Cohen gets his own post :-)

Ok so I tried posting this last night but the video wouldn't upload. I figured I would wait until today but I'm still having problems uploading the video so I went through youtube.

Cohen has been getting used to Braedon being school just as much as I have. He must have been thinking that Braedon was getting too much attention on Mommy's blog so he had to show off :-) Let me first say that this age is so fun! He loves to play with everything and most of the time, he plays with things that aren't toys. He loves metal spoons-if there is one around, he'll find it LOL! He likes to help me with dishes and by that I mean crawl up onto the door and find all the spoons in the silverware holder. Sometimes he gets a fork and I have to take it away but he will go to town on the spoons...banging them everywhere and chewing on them. When he plays, you can just see the wheels turning in his head and I LOVE it! He has been pulling up onto anything for a while and cruising around but he is getting this whole walking thing figured out. He will scoot the bar stools all over the kitchen and just laugh. I posted yesterday that he discovered his push walked is more than just toys to play with. Of course I got it on video tonight after dinner and he just wanted to keep going. It won't be long now until he is full on running around the house. He loves that he can get around and I know he's just dying to be able to chase after Braedon.

Notice his little "jig" while walking? It is the cutest thing and he does it all the time! He will also do it "on command" when you say "wanna jumpa jumpa?" That was Chris' doing when he was in his jumper and now he does it anytime you say that.

Oh and he got yet another tooth today! That makes 6: 4 on top, 2 on bottom. That pesky tooth took it's sweet time getting here. It's been swollen for weeks and bothering him so finally it cut..thank goodness! Onto the sleep front. I would've sworn when he was born that he was just never going to sleep. I was really lucky with Braedon-he slept 7 hours the first night home from the hospital and that only got longer as he got older plus 1 nice long nap during the day. He would get up at 6:30, nap from 11-3, sometimes with a little cat nap around 5ish and in bed by 8. Cohen was not so good -but-he has gotten it figured out and I am so happy! He goes to bed between 7-7:30, wakes to nurse around 5-6 and then up for the day around 8 but with Braedon going to school, this has been altered and we are still trying to get used to it LOL! He usually takes a 1-2 hour nap about 10:30 but I started bumping that up since Braedon gets out at 11:30 and then another 1-2 hour nap around 3. I kept saying it would be great-especially once Braedon is in all day school-if he would take 1 long nap-say 4 hours-so I could get housework done. With 2 short naps, the nap is over before it starts. Well, ask and you shall receive-I really hope it wasn't a fluke. This morning, after dropping Braedon off, I dropped Chris off at home so he could go to work and I had a couple errands to run. I needed to go to the post office to drop a few things off and then to the grocery store for stuff for Braedon's lunches. We didn't get home until close to 10 and he was perfectly content playing so I let him-go figure LOL! He started getting cranky around 11 and I knew he wanted a nap but I didn't want to have to wake him up in 20 min like I did yesterday so I just played with him and tried to keep him happy. Well, once Braedon was home, it was play time and then he wanted lunch. At about 1:30 he was definitely cranky and rubbing his eyes so I nursed him and took him upstairs for a nap. I figured it would be longer since he had missed his "morning" nap. He slept and slept and slept! I had to wake him up at 5:30! I am not fond of waking a sleeping baby but it was getting too close to his normal bedtime and I just had this image of him waking up at 2am ready to play. He looked at me funny when I woke him up but he was more than happy to play and EAT once I brought him downstairs-have I mentioned this boy can EAT! Since Chris went to work late, he had to work late but I'm happy to say, my fear did NOT come true. Come 7:30 (ok so a little later than normal), he was cranky and ready for bath and bed.

Week 2 Day 2

I think we may be onto something here! Another good day at school today :-) We even had a somewhat good morning. Chris hurt his back this weekend and couldn't get out of bed this morning so he ended up going with me to drop Braedon off this morning. It was nice to have an extra set of hands this morning while trying to get us all ready. It was more like a half a set since his back is really bothering him. He was able to entertain Cohen while I helped Braedon brush his teeth and do his hair. He also helped make sure we had everything before we left-backpack, lunchbox and water bottle.

He was being a little goofy this morning as you will see in the pictures I took this morning. Ms. Jimenez said he did good for the most part. He had a couple situations that he started acting up and was placed on yellow momentarily but as soon as she asked if he wanted green or red, he shaped up. We have 2 more days of jumpstart then he will have a week off before starting "officially". I'm a little nervous about the week off. I will make sure I don't pick my battles that week so he doesn't fall back into the behavior issues. I am happy to say that he has been slightly better at home. We had a rough night last night but tonight was much better.

Blood work results, Week 2 Day 1 and Cohen walks-sorta

First of all, we got Braedon's blood work back and all is NORMAL! Not even anemic :-) It's definitely good news but it doesn't explain the symptoms. The pediatrician thinks the headaches are definitely allergy related, can't really explain him cold and I suppose he just bruises easily. His pediatrician wants me to watch for nose bleeds and bleeding gums because she will want to run more tests if this starts. Not sure what those will be but we can cross that bridge if we get there.

Now onto our day-Braedon's second week of jumpstart.

We had a rough night last night-Braedon didn't want to get in the shower then once he was in the shower, he didn't want to get washed. He likes to play so I let him for about 5 min or so and then gave him a 5 min warning to get washed. Then I went back in there to give him a 2 min warning and told him that in 2 min, I was turning the water off whether he was washed or not. Gave him a 1 min warning-which I really gave him another 2-3min and he still hadn't even attempted to start washing so off the water went and another fit started. I had to drag him out of the shower then, of course, he refused to put his jammies on. Meanwhile, Chris was bathing Cohen and getting him ready for bed. I finally carried Braedon to his room, naked. Not an easy task when he's pushing 55lbs. He was still refusing to get his jammies on so I put him in bed, gave him a hug and kiss and said goodnight. He screamed and threw a fit so Chris had to take over so I could get Cohen in bed. Braedon finally got his jammies on and went to bed at 8:30-1.5 hours passed his bedtime.

Since he was late to bed, he was tired this morning making it for a rough morning as well. He wanted to take his time eating breakfast, didn't want to get dressed, didn't want to brush his teeth or do his hair. I was at my wits end but pushed through the morning sure he would continue at school and we would have to deal with it later. I dropped him off at school and told him to have a good day and to have fun-hoping he would.

HE DID! I didn't get to the school as early as I usually do because Cohen was napping and didn't want to get up-plus, I had to get him dressed again because he had messed up his outfit already and was just sleeping in his diaper. I am usually waiting for Braedon to get out but today he was already waiting. As soon as he saw me, he came running up to me with a HUGE smile on his face-a VERY good sign. He ran up to me saying that he was on green all day and he was the leader! Ms. Jimenez looked at me and said he was really good all day and he was the leader in the lines whenever they went anywhere! YAY!! I was over the moon happy that he was good. I knew he could do it, he just wasn't. We also met his teacher that he will have all year. For whatever reason, she didn't do the jumpstart but will be in the classroom this week to get to know her students better. She knew he had problems last week but did really good today. Braedon sais he likes her and we had talked to her and K roundup when we registered him...I definitely remember liking her so I'm sure it will be a good year.

