Note for regular readers: Day 27 is also posted below; I decided not to gang them together this time, even though I’m posting both on the same day.
Not too eventful a day.
Cole had a short but fuss-free nap in the morning. We did a few small things, had a few small laughs, and then I packed him up for a visit over to Nana and Grandpa’s place. Auntie Brim was there, too, so there were plenty of helping hands around.
I had basically invited myself for lunch, which ended up being chicken schnitzel sandwiches plus some chicken pot pie. Cole had biscuits and apple.
Before too long, he was ready for a nap, but the excitement of visiting was keeping him awake. After unsuccessful attempts by Nana and Brim, I bravely took over and fought him into a decent enough afternoon nap. It took some walking, singing, a bum change, and some fresh milk before he finally went down. That’s pretty much par for the course for afternoon naps, which is why I much prefer the car nap as the lazy cheater’s way out.
While visiting, Cole had a nice little “independent standing” breakthrough! His aunt was letting him stand, but removing her hands (hovering nearby for safety). We do this all the time, but he usually falls pretty much instantaneously to one side or the other. For his aunt, he was standing in 5-second long stretches! Which is actually pretty long if you sit there and count all the “Mississippis”. You could even see him use muscle control to recover his balance. It was great!
I spent a decent amount of time playing with him in the normal ways, but for the most part Nana and Brim took care of him, leaving me to enjoy another coffee and play some Nintendo DS. In hindsight, I should have napped instead. 
That was pretty much it! He failed to co-operate for his late-afternoon nap, so we had a bit of a crazy monkey until it was finally bedtime. And after that he was sleeping lightly because his body was a bit confused about whether it was supposed to be bedtime or naptime. But to be frank, I fled to the basement for a while, then walked the dogs… shirking any responsibility for his poor sleep. My bad!
