Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

I was so thrilled to put together Cohen's very first Easter basket. I filled it with cute things that I knew he'd be "growing in to" in these next few weeks. 

A new onesie

Big boy bowls for when we start cereal in a few weeks!!

Spoons for said cereal.. :)

A new jittery giraffe for his car seat.

A vibrating teething ring (yes, we think he's starting early..)

And of course, an Easter bunny!!

There was also a new pajama set (as he's grown out of all the 0-3month ones!) and a teether that can be frozen to soothe his gums. He had fun! I was afraid he'd just stare at it, but he actually tried to chew on everything. 

Now this is my favorite Easter Basket!! :)

Granna and Pop came over to celebrate Easter with us and go to Watermark's Saturday service. We had a great time!

Here we are at Church!

Dinner at Taco Diner (yummy!)

His Easter card from Granna and Pop!

They brought him a new outfit, new sandals and these new pj's! We love them!

(Again with the chewing...)

My sweet Easter baby!

Our little family!

What a sweet day! We are so glad my Mom and Dad got to come over. They're only 2 hours away but it seems like we have to go long times in between visits. Cohen was about 3 months and 1 week this Easter. Next year we should get to go to an Egg hunt!

Cohen: Three Months!

So, Cohen's 3 month birthday was a week ago. A little late on this post, I know, but we were out of town and I've been working. Sheesh!

This baby...

He has inched his way into the very center of our hearts and tossed his anchor. He's there to stay. Every day with him is literally a joy. Even if I'm tired, or he's grouchy, there are still so many more moments of joy, that those moments of exhaustion, emotion and frustration are simply forgotten.

He is ever-growing and ever-changing. This is good.. this is good. I have to tell myself that all the time. Because part of me, if I had it my way, would keep him tiny, small and helpless forever. There is something so wonderful about being needed by this immature human for his every need. Now, granted, he still needs me for 99% of his world. But friends, I saw this kid put his paci back into his mouth the other day after it had fallen out. I'm not ready for that! Or am I? The polar opposite side of me (the rational side, perhaps?) is the one saying, "Yes, Emily, OF COURSE you want him to start gaining independence!" You want him to be able to lay in his play gym and entertain himself for a while. You want him to learn to soothe himself back to sleep at night when he gets startled awake. And I am so excited for his future... our future with him. We'll be celebrating with our friends, the one year birthday of their little girl this week, and I actually caught myself the other day, thinking of how I would do Cohen's first birthday party. Now, I can't give you details, because I mentally slapped myself and thought, "Are you CRAZY?? Don't you dare rush this first year of his, because you'll never get it back! Let him be little and enjoy the heck out of him!" So, that ended the birthday party planning session. :)

Here is Coco's 3 month Tonka picture:

Remember 2 months?

And 1??

Tear. 

-Sleeping- Siiigghhh.... When will we perfect this? He's getting better.. He is! But, I guess like with everything, we still have our bad days (nights?). We usually do bath time around 8, then try to get him to sleep in his crib by 8:30-9. On one of our "good" nights he will sleep from 9 to 3-4am, eat, then sleep for another 3-4 hours. We'd like to cut out this one, lingering night-time feeding, but the paci does not do the trick. We are still swaddling him in his Miracle Blanket. It has been our lifesaver. Can I just say that we tried to not swaddle him last night and it was a disaster?? Any suggestions? He just kicked and squirmed and would not settle down. From 2:30am to 5am, mind you. Yes, I'm tired. He's napping a little better. He'll take an hour-ish nap in the morning and another afternoon. That's better, right??

-Eating- Not much to report here. He's been eating about every 3 hours during the day, although, it's been a little more frequent lately. This is to be expected, as babies have a growth spurt around 3 months. He only drinks breast milk and formula. I've learned all the ins and outs of pumping at work. And I am so thankful to be working at a place that is so baby-friendly (we are a giant nursery, after all!). I am able to use our pumps at work, which makes it super convenient and easy. 

-Growing- He weighed 14 pounds on the 13th. And was 25 inches long. (He weighed 8 pounds 12.4 ounces at birth.) 

-Development- Let's see. He holds his head up ALL the time. He wants to be standing up 99% of the time, he gets impatient if you just sit him on your lap. He is still only mildly interested in tummy time. Even though we go to great lengths to make it fun (mirrors, toys, laying on the floor with him..). He is grasping small toys and bringing them to his mouth. He chews on his fists. He studies his feet occasionally. He is not rolling over, either way. He will sometimes roll from front to back if he is that  upset. He lights up when he sees me, Daddy or octopus. He enjoys his Baby Einstein Jumperoo. He occasionally laughs out loud. He can almost sit unassisted in his Bumbo and Superseat. And he talks to us A LOT now. He is especially talkative in the mornings. He makes a sound like he's blowing a raspberry. It's mainly a lot of different volumes and pitches of "Oooooo" and "Ohhh". He has been ignoring the frames lately. He likes to grab his blankets and bring them to his mouth so he can chew on them. 

