coledykes.com

Oops.  It’s been 3 months since my last blog. This summer has come and gone in a flash. I decided to take a summer vacation from blogging as you can see. But I’m back at it. In the last 3 months Cole has flourished into such a big boy. He talks really well for a 2 year old as I can pretty much understand all he says. He’s counting to 10 and knows at least 5 of his colors. What a champ!

June was a pretty busy month. We started it out by going to Cole’s cousin Madeline’s 3rd birthday party. Cole had a great time playing in Emily and Madeline’s playroom. All those toys for him to dump!

He also loved the water squirt game. Cole says, “Put em up!”

Luckily Yaya was there to help him aim into the doggy bowl.

The best part according to Cole was the pinata of course! All that loot.

The following day we went to a park that had a giant space shuttle for the kids to climb up. Dan remembers playing at this park when he was younger. It’s a bit unsafe but it sure looked cool.

Cole didn’t waste any time. There was a smaller structure for tykes his size.

There’s also a huge airplane just sitting there for kids to climb up. Cole wasn’t really interested though. Good thing.

Cole is also Mr. Legoman these days. He loves loves loves his Legos.

He’s so proud of himself.

He’s showing off his hard work. Great job Cole!

For Father’s Day, Cole wore his matchy matchy island outfit. He really likes this outfit too. Everytime he sees it in his dresser he wants to put it on.

Cole spent a lot of the time with his cousin Madeline staring out at the pool.

Or playing with the bouncy ball.

We also got to squeeze in a Father’s Day picture with daddy.

Right after Father’s Day we headed to San Onofre Beach for a few days of camping. Cole got quickly attached to his friend Ava’s fishing pole.

San Onofre was a beautiful beach but the camping sure was dirty. It was extra dirty and the only water source was surrounded by bees. Cole spent most of the days looking like this.

Uh oh. Did someone forget to nap today?

Well folks, that’s how Cole spent his June. But there’s two more months of summer to blog about. See you real soon.

Hey Cole! What did the Easter bunny get you this year? Apparently lots of candy.  ***And if you’re wondering, yes, he’s wearing Christmas jammies on Easter Day.  Good one Mommy.

And a Toy Story baseball bat and ball too! He’s excited about the new movie coming out this summer.

He also got a super hero cape from his Papa and Yaya.

For the Easter party with his cousins Cole looked super dapper. He got lots of compliments on his cool hat.

When it came time for the Easter egg hunt guess who knew exactly what to do.

Especially when the eggs were hidden around his height. Good hunting Cole.

It was time to open all his eggs that contained lots of money and candy. He scored big this year. Num num num!

About once a week I take the kids to the mall playground to break up the park monotony.

But most of the time it ends up like this. Cole and Grace just sitting around looking extremely bored. Give Mommy a break kids!

Cole also got to experience St. Patty’s day at Grace’s school again. This year, he’s bigger and wants to do all the things they do.

Including eating all the goodies.

I like to call Cole my little “collector” because he loves to collect items around the house and gather them under the dining table. Under the table is his favorite spot.

Later that weekend, we drove over to Santa Barbara for some shopping time for Mommy and park time with Daddy. They spent some time at the duck pond.

The whole time there I was just waiting for Cole to jump in and swim with the duckies but luckily Daddy was there to supervise.

When not at the park, they kids were playing inside their playhouse tent.

So what does Cole and Mommy do all morning while Grace is at school. Why take self portraits of course. Cole is a pro at saying “cheese”.

It was $1 scoop Tuesday at Baskin Robbins so I took the kids for a tasty treat. Cole insisted on eating his ice cream off the cone and not the cup.

He had a great teacher.

Not only is Cole eating ice cream off the cone, he’s eating his cereal in a bowl with milk.

Guess who came for a visit at our house?

Papa and Yaya!

Cole spent most of the time in the sandbox they gave him for his 1st birthday.

March was a busy month. Now it’s time for a picnic at, where else, the park! Byeee!

It’s spring?  Wha?  Where did winter go?  Mr. Time has certainly not been my friend these days.  I’m starting to realize that while being a stay-at-home mom is the best job in the world, you tend to lose track of time.  That is mostly because a lot of my days are identical!  Luckily, I have a crazy growing toddler and his big sister to chase after to keep me on my toes and put me in check.

