Happy Birthday Cole!

On Saturday, September 13, we celebrated Cole's first birthday. It's hard to believe that we have gone a whole year with him in our life. Looking back, time has gone by so fast, and yet, it is really easy to see how much things have changed with him around.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that his sleeping habits are entirely different than Teanna's. We struggled a lot more with him at night. And until the last two months or so, we've spent time up with him almost 3-4 times per week. In fact for a while there, we were taking turns sleeping on the couch with him, because that was the only way he'd fall asleep. Ahhhh, the good old days...

Then of course, there is the obvious boy/girl differences between him and Teanna. He likes to bang toys, hit things, jump on things, run around and so on and so forth. Stuff we were never prepared for.

He thinks differently too. He can figure out how to operate almost any toy and he really doesn't like books. Whereas his sister was exactly the opposite. In fact, I think she still can't figure out some of the toys that Cole plays with.

He's mister smiley and we love him. His presence in our house has been purely joyful for the last year. Our life has changed a lot since we had him - new basement, then a new house, Teanna starting school, Dad trying to finish school, Mom breaking her arm (more on that later) - and we can hardly wait to continue watching him grow and learn.

Happy Birthday Coley-o. We love you. Enjoy the slideshow of Cole's first year with us.