Dear Cohen

Well my love, you are now 10 months and change. Hard to believe that you'll be 1 year old next month. I'm sad and happy all at the same time and of course, I'm crying as I type this. I'm sad because the time is flying by so quickly and before I know it you'll be off to one of the two universities I'll allow you to attend. But then I'm so happy because every single day you make me laugh even more than the day before.

What a great month we've had my boy. Me getting off domperidone really made a big difference in your disposition.

You're still the man when it comes to eating. You'll eat anything, except those peas. I've tried sneaking them into your carrot/hummus concoction but you know they're in there and will have absolutely nothing to do with them, thank you very much. This morning for breakfast you ate a flax waffle, a whole scrambled egg, and applesauce. That was shortly after you downed 6 oz. of formula in less than 5 minutes. Good thing you have that high metabolism of yours. You really do prefer to feed yourself these days, although you let us spoon in the runny stuff. Your little pincers are doing a great job of getting pancakes, toast, avocado, cheese, edamame, lint balls, and a whole host of other food and non-food stuff in your mouth. And you open your mouth so big and wide as you wait for food to arrive. It's very entertaining to watch.

You're still a pretty good sleeper, although this time change has really messed you up. You now like to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and start your day with a little cruise around your crib, followed by some sit-ups and push-ups (you really do want to impress those ladies in your class), and then a full on conversation with yourself before you turn on your music thing attached to the side of your crib and play with its buttons. I'm not sure what I need to do to get you to wake up later. Maybe just ride this wave. Or maybe take you in to get your flu booster shot. That usually wipes you out for 12 hours. Most school days you only nap once for Phyllis, but on the weekends, you easily sleep for about 4 hours total during the day. I can't wait until you're a little older and we can cuddle up in bed together and you won't try and get away from me like you do now.

 You love giving high fives. And you still refuse to humour me and clap. I've even bribed you with hummus and you still won't do it. Oh well, it will come in time. It's not like clapping is a survival skill. Or is it?

If I'd written this post yesterday, I would have reminded you that you still weren't crawling. But today is a big day in your life as you crawled for the very first time. And I was there to witness it. And of course I cried. And of course I took a video of you crawling tonight. And of course I can't figure out how to upload the video from the flip. But you crawled and it was so exciting for both of us. Here's how it went down: I was putting your food in the fridge at "school" and Phyllis put you down on the floor by the exersaucer. You immediately spotted a slice of a peach lying under the highchair where Lucy was enjoying her peaches. You got up on all fours, rocked for a little while, and then sort of dragged yourself over to the peach, grunting with each move. It wasn't an army crawl, nor was it a proper crawl, but something in between. Sort of reminded me of a dog scooting. Phyllis tried to get the peach out of your hand so you wouldn't eat it, but she was too late. Oh well, we'll consider it your reward for a job well done. And tonight you crawled around, getting better and better each time. Daddy and I think you'll be really good by the end of the weekend. Guess we'd better get those baby gates now, right? I thought that since you were so brilliant, I'd like to see what you'd do with stairs. You walked from one side of the stair to the other side for a few minutes and was just so very pleased with yourself. You did try to get your leg up on the step but your big thigh got in the way. Hey, I know how it feels.

In addition to Barbara, Mama, and Dada, you now say nana for banana. And you sure do get excited when you see one on the counter. You scream "nana nana nana" in this squeaky voice. I need to get it on video so I never forget it. My heart melts every single time. Maybe we should dress Nana Sydorko up in a banana costume at Christmas. Then she'd feel good that you called her Nana and you'd feel good because it would be a giant banana, and who doesn't love a giant banana? Daddy's afraid that you might try to eat Nana so maybe we should rethink that plan.

Your current best friends are Teddy and Blah Blah. You get so excited when they peek around the corner at you. But I think you get more excited when I chase you around the house while Daddy carries you close to his chest. You cling so tight and scream with delight the entire time.

Well my love, you are the best thing that ever happened to me and I can't wait to see what month 11 has in store for us. Hopefully no trips to the ER. And hopefully a lot more mobility and independence.

Yay for Cohey Bear!

Love,

Your biggest fan, Mommy xoxo
"I said no more photos!"
Discovering your shadow for the first time.
How you love to swing.
 
I asked you to make a funny face and this is what you delivered. Classic!
 
Don't tell Daddy that I let you play with a stick.
Hanging with Charley Bean, your next door neighbour/girlfriend/big sister/cousin/future best buddy/partner in crime.
Hey Cohen, how many mpgs does your ride get?

 

Sick again

I think this is the sickest I've ever been. Went to bed with the flu on Sunday and still have it today. Will spend all day in bed again with hopes that I'll wake up feeling well enough to blog tomorrow. Until then, a cute photo of the Bear from this past weekend. (1 of over 500 photos I took of him)

When in doubt, check the diaper

Last week little c came home with some new soother bling, as evidenced below.
The very next day he came home and the letters were gone. Just the ribbon remained. Which lead me to check his diaper immediately to see if any of the letters had shown up in there.

Fortunately for all of us, it turns out they fell off the ribbon at "school" and none of the kids ate them. But I did have a small chuckle thinking about a parent changing their baby's diaper the next day and finding the name "Cohen" in there. What the?!? Before you get upset with me for thinking that way, you should know it was a small chuckle as I considered the choking hazard that the beads present.

I think they might want to reconsider attaching small beads to a baby's soother next time.

Back to the petri dish

We decided to keep little c home from "school" yesterday in order to make a full recovery. Big c took the a.m. shift so I could go to work and I took the afternoon shift. Little c was a lot of fun yesterday and enjoyed a walk to the Red Moose with Daddy and a trip to Costco with Mommy.

But back he went to daycare, a.k.a. the petri dish, this morning and had a wonderful day. He even had a girl slip him her phone number when I was picking him up. True story! I should probably tell you that it's one of the daycare workers who, and I quote "has a special place in her heart for Cohen" and would love to babysit him anytime we need someone.

Tonight he wolfed down a baked yam, half a can of mandarin oranges and half a piece of buttered bread. I think the boy's appetite has returned! Fingers crossed that he didn't bring home a different strain of the stomach bug that seems to be floating around the petri dish and that all that food stays down tonight.

Happy Halloween

Wowsers, what a weekend! It contained a little bit of everything, from a ridiculously fun Halloween party on Friday night to little c's first bout with the Ross Plague (or a stomach virus as you might know it as).

First, the highs. Little c participated in his first Halloween Parade at "school" on Friday afternoon. I anxiously waited in the courtyard with all of the other parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and their neighbours. Yes, everyone brought all of the people they knew to this parade and there was Kristyn representing the Hancock good name. No one talked to me. I talked to no one. It was sad. But I didn't let little c see my loo-hoo-hoo-hoo-ser tears. Then my friend K showed up (she has 2 boys at the same "school" and I think she's mighty cool) and I chatted with her for a bit, until little c flipped his little egg-lid and declared it was time to go home for a nap. Next year, I'm bringing EVERYBODY I know to the parade. They're going to have to move it to the "school" parking lot because there won't be room for any of the other parents and their posses. So while the parade was sort of a downer for me because I didn't know anybody, it was a high just to see little c in his costume. I even had a random parent ask if she could take a photo of him. He's already a celebrity!

Then came the annual Halloween Party of all parties that we always go to. My friend M came over and hung with Cohey Bear and then she showed me a Scrabble app for my phone which I'm now addicted to. Thanks a lot Missie!! Back to the crazy party. Our friends went to great lengths to take it over the top this year, including taking down their chandelier and replacing it with a disco ball. I'm no dancer (I've been told I look like a chicken when I dance) but I danced my heart out with my besties that night. There's just something about Lady Gaga music that makes me want to move. Big C and I did not take home Best Costume this year, but the good news is no one did. The costume contest and the karaoke were both no-shows this year and that was definitely okay with me. It puts too much pressure on me. I say good riddance to both, especially the karaoke. I can only crawl on my knees while singing "Like a virgin" so many times.

Saturday little c was in another ROCKIN' mood. He spent most of the day laughing and being adorable. That should have tipped me off because he's always in a really good mood before he gets sick. More on that in a sec. He didn't wake up until almost 8:00 a.m. which is completely unheard of at Hancock Manor. We played for a couple of hours and then he crashed for a 3.5 hour nap. Got dressed, had lunch and walked over to our neighbourhood coffee shop before the rain started. Handed out candy to the trick or treaters, yadda yadda yadda, and big c and I were in bed by 9:30.

