Genetics, Part II

OK, so here's a weird one for ya.

How is it possible that Cole looks just like pictures of Brian at this age....the Ambrosch side of his family tree...yet ALSO looks just like pictures of his Uncle Russell at this age....the Facente side of his family tree?

Check it out:

Brian

Russell

Cole

Yup - They do "connect"

Yes - they do "connect" in weird ways as my dad points out in his comment to the below post.

Just this morning Cole picked his nose and said Bo Bo...and as some may remember that is what Shelley's family use to call me, I use to think that was cute - endearing, but once I realized it was just a family way of saying booger, I think I am not so happy anymore!

Keeping an eye open for future connections!

My Eyes are set on Madagascar

Well, Cole has entered an obsessive phase - where he fixates on something and then it's just that thing, all the time.

Like eyes. For some reason, he has decided that - at least for the moment - the eyes are the coolest part of the body. And I don't just mean he likes eyes. He looks for eyes in everything. He points to his eyes, my eyes, your eyes, stranger's eyes, the cat's eyes, eyes of the characters in his books, eyes in the masks we have hanging on the wall, patterns that look like eyes in things....eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes. It is his obsession (closely followed, by the way, by another favorite: "ball.")

But perhaps most fascinating is his obsession with Madagascar. No, not the kid's movie - he's never seen that. I mean the country. For like two months now, every time he sees a map or a globe, he looks and then points to Madagascar. Every night, we say goodnight to this world map on our wall that has push pins for all the places we've traveled, and he points to Madagascar with a big smile and says something like "Madagagagas." He just loves Madagascar. We never taught him that. We have no idea where this came from.

So I guess maybe he's trying to tell us he wants to go to Madagascar. Too bad they're kind of in the midst of a civil war right now. It does, ironically, happen to be the only place on earth where lemurs come from. And if you don't know what a lemur looks like.......think "eyes!!":

Genetics

For most of my life, I've been a staunch social constuctionist. It has always seemed to me that with all the amazing differences that exist among people all around the world, it's just not realistic to think that how we act, think and even to some extent how we look could be somehow hard-coded...but rather, we're taught how we're supposed to act, think, and look from the very second we're born.

Now that I've passed on my genetic code, though, all my previous beliefs are really being challenged. There are these little things Cole does that just CAN'T be learned! Take for instance, this picture (which he took himself, by the way):




Ever since he was in utero, Cole has been crossing his ankles. As those of you who remember our pregnancy know, I had a LOT of ultrasounds when I was pregnant. And at least half a dozen times, a technician commented with a chuckle that the baby was in there, crossing his ankles. And still, almost 2 years later, he does it all the time.

Now, ordinarily, this would just be an amusing quirk. Except, anyone who really knows me will know that is one of my trademarks. I always have my ankles crossed, and I'm usually not even aware of it. How in the world can a weird habit like that be somehow genetic? It totally blows my mind.

Ah, parenthood.

I fed 'im to the fishes

Halloween is always a fun time in the Ambrocente household. Last year, Cole was really too small to understand what was going on (but he was, as always, a good sport for Mom and Dad's shenanigans). This year, he was still a bit young for any trick or treating, but he got into the spirit of our Halloween Party for sure.

I can't say he was amused when he woke up from his nap and a pirate came to get him instead of his good ol' mom. It took about 10 minutes before he'd even let me pick him up - he just stared at me like I'd lost my mind entirely. But then he warmed to my beard and things got better from there.

This year, our theme revolved around the water - one of Cole's favorite things lately. I was a pirate fisherman, Brian was the swamp thing I was trying to catch, and Cole was....well, he was bait. (We're good parents.) Word to the wise: costumes that attach mother to child are only a good idea if you're not planning on hosting a party with about 50 people in attendance.


This was our first Halloween in our new house, and our neighborhood really lived up to expectations - lots of neighbors getting into the Halloween spirit, plus more trick-or-treaters in one evening than in all the years we were in Oakland, combined! It was our turn to host the monthly neighborhood potluck, so we had lots of visitors who brought all sorts of delicious food (Cole's favorite was the eyeball cookies...thanks, Alysse! All I heard all afternoon was, "Eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes.....")