This weekend, Chris and I talked to Braedon about some of the things he was doing. We also decided to monitor more closely what he watches and plays. He is obviously having a hard time distinguishing real from fake. He understands why we took things away and we will be paying closer attention to everything. We thought he understood the difference which is the ONLY reason we were letting him play video games..even at that, they weren't any that you wouldn't think would be ok-they are certainly marketed to kids-Bolt, Monsters vs. Aliens, Batman and Indiana Jones. He has games like Boom Blox and Mario Kart that he will be able to play when he gets them back.

Ok so now for this mornings pictures LOL! I won't take them everyday but since I was onto something, I figured I wouldn't stop now.





No you are not dreaming-my car IS IN THE GARAGE!!!

Chillin' telling Daddy how good he was at school!

Now onto Cohen-he's getting to be such a big boy! He has a walker, you know, the one you sit in and can walk around in it. He never quite got the concept of it but he loved to be in it. He would push himself around backwards with both feet. Well, he has a different walker, the one you push and yesterday, he stood up with it and pushed/walked with it across the kitchen floor! He thought it was the funniest thing and was laughing! I wish I would've gotten it on video. I'll have to catch it tomorrow-hopefully :-) But for now-he was so tired today! He didn't want to take a nap at his normal time between 9-10am. He didn't go down for his nap until 11am which only gave him about a 20min nap...so he fell asleep in the car:

Doctors visit for both

Today was Cohen's rescheduled 9 month well baby check since he had Roseola for the last one. I was a little nervous about his weight check since he had lost weight from being sick. With the exception of his birth weight, he has been sitting at the bottom of the weight chart in the 10th percentile while everything else in the 75-90th percentile. Not to worry *yet* I was told because he had been consistently gaining slower and developmentally, he was right on target. However, they did NOT like the drop in weight but considered the illness and wanted to see him back in 2 weeks.

So, 2 weeks ago he weighed in at 17lbs 15oz and today, he was a whopping 19lbs 4oz!! This bumped him up to the 25th percentile! He has grown quite the appetite in the last week. Example: He slept through his normal "lunch" time yesterday and didn't act like he wanted to eat until around 3:45. I knew he needed to eat but hesitated because dinner was at 5 and I didn't want him to eat too early and be hungry later when it was bedtime. He ended up eating 1 slice of cheesy bread, an entire banana and a couple handfuls of Cheerios. No biggie-a little bigger than normal but still in what I would consider the normal range. So dinner was at 5 and he didn't really show any interest in eating as we were setting the table. He was happily playing with his toys. I decided to go ahead and put him in his high chair so we wouldn't have to keep watching him to make sure he didn't get into anything. He was content when I put him up there but then I started dishing out food to Braedon and myself and he was eyeballing the macaroni. He proceeded to "yell" at me when I didn't put any on his tray. I thought he couldn't possibly be hungry so I gave him a small spoonful figuring he would just play with it and maybe eat some of it. Boy was I wrong! By the time it was said and done, he had eaten half a peice of chicken, 2 spoonfuls of mac & cheese, and about a cup of broccoli...and he was still acting like he wanted to eat. His tummy was SO full so I cleaned him up and took him out of the chair and he was fine.

Ok so back to the visit :-) He is now 29" and his iron check came back normal. He is a very healthy boy who impressed the ped with his ability to cruise and stand alone. He also got 2 shots today. Normally he only gets 1 at a time but these were the 2nd and 3rd in the series with no previous reaction so we felt comfortable with 2. He did amazingly well and I'm glad we waited until he was older. The couple of shots he got when he was younger, it took me forever to calm him down. I had to nurse him before we could even leave and he wanted to nurse for 30min or longer. This time, he cried just until she was done and I was able to pick him up. Once I picked him up, he cuddle his head into the crook of my neck for, literally, a minute and then he perked up and was laughing at his brother! Once we got out and I went to put him in his carseat, he started to whine a little bit but Braedon is an awesome big brother and started entertaining him.

Now onto Braedon. There have been somethings going on with him that have had me concerned for a while but finally enough piled up that I decided I should have them checked out especially since we were making the trip for Cohen's check up anyway and once he starts school, it will be Saturday visits (nightmare) or missing school. He always seems to have bruises in misc places but we always just shrugged them off as being an almost 6 year old boy. However, these bruises seem to be getting worse and they are all sorts of sizes from the size of a pea to very large ones. Most of them he can't explain and we can't think of where he may have gotten them. Some of them appear in weird places that wouldn't be easy to get bruised like right below the elbow and it isn't just one. It's like a patch of them that don't make a pattern to match anything that we could think of to cause it. He has also been complaining of a headache-a lot. He will be playing and all of a sudden grab his head and make a sort of whincing pain. When I ask him what's wrong, he says his head hurts. It happens a lot after a fit but it happens beyond a comfort level when there hasn't been a blow up. The third thing-the final straw you could say-is that he's been complaining he's cold at an increasing rate. It is 100+ degrees-it's NOT cold. Our house will be 80 degrees and he's huddled under a blanket..not to the point of shivering but enough for a blanket. For a while I was joking around with him when he said he was cold until I started noticing that he was cold enough to want a blanket and to stay under the blanket for a length of time. There were times he asked if he could wear it at the dinner table. So it was time to have it checked out.

I was pretty sure they would do a finger poke because bruising and being cold are pretty common symptoms of Anemia. He was borderline Anemic as a baby so I watched his milk intake which reduces the bodies ability to absorb iron and increased his intake of iron rich foods. He's had iron checks in the past and they've all come back fine but he's prone. It doesn't necessarily explain the headaches but I had migraines at that age. So the nurse checked him out and told me she wanted to poke his finger which I had already talked to him about. She got the stuff out and he FREAKED! We tried to calm him down but it wasn't going to happen. She went out to get help and the ped came in saying she wanted to do a full blood panel anyway to rule out any possibilities so there was no point in unnecessary poking. She looked over his bruises noticing the different sizes and spots where they were, asked me a few questions about the other things going on and asked if there was any history of blood disorders or diseases in the immediate family. At that moment, I remembered that Braedon's "sperm donor" as we refer to him, had a brother that died of Leukemia. I told the ped this and she said not to worry-that was somewhat of a distant relationship but the bloodwork would show that *if* it was there. GREAT! Way to not make me worry right?

