When I set my alarm I always set it for odd times like 6:06 so that I can get as much sleep as possible, down to the minute.
I went grocery shopping and came back out to the car and found my keys sitting in my unlocked car on the driver's seat. Good thing cars like mine aren't in high demand.
Back when I was a perfect mom, before I had kids, I would never have let my toddler watch TV. Now I think it's cute that heclaps and points when Elmo shows up on Sesame Street.
I was halfway through brushing my teeth when I realized something felt off and that I was using Danny's toothbrush.
I have been dreaming of girl scout cookies and have asked everyone within a 5 mile radius where I can get them. So far I have been unsuccessful.
I go to work one day a week and usually it is Danny's off so he stays home with Cohen. This afternoon while I was at work I got the following text message:
"Cohen pulled the taco seasoning off the counter all over himself and started rubbing his eyes and crying. Cohen and daddy jumped in the shower with their clothes on to rinse the seasoning out of his eyes. We stumbled through the house (naked) back to Cohen's room to get him dressed and found the lights were out and the breaker needed to be flipped. Daddy finally just got everything cleaned up. Only 3 hours till mommy gets home".
And when I got home I also noticed two scratches on Cohen's forehead from the kitty. Sounds like the had an eventful day!
* I wiped Cohen down with a baby wipe when I didn't have time to give him a bath. His OT told him he smelled good and asked what I used on him.
* While shopping one day I had picked up a basket of strawberries and got some juice on my hand. I didn't want to stain my light colored clothes so I wiped it on Cohen's sweatshirt (his sweatshirt was dark blue!!).
* One day when picking Cohen up from my sister's house, I let her guiltily explain the bump on Cohen's head before telling her it was there when I dropped him off.
* We have been saving our food scraps for our new pigs and at one point I texted my mom to see if they ate Doritos. They do.
* We haven't learned our lesson about naked baby time. This time he peed on his toothbrush.
* My sister told us that Cohen had said poo poo several times while she was changing his diaper. We were so excited that he was saying a new word that all day we tried to get him to say poo poo. Then we realized that that word could probably wait a little while longer.
* Sometimes, I draw the line and I don't share everything that happens. In fact, 2 things happened this week that are way too embarrassing to tell you. After yesterday's event, Danny said "do you think this is too embarrassing for Fess Up Friday?" It was a definite yes. Sorry!
Over the weekend we went tent camping for the first time with Cohen. We borrowed my parents car and barely fit everything in, babies do not travel light. We picked up the Hegartys in Seattle and made our way to the coast. It was around a 6-7 hour drive and Cohen did well, considering. He did get too hot at one point so we made a dinner stop to let everyone get out and stretch their legs and cool off. We arrived at our campsite in the evening to find a mud pit. We reserved the campsite last minute as we had only decided to go camping the weekend before. This campsite was one of the only ones left, now we know why. If you go to Ocean City State Park, avoid site #15.
I had worked 9 hours on Thursday and waited until the end to pack my own bag so by then I was just trying to entertain a baby and pack the car at the same time. Shoes didn't make the cut. But definitely always bring shoes camping. I thought I could get away with only flip flops since it was going to be nice out and we were quickly running out of room in the car. I was wrong, bring shoes.
We found a dry spot to put up the tent and the boys went to work. Our little tent is no longer big enough for all 3 of us so we borrowed my brother's 8 man tent and all stayed in the same one.
Saturday we went to the beach and spent most of the time making Cohen didn't consume mass amounts of sand and trying to keep it out of his eyes. It was also very windy, but it was the beach so we were happy. We are still working on getting the sand out of our hair and ears.
{How seriously cute are they!?}
We ate lots of s'mores, got lots of campfire sitting time, and card playing in. We had a lot of fun and we are excited to go camping again with some other friends in a few weekends. They have 2 little boys so it should be crazy fun!
