A Little Random

This post is going to be a little random, sorry. If you didn't see Cohen's Halloween costume, check it out! He was pretty cute and not at all interested in being awake.

{Berthusen Park...pictures by Karen}

We went to Seattle to see Cohen's eye Dr today. The one eye is still fine and the other is looking better as well! Yay! Thank you for all your prayers. We are so glad that his eyes are improving and so far doesn't look like he will need surgery at all. He goes back in 3 weeks for another follow up. He also has his appointments with his cardiologist and pulmonologist next week so please keep that in your prayers as well. We are hoping that the right side of his heart looks smaller on his echo!

We also stopped by the NICU to say "hi" to some of Cohen's friends. They were excited to see him and he just looked and looked at them, he recognized their voices! It was fun to get to tell them how well he is doing at home. We miss our nurses, but not being in the hospital. We also swung by antepartum where we spent a few weeks while I was pregnant and they were excited to see him too.

The little blond fellow in this picture is my nephew Eli. He just lost one of his front teeth! He is so anxious to get his hands on Cohen, but is always so good when we tell the kids "don't touch Cohen". Eli, one of these days you need to come over and take your hand sanitizer shower so you CAN touch Cohen :) 

Cohen will be 5 months old in 4 days and that is crazy to me.

And also, my mom wrote this post about the quilts she made for the boys. I may have cried a little bit.
I love to quilt. Find the fabric, cut it, put it together. Put warm flannel on the back. And then give it away. I have made quilts for all my grandchildren. Special, amazing beautiful kids. Last week was a sad and happy week. I finished Cohen's quilt. He is grandchild number 5, his brother Carter, grandchild number 6. Each one so precious and special. I had great plans to have the quilts all done for the boys, in opposite pattern. I cut them both out, laid them on the floor, gathered them up in the exact order, and made sure the colors were in opposite spots, so we could tell them apart. I would present them to Jana at her shower. God had other plans for our family the past 6 months. Cohen and Carter (I LOVE saying their names together!) were born at 25 weeks. Much to soon. Carter passed away at birth. Cohen continued the fight for his life.130 days in the NICU at the University of Washington. Carters quilt was done, early, before the showers, before the homecoming.I sewed it in one night. Thru more tears and anguish than I ever imagined. But it was done for him. For his burial.   I finished his quilt in a teenie tiny version, a 2 lb and 13 1/4" version. He was wrapped in it and laid to rest.  Forever loved. Forever with Jesus. How we miss him! Over the days and months, I tried to finish Cohen's blanket. I wanted him to have it to come home in.  I could not quite muster the energy. When I realized he was coming HOME I got to work on it. It seemed so much bigger, than I had first laid out. But I kept on sewing.  Heck, he can use it for a toddler bed, or take it to college... I showed it to Jana, and pointed out how I had included a square from Gramma Rineharts fabric stash. Jana had written about Gramma and Carter after I had typed this post, but did not publish it. (which does not surprise me, we had many "thinking of Carter" moments at the same time.) I was thinking of Carter, Gramma and quilts all week. How much I miss her. How much I miss Carter. She would have cried with us and talked with us and loved and prayed for Cohen and his journey. What I love about quilting is the history, the stories each quilt has to tell. Cohen's quilt was extra big, because I had not realized, until it was done,  I had included all the extra pieces of Carters quilt. As I sewed Cohen's quilt, I kept thinking of Carter and his identical tiny little quilt. Cohen's quilt  had Carters pieces in it, a piece from Gramma, and I had also stuck in one piece of fabric I used to make a quilt for Jana in college. So there are the generations. The 4 generations, which have so shaped our families story. My special connection with Gramma was the quilting and the love of sewing, and of course her son! She loved each and every grandchild and great grandchild. she would have been SO excited about Jana having twins. The first EVER in ANY Rinehart history! I understand her great love and excitement for each and every grandchild. I love them all so much. Gramma Rinehart is watching and rocking Carter for us, for now. And we are loving Cohen to bits!