A Bump in the Road: January 2012

Cohen has had four new teeth, his first Christmas, his first New Year, many sleepless nights, his 9 month check up, and many more milestones since I have posted! Things have been crazy, as I am becoming accustomed to, but blogging also presents a new challenge. Cohen is obsessed with the laptop! Even if he is playing quietly by himself or Chris is playing with him, as soon as he gets a glimpse of me opening it, he is all over it! So, with that challenge and just my attempt at keeping up with things around the house and sleep, I am afraid blogging has fallen to the bottom of my long list of things to accomplish. This could be a long one, so here goes!
The big story around our house is still teething! It seems as if he has been teething for 3 straight months! He has 6 pearly whites to show for it and we are certain there are one or two more about to make an appearance. Sleeping for everyone has been rough for awhile now. We wake up several times through the night due to Cohen's longing to be comforted or to chase our crazy cat. (More on the latter subject later.) Ironically, Chris researched and ordered a white noise machine hoping Cohen wouldn't sleep as lightly, but we are in the beginning testing stages and it is not looking good! We are guessing he wakes up two or three hours in and hears the "whirring" noise and it scares him, so he is too upset to go back to sleep. Strange, but he is also afraid of a large plastic banana from the fair! Anyway, we are trying to work it out. But, our beloved feline is the reason we bought the white noise machine. Every night she comes strutting around with her tail in the air with this horrific moaning, crying, and meowing. Every night as soon as we are cognizant of what is going on, Chris jumps out of bed and stumbles down the hall to capture her. We have no idea what she wants. She is old-I have had her since I was about 12. So, maybe she is senile. In any event, Chris tells Cohen to enjoy the last cat he will ever have. And Cohen does. Just last night, he crawled over and yanked her tail without letting go while laughing hysterically. Maybe trying to wake him up at night is payback?
I am really getting off topic....Cohen's first Christmas. The week preceding Christmas I came down with the stomach flu and Chris tried to help me out on the busiest week of work for him to date. It was challenging for all, but thankfully Chris and Cohen stayed healthy. So, being sick set me back a little, so I was scrambling the last few days. Cohen was overwhelmed at first at our extended family get-together since the "stranger anxiety" stage is in full swing. But, he got over it and enjoyed watching everyone and playing with wrapping paper and boxes. He was a little wary of our familiar tradition of waking up on Christmas morning to check under the tree. We got him a dinosaur ball pit since he loves sitting in my parents' round foot stool filled with balls. We opened his presents for him and he checked them out for awhile, then started crawling around everywhere as is our new routine. All in all, Cohen made out better than anyone we know this Christmas!
We had a good New Year's. We took Cohen over to some friends' house and he played with their little boy his age. We ate and hung out and played games. We stayed as long as Cohen would let us and probably even longer, so we could finish our game! Then we had to say our goodbyes before 9 PM! Cohen was fairly exhausted, so he went to sleep fairly easily when we got home, so Chris and I watched a movie. Since we didn't plan to stay up to ring in the new year, because that is just not smart to surrender sleep these days, Chris insisted we watch the ball drop at 11. Unfortunately, it somehow escaped our memory that folks 'round these parts set off a lot of big fireworks at midnight and we received a warning at 11! Dogs went crazy, neighborhood dogs went crazy, and Cohen's monitor went crazy! He was wide awake. So, take two of getting him to sleep and Chris and I stewed about how to handle it at our "real" midnight. We got Cohen back down again and turned the movie back on. At 5 'til Chris jumped up grabbed his car keys and ran the dogs out to the car. He drove around for the first twenty minutes or so of the New Year so if our dogs barked, they wouldn't wake Cohen. I sat by myself listening for fireworks, dogs and for Cohen's stirring. I guess it was fitting. You wouldn't believe the crazy things we have done in the last year and I am sure continue to do to ensure Cohen stays asleep once his eyes flutter closed. Welp, looks like I will need to post a second part to cover his nine month check up and everything. Although late, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

And now, here are some pics of Cohen's very first Christmas: