Baby love :)

Thirteen days since my last post and we've been busy busy busy! And this baby has changed soooo much!

Let's see.. we went to a baby shower for a friend from work, Louisa (who has since given birth to beautiful, 9 pound Chloe!) and we got a picture with Miss McKensley, my friend Sara's baby girl (from work).

She's about 5 weeks older than Cohen (yet, he's close in size!).

She's precious!

We had a great day with family, back on the 19th. We got together with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and of course Mom, Dad and Josh in Rockwall at John and Jerusha's house. It was so nice to see family, and for them to meet and play with Cohen Alexander. :) We put together a little baby shower for my sweet cousin Jordan, because Alysse is (now) less than 10 days from arriving!!! I cannot explain how excited I am for her to get here! As weird as it is, I find myself a little jealous of my friends having their babies now. (I know.. WHAT??!?) :) I think it's because it goes by SO quickly! You wait a full 9 months for these little ones to come and then it's over in a matter of hours! Then they grow like weeds! I mean, Cohen is still a newborn for sure.. still figuring it all out, but I already miss his sweet first week. I miss being pregnant, feeling him move on the inside. I love to watch his crazy little legs kicking madly all the time and think, "those were the little feet that kicked me for 5 months!" Ahhhh....I digress.

 Jerusha got her complete spa days! What a great gift for a Mom-to-be!

 Sweet clothes for Baby Alysse!

I went with items I knew I had needed..breast pads and pumping accessories!

She got a ton of stuff for the nursery too! Little Alysse will have a perfect princess room to fall asleep in now! Also, notice how GREAT Jordan looks?? She's practically 9 months pregnant here and looks about as big as I did when I was 7 months! Maybe Alysse can wear Newborn clothes and diapers longer than my "little" Cohen was able to... :)

A few days later, Hector, Cohen and I loaded up and headed to Paris to see Granna and Pop! A much needed trip.. My mom likes to spoil us and keep the baby downstairs to let Hector and me get a nice 7-8 hour stretch of sleep at night! Ahhhhh.....I miss it already! ;) We got to visit with Great Grandma Ivy, the sweet friends from Mt. Olive and most important to us - quiet Granna and Pop time at their house! We love going there!!

Learning to talk!

Sweet face right there!

He sure does love her!

Cohen Alexander - growing so fast!

Playing with Great Grandma Ivy!

This past weekend was Oscar weekend! Also becoming known as "Friendship Weekend." All of us from TWU got together and hung out on Saturday, then again on Sunday for the Oscar's! I had my camera for all of these get-togethers, but only got it out, briefly, twice. :( We got together for brunch on Saturday, played Catch-Phrase (always a fun game!!), then went to Lewisville for Mindy's birthday party! Cue my first camera appearance:

And surprise...It's Hector and me!

Here we go! Max, me, Natty and Ry! Waiting for burgers on the grill!

We had to go home, but once there, we got some sweet pictures of our baby :)

 Look how big he is!! He likes to stand up now!

 He is changing so much each day!

The next day, after church and naps, we went to Natty and Ry's house for the 4th Annual Oscar Party! It was a fantastic feast and a wonderful time had with friends! Our little man got all dressed up:

 In his Tuxedo onesie (Thanks Jes!)

Trying to get our sweet boy to sleep, but there was too much going on :(

And here are some randoms from today. :) Enjoy!

Trying to sneak a nap during tummy time! ;)

Trying harder during tummy time

Starting to grasp things in his hands! (his pj's in this photo example)

Learning to push off.. He starts with his knees bent like this ^

And kicks off!! Like this! ^

Hector had Young Life tonight, and we have been so busy, so I decided to keep the baby at home for a quiet night in. 

Two things we are loving right now?

Dinner.. ha ha, no, this bottle!

These breastflow bottles! They're great and Cohen likes them! The flow is slower, more like nursing. We love!

And my dinner... Chicken Tetrazini from Holy Ravioli! YUMM!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated Valentine's day yesterday.. It's not usually a big day for us. But this year, Hector got me some sweet gifts. :) He found my two favorite Moscato wines. He also gave me some amazing truffles (I've been wanting some since I've been seeing Ina making them on Barefoot Contessa) and some chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn. And some Glee and a beautiful photo board. Can't wait to put some pictures of my little love bug on there!

And, it was, of course, Cohen's first Valentine's Day.. He got a sweet Valentine from Granna and Pop!

How sweet is he? :)

I also wanted to start taking a picture of Cohen every month by the same object to show how much he grows. We decided on his Tonka truck!

