A little off the top...

Here's a video of Cole's first haircut. I did it with my camera, not the video camera, so that's why there's no sound.

Little of this... Little of that...

Cole will be 6 months old this coming Saturday and has been doing a lot of new things. Here's a summary:

He's been sitting up pretty well now. Sometimes he falls over, more out of sheer boredom or tiredness than anything else.
He wants me to tell you that he doesn't NEED his boppy. It's just that when Mommy walks away to do things, it's better to fall over onto that than onto the floor or a hard toy.

I don't have a picture of this, but his goal is to get his mouth onto his hard toys and gnaw on them because his first tooth is attempting to poke through his gums. It's the bottom left one. He's not too fussy about it, which is nice but the amount of drool coming from his mouth is astronomical.


Here's a photo of him gnawing on a designated gnawing device.

You can't tell from this photo but the front of his shirt is completely soaked.

Cole has also begun eating vegetables and fruits. His face when you first put food other than bland cereal into his mouth is priceless. He looks supremely offended.

We have peas (this was his first food other than cereal) and sweet potatoes. Note the bright green color of the peas. Nope, you can't get that from jarred baby food. Only from the homemade stuff. I'm making all of Cole's baby food and so far it's gone really well. His palette currently includes green peas, crookneck squash (from my garden), sweet potato puree and bananas. We will be adding apple puree and pear puree this week.

In other ADORABLE news, Cole and his best friend Harrison are really warming up to one another. Proof of their undying friendship:

How cute are they in their little khaki cargo shorts? Also, Cole totally reached out to grab Harrison's hand all by himself. This is what sparked the photo op.

Until next time...

Lonely in Louisville

There they are. My family. Very attractive bunch.

I'm getting ready to leave for 6 days to go to Louisville, Kentucky for work. First of all, I really wish I was heading to a more glamorous destination. The tourist highlight of my week will most likely be when I get to leave the hotel where our convention is being held to go to the Louisville Slugger Baseball Museum, which the fraternity I work for has rented out for an evening. Since I'm not a huge sports fan to begin with and I'm definitely not into baseball, I foresee yet another exciting evening where I will be mingling with older gentlemen and hearing about the "good ol' days" when they were in college.

Secondly, I'm really gonna miss my boys. I'll be working from 8:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night so the week's bound to go by fast but I'm sure I'll be pulling out this picture and looking at it all the time.




I'm fairly certain Cole will hit some amazing milestone while I'm gone. The First Word being the one I fear missing most. The ONLY way I'll forgive him for developing coherent speech while I'm gone is if his first word is Mama.


I know he'll be in great hands while I'm gone. Philip is a WONDERFUL dad. He knows how to do all the things that I do and then some and he'll take care of everything just fine. I'm more worried about him forgetting to water my flowers and vegetable garden than his ability to care for Cole. Plus, Cole's expecting visitors while I'm gone: Grandma and Cousin Riley and also Papa, Nana and Cousin Kaitlyn.


He'll have a great week. I just hope with all the fun he has, he'll remember who I am when I return. Because if he doesn't, I may just never want to leave again... unless the destination is anything other than Louisville, Kentucky and the companion for the trip is my husband and not my co-workers...

A New Feeling of Homesickness

This past week was one of those long weeks. You know, when on Tuesday morning, you're thinking that it has got to be Friday already. One of the reasons why my week was this way was because I was out of town for work on Wednesday and Thursday. It was the first time I've had to be gone overnight since Cole was born.

I have never been one to be homesick. I've always enjoyed traveling, whether with others or by myself. I always look at it as a chance for adventure, whether the purpose of the trip is business or pleasure. But, this past Wednesday night I felt the odd feeling of homesickness for one of the first times in my life. I was only gone for one overnight. Afterall, South Bend is only a 3 hour drive away from Indianapolis.

But as I sat in the Fiddler's Hearth (an Irish Pub in South Bend--go figure) and watched a slew of amateur guitarists demonstrate their passion through six strings and a microphone, I couldn't help but realize just how much I missed being home with my wife and child. I found myself constantly pulling out my cell phone and looking at this picture on Flickr:



God truly has blessed me, and for that I thank Him each day. For me, going home to Crystal and Cole makes a long week seem wholly insignificant and totally worth it.

~Philip

Best Buds

On Saturday, June 14th, 2008, Cole's best friend was born and he's been bugging me to let you all in on this news. So here it goes.

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. with the longest fingers and toes ever is Harrison Dean Gapinski Coon. He's very cute and we stopped by the hospital so he and Cole could meet. Here they are:

You all should probably get used to Harrison because, as he is Cole's best friend, he'll probably be a frequent guest star in the Sheward Family Blog.

I know a lot of you are saying to yourselves, "What if they don't like each other?" Well, it's not really up to them at this point and so far we've gotten no complaints.

So, in closing, Congratulations Brian and Rebecca. Harrison's one great kid and we're proud to call him Cole's best friend.

My Name is Cole

Hello everyone! Cole here. I'm 14 weeks old now.

I suck my thumb:Most of the time I look like this: With a lot of this thrown in:

But sometimes, now this is rare, I look like this:
(Mom: It's not THAT rare! Cole:Stop it Mom. This is MY blog entry.)
But MOST OF ALL I'm cool, very very cool, like this:

Well, until next time, I'll be keepin' it real.

Cole

Hats, hats and more hats...

A few weeks ago, my Aunt Sue and cousin, Jessica, came down to see Cole and while they were here I showed them his room and some of his clothes. Well, Jessie suggested to me that I should take pictures of Cole wearing all of the hats he has. As a master scrap-booker, she saw the potential for a great scrap book page. Now, I'm not into the creative memories thing yet, perhaps that will come, but I did follow the sage wisdom of my cousin and a few days ago, Cole and I had a photo shoot with the hats. He would start laughing and smiling every time I put a new hat on him. At any rate, here's the link to the slideshow. Grandmothers, fair warning, you're going to want to jump up and down he's so darn cute. Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24017746@N08/sets/72157604828625770/show/

Side note: If a certain dog (ahem, Allie) leaves a different toy strategically placed on the steps every night and every night a certain new mom goes downstairs to make a bottle and almost trips and falls down the stairs and DIES, does it mean that a certain dog is trying to kill me? Any thoughts?