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. 

Lack of time

I used to hate it when people had babies and consequently ignored their blogs. I thought, "Can't they just blog when the baby sleeps? Don't babies sleep like 16 out of 24 hours a day??"

Well. I stand corrected.

Even while pregnant, I envisioned myself as Supermom, keeping up with my blog. Writing more often than once every 2 weeks. Surprise, my friends, reality is a stinging slap in the face. And so is trying to parent a 4-month-old after getting 3.5 hours of sleep. Note: I don't usually only get 3.5 hours, I'm just having trouble sleeping at night since returning to my precious night-shift nursing job... June can't get here fast enough. (I'm moving to day shift!!)

When my Cohen takes his first nap, around 10 am to 11:30 or 12, I nap too. I can't help myself. I curl up on the couch and try to catch a good hour and a half of coveted zzz's. I only wake when I hear him stirring in his swing. Then we're up and at 'em.

A few of the things I do when he's awake?
Feed him.
Change his diapers. Sometimes twice, sometimes three times.
Change his clothes.
Start a load of laundry.
Wash bottles and other dishes.
Pick up all his toys.
Get out toys for him to play with.
Scarf down a snack for myself.

These are just a few of my favorite things. And the sweet boy is in a stage right now where he can't be left to play by himself for very long. 10 minutes is pushing it. Then during his afternoon nap, I use this time for the finer things in life. Like showering, for example. Or blogging, or watching an episode of Desperate Housewives or Glee from two weeks ago. Yes, I'm usually that behind.

This may sound like complaining, but really, it's just writing. I wouldn't trade a moment with my son for anything in the world. His 4 month (yes...FOUR month) update will be coming later this week.

But, come on... does it get easier? Will I ever feel caught up, on top of things again? I think I equate Cohen sleeping through the night with the return of my sanity. More on this in his monthly update. We recently got triplets at work and I can't help but wonder what those parents are going to do once they get their babies home. Go nuts, I'd imagine. I am immensely thankful to have a husband who can keep our baby at night while I work and during the day for a bit while I sleep. His work can work around it. We are blessed beyond measure.

So, Supermom, if you're out there (and self-righteous enough), tell me your secrets. :)

Be looking for a yummy cuppie (my new term for cupcake, I think) recipe in a couple days!!

iiCinco de Mayo!!

Cinco de Mayo, in my familia, has always been a celebración of something else. My hermano's (brother's) birthday! What a fun day to have your cumpleaños (birthday). :) Josh is 27 this year!

**FYI**
Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a holiday held on May 5. It is celebrated nationwide in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla. The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War. In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. Contrary to widespread popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico, which occurs on September 16th.


*Thanks for the info, Wikipedia 
**I did not know this. :)


Cohen communicated with me a week or so ago that he'd like to see his Tio (uncle) Josh on his birthday this year. :) So, I began preparing ideas. His birthday fell on a Thursday, which meant he'd be teaching. And I worked Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. I decided on a lunch time Fiesta for him. It worked out that my Mom was here from Tuesday to Thursday, so she was able to join in and help! 


I wanted to make cupcakes. But with working the three nights previous to this fiesta, I knew they'd be from a box mix. But the butter cream was home-made! (thanks for helping with this Mom!)

 Vainilla! (vanilla)

 And Chocolate! (because we couldn't remember his favorite.. It's Chocolate, btw!

We colored the butter cream verde! (green)

We went to Party City in hopes of finding some cute Cinco de Mayo cupcake decorations... none. So, I had the idea to make my own from paper plates. So I did. :)

I cut out the shapes and attached them to toothpicks.

Pretty cute! The cutting was the most time consuming part of this whole project. And we had 36 cupcakes. :)

I asked his girlfriend for lunch ideas. I wanted Mexican (of course..) and it needed to be near his school. She suggested Amelia's Cocina Mexicana. (translated: Amelia's Mexican Kitchen) Good choice!

So Thursday, after an hour of sleep, we frosted the cupcakes and loaded up Cohen. (Hector was busy and couldn't join us.) We stopped at Amelia's and got enchiladas, nachos, chips and salsa. This was a surprise for Josh, remember. 

We got to the school about 20 minutes before his lunch. We checked in at the office and the secretary called his room to see if he was in there. (He told us he thought something was up when she did this..) :)

I knocked on the door and then just opened it. I poked my head in with Cohen visible, and he looked at us and was so surprised and happy! He immediately put down what he was doing and made his way over. 

My Cohen didn't know what to think of his new surroundings!

Cohen was Superman for the day (Josh loves Superman; all part of the surprise)

So then, all the little girls in his class wanted to hold Cohen. I cringed but obliged after asking them if they'd been sick, making them sanitize their hands and sit in a chair.  A few of their comments? "Look at his cheeks!" "He looks like my little brother!" "My hair did that when I was a baby!" "Is he part Mexican?" (these kiddos were smart!) "I'm part Mexican!" which lead to "I'm half English, half Mexican and half Scottish." to which I replied, "That's three halves!" She shrugged, as if to say "It is what it is." :) I love kids. 

Something about my brother? Wherever he is, people love him. The office staff, the other teachers, the kids, the kids' parents; they all love him. I know that he is a wonderful teacher and employee. I'm so proud to be his sister. 

See? told ya.

Then we ate lunch in his classroom!

 Josh's enchiladas.

Mom's and my nachos.

The finished cupcakes!

There ya go, Superman poster in his classroom!

And right about now, Cohen got sleepy and cranky. He hadn't had a good morning nap. But while I was holding him and walking, he spit out his paci and full-on laughed out loud! I've only seen this one other time, when he was playing with Daddy. But he was just looking up at me smiling and I said, "What is it baby??" and he giggled. "What's so funny?" more giggling. I'm not kidding. It was that ultra cute baby laughing that people put on YouTube. I just didn't have my flip video handy. I teared up, because it was so cute and sweet. And he still doesn't do this very often. 

Trying to get Cohen to take a nap... not happening. 

We decided to take Cohen outside, Josh wanted us to meet a couple teachers who were on playground duty. 

Cue stampede of children who spotted a cute baby:

 Not sure if the sombrero is for his birthday or Cinco de Mayo. Both?

There are more kids running up, too.

Cohen has never seen such a thing!

These kids must smile for any 'ol stranger with a camera! :)

Uncle Josh with Little Coco

I'm telling you, this baby was tired. He fell asleep as soon as I buckled him in!

It was such a nice surprise for Josh. He was so happy that we came out just for his birthday. I'm sad that I didn't get a picture with him. We love you Uncle Josh! Happy Birthday! Happy Cinco de Mayo!