9 month well-baby checkup

A bit late of a post, but back on 8/9 Cole had his 9 month well-baby checkup with his pediatrician.  Cole did his best to make Drew and I look like bad parents : (  Drew was meeting us at the appointment straight from work so I was mortified when I heard the all too familiar sound of a very full diaper from the backseat!  Not only did I know the blowout was inevitable, but I also realized I had cleaned out my diaper bag the night before when I took Cole over to a friend's house - that meant no backup outfit!  

Sure enough, when we got to the doctor's office I asked if we could use the restroom right away and we discovered Cole had made a very fine mess of himself.  Drew and I then had the pleasure of walking Cole around the doctor's office in nothing but a diaper.  We must have looked quite incompetent to the other parents in the office : )

Here are Cole's all too impressive stats from the appointment:

Height - 28" (40th percentile)

Weight - 17 lbs. 11 ozs. (20th percentile)

Head - 45 1/2 cms (75th percentile)

Here are a couple photos of the last couple weeks as well.

Eating like a big boy at the table

Play date with Cade and Liz at Greenlake - hard to believe these two will be 10 months tomorrow!

Practicing feeding himself Cheerios - as you can see, we've got lots of room for improvement : )

Trying to figure out how this spoon thing works

Getting better every day : )

Cole's first trip on a ferry - I wish we would have had a camera instead of just my cell phone !

Grandma Dee

On July 26th, our family lost a great member.  Dee Hadley, the last of my grandparents, passed away from complications from leg surgery.  It was very hard to take the news, but we've definitely focused on the positives of all she was able to accomplish in life and how many people she affected.  I'm also able to take solace in the fact that I had so many quality years with her.  Growing up a few blocks away leads to a lot of time together, whether it was playing cards, helping around the house or just going over for dinner.  I have so many fond memories of time with my grandparents, so the only sadness I have is that there will be no more.

We traveled to Longview in June to introduce Cole to Grandma Dee.  I am so grateful we were able to do to that as she was delighted to spend time with him.  It gave us all one more chance to tell her we loved her and share some quality time together as it was becoming apparent her time was getting shorter.

Overall its been a tough year for our house with 3 Grandmothers passing in short time.  However, to look at the other side, Cole was very lucky to have met 3 (and soon to be 4) great-grandparents.  That is something not many have the opportunity to do.

To close, Dee's memorial was wonderful.  My sister, Melissa, spoke and did an incredible job of capturing a lot of the love I had for grandma.  She also had a number of other family members and a couple of friends say some wonderful words.  If you're interested in hearing more about Dee, here is an article written by The Daily News in Longview on Dee's life.

Learning to spit

Of all the things to be learning, Cole is certainly making his parents proud.  Lately he's been really enjoying his new found ability to spit.  Usually its just spitting air, but he does occasionally utilize the technique while being fed.  Its pretty comical.... especially when its 6am and you're trying to get ready for work.

Here are a couple of videos to prove it.  They are both about 40 seconds long, so if you can only watch one, do the second.