Right around his 3-month birthday he had his first cold. Nothing big, just him feeling and looking pitiful. But he's just about fully recovered, with just a little watery eye leftover. And he does not like it when Mommy gets out the bulb syringe. No, he does not. 

So that's where we are! He's such a wonderful baby. We love him so much. Hopefully I'll get some more blogs in soon!  

A post of pics :)

It's been a long week... I went back to work. :( But it was good. Tuesday was my first night back. Everyone was so nice, helping me get reacquainted with the unit. (Thank you Emily, Maryann, Virginia and Sara for all your help!) I got home Wednesday morning as fast as I could! Cohen was awake and ready to eat! I had to go to sleep right afterwards, but I woke around 2 pm, so I could play with him before going back to work. It was harder to go the second night. I hated only having 3-4 hours of time with him. But... gotta work! And, apparently it was much harder on me than Cohen-he was fine! I didn't cry at work, just on my way. :) But we still took a bunch of pictures of Coco this week. Enjoy!

We went to church on Sunday and left Cohen in the nursery for the first time! I nervously checked my pager about every 3 minutes. :)

He did just fine. I came in and he was napping in the crib! :)

Cohen and Daddy after church. He's looking at Maggie :)

Like father, like...daughter? Mags and Tyler

I want to remember this hair forever :)

Holding things and bringing them to his mouth!

Trying to roll over during tummy time... :-/

Looking at his octopus

Octopus is his favorite toy :)

 

He has a special look, just for me :)

Mommy and Coco

He's a thinker!

Hector thinks it's so weird when Cohen chews on his hand

Cohen doesn't think it's weird at all :)

Right before I went to work. Isn't it clear why I have a hard time leaving him? That face!

Thanks for checking our pictures! 

Play date

Today was a fun day for Cohen and me. We went to historic downtown McKinney to have lunch with Deanna and her son Kade. Kade is 10 days younger than Cohen.

 Such beautiful colors on this breezy spring day!

Waiting for Mr. Kade to finish eating!

We walked around the square, peeked inside shops and settled on Sauce for lunch. I definitely recommend it! The prices were reasonable ($7 for a pizza, $6-7 for a sandwich). I had a BYO Pizza (Build Your Own) with Slammin' Pizza Sauce, Fontina and Parmesan cheeses, black olives and pepperoni. Yum! Deanna had a BLT Panini that looked wonderful! They have a covered patio, and on a day like today, we had to sit outside! 

Kade slept the first 1/3 of lunch, Cohen slept the middle 1/3 and they were both awake the last 1/3! We had such a nice time catching up (it's been years since I've seen her!) and talking about the babies. Deanna is a nurse, too, so we have lots in common. It is so nice to talk to other mothers! We were able to share opinions, practices and stories about our boys. 

Kade is a sweetheart! He barely made a peep the whole time, until he got sleepy towards the end. Coco made himself known as soon as the stroller stopped on the patio. :) But he just wanted to talk and play. And that's always OK with me! 

After 2.5 hours of chatting at the restaurant, we strolled our way back to the park, by where we had parked. There was shady grass there and we wanted some pictures of the boys together. :) Cohen was falling asleep and Kade was already napping, but hey.. they're only babies for a short while, right? 

 Now they're both awake!

They were supposed to be laying on their sides looking at each other.. yeah right!

Both boys staring at their mommies! 

And at this point, we changed diapers and loaded them up into their car seats. Then it was home we came!

How refreshing it was to get out and see a friend today! Can't wait to do it again!

I.Heart.Consigning.

I have turned into this person who can not shop off of clearance racks for my own clothing. Can't do it. I hate digging through, what I feel like are, other people's picked-overs. I never find the diamond in the rough, if you will. I'd much rather have a coupon and shop regular-priced items. Or, go shopping on a sale day.

