happy birthday dad.

Happy Birthday to my dad on December 4!  Did you ever think you'd spend your birthday ...

- blowing out your candles while holding onto your 8 month old granddaughter?

- watching your 3 year old (and 5 year old) grandchildren master games on an Ipad (or any type of computer for that matter)?

-  wrestling with your 5 year old and 8 month old grandchildren?

We had a nice relaxing afternoon at my parents house the first Saturday in December celebrating my dad...what a great way to spend the day! :) 

kindergarten basketball

Isaiah was in the rec center's kindergarten basketball this fall.  Even though he technically isn't in kindergarten he met the age requirement so it worked for him!  (I'm not sure he was supposed to be in, so don't tell the rec center!!).   He LOVED each and every practice and was sad when it was over - it was every Saturday morning from October 29 -  December 10.  He did a really good job listening to his coaches and doing (or at least trying) what they asked of him. I could tell improvement in many of the skills he worked on each practice - especially dribbling.   The kids were each assigned a team and a team color, but they only played short games (like 20 minutes) at the end of the last couple practices.  Isaiah's team named themselves Blue Storm. Levi made it to each of his practices with Mark and I and was a good boy having to sit and watch all the kids having fun playing basketball while he sat and watched.  My sister and her daughters made it to one of his practices and both my parents made it to a couple too - it was nice for Isaiah to have family support!  I'm sure this is the first of many, many seasons of different sports for Isaiah since he seems to love just about every sport he's ever tried... he's already excited about soccer coming up again this spring!  

By the way - he was definitely one of the smaller kids there so it confirmed to me that it was a good choice to have him start kindergarten next year.  

2 weeks.

How can it be that 2 weeks have come and gone since Titus was born?  

At 2 weeks Titus:

* sleeps all the time!  but often only for a few moments if someone isn't holding him :)  I promised myself that the third time's a charm and baby wouldn't be in our bed with us -- but by day 3 - he was in bed with me - haha, who I was I kidding - I like my sleep too much!  He goes down in his own bed (which is set up right next to my side of the bed) after a good feeding around 11pm.  Around 2 every night he wakes up and then is up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours to eat and sometimes makes it back to his bed and other times stays right next to me :)

* eats all the time! He's latched right on from the first try and has been a great eater ever since!  He typically eats every 1 1/2-3 hours.

* is very, very mellow.  Our house is often very noisy with little boys playing, but the noise doesn't phase him a bit.  Levi got a drum set and Isaiah a keyboard for Christmas and he doesn't seem to mind being right next to the loud bangs and sounds that the boys make on them!  He doesn't seem to care who is holding him or what position (most of the time)  -- and he's been in some crazy spots with his big brothers holding him (especially Levi!).

* has had only sponge baths and has hated them, but his belly button cord fell off today so we are ready to give him a real bath!

* hates having his diaper changed and SCREAMS the entire way through, but really does want it changed as he gets a bit fussy when he's (really) wet/dirty.  He is much happier once it's clean!

* seems to like to swing.  We borrowed a swing from a friend (thanks Molly!) and he's swung in it several times and has even taken a few little snoozes in it.  He seems to enjoy it for short periods of time.

* is back up to his birth weight plus some!  He weighed 8lbs 4.7oz when he was born at 1 day old he was 7lbs 10oz and for some reason they didn't weigh him when we left the hospital.  At 11 days old he was 8lbs 3 oz so by 14 days I'm sure he is a bit over his birth weight!

We love, love, love the newest addition to our family and are so thankful that he's here and healthy!!

the announcement!

Another sweet big BIG brother

I just got through nursing Titus and am holding him on my lap while he snoozes with a full belly.  Levi is down for a nap (but probably not sleeping, I'm sure by now he has on a superhero costume and is playing with something).  And Isaiah was to be looking at books in my bed, but after about 45 minutes he knows he can come out -- so he came out and asked to hold the baby.  I gave him the baby and opened up the lap top, but before I got too far, I had to open up a word document and type out the sweet, sweet little song my Isaiah was singing to his 10 day old little brother...

Oh precious Titus
Oh precious Titus

Oh precious Titus I will love you every day

And your toots are so little

And you are oh so little

Oh I love you precious Titus

I love you precious Titus

I’ll love you every day

I’ll love you precious Titus

I’ll love you every day.

[long pause]

Little precious Titus, I’ll love you every day

I love you right now while I’m singing this song.

[ohhh look at this little yawns!]

