staying home

Dale and I have an inner battle constantly fighting itself. We love to be on the go all the time but then we complain that we never get to spend time as our little family of 4 (including Rio). We told ourselves that this past weekend we would stay in Raleigh and have a fun filled family day.

On Friday by wonderful sister said that some random person at work gave her NC State basketball tickets because she "helped him so much." Ana knew that her secret ticket giver was married and worked in IT and that was about it. I was pretty touched that there is still good in this world and random acts of kindness. Pass it on. Cole went to his first NC State basketball game and did not hate it. Cole sometimes is a ticking time bomb and cries at things he used to love just when we think we had him figured out. Cole enjoyed sitting on our laps and his eyes were fixed on the basketball players. Dale and I were so proud of our little man for staying awake for a 7:00pm game.

On Saturday we got stuck driving around for about an hour exploring Raleigh because Cole fell asleep in the car and we do not mess with a sleeping baby. We ended up in Durham because I wanted to check out the new West Elm at Southpoint Mall. I absolutely love Durham. I feel like I am back home in NoDa when I am in Durham because it is a perfect atmosphere mix of hipster and a little shady. I like the fun shops and being able to walk to restaurants People just seem happy in Durham. We walked around the mall for a couple hours and Cole enjoyed people watching. There was a guy playing his guitar at the outdoor part of the mall and Cole strained his neck for as long as possible to see him. Our little guy just loves music; he gets it from his Uncle Jonathan obviously. Saturday night we went over to Cole's cousins' house for a little sleepover. We watched Erin and Anna while Gina and Bob went out on a hot hot date. I was in heaven playing dress up with the girls while Dale corralled Cole away from sharp edges and toys with little pieces.

On Sunday we met some of my family in Greensboro for a little birthday celebration. The weather was AMA-zing and we sat outside and went on a walk. Ana made the best brownies ever with oreos in the middle and I am still savoring the leftovers. Cole was kind of a hot mess while we were in Greensboro because he had only had about a 10 minute snooze in the car from Raleigh to Greensboro. Dale and I had to build a wall with our bodies and let Cole flop around and cry on the bed until he finally fell asleep when he landed on Mommy after one good fall. Cole had his first official nap without any kind of baby protective device; we put him on the dog's old (clean) bed on the floor. Our options were very limited but Cole did great and we all rolled with the punches.

chick magnet

Cole was a chicken for Halloween. I know it is kind of an unmanly costume and I have to say that I am just a little embarrassed for our child. I saw the idea in Parents magazine and I absolutely was hooked and I really can't resist baby hats. Cole was a good sport and wore his costume for about 30 minutes. We didn't actually take Cole outside because we felt like a 10 month old can't eat candy so really Dale and I would be asking for the candy for our own personal benefit.

Side story: Dale had a couple hooligans come to our door while I was giving Cole a bath. We have noticed that some tweens/teens in our neighborhood are really all about some cigarettes. We see them walking around when they should be in school smoking. Some of the smokers came to our door for trick or treating and they did not even bother to put out their stick. Dale asked them if it was kind of counter intuitive to smoke and trick or treat? Giggles! Dale still gave them candy which I was kind of mad about...oh well.

cutie mccuterson

I've been slack. I really had big dreams of posting all the time and being super awesome at keeping up with our life on the internet. Oh well. We have been busy with work, school, and figuring out how to manage all of our time with family and friends. We love having a hectic schedule and being on the go but sometimes we just want to hide in our house and do nothing. We shouldn't complain because we are so lucky to have such fun family and friends to hang out with who love us (or really love Cole).

We are still in to going to the park at least twice a week. It is so nice and convenient to our house that sometimes we walk if everyone has had their nap.

Cole was running fevers for about 4 days last week and it was so sad because he did not even want to play or eat. Cole wanted to be held constantly and actually cuddled on the couch with me and Dale.
We went on a downtown Raleigh trolley "ride" Saturday night for a friend's birthday party. You basically peddled this trolley with 14 people and enjoyed a few beverages while you peddled to different bars. It was way more fun than one might imagine. Dale dressed up as Mr. Clean and I was a pirate. I wish we had taken some pictures to share the joy. On Sunday we entertained by having a group of Dale's college friends over for a reunion and poor Cole was sick the whole time. We had fun hanging out with all our friends and reminiscing about the good ol' days.  Cole had fun sharing his toys with his new baby friend, Lucas.

boy power

This past weekend we had some of our friends from Charlotte come in town to visit us and let us live and breathe and reminisce about our old neighborhood, where our friends still live, for 24 hours. We had to catch up on all the neighborhood hooligans that we have names for; shirtless, baby, frizz head, malcom, right here.  Our friends have a little boy that is 6 weeks older than Cole and they have been friends since before they were born. My friend and I used to let the boys "talk" to each other when we were still pregnant and we really hyped up their friendship before they actually met. Luckily, Cole and Charlie are very much alike. They share a love for food, toys with wheels, sleep sheep and saying uh-oh.

We took the boys to the fair on Saturday and it was insane. It is pretty difficult to navigate the fair with 2 strollers and 2 babies when the crowd was shoulder to shoulder. We, as in the 4 adults, ate fried oreos, twinkies, reese cups and koolaid. The reese cup was definitely the winner without a doubt and we were all in fair fried food heaven. We got a babysitter Saturday night and headed out to a part of Durham called Brightleaf which I am definitely obsessed with. I love that part of Durham because it is hipster and it reminds me of our old neighborhood. We went to a brewery called Fullsteam and played darts and generally just enjoyed getting away from our munchkins for a bit even though we talked about them 65% of the time. 

We also had a very special visitor over the weekend: Bella the basset hound. She was so easy to take care of and it made us consider trading in our crazy dog, Rio for a dog that just lays on the couch all day. Cole loved having Bella over because he can pull on her ears relentlessly and she does nothing.

I couldn't help but have a little mini photo session with Coleman in his red corduroy pants. I am such a sucker for red pants and Cole was rocking them until my camera battery died after 5 pictures. Total Mommy fail. 

snoozies

Since I washed our charger for the video monitor, we actually have to go in and check on our child periodically instead of just flipping on the monitor to see what Cole is up to in his crib. I actually like sneaking in and catching a peak at little man while he is sleeping...creepy I know. I found him snuggling this little blanket today and my heart was officially melted. He has to sleep with his head pressed against the side of the crib, legs crossed and butt up. He likes his routine, just like his Daddy.

football, banjo, and cousins

This past weekend we were pretty busy. I worked Friday and Saturday nights so Dale and Cole mostly hung out and had some man time. Cole did have a special friend, Aunt Heather, watch him on Saturday night while Dale and Grey went to the NSCU football game.

We had Aunt Gina, Uncle Bob, Erin, and Anna over along with Aunt Ana and Uncle Jonathan for a pasta bar on Sunday night. Jonathan brought his banjo and all the kids were instantly enthralled. Erin got her foot tapping and her hands clapping, Anna watched and smiled, and Cole wanted to help play the banjo.

pumpkin man

Fall is here! We have been waiting to get Cole around some pumpkins since the beginning of September. We finally went to the Farmer's Market today and although it wasn't a true pumpkin patch, we had fun. It is kind of strange that Cole was wearing shorts and taking fall pumpkin pictures...oh well.