7 Months Old

Today marks Cole's 7 month birthday and cause for some more pictures.  He's almost bigger than his giraffe, but keeping him upright is a challenge.

Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

We also experimented with some real solids today.  Up until now its just rice cereal, but he's been loving that, so we tried some squash.  The picture below pretty much sums up how he felt about the squash initially.  But after a bit he took down most of the container.  It only gets better from here buddy!

Firsts

We've had lots of firsts around the Hadley house.  As Drew mentioned earlier, Cole began eating rice cereal about a  week ago.  Each night he gets a bit better at keeping more food in his mouth than on his body.  We are so proud of how quickly he is catching on...quite the genius ; )

A few weeks back Drew took off to New Orleans for work - some of our friends and I decided to pass the time in Suncadia.  This was the weekend Cole tried swimming for the first time.  I wish I could say he loved the pool...sadly, all I can say is he didn't hate it.  He was so indifferent to the water - just kept looking at me like I was insane.

 Drew and I are hopeful the water will become a bit more exciting for Cole as he gets older...

Over Mother's Day weekend our friends joined us at the cabin from Boise and the bay area.  Drew and Cole left Seattle on Thursday evening to meet our guests.  I had to work on Friday so Thursday was my first night away from Cole.  I am so grateful my first time away from him was short - I am quickly learning that Cole has me wrapped around his little finger and I just can't be away from him for very long.  I'm hoping our next night away from each other won't be for a long, long time...

My first Mother's Day was wonderful.  Drew spoiled me rotten and Cole was his perfect, wonderful self.  I can never explain just how grateful I am for our family... Life without Drew and Cole is simply unimaginable.

Here are some other photos from the past several weeks...

 

 On 5/9/12, Cole had his 6 month well-baby exam.  Here are the stats (we were AMAZED by how much Cole has grown...obviously we knew he was getting bigger and stronger every day, we were just in awe when we actually saw the numbers!)

Height - 26" (25% percentile)

Weight - 15 lbs. 12 ounces (10% percentile)

Head - 43 1/4 cm (50th percentile)

Another big first happened a while back (on 4/26) but I wanted to make sure to note it on our online journal of sorts.  Cole started rolling over : )  While nobody actually witnessed his first couple times (we would always go in to check in on him after a nap and he would be on his tummy), he is now rolling over every time we put him down!  Apparently being on his back is just not okay any more : )

First solid food

Big news around here is that Cole is starting to eat "solid" foods.  Solid defined as thicker than milk, but we're not exactly chewing food here.  He has been enjoying the attention but swallowing is a skill that has yet to be mastered.  Most of the food ends up on his face, but we're starting to get better results.  Here are a few pictures and a video of the fun.

6 months (and 2 weeks)

Well, as usual, we're behind on the blog, but we certainly celebrated Cole's 6 month mark back on 4/21.  Its incredible how fast (but memorable) time has gone, but as we look back on the last 6 months, overall they've been nothing short of pure bliss.  Of course, there have been plenty of worrisome times, but we couldn't be more pleased with our son.

We had a significant check up last week to see how he was progressing developmentally and all was great.  The physical therapist ran him through a number of tests and he performed very well for his adjusted age.  She commented that he was quite social, as he was generally more interested in the people around, than the toys she had.

He also weighed in at 15 and half pounds and over 2 feet long.  We're quite proud of the little man.  Here is a collage of some of our favorite photos from the last 6 months.  Probably hard to see everything, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

Bouncy Time

Cole has been loving his new bouncer that he got a couple of weeks back.  He's still a little short for it, so we have to put a text book below it, but he'll grow into it.  Here's a video of him enjoying the good times.

Photoshoots

Well, as usual we're well overdue on updating photos, but things have been busy.  We haven't stopped taking pictures though, so you might see a flood of photos here shortly if all goes as planned.  

Below are a few different photo sessions, which as you can see, Cole is a little skeptical of.  He is generally concerned when the camera comes out, so its hard to catch a smile on camera.  There are a few below though, so its getting better!

Below would make a pretty good stop motion video, if you wanted to showcase the rapid change in emotions a baby can exhibit (I'm currently experiencing this change as he sits next to me).

Cousins and Auntie!

Long overdue on this post, but we finally got to see Melissa, Jack and Maggie last weekend.  It was a long awaited and quite worthwhile visit.  It is incredible to see how much the kids have grown and matured.  Jack is wild and inquisitive as ever, but a little more tolerable of the dogs and interested in everything.  Maggie is talking and understanding conversations, but still quite shy!  Last time we saw her I think she was just saying "momma".

Melissa found a VRBO near our house, so it made it quite convenient.  We also got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Hadley for one night; their first time seeing all three grandkids together.

Overall it was a great visit, and we couldn't be happier Melissa made the extreme effort to bring Cole's cousins near (they live in Japan for those that don't know).  I am still waiting on her pictures to be sent to us, but in the meantime, here are some shots from our camera.

 Photoshoot!

 We went to the zoo on Sunday, but none of the animals were up to much on this dreary day.

 Maggie was not a fan of the giraffe (or many of the animals for that matter!)

 I thought I had Cole in this picture too, but I guess not.  Sorry bud!

Jack messing with the monkeys.