it was on and off until about 6:45AM when I got up and fed him. So it was unsteady sleeping for me from 4:30 on but Rick was SO TIRED and said how very little sleep he got all night because Cole would continually roll right next to him and snuggle into his side which pushed Rick right up to the edge of the bed. I just chuckled and said "I told you so! I tried to tell you that you would not enjoy sleeping all night with the little snuggler!" When I nap with Cole, if I move away from him, he will roll to find me and snuggle in. This is totally fine for a nap in my opinion but not so great all night long! Guess dad won't be trying that move again. However, after waking up Cole was in GREAT spirits. I'm sure he was thrilled to have been with mommy and daddy all night.