Happy Halloween!

My little Giraffe wants to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

Toddler Fun

So I’m always looking for new and fun activities for Cole that will help him to learn new things. Thanks to my Mom (who is a teacher) she suggested some simple fine motor skill activities that she thought Cole might enjoy and also help him learn his colors.

First we got a bag of colored pom poms and an empty Fiji water bottle. After showing Cole how the pom poms can be placed into the water bottle he was so excited to try it!



He was concentrating so hard to get the small pom pom into the bottle. Notice how his mouth is wide open, this was serious stuff folks.





Then I started asking him to put certain colors into the bottle. He did great he was able to pick out 3 colors (blue, yellow, orange) multiple times. After he got a few in he would then shake the bottle and see the pom poms scatter across the room. He then went back to putting them into the bottle. He loved it!

We dragged out this huge colander my parents have and some pipe cleaners. Same concept as the pom poms and bottle but this one seemed to be more challenging for Cole. The holes were small so he got frustrated fast. But I think he will love this just as much once he can get the pipe cleaners in with ease! It will take some practice.



This last one we saw on Pinterst. You use an old wipes container and some old ribbons, then tie the ribbons together. Cole loved that the ribbons just kept coming and coming.





All good fun for Cole! He learned a little and it all cost less then $5. :)

A Few Words

If your a parent to an almost 16month old you know how hard it can be to catch anything on video. In fact unless I have my phone on me these days I don't capture much. Cole has been talking up a storm but whenever I pull out the video camera to get it ,he gets performer anxiety. ha. This one afternoon he seemed to decided to play along for a little while. I'm just shocked by how quickly kids pick up words at this age. He has a desire to know what everything is called and tries his best to say it. We have started to have to spell out Nemo or Toy Story otherwise were are in trouble and have to hear him say it over and over to us until he can watch it. I love this age it's so fun!

Wordless Wednesday

These days we have been doing a lot of singing about body parts. Head Shoulders Knees and Toes is a favorite right now. Cole loves to point out Roxy's body parts while we sign the song. This is a big deal because before this he would just run after her or smack her. To cute.

Pumpkin Time

With Halloween right around the corner time was running out for us to get our pumpkin carving on! So early Saturday morning we got to it. Knives aren't exactly the ideal thing for a 15 month old to be around so when I saw this post I just had to do it. It was a fun way to allow Cole a chance to get involved in the whole pumpkin thing. Using the washable crayola finger paint we let Cole decorate his own little pumpkin. Was it messy? Sure. Did he love it? Yep.







After he was all done we scooped him up and stripped him down. The paint washed off pretty easily, I was a little skeptical but that stuff rocks. Hubs wanted to carve his pumpkin so Cole was all about helping his daddy clean out all the ooey gooey stuff.





Here's how they turned out. Pretty darn cute. Notice my Ravens pumpkin? Kinda hard to read unless your up close.



So at least we have some Halloween decorations up now. I love all the Halloween decor out there just never got around to it this year. Hubs likes to make me feel better by my slacking saying "We Rock at Christmas Decor!No worries dear." Ha

Friday Films

Seriously don't you wish you had this kind of energy. He ran around the island about 18 times! Best part it was right after dinner. I swear we didn't feed him straight sugar, the kid is crazy!



He also showed off some of his dance moves...he gets those from his Daddy. Haha





Happy Friday!

Wordless Wednesday

While I was making dinner I heard Cole rattling the gate that blocks the upstairs which is per the usual for him. However when the rattling noise kept going for about a min and no Cole had appeared I went to see what he was up to.

He had gotten past the gate but now didn't know how to get back down

Not so happy he couldn't figure out how to open it again. I'm sure this will happen again in time.. oh joy!

Homestead Gardens

This weekend the weather was amazing so we took full advantage of it and made our way out to the country . Homestead Gardens was having a fall festival that included hay rides, pony rides, animals, pumpkin picking, a corn maze and great live music. Cole seemed content to just spend the day walking in and out of all the pumpkins. Gingerly smacking each one as he passed it.




While we passed on most of the activities because my child would much rather run around the free corn maze then ride a pony.




In fact he was not a fan of the pony at all. The second we placed him on the pony it was full out tears and arms reaching for me to save him. Maybe next year.



To recover from that we had to supply him with a homemade donut and hot dog for lunch. Uber healthy huh?! He seemed to forgive us and forget all about the pony. So back to the pumpkins we went and to a much more age appropriate activity the slide. :)








It was a great day. And I can't wait to go back for the Christmas Festival in a few months!

Random Friday

Random Friday thoughts, yea that's all I have for the blog today. I'm so freaking tired today. I don't know if it's the rainy weather or that work has been so busy i just can't seem to find the energy to do much of anything. Cole on the other hand has nothing but energy in fact he seems to be ready to drop his morning nap. This my friends was something I really was hoping wouldn’t happen for a few more months but apparently little man has different plans. This transition to one nap a day has not been easy or either of us. I love my child but I need that morning nap! It gave me time to recharge, alone time & to get things done around the house. This no longer exists.

About 2 months ago he started to turn his morning naps into playtime in his crib. He has been back in forth since then. We have a very unique schedule with family, the nanny and me watching him during the week so it’s been tricky to get a hang of this change. The struggle is getting him to sleep longer in the afternoon so he can make it to his bedtime. One nap means early bed time. We are letting Cole take the lead. So if he needs to go to bed at 6pm like last night its OK. And when I had to tell the nanny to wake him up this morning because it was almost 9am it's OK. Seriously though?! I don’t think I have ever slept 15 hours straight. Ever.

Like most things I know this too shall pass. I will just have to adjust and learn from Cole what works best for him. Just when I thought I had things figured out he switches it up. He defiantly keeps things interesting.

On a completely different matter I think I have figured out Cole’s Halloween costume. I just wish he was excited about it.




If I get even one good picture of him in it Halloween weekend I will be lucky, the kid does not like anything on his head! But I will torture him cause he looks so darn cute!

OK my rambling is all over the place. Happy Friday Everyone!

Wordless Wednesday

Mama brought out all the stops on this very rainy day, this massive play hut was setup in our family room.





I think someone was super HAPPY about it!

Weekend Fun

This past weekend Hubs and Me headed down south to NC State for the my Swimming and Diving Alumni weekend. We had an amazing time the weather was perfect, good friends, the beer tasted great and Bojangles was better then I remembered it was. I had so much fun I didn't even take one picture. I stole this one from Kimmy;


(Some of my State Girls)

Little man was in good hands and spent the entire weekend with family while we were away. Even my sister and her husband came up from Richmond to spend time with Cole. Let's just say the boy was spoiled rotten. They took him to the Fall Festival at Kinder Farms right down the street from our house and my sister happily took lots of pictures (per my request)! Sad we missed out on the fun :(


(My sister and brother in-law with Cole)














(Feeding the Lamas with Poppy)