butterflies make me smile!

How can you not be happy when you are surrounded by hundreds of butterflies and warm temperatures (even if it's not real)?!

While at the Museum of Play we had the opportunity to go to the Butterfly Garden. We've been there before, but this time we got to hold the butterflies. Nicolette opted to let the white butterfly go on her shirt instead. We decided to skip letting Cole hold one simply because we wanted them to live =) Butterflies are beautiful creatures and it was a blast getting up close and personal with them!

a golden birthday!!

A lot of people have never heard of a golden birthday! It's when you turn the age that your birthday falls on... so mine was this year when I turned 29 on the 29th of January! Birthday are really not a lot of fun past, say 25. Thirty is nothing to look forward to! I think 29 is a hard age because it's so close the 30, and 30 just sounds SO old! In my mind I am still 25 and I am sure I don't look a day older than that!! Heck, I could probably pass for a middle school kid with the right outfit on! So, moving on...

We were going to celebrate this wonderful birthday by going to dinner. I was craving chicken francias so were had reservations at The Retreat! Unfortunately Cole got sick and we had to cancel dinner plans. Instead we ordered pizza and went over to the rents to play games with them and the Wolf's. It was still a really fun, and late, night!

My brownie birthday cake, specially made by the best 2 year old and her grandma!

I had some help blowing my 3 candles out!

And on Sunday we got to the Retreat to celebrate. It may not have been a birthday I was looking forward to but with such a great family I had a blast!

PLAY PLAY PLAY

We had a Pollard family day not too long ago and we all had lots of fun! The Strong Museum of Play is less than 1.5 hours away and we just had to go. Our favorite thing to do is PLAY and it's and excuse for mommy and daddy to act like kids again!

Cole walked right up to the wall, turned around and posed for this picture! I wonder if he's learning from the constant camera in his face!


Nicolette had a blast shopping at Wegmans!



I was holding nicolette's hands and looked over to see her holding cole's hand... too precious!



Cole loved playing with Legos which were just the right size!


Dancing and making a music video! I love that both kids dance as soon as the music starts!


Some bakers hats that mommy and daddy helped make!



The end to a perfect day!

hmmmmm...

So, I have been thinking since I last posted about the angle I want to take with this blog. I've recently began reading blogs of friends and others and there is so much variety! I hope to get onto a groove soon and make this blog my own!

dance like no one is watching... or don't dance at all!

So, nicolette started dance last week. I was really excited for her to go. She's going with Sophie, my friend Colleen's daughter. We went out and got them leotards, skirts, and tights. I bought a cute dance bag, the perfect size for nicolette awhile back and was lookng forward to giving it to her. When I gave it to her she said, "I loooooove it!". It was so cute!

So, we get to dance and nicolette will.not.leave my side. She wouldn't even sit on the floor in front of me; it had to be on my lap. Yes, we had that child! When the blue mat came out towards the end she came out of her shell a little bit, but I thought we were done! So, throughout the week we've been practicing at home and really talking it up. It would crack us up when I would ask her if she listened to Miss Brandy and she would shake her head no. I would also ask if she did what all the other girls were doing and she would tell me no, but promised to listen next time!

Today was our second time and she did GREAT! I was so proud of her. Of course I am always proud of her, but this morning I was SO happy. It's a great feeling to see your child doing a good job when you aren't standing right there! When we got in the car to go home she told me she loved going to dance.

Cole went to the doctor this week for his (late) one year appointment. He is 20 pounds 4 ounces (around 12th percentile) and 28.5 inches long (less than 10th percentile). He's doing really well! I love love love when he pulls my shirt up and blows kisses on my belly. My belly gets all wet and he laughs and laughs! He is getting to be so much fun!!

I need a drink!