While his big sister was at school, I took Cole to the toddler storytime at the Camarillo Library.  He was amazingly well behaved too.  Afterward, it was craft time.  Cole got to decorate a cake with crayons and stickers to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

If you haven’t guessed already, Cole is a character. He loves to hang out in the bushes at this one park and sit on all the plants there. No he didn’t fall. This was totally intentional.

He likes the prickly feeling against his face.

He also likes to hug and sit on Grace too. She doesn’t seem to mind.

Guess who got his very own pair of sunglasses? Too cool for school.

See what I mean? A character that kid is.

During Grace’s ballet classes I bring Cole along because he won’t let me drop him off at the Y daycare. The snacks and water keep him occupied.

On a recent trip to Idyllwild Yaya got Cole an awesome red cowboy hat. Don’t mind the silly face. He really does love it.

Well that pretty much covers the first half of March. Check back later for more about Cole and his crazy silly faces.

I am the infamous wizard Cole!

There is no match to my skills.

Who is that? Sorceress Grace! Noooooo!

Clang! Clang! Hey! You stole my outfit.

Look! It’s the evil dragon Daddy.

Together, we must use our wizardry to destroy him!

Yes! I’ve defeated the evil dragon Daddy. RIP.

Time for some lunch.

Well, it looks like I’m at a blogging pace of once per month. Sorry folks. Time is not on my side these days. I don’t know where it goes. So what is Cole up to lately? What isn’t he up to is the better question. This kid gets into everything! He is a true 1 1/2 year old. In fact, like his big sis, he’s showing signs of the terrible two’s already.

He is very independent and wants to do everything himself. Including water color painting.

He sure has fun being a big boy.

It also helps that Cole has a big sister as a great role model. He does everything she does. Even sitting quietly to have a snack while watching a show.

Since getting his bubble lawn mower, Cole is pretty obsessed with bubbles. He is still learning how to blow them himself. Right now the wand just ends up in his mouth. Surprise, surprise.

But with a little help from big sis, he is blowing bubbles like a big boy.

He is also getting more interested in dress-up time. Sadly he only has access to princess dresses and tiaras.

And high heels too.

OK, we have a few boy things for him to wear including this fireman’s hat.  Perfect for a little boy. I’m a pretty talented photographer. I captured his drool mid-drip.

We also got this cute mini poncho from Yaya’s house. This was Dan’s when he was little.

On a recent trip to the craft store Grace found a perfect costume for both girls and boys. A wizard’s hat and cape. Cole only wanted to wear the hat. He’s the only 19 month old I know who will keep his hat on.

For Valentine’s Day, Mommy and Daddy got the kids a little surprise. As you can see they were both excited to see what they got.

Cole is showing off his goodies.  Num num.  Candy!

We also go to the park A LOT! I try to rotate which park we play at each day. I don’t mind it and the kids still love playing at the park. And the best part is that it’s free. This time I bought $1 balloon balls for Grace and Cole to play with while at the park. They both had the same idea. To walk around with a big preggo belly.

They even went down the slide with their big bellies.

When they are not at the park, the kids are at home fooling around. Since Cole is a little older, he is able to socialize more and actually play with Grace. It’s a lot easier for me to cook as well. For Christmas, Grace got this cool glow in the dark dome that you draw on. Cole knows how to use it too.

You little stinkers are too funny. They’re coming up with new ways to use the dome apparently.

Later dudes! We’ve got another park to go to.

January was a very busy month.  Cole turned 18 months and is already starting to show signs of the terrible twos.  He he.  No not really.  He’s just really curious.

Like I posted in Grace’s blog we spent a lot of January celebrating birthdays.  Cole was more than happy to hang out and eat cake and play with balloons, which he calls ball, but close enough.

Cole was brave enough to bounce around at the jumpers at Pump It Up too.

But the eating the birthday cake part was definitely his all time favorite thing to do. And boy did he get to have a lot of cake last month. Bad Mommy.

When we took Grace to play miniature golf with Ava I was concerned about how Cole would do. You see, he likes to wander a bit. But he did great. He liked to pick up the ball and put it into the hole himself.

