These are the some of the many faces of Cole. He has become quite expressive lately. He rolls his eyes, he twists his lips and looks to the side, he squeezes his eyes closed and opens his mouth like he is silently laughing, etc. He most often makes these faces near the end of eating, but in the instances above he was climbing up a step ladder we have and looking at himself in the living room mirror. He LOVES to make faces in the mirror. He still sits in our bathroom sink when we get ready and gets real cheeky with the mirror. I love it. Rick laughs hysterically. We love his little personality. Now if we can only get him to be more social...we went to Chik-fil-A today to meet some women from church and their kiddos. The idea was to the kids would play in the play area and us moms could chat. We are all new to the area so it was ideal. There were two other kids there just a month apart from Cole. The bad news: Cole cried for about 10 minutes as soon as we got there. If anyone knows Chik-fil-A's in TX, they know they are ALWAYS crowded. The good news: after about 30 minutes of sitting with mom he actually wanted to go play! I stayed with him for a bit and then he even played without me until some big kids came and pushed him aside. I wanted to punch them. This was a play area for 3 and under! Not 7 and over! But I didn't say anything. I just held him until he calmed down again. I think it was successful in the end. He wanted to play with the other kids too - when there was 3 or less around. He just got overwhelmed when there were more and cried.

But this kid makes me smile everyday. I love being his mother. See this ugly overgrown bush of flowers (we don't know what kind but I really should do something to it...)


There's a secret in there....


Surprise! He loves to hide. You can barely see it in the picture but look at those pinky cheeks just brimming with excitement for me to find him. His smile is HUGE. I wished I actually caught it on film.


We've been taking Cole swimming at least once a week. We got him this floater suit and after one use he is getting really good. He can balance in it now and lays his head back in the water and floats. We are still very close to him though because he doesn't hold the float long but he's getting better every time. He thinks the jacket is cool and loves to put it on.

Oh, and here is Miss Lyla. She's a little doll. Smiley and happy nearly 95% of the time. Such a delight. I love to get her from her naps. She pops her fingers out of her mouth and gives me the biggest smile with her eyes wide open. Somewhat similar to this but not quite.


And as you can see, she is becoming quite expressive too...


She loves to pull her dresses up and suck on them. I actually find it adorable so I've been putting her in more dresses. (Thanks Grandma Poling for this one!)


But her favorite thing to play with is still her fingers. She's content to lie anywhere and play with them. They must taste good!


Second to that would have to be Mr. Blue Giraffe. She coos at him, yells at him, yanks him off her bouncy seat, etc. If you remember, Blue Giraffe was the first thing that got Cole to laugh on camera. Blue Giraffe has a way with babies. If you need a refresher on him, here's the video of Cole.