1 year check up

Colt had his one year check up today. He is doing fine and he had to have 3 shots! OUCH!! He cried for each one and then calmed down when they gave him a ball to play with. He even showed off his walking skills to the doctor. He was walking all over the office and I could hardly get him to stay still. He was just shy of 32 inches (95%) and 23 lbs (50%). His weight and head circumference have really slowed down his head was in the 50% as well as his weight. He is still high on the chart for his height though. Overall, everything is going well, he still has his calcified hematoma on the left side of his head. I asked the doctor about it because I thought for sure it would have been gone by now. She said that it is noticably smaller to her even though I may not notice it as much because I see him everyday. She also said that his head is starting to grow a lot slower than when he was first born so its not going to disappear as rapidly as it did when he was younger. He has a lot more hair now so its not as noticable but I will be happy when it disapears completely!! I guess it will be something we can tease him about when he gets older:)

Trip to Ellensburg

We headed to Ellensburg this past weekend for my college roomate Randi and her now husband Tony's wedding. It was even more fun that usual because we got to meet up with a bunch of our college friends (my roomates and teamates on the volleyball court) and for the first time we got to see my friend Jess's baby boy Wyatt and my friend Julie's little boy Brody. The reception was in this really old building and it had no air condition and it was 100 degrees out so Dave, Colt, Dale and Wyatt sat outside alot trying to stay cool.
Brody Price, he is 5 weeks old.
Colt was great all weekend long, he never cried in the car, played well with all the other kids, and did pretty well sleeping with us at the hotel. We did not bring the pack-n-play with us because we forgot it was at my mom and dad's and we had no time to go and get it so Colt slept between us in the bed at the hotel. He moves a lot in his sleep!! Dave and I kept having to put him back in the middle because he was always turning sideways or upside down in the bed. I am so glad that he does not sleep with us, I would be exhausted all the time!!!
Family picture at the wedding.
My friend Julie and her sons Brody and Crew (2 years old).

It was so fun to get to see all of my close friends and teamates from college. There were 5 of us that shared a house together at Central and everyone was at the wedding except Courtney (we missed you Court!), she was coaching volleyball in Reno, Nevada. We will see all of them again in about 3 weeks when we go to Chelan for a week. We rent a house down there, bring the kids and play for an entire week. None of us live in the same town so its a fun way to catch up and relax. I am really looking forward to it!!

Happy Birthday Colt!!

My little boy is one today! The first year has gone by much too fast but has been filled with so much fun, laughter, love and memories. Colt is a special special little boy and I feel so blessed that God chose me to be his mommy. Every day is a gift just to be around him, to see his smiles, be the receiver of so many kisses (open mouth and all) and hugs, to watch him see and explore new things. Colt is getting so close to being a full time walker, he really turned a corner today with taking more steps, he is getting to the point where he is actually trying to walk on his own rather than have us coax him. It will not be long!! I have been trying to teach him some sign language, I have been working with him on the words; more, dog, done, and milk. I think he prefers to just say them instead, when I say dog and show him the sign he just looks at me and says "dog" so I keep doing it over and over again trying to get him to sign it and Dave finally says to me "Care he does not need to sign it he can say it just fine:)" So then I try the word "more" and he says "mo." When he finishes his food he will say "dun." I am going to keep working on it but it seems the more I say the words and try to sign them he eventually just starts saying the words himself so there is no need for him to learn sign language. He is a pretty verbal little guy and most the time we can figure out what he wants just by what he says or what he points at. His one year appointment is not until next week, I weighed him on our scale about a week ago and he was 22.5lbs which if that is correct that is only a 1 lb gain from his 9 month appointment. I can tell he is starting to lean out a little bit, he is still big but not quite at chunky as he was, all that crawling and moving everywhere is keeping him slim:) He is a big fan of dogs, trucks and dirt right now, if he has one of those three he can play for a long time and be very entertained. He is in love with all dogs, he loves to take Byson's toys and play tug-a-war with him, Byson always wins and Colt just laughs. Colt also loves to give Byson kisses and he is very gentle with dogs, we have worked with him since he was little on how to pet animals and he has gotten to the point where he no longer needs to be told to be gentle, he is very good at petting them very nicely and not pulling on there hair. Colt eats pretty much anything and everything, some days he will try and be picky but we try to just keep giving it to him until he eventually eats it. He has a strong disgust for green veggies but besides that anything else goes. He is drinking whole milk out of sippy cups and has done fine without the bottle. The only time he wants a bottle is when he sees another baby drinking one, he grabbed his cousin Reese's bottle this past weekend and drank what was left of it:) He is still a good sleeper, good eater and easy going baby. My introduction into first time motherhood was such a smooth one because Colt was so easy, he slept a lot early on and I never felt overwhelmed or anxious about any of it. The hardest part was (and still is) working full time and trying to be a mom when I get home from work exhausted. I am nervous about having a second because I doubt I will get lucky enough to have one as easy as Colt has been. I am so proud to be his mom and I am looking forward to all the new challenges and growing he will experience in the next year.