So, awhile back nicolette was having some sleep issues. She would not go to sleep unless we laid with her. Being a bit clueless, Jon and I laid with her because it was easier to fight with her until 11pm. We knew it was a bad move, but sometimes in parenting you make choices to make life a little less stressful. Finally we got sick of it and in 2 nights solved the problem (we let her CIO, basically). FF to this Christmas... The week of Christmas nicolette refused to take a nap. She did go in her room for some quiet time, but no sleeping. Although she was tired- falling asleep all the time in the car- she was sleeping fine. Well, this week comes around and she is takng naps again. Because of that, bedtime has been awful. She's not ready to go to sleep at her normal 8pm time and plays in her room. Well, this playing has once again turned into manipulate mom and dad. Finally, I had had enough and I let her CIO. This is how she looked when she finally stopped and I went to check on her! I literally could not even open the door to move her. I tried and then she moved on her own so I was able to slightly manuver myself to get in and put her in bed. She is one stubborn girl and she is really showing it lately!

Cole seriously just melts my heart. He is growing up way too fast for me. I know they all need to grow up and learn, but I want him to stay my little baby boy forever! He woke up with all the crying at our house tonight and I rocked him back to sleep. I was so stressed out from nicolette that just holding him made me feel better. It's the only time I get with him to cuddle and hold him. He's definitely on the go all the time.

Some funny things from the last couple of days:

* There were 2 identical waters at dinner yesterday. Cole kept pointing to them, so I tried to give him a sip. He pushed it away and kept pointing. Not thinking he wanted water since he just pushed it away, I didn't offer it to him. What he wanted was... yup, the other water. I gave him some and he was happy as can be!

* When Cole is crying, nicolette will say, "It's okay little boy" or "It's okay coley-man" or "mommy's here, okay?". This usually occurs right before or right after she pushes him down.

Some odds and ends...

* nicolette starts dance tomorrow

* nicolette didn't have any accidents all week with Heather

* cole eats way worse than nicolette did at a year and I'm hoping I'm not creating bad habits for him

2 posts in 2 day!

So, since I have a few minutes, and the toys are already picked up, I thought I'd post again! I need to start making this a habit!

Today was a lazy day. Jon had to work for the beginning of the day, so it was just the kids and me. We've been watching lots of videos lately. I'm not a huge fan of tv for kids, but I don't see any harm in watching Signing Time or my wedding video. Nicolette has become obsessed with it. I literally have all the speeches memorized because we have to watch it so much.

I love that Nicolette is learning from the Signing Time videos. She has learned the signs for so many words, and even asks what the signs are for words she doesn't know. I love when she does cold, because you kind of shake like you are cold. Today she told me, as we were walking out of Target in the snow, that she was freeeeeeezing and did the sign for cold.

We are potty training and it's oh so much fun! Can you hear the sarcasm? No, she is really doing well, but going poopy has been a bit of an issue. Well, today she went multiple times. I love that she gets so happy. She'll say, "I'm so happy. Mommy's so happy!".

Cole has been a little bit attached to me lately. He's having a hard time going to sleep, and I think it's because he doesn't want to be left alone. He's fine when you are in there. I hate to do it, but I let him cry tonight. He really only cried for 10 minutes, so it wasn't that bad- for me or him!

Off to bed, on this palindrome day!

a new year, an updated blog?

So, I keep saying how I am going to blog and then I post once and stop. Ugh... I promise myself I will blog at least twice a week. I really want to have a record of all the fun things our family is doing!

So, today was New Year's Day. Last night we went to Coppertop to eat and Jon lost his wallet. NO FUN! I know I was sleeping when the ball dropped.

Today we went over to my parents house and ate awesome food... lobster, filet, shrimp and more!

Nicolette is finally potty training. She is doing pretty well and even goes on her own. In the car today she said, "oh my god". I've been trying to correct her to day oh my goodness/gosh but she refuses. Jon finally said I don't care if you say oh my god. Right after he said that, nicolette said, "no, you say oh my goodness". She always makes us laugh.

Cole is talking so much and it really has just been within the past week or so. Today he said the light was hot, but he whispered it everytime! I love when he say night night... melts my heart! He also says ball, mama, dada, papa, up, and all done!