Playing Outside

Today after we came home from our walk/park outing, we came through the back garage door and Cole kind of lingered outside playing/exploring. I decided I'd head in and get lunch started, keeping a watchful eye out the window. 

I know he's not old enough to be out there on his own for long, but he spent a few minutes playing (and, come to find out, pooping!).  I couldn't help but think to the future, of days when he'll go out to play and I'll call him in to lunch! What a fun thought!

He pulled a flower up and got dirt all over him. 

"Cheese" he said. 

Someone on Facebook talked about Cole's generation being the most photographed generation, and I believe it! I wonder how that'll affect things. 

Trash Man

Cole has always loved to find trash at the park and put it in the trash can, but somewhere along the line he got tall enough to put it in HIMSELF!

Here he was today...

Looking intently for buried treasure...

Our baby's growing up! Getting taller!

Norma and Abby Visit, day 2

Before Abby and Norma came, we talked on email a little bit about what we wanted to do. Abby wanted to eat healthy and go on walks (which was really fun to try and do - minus all the Halloween candy hanging around). Norma wanted to play games and get to know Cole (Norma was the winner a lot of the weekend - Ticket to Ride and Nerts - and definitely a winner with Cole!). And I was glad to do all that and wanted Abby to go through my clothes with me and help me decide what to get rid of and how to wear what I already have. And, we all got what we wanted!

Back story: when I moved into our house after getting married, I decided to put my hang up clothes in the office closet rather than try to make space in our room where Marc's clothes already were. We have pretty small closets. In the whirlwind of Cole being born, the office *slowly* transformed into his room but some less necessary things never really switched over - including the majority of the clothes in my closet. I had pulled out the clothes I wore most often and left the rest alone. 

So, with Abby, I pulled all those clothes out and went "shopping" in my closet. I found shirts I didn't even remember I had - A few that still had tags on them. And then, it was super easy to get rid of stuff - because I hadn't worn it in over a year (and because Abby was the voice of reason and fashion). I filled two big trash bags to get rid of. I didn't even know I had that many clothes! It's been fun this week with all my "new" clothes from the other room. 

Here's the empty hangers from my old closet.

 I moved some of Marc's old shirts into Cole's room to make room in our closet. And everything fits!  

When we were first married, Marc would joke about how we had a 70/30 agreement. He got 70% of the bed (or the dessert or the meal or the couch or whatever) and I got the remaining 30. I think you'd say that the roles have reversed in our closet - 30/70 split. And Marc hasn't made a fuss!

Thanks, Abby, for all your help. I never would have done that without you and it feels so good to have it done!

The rest of that day we spent eating girly salad, relaxing, napping, watching the movie Chef, that Marc picked out for us, and eating a delicious grilled steak and chicken meal. We also managed to get one last game of Ticket to Ride in by justifying that we would be gaining an hour with the time change. (Cole missed the memo on that one and woke up at 5:00 am, new time...ugh!).

Here's Cole and Abby the next morning having fun on the kitchen floor making/watching videos. 

I'm so glad they came to visit! I love having my family visit!

Norma and Abby Came to Visit, Day 1

From Dana:

Norma and Abby came to visit! We loved it! Cole took right to them. Here he is the first morning sidling up to Norma right off the bat as they looked through his adoption story book together. 

The first day they were there, I had to go to Election school to get prepped for working the election polls. So, Norma and Abby stepped in to watch Cole. Abby even changed a poopy diaper (thanks, Ab!).

We walked downtown to run some errands and go to the pizza place for lunch then back home for Cole's nap and a game of Ticket to Ride (after Abby went on a jog - way to go!). In unbelievable style, Norma managed to get 210 points - that's TWICE around the scoreboard! Here's proof...

We had never witnessed such a score. Here's how Abby felt...

Cole woke up and it was into his Halloween costume and into his stroller to head downtown for Sublette's uber-cool trick or treating on Main Street after school. He got lots of compliments on his costume. He's just one cute kid!

We started off at the courthouse and Cole seemed in a daze. He couldn't figure out what was going on and just tried to take it all in. 

He got the hang of it. 

Here are two of Cole's supportive companions. 

We didn't go back out trick or treating after supper but we did stop at a few houses on the way back from downtown. 

Grandma's

Le, across the street

We had our traditional chili supper before Marc made it home from work. 

We didn't have tons of trick or treaters. Or maybe we had more than I realize, but can't tell since we had so much candy leftover.

  It was a fun day to share with Norma and Abby. I loved having them here!

Thanksgiving 5k!

About a month ago, Abby stayed the night at our house and talked about how she was doing the Couch to 5k. If you haven't heard of it, it is a step by step layout of how you can be a person who does no exercise one day (lying on the couch) to a person who can run a 5k (after 8 weeks on this program). I had heard a lot of people doing it a couple years ago but the concept had kind of died out. But when Abby was at our house, she got up in the morning and ran! It really gave me motivation! She said she was doing it in order to get ready for the Thanksgiving 5k and if I started right then, I'd be ready for the 5k too. 

Now you all know me - you know I'm not a runner. The running (and even, dare I say ATHLETIC) genes were give to my other siblings. But I had been looking for a way to work out and didn't want to pay for a gym so....here it was! The most appealing thing about it is that you only have to run three days a week. With me working 3, 12-hour days, it's pretty hard to run on any of those days so this was perfect!

I am finishing up week 6. I ran TWO MILES last week! I had never even ran ONE mile EVER in my life! I know this sounds minimal to all you runners but it's a huge deal for me. And it's been so great to have Abby to talk to because she's a week ahead of me and it's good to get/give encouragement. 

Another fun thing is when Elsy sees me getting my workout clothes on, she says, "Mommy running?" And then she likes to stretch with me. Here are some of her stretches. 

Dave did it!

Christmas changes

From Georgann 

I find myself thinking about our Christmas tree. We are going artificial this year for the first time. We can put it up anytime now. We can leave it up as long as we want. We don't have to tie it to our bannister. We won't have to water it daily. There won't be falling needles. We won't have to saw it in three or four pieces to get it out of the house. There won't be any pine scent. . . Oh but there will be. Thanks to my recently purchased white winter fir Scentsicles scented ornaments. Merry Christmas to us.