We’re living in our own house, enjoying life… blink…
Melanie’s pregnant, we’re ecstatic… blink…
Our little bundle of joy, Cole, is born… blink…
He’s sitting up on his own… blink…
He’s crawling… blink…
He’s eating solid foods… blink…
He’s walking… blink…
I don’t want to blink any more… I’m afraid I’ll miss something.
Here we are…another month has passed. 
Well, Cole walks all over the place now. He power walks. He’s working toward his run. He also climbs…stairs, ottomans, couches, highchairs… He wears big boy pajamas. He eats table foods — potatoes, peas, green beans, diced fruits, bread, crackers, etc. He loves throwing and bouncing balls. In fact, he loves throwing anything. He jabbers, he squeals, he giggles. There’s the nutshell description of Cole at this point. He keeps us busy. He continues to give us joy.
Look for some new photos from Troy soon!
Several of you have asked us for ideas for birthday presents for the little man. So, Cole has kindly set up an Amazon.com wish list to give us all a variety of ideas. Just go to www.amazon.com and click on “Gifts & Wish Lists.” Then, enter “Cole Schneider” under “Find Wish Lists and Registries” and click “Go.” Click on the first Cole Schneider listing (the one that uses appropriate upper and lowercase lettering). On the left-hand side, you should see the birthday of August 28 and a “ship to” showing Austin, TX. And, you should also know it’s his list because all of the stuff should seem appropriate for a one-year old (Cole is not currently reading any Stephen King…lol).
Alternatively, use the following link and we think (fingers crossed) it will work:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/359VR3JO5OX27
And, here’s some general info that might help too:
Clothing size: Currently in 12 mths, but if you want him to get more wear out of something, probably better to go with 18mths+
Temperature Guide: In Texas, it will likely be 90s in Sept, 80s in Oct, 70s to 60s in Nov and then will go down to 50s/40s by Dec…maybe to 30s by Jan, then back up to 40s/50s for Feb and up to 60 by March and 70s by April, then 80s – 100s from May through next Aug.
Shoe size: Currently size 3, but again, probably better to think of the future and bigger sizes.
Likes: motion, noise, music, dancing, balls and throwing, reading, baths, time at the pool, Elmo, Cookie Monster, finger foods
Hope this helps — if you have any questions we didn’t cover, just give us a holler and, as Cole’s personal assistants (heh), we’ll be glad to help you. 
Literally…he just keeps getting faster and faster with his walking. But, aside from that, here are just a few of the things he has done that we’ve found amusing (as well as challenging!):
> He removes corner guards from the furniture (a babyproofing thing).
> If we try to get him to eat something like his broccoli cheese meal by dipping a cracker into it and handing it to him, he takes a moment to wipe the broccoli cheese off of the cracker onto the highchair tray before eating the cracker.
> We have up play yard fencing to keep him in the living room. We have to put an old shelf on the outside of the end of it, as he will just push it open otherwise.
> He pulls the car mirror down into his lap.
> He pulls the throw pillows down off the couch to use them as stepping stools for climbing up onto the ottoman or couch. (Scratch that: He can get up onto the ottoman without pillow assistance now.)
What will be next??
It’s hard for us to look at our baby boy and think that he’s already 10 months old. The time has passed by so quickly and little mister I-want-to-reach-the-next-milestone-as-soon-as-I-reach-this-one is already starting to walk. Yup, walking at 10 months. I’m sure you’ve already picked up on that fact from Melanie’s post, but it’s truly amazing how quickly he’s picking things up and mastering them.
So here’s a selection of photos and videos to entertain you… all taken over the past few days… just after his official 10 month birthday.
Video (hosted on YouTube)
Here are some photos and a video from our 4th of July at Steph and Dave’s.
Video (hosted on Vimeo)
Cole and AJ playing in the water from Troy Schneider on Vimeo.
On July 5, 2000, we loaded up our rented U-Haul truck, took our last looks (for a while anyway) around our parents’ houses, our old neighborhoods, and the city in which we’d both grown up, met each other, and fallen in love (Lancaster, PA) and drove into the sunset (literally…we didn’t head out of town until around 5pm) on our way to a new adventure, a new life in a big, hot state called Texas.
We left town, driving the U-Haul and my Ford Escort station wagon and towing Troy’s GTI behind the truck. Our parents and Kevin were with us and we made a whole family road trip of it, taking turns driving each of the vehicles. We stopped in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and finally Texas. We moved into our brand new apartment, visited with our families some more before seeing them off at the airport, and then sat back and wondered what in the world we had ahead of us now that we’d actually seen our plan through.
And then we met you oh blog friends or we stayed in touch with you dear “tenured” friends…and life was good. And it still is. And, we’re feeling sentimental today, so to commemorate the occasion, here’s a fun little list…
Some things we’ve learned since moving to TX:
But the number one thing we’ve learned is that this is a great place to start a new life, to have fun and enjoy life, to make great friends, to find fulfilling work, and to start a family. We love you, Texas! Thanks for 10 great years (so far)!
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.
I think she needs a name. Meet ________________. She’s my new Suzuki Boulevard M50 cruiser.
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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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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