The No Good Very Bad Day

Yesterday was definitely "one of those days" over here. We got up in the morning with plans to drop Cohen off at my sister's and for Ezra and I to go with my mom to support a fellow baby loss mom sewing diapers. It definitely didn't happen.

Somewhere between Cohen licking a stick of deodorant, eating toothpaste and then throwing up I knew the trip probably wasn't going to happen. Ezra decided he wasn't interested in napping, but was interested in screaming. He blew out his diaper and outfit twice in a matter of half an hour. Yes, I took pictures. It was all I could manage to do. Plus, I needed proof to show Danny how much I deserved a nap/vacation/candy bar.

At some point that morning Cohen and I had been outside pulling some weeds. He was helping me by putting the weeds in the bucket. I came inside to feed Ezra who decided he forgot how to nurse. Cohen thought it would be a good idea to bring the weeds and dirt inside the house and put them on the couch. At that point I just gave up. Cohen went back outside and proceeded to spread huge dirt clumps all over the stairs to the house and himself. He was completely filthy, but he was playing so I just left him.

I went outside to survey the damage and told my mom we weren't coming to the diaper party. I plopped Ezra in his bouncy seat and put Cohen in the bath. After scrubbing the dirt off of him and getting him out of the bath, I sent Danny a text to not come home without chocolate.

And then............NAPTIME. Glorious naptime. I love naptime. Things went much better after nap and we managed to survive the day, someday we will look back and laugh. Also, I ate two candy bars, I deserved them. Here's hoping today is a little more boring.

A Few of his Favorite Things

Slowing down today to remember where Cohen is at. I walked through the house and just took pictures of the places he had been. Life as a 2 year old:

The "ming" cup. The first thing he asks for every morning and frequently throughout the day. We generally end up misplacing at least one or two and at the end of the day I find about 4 of them all over the house.

Cars. Always cars. He likes to line them up on the table, drive them on the back of the couch, and play with them on the windowsill. Yesterday we went for a walk and he had a little car with him that he tried to drive down the sidewalk and stopped at every crack and drain cover to drive his little car over.

Blocks. He likes to build the blocks on the little cars. And then, of course, push the car around the house.

Buggies. His other favorite. At least these ones are fake!

Photo books. We have a drawer with several of these photo books from various parts of our lives and he loves to get them out of the drawer and look at them. He will point to each person and make us say who it is, or he will find all the pictures of Daddy or Mommy. His favorite ones are this photo book from our wedding and the book we have that is the blog in printed form from the year the boys were born.

Happy Second Birthday!

We had a pretty good day celebrating the boys' second birthday. We didn't have much planned, which was sort of intentional and kind of not, but worked out well. It happened to be Danny's day off for the week so that was really nice that we could spend time together as a family.

We hung some balloons on Cohen's bed and put some in his doorway for when he woke up and he liked seeing those when he got up. First he opened his presents, an Elmo shirt, a picture dictionary, and some playdough. He got his favorite breakfast of "eggies" and sausage. We put a birthday candle in his sausage and he mistook it for candy and ate part of it while we weren't looking.

The night before we had heard that one of Gramma's goats had her baby, so we went over to see the newest addition. Cohen was more interested in the big goat, but did try to hold the little one.

He had his playgroup that day at his OT so he and Daddy went to that and then it was home for a reading of "boom boom" his new favorite book (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) and a nap.

After nap, we went to McDonalds for a happy meal since he had some birthday money to spend. He wasn't interested in the toys but did spend some time flirting with a little girl and trying to share his french fries with her.

We stopped by the cemetery to take Carter some balloons and flowers and spend some time there. It always seems so unfair to go to a gravesite to spend time with your little one.

Then it was time for Cohen's favorite part - the park! We spent some time on the swings, and climbing, and best of all throwing rocks in the creek. When we first got to the park, I had happened to look up for some reason and we saw a big rainbow in the sky, which seemed odd since it was sunny out. But, there it was, a big rainbow right around the sun. I'm sure there is some scientific reason it was there, but I think it was Carter saying hi to us. There were also two butterflies flying around the whole time we were there. It was nice to feel like he was there spending some time with us.

{The boys watching the two butterflies flying around}

Once we were all wiped out, we headed home for dinner. Cohen had requested a cheesecake, so I had to make it for him. You only turn two once, right? Well, he only ate the crust but we sure enjoyed it!

It was a pretty good day, with some hard moments of course, but we got to spend some good time as a family celebrating our boys.

23 Months

This is more for me to remember, but you're welcome to read along and be impressed at how many words he knows. He has really started to say a lot more over the last few weeks.

"Buddy" - peanut butter
Daddy
Mommy
Gramma
Grampa
Buckle
"Mang" - milk
"side" - outside
Stinky
Elmo
Blankie
Apple
Cracker
Cookie
Ducky
Kitty
Doggie
Buggy
Go
Down - down
Down - up
Baby
"ing" - Swing
Bye
Hi
Night Night
"Key" - Kix/cereal
"Thanky" - thankyou

He will also tell you what the kitty, doggy, ducky, horse, and cow say.