Hope you had a spooky, fun Halloween, too - wherever you are!

Our son is a nut.

Lately, one of Cole's favorite activities has been to close all four doors leading to our bedroom hallway, so he's locked in the (small) hallway in the dark, then scream like a banshee at the top of his lungs while running back and forth. At least it's totally baby-proof in there, so we can relax or get other things done around the house while he's doing it.

Then there's this:








(thanks to Grandma for the cool Elton John-like glasses, they're a hit). He put these on himself, if you can't tell.






And, if you need further proof that our son's a nut, here's how we spent the morning:



I swear, what he's wearing (or not wearing) was entirely his doing.

Butt I'm playing...

So, as you can see, much time passes between posts these days. It is not because I don't want to write - far from it, it is just hard finding the time to write. To help me be motivated though, your emails, or the leaving of comments of how much you enjoy seeing posts will help me post more often. As a warning though, I will more than likely do quicker shorter posts in the future, again this is only because there is only so much time in the day and Cole is becoming one heck of a social butterfly and fast moving toddler.

Now for the fun - here is a video of Cole with best bud Sagan. Please feel free to re post it else where or send it to friends, Would be fun to see how many people find it to be entertaining and how far spread it could go - but that's just me talking, I am a bit partial as a dad to how freakin cute this is. Enjoy

At Long last we resurface

I am so sorry for the long delay in new posts. But as you will see we have been busy. This is from our end of the summer mad dash across the country. We started with two ten hour drives across the desert and a round trip flight to Atlanta. I will promise to do better in the coming weeks with more posts - especially since it seems that Cole is growing like a stink weed. Enjoy.



Until Next time...

Getting a head start

Well, with the current state of the workforce, Cole decided that he would start exploring all his options. Today it was construction. As you can see he tried his hand at not only manual labor, but also being a foreman (watch the video and watch the transition from doing the work to coaching Shelley to do the work). In addition, he perfected the grunts, groans and scratches (in all the right places) that go with the job.

Enjoy.



Until Next time...

Road Rage!

OK, so it was a sidewalk - but the score stands, Cole -0, Road/Sidewalk -1.

And all this, just to impress a girl!

Lucky 13

It's always nice when you find green money on the ground - Cole and I found a nice little bundle of it in front of the Post Office today, thirteen dollars all neatly folded up. Lucky!

Unlucky - leaving your baby monitor outside in the garden, on, all night long! Lets hope the batteries died early on, and that we didn't say anything potentially embarrassing.

Summer is treating us all well, The fourth of July was a mix of business and pleasure for us - Shelley and Cole joined me at my performances at Ardenwood historic farm and then we had a grand old time with the neighbors at a wonderful party.

and for all of you to enjoy - an awesome picture from papa Steph's phone!



Until Next Time...

Doing some research

So Cole, as you can see, has been doing some research in the library. He wants to know just how long it takes for his second set of molars to come in. It has been what seems like weeks that he has been in pain, biting everything from wood sticks, to fingers - his, mine, and his friends.

Life is a cruel joke.

All I can say is that for those who believe in intelligent design - there is nothing intelligent about it.

Until Next time...

The Perfect Summer Day.

Start the morning off with some homemade guacamole on the deck...




















Then a little playtime at the park....




Followed by some high-quality time shared with a good friend
















Then finish the day with some ice cream at Fenton's Creamery!!!!
















Ahh, perfection.

Lesson's Learned.

If your child enjoys playing with suction cups, as mine does, and their favorite place to see it is on your forehead, just remember that hickeys will appear on said forehead...doh! But on the plus side, it kept Cole happy for the car ride home late at night, now I just need to find some makeup for tomorrows show.

Until next time.

half birthday!

Hard to believe it, but Cole is a year and a half old today. How the time flies.

18 months ago, he didn't do much more than cry, eat, sleep, oh, and did I mention cry??

Now, he is running around, chattering up a storm (even though we can't understand much of the words he's saying) and picking up more and more cute habits every day.

We'll post more updates about life later, but wanted to share with you another picture of Cole's growth across the world....he's gotten so big now we had to widen the zoom on the camera to fit him in. He's kicking Portugal and the UK...maybe even tickling Spain if he stretches. When did he become such a little BOY? The transformation has been amazing.

