Two wonderful surprises

This past week, Cole gave us two amazing gifts. 

On Sunday we were at my parent's for my nephew Ethan's baptism. After we were done celebrating, it was time to go to my niece's dance recital. The plan was for Pat to take Cole home and for me to take Connor to the recital. Cole had other plans. For some reason, Cole wanted to stay with mom and Connor. He literally said to me, "Go to recital. Watch Elle dance".  I thought to myself, "Why not?", so off we went. Cole was thrilled to follow uncle Brendan in his red Mustang all the way to the recital. Cole loves Uncle B's car and the sounds it makes. (He does a great impression!)

The recital was at the Coon Rapids High School auditorium. We explained our expectations ahead of time: no running, you have to sit in your chair and no yelling- or we go home. We took our seats and thankfully within five minutes the show started. Cole did great!!!  He loved seeing the costumes and he thought his cousin was in every dance. He even gave a round of applause after each dance- without prompting. He sat in his seat for a few dances. After a short while he sat in both mom and grandpa's lap. Cole loved listening to the music and commenting on the costumes. I was so proud of him. He was the perfect gentleman and behaved so well. I was so thankful for this. What a blessing for us.

On Monday night we had an appointment with Santa. We haven't been able to get Cole to see Santa for at least three to four years. Lately Cole has been singing a lot of Christmas songs and talking about Santa. We thought it was a good time to try another Santa visit. We took the last appointment of the night. For those of you who don't know, there is a flower shop in Andover called Andover Floral. You can make an appointment with Santa so you don't have to wait! They do a great job. Cole walked in and was so excited. Connor hopped right on Santa's lap. Cole sat on the chair next to them. He was out of picture range so we were trying to get him to sit next to Santa. Soon Cole found some jingle bells. He grabbed them and began to shake them. I told him if he wanted to hold the bells he had to sit by Santa. Sure enough, it worked!  Cole slid over by Santa and said, "I'll sit right here". He shook the bells, sat by Santa and looked at the book he was reading. The worker was able to get a few good pictures of the boys with Santa. Pat and I were so happy. It was wonderful to see the boys share this experience together. 

I'm so glad we try to do things with Cole. Sometimes it back fires, but sometimes we hit the jackpot. This week we've hit the jackpot twice- and the reward is far better than any casino pay out!

Thanks Cole. We love you so much.