One year ago......

We welcomed into our family our first son, Colt Mires Pemberton at 7:37 pm weighing 8lbs 9oz and 22.5 inches long. We named him Colt because Dave had been watching football the fall before and there were a couple of college quarterbacks who had the name Colt. We thought Colt Pemberton sounded strong! The middle name is my maiden name. Colt is the first grandson on my side of the family, my dad has 5 grandaughters so we wanted to name him after my dad in some way. The first thing I thought when I saw him was how big his eyes are, even for just coming out when most newborns you can hardly see there eyes his were still just huge and blue!! I fell instantly in love with him and never wanted to let him go!
I look tired:) Labor was long but the reward so worth it!!
They put Colt in a pink blanket because they were all out of the blue ones. 5 other boys were born in our hospital within an hour of each other. Colt was the last one born that night.
Little did I know on this day that the next year would be the best year of my life and every day I would have a reason to jump out of bed with a smile on my face.
I can't believe its been a year since this day. Seeing all these pictures makes me want to relive it again and again. Its been an emotional day for me, I love my baby boy so much and its hard watching him get older and knowing eventually he will no longer be my baby but I am loving watching him grow and discover new things.

One Year Pictures

I went and had Colt's one year pictures done today at Picture People in Kennewick. They turned out all right, they are pretty cute but I was hoping to get more ones of him really smiling. He was so happy when he was there but he just wanted to move so much it was hard to get him to stop and look at the camera. This is only the second time I have done proffesional photos for Colt, Dave is not real big on me spending a lot of money on photos but its so fun to do:) My mom came with me and she ended up buying more than I did, I am pretty sure she has more pictures of Colt up in the house than she has of her own daughters!! The outfit he is wearing is a birthday gift from my sister Amy, it is so cute!!

June 24, 2007

One year ago today I was HUGE!!! I was counting down the days hoping everyday that Colt would arrive. I had a scheduled induction for the next morning but kept hoping that maybe labor would start on its own before that. No such luck, I had no problems throughout my pregnancy and had no real contractions until they induced me. I remember Dave and I went on our last date together and then went to bed around 11 that night since we had to be at the hospital before 6 the next day. I did not sleep that great, I was pretty nervous but probably still got about 5 hours of sleep. Little did I even realize how much my life would change in just 24 hours!!

Colt's Birthday Gift

Colt got a new little playground for his birthday. For now we put it in our living room and he loves it. He immediately put all his trucks in it and likes to play with all of his trucks and push them down the slide.
His favorite thing to do is open the door and go inside, then close the door and push his trucks down the slide. Then it starts all over again.

Getting ready to push the truck down the slide. Look at the little expression on his face.

He has had so much fun the past two days playing with this. Mike and Julie got it for him and he got a lot of trucks from other people so he is really enjoying all his birthday gifts even if his actual birthday is not until Wednesday.

He was playing peek-a-boo with me. The little guy just cracks me up!

Getting ready to go down the slide by himself. Aunt Marni taught him when she was here this past weekend for his party.

He loves going down and when he gets to the bottom points back to the top and it starts all over again. We are having a lot of fun playing so far this summer!

