All I Want for Christmas....

Is my two front teeth!!

Can you see them?  That is what we have been working on!  It has kept us all very busy and exhausted.  It's kind of embarrassing, actually.  Cohen's chiropractor had to tell us his teeth had come through. How could we miss such a monumental moment? I mean, we'd been rubbing his gums with a wash cloth every time after he ate.  We now know why he had been so fussy the previous days and hadn't slept very well.  So, he officially got his first teeth on November 15th!  It has been kind of tough since then because he has also been working on his top two. That is why not too many people have heard from us or seen us and why I have been so silent in the blogging world.  I am a walking zombie!
It seemed like all of a sudden, Cohen was doing so many new things.  He had his teeth, then he started officially crawling and pulling up on things.  It scared me to death when I came in his room only to find him standing, hanging over his crib oh-so-casually!  The look on his face told me he was so proud, but my reaction scared him. Then, as soon as Chris came home, Cohen graduated to the very bottom of the crib.  To add to that trick, I guess Cohen was sick of his fast army crawl and became inspired to take on the more traditional crawl!  I get quite the workout now.  Cohen is either attempting to pull up on various furniture pieces or he is crawling away after the dogs, cat, electric outlets, or the floor vents.  Needless to say, baby-proofing is our top priority over Chris' Christmas break.
Cohen turned 8 months old on Chris' birthday earlier this week.  I think Chris enjoyed sharing the spotlight, even though Cohen opened Chris' presents a little quicker than he was ready for!  I guess it was just a little preview of what Christmas might be like.  You know, we labor over the perfect presents to buy Cohen and in the end he is more interested in the tissue paper and bows.  Still should be fun!
Cohen is intrigued by the Christmas tree.  He spends a long time looking at it and feeling it. He enjoys touching the ornaments when we let him, but he must get an overwhelming urge to throw them, so it doesn't last long.
Chris and I have talked about joining a small group at our church for awhile now. I have been reluctant to commit to anything because of Cohen's schedule, but knew it was perfect timing when Chris ran into someone he had met in his "Boot Camp for New Dads" class and he invited us to join his group.  We meet Sunday nights with five other young couples with babies or young kids and we bring Cohen with us.  We have snacks and a Bible study while Cohen plays with the other babies.  We feel blessed by this new group of friends who are going through similar stages in life as we are.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and can really enjoy this time with family and friends! I know we are looking forward to experiencing Cohen's first Christmas with him!

And now to catch up on pictures:

One of our Christmas photos taken by our good friend Justin Ochs

Helping with the laundry

This is one where Cohen is pondering things

So excited to see each other at the end of the day!

Little smile

Hanging out

Kind of smiling

30 Weeks

Cohen cannot stand for the little man to be in the driver's seat of the bulldozer. Must be his current pet peeve!

How could this face not make you melt?

So big!

He has now started tossing things to Tucker

31 Weeks

Happy little guy

32 Weeks

 

33 Weeks

Our Own Ice Cream "Cohen"!

Although not a huge fan of Halloween, we couldn't let Cohen miss out on his very first one! Even though our participation only consisted of ordering the desired costume, stuffing him in it, taking him to his grandparents', taking a few pictures, then getting him out of it before he had a major meltdown!  You see, we knew before he was born that we wanted to get a costume to play off his name. We also knew it would only work this one time since the true and actual "cone" part could be worn only as a semi-non-mobile infant.  As it is, Cohen is pretty active and not excited to have his legs tied up for any length of time. So, we (or I ) really wanted to get a red hat as cherry to complete the ensemble, but those are really difficult to find and since we sensed a huge lack of cooperation on Cohen's part, we scrapped the hat.  But, he did have sprinkles-arguably the best part!

Cohen is clearly thrilled about his festive outfit!

Still excited!

We didn't bother to Trick or Treat since Cohen can't eat candy and we really don't need it for ourselves.  We also didn't  hand out candy since a sleeping baby and three dogs plus parading costumed kiddos were a little much.

As far as other developments, Cohen is so close to crawling!  He gets up on his knees and rocks.  He is also enjoying standing up with help.  His voice and laugh have changed. He is "talking" more with more syllables and his laugh is heartier.  He attempts several conversations with the dogs and our cat every day.  Cohen has decided he does like his activity center since Chris fixed his twirling bird and he can no longer pull it off.  I have made peas and bananas and he likes the latter not so much the former.  Cohen absolutely loves the baby oatmeal and looks forward to it every morning.  We are excited to experience his first Thanksgiving and Christmas together.  We'll need to figure out what Santa will bring this year to such a perfect baby boy!