So we got the orders for the bloodwork and headed over to the lab. There were a couple people ahead of us but the wait wasn't too bad. I talked to Braedon about what was going to happen. When I was a kid, I hated being lied to *it's not going to hurt* or when I wasn't told and it was just sprung on me. I walked him through the steps of looking for the vein, a quick poke and then the blood filling the tubes and it would be over. He seemed ok with it but I should've known better. I was going through the steps in my head trying to figure out how we were going to hold him down since I had Cohen. Once we were called back into the room, he was doing good. He got up into the chair after she told him she just wanted to look. She tied the tourniquet and started looking. Thankfully, he does NOT have my veins and that beautiful vein just popped right up. She showed him and said "see right there, it will be quick and easy". She reached into her drawer to grab the needle and it was over. He started pulling the tourniquet off and I told him to leave it on but she said it was fine and took it off. No sooner did she have it off his arm did he slide out of the chair and ran to the door. Then he hid under the chair and wouldn't let go. I had to put Cohen down and she helped me with the chair while I pried his hands off. He went into an all out screaming fit, kicking and flailing about. I got up in the chair with him and was restaining him the best I could but it wasn't going to be enough to try to draw blood so the phlebotomist said she would go get help. I hesitated to let Braedon down because it was quite the ordeal to get him out from under the chair but Cohen was freaking out because he saw Braedon freaking out so I had to put Braedon down to comfort Cohen. Once the help came in, I put Cohen back down and he helped me grab Braedon. You never know how strong a child can be until you are trying to draw blood..man is he strong. The whole time we were waiting for help (about 5 min because he was drawing another patient) Braedon kept saying he wouldn't do it and I couldn't make him and he just wasn't going to do it. I tried to be reasonable with him but I told him it was something that just had to be done and it would be whether he decided to be a big boy about it or make it harder on us. Needless to say, once we had him restrained, he realized there wasn't anything he could do about it. I had his legs between mine, my arms around his chest holding the other arm while the helper held out the arm that was getting the draw. Once he couldn't move, he started screaming in the guys face-his only defense mechanism at this point. The guy was really good though and was calming him down more than I could. Once the needle was in, Braedon miraculously stopped crying and started calming down. His curiosity of seeing his blood drip-more like squirt-into the tube was better than crying I guess. They needed 1 large tube and 2 smaller tubes but as soon as she stuck the second one on, he said "ok take it out now" but waited until the 3rd one was done. In the meantime, he agreed it didn't hurt that bad and it wasn't hurting while the blood was coming out. He winced when she pulled the needle out but that was because she pushed down on it with the gauze as she pulled it out-I HATE when they do that..just let it bleed the 1 little drop that will come out before you can put the gauze on.

After that, he was fine and we called Daddy to tell him what a big boy he was getting his blood drawn-aside from the normal understandable freak out. I promised him ice cream when we were done but by that time it was lunch time so we picked up Chris and had a nice family lunch.

Apparently it was a tiring morning for both boys as they fell asleep shortly after dropping Chris off at work:



Oh and I stopped at DQ for his favorite-cherry dilly bar-even though he was asleep and he ate it when we got home :-)

Day 4 and the end of the first week

Another day of no nightmares or panic when I woke up :-) However, it was a rough night with Cohen...and by rough, I don't mean I have a newborn baby rough..just that he was moaning and whining in his sleep more than usual and he woke up at 5:30ish which is earlier than he has been. He was getting up at 4 but we started eliminating that feeding until he got sick. After he was over the Roseola, he eliminated it on his own and started sleeping until 7ish. I sent Chris in this morning to put him back to sleep but he was up again before 7 which didn't give me time to take a shower or start getting Braedon's lunch ready.

I had promised Braedon we would go earlier so he would have time to play so the goal was to leave about 7:40 when we had been leaving at 8. Our morning was as it had been the last couple days-Braedon ate breakfast and got ready fairly quickly and was able to play with some toys for about 10 min before we left.

When we got to school, there was only 1 other child there and no teachers so we waited a few minutes. Once everyone started showing up, I was waiting for the teachers to say it was ok for them to go play since they've been re-painting near the playground. I also wanted to see who his friend were and maybe see who he is getting in trouble with it. Before I know it, I was about to tell him bye and he ran up to me and punched me in my arm-hard. After he did it, he just looked at me like he hadn't done anything wrong. He flipped an attitude with me when he appologized and didn't seem to care that he had hurt me and that it was wrong to punch someone. I pulled him aside and told him that he hurt my feelings-which he didn't care and just kept asking if he could go play yet. I told him that if I got another bad report from his teacher today then he would NOT be allowed to watch Transformers when he got home nor would he be allowed to play with his toys or do anything fun. He's had a bad report for 3 days and we didn't punish him; just talked to him.

You'll have to scroll down for how his day went. But for now-more pictures of my handsome dude :-)




So are you noticing a trend here??

Yes-I do LOVE Braedon in plaid
Yes-he does have a "few" shorts in this very handsome plaid print-7 to be exact
Yes-I did count them :-)
Yes-he does pick out his clothes the night before
Yes-I do set out said outfits and let him chose which one he wants to wear
No-he hasn't selected a "non plaid" shorts outfit
Yes-it has been an option
No-I don't influence which outfit he chooses of the one's I've laid out
Yes-he does know how absolutely handsome he is and in fact, when he's picking out his clothes for the next day he says "I think I'll look handsome in this".

And now for how his 4th day went which also concludes his first week. Today, I went straight to Ms. Jimenez when I saw him dragging behind the class and not wanting to approach me. She said he did really great-much better than yesterday-UNTIL 11am when he punched one of his friends in the back. She said he called it a super punch. When I asked him about it, he said that this friend had a ball that he wanted. I asked him if he asked him for it and he said no, he just punched him. The problem we had today is that was 2 punching incidents and he doesn't seem to care or acknowlege that it is wrong and it hurts. He just kept saying "it was a super punch" or "it was just a punch in the shoulder". Apparently he doesn't know the difference between real and fake. The "super punch" line got me thinking about the Bolt video game he plays where Bolt has super powers one of them being a "super bark". Chris and I decided that he needs to lay off the video games because once we thought about it, all of them have some sort of reward for punching, kicking and knocking things over. He has a few that we will let him play like Boom Blox which is like a Tetris meets Jenga? Steven Speilberg created it so he had something to play with his kids. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. I think we are going to take him to see a psychologist so he has someone to talk to. Maybe someone that is trained in behaviors can get to the root of the problem and help him figure out a way to control his anger instead of getting rid of it by hitting, kicking, etc.

I'm really going to buckle down this weekend with him. I've been "picking my battles" for a while because sometimes it's just not worth it but we've tried everything and it's not working either. I am going to concentrate on positive reinforcements and praise when he's good. I hope we have a better week next week.

And now a couple pictures of Cohen from dinner tonight.

What are you lookin at?



Do I have something on my face??