Just for your reference, in case you can't remember how he looked in these past growth pics:

One year old...just learning to speak Icelandic (his feet, anyway).

6 months old, only a couple inches past the east coast of Canada.

One week old...boy, he liked having this picture taken...not quite hitting Maine!

Long time no Blog!

Update - the reason behind the lack of blogs (besides being so freakin busy with a baby and a move) is that my computer was down for about three weeks. I have it back, and I am sorting through the pics, videos, and stories so i can update you all in one fell swoop. Give me a day or two and i should be back into the groove of things.

Until next time...

Half naked baby coming through.

My mother was here all last week helping us get projects finished and spending time with Cole.

Cole has been doing quite well with his walking, but has up until now not wanted to let go of that little finger of ours. He would take a few steps here and there by himself but would walk great as long as he had that security finger nearby. So when he jumped up and started to run across the house it came as a bit of a surprise, for those of you who are so inclined to watch a half naked baby running around here it is.



We have more updates, videos and pics coming soon.

until next time...

Settling in

We are starting to make some progress in the moving in front - although we still have mountains of boxes littering the dinning room. On the neighborhood front, we have met a number of wonderful people who have welcomed us with open arms, Cole even has a few buds that he has play dates with - everyday we say that this place is just too good to be true, and the people here are part of that reason, friendly, helpful, and willing to offer great advice, it is almost like traveling back in time to better times, when people actually did smile and wave as you walked by, it is such a great feeling. We can't wait to show off our digs to everyone soon.

until next time...

It's Chili outside!

So - it may be warm, but it is also quite chili outside - the diaper that is. For those of you that have kids, this will disgust you, but it will be an occurrence that you have had in one way or another. Those who do not have kids, this will just be one more thing that will be added to the list of things that will prevent you from even thinking of having kids.

This morning, Cole and i were hanging out in the new kitchen, when he decided to start his morning ritual of making a face that looks like Harpo Marx and squeeze out a good old number two. This is a normal, everyday ritual, so it brings up no red flags. However, Cole is walking more these days, which means he stands more these days, which also means he falls on his ass more these days.

Wait - don't get ahead of me here, but yes, you can see where this is going.

So, he does his Harpo, stands, falls and stands again. Wanting to go to the other room, I decide to pick up Cole and carry him for the sake of speed. That's when I slip. I didn't fall, but my foot slips a little more. I look down and I see my shoe (thank god I was wearing shoes) has what looks like Chili on the bottom of it.

I think to myself - Hmmm, that's funny, I thought I cleaned all that up last night.

Then it dawns on me - Shit! I just stepped in Shit! My sons own Shit!

After eating Chili and pineapple last night, his little system decided to release a larger load than normal, his falling on the over full diaper made it explode, and his immediate standing allowed the brown surprise to fall straight down his pant legs onto the kitchen floor leaving a nice surprise for daddy.

Ahhhh - ain't life grand!

Gotta run and wait for the plumber - completely unrelated, but maybe I will put him to work on Cole.

Well - until next time...

Quick update

Just a quick update for all of you paying attention.

Cole has healed very well from his accident last week. Even though the gash was very deep, it has already closed up and he acts as if nothing ever happened.

(Cole - the day after the incident)

We are pretty much completely moved out of our old place, just cleaning and painting need to be done before we can make it official. Our new home is still, and will be for some time, littered with boxes, bags and the like, but it is ours and feeling great!

Our Internet is up and running, as well as Phone, so I will be once again be in communication and writing more blogs.

As with the nature of moves, a number of stories have either happened or resurfaced so keep an eye on There's Always a Story - and of course you can't move with out a little bit of grumbling so check out Grumble and praise soon too.

Until Next time...

In Like a Lion...

So - this month there is not much time for blogs, but I wanted to take a quick moment to explain why...March came in like a lion and I am still waiting for the freakin lamb to show up.