* Before Cohen left the NICU we had to take a carseat class. They told us to talk to our baby in really happy voices and to smile while putting them in the carseat and then they would like it. I have been practicing this while sweeping the floor in hopes that someday Cohen will really like sweeping the floor
* I usually take Cohen out for a walk at some point in the day and I usually change out of my pajamas into my "nice" sweatpants so that I'm presentable
* There are a lot of days I can't remember when the last time I gave Cohen a bath was
* Cohen got another new tooth (that makes FIVE!) and I didn't even know about it until I saw it all the way through yesterday when I came home from work. I didn't think I'd been gone that long!
* I claim no responsibility for the things I do in my asleep or half asleep state, including kicking Danny to get him to go get Cohen on a night he had to work in the morning.
* I hate touching lunch meat and I am scared of sea creatures
* I still go in and snuggle Cohen at night while he is sleeping at the risk of waking him up. I can't help myself, he is growing up WAY too fast.
* I think I enjoy Cohen's giant bear as much as he does. It makes an excellent floor pillow.
Tomorrow is party day! We are pretty excited. Cohen goes in for his one year check up this afternoon and then his auntie and uncle are watching him and Danny and I get to go on a date.
I have one sock that I can't find a match to so I just leave it in the laundry basket and it keeps getting rewashed over and over. It's probably the cleanest sock in the world.
Our vacuum cleaner lives in the bathroom because there isn't room in any of our closets and Cohen licks the wheels if it's in the hallway.
The other day I heard myself telling Cohen that we needed to put his diaper and pants on because it wasn't polite to be naked when guests came over.
Seconds after I posted this, I hopped over the kiddie gate into our room and got the pocket of my pajama shorts stuck on the door handle and tripped. Then I came back to put it on my Fess Up Friday :)
And, my pinterest confessions. It's like they are in my head!
* On a walk one day I was very thirsty and seriously considered drinking out of Cohen's sippy cup. The serious amount of floaties stopped me
* I am secretly not so secretly anymore, pleased that Cohen is saying "mama" first. He is SUCH a daddy's boy that I was sure he would say "dada" first
* I sing Justin Bieber to Cohen because he gets a huge smile on his face whenever he hears it. We also watched the Justin Bieber movie together.
* I wrote out a check and later realized that I was an entire week off on the date I had written
* I keep forgetting my own birthday is coming up very soon. It may have something to do with the above, or that I spent my birthday in the hospital last year. Or that I'm in denial about getting old(er).
* Danny and I ate an entire pie in less than 24 hours. By ourselves.
* I sometimes choose Cohen's lunch by what he is wearing and how badly it is going to stain whatever he is wearing when the majority of it bypasses his bib and lands on his clothes.
* Call me crazy, but I like getting to take Cohen out to run errands. It's so nice to be able to put him in the car and have some cute company with me.
{Cohen appreciates the fruit samples from the Green Barn}
{We get this face a lot, we are still trying to figure out what it means}
Today is the day that exactly one year ago I was admitted to the hospital on bedrest. We had arranged to meet up for a little playdate with some of our friends and it was just what I needed. This year, we spent May 18 strolling and taking Cohen's first trip to the beach. It was way better than being in the hospital.
I have been trying to think of a way to not hate that time in the hospital so much. I guess out of my bedrest I got two beautiful boys. I got to feel safer than being at home and way far away from the nearest hospital that could deliver them. I am thankful for being able to drive there rather than having it be an emergency in which I needed to be ambulanced or taken by helicopter. I got a baby boy who may not have done nearly as well if he had been born earlier than his 25 weeks.
Did you know Cohen's little friend Isaiah is a miracle baby, too? He is. He's pretty spectacular and so is his mom, Kaysha. Thanks for spending time with us today and making what may have been a really hard day a little bit easier. We are so thankful for your friendship!
{"Hey dude, get off my log"}
{"Just pretend to smile and maybe she'll go away"}
And also, if you are keeping up with diaper production, check out our lastest dropoffs here...
in the spirit of Fess Up Friday, I have a confession. I wrote a letter to my shoes:
I have had to face a hard reality over the past few weeks.
It all started when I went into work one day. I changed into my scrubs and went to find my Danskos. I looked all over the place for them but they were nowhere. Luckily, I had another pair of comfortable shoes in the locker room so I put those on and went on my way. Throughout the day I discreetly openly stared at everyone's feet hoping to catch a glimpse of my shoes. Maybe someone put them on accidentally? Or forgot their shoes so they were just borrowing mine? I would be okay with either of those, as long as I got them back.
After a few weeks of stalking black Danskos around the building looking for a pair with a scuff on the left inside toe, I gave up. I had a few false sightings, but my lovely shoes are gone. The earth has swallowed up my shoes.
Today, I would like to say goodbye to my Danskos. Tons of nurses wear these shoes. They are kind of like a rite of passage in nursing. I got my first (and only) pair when I graduated from nursing school. They made me feel like a real nurse.
And so, to my danskos, I will miss you. I will miss your scuff and the way you were molded to my feet. I'm sorry for the time that patient leaned over the side of the stretcher and barfed on you. Thank you for staying up late with me all those long nights on call. I'm sorry for those days in the summer when I forgot to wear socks to work. Thank you for protecting my toes from things I dropped on you or things I kicked and earning your scuffs. I'm sorry for abandoning you for 6 months and leaving you all alone in the locker room at work. Thank you for getting me through 4 years of nursing. I will be here waiting for you in case you decide to come home. And if you have my shoes, please give them back, my feet miss them. Thanks :)
* Sometimes I wonder why we even buy Cohen toys because his favorite things to play with are the crevice tool from the vacuum and sweatshirt strings
* I don't like peanut butter in my chocolate (except for peanut butter M&M's) I know, call me crazy.
* I find Danny's ever increasing frustration with the Mariner's funny. I laugh when he says things like "It's like we're the special ed team of baseball", which usually makes him more irritated. And then I post things on his facebook wall like, "Hey, did you hear about that inning the Mariner's had an 8-1 lead and they somehow let Cleveland score 7 runs to tie the game?"
* We keep our potatoes on top of our washing machine, for lack of any better place to keep them. Some of them fell back behind the washer and are still there because I can't reach them to get them out.
* I laugh when Danny hits his head on things because you would think after 10 years of being that tall he would figure it out.
* I may have slightly overreacted when I thought Danny had eaten my leftover pizza and only left one piece for me. I may have sent him a hangry text message accusing him of eating all my pizza. I may have later discovered that he only ate one piece and that I had misplaced the rest in the fridge.
* While taking my ponytail out I found a bug in my hair. Yuck. My hair is good at hiding things and we've been doing a lot of walking outside, so no telling how long that was in there.
And, in case you missed this picture on our facebook page, here is Mr. Pacific Northwest in his socks and sandals and wearing shorts at 55*
* After not eating real food for a few days (this is a VERY big deal for Danny), I was reading off all the Burger King coupons to him and he finally yelled at me to stop saying Whopper because he was sad he couldn't have one. Then he accused me of taunting him. Poor boy has taken to changing the radio station whenever an ad comes on about food.
* I'm a pretty big baby when I get sick. I tell everyone I have the plague.
* Danny had his wisdom teeth out Friday. Sunday night I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic,
asking him if he had been taking his antibiotics to which he replied "What antibiotics?" Whoops, nurse fail.
* I have special superpowers. I can tell how a day is going to go way ahead of time. Like when I am up changing a poopy diaper at 3 am and glance over to see the cat barfing on the rug, I know it might be a rough day. I know, it's amazing.
* I may have eaten an entire loaf of french bread by myself. I'm not exactly sure how it happened so fast, but based on the fact that Danny couldn't eat real food...it was either me or Cohen.
* I stayed in my pajamas more days than I got dressed this week.
* We are sneaking Cohen to church for the first time on Easter!
