Cole tells me he loves me..

Music to my ears....even though he has no idea what he is saying!

A time of Thanks!

We have a lot to be Thankful for here in the Schwartz household. Even though I don't love living in Arizona, we both have good jobs, we have a nice house, and we have loads of wonderful family and friends (even if most of them live in other states!). So lots to be thankful for.

Mostly this year we are thankful for Cole - he is such a fun baby/little boy and we are blessed to have had a happy, healthy first 1o months under our belts.

Due to Chris' work schedule it is hard for us to travel for Thanksgiving. We have been with friends the past couple of years, but this year celebrated just the 3 of us. We had a yummy dinner. Below are some videos from the day - we are still waiting to purchase a camera.

I can crawl!

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I am sure anyone who reads this blog must be used to it!

We still don't have a camera (we are thinking of getting one for Christmas!) so we are operating off taking videos and pulling stills from them for photos. Or, in the case of this blog, just sharing the videos.

Cole is now 10 months old. He has changed so much recently and is so much fun! He can crawl now and is working on walking. He loves to cruise around, either on the furniture or holding our fingers. He is very vocal, loves to smile and just is coming out of a period of "strangers=danger" where he always preferred to be held my mom and dad!

Chris and I are both doing well. We are keeping busy with work. We just put the house on the market this week. We had an open house yesterday and had a great turnout. Hopefully we will get the house sold in the next few months. Aside from that, not much else is new.

Here is a recent video of Cole crawling. He is a bit faster now and has straightened it out a bit!

Trying to crawl

Cole is getting pretty close to crawling! Probably any day now. Here he is showing his form.

He also just had his 9 month check up. He is 18 lbs 2 oz, 28 inches (I think) and he has two teeth! Teething has not been the funnest thing, but he is getting by and so are mom and dad.

Dang...that's impressive!

Cole was getting his jump on in his exersaucer while Kurtis was watching. Cole has some amazing bounce skills which Kurtis really appreciates. Check out Kurtis in the background be struck with awe as Cole jumps.

My ears!

This video is from August, but I thought I would still share as it is pretty funny. He can't handle the sound of his own shriek.

Is it just me, or does this photo make my lips look big?

No more lip plumping for Cole!

Cole and Kurtis meet!

Cole has had a very fun couple of weeks! Two weeks ago, he got to meet his cousin Kurtis for the first time. Matt, Riana and Grandma were all here as well. We all went to the pool, the playground, cooked good food, and just generally had a great time! It was so fun to see the family - Matt and Ri hadn't been down to Vegas for a year and it was Grandma's first trip back to the Mainland since moving to Hawaii. The next weekend we all headed to CA to celebrate Papa Spicer's 60th birthday. Unfortunately, we had a mishap with the diaper bag and the camera (leaking baby bottle - oh no!) so we have no pictures from that weekend and need to buy a new camera!

Who loves the bath?

Cole has graduated from sitting in a "baby" bath in the big tub, to just sitting up and chillin in the water. He absolutely loves it. He loves to splash Chris and I. He gets this really deep look of concentration on his face while he splashes the water and sometimes acts surprised when he gets his face all wet. It's that casue and effect thing he doesn't have down yet. Regardless, bath time = fun time at the Schwartz house.



Enjoy!

Cole with Family

Here are various pictures of Cole with my side of the family from our summer visits. We are hoping to get to Iowa on Labor Day so Cole can hang with the Schwartz' too! It will be Cole's first plane ride, and hopefully he will do great, since he is going to be visiting his grandma in Hawaii and his family in Iowa for years to come. We got lucky with one set of grandparents in driving distance!

Sunny San Diego

We have visited San Diego twice this summer. Once with Cole, and once without. Here is a photo from the first trip. Cole and I (along with Alli) visited Balboa Park. We took a nice walk and posed for a photo opp. It is really important to me that Cole LOVE San Diego. Maybe we will live there again one day, but if we don't I still want to visit as often as possible.

Cole also got to meet some of my friends from LEGOLAND. Here he is with Julie, Pernille, and Heather!

The next time we went to San Diego was just last weekend. We went with some friends that own race horses, so it was a very "VIP" experience at the track. Here is world-famous jockey Mike Smith riding their horse in a "work" or practice ride. This is on Sunday a.m. when it is just owners, trainers and jockeys and the track. We got the whole behind the scenes tour! We also had a sweet table the day before.

