When you find your kid playing in mud what do you do? This mom takes him away, grabs the camera then lets him go at it again so I can get pictures. No wonder this kid likes me so much ;)
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Birthday Visit
Grandma and Grandpa Verstraete weren't able to make it for Cohen's birthday party so they decided to come up for a quick visit the weekend before. Although we would have loved them to be able to come to the party it was nice getting quality time with just them. They certainly spoiled the kids with lots of attention…the best and most important thing!
Gary was such a sport giving the kids rides in this truck. I swear he drove them around the yard for over a half hour. You can even see in the second picture that he has got some speed on him. Sevea is holding on tight :) Grayson and Sevea absolutely loved this time with Grandpa.
Don’t worry Grandma got in on the action with the kids as well. The slide is actually quite fun for grown-ups as well. Grandma took a couple turns down the slide with Sevea. Just proves you never really grow up. But one little guy is growing up so Grandma helped practice his walking after some swing time. Practice makes perfect.
Cohen wanted nothing to do with trying to open his presents on his birthday. Since there were no other distractions this day Cohen gladly tried to rip open his gift. He wasn’t very good at it and needed help from his big sister but at least he tried.
Gary was such a sport giving the kids rides in this truck. I swear he drove them around the yard for over a half hour. You can even see in the second picture that he has got some speed on him. Sevea is holding on tight :) Grayson and Sevea absolutely loved this time with Grandpa.
Don’t worry Grandma got in on the action with the kids as well. The slide is actually quite fun for grown-ups as well. Grandma took a couple turns down the slide with Sevea. Just proves you never really grow up. But one little guy is growing up so Grandma helped practice his walking after some swing time. Practice makes perfect.
Cohen wanted nothing to do with trying to open his presents on his birthday. Since there were no other distractions this day Cohen gladly tried to rip open his gift. He wasn’t very good at it and needed help from his big sister but at least he tried.
We had a lot of fun with you. Thanks for coming to visit us Grandma and Grandpa!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
12 month Cohen update
We’ve hit the year mark. And what a great year it has been. It has been a lot of fun watching Cohen grow and learn and develop. So let’s get to what he has been up to this month.
Cohen has taken a liking to talking this past month. We now hear mama, mom, dada, baba and many other “words” throughout the day. It is all just gibberish to him but it is really fun to hear. You’ll hear mama or mom the most which I like to think is directly related to his favorite person ;) At this age I could listen to him “talk” all day long. I’ll be singing a different tune come Sevea’s age when the questions get to be a little much at times.
He favorites…his mom and his thumb. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was his favorite. He is fine with other people but if he sees me or knows I am around he will make it known what he wants, me. I absolutely love it. How could you not! He is still a HUGE fan of his thumb. He sucks it quite often and I can’t imagine him giving it up anytime soon. He loves to play with balls. He loves to pick them up and throw them and then crawl after them and do it all again. He is still a big fan of his sister. She can get him to laugh pretty easily. It is fun listening to them in the back seat of the car. Sevea pretty much doesn’t stop talking but if she makes noises at Cohen he’ll “talk” back to her. Such a delight to listen to. Otherwise things that make noise are his go to toys as well as play kitchen spoons or ladles he can pound on the floor.
He’s cruising along everything but I think it will be a while before he is walking. He could surprise us but he seems content getting around by crawling or cruising along furniture. His cruising has certainly left him with his fair share of bruises. We often joke that his head hasn’t been without a bruise since he started crawling. But really it isn’t much of a joke as more the truth. The doctor said he wasn’t concerned unless it continues after he quits bumping into stuff all the time. A lot of the times there isn’t a certain time he falls where we can blame the bruise on. He is good about falling down and moving on.
Fun new “tricks” of Cohen this month include: He figured out clapping and the sign more. Which are the same to him. He thinks it is fun to clap but also when asked if he wants more will clap incessantly. No surprise with how this kid likes to eat it would be the first sign he would learn. New tricks come and go, sometimes this is a good thing. I could have taken more than one day of looking at this fun face:
He had a whole day where he thought it was the most fun ever to stick his tongue out. Last month I mentioned his nose scrunching trick which sadly we don’t get to see much anymore. We got an afternoon out of him once this month but unfortunately he is so over that trick.
Teeth: Remember the little guy decided to get his first molar this past month. Well many other teeth decided to make an appearance as well. He’s now up to 8 total that have busted through and 3 on the verge or pushing through right now. He’ll then have his 4 front teeth on the top and bottom as well as the molars on the bottom and one on the top right. We’re pretty lucky since most of these have popped up without us knowing so I guess that means teething hasn’t been difficult in our house.
Big boy, big changes. Turning a year often marks the time to give the bottle up. Cohen certainly loved his bottles and really surprised us how easily he could be weaned. I definitely didn’t think he would be bottle free on his birthday but he proved me wrong. But who needs the bottle when you can eat table food!! Cohen loves to eat. He can often be found shoveling in the food. His current favorites are blueberries and spaghetti. He without a doubt knows what these two items are and gets excited when we put them on his tray (or feed him the spaghetti if I don’t want to deal with a mess). He likes a lot of different food but some surprises are bread/crackers. I think he has more of a sweet tooth like his mom because he could take or leave carbs most of the time. I remember Sevea could have probably ate a whole sleeve of crackers if we let her. He isn’t a huge fan. He’ll eat them but it takes him longer and will even leave them on his tray. Vegetables are harder and harder to get him to eat. He hasn’t ever been a huge fan but now can certainly pick them out and leave them. With all this food talk let’s get to the big 1 year doctor visit.
Just by looking at Cohen you certainly know he isn’t starving and his check up didn’t say any different.
He weighed in at 24lbs 12.25oz (77%) with length coming in at 28.25 inches (8%)….comparison sake to Sevea 19lbs 4.75oz and 27.75 inches.
He’s certainly growing just a little too fast in weight compared to his height. The doctor would like to see this trend stop. From his birth he has continued to widen the gap or keeps getting higher on the BMI scale. The doctor mentioned that we should monitor his portions more closely as well as give him 2% milk instead of whole, plus he scaled back the maximum milk he should drink in a day. So essentially we have Cohen on a “diet”. This is really hard for me. Most often as parents you worry your child is not eating enough. Now we have to watch that he doesn’t eat too much. Ugh!! I am probably just over worrying myself but it is harder on this girl who grew up “chubby”. The doctor wasn’t worried just said that kids can indeed get used to eating larger portions and that kids should not be given unlimited amounts of food…except maybe vegetables since those are “free” foods in a sense. Everyone always says that he’ll thin out when he walks but I’m thinking he’ll follow his sister’s trend…she’s still thinning out :)
Chubby or not, this kid has been a great addition to our family. We have such fun with him and he completes apart of the family we couldn’t even tell was missing. We’re certain there is more fun and laughter in the months ahead!
Cohen has taken a liking to talking this past month. We now hear mama, mom, dada, baba and many other “words” throughout the day. It is all just gibberish to him but it is really fun to hear. You’ll hear mama or mom the most which I like to think is directly related to his favorite person ;) At this age I could listen to him “talk” all day long. I’ll be singing a different tune come Sevea’s age when the questions get to be a little much at times.
He favorites…his mom and his thumb. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was his favorite. He is fine with other people but if he sees me or knows I am around he will make it known what he wants, me. I absolutely love it. How could you not! He is still a HUGE fan of his thumb. He sucks it quite often and I can’t imagine him giving it up anytime soon. He loves to play with balls. He loves to pick them up and throw them and then crawl after them and do it all again. He is still a big fan of his sister. She can get him to laugh pretty easily. It is fun listening to them in the back seat of the car. Sevea pretty much doesn’t stop talking but if she makes noises at Cohen he’ll “talk” back to her. Such a delight to listen to. Otherwise things that make noise are his go to toys as well as play kitchen spoons or ladles he can pound on the floor.
He’s cruising along everything but I think it will be a while before he is walking. He could surprise us but he seems content getting around by crawling or cruising along furniture. His cruising has certainly left him with his fair share of bruises. We often joke that his head hasn’t been without a bruise since he started crawling. But really it isn’t much of a joke as more the truth. The doctor said he wasn’t concerned unless it continues after he quits bumping into stuff all the time. A lot of the times there isn’t a certain time he falls where we can blame the bruise on. He is good about falling down and moving on.
Fun new “tricks” of Cohen this month include: He figured out clapping and the sign more. Which are the same to him. He thinks it is fun to clap but also when asked if he wants more will clap incessantly. No surprise with how this kid likes to eat it would be the first sign he would learn. New tricks come and go, sometimes this is a good thing. I could have taken more than one day of looking at this fun face:
He had a whole day where he thought it was the most fun ever to stick his tongue out. Last month I mentioned his nose scrunching trick which sadly we don’t get to see much anymore. We got an afternoon out of him once this month but unfortunately he is so over that trick.
Teeth: Remember the little guy decided to get his first molar this past month. Well many other teeth decided to make an appearance as well. He’s now up to 8 total that have busted through and 3 on the verge or pushing through right now. He’ll then have his 4 front teeth on the top and bottom as well as the molars on the bottom and one on the top right. We’re pretty lucky since most of these have popped up without us knowing so I guess that means teething hasn’t been difficult in our house.
Big boy, big changes. Turning a year often marks the time to give the bottle up. Cohen certainly loved his bottles and really surprised us how easily he could be weaned. I definitely didn’t think he would be bottle free on his birthday but he proved me wrong. But who needs the bottle when you can eat table food!! Cohen loves to eat. He can often be found shoveling in the food. His current favorites are blueberries and spaghetti. He without a doubt knows what these two items are and gets excited when we put them on his tray (or feed him the spaghetti if I don’t want to deal with a mess). He likes a lot of different food but some surprises are bread/crackers. I think he has more of a sweet tooth like his mom because he could take or leave carbs most of the time. I remember Sevea could have probably ate a whole sleeve of crackers if we let her. He isn’t a huge fan. He’ll eat them but it takes him longer and will even leave them on his tray. Vegetables are harder and harder to get him to eat. He hasn’t ever been a huge fan but now can certainly pick them out and leave them. With all this food talk let’s get to the big 1 year doctor visit.
Just by looking at Cohen you certainly know he isn’t starving and his check up didn’t say any different.
He weighed in at 24lbs 12.25oz (77%) with length coming in at 28.25 inches (8%)….comparison sake to Sevea 19lbs 4.75oz and 27.75 inches.
He’s certainly growing just a little too fast in weight compared to his height. The doctor would like to see this trend stop. From his birth he has continued to widen the gap or keeps getting higher on the BMI scale. The doctor mentioned that we should monitor his portions more closely as well as give him 2% milk instead of whole, plus he scaled back the maximum milk he should drink in a day. So essentially we have Cohen on a “diet”. This is really hard for me. Most often as parents you worry your child is not eating enough. Now we have to watch that he doesn’t eat too much. Ugh!! I am probably just over worrying myself but it is harder on this girl who grew up “chubby”. The doctor wasn’t worried just said that kids can indeed get used to eating larger portions and that kids should not be given unlimited amounts of food…except maybe vegetables since those are “free” foods in a sense. Everyone always says that he’ll thin out when he walks but I’m thinking he’ll follow his sister’s trend…she’s still thinning out :)
Chubby or not, this kid has been a great addition to our family. We have such fun with him and he completes apart of the family we couldn’t even tell was missing. We’re certain there is more fun and laughter in the months ahead!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
A Very Hungry Cohen Birthday
We had a very beautiful day to celebrate Cohen’s birth. The weather couldn’t have been better and we were surrounded by family and friends. The theme was especially fitting for our “little” guy. He loves to eat but thankfully didn’t end the day with a belly ache like the caterpillar. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
The food…The theme was based on the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and made it really easy to decide what to serve. Since the caterpillar ate his way through food in the book, the guests ate their way through this food as well. I was very pleased with how the caterpillar cake turned out. I attempted to make a puppy for Sevea’s 2nd birthday and I’d consider the head falling away from the body a major fail. But this cake took minimal effort since I just baked two cakes in a bundt pan for the body and then Cohen’s cake was the head out of a normal round cake pan. Color the frosting, frost and done.
The Shirt: I guess I won’t be able to get Carissa to do my sewing anymore. I handmade this shirt for Cohen. And I will toot my own horn because I LOVED the result. But I think the best thing was that it wasn’t all that difficult to make. I hand sewed the whole thing but the stitching wasn’t intended to be neat so it wasn’t about perfection. I’d totally do this again…or wait I did. You’ll see my other project on Sevea :) Only recommendation…don’t let your child get poop all up the back of his birthday shirt an hour into the party :(
The fun: With it being such a beautiful day we spent our time outside until Cohen ended up with a red butt from his up the back poop. He enjoyed some naked time playing instruments. This may have been a highlight of his day. Silly boy…doesn’t he know he can play with some instruments any day!
The presents: Cohen could have cared less about the gifts. He was only interested in standing and trying to climb the big green box. He didn’t try to open a single present. Even still we are very thankful. Cohen got some new toys (which he does like and his big sister loves as well!!) and some adorable clothes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The Cake: I think this was the best part of the day. From the looks of what was left of the cake, I think Cohen would agree. There was no doubt in my mind Cohen would attack the cake, however I couldn’t have guessed he would pretty much lay his head in the cake. I don’t think Cohen will be eating cake for some time :)
We had a great day celebrating our happy 1 year old boy. He has made our hearts swell with love and joy this past year and we couldn’t be more thankful to those who were able to share in his special day. Here’s to another fun filled year!
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Cohen is 1!
Happy Birthday to our silly little guy! You’ve given us so much to be happy about this past year. Each day we got to know more about you and we are loving all the fun you bring into our lives. We look forward to another fun filled year and many many more with you. We can’t imagine a life without you!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Peanut Butter Toothpaste
Brushing your teeth with peanut butter and celery sounds like a really good idea to an almost 4 year old. It was one of those times I decided it was better to love her imagination rather than tell her not to play with her food :)
Monday, August 13, 2012
Now and Then
There are lots of fun things about having a second child. Although the first child gets ALL of your attention it is your first crack at parenting. For me there were always questions in the back of my mind like “Is she going to turn out okay? Is she developing and learning at a good rate? Am I doing enough?” But with a second child I’ve learned to just love the time they are young and enjoy it. Takes the pressure off and I just let him be. Of course I still wonder sometimes but no matter who Cohen becomes I’ll love him so no use working myself up. Kids all learn and develop differently so it does no good to compare. This alone has allowed me to really love the infant stage more. It has also been fun to get to experience everything again but not from fresh eyes. Sevea and Cohen will do many things different in life but they also will experience so much of the same things. Looking back to the pictures of Sevea and now seeing Cohen get into some of the same things is quite fun. I think the second time around can be even more fun because you feel the love of your first child all wrapped up in your second. Maybe this is how people have lots of kids…uh oh!
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