* And, in the spirit of confessing...I usually take about 10 pictures of Cohen to get ONE good one..most of them look like this
{Oh, and here are his chompers! You can see them better now, but it's too hard to get him to hold still to take a picture. See above}
Thanks for all your support yesterday about my Mom of multiples post. I really appreciate all the acceptance and understanding! It's one of those things that I feel like I should have been a part of and yet I'm not sure where I really belong. And welcome to all the new readers from the link up. There were over 1100 people that visited the blog yesterday! Anyway, here's your Fess Up Friday since I know I've been slacking the last few weeks.
* We finally took the Christmas wreath off of our front door. And only because I knocked it off with a broom while I was sweeping the porch.
* Whenever I go to clean my house, I usually end up avoiding the obvious messes and doing something like cleaning my silverware drawer or organizing my socks
* Danny and I were talking while laying in bed and one of us said something and he told me he didn't believe me. I may have broken out in song with "Don't believe me? Ask the dishes! They can sing, they can dance...." (Name that Disney movie!)
* I ripped a huge hole in the knee of my favorite pajama pants. My mom cut them off and made them into shorts. This week I ripped a hole near the waistband. Sigh. I guess I've gotten my money's worth out of them, they were a gift in college. Maybe it's time to retire them? I don't want to make any hasty decisions I'm going to regret, so I'll give it a few days...
* While Danny were out on a "date", buying babyproofing stuff at Target, we bought Cohen an Easter outfit. And it cost more than $5.
* Sometimes I leave loads of laundry in the dryer for days (a week?) because I don't want to fold them and I know no one else will notice it there
* After my niece found negatives to an old roll of film, I had to explain to her that before digital cameras we had to use film and take them into the store to get them developed. It made me feel old!
* I may have giggled continuously when I went back to get Danny after he had his wisdom teeth out and the Dr. said he had a "manly case of the hiccups" after surgery. The lady giving me his instructions probably thought I was nuts...which is partly true. He's doing fine by the way, I've been making him stay in bed since he's going back to work Monday.
* Yesterday I had jelly beans and chips for lunch followed by a milkshake for dinner. It wasn't my best idea ever.
And also, in case you didn't get a chance to see this video on our facebook page, I think it's worth watching.
It's amazing what a little sunshine can do for the soul. It was a beautiful day here yesterday. Danny and I spent the morning at Target getting baby proofing supplies (Cohen's OT thinks he will be crawling in the next week or two!) Then we went to a park to scope it out for Cohen's birthday party. Nearly every single park shelter is already reserved for JUNE! We were hoping to do it outside at a park, and reserve a shelter in case of rain, you know, since there's a 90% chance even in June. Sigh.
Anyway, SUNSHINE! We spent the afternoon out on the lawn on a blanket. It was literally a breath of fresh air that I really needed. As I laid in the sun with Cohen and Danny, I just thought to myself...this is how life is supposed to be.
Here's to hoping for LOTS more sunshine! Here's where we were at this time last year...16 weeks along and getting a baby belly!
Well, I thought I would take a little look and see how I am doing with my goals 3 months out...
1. To continue to share our story, on this blog, and with people that I meet. Our story has brought us in contact with some really great people that we wouldn't have met otherwise. I feel like something good will come out of this, in time, and hopefully letting other people share in our journey is helping someone, somewhere.
Still blogging, so still sharing our story that way. We continue to meet people in our community and in the online community that we have been sharing our story with.
2. Continue to see God working in our lives. He has brought us through so much and we continue to have hope in him that he will see us through whatever is next for us. I know that God continues to work in our lives. He has been preparing and paving the way for us long, long ago before we were even born. We don't know what is next yet, but we will keep looking to see what God has in store for us.
