Sick, Sick, Sick

Poor Cole-Man has had an on-again/off-again fever for the past three weeks. Welcome back to daycare and back to school! I feel so helpless. His doctor sees no cause for the fevers, so she assumes it's a virus. Poor baby! He's been so cranky lately. I miss his sweet giggles.

Happy Birthday, Happy Summer

I'm so excited about Cole's upcoming birthday party. It'll be fun to celebrate his first year of life, but today, on his real birthday, I'm giving myself permission to be weepy. Okay, so that's an understatement. I've been spouting out tears all morning. How in the world did my precious baby grow so fast? He's almost a real walker (he only takes 8-10 steps tops before he drops back down to crawl), he prefers to feed himself, and he's speaking (mostly dada, mama, dog, ball, quack-quack, mmmmm, papa, and book).

I kind of feel like his birthday is also a time to say good-bye to and reflect over our summer. We've had a fantastic summer. I like pretending I'm a stay-at-home mom (who travels a lot and has time to actually read fun books). It's been great bonding time for Cole and me. Here are some highlights:

MO trip: Cole still loves going outside with his Grammy.

MO trip: The drum is an early birthday present from Mamaw.



NY trip: Ummm, I do believe JP caught the bouquet. When's it gonna be Kyle?

NY trip: Dancing at Josh's wedding

FL trip: Cousins having fun in the sand

FL trip: Our first night out

Mother's Day Weekend

My first Mother's Day weekend was jam-packed. Cole got his first real haircut, he got his nine month pictures taken with Bug, and we spent this afternoon at the zoo. I've always loved going to the zoo, and I can remember thinking on many previous trips that I couldn't wait until I had the chance to bring my own child see all the animals. Today was a day I'll never forget and a long-had dream come true.

First Flight

Cole and I had a great time visiting Grammy and Gramps in Missouri. Much to my surprise, Cole is a good traveler. I figured he'd throw fits on the plane because he hates sitting still, but he enjoyed watching all the people and playing peek-a-boo with the flight attendants. I think we're all left with some pretty memorable moments, several of which we photographed. I'm posting my favorite pics with captions in the Lance Family Web Album.

The Tubes

Cole was such a good baby for the ENT and all the nurses on the day of his surgery (Monday, March 14th). He was in a great mood during what I imagined would be a horrendous waiting period. Joey said he was flirting with all the nurses.

In the days that followed his surgery, I noticed a big change in how he reacted to everyday sounds. It seemed that his bouts of pain and sickness were finally over, but we were wrong. Poor baby... now he has some nasty virus. He's had a fever since Friday. It got so high that we took him to the ER Sunday night. The ER doc said there really wasn't anything he could do about it, so the saying's true. Viruses really do have to run their course. Through it all, I'm amazed at his happy-go-lucky spirit. The fever hasn't seemed to slow him down too much.

This video clip shows just how resilient babies can be. You'll notice he's playing with a tambourine. That was the toy he picked out right before he went in for surgery. It sounds like static on this video, but, believe me, it sounds like a real tambourine at home!