Happy Father's Day....in July!

So, I'm a bad daughter. I had an idea for a Father's Day gift, but was super busy in June and didn't get around to making it. (Don't worry....I did call my dad on Father's day) Well, now it's over a month later and I finally got the gift to my dad!

My dad is in love with the Minions from Despicable Me, so I decided to dress Cohen up in a little Minion onsie and take a picture of him and put it in a frame that says, "Grandpa's little Minion." It didn't turn out exactly like I imagined (the picture was too small so you couldn't even see the onsie), so I ended up printing off a bunch of pictures and sending those as well.

Happy Father's Day DAD!

Congratulations Bekah!

Last month Jeff, Cohen, and I had the great pleasure of attending Bekah's high school graduation. (Bekah's my niece) To my great surprise, Cohen actually sat on Jeff's lap for most of the ceremony without incident. He did cry whenever someone around us screamed and cheered, but that's not unexpected. He really doesn't like loud noises.

I'm so glad we had the chance to celebrate with Bekah and visit with Johnny who just recently returned home from his mission in Brazil.

Easter! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a fantastic basket!

My parents sent Cohen a fantastic Easter basket this year. Cohen had so much fun playing with the Minion ball and the plastic Easter eggs. He really loved the plastic eggs. Total win with him. I can't wait until we get to do an Easter egg hunt with him next year!

Isn't it great that I'm posting about Easter in July?

Sharon's Surprise Baby Shower

I'm really digging into the archives for this one. Back in February, Emilie and Sharon (my sisters in law) came to New Jersey for a girls weekend. We visited with Noramah and Bekkah, got mani-pedis, played games and just talked! It was a really great weekend, but one of the highlights was the surprise baby shower for Sharon! She had absolutely no idea! It was a children book themed shower and I think it turned out alright. Special shout out to Ashley. She did this theme for another friends shower and let me use some of her decoration and recipes!

Bubbles in the park with G-Ma and G-Pa!

My parents came out for a fun filled weekend in May and Cohen loved every minute of it! Mom and Dad flew into JFK, so Cohen and I met them in the city for some fun in Central Park. Mom/Grandma brought some bubbles for Cohen to play with. It was a lovely afternoon and Cohen loved all the attention.

Summer is a go! Bring on the Water!

Now that Cohen has his cast off we can spend quality time in the water! We've already took a trip over to the Woodward's pool and had a blast! I discovered a couple of months ago that there is a splash pad (or sprayground) near our house and we have taken Cohen several times since getting his cast off. He loves it! I think he was unsure of it at first, but he has really gotten into it. He loves filling up his little bucket and dumping it on himself. I think we have some fantastic summer Dorbrook Sprayground trips ahead of us!

A Cast for Cohen

I can't believe it's July and I have only posted once this year! Sad, sad, sad.  I know I always promise to be better, but I never am so I will just stop promising to post more. I have a lot of things to catch up on, so there might be a bunch of posts coming over the next week. We've been busy! I'm so glad it's summer!

I think the biggest news for this summer is that Cohen broke his elbow in June. Nineteen months old and already broke his arm! This totally makes me nervous. I hear Jeff frequented the hospital while growing up, and something tells me Cohen will be the exact same.

We were visiting Ben and Sharon in WI for Atticus's baby blessing and Cohen fell down the stairs on the last day and broke his arm. I just felt so bad for him! I just had a feeling that something was wrong, while others kept saying..."he's going to be fine." Cohen kept using his arm (although movement was limited), so we didn't know that he broke it. We gave him some medicine and put him to bed. He woke up at 2am screaming (meds wore off), so we gave him more and decided to just head to the airport early (we had a 6am flight so were planning on leaving at 3am anyways). How did I know something was REALLY wrong? Well, Cohen slept on me for almost the whole flight and let's just say he NEVER sleeps in my arms.

We landed in NYC at 10am. I dropped Jeff off at the train so he could go into the city for work and I drove Cohen home. After discovering that Brie had eaten part of a foam ball while we were away, I threw both her and Cohen in the car and drove to the vet to make sure she was ok. Well, she was ok, but Cohen's arm had started to swell. I decided to call he pediatrician and he saw us at 4pm and told us to go to the hospital for an x-ray. The hospital doc that reviews x-rays had gone home for the day, so I was told they would call me in an hour and tell me the results. So, after a lovely trip to the hospital (which Cohen HATED) I realized we had no food for dinner which meant I needed to go food shopping. I then fed Cohen dinner and tucked him into bed after a very very long day! At around 9:30pm I got a call from Cohen's doc who reached out to the hospital for the results and told me that Cohen had broke his elbow and that we needed to go back to the hospital for them to put a splint on it. Since the pediatric part of the ER closes at 10:30pm, we were in and out and had Cohen back in bed by 11pm! Jeff and I got to bed at around midnight. Remember we have been up since 2am! It may have been one of the longest days of my life!