Here are Chris and I at Del Mar on Saturday in the "inner circle" at the paddock at the track. It was really cool - this is where all the horses are prepped before the race and "shown" to the crowds of gamblers. What you can't see is Mario Lopez, who also was at the track, standing just off-camera on my right.

Prunes....so good, so messy!

Cole is doing a great job with eating baby food. He seems to like just about every flavor and as long as we give him small bites, he generally stays clean.

That was, until we introduced prunes. I am not sure why - he liked them - but for some reason eating prunes resulted im the biggest baby food mess of all time.

I don't think it will always be this messy to eat prunes, but just in case, all prunes have been taken to daycare for them to feed to Cole!

6 Months

Well, Cole had his 6 month check up last week. He is doing great across the board. He was 27" long (75%) and almost 15 lbs (25%). Cole's weight "fell off" the curve a bit, so the Dr. asked to see him again in a month for a weight check. Apparently he got longer without getting heavier - who would have thought with Chris and I as parents!!!

We have him on solids now 3x a day and I swear he is already bigger.

Not much else to report. He is a really happy baby, laughs a lot, rarely cries and is generally really laid back. His latest "party trick" is sitting up, which he can do for 2o minutes or longer without falling over. He rolls over from his tummy to back, but has yet to do it in public - we just fine him flipped over in his crib!

Here is a video of Cole cracking up at me - I am showing him my muscles!!

My first girlfriend

So, Cole already has a girlfriend lined up for when the time comes. My good friend Danille's little girl Kate definitely has a hold of Cole's heart - at least if Danielle and I have anything to say about it!

Here are some moments from their second meeting. Love at second site.

Thank You Grandma!

Cole is well on his way to enjoying a variety of baby food. He has liked it all - but leans towards bananas as his favorite and peas as his least favorite (so far). He seems to really enjoy eating, and tends to follow the spoon with his open mouth, lean in and take pretty big bites.

Here is a quick video of his first run with apples - clearly a winner!!

Once again, yes I still plan to blog.

So it appears that I might be the worst blogger ever. It is not that I don't want to update, post all the amazing stuff Cole does, etc. I just find myself coming home and not being drawn toward the computer. So, all I can really keep saying is I will try to find blogging more appetizing. Perhaps this glass of wine I am having has something to do with it. In the interest of a scientific study, I will try to have a glass of wine each night this week to unwind to see it if leads me to be better at blogging.

Trevor and Aunt Janet in Cali A lot has been happening lately....SEA LIFE continues to be really busy. Chris isn't quite as busy at work right now, since we are now rarely below 110 degrees in the day - not prime golfing weather!! So, he was able to escape to Bandon Dunes in Oregon for 5 days last week. He had a great time. Aunt Janet has said we all need to rent a house up there for a family vacation and I think she has likely won Chris over now.

Cole about 6 months

Let's see...the coolest thing we have done recently (well, the beginning of July - is that still recent?) was to travel to California to introduce Cole to all our Cali friends and family. We had so much fun. Cole was a champion on the car rides and for the most part got a perfect 10 for baby behavior. There was one small misstep at his Aunt Cyndie's house when he was meeting Cyndie and Pollywog. A major breakdown - probably the worst he has ever had. I am going to chalk it up to stranger danger, but it could have been he was jealous of the way I was only paying attention to the delicious Pizza Nova we were eating. Anyone would be jealous when they feel the love I have for that food...I would KILL to have a Pizza Nova out here.

Baby Seth

What else....we stayed with Alli and Brian one night so Cole got to meet a potential girlfriend in-utero. Alli is about 6 months prego so we figure this was Cole's first opportunity to meet Baby Girl Elliott. He already has been betrothed to Kate Ryan, but I think he can try to date both of them at some point before deciding on a lifetime love.


In addition to San Diego we spent a lot of time in Monrovia with family where Cole got to meet a whole host of people, most importantly his cousins! He also spent some quality time with Nani and Papa Spicer and Aunt Janet.


Overall, we had a wonderful trip and traveling with Cole turned out to be pretty easy - although we still have to conquer that plane thing.

Happy Father's Day

Chris, Cole and I had a great day today. The day started with a homemade breakfast for Daddy - eggs, sausage and monkey bread! Delicious! Then, we spent the day hanging out with Cole and Daddy getting some quality time. Cole is working on perfecting sitting up, so we cleared out the coffee table to give him lots of carpet to work with. He did a great job, and by the time we are in CA next week I think he will have sitting down.

