A Bump in the Road: December 2011

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: