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Welcome to our life!

We are a growing family located in Austin, TX.  Not too long ago it was just the two of us.  Then we added our fur-baby, Bella.  And most recently we added our son, Cole.  This blog was created to keep our friends and families updated on the goings on at the Schneider household.  Given the new arrival, many of the posts will be geared towards our struggle to learn how to be good parents.  

We enjoy watching movies, traveling, photography, reading, and hanging out with friends (preferably while doing anything in this list).  You are bound to read some funny stories here as we try to keep it light hearted and you'll definitely see a pile of photos.

So if you like a post, want to share your opinion, or just want to say hi feel free to leave us a comment.  We *love* comments.

Yearly Archives: 2010

10 Months and Walking!

Well, technically, he took his first step(s) on June 23, 2010…9 mths and 26 days.  :-)  But, now, 11 days later, he is getting really good at it.  He’s a bit less wobbly and can walk across half the room.  He can also catch himself getting ready to fall and stop it and steady himself and keep walking.  His learning curve (babies’ learning curves, in general) is amazing to us — it’s SO much fun to see.

Well, aside from the walking, Cole cut his third tooth on June 21st.  He seems to be on his way to cutting another too…a lot of drooling and gnawing on stuff…we’ll see.  He has also learned how to climb, making us both proud and nervous.  He can climb the steps lickety split (note: we do use a gate but we let him climb the steps when we are right behind him).  He has also figured out how to pull a pillow off the couch and use it as a stepstool to climb up onto the couch or ottoman.

He’s still such a peanut by size standards (about 18+ lbs), but he is still growing out of those clothes pretty quickly.  He’s pretty much in 12 mth clothing now, though some 9 mths stuff still fits.  He eats like a Hoover though, so it’s really just the way he’s burning calories like a madman.  He is eating more 3rd foods and also some real foods (Cheerios, peas, which are gross at the other end, potatoes, and mashed bananas, which he’s still not sure about).  Puffs remain his favorite thing…that and juice.

As to playing, he loves walking around his activity table and playing the piano on it.  He loves his ball (the cheap plastic type you buy at the supermarket) and he’s good at bouncing it and throwing it to you.  He can give you five and wave bye-bye too.  He also loves the toys that light up and play music and his talking cookie monster.

For the most part, he sleeps well and through the night.  There are just some nights that go wonky.  He laughs, giggles, and squeals with delight.  He also likes to sit and read/play with his tongue pressed between his lips, like he’s really contemplating something.  Oh, he has also been enjoying our weekend trips down to the pool.  He has a floating ring/canopy thing and some water toys.

Anyway, that’s all I can think of right now.  It’s a fun age (aside from the fighting him to change his diaper and put on clothes) and we’re all enjoying it.  We’re contemplating his birthday now…crazy that it’s less than two months away.

P.S. Troy will likely post photos/videos later.

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The cruiser

I think she needs a name. Meet ________________. She’s my new Suzuki Boulevard M50 cruiser.

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Sometime in the next week or so I’m hoping to film and post a video walk-around of the bike.

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Laugh out loud

This will seriously put a smile on your face :)

Cole LOL from Troy Schneider on Vimeo.

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Cole is 9 months old

(yes, if you are curious I’m backdating this post… I wanted to make it on Cole’s actual 9 month birthday, but life got in the way… as it usually does)

I don’t know how many times I heard it, but nearly every parent we know told us to cherish the first year with out new baby boy because it will go by so quickly. Of course we were thinking “sure it will”… the soon-to-be newly minted parents could slow down time and make sure that we spent as much of it with him as we could. Fast forward nearly a year (a few months before Cole was born until now) and poof. You have two tired, but happy, parents who can’t believe that their little boy is now 9 months old. It’s crazy how fast time goes by. We’re already starting to plan the logistics of his one year old parties (yes, parties… one in Texas and one in Pennsylvania). Yikes! In the meantime we’ll enjoy the next 3 months as Cole continues to babble, smile, and crawl (walk?) his way into everyone’s hearts.

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He makes some of the funniest faces. He is definitely my kid :)
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The long lost blogger

Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the “I used to blog every day and now I can’t seem to find time to post even a single entry once a week” show.

Things here have been quite busy and we’ve been putting as much time into being together as a family, cleaning, baby proofing, and doing the normal day-to-day things recently that we haven’t had much time for blogging. For those who know us you may have even seen a slowdown in the amount of Facebook updates that we’ve been making. It really is overwhelming the number of things that a set of working parents can find themselves needing to do on a daily basis. That being said, we have help this week (Grandma and Opa are visiting) so we have some time for other things… like an anniversary dinner, separate date night, and blogging!

So what’s been going on in the last few weeks… babbling, crawling, and playing (pretty much). Photos, videos, and audio paint a much better picture than words. Enjoy!