First of all, Shelley and I bought a house. We closed on March 6th and have been since moving from our apartment to our house. On the same weekend I premiered a brand new 90 minute stage show which played to a sold out audience. Next up is another new show that opens April 3rd that will run in SF for 3 months at minimum and I have been in rehearsals for that as actor, director, and consultant. On top of all this Shelley was laid off from her position with the city of San Francisco. And if that wasn't enough, Cole decided that in the middle of all this that he needed to smash his pinkie finger under a stool and split it open and gush blood all over our new kitchen floor (he is OK now - don't worry). Ain't life grand? So if you see that pesky little lamb, send it over our way, we could use a little peace and quiet.

I will write more when the chicken finds its head.

Until next time...

We have a climber!

That's right - Cole is a climber. Thankfully not yet out of the crib - but he does stairs like a pro, and the other day he decided to climb a pile of boxes to get to the top of our bookshelves - I do believe a little bit of pee leaked out of me on that one when I turned around to see where he was and why I didn't hear the normal pitter patter of hands on the floor. Don't worry, it was our short bookshelves at least.

The other day at the park - he decided to climb up the steps of the slide and then throw himself head first down the chute. He has no fear...a good thing ...I guess...on the bright side I am getting back into shape just trying to keep up with him lately.

Well, there will be a whole lot to report on very soon, but for now I will leave you all with a link to Cole's modeling debut.

http://www.monaluna.com/Templates/inspiration.html

This is a friend of mine who is a designer and does some amazing work, and she designed the fabric and wanted to show some of the fun things you could do with it. Enjoy.

Until Next time...

It's been a long time...

"I'll be right with you - I'm on long distance."

Hello my dear readers - it has been quite sometime since we have had an update. This past month has been crazy, between Cole being sick (which lasted a good solid week) and a trip to Montreal and all the stuff that is life, blogging just slipped down a few rungs on the prioriety list, but we are back!

So Cole is better now, he really had taken quite a blow, but he is back up to his fighting weight and is as energetic as he was before if not more so.

We just got back from Montreal, where Shelley did a presentation at a confrence. The city was rather Cold to be exploring by day, but the really nice thing about Montreal is that it has an amazing network of tunnels that connect many hot spots, so Cole and I rarely went outside for more than a few hundred feet - gotta love those french speaking neighbors of ours for that.

One of Cole's favorite things was our visit to the BioDome. By far his favorite part was seeing the penguins!

OK - I guess the kids were a big part of his attraction to them too.

While there I tried to get some nice pictures of Cole - but hey Cole what's with the faces?

Cole - is there something in your mouth?

What the world is that? No wonder you were making faces -

Sorry Cole - But I don't think we are suppose to eat things like this.

Of course the fish always excite him too.

The food on the trip was different - they have hotdogs - without the hotdog!

And on the relationship front - I have news, Shelley found another man on this trip - Broad shoulders, Tall, knows how to cook, listens well - now she just needs to figure how to get him home.

I got bored on the flight home and shoved an entire Skymall in a 20oz bottle (the other skymall is for size comparison - it took about an hour of a seven hour flight that had nothing - no in flight entertainment, no drinks (well if you wanted to pay $2 for a small water there were drinks) no thing - Airline's suck!)

And Cole made a new Friend in VT at the VT teddy bear Company.

Well thats it for now - we promise to be better about updates and that the next one will be better ...I hope.

Partying like a Rock star!

That's right, Cole partied like a rock star this past weekend.

His friend Manav had his first birthday and boy oh boy was there fun to be had. In addition to being held in a 12th story apartment that overlooked the beautiful Lake Merritt in Oakland, Cole was introduced to a number of "ladies" and felt it his duty to kiss them and hug them and in one case grabbed their butt (part proud on that one, part horrified - ok mostly proud - guess the sex talk is coming early in the Ambrocente household).

Speaking of the sex talk - Cole learned an important lesson in sex ed. Kissing girls can make you sick.

Two days after the party it seems that everyone's child got sick - and I mean sick. Looking in the rear view mirror to see your child open his mouth and projectile vomit is not a pretty image.

He seems on the mend now but I think that all those "oh, look - he's kissing and hugging them so nicely" we heard from so many of the parents, is just not that cute anymore.

We know where it started, and Cole, being the sharer that he is (a new trait that in hindsight, would have been better if it was delayed a few weeks) just wanted to make sure that no one was left out.

