Blankie Boy

Cole continuously pulled himself up on the couch this morning only to stand and snuggle with his blanket mommy had left there. He only shuffled over a few times to check out what mommy was doing (taking his picture) and to see the stereo in the corner (a favourite). He did work up the energy to take a couple of steps over to the other couch by himself. I think the boy has figured things out. Watch out world!

Netherlands Math Test

This post is for my Opa because this is the type of joke I can hear him telling me on a Sunday afternoon at the dinner table :)

Netherlands Math Test

A Dutch fella wants a job, but the foreman won't hire him until he passes a little math test. Here is your first question, the foreman said. 'Without using numbers, represent the number 9.' 'Without numbers?' The Dutchman says, 'Dat's easy.' and proceeds to draw three trees.

'What's this?' the boss asks.

'Vot! you got no brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine ,' says the Dutchman.

'Fair enough,' says the boss. 'Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.'

The Dutchman stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. 'Dar ya go.'

The boss scratches his head and says, 'How on earth do you get that to represent 99?'

'Each of da trees is dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Dat is 99.'

The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Dutchman, so he says, 'All right, last question.

Same rules again, but represent the number 100.'

The Dutch fella stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, 'Dar ya go. Von hundred.'

The boss looks at the attempt. 'You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!'

The Dutchman leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, 'A little dog come along and pooped by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, vich makes von hundred.'

'So, ven do I start?

Playtime

Music, singing and dancing ... we'll have to see if this develops into real musical talent. Sorry, the artist doesn't do encores.

The ladies working at the dollar store thought our little boy was so cute admiring the balloons they were blowing up that they gave him some ones of his very own for free(of course Dave just refers to them as "Strangers" from behind the camera). Great entertainment for the few days they lasted.

Cole On the Move

Hmmm ... maybe it's time to start child proofing the house ...

This video is sorta long but Cole is a meanderer. It does show off his new crawling abilities though.

As I mentioned in my last post ... Cole has finally figured out crawling and is beginning to discover the world out of arms reach. I realized after watching all these videos while I was posting them that Cole whines and cries at the end of all of them. He really is a happy child ... at least when he's getting his own way :)

Cole at 11 Months

I've been handing out invitations for Cole's first birthday party this week. I can't believe he's almost 1 year old already.

Cole is finally doing some of the things a 11 month old should do. He has finally figured out sliding on his belly and in the past couple of days actually crawling on his hands and knees. On Sunday he just started clapping ... something I've been trying to teach him for 5 months. If there is anything I've learned in the past 11 months its that Cole is his own person and insists on doing things in his own time. The large milestones like sitting on his own, crawling, pulling himself up seem to come slowly and very gradually. Other things however like turning the pages in a book, rolling a ball back and forth and waving hello and goodbye seem to just happen one day without instruction or coaching.

Cole is looking more like a little boy each day and less and less baby like. In the last month he gained 2 inches on his height without gaining a pound and has lost a bit of that baby chubbiness which characterized his looks so much (don't worry he still has those cute cheeks you just want to squeeze) and has a mouth full of teeth.

I apologize for not posting that many pictures lately. To tell you the truth it's getting harder and harder to capture Cole on camera. Gone are the days when I could pull out the camera with the guarentee that Cole would just sit, pose and smile. These days our little boy is too busy to look up and flash a toothy grin, and if so, you're lucky if you can snap a picture in that brief moment. I find myself pulling out the video camera more and more often to record the action that has become Cole. Hopefully I'll have the time to download some of those videos soon. The camera will definitely be out next month as we blow out the candle on Cole's first birthday cake.