Day 3

Third day is a charm, right? I guess we'll see when I pick Braedon up but so far so good :-)

I did NOT wake up in a panic this morning LOL! Braedon actually woke me up! He came into our room shortly after Chris got up to get ready. I'm not sure what time it was but it was still dark. Next thing I know, Braedon is waking me up: "Mommy"---"Mommy"---"yes?"----"Mommy, it's 6 o'clock"---"Ok bud, we're ok if it's only 6"---*I better check the time since he's still learning to tell time" Well, it was 6 *something* heehee It was 6:58 and he doesn't know that that really means it's almost 7 and we really need to get up. "Ok bud, it's time to get up. Mommy's going to get in the shower but I'd like for you to stay in here so you don't wake up your brother"---Yes, today yet again, Cohen was still asleep at 7. It didn't make me as nervous as yesterday but I still went and checked on him. He's taken to sleeping on his tummy which he's ALWAYS hated! I swore he was never going to crawl because he would just scream and scream if I put him down for tummy time and once he learned out to roll over, he was NEVER on his tummy.

So we followed the same routine this morning: took a shower, made Braedon's breakfast and lunch, nursed Cohen, got them both dressed, hair done and brushed their teeth and off to school we went...not late today since we sort of have the car problems temporarily fixed. We got to school a little after 8 so Braedon would have some play time before school started but apparently they were heading in early and had already lined up to go into the classroom. ARG! I guess we'll have to leave earlier tomorrow so he can play.

And now I leave you with this mornings pictures (yes I'm crazy-I mean seriously, what Mom takes a picture every day to mark the first week of school??) and I'll update with how his day went a little later today.


He's just too handsome and cool for words-but I'm biased ;-)

For Uncle Colby

And here's a couple of Cohen playing after dropping Braedon off:


He definitely still has Chris' skintone-though my mom and Colby have the "olive" tone as well-but MAN! his hair is getting so light! You'd think the dark hair would dominate but I guess I'm winning that one :-)

Update:

The boys are playing-Cohen misses him for those 3 hours-so I have a quick second for an update. The 3rd day was NOT a charm though Ms. Jimenez said he was "better". I knew something happened immediately. He came around the corner dragging his lunchbox, shoulders flopped over and his head hung but he wouldn't tell me what happened. As soon as he saw me, he sat down on the ground, buried his head in his hands and when he looked up, he had tears in his eyes. I don't get it-he knows when he is doing something wrong, he knows he will get in trouble for it, he knows it will make Mommy and Daddy sad...and yet, he still does it. We give him attention, we praise him when he's good, we give him *most* anything he wants when he's good (within reason of course) we warn him before we punish him and even tell him what the punishment will be if he continues but he still does it.

So today, he decided it would be *fun* to fling his lunchbox around hitting other kids while they were walking to the cafeteria and then refused to hold her hand when he wouldn't stop. She said he also *sulked* when he had to sit out for 5 min of playtime as a punishment. They also use a red, yellow and green light for behavior. She warned him that he was *on the verge* of going into yellow (but not there yet) which he did NOT like and she said he threw a fit about it. GREAT...She gave me some comfort when she said he was definitely better, she's seen a lot worse and she's confident that he will be fine "We just need to nip it in the butt now".

Ah, we shall see what tomorrow brings :-)

Day 2

Oh what a day it was! I woke up in a panic AGAIN but not because of nightmares LOL! It was almost 7am and Cohen hadn't been up yet. He's usually up between 4-5am, so 7 was a stretch. He must have been pretty tired-poor baby.

So we got up, got ready, I made Braedon lunch and breakfast and packed his bag. Braedon got ready faster this morning-he must've been excited-so we were still a little early. I let Braedon play in his toy room for a few minutes before we left. So now it was time to leave, I loaded up the kids into their carseats, made sure Braedon had his backpack and lunch, turned the car on, tried to put it in reverse....and it wouldn't go! It was like it was stuck so I turned the car off and back on..still nothing. I called Chris in a panic. Braedon's 2nd day of school and I had no way to get there. After almost 10 minutes of panic, the neighbor across the street-that I hardly know-came out so I ran over to ask him if we could get a ride up to the school. It turns out his youngest is starting kindergarten as well so he was headed up there..whew!

So I got him to school but I wasn't sure how I would be getting him home. I called my mom but she was going to be gone at that time, I called Namma but she had doctor's appointments. Great-stuck! Chris did some research and found out there is a plastic peice inside the shifter that is known to break in my car....FANTASTIC! While Chris was researching it from work, I called the dealership to find out a price to fix it. They told me exactly what it was but they couldn't fix just that peice; They'd have to replace the entire shifter thingy (I don't talk cars, can you tell?) and after parts and labor it would be close to $300...FANTASTIC!

Leave it to my husband to find an answer for cheaper :-) I love him! There is a company that makes just the part that broke but instead of plastic, it's metal so it won't keep breaking. The only problem is, we have to order it online and wait for it to come in. Why couldn't this have happened last week before Braedon started school. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get Braedon to school and back until we could get it fixed when Chris called with something he found. Someone figured out how to rig it to at least get you home or to the dealership and posted it online so he walked me through it. It will work until we can get the part in so I was able to pick Braedon up from school but I had to laugh because I had told him this morning that we may have to walk home. Once I picked him up, he didn't see my car and thought we had to walk-he was not happy LOL!

In other news, Braedon's day wasn't as good as yesterday. His teacher told me that he had some problems listening. She said he wanted to do what he wanted to do and wouldn't do what he was told. I told her about the problems he had at daycare and we are having the same problems at home. Right before Chris was laid off last year, Braedon was constantly getting in trouble for not listening. If the class was doing something he didn't want to do, then he didn't do it and proceeded to do whatever he wanted. Hopefully his teacher will be able to get him to listen better than the daycare and better than me for that matter. He gets sent to timeout at home and then continues to throw a fit getting him in more trouble. I don't know why he acts this way but I'm hoping for a solution soon.

A few more pictures from this morning-before the car trouble



Such a handsome boy--don't you think??

Oh and these were taken yesterday while I was making dinner. Apparently it was a rough day for Cohen having big brother at school LOL!

First day of (Jumpstart) kindergarten

The last almost 6 years have been leading up to today and it was just as emotional as I thought it was going to be.

Friday, the boys and I went shopping with Namma and Gamma for Braedon's school clothes. We went to Penny's and had WAY too much fun and spent WAY more than I had planned on. Chris and I had different views about the whole new school clothes thing for Kindergarten. I always looked forward to buying new clothes and I remember how good I felt going to school in new clothes. Chris thought Kindergarten was too early and we should wait until he starts first grade...needless to say, I won that battle. As I said earlier, we had way too much fun but Penny's was having a really good sale in the boys department. He got about 10 pairs of shorts, probably 15 or so shirts, shoes, socks, undies, Transformers backpack and Bumble Bee lunch box. After 2 hours of shopping and trying on-a lot for a boy of any age :-) -we headed to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch and some running around time for Braedon. When we got home, I got busy cutting off all the tags so they could get washed. I cleared out the clothes that were too small and replaced them with all his new big boy clothes. I also seperated school clothes from play clothes. I hated this as a kid but it isn't until you are a parent that you understand and appreciate what your parents did.

Yesterday morning, we got a newspaper to look at all the ads and headed to Wal-Mart for some basic school supplies. The secretary at the school said he would get a supply list on his first official day of school but we would be safe picking up the basics before school started. We picked up some Transformers portfolios to hold all his papers and homework, glue, stick glue, crayons, pencils, coloring pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener, ruler, markers and a Bumble Bee spiral notebook. I don't know how much the notebook will get used since he's still learning how to write but he wanted it. Last night, we loaded up his backpack, picked out his "first day" clothes and headed off to bed early for a goodnight's rest.

This morning I woke up in a panic. I had nightmares, which I thought were only reserved for kids. Apparently there's a whole new set of nightmares when you are the parent of school age children. I dreamt (is that a word?) that we were late, he didn't make any friends-yeah right if you know Braedon LOL, kids made fun of him, he sat alone at lunch, and last but certainly not least; he couldn't find me when school was out and vice versa. There were a lot of kids just running around looking for their parents and he was stuck in the middle of it and I couldn't find him. Man! Dreams are crazy and I woke up sweating and shaking thinking I had missed the alarm..but it was only 6 and he didn't have to be there until 8:30. I just stayed up to make sure I didn't miss the alarm. I took my time getting ready, packing his lunch, making sure his clothes weren't wrinkled and made him breakfast then woke him up.

I was doing OK until we got to the school. We took pictures in front of the house and I was fine. It wasn't until I took a picture at the school in front of the gym that I just about lost it. I held it in and stayed strong though I had 3 more urges before we even got to his classroom. Once we got in the classroom, I signed him in and let them know I would be picking him up while he put his backpack away and sat at a table with some kids putting puzzles together. I bent down to give him a hug and kiss; say goodbye and tell him to have a GREAT day. I was hesitant to leave and felt like I needed to stay and watch but there weren't any other parents in there and I could feel the teacher looking at me telling me with her eyes that he would be ok and I needed to leave. I turned around to walk out the door and just as I was opening the door, Braedon turns around and yells "Mommy!"---"Yes bud?"---"I'll miss you!"---"I'm going to miss you too bud"---insert tears here---I held it in until I was out the door where I met several other mothers letting their tears out too. I didn't feel so bad :-)

It was a long 3 hours for me but when I picked him up, he said he had fun. They didn't let them out where they said they would and I had told Braedon I would pick him up at the flagpole unless his teacher said something different. When I was walking toward him, he hadn't seen me yet and he kept looking at the flagpole for me. He looked a little nervous but he was fine once he saw me. I also noticed he didn't eat very much lunch so I'm sure he was nervous and excited all at the same time. He'll get better at this as the school year goes on...as will I, I'm sure.

9 month pics

All American boys:


Cohen standing by himself without help for the very first time! The photographer snapped it quick:


Family shots:

Waterpark fun

Yesterday we ventured out to the local aquatic center. It was our first visit there but it is next to the Library so we've passed it several times and Braedon had been asking to go. It was a LOT of fun though I got REALLY sunburned :( I was more concerned with keeping the kiddo's covered, I forgot myself. Anyway, the aquatic center had a splash pad area for younger kid's, 2 slides, 2 diving boards, a main pool area that was around 5' deep for free swimming, a whirlpool and a fairly large area that was 3-4' deep for the kids to just hang out in and play. Braedon had an absolute BLAST riding the slides more times than I can count and showing off his mad diving skills on the diving boards. I think even the lifeguards were impressed by his abilities in such a small body LOL! Cohen hasn't really taken to the water-other than his baths which he LOVES. I think it is because it is too big and he can't reach the bottom. We started our day with Braedon riding slides but Cohen was getting splashed a lot so for the most part, in the beginning, he was cuddled up on my shoulder. He finally got into it when we went over to the deeper part where it was quieter and watched big brother jump off the diving boards. Then he had fun on the steps while Braedon was riding the slides and in the whirlpool. All in all, it was a good day aside from my sunburn. I will definitely be more careful next time. Here are a few pictures. I couldn't take too many because I was worried about the camera with all the splashing.



Stopping for a water and sunscreen reapplication break






Having fun in the whirlpool



Going down the "scary" slide



Finally having fun :-)






Oh and Happy Birthday to me :-) 28, gulp!

I'm a little teapot..

short and stout..you know the tune. Chris has been working with Cohen teaching him the song and he LOVES it. I took video last night since he has mastered it. Cohen "shouts" on cue and Daddy is so proud :-)

Prayers needed

I'm not sure how many readers I have on my blog..not many that I know of but I wanted to post this on a chance that I have lurkers :-)

A dear friend-from a board I'm a member of-is going through a very hard time. Her daughter-the same age as Cohen-has just been diagnosed with childnood Luekemia and needs prayers. She has an older brother (but not much older) and mommy is expecting another blessing in October so this family is going through a rough time. If you can please include them in your prayers and I will update any specific prayers that are needed but for now just a general prayer for the family and for her to be cured. Dad's name is Tracy, Mom is Becky, Brother is Terran, and baby Talia is the one fighting for her life.

Thanks!

Mystery solved...FINALLY

Cohen has Roseola. His fever started going down last night and this morning it was at it's lowest since Monday when it started. Just 100.7 so I was relieved to see it going down but still didn't know what was causing the fever. Sometime between 8am when I got him dressed this morning and 10:30am when I got him undressed to be weighed, he developed a rash on his tummy and neck...classic Roseola-a fever for 3-5 days followed by a break in the fever and development of a rash. I had never heard of it but apparently it is VERY common in children and almost every child will have gotten it by the time they are 3 years old though not all of them develop a rash. The pediatrician said he could've picked it up anywhere so I'm 99% sure he got it when we were at the mall Sunday getting his 9month pics taken. There can't really be anywhere else he would've gotten it since Braedon isn't in school yet, we don't really go anywhere because it's just too hot and Chris hasn't been sick. It's possible he may have brought the virus home but it seems to be amongst the kiddo population rather than adults.

Mystery Fever pt. 2

Cohen still has a fever and no rash as the doctor predicted. His fever was 102.3 when he got up at 6 this morning so I gave him some Motrin. I am continuing to let him nurse as often as he wants and my boobs aren't liking it! He is back to nursing like a newborn-every 2-3 hours and my body isn't used to it. I have noticed an increase in my milk though from the extra nursing sessions so that's good. I've been tracking his input vs output though and I'm getting a little concerned because his output is fairly small when comparing the two. Usually when I give him 4 oz of juice/water combo, he has a massive wet diaper within an hour or so. He had almost 4 oz with dinner last night and his diaper this morning was barely wet. I let him have another 4 oz this morning and his diapers are still just barely wet. He has also been nursing like crazy and still, barely wet diapers. I'm debating on picking up some pedialyte to help him with possible dehydration but I don't know what else I can do. I'm starting to get really nervous about this whole thing. I pray it's nothing but our bodies don't just develop a fever for no reason. The unknown makes me nervous. The ped said she can't see anything wrong with him but the fever tells a different story.

