Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Wherein Cole is One

How has this happened?!?
With each kid, that baby year goes by more and more quickly! I must have blinked, because this little Cole Cole has turned ONE!
 You may notice, he is a little Tyler Mini. I guess it is good his first name really is Tyler!
 For his birthday, we did the usual gift thing...
Followed by cake. 
 I was shooting for a lower-sugar frosting, but it was really dark. I should probably start on the cakes a little before dinner time, but honestly, I hadn't planned on doing anything fancy until my MIL asked what I was doing for Cole's cake. She asked at 5 pm when she called to wish Cole a Happy Birthday. The joy of being the 5th kid, right? :(
 But, oddly enough, he loved his cake. Adored it. Shoveled it into his grinning mouth like it was going out of style. Or like it might be whisked away from him any moment, so he'd better work it like a chipmunk!
Cole is starting to really communicate. He says Dada and Mama and Jack. Amelia taught him to say "No, no, no!" He also says, "uh oh" and "hi" (with a wave). He's signing food, water, more, and all done. Sometimes he even signs the word he means at the time he means it!
Cole is almost 19 lbs and is in the 12th percentile for weight. One of our more massive kids (and no, I'm not kidding. Second in massiveness only to Henry).
He took his first steps the day after his birthday. Not too shabby for a kid who was in a Pavlik harness for 1/4 of his life. He's still working on more than one step at a time, but he's pretty confident with standing now. 
Like many of our other kids, Cole knows what he wants and lets us know (very adamantly) that we're wrong. He becomes incensed when Tyler walks in the door and doesn't immediately swoop Cole into his arms. This is, therefore, at least a daily occurrence.
This kid is into giggling. he loves to play with his siblings, chase the cat, and chew on pencils (he really loves to gnaw the metal band and eraser off the pencil, then maul the wood). Cole has become an expert tupperware-cupboard-emptier. He recently discovered the toilet paper roll and couldn't understand why we have subsequently banned him from the bathroom. He really is into everything these days.  We think he might have a future in demolition. 
We're grateful for the little ray of sunshine our little Cole-cito is!