It has been a busier than normal holiday season around the Schneider household this year and for good reason. We welcomed Nathan Dean into our lives last week and could not be happier that our family has grown by one. Big brother Cole has been awesome and really seems to love his little brother already. Nate’s stats: 8lbs 4oz and 21.5″ long. Both of our boys were long babies, but Nate has the definitive edge in birth weight… we’ll see if that holds up as he gets older. It took Cole almost 2 years to make it to the 50th percentile in weight.

Here are some photos of our time at the hospital as well as some photos of us at home. Enjoy!

It took 2 whole years, but Cole’s hair finally got to the point where he needed to get a cut so this morning we took him to the Pigtails and Crewcuts in Cedar Park where Linda gave him a spiffy new cut. P & C has a lot of fun toys for the kids to play with (which Cole took complete advantage of) and they have cool taxi, firetruck, and airplane chairs for the kids to sit in while they get their hair cut. Cole did awesome and didn’t cry at all (he was a little unsure at first, but with Mommy near by blowing bubbles he was a perfect gentleman). Mommy did well too . We have a lock of his curls for scrapbooking and a photo from P & C.

You can check out more photos on my Facebook page.

Watch out now… we have a 2 year old! It’s pretty amazing to think back over the past 2 years and realize how quickly they passed by. We’ve loved every second of the journey and get tremendous happiness from seeing how Cole is growing up. By this time next year we’ll be celebrating Cole’s 3rd birthday and he’ll have a 9 month old little brother. Crazy! Until then we’ll just love up on our little man. Happy Birthday Cole! We love you! (that was a lot of exclamation points from me)

Yesterday we celebrated Cole’s last day in his current room at school. On Monday he’ll be starting in a new room with a group of new kids (luckily for him he already has interacted with most of them… 3 from his current room, 3 from a previous room, and 2 from Gymboree). We celebrated with cookies, “diplomas”, toy buckets, and lots of laughs. We’re all going to miss his teachers, but we’re looking forward to seeing what this next year will bring (potty training among other things).

Here are some photos (taken with our iPhones) from the party.

For some reason he loved the taste of his diploma

Boy!

The flood of emotions was pretty strong when we found out today. Both happy and sad, but mostly happy. Cole is going to love having a little brother to play with and we’re fortunate that we already have a ton of boys clothes and toys so turkey will be all set when he arrives, but there is definitely a little part of us that wanted that all-American dream family (one boy and one girl). We’re pretty sure that this will be our last child (we ain’t no spring chickens), but who knows what the future will hold. For now we are in love with our two boys and are trying to grasp the fact that we are going to have two boys running around the house by the end of next year. Send well wishes and any extra energy you have… we’ll need it

PS. Turkey is completely healthy… 10 little fingers, ten little toes, button nose, and lots of energy (he was moving all around during the ultrasound)

PPS. Final tally for the poll was 15 votes girl, and 5 boy… most of us are bad guessers

Baby #2 is on the way! Meet our little turkey. We expect to meet him/her on 11/22.

(not the greatest picture, but you can tell it’s an ultrasound)

Cole is getting to such a fun age. He’s talking up a storm (though we can’t understand half of it), he’s climbing on everything (both fun and nerve wracking), and is beginning to get interested in cartoons (Cars is his absolute favorite right now). He’s also at the age where he can understand a bit about the Easter bunny (it’s funny hearing him say “rabbit”) and he had a blast today looking for all of the eggs that we hid around the house. In fact, he had so much fun that we re-filled them and re-hid them during his nap so he could find them again. All-in-all it was a great Easter. We hope that you and your family had a happy one as well.

About a month ago we started taking Cole to a local Gymboree Play & Music as a way to get him used to playing around more kids (he gets a bunch at school, but we don’t get to play with him so this gives him socialization time as well as mommy/daddy time). So each Saturday morning we go over and play, dance, clap, sing, and learn and he is really beginning to understand what’s going on and participate. It’s a lot of fun to see him interacting with the other kids and playing along with the activities.

I brought my camera along with me today and grabbed some photos. I have to start taking more photos… he’s growing up so quickly.

I love this series… at the end of each class the kids can get Gymbo stamps and Cole loves getting a stamp on his belly

Yeah, so I’m not starting off the year so well with New Year’s goal #4…

Here are a few photos of Cole playing on his new picnic table. We wanted to get him a small table that he can sit at and do crafts and eat snacks and so far he really likes it.

Oh, and Cole turned 17 months old yesterday (on my birthday). He’s getting to be such a big boy. Tonight we took him to a jungle gym at our community center and he had a blast climbing, crawling, and sliding.

It’s true. He only just turned one (well, almost a month ago now… please don’t hate me) and he’s already gotten caught up in the party circuit. For his first year celebrations he chose Lancaster, PA and Austin, TX. Who knows where he’ll chose next year

Photos from Lancaster
First a small get together for family and then a larger one with extended family and friends.

Photos from Austin
Just a small party with a few close friends and their kids.