The post that is all about Coleman

Facetiming with Nate on a Sunday afternoon. In his fort. With his favorite books.

Helping with dinner.

Demonstrating bike safety.

Showing Caleb a funny video of himself.

Being adorable in his clearance-rack sweater.

Lovin' on his bro.

Losing another tooth. How many baby teeth do kids have? Wowza.

Getting Caleb to smile.

Holding my mom's massive cat named Cow/Mister depending on who you ask.

A very important note we found on Cole's ancient iPod.

A reward system I have implemented with Cole's teacher.  I gave her this bag of punches and emailed her how it was going to work. At the end of the day, he gets either a red, yellow or green punch for his behavior that day. Green punches get him a ticket. Yellow tickets are a wash and red punches lose a ticket.

Tickets basically translate into money that he can use to buy things he wants.

Or fun things to do with people he loves :) These coupons are for a variety of things depending on how many tickets he wants to use. The cooler coupons use up more tickets. 

Cole is doing well in third grade even though he doesn't really like his teacher {we had heard she was a "yeller" and could be kind of mean}. He is reading on a 4th grade level and just needs to focus more during class. I decided to implement this reward system because we got sick of taking things away from him when he would bring home extra homework or get "talked to" by his teacher for goofing off, daydreaming or not listening when he should be. The positive reinforcement has really seemed to work. At first he only brought home green punches but then as the newness started to fade a bit, so did the green punches. He has only brought home 1 red ticket and it was a rough day. He told me he was pretty disappointed in himself so I didn't say much. I think he was torturing himself enough. We really try to praise him when he gets a green because we know he has to work hard to get them. I believe that focusing on the positive has really helped him. Nobody likes to constantly be told they aren't doing well enough so we try to focus on what he does well and encourage more of that behavior. 

Still trying to learn how to ride his bike. His confidence is slowly building. 

Going out in public like this. Because he's 8 and can still pull it off.

I worried about how Cole would react to being a big brother and not having all the attention on him anymore. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well he has handled it. He is so cute when he talks to Caleb and uses this high-pitched voice to try and get him to smile. He has become a great little helper with him and I think they will have a unique bond as they grow up. There are some awesome things about having siblings this far apart but there are some things that aren't as awesome. But we're grateful to have them both. Sometimes I look at Cole and wonder how he has grown up so fast. It's like once he turned 8 there was a very noticeable difference in him. He is growing like a weed and is slimming out even though he weighs 80-something pounds. Maybe we need to get him into football. :) I sure love my Coley Pokey.