10 months!

It's so hard to believe that in 2 months our little Pinkus will be a year old.

He's sad about it, too (by the way, this face pretty much sums up his behavior the last two days).

I don't know what was going on with his collar being crazy. I think this dark yellow is the only color I don't like so much on him. The shirt is great for church, though, and I love the shorts! We got this set and another from my friend this past weekend. Wait until you see the other one! I am very excited about it and it's surfer look.

Artsy?

By far the thing people notice most about Cole is his extreme friendliness to everyone and the fact that he tries to put every, and I mean every, toy between his feet while he is playing. It is so hilarious. We love him so. Well, he is giving me the face like he made in picture #2 above so I must publish this post and try to muster up my energy for another hour and a half until Daddy comes home. Oops...saw that face again...enjoy!

43 Weeks

Kim's pictures inspired me. Plus the fact that she said she has to photoshop a lot of her digital pictures makes me feel better. I always have to adjust contrast and I thought maybe it was because I was just not a good photographer anymore. Thank you, Kim, for the encouragement. I want to break out the SLR some more and take some more artistic shots of things...

Cole's Visit to Hinckley, Ohio

So sorry for the 30 some odd pictures of Cole and family. Plus, today was week 43 and I took great shots of him, but I will keep you all waiting with baited breath to post them tomorrow.

Two of Cole's 3 great grandmothers.

My grandmother.

Cole and his Pop-Pop.

Family shot.

3 generations of Forte men.

Cole with all of his grandparents.

Fortes.

Forte parents, grandparents, and Tyler great grandmother (Granny).

Another family shot (must be a record for the most shots of the three of us in a weekend).

Jonathan's brother and wife, Uncle Matthew and Aunt Krista.

With Daddy.

Donna Ehrmann and Aunt Gloria at Saturday's shin-dig. It was my Mom's birthday, as well, but most people didn't know it.

Cole and my Mom's oldest brother, Bob.

Kim takes fantastic pictures. See here. My Mom's brother Garry helping get Cole's attention.

My cousin, Melissa, my friend, Matt, and Jonathan throwing a football in the background.

Jonathan, my brother Chris, Josh (Melissa's son), and Matt playing football.

I loved this shot of my Dad and Mom with Cole.

My brother, Chris. Nice tongue.

Cole ate more strawberries last weekend than we could count.

Cole with my Mom.

Sweet, snuggly, baby kisses.

My cousin, Melissa's daughter, Emily. He actually gave her a little snuggle which was too cute.

My Aunt Gloria (Dad's sister) and me.

Cole and Grandpa.

My friend Mary, who is about to have a baby any day now came to visit with her mother. Mary has Bell's Palsy from her pregnancy and half of her face is numb. We tried to make light of the fact that she has a weird smile.

So, Mary is much more thrilled than she looks. It was soooo great seeing her. We can't wait to hear what (gender) they have!

Uncle Chris after his round of golf.

Mary holding Cole and showing a peek at the good side of her smile. She is too funny.

Cole in Grandpa Salerno's sports car. I guess we will have to get another shot of him in a sports car when we go to Circleville next time.
All in all it was a great, but very busy, visit. Friday we had the morning to go walk Hinckley Lake and Jonathan's family came up from Circleville in the afternoon. I got to get my Superman Ice cream on Friday night. Saturday we had Jonathan's brother and his wife come over and we had a big party after that with my family and parents friends. Sunday Mary and her Mom came over. Monday we came home. Cole traveled great and he had fun there. He got very used to attention. He likes to hold things between his feet and everyone got a kick out of it. It got so that at the end of the visit he would put something between his feet and then look up at someone and smile big to get a reaction. What an incredible ham. I think he was disappointed when we went grocery shopping today when every stranger did not come up and talk to him because he looked at every one of them and smiled huge. At least in the checkout line he got some attention! He has started crinkling his nose when he smiles a lot more often and it is so funny. 43 week pictures will be posted tomorrow to allow a little time to digest this post.

My craft Idea Part Deux

Silhouette made for Mother's Day.

I was originally going to make "Cole pendants" and then I figured no one would wear them. So, I backed up, punted, and came up with cute cute keychains. I made some pendants, too, with scrapbook paper and people have LOVED them. The photo keychain was totally fun to make and I am considering making more as gifts for people (pendants, too). So fun. So, it was a long wait, but here it is. We are in Ohio now, but there are pictures to come soon of our visit.

42 Weeks! Poor Baby is Sick :-(

Cole has a cold. These pictures are as good as it gets today. It was chilly here today.

We decided to take him to the doctor to make sure his ears didn't have fluid in them since we are going to Hinckley this weekend. He is healthy aside from his cold so that was good news to have from the doc.

He's weighing in at 19 lbs 9 ozs with diaper and onesie, but that is good weight gain since he was 18 lbs 10 ozs on the 29th of April. We thought he had looked a little chubbier. We were going to get a weight check in early June anyway, so this saves us the trouble.

The Pink Tomato Cake

Well, I attempted my first birthday cake today. I made a whole wheat cake with a little cake flour to lessen the heaviness. Then, I tried to figure out what I was going to use as the decorating model. Jonathan suggested Cars, but I knew that it could get ugly with it being my first attempt and all, so I went with his idea and found a cartoon character, Bob the Tomato from Veggietales. I learned a bunch. First off, I am going to get a cake pan for Cole's birthday to help me with the shape. Second, I do not have nearly enough frosting colors that I need. Third, I am not good at mixing colors (especially when limited with very few). I had no red. I had a "reddish" gel food coloring that was actually pink. I added some black. Yes, red and white make pink, but apparently it doesn't go backward. You would think someone good at art would know that, but there is a reason I am not a painter. This is why I stick with drawing where the colors are already mixed for the most part and I rarely use color. Anyway, I had green, but I didn't know it until the very end and all of the other icing was already mixed. So, we have Bob the Robber:). Not very fitting for Bob the Tomato to be a robber, but I worked with what I had. Actually, I thought I did ok with it. Jonathan agreed. I did the decorating in about 20 minutes and I know that with Cole's real birthday cake I will not rush it, this was just to see if I really needed to take the class or not at Michaels. Well, I do need to take the class, but I think I can scrape by for this years cake without the class. They only offer it at very inconvenient times for our current schedule. Once Cole is over a year old and eating all table foods and I don't have to be around for bedtime every night it will be easier to take the class. Well, it was an experiment. Now, tomorrow I get to try the whole wheat birthday cake. I will let you know how it tastes:).
Taste was pretty good. I think next time I will completely follow the recipe and use only whole wheat pastry flour (unless it has enriched stuff in it anyway) instead of using 2/5 cake flour and 3/5 whole wheat flour. Now, bear in mind that I enjoy all cakes, but I am not a cake gourmet so someone with a very picky palate may complain (I have no reason to say that as I thought it was very good, though). Recipe here. I used Winton's butter cream icing recipe for the icing. I am going to look for a lighter icing to try next time. It is rich.