18 months old

  Cohen is 18 months old! How did that happen?!? It seems we just celebrated his 1st birthday. We had a special little "half" cake for him to celebrate his half birthday. I think we have started a new tradition in our house. Any excuse for cake, right?

As you can imagine, he loved it! 

What an 18 months it has been! Cohen has given us a new light on life. From the very beginning we have had some struggles, but our little man has continued to prove that he can do it. He is doing incredibly well! We are down to physical therapy just once a month! We have started speech therapy and a speech playgroup this month that already seem to be helping. He still doesn't have any spontaneous words, but he has started mooing at the cows and will imitate "mama". We are using sign language to help ease his frustration and it really is helping. 

Cohen has a smile that is so contagious. He still loves to snuggle and it melts my heart every time. Cohen is totally a Daddy's boy. Scott is totally wrapped around his little finger :) Cohen and Bryton and best buddies, most of the time!  Cohen absolutely loves all things with wheels...trains, cars, and trucks. Bath time is probably his favorite time of day....or anytime he can get to the sandbox or water hose. 

This picture sums Cohen up. He is constantly sneaking away to get paci and his lovies out of his crib. He started out with 2 Leo the lion lovies, but has since adopted 2 Elephante lovies that were Bryton's. So, at any given moment he will escape to his room and pull all 4 of them from his crib and run so you can't catch him. He loves riding his moose....especially when you are trying to get him dressed. 

A few days away

Scott had to be away for a couple of days last week and the boys and I spent a lot of time at the park in the late afternoons. Bryton finished up another session of swim lessons. He will have one more session before the summer is over. We made a few Olympic themed crafts too. 

Bryton's fish, Algea, died on Friday. Bryton was crushed when he found him. Him and I had a little funeral service for him before we flushed him. As we flushed the toilet, I said, "Algea had a good life didn't he Bryte..." Bryton's response was, "I don't know how good of life he had if he is going down the toilet, Mom." Gotta love that boy :)  We went that afternoon and got a new fish named Strawberry. 

Cohen hung out on the bench having a snack while Bryton fed the geese.  I love how Cohen always has his mouth wide open when I ask him to smile :)

The typical Bryton expression

The geese were super hungry and would chase you down !

Monkey see...Monkey do

The last day of swim lessons they open the water park for the last 5 minutes of class. 

We made our own set of Olympic Rings. 

Our Olympic torch creation 

Meet Strawberry! 

Our afternoons of fun

Bryton made celery prints after helping me chop up vegetables for dinner.

We tried out a microwave puff paint recipe. It was a lot of fun to watch the designs grow!

Cohen has been our little handy man lately :)

 Bryton is such a good sport with all the appointments and therapy sessions for Cohen, so I thought it was time to get out the marshmallow shooter as a little surprise!  We had contests to see who could get the most marshmallows in the bucket. He LOVED it and he didn't mind the extra little snack too!

Rice and noodles is an all time favorite for Bryton. He asked if Cohen could play this time too....they had so much fun!

Cohen loves a good treat :)

Cohen got in on the shaving cream fun during bathtime this week.

Grillin and Chillin

On Saturday, we headed out to the Grillin' and Chillin' festival. It was SO hot! They had tons of BBQ booths set up and fun little activities for the kids. There were bouncy houses, vegetable planting booths, train rides, and farm animals. The boys were so good, despite the heat. We had smoothies and lemonade to help stay cool. 

Smashballs and Playdates

Last week was a crazy, busy week! We had some sort of appointment every single day. We still made time for some fun in the afternoons. Bryton's favorite crafty thing we did was making smashballs. Who knew you could bake cotton balls?!? Here's a look at the happenings of the last week:

Smashballs! Baked cotton balls that become like rocks after they bake. Bryton used his tools to break them open to find out what was inside....he pretended they were dinosaur fossils. 

Bryton helped me make sugar scrubs that I am using for baby shower favors this weekend. 

Cohen has no fear and loves to go down the slides. 

Cohen always brings me his helmet before he rides his "bike". I guess he has seen Bryton put his helmet on enough times that he knows he needs one too :)

Swinging always brings smiles!

This morning we met up with our friends at the Sacramento Children's Museum. The kids had a blast.  The playhouse was a hit for Cohen. He was carrying the phone around or ringing the doorbell majority of the time we were there. Bryton thought playing fireman and mailman were a lot of fun. 

Our morning at the museum with friends

Loving swim lessons :)

Concert

Scott surprised me with Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney concert tickets a few weeks ago. It was yesterday afternoon down in Oakland and SO much fun. We have been to a few Tim McGraw concerts before, so I knew it was going to be good. It was such a fun afternoon and a perfect start to a new week!

Hot Days

Our days have been filled with sunshine and popsicles lately! Some days are super hot and then others like today, it is cool and windy....you just never know around here. The boys both love to be outside. Cohen gets real red faced super fast, so we have to take lots of breaks. This past week we did more science fun and creations. We even had friends over to make our own bouncy balls, but of course I forgot to take pictures. Gak and ice playdough were Bryton's favorites for sure. Cohen has done 2 sessions of speech therapy, and so hopefully he will get the hang of that soon. He is getting so big and I wish we could just bottle him up and keep him this age. I love it! 

A daily snack at our house

Cohen wants to be just like big brother!

We made magic ice playdough last week and it was a hit!  The entertainment lasted a good 2 hours, so I would definitely call that a success :)

Cohen is always playing cars, trucks, and trains.

We made gak and who knew it could be so much fun! Bryton has played with this for HOURS! 

Soccer started back up on Saturday

Making bubble snakes was lots of fun....like my toes down there in the corner :)

Cohen has started to actually bounce in the trampoline. It is quite a sight to see :)

Sacramento Zoo

After Cohen's swimming lessons this morning we headed to Sacramento to the zoo. I am not sure what we were thinking going on the day where the high was 100 degrees, but we had fun nonetheless. It gave us an excuse to get icees!  A lot of the animals were hiding in the shade, but the boys still loved it. The zoo was pretty small, but perfect for us. Such a fun day with the boys!

Checking out the anteater. He came right up to the glass and was looking us over.

The giraffes were putting on a show chomping on the leaves from the trees right above us. 

The giraffes are always my favorite!

Bryton recommended I take a picture of him with Cohen....not sure why he looks so goofy :)

I love that Scott is the baby and Bryton is the Mama kangaroo.

Taking a break in the shade with the crocodile.

Looking for the zebras

This guy put on a great show. He was playing peek-a-boo with everyone. It was so much fun to watch him.