2013 in Review

Happy New Year! Our year was filled with lots of love, family, challenges, sleepless nights, a new baby, a growing toddler, snuggles, playing, tears, healing, and growth. Bring on 2014! 

As I was looking back at pictures from the year, I was amazed to see how much Cohen has changed over the year. He went from baby boy to big boy toddler.

January

Cohen started walking at 18 months old (14 adjusted). Doesn't he look so little!? (sob, sob)

February

We celebrated Danny's birthday, spent lots of time outdoors, and 20 weeks pregnant!

March

Celebrated Easter and meeting and passing the 25 week mark with Ezra

April

My sister threw Ezra and I a baby shower that we actually got to attend! We also took Cohen to the zoo.

May

Celebrated Gramma's Birthday, Mother's Day, and my birthday. We fenced the yard and spent time enjoying the last moments of Cohen as a "single" child and reached full term in our pregnancy!

June

We celebrated the boys' second birthday, made lots of diapers and welcomed Ezra earthside

July

Adjusted to life with our new little family!

August

Got a visit from our long lost friends and celebrated our four year wedding anniversary. Cohen played in a lot of dirt.

September

Went for a visit to Seattle to see Danny's parents

October

Went to the pumpkin patch (twice) and Cohen and Ezra's first time trick-or-treating

 

November

Celebrated Thanksgiving

December

Collected and delivered NICU Care Packages, Danny's family Christmas party, and celebrated Ezra's first Christmas!

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Eve we came home and Danny and I filled up each other's stockings and then filled up the boys. Well, their stockings weren't quite filled this year, just a few little things. I love stockings and think they are one of my favorite parts of Christmas morning. Growing up, my mom always made sure our stockings were full of all our favorite little things and I loved it. 

We kept things pretty low key this year, as it has been for the last few years. The holidays are still hard for me so I try not to put too much stress on myself or go too overboard. I had the majority of my Christmas shopping done in November which was really nice. Ez got a new teething ring and a piggy bank for his college fund. Cohen got some new cars and trucks for his collection. The boys got a few books to share. Danny got some gear for ice fishing. And I got a candle warmer, scarf, and a travel case for my sewing machine! Oh, and we can't forget about the 59" teddy bear our friends gave us! 

We had a nice, quiet morning as a family. We had our traditional breakfast of "coyotes" which is fried bread dough eaten with powdered sugar. Delicious! Danny's parents had thought about driving up Christmas day, but didn't end up making it so we were glad we saw them the previous weekend at Danny's family's Christmas party. After naps we headed over to my parents house to hang out and have lunch with them. It was a relaxing day and it was so fun to watch the boys get to open their presents and have Cohen be excited about Christmas. 

  

Christmas Eve 2013

And just like that, Christmas has come and gone. Our decorations are down except for our naked tree. Christmas kind of snuck up this year, we didn't even get a chance to put lights on the outside of our house!! 

Christmas Eve we spent at my sister's house doing Christmas with my side of the family. We had chili and tacos for dinner. The adults got to enjoy some mulled wine while the kids played upstairs. Then it was time for presents! 

{The best I could get of the cousins} 

This Won't Last Forever

We've been having a rough few days (weeks?) Over here. The days are starting to blend together as the nights become longer and less restful. I struggle to master this "mom of 2" business.

Some days are amazing. We are on our game, get out of the house in one piece and really enjoy time as a family. We go for walks, play at the library, and sing Cohen's favorite songs at bedtime.

Then there are the other days. The days I struggle to make it through because the wails for apple juice, the refusal to nap, and the lunch plate getting knocked off the table (again) feel like the last straw. The days that I feel like I might pull all my hair out when I'm letting the cat in and out for the 50th time, when Cohen throws open the door to our room and wakes up Ezra, or Ezra is waking up for the umpteenth time during the night. I reach the end of the day longing for sleep but I never know if I'll actually get sleep or not with our late night party animal. One day I actually took a nap in bed with 3 loads of laundry. The only way I get through some days is by telling myself that this won't last forever. Maybe it will last a week, or a month, or even a year. But it won't last forever. 