3. Money. Sigh. We are SO thankful for all of you who have chosen to help our family financially. Honestly, we would be bankrupt if God hadn't taken care of us the way that he has. We have gone from a two full time income household, to one and a little, tiny bit. Thankfully, we have two cars that are paid off. They aren't pretty, but they are ours. When we bought a house we set the price for what we wanted and then found a house whose price just happened to be lowered that day to something less than what we had planned. We are thankful now for those house payments instead of the ones we would have been making on a more expensive house. We tried to put Cohen on both of our insurances and it just wasn't working out. And so we had to pick a different option, and thankfully, it covers all of Cohen's medical bills. It's not what we had planned, but it has been a blessing in disguise. The reality of that hit when we got an $890,0000 bill in the mail. And that was just ONE of them (and he is worth every penny!) and doesn't include Carter's or my own bills. I'm telling you this because God has provided for us in huge ways through circumstances and also through some generous family, friends, and even strangers. Our goal is to take care of this money as best we can. This year our prayer is that we will be good stewards of what we have. We have put ourselves on a budget using the envelope system. We have only been doing it for 2 months so we are still getting used to it. It's so easy to swipe that debit card and not really think about it, but when you have cash in your hand and you see how fast it goes...it makes you think a little more about whether you really need something.
4. This kind of goes along with the above and we will see how this one goes. I have been trying to practice this a little bit already, but I really want to give this a try for the whole year. I am not buying Cohen any clothes over $5. We have been giving some of Cohen's clothes that he has outgrown away and taking some to the local consignment store. I have found that I can get some nice clothes there, some still with tags, for a very reasonable price. At this age Cohen goes through clothes so fast that I'm not sure I can justify spending a lot on brand new clothes. I will probably make a few exceptions, like a "birthday boy" shirt on his birthday or if there is other special occasions. But I am going to really try to do this all year. So if you have any boy clothes you want to get rid of...I know a very cute boy who would wear them I am happy to say that this has probably been my most successful goal! :) We have been given some hand-me-downs which have been a huge help. I think the only thing I have spent more than $5 on has been plain white onesies. It's hard to find them at the consignment store, probably because they don't stay white for very long. So, I bought a pack of onesies...although I guess if you count the price individually, they are under $5 each!
5. I mentioned my Project Life album earlier and that is something that I really want to keep on top of this year. I think it will be really neat to look back at our year this way. Started out well, now I'm way behind...like back in January. Gotta jump back on the wagon with this.
6. Clean out our extra room. Ugh. It started out as my craft/sewing room and has now become a junk room. Things we haven't had time to deal with or organize end up in there or in the garage. So my goal this year is to clean it out and organize it. Yeah, this hasn't happened. I need a professional organizer.
7. To keep perspective. Losing a baby changes you. Having a baby sick and in the hospital changes you. It changes the way you view things and what you make important in your life. One of my personal goals is to try and continue to focus on what is important and let the rest go. Sometimes I have high expectations of myself and I get frustrated if things aren't done how I think they should be or when they should be. But, there are things in life that matter, and there are things that don't. There are things that are worth my time (Jesus, family, friends) and there are things that aren't (getting grumpy about long lines at the grocery store, the house not being spotless etc.) Well, this is kind of hit or miss. Sometimes I just really don't have the energy for other people's drama, but sometimes it is a nice break from my own.
8. To give back. We have been given so much and we want to continue to pass it on however we can. We aren't sure what that will look like yet, maybe another project like the stockings. We will see... Finding little projects to work on is a nice distraction for me. It is also really healing for me to work on things that I know are going to hopefully help another family. We have another NICU Care Package project in the works. I also have about 200 diapers to make to donate to local hospitals (St. Joe's, UW, and a local NILMDTS photographer) who have expressed interest in teeny, tiny cloth diapers for babies that have passed away. I have been working with this wonderful family who started this idea. The little diapers are handmade and given to hospitals. Families are given a set of diapers, one for the baby and one for the family as a keepsake. There are two sizes, tiny (up to 34 weeks) and tinier (as small as 20 weeks).
9. Oh, and to eat more vegetables. I don't want to talk about it.
It's good to look back and see how I'm doing and remind myself of what I wanted out of this year. I'm off to work on those diapers!
