Ranger Game

Last Wednesday, my wonderful parents treated us all to a Ranger Game! It was Cohen's first game! We were so excited to go. Cohen had a sweet little onesie Ranger jersey and a Ranger ball cap.

Hector and I drove over to Arlington in the early afternoon and hung out with Granna and Pop at their hotel.

Ranger's biggest fan!  

Sitting up! 

Pop trying to get Coco to nap before the game. Didn't happen.

Then we went to Sherlock's Pub (they run a shuttle to and from the Ranger game!) and had drinks and appetizers. Josh and his friend Salvadore met us there after they got done with summer school.

 Cohen got really hot and had to be stripped down to a diaper. :)

We're doing the Tom Haverford face (from Parks and Rec)  :D

 My Mom and Dad!!

We bought Cohen a Hamilton shirt, then we ran into Rangers Captain! (the mascot!) I was afraid he'd cry, but he didn't!

As far as how he tolerated the game? I'd say he did fair... He needed a nap, and took a small one at the game. But it was so hot and it was really loud. Every time the Ranger's scored and people cheered and clapped, he scream-cried. :( We saw a baby down in front of us that was wearing ear muffs! Not like cold weather muffs, but noise-reducing muffs! If we go back this summer, Coco needs those! 

The Rangers didn't win :( but we had a good time and are so thankful my parents wanted to take us! Thanks Mom and Dad!

CINCO!

I told you all I'd do Coco's five month update. Here it is. What? He's still 5 months old! 5 months, 2 weeks old.

I was at work the other day and I texted Hector and said, "PLEASE take Cohen's Tonka truck picture today!!! Put him in something cute and get him sitting up!" I gave him freedom other than those instructions.

THIS is what I come home to.

And the winner:

So daddy's idea of cute clothes... the pajamas he slept in the previous night. Nice. And it's wayyy too late in the 5th month to take a new picture. Oh well, the subject in the picture is still as cute as a button. 

4 Months

3 Months

2 Months

1 Month

I still can't believe how much he's changed! It makes me a little sad, how fast time is going. 

He can sit up on his own now. He may have not quite been doing this at 5 months, though. 

At 5 months:

Still not sleeping through the night. 

He is eating rice cereal in the mornings and oatmeal in the evenings. He takes 4-5 ounces at each feeding. He is breastfeeding less (mainly because I started making way less milk...) and eating formula more. He actually got dehydrated and had to go to the doctor. :( So, right at 5 months, I stopped breastfeeding. I prayed and prayed about it, because it was breaking my heart to stop breastfeeding him. But it was feeling more and more like a burden to increase my supply and I didn't want to feel like that. I was drinking the Mother's Milk tea, taking the Fenugreek, taking the Blessed Thistle, trying to pump after feedings, but it just wasn't increasing. Hector and I felt like we gave Cohen a lot of priceless nutrients in the 5 months that I did breastfeed him, so I sort of felt a little at ease about it. One thing, though, I hate washing bottles. Bad for me, because now we wash bottles all the time. We also went through a period of Cohen not eating...  we couldn't find any bottle he liked! We thought it was Avent, so I went and bought extras. Then he stopped eating from them. Then we thought it was Dr. Brown's, so I went out and bought extras. Then he stopped eating from them. Then we found out he liked Tommee Tippee. So I went out and bought extras. And he still likes them. Good news for us! And they have the fewest parts of any bottle out there! Bottle, nipple and ring! Best news! Ahhhh, enough about eating.

He's so cute with his toys now. He reaches for them all, and looks for more toys to grab. He laughs all the time. He's the most precious baby in the world. 

I get so sad looking at his newborn pictures, he was so tiny! Oh, by the way, he weighed 17 pounds at 5 months. Can you believe that?? I remember thinking, when I was making his 6 month appointment at the doctor, that's a long way away... July! But, it's like 2 weeks away now. :(

Things are going great here! Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet, Precious Times

You know how they say, "All good things must come to an end"? Well, it's a suck-y quote, but I've come to find out it's true. Now, the length of said "good things", now that's debatable. Some good things, like my marriage or watching my son grow, for instance, are still going. They will end, but a LONG time from now, by the grace of God. But then some good things, like vacations or birthday parties, those end. Last year's news. Missed, but nothing to dwell on.

If you've been following this blog for a while now, you know Hector and I joined a Foundation Group at Watermark Community Church back in the fall of 2009, after we got married. It has been probably the greatest thing we could have done for our marriage. We learned patience and understanding for each other, kindness towards ourselves and others, forgiveness, service, budgeting and so much more. We were divinely grouped with an amazing bunch of couples. The Allens- Cory and Ashley, who are so similar to us, it's not funny. I swear Ashley and I grew up in the same house, just different cities! The Brannens- David and Callie, one of the purest and most giving couples we've ever met. The Coles- Tyler and Sallie, our solid rocks, we've turned to this sweet couple time after time. The Dunns- Preston and Brittany, the fun-loving, faithful Dunns. They care so much about each of us. And the Rays- Patrick and Jackie, our very dear friends. We live close to them and have since bonded very well with them.

I guess we all knew we wouldn't be together forever, but we sure hated to see our group change so soon. The Dunns have moved to Colorado for Preston to pursue advancement in his career. And the Brannens are moving to Houston for David's job and also to start up their Apartment Life ministry. It is so sad, and hard to swallow.. but our group is morphing and we have to go with it. Just give it to God and go with it. We are left with a very solid foundation of four couples. We are graduating into a Community Group. :) We'll now be leading ourselves. We can choose whether we want to study a book, or study Scripture or follow a video series. We're excited to see where God takes our group.

We had the opportunity to have a "Last Supper" with our entire group, babies included, before the Dunns and Brannens left. We met at Chuy's and enjoyed dinner.

The Dunns and Preston's Mom and Dad

Our whole group!

Brittany and me :)

All of us girls - my dearest friends <3

Hector and his buddy Preston (with Coco, who was obviously tired!)

We wish the Brannens and the Dunns all the best of luck. We'll stay in touch and will always be praying for you!

My Cohen is 5 months, 10 days old. Have I taken his Tonka picture? No. Is it coming? Yes. (I hope.)

We did take these pictures of him on June 13th (his 5 month birthday) during bath time.

Those cheeks!!!

Love his ducky that quacks at him!

This is our mirror after Hurricane Coco hits the bathroom!

My big 5 month old... :)

He LOVES his oatmeal:

It. Gets. Everywhere. (We're working on keeping our hands out of our mouth while eating...)

We were going to start fruits and veggies once he turned 5 months, but I decided I wanted him to be 6 months before we introduced more than the oatmeal or rice cereal. 

He's teething. More on this later, I promise. Can I just say, I want my sweet boy back. :)

He loves sitting up, where he can see that precious baby in the mirror. :)

Photos by Austin Walker

Last night, we had Hector's awesome friend Austin and his sweet, sweet wife Emily over for dinner. Austin and Hector worked on Season's of Gray together last summer. Austin and Emily just got married a few months ago. They are precious, we're honored to know them.

Austin is a photographer, graphic-designer extraordinaire. He started his own business, WalkStop Media.

So, after dinner, he took some pictures of us and Cohen. He is awesome.
Feast your eyes.

His diaper is full of chic.

Thank you so much, Austin, for the pictures in our living room floor that we will forever cherish. Until next photo shoot... goodnight!

Our 4 month old..

Yes. He's almost 5 months. Like in 5 days.

But-last month (May 13th, to be exact) our little boy turned 4 months old.

Four Months Old!

Yes, it was pre-summer in Texas, but Daddy wanted some pictures of Coco in this outfit. :)

I can't do the full update like I normally do, because now I have month 5 mixed up with month 4. 

But I can tell you he was not sleeping through the night. Still woke up about 2 times at night. He was going to sleep around 8pm. 

At his 4 month doctor's appointment he weighed 15 pounds, 8 ounces (60th%tile) and was 25 1/2 inches long (75th%tile). Big boy!! 

About 7-10 days before he turned 4 months, we started rice cereal. Now, we know they say 4 months for introducing solids.. but he was ready! He was watching with puppy dog eyes when Hector and I would eat in front of him. And he could sit up in his bumbo chair, no problems. He did the tongue thrusting the first time the spoon went in his mouth, but not so much after. 

His first bites!

Pretty sure he's starting teething. :-/

See? He's not always smiling.. :)

Mr. Coco waiting to see Dr. Leon!

Well, I'm very sorry I haven't had made time to blog. I really want to be better. Because I want this to be a complete account of Cohen's life for him (and me!) to look back on. You see how months 4 and 5 are already running together? Imagine when he's 4 years old and I'm trying to remember his infant days. :( Shhh, I don't wanna think about it!

Well, nothing new here.. Cohen is still the biggest Joy in our lives. We thank God for him every day. 

Ok, maybe some things are new here. Hector started a new job that he's enjoying. And I work day shift now! Hoorayyy! I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday now. It's great! I've done one weekend so far and I loved it. I got to put Cohen to bed each night and didn't have to flip back to days once my shifts were over. And I'm in the middle of my four days off with him. And I don't know if I've just willed them to, or not, but these days with him are going by slowly. And I wanted that so much. Time with Cohen seems to slip away from me, so quickly. 

More later. And sooner. :) I promise.