Last night, I was snuggling Ezra back to sleep for probably the 5th time in two hours, praying he wouldn't wake up Cohen. As he finally drifted off to sleep, I sat there and stared at his chubby cheeks and felt the weight of him in my arms. And it hit me. This won't last forever. Are there days where I am exhausted and cranky? Absolutely. But this won't last forever. Getting to snuggle my babies to sleep and play toys with them. Having them ask me to read them books or sit on my lap. Before I know it they'll be going off to kindergarten, middle school, high school, and someday maybe starting families of their own. And so, I remind myself that this won't last forever and I snuggle my babies just a little longer. 

Cohen - 2.5 Years Old

Cohen is 2 1/2 years old! He was been growing and changing so much over the last few months.

He talks a lot and understands even more. The last time he we checked his weight he was 29 lbs and 3 feet tall. He has been a potty training champ. We tried a few days here and there but he was over it partway through the days. I didn't want to push it, especially with a new baby on the way. One day he said "no diaper!" and never looked back. He still wears diapers at nap and bedtime, partly because he sleeps about 12 hours at night and also because he is still sleeping in his crib and couldn't get up to go even if he wanted to. Yes, he's still in his crib. We haven't made the change yet because his crib has always been his "safe place" so I'm not terribly anxious to rush him out of it. He does things in his own time, we'll know when he's ready.

His favorite things are stuffed animals, tractors (twactos), trains and cars (caws). He also likes to help out mommy and daddy. Whenever we are making dinner he likes to "help". We found him sitting on the floor with a bowl and a whisk and he told us he was making cookies. He always asks to take toys to bed and sometimes we let him pick one (or twelve). He got a new tractor for Christmas and wanted to take it to bed so we let him. An hour later he was still awake in bed playing with it so I sent Danny in to take it away and tell him it was time to sleep. When he got up in the morning, he saw the tractor sitting outside his door and said "Daddy take da twacto" and kept repeating it all morning. It was so sad, poor little fellow. His other new hobbies include washing his hands, turning lights on and off, and playing in his room.

Cohen still goes to OT twice a month and we have been seeing some pretty cool growth. I realized one day that I hadn't seen him startle to a noise in several months! This is pretty big for him because as a baby he startled all the time and then up until recently he still jumped at a lot of noises and got really scared and anxious about them. He has also been doing lots of swinging and gaining confidence in his physical capabilities.

Cohen and Ezra are starting to interact a little more. We make a conscious effort to include them in things together, Ezzy helps say goodnight to Cohen, Ez "gives kisses" to Cohen. It's so cute to watch them start to notice each other a little more. I can't wait to continue to watch their relationship grow, I hope they are good buddies.

He is still our sweet, sensitive boy. It has been so fun to watch him grow, gain confidence, and become a "big boy" lately. I still can't believe how grown up he is getting. Sigh. The NICU journey seems like a lifetime ago. So proud of this boy and we love him with all our hearts.

Ezra - 6 Months

A few days before Christmas, Ezzy turned 6 months! We have his 6 month check up and shots next week so I'm not really sure of his current height/weight, but here are a few other things:

- Still wearing cloth diapers, but wears a size 3 at night or when away from home
- Wearing 6-9 month clothes
- Working on switching to two naps a day
- LOVES eating table food: steamed broccoli, carrots, apples, bananas, potatoes. The only thing we've found that he doesn't like is green beans. He lunges and grabs at any food that anyone is eating.
- Sleeps from 8pm - 6 am although he has been waking up throughout the night the last few nights. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt and he'll go back to sleeping again!
- He is still smiley and always happy just to hang out and snuggle
- He learned how to army crawl and is quick about moving if he sees something he wants. He gets up on all fours, rocks, and can go from a crawling to sitting position