He just got up from his 2 hour nap and felt warm. His temp was 101.7 which is slightly lower than this morning. He is starting to look *sick*. He did yesterday as well but now it's starting to get worse-red eyelids, droopy eyes, just a general I don't feel good look on his face.

I really hope we can get some answers tomorrow. I hate to think that means drawing blood from my precious baby boy but we have to find out what is causing this fever. It's been 4 days now.

Mystery Fever

We visited the pediatrician yet again today. Grrr. His fever peeked at 103.5 at 6am this morning so I called as soon as the office opened to get him seen. Our appointment was at 12 but they couldn't find anything wrong with him. I didn't give him any Tylenol so they would be able to record the fever-I was keeping an eye on it to make sure he didn't get too hot though. When we got there, his fever was 101.5. His lungs were clear, chest sounded fine, no ear infections, and his throat looked fine. She said that it is something viral but we just have to wait to see if any other symptoms pop up because as of now, the fever is the only indicatin that his body is fighting something. She told me not to be alarmed if he wakes up tomorrow or Friday morning with a rash. I guess there is some sort of viral infection that only has a fever the first 3-4 days, then the fever breaks and a rash appears. I can't remember the name of it but she said we would just have to let it run it course and once the rash is there, he isn't contagious anymore..but we don't know if he's contagious since we don't know exactly what he has.

His 9 month well baby check is scheduled for Friday so she said to go ahead and keep that appointment. If the fever is still present with no rash, they will order blood work to see if they can pinpoint what the problem is. Hopefully it resolves itself and we won't have to go through that but the unknown is scary. We haven't been anywhere for him to catch anything other than Sunday when we went to the mall to have pictures taken. I really hope he didn't catch anything there-who knows what it could be then.

Oh and as if our day wasn't exciting enough, I got to call poison control tonight. Arg! Apparently one of the dogs likes to play with dead birds! I don't know how it gone in the house, how long it had been there and who the culprit was but when we got home, I nursed Cohen and put him down for a nap while Braedon and I watched a movie in the living room. Cohen woke up from his nap, nursed again and went to play while I made dinner. Braedon got up to go to the bathroom and when he came back in the living room he said something about a bird. He asked if it was a real bird or a toy bird..I was completely confused so I went over to see what he was talking about. Low and behold, a DEAD PIGEON lay in the middle of our living room behind Cohen's walker. I freaked out-I didn't know how it got there, where it came from and how long it had been there. Then it set in that Cohen was playing around in that area since that is where all his toys were. He was now happy as a clam in his high chair eating a cookie. It hit me that he may have touched the bird and now his hands (and yucky scary bird germs) were all over this cookie and in his mouth. I called Chris, then I called the pediatrician-I mean, serioiusly, who do you call to find out what to do in this situation?? The triage nurse then referred me to poison control animal unit or something like that. The lady I talked to was very nice and tried to calm me down. I guess if this situation had to happen, at least it was a pigeon. She said they are immune to all the nasty bird flu's and other gross diseases that birds tend to carry. She told me to calm down and to wash him off really good-already done-I took his cookie away from him, stripped him down and washed (actually scrubbed would be a better word) him down head to toe...then gave him a fresh cookie. She told me that if he were to have touched it-since I don't know if he did-then it wouldn't be any worse than your typical average boy that eats dirt. Ok that calmed me down a little-still gross to think about but thank GOD it was just a pigeon in this case.

Oh and by the way...I HATE PIGEONS-especially now!

Emotionally drained

Yesterday was physically draining and today was emotionally draining. I noticed Cohen was feeling really warm when I left Amy's house yesterday. I took his temp and it wasn't too high-100.3-but I have him some Tylenol because it was higher than normal. He usually runs in the 96-97 category like me. Later that night, his head still felt really warm-hot actually. So I took his temp again under the arm-100.3 still. I hesitated to call the pediatrician on call but knew I would feel better if I did. The thermometer was indicating he had a fever but not too much of one but his head felt like it was on fire! I decided to take a rectal temp since it is more acurate and the ped would ask what it was if I decided to call-100.5 still not much. I ended up calling though I'm not sure why-maybe just to feel better to have someone else tell me that he may feel hot but the thermometer says he's not hot enough for concern. I found out that I could give him more Tylenol since his weight had bumped him up into the next category but he was asleep by the time I found out this information.

When he woke up this morning, he was still feeling warm so I fed him breakfast and gave him the increased amount of Tylenol before he went down for his morning nap. When he woke up, the fever had broke. He was sweating and his crib sheet was moist so I was relieved but he was pretty cranky. All day, he just wasn't content. We would play and it was almost as if he was on a short fuse. He would get irritated really quickly, he would start crying for no apparant reason, he was clingy, he would pout his lip and cry his hurt cry. I let him nurse as much as he wanted knowing that if he was coming down with something, the antibodies in the milk would do him good but also because this is his comfort. I didn't know what was wrong..still don't. I know he's teething and I can imagine that pain but my instinct tells me it's an ear infection. The doctor couldn't see it and said his ears looked fine but I've been there before. A few years back I went into Urgent Care with an ear ache-I knew it was an ear infection-but much to my surprise, the doctor looked in there and said it was fine. I questioned him and asked why it hurt so bad but he said it was clear so I left. Well, the next morning, I was running my route (I delivered newspapers) and the pain started again and continued to intensify. My ear started ringing and I just prayed that I would get through my route or I would lose it. I got to my mom's house (she watched Braedon for me) and I was in tears and so much pain I couldn't see. She grabbed the heating pad and told me to lay on it but the pain got to be unbearable so she took me to the ER. I was rushed in and the doctor said my ear was so infected my eardrum was about to burst. So either the Urgent Care doctor was an idiot or it festered up that fast. That situation makes me wonder if the same thing is happening or happened with Cohen. I took him in before the infection was bad enough to see and now it's flaring up more causing more pain. I could be wrong..it could just be the teething.

When Cohen went down for his afternoon nap, I sent Braedon upstairs for quiet time. He doesn't like taking a "nap" and I know he's getting too old for a nap but he still needs his quiet time. Most of the time he ends up falling asleep anyway. While they were upstairs, I had some much needed time to myself. I started thinking about my life. I love being a stay at home mom but it's hard...really hard. I've always wanted to stay home with my kids, I wanted to be the "soccer mom"..You know, that cool mom your friends always had-the one that took their kids to school, picked them up from school, took them to practice or whatever, had the snacks for the team, etc. I didn't have that mom. My mom was a single mom and isn't it strange how you don't appreciate your parents until you are a parent yourself? You don't truly understand the sacrifice until you've been there. I remember as a kid, being so mad at my mom when we were the LAST kids to be picked up from daycare and when I was late for softball practice because she didn't get home in time, when I couldn't go to a friends house because I couldn't get there since she was at work, and when I couldn't stay after school to play and had to go straight home. When Braedon was in daycare, there were many times when he was the LAST one to be picked up-I hated it and it made me cry that night because I remember the feeling. Those were the days that I just couldn't leave work on time. I had to get things done or risk loosing my job. There were days that he was late for practice because I had to fight rush hour traffic all the way to daycare then all the way home. I didn't want that for my boys but we couldn't afford otherwise. God must have known I was miserable. He knew I hated dropping Braedon off at daycare, he knew I couldn't stand the thought of putting Cohen in daycare when he was just weeks old. He knew so he changed our lives so I could have what I wanted, what I needed though we didn't know it at the time.