He did so good! Holding up that head! (He's leaning against his crib..) :)

We had club last night (for Young Life) and it was Club of Love night. Cohen was a good boy all night. Daddy played drums for the music and of course, helped facilitate all the games. I love watching him in action! :) 

Something we've noticed about Cohen lately that concerns us a tiny bit... He seems to drool a lot. Moms out there.. is that normal for a 1month old? He sticks his tongue out pretty often and I wonder if that has to do with the drooling? Maybe I'm just over thinking it.. I hope so. :-\

I am SO happy that for the next 4 days, we only have two things to do. And they're both in one evening. So that means three glorious days of just us. :) 

More later. :) 

1 BIG Month!!

It's been a rough few weeks... our computer came down with a nasty virus that had to be eradicated by the Geek Squad, courtesy of Best Buy. We're now back up and running with a fresh spy ware/virus blocking program. Psheww...

Our sweet boy, Cohen, turned one month old today. One month. He was four weeks on Thursday (three days ago), but today is the 13th, so we'll call this his true one month birthday.
My... How he has changed in this one short month.

Not sure about his activity gym yet...

Big boy after his bath!

He loves his Mommy

Look how long he is!

Daddy is wonderful at getting his Cohen to fall asleep :)

So here's a little about Cohen at 1 month:

-Sleeping- We try to get him into bed before 10 or 11pm, doesn't always work.. He will sleep for about 3-4 hours after we get him down for the night, will wake to eat and will then sleep for another 4-5 hours. (On a good night!) He takes two or three 2-3 hour naps during the day. He still likes to be swaddled when he sleeps. He falls asleep best when we're walking around with him or when we rock him in the glider. He is sleeping in his crib, in his nursery at night. (Yay!) He takes naps on the couch or in his little lamb seat. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning around 5 or 6am, we'll lay him in bed with us and he'll sleep for a couple more hours. I know, I know... tsk, tsk... slap on the wrist. But how can we say "no" to our precious baby boy when he's sleeping so soundly in our bed? We can't... yet. :)

-Eating- Cohen is about 90% breast milk fed, 10% formula fed. There are just some times at night when I'm so tired and Hector will give him a bottle of formula, if we don't have any breast milk in the refrigerator. He is taking about 3.5-4 ounces. He usually eats every 3-4 hours, unless he sleeps longer or unless he doesn't nap, in which case he'll start rooting around after about 2.5 hours. He nurses really well and it's finally getting easier for me! We really hope we can keep breastfeeding until 6 months!

-Growing- If you'll recall..Cohen weighed 8 pounds, 12.4 ounces at birth and was 20 inches long. We weighed him after his bath tonight and got 11 pounds! Can that be?? We did the ol' "weigh yourself, then weigh with him and subtract your weight" method. Error proof, right? :) We won't get on a baby scale again until 2 months old. Then I measured his length and he was 22 inches. My little baby isn't so little anymore! :( He still has all the hair he was born with, I don't even think it's thinned at all. His tiny hands that I love so much, look rather large now. 

-Development- Our Cohen is changing so much, almost daily it seems. He has pretty good head control, unless he's so tired he can't hold it up any longer. :) We have tummy time a few times a day, he doesn't like it for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time, but it's helping him with his neck strength. He likes to lay on his back on the floor and look at us and "coo." He seems to be discovering his voice and clusters his "talking" when he's finished eating and is a happy camper. I..love..this..baby's..voice. He has such a soft, deep voice that is so perfectly "boy." We have some black frames hanging on the wall behind our couch and Cohen loves to stare at them. He is drawn to contrasting objects. And when the blinds are open, he likes to look outside at the brightness. He makes incredible eye contact that melts hearts. He grasps our fingers. His favorite facial expression is the frown. :) And it's adorable, he almost looks as if he's been offended. When he is falling asleep he'll crack a little smile. :) And he's almost to the point of smiling intentionally at us. He's just starting to. 

Man, oh man, we are in love. Cohen is the sweetest baby ever. We are so blessed! One look at him and I feel like giving him the world. I get butterflies when I see Hector holding Coco and talking to him--comforting him. They are a perfect match. :)

Hector and I are doing pretty good, as good as two people with very little sleep can be. :) It's getting better. We're starting to sleep a little better. We have such a good time with Cohen, he is our angel. We are able to get out and about with him now, so that makes it better, not being cooped up inside all the time. He is a dream baby in the car--falls fast asleep. He likes riding in the stroller, too (in his car seat, of course). If he cries or seems upset, I get upset because it breaks my heart to see him "hurting." He deserves nothing but pure joy and I want to give that to him. 

Well, I think this is a sufficient report on Cohen...right? I promise it won't be three weeks until the next post. :)