I Cool (January 28 - February 11)

Once upon a time we had a six month old baby that we could lay down in the evening and he would sleep straight through the night until at least 5:30 the next morning.  Then one day when he was 13 months old there was an evil vacation monster who took our sleep trained baby away and never brought him back!  Yes, almost every night since July, Jeff and I have been taking turns sleeping in the recliner with Cohen on our chest.  I also blame the evil Internet monster for stealing our sleep, since after way too much reading, I determined that Cohen was possibly having nightmares.  I was very susceptible with my lack of sleep, and I failed to consider the fact that Cohen would lay in his bed and scream (never opening his eyes or moving) until one of us came in and picked him up...however, as soon as he was laying on one of us, he went RIGHT back to sleep.  So after six months of sleep walking, we finally decided that it was time to re-train him...3 days later we were the proud owner of a 20 month-old boy that we could lay down at 7:45 in the evening until 6 or 7 the next morning!  Victory would taste so much sweeter if it wasn't so obvious who is in control of this house!

So February 3rd was pretty historic for this mom.  I think I had become the boy who cried wolf when it came to telling people that I wanted to cut my hair and no one believed that I would actually ever do it...not even me!  When I asked my boss' wife for her hair lady's number, she basically took matters into her own hands and made the appointment herself.  She's just the kind of bully I need in my life!  During the three weeks I had to wait for the appointment I had many second thoughts, but when that Friday rolled around, I sat down in the chair and never looked back...here's what happened:

The style I picked

The before

ELEVEN inches later - now that's a rattail!

The finished product

Haircuts were kind of the theme of the weekend since we also took Cohen to be tortured...I assure you that's what everyone in VIP Styling Center thinks we are doing to our child when we bring him there.  There are definately no pictures from that event and leaving with hair that is even a centimeter shorter means that me, Jeff, and Cohen's personal stylist Shantelle have endured a hard fought battle!  We made sure to have lots of fun for the rest of the day to help Cohen cope with the tragedy!  We made a return visit to the indoor inflatable center, this time with Jeff's friend Billy and his son Jayden who is just a few months younger than Cohen.  Unfortunately, Jayden was not as impressed with the inflatables as Cohen was and he spent more time getting out of them than getting into them!  Jeff was so impressed when Cohen even conquered the big kid inflatable obstacle course that we were sure that we would have to recuse him from...I'm pretty sure he was trying to show off for a little girl who was in the obstacle course with him!  Cohen actually seemed to enjoy having dinner out at Five Guys with our friend Anthony that evening...he wasn't hating the ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery afterwards either and I think he got a bite from everyone's bowl at the table!

We were hoping for enough snow this past weekend to be able to take Cohen's sled out for the first time.  Instead we just got just enough to make the roads so icy that we couldn't make it all the way out of our road on Saturday morning...Cohen was very confused as to why we were turning around and was upset that we were not going "bye-bye."  When we were finally able to make it out later, we took Howie to the vet (where Cohen wanted to pet all the little "pup pups") and then went to eat Mexican with my family.  I think it may have been Cohen's first Mexican experience, but he didn't get too authentic besides some tortilla chips.  It was another suprisingly well-tolerated restaurant trip by Cohen, which could have had more to do with his MiMi being there! 

We attempted a mall trip on Sunday - this is another form of torture for our child.  This time we tried renting one of the cars at the mall for him to ride in instead of his stroller, but the excitement wore off basically as soon as he was strapped in.  To reward him for staying in his seat while we shopped for a few hours, we got $5 worth of quarters so he could ride all of the "amazing" toys that they stragecially position at the entrance/exit of the mall.  We usually try to avoid this pit of destruction at all costs, because whether he gets to ride the toys or he doesn't, there will always be a tantrum involved.  And this one was definately some of his best work!!

Although our weekends sound pretty boring, we get all the entertainment we need from our little boy.  One of his new favorite things is sitting at the table like a big boy, although when he is going to be doing serious eating he still prefers his high chair! 

He thinks it's so amazing that he can walk over to Jeff or I, grab our hand or fingers and lead us to where he wants to go.  He loves to put on ma-ma or da-da's shoes and try to walk in them.  This does not always work out well!

He does A LOT of dancing. 

And the funniest thing that he just started last week is saying "I cool" when he is wearing a hat or sunglasses.

Here are just a few of the other things Cohen is doing to entertain us this month:

Saturday morning "breakfast" with Da-Da

Nothing says nutrition like powdered sugar!

Learning to color - only a few stray marks on the floor!

Building trains

Of course ma-ma thinks this is the next Bill Gates!

And then there's this work!

"Da-Da you forgot your magazine!"