He currently loves his stuffed animals and blankets and pretends to go to sleep a lot. When we go to get him up in the morning he just rolls around in his bed and hugs his stuffed animals. He recently inherited 3 Elmo stuffed animals that he snuggles (even though they are totally un-snuggly because they are made to move around).

He loves to be outside and he loves "working", moving things around, transferring them from one container or spot to another, pretending to sweep, playing with the parts on the vacuum.. He loves his kitty who is less than impressed with him and will probably be thankful when there is a baby to distract him. 

He also seems to be doing quite a bit better now that he has his swings and now that the weather has been nice and we can go outside and be out and about more. He doesn't seem to get as frantic and discombobulated as when we were stuck inside all day.

Almost Wordless Friday

How sweet is this not-so-little boy!? I can't take it. I can only imagine what it will be like when his new brother gets here.

Buckles

Cohen's latest hobby is buckles. It's more of an obsession actually. He knows where every single buckle is inside our house and out. There's the one on the little play board I made for him, one in the swing, one in the other swing, the bike helmet, the bike trailer, the stroller, the backpack in the garage and the one on the BBQ cover. He knows them all.

The first thing we hear when he gets up in the morning is either "mik" (milk) or "buck-kle". He rarely plays with his toys, but the buckles he will sit and do for a little while. He's actually pretty good at it but he gets frustrated if he can't get it for some reason and then we have to take the buckles away.

{Swing buckles}

{Board buckle}

{BBQ buckle}

21 Months

Cohen seems to be in a very sensitive spot right now. He has started to notice when Danny or I leave and cries if we leave him somewhere, even if it's with family. (Pictures all from Karen)

There are some things he is so fearless about and then other times he is literally clinging to our legs over the sound of the rain or a loud noise. I'm sure it's probably just a stage for his age, but it's so different than he normally is. It's hard to know how to reassure him while helping him know that it's okay and we are coming back for him, which I know he doesn't really understand yet.

While it has been a bit challenging, we also love to see how much he is constantly learning. If you ask him what a duck says he will say "quack" and if you ask him what a horse says he will say "neigh". His words of the week are "night night" and "uh oh". His walking is getting better but he is still constantly falling or trying to catch his balance.

He loves sticks and rocks and mud puddles, a true boy. He is starting to show his displeasure a little more because we don't let him live outside. He's earned a few trips to his bed for a little "regroup" time.   We are also working on using a spoon and fork and he loves it although he doesn't usually actually get the food on his spoon without some help. He has also been practicing with a big boy cup, but only when he is in his high chair as it always ends up all over the floor otherwise. He likes to "help" if we are making dinner. He gets out a spatula and a bowl and plays on the floor while we cook.

He keeps me incredibly busy and I'm generally exhausted by the end of the day, but he's so fun.

20 Months

Love these cousins. And love that I get pictures of my cute boy from my sister.

Cohen has had a rough week or so. He has been protesting napping and eating. Every morning that he gets up the first thing he does is sign "milk" and then goes and gets his coat and shoes and follows me around with them, wanting to go outside. We have been going outside 2-3 times a day lately, rain or shine! We can't wait for summer, trying to keep this boy busy is wearing me out!

Cohen's Therapy

Thank you for all your kind words after the post about story time. I'm glad to know that many of you have kids who would have been playing right along with Cohen. I'm not sure where all those kids were that day, but they definitely weren't at story time!

Many of you have asked what we do to help Cohen develop his vestibular/sensory system a little better. For him, it seems to be about his movement. We do a lot of swinging. We actually have a swing in our house, because when you live in the northwest it rains 362 days a year and it's hard to get outside in the winter. So we have a regular outdoor swing attached to a pull up bar in the doorway. This is nice because we can take it down when we aren't using it and it isn't anything permanent. Cohen would literally spend hours in his swing if we let him. I think he likes the sensory input he gets from the movement. Sometimes if he is just super busy and we can't quite get him to focus on anything, we put him in his swing and he just relaxes.

{Cohen has been swinging for quite some time and is now an expert}

Cohen also spent some time doing therapeutic listening. He has cds from his OT that are some kind of special music where certain pitches or sounds are taken out and then added back in. It sounds crazy and distorted but somehow is supposed to help with organization in the brain. We aren't as good about these as we should be because Cohen is supposed to stay within 5 feet of wherever the music is coming from and well, that's pretty impossible unless he is in his swing, which is generally when he listens to it.

{Cohen also gets to ride horses at therapy when it's nice out!}

When he is at therapy, he plays in a lot of different types of swings. The goal is to have him experiencing movement of all kinds back and forth, round and round, and side to side to help him develop the vestibular system (that helps with movement and sensory regulation). He was swinging in a hammock the last time at OT and it was amazing just to see him relax, like almost falling asleep, and focusing on and actually playing with a toy for more than 5 seconds. We are looking at a way to be able to get a swing like this in our house since Cohen is now only going to OT once a month.

{Another type of swing at therapy. If he looks exhausted, he is! It's a lot of hard work for him}

As I've mentioned before, his issues are fairly minor compared to what he could be experiencing because of his prematurity. But, we would still like to take care of them as much as we can early on so that they don't become bigger or ongoing throughout his life. He's been through enough already and we want him to be able to take on life the best he can so we will help him do that however we can.