But, having baby Cohen, I have discovered a whole 'nother side of myself. I like going to consignment sales. There. I said it. I won't dig through a clearance rack for myself, but I'll rifle through rack after rack and row after row of baby things to get a good deal for my Cohen. Also, I see how ridiculously fast he's growing, and I sure don't want to pay full price for anything he's gonna grow out of in 2 months. Shall I give one more reason? My boy is a mess sometimes. Now, he doesn't spit up all over his clothes.. And when mom's would tell me that they'll poop on their clothes, I thought to myself, "maybe your child poops on his/her clothes... ahem, but mine won't.. I'll actually change his diaper." Well. I'd say that about 2-3 times a week, Cohen's diaper fails the test. Somehow or another that odorless, staining, mess escapes out the back of the diaper, sometimes within 30 seconds!

Enough of the nasty stuff. :) A few weeks ago, Hector and I went to Divine Consign in Plano. This was a big huge sale at the Plano Convention Centre. We bought him a couple summer outfits for dollars each, some Baby Einstein videos for a couple bucks apiece and the book What to Expect the First Year. New, in a store, we would have paid about $80. I think we paid $23. :)

Last week, I heard about a different consignment sale called 3 Sisters Consignment. This one was in Dallas at a church. (Thanks KJ!) Well, I had full intentions to go. Then yesterday night (Thursday) I checked the email about it, so I could put it down in next weeks calendar and surprise! It's tomorrow morning (today)!!! It was already almost midnight and the sale started at 8 am. And I knew I needed to be there early to get a good look and get anything good I saw. So, I was in bed by 1:30 am, up at 6:30 am and out the door at 6:45 am. I arrived at the church at 7:30 am. Not a soul there. I thought, great.. they cancelled it and I drove all the way to Dallas for it.. :( But I waited. And slowly but surely, minivans and suburbans started pulling up next to me. So at 5 'til 8, I went and stood by the door, 4th in line. :) It was so nice to be one of the first. It was quiet and cool and I could kinda just browse slowly. No one was cutthroat, no one snatched anything out of my hands. I was texting Hector pictures of things to get his opinion. He was texting me things to look for. It was a successful day!

I got this Balboa Baby sling for $10, and it retails for $60.

Cohen doesn't fit into the hot sling anymore, or I wouldn't have needed a new one. Look how he loves it! And we went walking today and I put him in this and he was snoozing inside it after about 10 minutes! :)

I got this Baby Einstein Jumparoo for $15, it retails from $80-130.

He really likes this one! He's still a little small for it, but his little toes just barely touch the ground on it's lowest setting. We plan on him getting lots of practice in this one, so he can be a pro in the bouncer Granna and Pop have for him at their house next time we go!

Yep. I heart consigning. It's such a deal. You just have to bring it home and wash all the fabric parts and wipe the plastic down with Lysol. No biggie.

We also love the stores Once Upon a Child and Green Beans. These are baby and kid resale shops with very cheap clothing. Every mom should know about these stores! It's just a shame to spend a ton of money on all these baby things that they outgrow pretty quickly.

Do you have any baby stores you couldn't live without? :)

Also, Cohen is getting better at the Bumbo seat!

With my help, he held some of the letter links and waved them around like a big boy!

And here he is engrossed in his Baby Einstein: Baby Noah video (all about animals!).

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mom came over on Thursday, because she missed her grandbaby. Thursday was also the night of the movie screening and my brother and his girlfriend were going to babysit. So, I decided to make some dinner and dessert for them. I made a pizza twist (Mom helped with 99% of it!), that was AMAZING, but I managed to get no pictures of it.

Mom had brought me 2 new cookbooks and one was a KitchenAid baking cookbook. (!!!) I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that looked amazing.

1 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 C all-purpose flour
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Place sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to Speed 4 and beat about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl.

Turn to Stir Speed. Gradually add baking soda, salt and flour to sugar mixture and mix about 2 minutes. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl. Add chocolate chips. Turn to Stir Speed and mix about 15 seconds.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375*F for 10-12 minutes. Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool on wire racks. Yield: 54 cookies.
[recipe from KitchenAid: A Guide to Great Baking]

I made my cookies a little bigger than a teaspoonful, I guess, because I only came out with about 38 cookies. So what. :) I also used a baking stone and of course, the cookies didn't stick one bit. Also, 12 minutes was spot on in my oven. Enjoy!

And... yummmm!

As soon as took a bite of these, I told Hector, "I'm so going to be that Mom... the one who takes baked goods up to my kid's school every time there's a party or a bake sale." And I want to be! 

I don't want to ever make cookies from refrigerated dough again, these cookies turned out so much better. And it wasn't hard either. 

I will not lie. I just warmed up a cookie and put a dollop of my homemade whipped cream on top of it and ate it with a tall glass of cold milk. Ohh.emm.gee. So delicious. :)