I love you precious Titus

[oh look, he’s messing with me – oh he has a diaper mess….and he punched me in the face]

I love you precious tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitus

I love you very much

But some people are really bigger like mommy, mommy, or daddy, daddy, dad-dee dad-ee

They are always bigger than us, us us, usssssss

They are always going to be older than us, us, us

[oh look it, he has his eyes open, he’s blinkin’, he’s trying to look at this eyes]

Your eyes are right here, right where your lookin’

That’s what your looking for is your eyes

You’re looking for your eyes and with your eyes to find your eyes

Your’re looking with your eyes to find your eyes

And I can see my eyes right now

Ba dump a dump a dump a dum

(the above part he started singing in the tune of if you’re happy and you know it)

[a long pause and he was talking to me]

Aww  little Titus

I love you like this

I love you like this

I love you Titus

I love you Titus

I love you Titus

[he is the sweetest little thing, oh he is the sweetest little thing.  look at him.  come on you can do it (telling Titus he can sit up).  I bet you'll like it, there you go - you are facing at me.  awww mama look it, he is yawning.  you are so sweet....you are the most precious one in our whole family.]

sweet big brother

I was holding new baby Titus while sitting next to Levi on the couch.  Levi looks up at me with the most innocent eyes and says, "mommy, can we keep him?"

I say, "of course we get to keep him, he's ours!"

"the doctor said we could bring him home and have him?"  he asks.

"yea!"

Levi got the biggest grin on his little face.

What a sweet big brother!

here.

Titus Cohen

December 12, 2011

2:39pm

8lbs 4.7ozs 

20.5 inches

beautiful.

healthy.

perfect.

Up goes the tree

The Monday after Thanksgiving our family put up the Christmas tree.  The boys had been waiting and waiting to do this and were sooooooo excited when it was finally time!  I think this was the only time ever that Isaiah couldn't wait for Caiden to head home for the day (we told him he had to wait until after supper and Caiden had gone home).  We have an artificial tree that we bought a few years back.  As much fun as a real tree is, I'm glad we have what we have! 

 After we got the tree together and the lights put on, it was time for the ornaments!  Growing up my mom always took my sister and I to pick out a Hallmark ornament of our choice.  I remember loving this and even more loving opening the box of ornaments each year to see all of mine from the years.  I decided to continue this tradition with my boys and I can already tell that they love it too!  (Actually Mark and I continued this tradition when we got married so we each have ornaments too) We had gone a week or so before to pick out this years ornaments - Isaiah picked the Hot Wheels Corvette which was a really hard choice for him because he really, really, really wanted one that made noise and/or lit up, but we finally convinced him that the Corvette was PERFECT for him this year.  Levi picked out Batman in no time, in fact he said that was the one he wanted before we even got there which was great for him too especially since he had a Batman birthday party.  I had a tough time picking this year but ended up getting the Minnie Mouse one in honor of our Disney trip from February.  Mark picked the countdown to Christmas guy mainly because the kids had seen it advertised on TV and thought it was really neat.  

 The boys had such a good time putting up almost all of the ornaments for us which lead to a huge pile of ornaments on the very bottom of the tree :)  We did move some of my pretty purple Christmas bulbs up higher to even it out just a little bit.  Levi got to put the star on top of the tree this year!  What a fun thing to do!  After the tree was up, there was no better way to finish the night off but to watch a Christmas cartoon before bed.

What a fun time of year especially with little boys who get so excited about every little part of the wondrous season!  

Holiday Hoopla

Downtown Cedar Falls has lots of Christmas activities going on that started with Santa's big arrival the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I knew that these events were always so crowded that I hesitated to take the kids by myself (since Mark was working) but at the very list minute we went - the boys in their jammies and all!  We did miss Santa's arrival which was a big bummer - but I knew we would and the boys had no idea as we showed up just before the fireworks were about to start.  They both were excited to be there to see all the lights and the people. Then the fireworks started and so did the big booms and they weren't sure what to think - we didn't get to fireworks this year for the 4th of July (I'm the mom that made her kids go to bed at normal time :) ), but we saw several light shows, including fireworks, at Disney World last February.  Levi put his hands over his little ears and was so concerned and Isaiah just watched in wonder.  After a huge boom from a fire ball or whatever they call those, we started back towards Santa's workshop because Levi was not happy.  It actually worked great because the boys got to go down the slide of the workshop over and over while all the other kids (except just a couple others playing) watched the fireworks.  We played around the workshop for a bit longer and then headed toward the car.  Of course Levi then got upset that the fireworks were over and he wanted them to start back up :) Silly boy.  