Playing around

getting better in the Bumbo

27 Weeks

One of our new favorite activities-pushing our own swing!

Hello

Checking out the cat

Laid back at 28 weeks

Fun with the Activity Center

29 Weeks

Getting better at smiling or at least not making weird faces!

A Lifetime of Letting Go

 "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.' "
Psalm 91:2

 As I reflect back on these last 6 amazing months of Cohen's life, I keep hearing one of my nurses in the back of my mind saying, "You're worrying is only beginning!  Just wait 'til he's here!"  She said this as I was a few months away from giving birth and we were lightheartedly discussing my propensity to worry about the pregnancy.  At the time, I couldn't imagine being more worried than I had been over the last several months.  I imagined all my cares melting away as soon as they  placed little Cohen in my arms at the hospital.  I was so focused on getting him here that I failed to contemplate very far into the future at all!  This nurse was right. There are new worries at every stage of Cohen's life for me to look forward to.  Little did I know then that all my anxiety and trouble leading up to April 12th was preparing me for the rest of my life!

The very first night in the hospital I couldn't sleep because I was intent on making sure everything was ok with Cohen.  As soon as we got home, I started worrying about SIDS and the common newborn rapid breathing patterns and whether he was sleeping enough, eating enough, being held too much etc.  After my exhaustion bottomed out and things slowed down a little and I actually had time to think, I began to analyze my thoughts. Wow! Had I not learned anything the last 9 months?  God clearly communicated to me after my visit to the ER that I needed to trust him and hand everything over to Him. Concerning not just Cohen, but everything in my life.  All these balls I was trying so hard to juggle, were falling.  I hadn't been doing such a great job micro-managing my life.  It was as if God was saying "Let it go!".  After all, why would I insist on holding all these things in my life ever so closely to me when I could drop them at any time when all along I can hand them over to an infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing God with steady hands?  I have been working on this my entire life, but now for real!  This little baby was my world from the moment we found out about him, sight unseen!  So, every day, every hour and even every minute of bed rest, I had to consciously let go of all my fears and worry and control of the fate of my unborn baby.  Hardest thing in the world and I wasn't very good at it.  Although it was one of the most challenging times of our lives, I look back on it with fondness and I cherish it because God walked the difficult path with us and showed me so many things about who I need to be and how I need to grow.

So as Cohen is growing up way too fast, it is as if God is saying. "Here we go- Trust me and let him go!"  Because life will be filled with sickness, bumps, bruises, going off to kindergarten, life-threatening sports, driving, dating, going off to college, getting married and leaving me!  But as much as I love him, and it is crazy how much you love your baby, I must hand him over to a God who loves him even more than I do.  And because I know this in my heart of hearts to be true, I am so thankful to God for that dark season in our lives that prepared me for a lifetime of letting go.

I trust God because He grew Cohen from this....

to this!

6 Month Report

Time sure does fly and Cohen loves to, also!  At least he thinks he is when dad helps him soar Superman-style all over the house!  Whether it is soaring, rolling, army-crawling, or attempting to maneuver out of someone's arms, our Cohen is a mover!  I am going to need a lot more sleep to keep up with this one! Cohen just gets quicker each day.  He will move 10 feet in 10 seconds. I literally cannot take my eyes off of him for one second.  Which makes it quite a challenge again to fit in a shower any where or household chores for that matter! The  activity center thingy he has is still too tall and he is far too unstable in it. He is fitting into his Bumbo quite well these days, however. We are continually amazed at all Cohen can do and his emerging personality. He has quite the sense of humor. Lately he throws things off of his changing station behind the dresser then laughs at himself.  Grandma Johnson, Aunt Jen and I all make fools of ourselves trying to get a giggle out of the little guy, but Grandpa Johnson or Chris come along and he immediately breaks into a grin at their presence. They are just funnier, I guess.

Another huge milestone has been eating actual food!  Cohen has really taken to it well. We started with rice cereal then graduated to carrots and squash.  Cohen was oh so privileged to try my first attempt at making baby food! I started with sweet potatoes.  He seems to like it all amidst the grunts, groans, and contorted faces. He even tries to take the spoon and feed himself.  Cohen is also drinking a smidgen of water from a more mature bottle with handles, but mostly plays with it.