Uh-oh (Weeks of January 15-21 and 22-28)

Uh-oh...mommy already dropped the ball on her blogging resolution.  Uh-oh is actually one of Cohen's favorite words right now, so I feel that it's a very appropriate time to use it!  Cohen says uh-oh anytime he sees an accident, especially ones on TV.  Anytime a football player gets tackled or otherwise falls to the ground, it's an uh-oh.  My favorite is a Subway commercial where the people are apparently so fat that buttons blow off of their pants and they pop intertubes when they sit on them...those are all big uh-ohs!  And when Cohen says uh-oh, everyone has to say uh-oh or it will be on repeat until someone does!  Repeating is currently a common theme in our house and we hear a lot of "uh mama, uh mama, uh mama, uh mama" and "uh dada, uh dada, uh dada, uh dada."  Cohen has recently started calling us mommy and daddy on occasion...he started this all on his own and while it sounds adorable, it makes me a little sad because I feel like it starts a general progression to a time when my son will call me mom.  A lot of our time at home these days seems to be devoted to finding Cohen's milk cup....he LOVES some milk and takes his cup with him everywhere.  The problem occurs when he can't remember where he lays it down.  We then hear "uh mulk, uh mulk, uh mulk, uh mulk" until it is located, but it's totally worth it when he finally finds it and says "Hi Milk!!"  This morning we spent at least five minutes turning the house upside down to find the cup so he could take it with him in the car...we ended up sending a different cup with him in the end.  I found the cup later when I opened the door... to the laundry closet!

Last weekend Cohen and I got a visit from our best friends Sarah and Ben.  Cohen and Ben have not yet figured out that they are destined to be best friends, though!  Sarah and I spent the weekend as single moms while our husbands advertised their fishing business at the annual hunting and fishing show in Charleston.  We did see glimpses of potential friendship from the two boys, but usually not long enough for photo or video evidence.  I would have loved to have a picture of the two of them riding together on Cohen's spring horse to use as blackmail when they get older.  Especially the injury and tears that resulted when they both fell off!  Ben spent most of the weekend showing Cohen some death-defying stunts like jumping off of the couch into the Mickey Mouse ball pit.  Cohen spent most of the weekend crying and hiding from Ben after we witnessed Ben squeezing his fingers in the car and later pushing him down when we got home.  I think one day Ben will explain to Cohen that he was just trying to teach him the ways of the world, so that he could grow up to be tough and defend himself!  We took the boys to use up some energy at the Chik Fil A playplace and then to see their dad's in action at the hunting and fishing show.  Cohen was excited to see all the deer there, but Ben was not too impressed with the whole idea.  The show was a huge success for FYAO, with lots of sells and interest in the company...Jeff's still getting calls from customers this week!  Sarah and I spent most of our weekend planning trips for our families for the rest of the year, including our second annual family vacation to Lake Norman.  So even though I was sad to see them go on Sunday, I knew that there are lots more fun times to look forward to!

Chik Fil A playplace = germs = cold.... for babies who stay at home with their grandparents every day anyway.  So our little man was sick by Monday morning.  Fortunately, this one wasn't too bad and hasn't lasted too long.  We've survived with Vicks VapoRub and a humidifier.  Cohen was well enough on Friday to see his Aunt Manda who was in from Virginia and also to visit his Grammy and Pa.  Cohen and his cousin Harper shared some toys there, but mostly ate all of the food at their great-grandma and great-grandpa's house including a brownie from Pa's secret stash, crackers and mass quantities of cheese popcorn!  Cohen was very interested in Harper's baby sister Scarlett and demanded that she be taken out of her carrier.  Once this happened, though, it wasn't clear if he actually wanted to see the baby or to have her out of the carrier so he get in it/play with her toys!

I think I may have been infected with whatever virus caused Cohen's cold because I was literally exhausted all day on Saturday...no cold symptoms, just exhaustion and muscle weakness.  I had actually convinced myself that the only possible explanation was that I was pregnant.  I blamed this on my best friend and the allergy nurse at my office, who both had dreams in the last two weeks that I was pregnant.  Oh and also my mom, who keeps dropping unsubtle hints about a granddaughter.  So I sat in the bathroom on Sunday morning, listening to Cohen scream/cry to get out of his crib and hoping/praying that the pregnancy test I was staring at would say NO!

We spent a family day at home on Saturday and Cohen played so hard that he actually climbed up in my lap (with the "dibbie" that I gave in a let him have) and fell asleep at 6:00 in the evening.  This has NEVER happened! 

I am actully awake in this picture... but try to remember that I had a virus!!

I had recovered from my virus by Sunday and Cohen had lots of energy to spare, so we took him to an indoor inflatable play center.  His smile was huge as soon as we walked through the door and he couldn't run fast enough.  He started in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse toddler area, but soon moved on to bigger and better things. 

The perfect ending to our day was ice cream....and hearing my baby say ice cream for the first time!!  Oh and that negative preganancy test!!

Making momma proud!