Jail break

We are watching my brother Jon's dog, Fran, while he is out of town for a few days. She is a really sweet girl, but still a puppy. So, while Cohen is awake she is either running around outside or in her crate. She doesn't quite understand how easy it is to knock him down when she is trying to play with him. Cohen, who loves and fearlessly plays with pretty much any dog he comes into contact with (including our neighbor's very sweet boxer, Milli, who is 5x his size) decided he would keep Franny company after he couldn't figure out how to free her from her crate. I love this kid!

Keeping up with the trends

I'm not the most trendy person out there, I will admit, but I definitely never thought my dad's goofy habit of wearing knee high socks with shorts would be considered "in style." According to my brother (who is about as stylish as they come) and his friend, Patrick, wearing your socks in this manner gives you, and I quote, "swagger." Boy I'm starting to feel old -- especially when I talk to these guys! Cohen and I decided to play along...

"Do I have swagger?!"

Then we spent the morning doing one of his new favorite things: closing all of the doors in the house. 

Backyard overhaul

When we bought our house we qualified for the tax credit that was available. Kedric and I decided up front that we would take a small portion of that money and put it into the house and save the remainder. We decided to use the money to have the front landscaping redone.

The house when we bought it in 2010

The house after having the landscape redone

My number one request was for NO maintenance landscaping. I couldn't handle low maintenance, I knew I would kill it and our investment would be wasted. Fortunately, dead heading the (gorgeous) roses and watering everything when it gets scorching hot is about all that is required. Even I can do that. Now that I have gotten my feet wet with not killing plant life, I decided to go about gardening. 

Kedric, the ever patient man that he is, supported and helped me in my venture and last summer we successfully produced some yellow squash, zucchini, strawberries, and tomatoes. This summer we have decided to take it up one more notch. Everything has been grown from seeds 

and we built 4 raised beds to house all of our goodies. This year we are going for strawberries, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, all the herbs you can handle, red peppers, and banana peppers.

We also plan to plant blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries along the fence you see in the pictures above, but we have some overhauling to do there before we can plant anything.

While we love our home and our giant backyard, there is a lot of work to be done. The reason our yard is so big is because it is poorly graded. There is a lot of run off and, in the two years we have been here, it has eroded the land so much that the fence you see pictured is beginning to fall outwards. Kedric has taken down the fence on that side of the yard and is in the process of placing several drains in the backyard to divert the floods that come when it rains. When that is all done, he will reset the fence on that side of the yard. We plan to cut down a few smaller trees, too, because the backyard is so shaded we struggle to get grass to grow. We're also going to finish off the fence along the back of our property. The owners before us only did the front and sides because there is a wire fence along the back. However, they had a huge dog that couldn't get through the big spaces! Our little ones could (if they tried) and it's not exactly the safest thing when it comes to kiddos. So, finish the fence we will. Our backyard DIY project(s) will likely take all summer and I will post more pictures as things come along!

One thing that is complete....Cohen's tree swing! He loves this thing and would probably hang out in it all day if we let him!

Waiting for da da

Cohen is quite the little talker -- I can't imagine who he got that from ;) His first word, much to my dismay, was the usual "da da." He has now expanded to "ba ba" and "ma ma" (YAY!). He often stands at the back door and shouts things while Oscar and Emma are playing out back, as you can see in this video, while I'm doing things around the house. I have to say that having dogs around has proved to be quite helpful in entertaining a little one safely for a minute or two so I can move laundry around or get some prep done for dinner.

The other night Kedric and I were playing with Cohen in the family room and I casually told Kedric that Cohen has been babbling some new words and I *thought* he might be able to say "Oscar." At that moment, Cohen turned around, locked eyes with Oscar and said his name! Sometimes it comes out "Ah-ker," but it's obvious that Cohen is aware that is his name. Emma has been his little mama since I was pregnant, so we're trying to help him learn her name now so she doesn't feel unloved!

Hoppy Easter

This morning we went to the annual Easter egg hunt in the neighborhood I grew up in. Cohen wasn't really quite sure what to do with the eggs, but some neighbors of ours that I used to babysit helped him out, and he had a great time!

Car seat upgrade

Transitioning to real food

Cohen has been in a process of trying real food for several months now. Kedric took Cohen to his 9 month checkup and the pediatrician told him that by his one year visit he would need to be eating what we are eating. I misconstrued this as whole pieces of solid food instead of what we are eating all mashed up. He has been eating whole green beans and such just fine, but he eats very slowly and I have felt like he wasn't maintaining or gaining weight. At his tiny size he doesn't have much to spare!

We decided to upgrade the baby food I was making thanks to some great organic baby food recipes from various web sites. He has been eating like a champ! He now eats three meals of solid food per day and nurses four times daily. We offer formula after each feeding because my production has been significantly decreased due to a series of mishaps. However, I refuse to quit because we are so close to the one year mark -- a goal I set when he was born -- that even if his breast milk intake is minimal we ARE going to a year!

The photos below are of Cohen enjoying pancakes with our friend's daughter, Ella, who was born the week before Cohen. Ella has two older siblings, Taylor (4) and Emmet (2), seen in the bottom picture.