Cole's Summer

Cole loves being outside.  He could stay outside all day everyday.  He likes to dig in the dirt and the sand and play in the water.  He also has several friends in the neighborhood and doesn't mind just going over to the circle (a park across the street) and playing with whoever is there.  He loves to help mow the lawn (at our house, my parents, and my uncles).  He insists on pushing the mower himself.  He thought it was pretty awesome he got to help Grandpa Mike till the garden with a tractor one day.

He does not love to ride his bike.  We have tried many times to get him to ride without training wheels and he refuses.  One day I took him over to the park across the street and made him get on and we rode around it twice with him bawling the whole time and telling me I am a mean mom.  He says he will ride it when he is five.

Cole's best friend Conner lived right across the street from us.  They did everything together.  Those two boys had so much fun.  Then Conner's dad got a new job and they moved.  It was a VERY sad day.  Conner's mom was also one of my best friends.  We did everything together... pool days, bike rides, and smoothies on the porch every day!  The men would come home from work and we'd be sitting in our grunge clothes with our smoothies and toys strewn all about.  They called us porch monkeys.  We miss them!!

Cole also did swimming lessons for the 3rd year and he has improved a lot this year.  He loves jumping off the diving board and making a splash.  One day, we were at the pool with a bunch of friends.  Everyone was getting ready to leave and I couldn't find Cole anywhere.  I thought he had gone back up to the slide one more time but I waited and waited and he never came down.  Ashlee and Conner had already left so I called her thinking she was with them, nope not with them.  I sent Pam's boys into the bathroom to see if he was there, nope not there!  This went on for like twenty minutes and I was really starting to panic.  It was awful.  Finally, Pam's husband sent their oldest son into the bathroom again and he found him.  Not in the regular bathroom but in a little side bathroom in the shower.  I bawled and lectured him the whole way home.  He is a little too brave.

We borrowed my dad's power sprayer one day to clean the garage and Matt let Cole use it to spray the tramp.  He pretended to be a fireman and thought he was pretty awesome.  He has always and still loves firemen.

Matt and Cole went fishing several times.  One day, they woke up at 4:30 to go out to Newton and fish.  They didn't catch a single thing.  Later they went to the trout farm and caught some fish there.  Cole pulled his shirt down over his hands so he wouldn't have to touch the fish.  That improved by the end of the summer.  He also likes to cook and eat the fish after.

Grandpa got a new pellet gun and Cole loves to shoot it.  He asks almost everyday to go visit Grandma Karen.

Most of his friends will be going to kindergarten this year and he was very upset to learn that he is not too.  With a September birthday he just misses the deadline.  I think he is ready to go and would thrive there, but I won't complain about having him home one more year.  He is going back to the same preschool as last year and his cousin Rylin will be in his class this year.  He is also going to play kickball and soccer this fall.