On Friday, Cohen and I drove to Oak Harbor to see our NICU friends Ciera and Eli. Cohen and Eli got some play time (well, more like Cohen played with Eli's toys while he napped). It was so fun to see them and for us moms to get to chat, too. Eli is exactly one month older than Cohen, but Cohen's got a little on him in the weight department. These little boys (and Cohen's friend Isaiah, who he also saw last week) continue to amaze me. They have come so far and it's so fun to see their progress. (Pictures from Ciera)
{NICU Roomies reunite!}
Friday evening our friends Andy and Tamara came up to stay with us for the weekend. Saturday we slept in, had pizza for lunch, went for a quick walk between rain/hail showers, and then I went to a roller derby that one of my friends was in. Andy and Tamara headed to Bellingham for St. Patty's day festivities while Danny and Cohen stayed home to play.
Sunday morning Danny made waffles for us and we hung out and watched basketball. For some reason, I was completely exhausted and ended up going back to bed! Then we cleaned the house and cars a little while Cohen played in the garage in his walker. Cohen's two bottom teeth have broken through and he seems to be a little less fussy. This week is pretty slow, but then next week we have a bunch of appointments and such.
{Dude, it's okay, I get a little hangry sometimes too}
In case you missed our conversation about The Hunger Games, check it out and feel free to leave input whether you liked it or not and what you think about kids reading it.
Here we go again! People seem to like Fess Up Friday posts. I can't figure out if it's because a lot of ridiculous things happen to us, or because they happen to everyone but nobody likes to admit it....either way, here you go:
* One night I (apparently) woke up to Danny's alarm and was waving my phone around telling him repeatedly to turn it off. Another night I (apparently) woke up and yelled "What IS that?!" when his alarm went off. I have no recollection of any of this so I can't tell you whether it's actually true or not
* One morning while playing with Cohen I went to open the curtains and the curtain rod came apart and I was standing there holding the one middle end with the curtain on it. Cohen was playing in his exersaucer right under me and I was worried about letting go and having to explain a large gash in his head when it fell on him. So, I did what any good mom would do. "DANNY! GET UP!" He slowly made his way out to where I was standing and I handed him the curtain rod to put back together since I couldn't reach it. Then I proceeded to tell him that since he was up now, I was going to take a shower.
* I am that person who watches The Biggest Loser while eating ice cream
* I drove through the Starbucks drive thru on my way to work and realized I had no wallet. I later found it in Cohen's diaper bag that I had sent to his Gramma's with him. Thankfully, there was a kind soul at Starbucks that gave me my coffee anyway (THANK YOU!!!)
* Sometimes I feel like I have way too many things to confess.
p.s. Some of you have left me questions in the comments lately and I usually try to go through and answer them, so you can check back for the answer. Or you can ask on our facebook page and then I will know you got the answer!
Today we got a little surprise visitor! I heard a knock on the door and hesitantly went to see what who it was, since I was still in my pajamas. It was my long lost little (big) brother!!!
He goes to school at Gonzaga and is majoring in engineering, he is quite busy being a genius so we don't see him too often. Have I mentioned he's a genius? He's going to build Quantum computers at UC Santa Barbara this summer. I don't really know what that means, but I think it has something to do with robots. He will tell you it doesn't, but I think it does.
Anyway, it was good to see you Uncle Johnny, we love you!!
I know many of you are wondering (because some of you have asked) if Cohen ever smiles. He does! Usually, he is so busy concentrating on what he is doing that we don't always catch his smile in pictures. The other reason that someone told me he doesn't smile that often is because his cheeks are so big that it's too hard. So, here's your proof. Some smiley pictures for Saturday!
{Doesn't he look so content? This is how we swaddle him for naps or when he gets too excited}
{This is the look we usually get, "Aw mom, can't I just play in peace?}
Isn't he cute?? Sorry for holding out on the smiling pictures. He's generally a pretty happy little fellow and he DOES smile. Now you know!
And in case you need more Cohen in your life, check out our facebook page.