The US open was on, so Cole threw on a sweater vest and hat to watch with Dad. I think Cole already is hooked. There is no escaping golf as a part of his future.Chris and I topped the night off with steaks and a bottle of wine....all in all, a perfect day!

Yes, I still plan to blog!

Well, it has been a while since I shared an update from Arizona. All is well in the land of heat - we have just been incredibly busy! I am going to try to give the quick version of what we have been up to, and throw in some recent photos of Cole so you can all see how he is looking now that he is almost 5 months!

SEA LIFE Arizona officially opened on May 14 and it has been nonstop ever since. The aquarium is doing great. Too great at times. I have been literally burried in work ever since the opening. My hectic work schedule has me staying at work a couple of times a week until around 9, which has given Chris and Cole some great father -son time. Chris is so good with Cole - they love to hang together. Cole already has seen the French Open, Stanley Cup, NBA playoffs, etc. I know babies shouldn't watch a lot of TV but they are just too stinkin cute when they sit on the couch together.

Cole is getting big - he was 13 lbs on May 17, so I am sure he is even bigger now. He is still on the light side for his age (25% percentile) and long (75% percentile). He is a really happy baby - loves to smile. In recent weeks he also has started laughing a lot, rolling on to one side (but not over) and eating rice cereal. We are very proud parents.

Chris and I celebrated our 4 year anniversay on May 30. Our friends Lizzie and Greg watched Cole and we went out to dinner. Hard to believe it has already been 4 years of marriage.

Sorry for the one long post, but I thought it would be easier to do a quick catch up rather than trying to post seperately for all that has gone on in the last month!

I'm a model, you know what I mean!

No, we haven't started Cole in modeling school or anything, but you have to admit, dude is working it big time in these photos....Ralph Lauren, eat your heart out!

Catch up!

We have had a busy month or so here at Casa de Schwartz. It started (I think, it is hard to remember who came first) with Cole's Great Aunt Janet coming to town. We had a wonderful time with her. Cole loved getting to meet her and shared lots of love with her. He was feeling super-duper, as he got two new quilts to play on! One hand made by Aunt Janet and the other by her friend Terri! So awesome.

The next week our good friends Alli and Brian came out. They brought their dog Bailey. We were all anxious to see how PJ and Bailey would get along, but all worked out well. Cole was a real champ, and impressed our guests with what a good baby he is!

Next came Danielle and Jamie and their daughter Kate (Cole's future girlfriend). Unfortunately, Cole got a cold this weekend (as noted in my last post), but we still had a nice weekend. I was a little worried since Cole has never been sick before, but aside from a minor poolside break down, he did OK. It was fun to see Kate and imagine what Cole will be like in 5 months. More fun, but louder....seems like a fair trade. I will post some photo from their visit in another post, as they have a paparazzi-style camera that snaps like 100 photos a second. So I need to go through and pick out the best ones.

This weekend brought my mom and her boyfriend Rodney. Cole has rebounded a bit from his cold and is feeling better, although he can still shoot big boogers out of his nose when he sneezes. Having many wonderful visitors has kept us busy and the house full, which we love!! Cole loves meeting all his friends and we love having our friends and family around.

Well, that is the major update post. More photos and stories to come...

Cole is sick

We have had a good couple of weeks with lots of visitors....more to come on that later. But, the bad news is after 3 weeks of daycare, Cole has his first cold. So send him happy thoughts to get better.

Here is a great shot of him from Easter....enjoy.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter my peeps!

Getting strong...

Cole has been holding his head up pretty well lately. He especially loves to practice when we are carrying him around. He will lift his head off our shoulder and look all around the room to see what is going on. He is still a little wobbly, but he is getting nice and strong.

P.S. - check out those eyelashes....

Day Care - the first week

Well, it is official - Cole has entered the daycare arena. We just completed his first week of going to "school" everyday and Cole did great! His teachers all love him already, especially the morning teacher who already called him her fave. We aren't surprised, because Cole is the happiest morning baby...I mean he is generally pretty pleasant, but in the morning he really shines.

I made it through the week with only crying once (the first day) and calling twice to check on him (day 1 and 2). I feel pretty good now with him being there. The teachers all seem top-notch and I love the little reports we get each day on what he did. Here is a sample:

This week's theme: Water (each week they have a theme they learn about, even in the infant room!)

