October 18, 2009: Fall Pictures!

After a very iffy morning, our date for Carter’s 2 year pictures turned out to be a beautiful fall day. Apparently everyone else got the message too as the arboretum was quite busy with families and photographers. We are so thankful for our friend Laura who took wonderful pictures of Carter (and we snuck a few of Cohen too)

October 17, 2009: Ahoy!

Cohen's room is officially finished! We have had the majority of the big stuff done for quite some time, like painting and putting up the border, but we finally got around to accessorizing his room. The sailboats are up, the buoys are hung, flags are hanging, and one seagull completes the look! This book sits on Cohen's dresser. It is a printed and bound copy of Cohen's story...I pretty much just copied the blog entries and pictures and put them in a memory book. I often find myself looking through it in awe of what we went through, and how strong our little man is.
How fun is this? I love, love, love how it turned out. The seagull is a great touch, if I do say so myself
John's Uncle Gary built Cohen this amazing sailboat bookshelf...we LOVE it and it is exactly what that wall needed!! Thank you Gary!!

But of course, the real star of this room is the rosy cheeked, smiling baseball player in the crib :)

October 15, 2009: Graduation!

It's official...Cohen has graduated from Physical Therapy!! The physical therapist came for hismonthly assessment and was shocked to see how much progress Cohen has made. She estimates he made a 3-4 month jump in development from his appointment with her last month. According to her evaluation, his physical development is that of a 7 month old. With his adjusted age being just over 5 months, the fact that he is at a 7 month old level means he is above being on track and thus does not need physical therapy anymore. With the goal being that he catches up to his actual age by the time he turns 2, the fact that he is only a month behind is fantastic. We are so proud of him and forever grateful to the wonderful attention and support his daycare teacher has given him. In all honesty, we can attribute most of Cohen's progress to Liz...she is simply amazing!!

To end this post, who doesn't like naked baby pictures:

October 12, 2009: 12 on the 12th

Okay, it didn’t really happen on the 12th, but rather on 10/10….Cohen was diagnosed with his 12th double ear infection. This time, the poor guy was pretty miserable. The quick care doctor was concerned with why I waited so long to bring him in as his ear drum looked ready to burst. Gee, thanks doc, but I took him to the doctor on 10/6 to get his ears checked after his last ear infection…and I took him to quick care as soon as I figured something was up. So there. It is not my fault the little bugger's ears take less than 4 days to get super infected…well maybe it is since I am the one with the short fat face. Oh well.

Cohen is on an antibiotic right now, and we will go see his doctor in 2 weeks to see if the infection has cleared. I am considering asking her opinion on having tubes put in before we find out if he needs abdominal surgery. It will mean putting him under twice, and thus risking him becoming dependant on the vent....twice…..so it will be a very difficult decision to make. However, Cohen is miserable with these non stop ear infections, and quite frankly, so are we!

October 10, 2009: 8 Months Old!

Cohen Thomas is 8 Months old today! At his most recent doctor’s appointment, his doctor said he no longer looks like a preemie!! He weighs 16lbs, and is 26.5 inches long. He is doing everything a 5 month old baby should be doing, so he is developmentally right on track for his adjusted age. His big blue eyes are still his most defining feature, and his chin dimple is a surprise we get when he smiles. He loves it when you make him belly laugh, and he is having more fun playing with the toys his brother gives him. Cohen can roll from back to tummy, and tummy to back...all with absolute ease now. Our newest dilema is whether or not to return the apnea monitor. The doctor wants him to keep it until his belly issues are resloved, but I wake up in the night to Cohen tangling himself in the cord, or better yet, chewing on the cord.

He absolutely LOVES daycare, where he participates in art projects, sensory play, and even ventures outside. His teachers are simply amazing, and because they are both photography lovers we get tons of fantastic pictures of Cohen at daycare. See for yourself

October 1, 2009: New Trick(ish)

Cohen is working on a new trick, and he is soooo close to mastery. John and I find it quite amazing as his older brother didn't master this until he was 9 months old. To adjust Cohen to 9 months, he still has 4 1/2 months to go. Here it is:

Now, at the time this picture was simply great timing. However, to date, Cohen is sitting anywhere from 5-30 seconds on his own (without doing the tripod), before falling over. In a few more weeks he should have it down. His Developmental Therapist will be very impressed!

September 29, 2009: Cohen’s BIG Helper

To our surprise, from the get go Carter has taken to his Big Brother roll quite nicely. John and I were very nervous in February when we handed our then 15 month old son a “baby brother” doll and Carter kissed it on the head and proceeded to throw it across the room. However, once Carter got used to the Ronald McDonald house he hasn’t looked back in helping with the baby.

At RMH Carter would carry the bottles of pumped breast milk down to the freezer, and when Cohen came home Carter was our go to man for throwing away Cohen’s dirty diapers and fetching a binky. 5 months later, the helping has only increased: This week the boys and I dropped John off at his studio so he could finish some homework and Cohen was in his car seat fussing a little bit. All of a sudden I hear Carter saying “ENOUGH! Enough baby doe, enough! Enough, enough, enough!” I’m not even joking. It was so hilarious I called John and put him on speaker so he could hear what Carter was saying. We never say that to Cohen, so I’m not too sure where he picked it up from. Regardless, it was pretty funny.

Another way Carter likes to help with Cohen is at meal time. Cohen is now on solid food, so Carter likes to “help” me feed the baby: