Now I'm looking at my calendar. Um, it's MAY. Way to be, Steph.
Regardless, Happy (ridiculously belated) Easter! We spent our Easter here in NC. Brian got some time off and decided he couldn't possibly just relax and hang out (God forbid), so he tackled a house project...staining the deck. In his mind, this was a 2-hour project. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha HA. I will admit, the cedar stain makes the deck look incredibly fresh and nice. Too bad it took NINE hours and resulted in the worst sunburn I've ever seen.
The boys are fantastic, although Easter ended up being "one of those days." My great idea to beat the crowd and go to early 8:00 mass was really not so great. Early sermon = circus. Apparently 8:00 mass attracts the older crowd and we were getting some rather disapproving stares. I wanted to say, um, have you ever been around kids?! Not to mention, we're in CHURCH...should you really be glaring at me or maybe you should be listening a little more closely to Father Ernie's homily!
And I digress...anyway, when we got home, Cole got in a much needed nap and Caden had a blast hunting eggs in our backyard. The EB brought him a soccer net but he was much more interested in the egg hunt. He actually made Brian re-hide them.
Do not touch me, Cade.
It's a miracle that he didn't break a single one.
That's not food, Cole.
EB brought baskets while they were at church
More interested in the plastic carrot than the gift
Shortly after the holiday weekend, Brian left for a trip to California for some mountain warfare training. He had a very good time (which probably would NOT be a normal person's definition of a good time). He was not thrilled with the cold temps and they ran into some gear problems, but it was really good training for them overall. He met my cousin Rob and his wife Dorota for the first time in Reno. How ironic that we've been married 6 years and still haven't met each other's entire family.
At the summit
"Hey Steph, we don't have to mow the lawn anymore..."
After he returned, we decided to do a last-minute fun family activity...the Cole Bros Circus! I figured Cade was at perfect age for it. I also figured that Cole would be a maniac with all the stimulation. Oh well. We're going!
Well, Caden was far more interested in his disgusting cotton candy than anything else. It wasn't a total loss...he DID watch the tigers. Then he informed me that we were done and it was time to go. Um, that was ONE act...there's like 12 more to go. ?!?!
Cole was indeed a maniac. It surprised...actually, make that "alarmed," Brian. He hasn't went many places with him recently and didn't expect all the flailing and whining. He just doesn't like to be contained.
Regardless, I don't regret going. Brian bought me a ticket to ride the elephant...and Cade one too just so I didn't look stupid.
A real tent and everything...out of a storybook!
Cole enjoyed the trapeze artists
Tickets to the circus: $33
900 grams of sugar in this enormous cotton candy: $5
Years of corrective dentistry work: Priceless
He dug the tigers, kind of.
Look at me!
Caden never fails to amaze us lately. He's a trip. For example, I had some time to myself over Easter weekend and Brian and Caden had a dance party while I was gone. When Brian finally told Caden that the party was over and it was time for bed, "No bed Daddy...I JUST WANT TO DANCE." This did not reassure Brian about Caden's future career choice, but it's still funny.
Every kid needs exposure to water balloons.
Cade, Cole will eat that caterpillar if you are not careful.
Digger man
He does much more analytical thinking and starts up conversations. The other night, we were Webcamming with my parents and all of the sudden he started telling her a story about a brown monkey in a tree. He even demonstrated the sounds it made. We were absolutely cracking up. He says some really sweet things too. I absolutely melt every time he says, "Mommy, I love you. You're my best friend." Of course, his best friend changes to Daddy and his Froggy, depending on the day! His favorite activities lately are swinging and riding his gator until the battery dies.
Free landscaping labor
He recently learned how to pedal his bike, which we were SUPER pumped about! We've been working on playing baseball and he's catching on, although he still runs with the bat. He also recently pointed out the letter D to Brian on the cover of a book. WOW. Smarty pants.
St. Patty's Day cookie dough...and he wanted to EAT IT ALL.
Green donuts with Kathleen on St. Patty's Day
Click below to play a video of our future cyclist
Our little "Coltrain" (as Brian calls him) is 9 months old. He can sit steady by himself and recently started crawling. YAY (I think?!). He has 2 teeth and enjoys feeding himself. I let him have his first real food earlier this month...french fries. (A nice healthy choice, I know.) He still craves attention and boy does he let us know it if we do something he isn't a fan of. He pretty much launches into an instant meltdown when he disagrees. He is not a big fan of his highchair and he acts like he's swatting flies (aka, me) the entire time I try to feed him. So as you can imagine, he gets plenty dirty and receives baths frequently. His current favorite activities include eating puffs, playing with cords (to my disdain), and swinging. Oh, and waking up in the middle of the night to have a bottle and hang out with Mommy. Fun fun.
Puffs are my best friend
He always giggles
What's up Grandma
He slept through his first bike ride yesterday
Crawling practice
And here's the REAL thing! Click the video below to see Cole crawl.