And now the lows. In bed, sleeping my little brains out when little c called for some attention around midnight. He was burning up and somebody needed to take his temperature the hard way. Poor kid. I always hate taking his temperature that way. Am I the only mother that still does that? I'm sure everyone else has those new-fangled thermometers that do body scans. Anyway, all of the thermometers we have are in Celsius and I had to run into the living room to check the interweb to see what 39.0 degrees was in Fahrenheit. It's 102.2 in case you're wondering. After cursing the fact that all of our thermometers are from Canada (and no, they do not have buttons on them to convert them to F), we gave little c something to bring the fever down. Needless to say he was up most of the night, sort of delirious. Big c slept in his room on the floor to be near him in case little c needed him. Not me. I was in bed. With earplugs. Yes, that's how I roll. I did my time at 5:30 and gave him a bottle and rocked him back to sleep, which took about half an hour, but it did the trick because he didn't wake up until 9. Poor kid wouldn't eat or drink A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G today, leading me to call the doctor on call. She told me to try and get some pedialyte in him anyway possible. She even said giving him flat ginger ale would be okay. But little c wanted none of it. So today was spent passing little c off between the 2 of us and trying to stay sane. He threw up a couple of times and had the runs a few times but seemed to perk up around 6:00 for a brief time. And just so you know, I did run out and buy an American thermometer.

And we had to postpone our family photos yet again. We don't have a date for them but hopefully soon. Hey, if you're smart, you won't plan your family photos for the end of October.

So no trick or treating for little c this year. I was going to drive him around to our friends' house tonight but he was too sick. Oh, that and the fact that I couldn't do up the straps on his carseat due to his costume.

So there you have our weekend round-up. Some good times and some not so good times all rolled up into one. If I had to rate the weekend on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 7. That party on Friday really brought the ranking up.

Enjoy the photo montage! And welcome to November.

 
Reading his first-ever Halloween card that Nana & Papa Sydorko sent. The special boy got another card the next day from Grandma & Grandpa Hancock.
Our little Humpty Dumpty.
H.D. and Mama Phyllis. Someone should have told Phyllis to get dressed that day.
Here's the cake we took to the party. This is before I frosted it with the buttercream icing I made for the first and last time. That stuff sucks. Anyway, we had to take food that corresponded with our costume. Any guesses who we were?
That's right. Ellen DeGeneres & Portia.
This photo sums up the night.
Another shot of the cake the next morning.
Hanging at the Red Moose.
Have a great Monday!

Sick, take four, or maybe five

Well, I've officially lost track of the number of times I've had a stomach bug since going back to work in May and putting little c in daycare. I think this is my fifth bout. I used to have a stomach of steel, I mean, who else do you know can eat tacos from a taco stand in TIJUANA and not throw up?

I could give you all the gross details but who really cares, right? Point is, I'm sick today and staying home from work to rest up. Little c is at school, despite the fact that he's got croup again. Hey, don't judge me. I needed a day to sleep and with him around, that's impossible.

The good news is the photo shoot is rescheduled for next Saturday and that gives me more time to obsess over our outfits. Good grief, it's only photos. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with finding the perfect outfits for all of us. But I am. It's what I do best. Obsess, not choose good clothes. In between throwing up, sleeping, and checking my work e-mail today I'll probably try some more outfit combinations for little c. Thank you to those of you who left comments and e-mailed me your choice. I think outfit 2-A is a winner, with some minor tweaking.

I only picked up my camera once this weekend and took about 4 photos. Enjoy.

 
The little beaver getting down on a paper towel roll. Looks kinda like he's playing a cardboard flute without holes. Good finger technique little beav.
If you said I had an obsession with putting hats on little c, you'd be right. I can't stop myself from plunking something on his head. The next five shots captured him removing the cute hat.

A wee bit neurotic

Well, we're having the Hancock Family Fotos done on Saturday and of course I've started losing sleep over what to wear and where to take the photos.

We won a photography package at a silent auction this summer and decided to cash in on the gift certificate just in time for Christmas cards. (No, we will not be dressing as elves this year but wigs might make an appearance) The whippersnapper that's taking our photos has a great eye. I've blog stalked her on many occasions and decided that I wanted her to be the official photographer of the Hancocks this year. We're looking forward to it, although we're not sure how little c will hold up, given we're starting the shoot at 5:00, a somewhat witching hour for him as of late. But maybe the promise of some hummus and pumpkin pie will get him to hang on long enough to get a few good shots. I'm excited to actually be in front of the camera for once and have a photo with little c taken. There aren't too many of those floating around and it will be nice to have one.

So tonight, upon returning from our walk, I raided little c's closet and drawers and pulled some outfits together. No sense in buying anything new when he's got a good collection already. So here are some outfits I'm thinking of--any feedback is welcomed and encouraged. I'm thinking of ditching the tie in Outfit 2 as it covers up the pattern on the vest. And the hats aren't a done deal either--I'll probably bring a few and make the photographer crazy as I swap the hat in every shot. Neurotic, right?

Outfit 1-A
Outfit 2-A
Outfit 2-B
Outfit 3-A
Outfit 3-B
Outfit 4-A
Outfit 4-B
And now a photo of a naked Cohey Bear since it's been so long since I've posted one.