We think Cohen had his first cold a couple of weeks ago when Chris got a sinus infection and passed it on to me.  Cohen was stuffy and had a difficult time breathing at night. Of course the night I was the most miserable, poor Cohen woke up about every hour and a half.  But it really wasn't too bad overall and luckily babies' sinuses are not developed enough to get infections until they are 5 or something. The pediatrician said it is probably just dry air and teething drainage at night.

Cohen's 6 month check up went well. Cohen weighs 18 pounds and 2 ounces placing him in the 55th percentile and 27 1/2 inches long and in the 75th percentile.  He received a handful of shots including the first part of two flu shots. That one must have been a doozie because Cohen was pretty fussy the following days. Awesome! We get another one in a few weeks. The nurse was very impressed with how well Cohen handled it all, but his eyes welled up with huge tears and he cried his most heart-wrenching sobs, but they are quiet and don't seem so bad to an outside observer. The doctor said he doesn't feel any teeth coming, but he sure is chewing everything in sight and drooling like crazy. 

Now some snapshots:

22 weeks

23 weeks

Why hello there!

Mr. Flexibility

24 weeks

25 weeks

More sports!

Gotta love that hair!

This one always makes me laugh!

Family photo with little guy sporting a double chin

We love Sophie!

Hanging out with best friends Jackson and Caleb!

Helping with laundry

Excited dad is home

26 weeks

He's a Chandler

If you are a Friends fan, do you remember the episode where Monica and Chandler are trying to get pictures taken and Chandler cannot smile? Instead he gets a strange, contorted grin on his face that ruins every picture.  Well, Cohen is kind of a Chandler. As soon as he becomes aware of the camera, he either gives a deer in the headlights look and/or puts his hands in front of his face as if to say, "No pictures please!".  We take enough snapshots that we still get good ones, but we have a fairly moderate collection forming of these "Chandler" moments!  Here are just a few of the latest examples:

He's still adorable, but I don't want him to think he was freaked out all the time through his early days when he looks back at pictures!  He's just too smart. He knows a camera is out of the ordinary and he doesn't trust it.

In other news, Cohen is doing all sorts of new things!  He is becoming more deliberate with his actions. Every time one of the dogs walks by he tries to reach out and pet them.  He loves drink glasses and chip bags and can't wait to get his hands on them.  Cohen is smiling and laughing more.  He must change activities frequently or he will get bored.  He absolutely loves to suck on wash cloths after I wash his face and hands and will actually throw a mini-tantrum if you take it away!  His rolling radius has extended so much that we put down a large blanket on the floor that he still inevitably finds the edge of to roll over.  I was surprised the other day when I was bouncing him while I was drying my hair and every time I turned on the hair dryer, Cohen would raise his arms up and cover his ears.  He is still not a fan of car rides, so by the time we arrive home from going anywhere we are both exhausted- him from crying and me from attempting to entertain him in any way you can imagine!

Our latest endeavor has been moving Cohen from sleeping beside me in his Pack N' Play to sleeping in his own crib.  Overall, it has gone fairly well.  Cohen sleeps better than me as I wake with any slight noise from the monitor.  Or maybe I lay awake listening to the monitor at times.  I also go in or talk Chris into going and checking on him frequently and make sure the temperature is ok because of this crazy Kansas weather that forces me to have a/c on during the day and switch to the heater for a short while in the wee hours of the morning!  Overall, we are doing quite well and are adjusting as much as one possibly can to limited hours of sleep most days.  I have even mastered jogging with Cohen riding along in the stroller in the mornings since the weather has been nice.  The success of each day is all about timing!  I won't go into detail about Cohen messing in his diaper in his crib and it leaking and him rolling around in it the other day! Example of bad timing. But most days we get a rhythm and things go swimmingly as we enjoy each play, eat, and sleep session.  Soon, we will tackle rice cereal, so stay tuned!

Now, for some normal pictures:

18 weeks

Reading with dad

He likes to throw things and sometimes they end up on his head!

19 weeks

20 weeks

Petting Tucker

Big boy dino pajamas

One of Cohen's new favorite hobbies!

21 weeks

First time in the Bumbo