It started one year ago. Our lease was running out and we had gone through the process of trying to get a loan to buy a house. We were approved for a certain amount, found the house, placed a bid and were waiting to hear if it was accepted. Meanwhile, Colby was coming home for a visit and we were headed up to Pine for the 4th of July weekend. I had taken Friday off work and would be coming home early to go back to work on Monday. While I was loading up the car, I took a nasty fall in the garage. My bum hurt but I thought I was ok until I started cramping (I would have been about 7 months prego at this point) so we went to labor and delivery as a precautionary. Everything checked out fine with the baby but I was on "pelvic rest" because I had bruised my tailbone and pelvis in the fall. The weight of the baby is apparently what caused the bruising and MAN, did that hurt! I couldn't hardly stand to be upright-if you can imagine pushing on a fresh bruise, you can start to imagine the pain of having a baby pushing on bruised bones. Long story short, I was off work for 2 weeks while on bedrest. I had not been at my job for a year at this point (would've been qualified in August) so I was considered to be on "personal leave" and they couldn't "guarantee" my job back but was told not to worry about it. Who would lay off a pregnant woman returning from bedrest right? HA! I had a weird vibe when I returned to work and I knew something wasn't right. I called Chris and told him I was pretty sure I was getting laid off but he said I was just paranoid..well, I wasn't being paranoid and I no longer had a job. Now I was faced with trying to find a job-very pregnant. Who was going to hire me? I know they can't discriminate but there was no way I would be hired. By the time I was out of training, I would be on maternity leave. Then we were faced with another dilemma. Braedon was not going to be able to start Kindergarten since he was born in September and would've had to be 5 by August 31. We had him tested but they basically wanted him to know everything he would've learned in Kindergarten so now we were facing daycare costs for 2 kids. We calculated it out and I would be basically working to pay the daycare bill if I wasn't making over $50k-with no degree.

While I was on leave, we closed on the house-Thank God! They sent papers over to both of our employers to verify employment one last time before we closed and since I was still "technically" employed, we closed but now we were faced with paying a mortgage when we had just lost 50% of our income. We somehow managed and now, it has been 1 year that I have been home with my boys.

I have loved being home with them, taking them to storytime and to the park and kidsclub and all the things I couldn't do while I was working. I had always told Chris that if I could stay home with our kids, I wouldn't complain, I would have dinner made every night when he got home, I would do all the housework, etc. I would be super mom and wife. Boy was I wrong! Going to work might actually be easier. I would miss them terribly but staying home is a lot of work. I am lucky if I can manage a shower every day. I also miss the adult interacation and I as much as I love them, I feel like I am never away from them. Chris comes home from work and I look forward to that time all day because I can actually have a conversation with someone other than a 9mo old baby or a 5 year old but he's tired and wants to relax when he gets home. And before I know it, it's bath time and bed time for all of us and then we start all over again. The weekends just fly by and before I know it, it's just us again. Some days (like today) I start to feel down and long to go back to work. There are plenty of mom's that are working mom's and manage their family just fine. They don't love their kids any less because they work outside the home. Problem being, we are still in the same situation...2 kids in daycare. However, Braedon starts school in a month so realistically, it would just be Cohen.

Financially, we would be in a much better position. We are barely making it as it is especially now that I have used all my unemployment benefits. Chris is working as much overtime as he is allowed leaving little time for us and we still are struggling. So, financially, it would be a very wise decision for me to return to work but would I be happy?? Maybe..maybe for a few weeks, months even. Now that I've stayed home with them, would I have a different take on the whole situation? Did I long to stay home with Braedon for so long because I didn't know what it was like, how hard it is? Would I be able to remind myself how hard it was on those days I can't stand dropping Cohen off at daycare when he just wants to be home with me? If I were to get a job, I would still need to be home in time to pick up Braedon from school and couldn't go in until after he went to school. Before and after school care isn't a lot but it's enough to still put that strain on how much income would make it all worth it. I'm sure these thoughts are just the same thoughts I have when I'm having one of those days but maybe it's because Amy went back to work. I never thought I would be able to do it but I see it from another stand point when it's your best friend. She feels the same way I do. She loves her girls but she also missed work, her friends, adult conversation and some time away from being a Mommy. I know she misses them while she's at work as would I but would it really be that bad?

So this turned out to be way longer than I anticipated. I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow in a better mood, appreciating the fact that I can stay home with my boys. The grass is always greener on the other side, right?

Oh what a day!

I am so exhausted LOL! Amy called me late yesterday in a panic because she was returning to work today and didn't have anyone to watch the girls. Her sister moved in to be their nanny but had a trip planned for this weekend several months in advanced. So, her mom came over to help this weekend and was going to stay to watch them today until Sara got home. Unfortunately, Amy's mom has epilepsy but doesn't have seizures unless there is added stress. Newborn twin girls that don't sleep through the night don't add any stress LOL! Ok so not funny. Needless to say, her mom had a seizure Sunday morning-luckily not while holding one of the girls-so she wouldn't be able to watch them for Amy's first day back.

Auntie Brea to the rescue :-) I was more than happy to help and I was looking at it as a trial run of sorts. Amy and I had discussed me coming over 2 days per week to give Sara a break. I also was interested to see if I could do it...take care of 3 babies. It was a whole different world and I have a new found respect for Mommy's of multiples. I propped them up to give them their bottles at the same time which was fine but then they needed burping and I was stuck. Of course, Cohen made things a little difficult as well. He was a tad jealous to say the least. I expected him to want more attention but I did NOT expect him to be as jealous as he was. He normally nurses 5x/day which includes 2x first thing in the morning and 1 before dinner so I only anticipated having to nurse him *maybe* 2 times. Yeah right! Every time I fed the girls or held them or did anything with them that didn't include him, he wanted me. At one point I had 3 babies wanting fed, 2 babies needing to be burped (Cohen doesn't need me to help him with that anymore), 3 babies needing their diaper changed, 3 babies needing love and attention, and 3 babies that needed a nap....with only 2 arms! Braedon was an AMAZING help! He is such a good big brother and "uncle" to the twins. He helped entertain Cohen when the girls needed me, and helped with paci's and bottles when they all needed me. I thought I would lose my mind a couple times but everything worked itself out.