Jeff had the honor of taking Cohen to a pediatric orthopedic the next day to get a fancy, blue cast put on! I hear it was not a fun experience for either Cohen or Jeff. While Cohen struggled initially to figure out how to get up with only one arm, he quickly got used to his new "hard" arm. He loved banging it on things and making noise. He actually got quite good at it and ended up being a good sport about the whole thing.

Luckily, Cohen only had the cast on for three weeks. The doctor told us that he could still see the fracture on the x-ray, but needed to keep the cast off. He told us to be "gentle" with it. I was like,  "yeah, right." He's a 20 month old and we have hard wood floors and tile in our house. Fingers crossed he doesn't break it again!

Another Year....Another Trip to Atlantic City

It's been so long. I'm so sorry! I really wish I had some amazing stories to share with you, but I don't really have any. I've just been really lazy about the whole blogging thing. Sorry.

Jeff, Cohen and I made the annual trip to Atlantic City for the New Jersey State Bar Annual Convention. Cohen and I missed it last year since Cohen was so little and I would have ended up stuck in the room the whole time, but decided to join Jeff this year so we could spend some quality time together. Cohen did great this trip (started losing it a little on the last day due to over stimulation, but not too bad), so I'm hoping we can go on another family trip real soon!

I've been to Atlantic City several times since moving to New Jersey, but this is the first time I've visited the boardwalk. After Jeff was done with the conference we drove over so I could get some pictures of Cohen walking on the beach/boardwalk. We had a really good time and I think we should make this a tradition!

Cohen is 18 months old! Ahhhhh! I can't believe he's getting so old. He's really not a baby anymore.

Cohen at 18 Months

Cohen loves running around the house talking

Loves Peas, Tomatoes, BEANS! BEANS! AND MORE BEANS!, Chicken, Cheese Sticks, Carrots, Toast with Honey, Ground Turkey

He loves walking up and down ramps at the playground

He currently likes to growl

He sometimes thinks he's a dog like Brie. He crawls on his knees and pants. He also makes a noise that sounds a lot like Bries bark.

Words he says: Brie (yes, he can say the dogs name and calls all dogs "Brie") Dada, Momma, All Done, Hi, NO!, Yes

He loves to jump up and down in his crib

He loves to be tickled

He has to be the most kissy baby I have ever met!

He loves to push his stroller around and will do it for a long long time.

He has figured out how to go up and down stairs all by himself

Gingerbread train and village with Mom and Angela

Whenever I visit my family in Washington we always get together with my moms friend Angela. Usually we go to see the Zoo Christmas lights, but this year we got together to make gingerbread houses and a train. It was so much fun watching Angela work! She's just so creative.

The Oregon Zoo....Dibble Me!

A trip to the Northwest wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Oregon Zoo. It seems like every time I visit, we end up at the Zoo! Usually we go to the Zoo Christmas lights, but decided not to this year since Cohen goes to bed so early. Instead, just Kari, Cohen and I went on Monday afternoon.

Three lion cubs were born a little while ago and they were out so Kari and I got a chance to see them! Totally cute! Cohen really enjoyed looking at all the big cats, until I started handing him some Gerber Lil' Crunchies and then that's all he really cared about. He would look at the animals and then immediately put out his hand for a puff. It reminded me of the Penguins of Madagascar movie...Dibble Me! It was so funny.

He was also more entertained by the construction going on for the elephant enclosure than the actual elephants. What a funny kid.

I love going to Zoo!

The Tree Wisemans....picking out our Christmas tree

So, Jeff and I have been buying our Christmas trees at Home Depot for the past few years, and I just have to say it's totally lame! At least the Christmas tree lots in NYC are charming! I'm sure there are tree farms in NJ, but Jeff and I have never taken advantaged of them.

I'm so grateful that Cohen and I joined my parents and sister in picking out a Christmas tree this year.  It's one of my favorite family traditions. We went to the Tree Wisemans. Isn't that just the best name ever!

I think Cohen's two favorite moments were watching Grandpa cut down the tree (he was totally intrigued) and watching the men that work wrap the tree so we could put it on top of dads Jeep.

Cohen totally got into watching Grandpa work, but when Kari handed him a piece of the tree to touch quickly learned it was prickly and didn't like it. It was so funny.