Proud of his crawling achievement
He can push that walker anywhere in the house, which is good and bad. Good because he LOVES the freedom. Bad because he gets into everything. I ran out to the garage to change over laundry and he pulled a plant down on him. I suddenly heard "change" hitting the floor and ran in the house thinking Caden scaled the bookshelf to get the can of change. Instead, I found a very upset Cole with an entire potted plant of soil, leaves, and river rocks spilling all over him. I got Mommy of the Year award that day. (NOT.)
Playing in his beloved fruit drawer
Both boys had their milestone appointments last month and they're both in the 90 percentiles for height and weight. I think they weighed Caden incorrectly, but that would not be hard to do since he was SCREAMING the entire time. Cole just watched him quietly, wondering what the heck the commotion was all about. I thought Cade would outgrow this, but apparently I have a "Jeff" on my hands.
I'm probably soaked at this point
We had some very special visitors recently. Pat and Pam made a VERY long trek all the way across the states in their truck to spend a long weekend with us before Brian deploys. I told them at some point they'll have to take a REAL vacation on their spring break instead of visiting or boring crew! We seem to always make them bring us a large piece of furniture too. This time they brought us a gorgeous granite table top that Matt customized for our damaged table. Oh my gosh...it's amazing. Thank you a million times over, Matt, and thank you Pat and Pam for bringing it.
Cole using Papa as furniture
We ate out on the screen porch every night and LOVE our new table top
Pat was only here about an hour before he was showing an itch to work on something. So I started going through my mental list but didn't expect him to cover it all?! He fixed EVERYTHING. And then when he was done fixing things, he went to work improving things. He scrubbed our deck, power-washed the house, raked the yard, cleaned the garage, washed Brian's truck...the list goes on. I kept telling him he could vacation if he wanted, but he said it's his therapy. I paid him in Blue Moon and good food and we called it even.
Meanwhile, Pam enjoyed catching up on her prayers and some sleep. She cooked us her spectacular spaghetti one night. She enjoyed spending time reading to the kids and holding Cole. You can tell how much she misses being around them.
So all in all, it was a quiet trip. We mostly hung out at the house, aside from a date that Brian and I escaped on! We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on March 20.
Where did 6 years go?! Love you more than ever, Brian!
The boys
One last hug before saying goodbye to Brian
So proud of their Gunny
Daryl and Bobbi visited recently also. These newlyweds got married in December, and if you remember, that's the famed trip to nowhere...we tried to attend but never made it because of the snowstorms. What a fun and relaxing weekend we had. Bobbi is a sweetheart and we would not pick anyone else for our DJA! Daryl and Brian were 2 peas in a pod as usual. For once there was no massive grappeling match so my furniture remains intact....BONUS. We had a BBQ and invited over some old friends from RRT. I think Bobbi got an eye-opening to Daryl's years in the Marine Corps!
Frolicking at the beach
It took 2 shampoos to get all the sand out of his hair that night!
Reminiscing about the good ole days with the RRT clan
I think the best part of the weekend however was that they announced that they're PREGNANT! The baby will be due 4 days before Daryl's birthday in November. They are beyond excited, and they are definitely ready to be parents. Daryl even practiced on Cole, feeding him and holding him.
Bobbi judges the future Dad...pass or fail, Bobbi?!
The other main thing that went on recently Brian and I went on a race date! The neighbors watched the boys while we participated in a 4-Mile Mud Run on base. It was a blast!!!!! It was far muddier, steeper, and wetter than we expected. The first 2 miles were nothing but obstacles. We even low-crawled through a creek. The last couple miles were mostly straight-aways, and that's when my pace slowed way down. I realize now that hills are my strength because I feel like a feather when I don't have the stroller. I just got bored and tired on the straight-aways.
Some of the members of my Stroller Warriors Running Club
No big shocker, but Brian won. He did not expect to but he built a big lead right from the start and I knew he'd have it in the bag. We also won the husband/wife team event, and I managed to place 3rd in my age group. So we brought home several medals, and some extremely nasty muddy shoes! Races are "home" to us and we are so lucky to share that passion.
Husband/wife champs
Brian, you smell. Or is that me?
We planned to get in a half marathon date before he leaves, but that isn't going to work out anymore. I will be running that one solo. Mom booked a ticket and will be visiting that weekend so at least I won't be pushing the stroller.
I also went ahead and signed up for my first full marathon to keep me busy while Brian is gone. I'm going to do the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. Since we still have friends in the area, I'll have a place to stay and babysitters too (so excited, Lisa!!!). I'm nervous just thinking about it, but it's time for a new challenge. Some of my running club is going to run it as well so I will have company.
I hope you are all doing well, and enjoying the nice weather! I am SO MUCH HAPPIER now that it's warm and sunny. We spend a lot of time outside, with Caden riding his beloved alliGATOR, playing in the pool, or swinging on the swingset. Beach weather is just around the corner!
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