The following Thursday night we went back downtown for a horse drawn trolley ride.  They do these rides each Thursday in December and I knew that we'd better go to the first one as there is no way a newborn would be joining us on a freezing cold ride!  Apparently everyone else in town thought the first night would be the best choice too because the line was l.o.n.g.  We ended up waiting almost an hour in the freezing air for our turn - I kept asking the boys if they wanted to go, but they both wanted to wait!  Thankfully the people behind us in line were so nice and let us sneak inside the library to warm up a couple times while we waited.  Once it was finally our turn the boys were sooooooo excited and loved every minute of the ride.  It was such a fun holiday experience to be riding downtown in a lighted up trolley playing Christmas music while snuggled close with a blanket on our laps and candy canes.  It was definitely worth the long, cold wait!  As soon as we were done Levi wanted to get back in line to wait again (which I might have done but by the time we got done the ride times were about over) and he still mentions just about every day that we need to go back and do it again. :)  I have a feeling it's these little memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanksgiving 2011

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 

We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially with the launch of Mark's new business and our new little one almost here.  We give so much thanks to God for all that He has given us.   

We had a simple Thanksgiving this year at my parents house on Thanksgiving day.  My sister and her family  and my grandma, my dad's mom, came too.  It was a nice day with a simple meal with nothing planned which turned into 4 little cousins just enjoying each other.  We spent the day browsing through Black Friday ads and hanging out.  I think the cousins had a great day together.  It's so cute that Elise is old enough to join in the fun and it seems like the other kids like to play with her too. Somehow my wild and crazy boys find their most gentle actions when around her (for the most part anyway!).  They even experienced their first bath with Liahna which was a bit crazy, but a big part of what it means to be a little kid. 

36 and 37

36 Weeks

36 weeks fell the week of Thanksgiving.  It was a busy week for us - Mark's second week of being open at the  store, several doctor's appointments for our family (I have great eye insurance through work that both Mark and I needed to have contacts ordered by the 31st of December, Mark had a VA appointment in Iowa City, and of course a routine prenatal appointment), getting things finalized for Christmas, and trying to prepare for this little babe.  At my doctor's appointment I measured right on 36.5 weeks and the little one's heart was beating strong and in the 140s as usual.  He's head down and ready to go!  I did gain a few pounds this week - I was a little surprised!! We had a very low-key Thanksgiving this year by spending the day at my parent's house with my sister and her family (thanks Nichole for taking the picture above!).  Baby continues to move a lot and I can tell he is getting so big because his movements can be felt clearly on the outside of my belly!  I've started to have cramping in my lower belly so I know this baby is getting the hint that his time inside is limited, but nothing major yet!  

 37 Weeks

This was another busy week for us getting used to Mark's new routine (which is great - home 4 nights a week by 8!!) and more appointments - my regular doctor's visits are now weekly, and Mark had a couple more VA appointments and meetings for his business.  But the good news is we are getting them all packed in now before baby gets here!  My doctor's appointment once again went fine - measuring right on and baby's heartbeat is strong - 140s again.  And this week I actually lost 4.5 pounds so I'm thinking maybe my weight that surprised me last week was off.  My doctor scheduled for me to be induced on Monday December 12 unless he decides to come earlier on his own.  He scheduled the induction mainly because I'm ready and don't want a huge baby (Isaiah was 8lbs 5oz and Levi was 8lbs 4oz - so we have good sized babies!); he has no big concerns that he scheduled it. I definitely felt the mode to get things done this week - like move Levi into Isaiah's room - we made the final call that Levi was moving into Isaiah's room and that was that so one day (with the help of my dear friend LeAnna) he was moved.  I couldn't bear to move him into a new room and switch beds so the crib moved --but more on that later!  Baby is still moving lots, but not as much as in the past - I think he just doesn't have the room to move like he wants to and the movements are starting to be lower in my belly. As you can see from the picture, I'm getting to be HUGE and I've had a few people tell me they think my belly has gotten lower - so maybe I've dropped (isn't that what it's called?)?   But I'm trying to enjoy every minute of this belly as the days with it are numbered!  

Stratego

About a month ago Isaiah found our board game Stratego in the game closet and asked me to teach him how to play it.  The game is for ages 8+ but I figured we'd give it a shot anyway and to my surprise he actually gets how to play and he LOVES it.  Just about every day since his discovery we have played Stratego at least once, but many days we play several times.  He often begs someone to play with him.  He does completely understand all of the rules and does a great job, however, he sometimes doesn't think of the best strategies to actually win the game -- so I may go a little easy on him :)  It's fun to see that Isaiah has a love of board games just like his parents!  Stratego is by far his favorite, but before he discovered that one we played Sorry on a very regular basis (which he completely understands too).  He also enjoys Guess Who, Uno, Discovery Toys A to Z Jr, and Chutes & Ladders quite a bit.  It's fun to play with him, if only there was nothing else to do then we'd play games all day every day!  So if you are feeling up for a board game, come on over, Isaiah would LOVE to play with you!! 

3 little monkeys

Just had to post this cute picture of these little boys.  Mark took them to HyVee on Veteran's Day for breakfast and snapped this one.  It's so sweet that Caiden fits right in with our boys :)