We went to the Gay Pride parade in Boston this weekend! It was such fun. Good energy, wonderful sights and sounds, and some rain. We think it's important that Cole is exposed to as much awesome stuff as possible, so we figured this would be a good event. Plus; who doesn't love a parade! I took a bunch of pictures which are all at flickr, but here's some highlights:
It is, as they say here in beantown, summatime. All sorts of fun and frolic is afoot. Speaking of feet, our little guy needed some new kicks for the season. Of course, we took him straight to the sensible shoe store, to get the recommended pediatric orthopedic ergonomic organic baby einstein type footwear. The selection was, in a word, "eh."
We were looking for something special, something cool for the hot summer fun ahead. And then, Cole spied, with his little eye, the best shoes ever!
Behold - Baby's first flip flops! With monkeys on them! Adorable much?
Jealous? Me too.
OK, so, they do have an additional strap (flup?), sort of a flip flop training wheel, for beginners. Cut the kid some slack, he just started walking, he doesn't need to add any extra credit difficulty points just yet.
What's great about flip flops, is that they go with just about everything. Like for example a cargo shorts and a dinosaur camo ensemble?
Cole's strutting his stuff on the catwalk.
Seeing as how flip flops are practically the Stein family crest, this is kind of a big deal. Thanks uncle John, for being such a good role model.
We started at Pino's Pizza. Already a good day, right? But then we went to CVS and bought a $2 red ball and went to play with it in the field across the way. Tons of fun was had by all! It was great to just let Cole romp around and not worry about where he was going, as in every direction was nothing but a sea of grass.
He wandered over to the bleachers.
He snuck over to the tennis courts.
He kicked the ball around.
Then he went and hid behind a tree.
But Kate found him.
And scared him silly!
Then some random guy offered to take a family portrait, and as always, one serious, one goofy!
After which we were just in a ridiculous mood and went crazy.
And then the afternoon in the field came to a close with a good session of repeatedly throwing a giggling Cole up in the air.
So there was this awesome patch of buttercups on the small lot across the street from us. Yesterday I was like ... I want to get some pictures of Cole in that buttercup patch. So I went out and took these pictures (Cole was barely in the mood) and then literally within a half hour the woman who owns the land came out to mow the grass and decimated the buttercups in the process. Maybe she magically knew my intentions and was waiting for me? Or maybe we're just lucky.
Cole has been working on a new facial expression we like to call his "Stink Eye."
It's silly, ugly, cute, funny, and ridiculous all at once. Sometimes he cracks himself up while attempting it, and the result comes out a little tweaked:
Goofus.
He's also making a little progress on the self-feeding front, having moved on to stabbing utensils.
HOMPTH.
In other news, cousin Shira came to visit yesterday with her cousin Ilyssa. We didn't manage to get any pictures 'cause we were too busy walking around in the woods dazzling the squirrels with interesting conversation, and laughing about all sorts of things that I'm sure you would also find hilarious. Plus kick ass chocolate chip cookies. Man, those were good.
Finally, last night we enjoyed some dessert that made us wish Jane was here.
Hey, so it's Mother's Day! Awesome! I hope all the moms out there are celebrating and enjoying the day. Kate and Cole and I are thinking it's a nice day for a walk in the sun, because yesterday it was all monsoonie and super rainy and chilly. Which sucks, because yesterday was the March of Dimes, which is a walk for babies and NICUs and things, all of which we think are important. We went down town to the Hatch Shell (appropriate much?) to the NICU reunion tent so we could say hello to all of our nurse, doctor, and respiratory therapist friends. We didn't see Liz, (but apparently she's knocked up! Yay!) and Stacy was out galavanting with her hunky boyfriend or something (awesome) but we did get to spend lots of time with Grace, which was so super fun! She rocks. It was perfect timing for Cole to show off his new trick: fully unassisted walking! He wandered all over the tent, accidentally grabbing random peoples' butts and collecting empty candy wrappers and used dixie cups. That's what toddlers are supposed to do right? All of the NICU people were thoroughly impressed with his perambulation and he kicked it up a notch by dancing to the live rock n' roll tunes the band in the Shell was pumping out. His version of dancing is waving his arms around and bobbing a little, and it is hilarious. He was a frigg'n star, and he loved being the center of attention. Huge success! Tons of fun! Yay for babies and NICUs and Grace!
If you want proof that he can walk, here's a silly video that we took a couple days ago. YouTube made it seem like sped up film, but we don't mind.
Hmm, I just noticed that Cole put some graham cracker bits under the space bar.
Also, there's this video which is taking the universe by storm (be sure to have the audio CRANKED because doppler shifted giggling baby is awesome, but quiet):
We had gone to spend some time with the Steins in Long Beach, and with all of Kate's siblings in attendance, there was sure to be some hijinks. And what can we say, Cole loves hijinks!
Speaking of Australian flightless birds, we totally saw an emu the other day at the zoo!
