Date Night

In desperate need of some time alone, Emily and I went on a date this past Sunday. We got all dressed up (see pic below), left Cole with our friend Maggie (see pic below), and headed down the street to a hole-in-the-wall Italian place that had been voted the best Italian food in all of the metro-Denver area. Upon arriving, we came to find out that the place closed down about three months ago. Big bummer. So, we found the nearest alternative (Macaroni Grill) and still enjoyed some great time together. Many thanks to Maggie to taking care of Cole!

Go Gators & Fight, Raiders, Fight!!!!

My Gators are now 3-0 thanks to their recent 30-6 beatdown of Tennessee, and are ranked #4 in the country. And Emily's Red Raiders are 4-0 and are ranked in the top ten for the first time in recent memory. Cole is catching the college football fever right along with us....

Mommy got Cole all dressed up for the Texas Tech game.

Cole & Ryan after the Gators took a 17-0 lead over Tennessee.
Gooooooo Gators!!!!
Cole passed out by the middle of the 2nd quarter, but he woke up in time to see another Gator victory!

A Typical Week in Littleton

Just some everyday pictures from what tends to happen around here.

Emily does a lot of reading, studying, and going to class.

But, she loves taking breaks to hang out with Cole and I. Here is Emily and Cole having some quality time together. Cole is sitting in the Japanese baby carrier that the Kuipers sent over from Japan. Thanks guys!
Cole gets to spend a good amount of time in his car seat, whether it is doing errands with daddy or going on walks around campus in his stroller.
When Cole isn't sleeping, eating, or playing by himself, he is probably being cranky. So I try to hold him and calm him down until the next round of feeding.
Or, I'll pop in a Baby Einstein video and we'll do all the motions together. Good times.

Tummy Time for Cole

Cole is doing a great job at learning to hold his head up. We give him some "tummy time" 3 or 4 times a day for 2-5 minutes, or until he starts whining. Here is some video of his efforts.

After all that hard work, cole needed to get some rest, so he passed-out on his playmat.

Want more of Cole? Be sure to check out the Cole Addict blog as I update it almost daily. www.coleaddict.blogspot.com

Fostering Hope 5K Walk

Our neighbor, Stephanie, works for an organization called World Venture. They were sponsoring a 5K to raise money and awareness for orphans and foster children internationally (Uganda) and locally (metro Denver area). So, a bunch of our new homies from the seminary went out to walk the 5K on Saturday morning and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from the day:

Jeff, Lauren, Erin, Emily, Dave, and Evan getting pumped up for the walk.

Cole getting pumped up for the walk.
A view of the mountains along the way.
Emily, Tasha, Stephanie, Erin, and Kelly taking a rest after the walk. Rick stands guard to make sure Cole doesn't wander off.

Stay-At-Home Dad Report

Emily has been in school for three weeks now and we are beginning to fall into a routine. On most days Emily is either at class or reading in the library, which leaves me and Cole with plenty of male-bonding time. Cole is currently eating on a 3-hour schedule during the day, and does a pretty good job of having "awake time" and taking necessary naps in-between his feedings. He usually doesn't like to sleep very long, but his naps tend to vary between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Maybe some day he'll be more consistent, but that day doesn't seem to be very near.

To fill-up our days, Cole spends a lot of time playing by himself after he eats for 30-60 minutes. We rotate where he "plays" between the playpen, the bouncy seat, his playmat, his stroller, and just laying on the floor. When he starts to fuss, we'll go interact with him, read him books, watch a Baby Einstein video, take him for a walk, or watch reruns of The Office (his favorite - he loves Michael Scott).

Here is a video from one of our walks:

We have been blessed to see some of our good friends since arriving in Denver. Here are the pics to prove it:

Stephen & Cole

Emily & Cole, Shanon & Truett

Ryan, Cole, & Asdo
Sarah & Cole
Jed, Cole, & Ryan

Special Announcement: "Cole Addict" blog launches today!

As cool as Emily and I are, we know that we cannot compare to the awesomeness of Cole. Some of you Roberts Portal blog readers have expressed a desire to see more and more of Cole, so we are going to give it to you. But instead of bombarding the Roberts Portal with anything and everything that is Cole, we decided to start a blog specifically for Cole. It is called the "Cole Addict" blog and can be found at http://www.coleaddict.blogspot.com/. Here you will find just an insane amount of Cole videos and pictures to satisfy your Cole cravings.