Did somebody say birthday? Cole was first to sit in his chair to eat ice cream sundaes for Ava’s birthday.

At the Clubhouse for Ava’s party, I knew Cole would have a great time there too. It’s a perfect spot for older kids and kids his age. Cole is also obsessed with air hockey like Grace so he begged Daddy to play with him.

Cole spent a great deal of time playing with the choo choo trains too.

Balls! Balls! Balls!

Now that he’s older, Cole is enjoying time in the swing. He likes to say “wee wee” while swinging.

Bath time is fun as ever as Cole loves to play with the bubbles. Guess which one is the stinker who likes to splash water all over the place?

He’s also getting into building forts. Lucky for him he has a big sister who is a pro at building them.

Sweet sweet smoothie. How I love thee. Gotta run.

As we all know Cole is afraid of loud noises like the weekly trash truck, motorcycles, and apparently mini ATVs. For Christmas Yaya and Papa got Cole a super cool ATV for ride around.

It was love at first sight for Cole.  He loves loves loves ride-em toys.

He was ready for some serious cruisin’.

But unfortunately, that love turned to fear once the battery was all charged up and started to make vroom vroom sounds. It was all over. Now, Cole prefers to just push it around himself.

For now, Cole is content with little trucks he can play in the sand with. He likes to make the vroom vroom sound himself too.

Trucks?! I don’t need no stinkin’ trucks! Byeeeee!

Hi there!  Cole here.  I just wanted to share with you how my 2nd Christmas went.  My mom says I’m still too young to really understand the concept of Christmas and that Santa guy but I still had lots of fun.

On Christmas Eve, Daddy read me a great story before we headed to the family party. I just love reading with my Daddy.

At the party, I got to play with my cousin Madeline. She’s the cousin who is closest in age to me. I like to follow her around.

But most of the time I pushed around this music making toy. I like to push toys around. I hope I get something to push from Santa.

While Grace and the other cousins were doing karaoke, I was trying to get my Mom to tickle me.

All the presents wore me out. I was ready for bed in my sock monkey jammies. This time, Uncle Shane and I were giving my Aunt Cara a big hug.

On Christmas morning, I received the best gift ever! It’s something I can push, it blows bubbles, and while pushing it, I look just like my Daddy. It’s my very own lawn mower. Now I can help him mow the lawn on the weekends.

Some gifts I received was a trash truck. My Papa and Yaya felt that it might help me over come my fear of the dreaded weekly trash truck.

And I also got this cool Kawasaki ATV (more on this later). Thanks everyone for the best Christmas ever! I’ve got some crusin’ to do.

Hello again. It’s me Cole. I just wanted to share an awesome experience I had recently at my friend Diego’s 3rd birthday last month. It was so cool. Can you say Star Wars theme. My Dad’s dream party. Oh yeah, my sister is super busy blogging about her Scooby Doo birthday party so I’ll include her in on this post too.

Well, here I am practicing my Jedi skills. I know, I’m a natural.

The party started off like any other party with some good eats.

Then it was time for some crafts.

Hey Stormtrooper Grace! Quit fooling around. It’s time for the pinata!

It was a Darth Vader pinata by the way.

I’m too little to hit a pinata but my sister did a great job. I think this was the first time Grace has hit a pinata. She’s so cool.

Ah ha! I found me some loot. Num num num.

Afterward was the Clone Wars movie viewing in the next room. We had popcorn too.

Finally it was time for our special guests to arrive. Grace couldn’t contain herself she was so curious.

Could it be? The Obi Wan Kenobi!

He was there to teach all the young ones how to fight like a Jedi.

This was when it got real fun. Darth Vader made an appearance too.

But he had the dark side on his mind. It was a great fight.

In the end, Obi Wan and Darth Vader made up and became good friends.

It was time for cupcakes that had blue icing on it. Grace was showing off her blue tongue.

No blue icing for me. Just plain old vanilla. But I wanted to make sure my tongue didn’t turn blue anyways.

Thanks Diego for an awesome party. Hey, you got a little something on your face birthday boy.

Wow, this blogging stuff is hard work. I don’t know how my Mom does it. See ya next time.