Worm hunt

Cole watches TV.  There, I said it.  Back when I was a parenting expert (before I had a kid), I swore I wouldn't let my children watch much, if any, TV.  Given, most of the time we "watch" TV is when we are playing and it is on in the background and not being watched.  When we do watch, it is usually something educational or John Wayne (cows and horseys) so we are expanding our brains during the heat of the day when outside play is out of the question.  One educational show I like on PBS is Wild Kratts that shows animals, including earth worms.  After that show, we decided to go on a worm hunt....

Looking for worms in our worm hunting boots...

Stealing the worm Mama found.  Sadly my freakishly small hands aren't much bigger than his!

Playing with the worm on the water table, being oh so careful and focused.

Taking the worm for a ride on the lawnmower...

Putting the worm back in the ground to go to it's home.  I think that worm was tramautized and told all the other worms as we haven't found another since!

How to eat oatmeal

First you have your mama (or dada) make some yummy steel cut oatmeal on the stove.  Once it cools, you take a big spoon and proceed as follows:

 Lick the oatmeal off the spoon with your tongue.

 After realizing this is a slow approach, stick as much of the spoon in your mouth as possible to consume as much oatmeal in one bite.

  

Use your hand to catch any oatmeal dripping off the spoon.

Never wasteful, you lick the oatmeal off each finger or...

you can just lick all your fingers at one time to go the whole energy saving route again. 

Happy cooking and eating!

Yard boy

In the spirit of potty training, we have let Cole go in the backyard naked to teetee on the tree (plus it's so darn hot).  However, rubber fireman boots aren't really cool on the feet but they were his choice of footwear.  Besides the tree, we also enjoy teeteeing on the floor, in buckets, in the bath tub, cups, mixing bowls (I sterilized before cooking!), and sometimes the potty.  I guess as long as it's not in the diaper, it still counts?!

OCD

After talking to other mommies, I've decided all toddlers have some sort of OCD behavior and Cole's involves his animals.  They all have to be standing up where ever they are...in the barn, on the night stand, in the kitchen, etc.  I captured a few pictures of him putting them in the barn for the night while sporting his new cow boy (he says it as if it were two separate words) hat and boots from his birthday!

Picture catch up

I have tons of pictures and little time to have lengthy blogs on each as I would like; therefore, here is a condensed pictorial of what we've been up to lately:

Using our new lawn mower

Stickers always go on the legs, not sure why...

Looking like Dr. Evil in his new helmet...

Finally a smile that show off our scary vampire teeth!

Cheap fun

 Who knew 50 cents could result in over an hour of fun?  How you ask?

First you get some corn starch and mix it into water.  A very scientific process occurs resulting in "goop".  Goop is a solid and a liquid.

Most importantly, goop is fun and messy! 

We had goop on our hands,

feet,

and the floor.

Thankfully the dog bowl was near by for easy clean up.

Cole's Second Birthday

Dear Cole, if you are reading this years from now, know we love you but you are a busy boy and therefore leave little time and energy to blog frequently (your lack of sit-stillness is also the reason you will not find many pictures of you looking at camera ... Mama promises it was not a lack of trying on her part!  However, chasing you has resulted in Mama's pants being looser:)).  Cole loves cows and barns and hay and tractors and anything dealing with farms so it was just natural that farm be the birthday theme.  I decided I wanted to make the cake this year despite the deliciousness and convenience of store bought cakes because 1. I like to bake and 2. I always thought that was a fun part of being a mommy was making your child's cakes (weird, I know).  Thankfully Emily helped me with this undertaking and I have learned to a. read directions (when they say you need red gel to make icing red and not food coloring, believe the experts) and b. Betty Crocker smooth and creamy icing (which was recommended) doesn't do well outside of the fridge.  Despite the alien-esque look of the cupcakes, they were tasty as was the rest of the food (thanks Nana!). 

Not quite red barn (with Duncan Hines icing, which is now my new favorite) with hay bales.

Cow, sheep, pig and chick cupcakes right out of the fridge.  I'm not going to open a bakery anytime soon, but they are pretty cute if I do say so myself:)

Example of why Duncan Hines is my new favorite.  These Betty Crocker iced cupcakes were inside the entire time!

Attacking and not eating a cupcake.  Not a big sweets fan.  Oh well, Mama burns enough calories chasing you so she can have another:)

Birthday boy in the swimming pool...He smiles all the time, it's just capturing it on camera!

Pool fun but maybe too fun....

 Looks like a frat party but the kids loved scooping water in the fun little cups Nana got!