If these are the kind of parties Manav throws now, wait until high school - YIKES!

So a week of firsts, his first steps, his first "cop a feel", and his first "party till you puke"!

Until next time...

"I'm walking here"

To quote the famous lines from "The Midnight Cowboy" uttered by Dustin Hoffman , Cole says, "I'm walking here..."

While they were few and short, Cole took his first steps from Dad to Mom.

Let the games begin.

Until next time...

This can't be good.

Today, I got a text from Shelley. "Wait until you see what your son did."

This can't be good. I knew that she was at the store, so I asked if we owed any money.

Her reply - "no" Followed by, "good thing he doesn't have a photo shoot anytime soon."

This is not what you want to hear.

When they got home, she had cleaned him up pretty well. I could barely see the mess anymore, so there is no picture to include. It turns out that her shopping list was written in a water-based blue ink that Cole had decided to eat while she was talking with the butcher. When she turned around his mouth and face was blue. I can only imagine what this looked like - my son the smurf. My first thought was of the comic The Amazing Jonathan, he does a really dirty bit with his assistant and the blue man group, see if you can youtube it and you will see what I am talking about. If you use your imagination I am sure you can figure out what the punch line is - I am a bad father for even thinking it.

Anyways, this is happening more often - as my dad says OSM's - and with his first steps truly now only days away (he is trying so hard) I have a feeling that there will be many stories to pass on soon. Let's just hope he doesn't find the cat's litter box anytime soon.

Until next time...

A True Mystery

So first, a recap - Shelley and I share child care duties. She works in the office three days a week and works from home two; I work from home and go out to perform only on Wednesday's, Friday's, and Saturday's. This is important to remember to truly appreciate the following.

So - here's the mystery - Shelley, somehow, has trained our little guy to only poop when she isn't home. That's right, all the shit comes down on daddy. From Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the kid poops once - but today - he doesn't poop once, he poops twice, all before Shelley comes home from work. I had half of a mind to let him sit in it and save the second one for her, but that wouldn't be fair to Cole, or to me - since I am the one who does the wash, and by then, it would have leaked out into his pants, and lets face it, skid marks of that magnitude just don't come out that easily. I would have said it was just chance that this happened, but it always happens, over and over again, and I just started to catch on to the pattern. She's sneaky, I will give her that.

Anywho, I just had to vent, I leave it up to you to figure out how she trained him to do this amazing poop trick - I have to go and figure a way to train him to throw his food only at her.

Until next time...

The strange anf fun things we do at home

When people ask what Cole, Shelley, and I do during the day, we never know how to explain certain activities that happen, like say - sacrificing a stuffed bunny, so we have video to help high light it. It seemed like Cole was very into it.



As you can see, it's the little things that amuse us now - we don't get out very often; I was bored, Cole made a mess, we had a camera and for some reason you just watched it.

Until next time...

Wow, that was like a water show!

We forgot a very key part of Cole's birthday experience. As people gathered in the dinning room, around the food, Cole, for the first time in a long time, decided to puke. It wasn't a chunky puke, thank god, but it was puke none the less, and it landed right on the dinning room table. Miraculously he missed all the food, seriously, it landed in the one spot that did not have anything edible. The reason I bring any of this up is because after we cleaned up, our friends young daughter, Gracie, said out loud, in perfect timing - "Wow, that was like a water show!" Ah, this is why we become parents.

A friend just recently shared her "Oh Shit" moment the other day when her second kid did his first pull up to a standing position on christmas morning - knowing that they now had two mobile children on hand. On our "oh shit" side of things, Cole has decided that while he is still not yet walking, he will climb like a pro. We had sat him down in a laundry basket, a favorite hang out, and he just stood up, held onto the sides, lifted his leg high and swung it over, followed by the other leg. No tipping the basket for this guy. Shelley and I just looked at each other and started laughing our asses off - knowing full well what lies ahead. He followed this up with a reverse approach and tried climbing into the bath - fortunately his legs are too short.

And if you wonder if Cole reads the Blog - No, he is too busy with the paper.

Hope the New Year is treating you all well.

Until next time...