Cole and I surprised Mel with flowers, cards, and dinner on Mother’s Day this year.
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Cole is getting big and is playing so hard during the day that he’s sleeping well in the night. These are iPhone photos so please excuse the quality, but there just isn’t a better camera than the one you have on you all the time.
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Cole started saying dada :) (he’s not putting it together that I am dada, but I don’t care… I LOVE hearing it)

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Cole has been fighting a cold for the past 2 weeks and breathes a little heavier when he’s sleeping (not sure how much of this you’ll be able to hear)

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I’m having technical difficulties with the videos (they are being rotated by the video hosting site) so you’ll have to check back later :(

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Troy & Mel Plus 8…months of Cole, that is

[caption id="attachment_1311" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="From E's Birthday Party"]From E's Birthday Party[/caption]

Wow!  Didn’t we just post about Cole being 7 mths old?  Well, guess that just further supports that post’s plea for time to slow down a bit.  But since that’s not really happening, let’s recap the latest and greatest Cole news now that he is, in fact, 8 months old.

Cole has now eaten and liked the following Gerber foods: rice cereal, oatmeal, mixed grain cereal, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, prunes, and a few combinations of the aforementioned (e.g., apple sweet potato, bananas, apples & pears, prunes with apples, etc).  He has tried the biter biscuits and just yesterday he tried a couple of the puffs snacks, but he’s still not quite sure about these finger foods.  He seems up to the challenge though.  ;-)  He drinks minimal amounts of water from his sippy cups, still finding their “drumming properties” to be of more interest at this point.  :-)

Troy has given Cole a new nickname — Nonstop — because that describes our little man well.  He is crawling everywhere…real crawling now, not scooting on his stomach.  He pulls himself up with ease all over the place and is a brave little soul, holding on with one hand to reach for things or walking a few side steps while holding onto the ottoman, couch, etc.  He seems to be trying to figure out how to stand up from a sitting position without pulling himself up too…I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

He sleeps more hours now…has probably done about nine consecutive hours at the longest at this point…but that’s nothin’ to sneeze about, at least from where we’re standing (or crawling into bed).  *Grin*

He has discovered his ability to squeal…loudly.  He also babbles up a storm when he’s of a mood – some of the best mornings are when he wakes up and just starts babbling to his seahorse.  He hasn’t really said true words, though we think we may count “hi” and “hey” as his first words…he certainly makes those exclamations a lot.

He is interested in EVERYTHING and seems to discover something new everyday.  For instance, this week he has discovered the DVDs and Bella’s water and food dishes.  He loves his Around We Go activity table/walker — and we love that!  He loves books.  He loves all manner of “noise makers.”  He loves baths (and has just discovered his boy bits – fun, fun).  He loves his nana Bella – he finds her to be extremely funny and fascinating.  He loves it when we do the chicken dance for him…no, you won’t see that on video.  :-p

Anyway, he is a joy.  An utter joy.  I’m a proud, if tired, mommy and I look forward to seeing what else we get to report at 9 mths, 10 mths, and so on.

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E’s birthday party

Yesterday we partied with a bunch of kiddos at E’s birthday party and we had a ton of fun. It was a bug hunt theme and the kids loved it. Not many words tonight… need to get to sleep. Enjoy the photos.

The birthday boy and Cole hanging out with E’s grandma.
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Cole was a perfect gentleman all day.
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Our friends Jason and Jennifer, who we haven’t seen in years… they have an adorable little boy of their own.
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Bluebonnets

Springtime in Texas is pretty (if you can get by the insane amount of allergy inducing pollen). Each year around this time the wildflowers bloom and put on a show that can make a box of Crayola crayons look bland. Check out this Flickr pool for some beautiful examples: http://www.flickr.com/groups/txwildflowers/pool/. Predictably you’ll find many Texans parked on roadsides all over the state getting photos of babies in flowers, families in flowers, pets in flowers, dolls in flowers, bikes in flowers… pretty much anything/anyone in the flowers.

So here’s our baby in the flowers :)

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Cole is 7 months old!?!

Dear Internet–
I only have one small, teensy-weensy, super tiny favor to ask of you: please make time slow down… my boy is growing up too fast and I’m afraid if I blink I may miss something. In the past month alone he’s cut 2 teeth, started eating solids (now up to 3 times a day), army crawling (or scooting), and sitting up on his own. It’s getting hard to keep up with him and I know this is only the beginning. He’s become quite the squirmy arm dangler, finds me not soothing enough at night, and has already managed to pull himself up into a standing position in his crib (my response to which was to immediately lower his mattress so he doesn’t take an untimely tumble). Don’t get me wrong, internet, I love seeing my son explore his world, but I want more time to enjoy it with him. So if you could indulge me in just this one wish I would be forever grateful. Thanks.

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Babbling and Eating

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