Colt's 1st Birthday Party

A couple kids in my mom's 4th grade classroom made this poster for Colt's first birthday. They knew how much he loves dogs because my mom is always telling her kids about Colt so they painted a big dog for him, they were trying to make her look like my parents dog Jordan.
We had the party out at my mom and dad's place because its a lot bigger and they have a huge yard with lots of shade trees (not that it mattered because it was cloudy and raining a little bit!!). When we first got there Colt got his first present, a maraca. My mom had made a bunch of maracas for all the little cousins to take home with them. Colt's was blue with dog prints on it.
Dave and Amy decorated Colt's cake and I baked the cupcakes. We made him a turtle cake and....
.....a centipede cake. It has exactly 100 legs too!
My grandma came to Walla Walla for a couple weeks so she was able to be here for Colt's birthday too!!
We barbecued hamburgers, had 3 different salads and punch to eat. All of my sisters came and there kids and my good friend Audra stopped by. Her and Brent are leaving for Europe for the summer so it was nice of them to stop by on there way out of town!
Dave's family came as well and we all ate lunch on the back lawn at my parents house. It had stopped raining by this time so we were able to enjoy the outdoors without the rain or heat! It was kind of cool out which was nice. Colt had a hotdog and pasta salad, he loved it!
The girls all wanted to try out the hammock. Colt was swinging too but he was a little overwhelmed by all the girls so we had to take him off.

Colt's twin cousins Reese and Perry and the proud grandparents.
Popyee and Memah (Dave's parents) got Colt a little kangaroo climber that has a slide on it to play on, however he was much more entertained by the box!
We headed inside after presents and sang Colt happy birthday and let him have his cupcake. He was kind of apprehensive about digging into it, probably because of all the people watching him!
My sisters Amy and Ann got Colt a bubble blowing machine so we went back outside and the kids loved playing and running through all the bubbles. Colt was swinging his arms and going crazy and my dad would walk around with him on his shoulders. It was pretty cute!
Colt had a great day and had no meltdowns!! I was a little nervous he would be overwhelmed or tired but he had so much fun with his baby cousins (Camryn, Reese and Perry) and his older cousins (Madelyn and Lucy). He got some really nice gifts and lots of trucks to play with. Thank you to all of our family for coming it was so much fun to hang out and celebrate this special little boy! By the end of the day I was more exhausted than Colt, my eyes were so heavy and I just wanted to sleep. Its a lot of work putting on a birthday party, even if he is only 1 but it was well worth it.

Birthday Party Today!!

We are having Colt's birthday party today. I had these announcements/invitations made up for his party. We are just having a family party but with the size of both Dave and my family now its going to be quite a few people! I will post pictures of his party later.

Portland

We spent the last couple days in Portland. Dave qualified for a business trip so we got to stay at the Marriot on the water in Portland and have some fun. Dave's parents also went on the trip, while Dave and his dad went to meetings Julie, Colt and I got to have some fun! The first night we went to dinner and then took a walk along the water.
Colt wanted to see what his dad was looking at but he couldn't quite understand how to look inside.
Mike, Julie and Me on the waterfront.
Family picture!!
Giving Popyee a BIG KISS!!
Colt's awesome grandparents. They love him so much!!

Kisses from Memah and Popyee.
We walked down closer to the water, we did not have any bread to give the ducks so Dave put a leaf in Colt's shoe and the duck came right up and grabbed it off his shoe. Colt jumped when the duck grabbed it and then he laughed. It was cute!
Just checking things out.
On Thursday when the guys were in meetings Julie and I met up with a friend who has two young girls at a park in Vancouver. Colt loved the park, this is the only picture I took because I spent most the time running around with Colt going down slides and swinging on monkey bars:)
Thursday night we went out with a group of people to dinner on the waterfront. Colt is getting so big, he likes to walk with us and hold our hands now. It is so funny to see him become a little person now. We got rid of the bottle during this trip too. I ran out of liners (I prefer to use the liners because it means all I have to do is wash the nipples) I was going to run to the store and get some before the trip and Dave told me not to bother with it and just give him his milk in sippy cups. So we took no bottle with us on the trip to Portland and he did great, he drinks all his milk from sippy cups now. Just another sign that he is turning into a toddler