I knew it would be hard today since I've never watched more than one baby. I've watched up to 4 kids at once but only 1 was an infant. I think I would be up for the challenge to help out a very dear friend and I know with time it would get easier. Cohen would learn how to divide his time and as they all get older, it won't be as hectic with feedings. It was a learning experience and I know now that we will be waiting a little longer than I originally thought to have another baby LOL!

Cohen stood by himself!

We went in for pictures today since Cohen is 9 months. Both boys were in a good mood when we got there but neither one of them were in the picture mood. A few turned out pretty good but when we were trying to get a picture of the two boys, Cohen stood alone! Braedon was laying down on his tummy and we were trying to get Cohen to straddle him and sit on his back. He wanted nothing to do with sitting and just stood there. I let go of his hand to see what he would do and he just stood there! The photographer snapped the picture not knowing how long he would last and it is pretty cute. We won't get it back until the 16th but Braedon is looking to the side and Cohen face, as the photographer put it, was a "help me" face but to me it is just his normal look when he's not smiling. He only did it the one time and hasn't done it again but it's the next step to walking. Look out!

Updates, Happy Birthday America and Happy 9 months Cohen

I need to work on getting better at this blog thing :-) First things first, I took Cohen to the pediatrician on Thursday because I was worried he might have had an ear infection. He had been pulling at his right ear for a few days. I didn't think anything of it at first because he rubs his ears (and eyes) when he's tired but Thursday morning he was rubbing it a lot. I figured better safe than sorry especially with a 3 day weekend approaching. Luckily, no infection. She thinks it is related to teething and agrees with me that his other 2 top teeth will be coming in soon. He weighed exactly 18lbs and we have his 9 month check up Friday so we will see his other measurements. We had discussed his weight at his 6 month check up because he is definitely on the smaller side. When he was born, he was in the 95th percentile for weight and has since dropped to the 10-20th percentile. She said she isn't concerned as he's been consistently in that percentile and said he is just small. They won't be concerned until he falls off the chart altogether but he looks healthy, is happy and is meeting his developmental milestones so all is good.

Onto other news, as predicted, Cohen had another tooth come in on Friday! So his mouth looks like this:
III
II
The other top one should be in *very* soon. He has been really good about "chewing" his food but is getting a lot better with his new teeth. He is constantly playing with them and likes to play with Mommy's too!

Also on Friday, we took Braedon to see Transformers. He was absolutely in heaven! As he says "Optimus Prime rocks!". He loved the first one and we've seen it at home at least 100x but I was nervous about taking him to the new one. I had read online that it was pretty sexually graffic with some language-foul words and sexual inuendo's mixed in with a brief drug inuendo scene-but we decided we would take him. We figured we would cover his eyes if we needed to and hoped that stuff would go over the top of his head. My mom let me watch Pretty Woman and Dirty Dancing when I was a little older than Braedon is now and -no joke- didn't know what they were *really* about until years later when I watched them once I was versed in the world and knew what sex and prostitution was. Anyway-as we thought, it just flew over his head and when we came out, he just talked about the basic story line and how the autobots defeated the decepticons once again. It was 2.5 hours and both boys did really well. Chris and I tag teamed Cohen because we had to walk out of the theater twice when he was cranky. We went later at night close to his bed time hoping he would sleep through it. We just had a problem in the beginning because it was too loud for him to get to sleep but once he was, we were fine the rest of the movie.

Friday was a busy day LOL! Chris had the day off in observance of the holiday so I took the opportunity to go visit Amy, Addison and Riley -by myself :-) She goes back to work on Monday and we haven't gotten together in 4 weeks! Man how the time flies especially when you are dealing with newborn twins! I can only imagine the lack of sleep her house is getting. We had a great visit and I was able to love on the twins since my baby was at home with Daddy. He got really jealous when they came to visit us and *his* Mommy was holding another baby. The girls are getting so big compared to where they were but are still smaller than both my babies were at birth.

Chris was having adventures of his own at home with both kids. I enjoyed my time away from the boys. I love them very much but I am with them all day and all night plus it's good for Chris to be reminded what I do all day-he tends to forget :-) Cohen is of course crawling and getting very good at it. He pulls himself up onto everything and is getting the whole cruising thing down. His recent development is giving his lungs a workout. He randomly yells because he can and then laughs that he can. He will also yell-a much different yell-when you take something away from him that he wants. Chris said he was crawling into the dining area and somehow put his right hand on top of his left hand and got "stuck" because he couldn't move the hand that was supposed to move next. Chris watched him for a minute and he said he kept trying to get his hand out until he got frustrated enough. He yelled for a second while Daddy laughed then he brought himself to a seated position and started, in Chris' words "examining his hand like there was something wrong with it" LOL! He flipped it front to back and poked at it with his other hand and apparently decided nothing was wrong with it so back to crawling he went. These are the events you tend to forget so thank goodness for blogging :-)

Now onto yesterday-Happy Birthday America! Chris let me sleep in yesterday morning and it was great! We lounged around the house-Chris and Braedon played video games, Mommy played on the computer a little bit and Cohen played with his many toys around the house and napped. At 5, we headed to the stadium for an all American tradition-baseball! Rangers vs. Cubs. They also had a kidzone and Braedon had fun jumping from slide to slide and bounce houses. Cohen chilled in his stroller taking in all the kids and wanting so desperately to be able to play with all of them. We ate peanuts, sno cones, and hot dogs. We danced to Michael Jackson, showed Braedon how to YMCA and watched fireworks. All in all, it was a good night. It was Cohen's first fireworks show and he did well. I was worried about the bangs but he was in love with the lights as was Braedon but I knew he loved them. Braedon was scared of them all but his first year and last year. He does NOT like loud noises of ANY kind and freaked out every year. Last year, we were in Pine for the 4th. We drove down to Payson for the fireworks display and we were far enough away from them that he was able to see but not hear them. Last night he heard them but wasn't scared of them anymore!

As of today, Cohen is officially 9 months old! He's getting so big and I can't believe that in just 3 months he will be 1! We are going to get pictures taken today to commemorate the milestone :-) For Braedon, I got pictures done at 1 week (didn't like the hossy pic), 1 month (him and I), 3 months (Christmas), 6 months, 9 months (him and I in our Navy getup after getting home from Colby's boot camp graduation), 12 months, 15 months, 18 months and 2 years. With Cohen, we liked the hospital pic so we got that one, 2 weeks (both boys), 1 month (family pic), 3 months (Christmas), 6 month, 9 month (family pic-we are doing a patriotic theme to coordinate with Braedon's 9month), 12 months, 15 months, etc.

We also received information about a sort of Kindergarten preview for Braedon. It is 2 weeks of half days so he can see what school is going to be like. It is also their way of making sure all the incoming kiddo's are up to speed on writing their names and identifying letters and numbers. I'm nervous for him but excited as he enters this next stage in his life. I know he'll do great but I am also nervous about his behavior. He doesn't sit still and is very hyperactive. He also has *selective* hearing which gets him in trouble at home. Everyone says your kids act better away from home than at home so lets hope this holds true.