Language Arts: We practiced making swishing sounds like water

Cognitive development: We pretended to row our boats and wave our arms

Music: We sang row, row, row, your boat

Creative art: we painted with colored ice cubes

Motor skills: We tried pulling ourselves up with the help of our teachers

Self Help: we practiced the sign language sign for "eat"

Sensory stimulation: we squeezed water out of a wet sponge

So, as you can see, Cole is busy each day doing all kinds of fun things.

Here is a photo of Day 1 before we left. As you can see, he is protesting a bit:

But, by Day 2 he was all good!

Aunt Cindy!

Cole, Chris and I had a real treat last week when Aunt Cindy, Chris' sister, came to stay with us for a week. She watched Cole during the day while we were at work, and then we all got to spend the evenings together. Cindy was like superwoman - I would come home and she would have vacuumed, done the dishes, started laundry and baked cookies - all while watching Cole. It truly amazed me, as when I stayed home with him I felt accomplished if I showered and brushed my teeth. She did have the advantage of getting him to nap during the day - we have found the trick to be putting him down on his stomach. But regardless, you can tell she has some serious mommy and multi-tasking skills!!

We miss her already, but she has promised to come back soon and hopefully bring Cole's cousins Jenny and Sarah next time! We hope to make it out to Iowa too.

Bad habits start early..

Here is a video of Cole from a few weeks ago. He really started to take an interest in the TV when it was on- we think he liked the pictures/shadows moving on the screen. I was a bit worried since bad habits (like excessive TV watching) start early, but I figured it couldn't hurt him as long as we balanced it with a lot of reading too!!

Now that he is at daycare he doesn't really have time to tune in the way he did when he stayed at home. The same goes for me, and I have to admit, I miss me a little Regis and Kelly!

The written word...

There has been a request among the blog readers that I add more text to my posts. I hate to think I am a lazy blogger, but just throwing a photo up is so much easier. But, Cole is much more than a handsome face. So I am going to do my best to add some additional color to my posts.

Cole had his two week appointment last week. He weighed in at 10 lbs, 11 oz....so he has put on more than 4 lbs since birth. He was 23 inches long, which is a growth of more than 2 inches - but it really seems like he is longer than that! He is pretty average when you talk "percentiles" and if anything is on the low side on weight. He took his shots like a champ - 5 in all!

He is getting a really strong neck, moves his head back and forth, LOVES to smile, and in general seems to be hitting all his developmental milestones. He discovered his fist recently and now constantly has it in his mouth! He also takes swipes at toys, talks back to us when we talk to him, and moves his arms and legs all the time.

Tomorrow is his first day at daycare, which is a big step for both of us. We are sure he will do great, and hopeful that I will do great too :)

More to come....

My clothes say it all!

Lovin on Grandma!

Cole got to spend all last week with his Grandma. He had a fabulous time hanging with her. They went for walks, played and best of all, Grandma sang to him! Here are some pics of Cole giving Grandma the "I love you" eyes and smile.

Mom and her boy

Since I am normally behind the camera, there aren't a ton of pictures with me and Cole. We took these ones the other night while Cole was out cold....

Sweet face....

This is the face that just melts our hearts.....watch out ladies, he's a heartbreaker.

Onesies!!

Cole's Aunts Alli and Danielle threw a kick-ass shower for him back in November. As a part of the festivities, all the ladies made him some onesies. At first Cole didn't fit into any of them, but now that he has gotten his growth on, he can sport them around. Here are a couple he wore last week:
This one was created by his girl Liliana Mendoza...she is about 15 months old, so Cole is considering dating older women. This one was made by his homies (and Mom's good friends) Heather and Pernille. Even babies love Perez. And, the cream of the crop, the Pizza Nova onesie. Designed (free hand, from memory) by his Aunt Cyndie, Cole is proof you are never to young to crave bollas and chicken tequila fettuccine. This onesie is signed by all the Pizza Nova girls!

Hello!

Schwartz Family Shots

Chris; parents also came to visit for a week! It was great to spend time with them. They treated us not only to their company, but made us many yummy dinners and baked goods. The glazed salmon and rocky road bars were the biggest hits!

Spicer family shots!

My family came to visit a couple of weeks ago from So Cal. Here are some shots from thier visit. Cole was especially excited to see his cousin Seth again, even if he hasn't entered the "real" world yet.