4 Year Old-Ness

Kent is such a funny guy. He says the most profound things sometimes sounding much older than he is. This morning he told me that when he "rides down the hill very fast on his bike, he applies the brakes." I told him that was very wise to "apply the brakes."

Many of you know that Kent has developed quite an obsession with the movie Cars. You also may have noticed that Daddy has developed quite an obsession with buying Kent ALL of the individual character cars! Pete defends this obsession says that gift giving is his "love language" and I shouldn't get on to him. ;)

Pete and Kent were playing cars one evening and when I say playing, I mean the movie is on and they are reinacting the scenes on the floor, saying the lines as they occur on the TV. Bizarre! If they get off, Kent will grab the remote and pause the movie so they can catch up...

Kent stopped short the other night when he realized that Guido, who is in charge of Lightning McQueen's pit stops, was missing. I often have to relocate Guido to the kitchen island because he is a little small for a crawling Cohen. Cohen was in bed, so I grabbed Guido and tossed him to Kent in the living room. Kent stood there glaring at me and very loudly scolded, "Mommy, we do NOT throw cars in the house!" then he walked over to me in the kitchen, handed me Guido and told me, "Now walk back over here and hand Guido to me nicely!" It is so hard not to laugh when I hear myself repeated back to me word for word!



Kent really likes to use beads as cargo for his trains. We are not exactly sure why they make ideal cargo, but Pete did get him some mardi gras beads so no more of my necklaces would have to suffer when I wasn't looking. Here is a silly picture of Kent after he draped his beads across his face all by himself. I don't quite know what he was going for, but I do know that I have a super cute 4 year old!

Milk Allergy?

Well, I am sad to say that Cohen appears to be allergic to milk. I waited quite a while to try milk based formula with Cohen hoping I could avoid what happened with Kent.

I tried formula with Kent when he was three months old. He sucked it down without protest; Kent was quite an eater. It was his night time bottle and he went to sleep normally. He woke up a few hours later with splotches all over his body, crying and writhing all over trying to scratch everywhere. I thought it was just a terrible eczema flare up, but it was probably hives. I held him in the living room all night so he couldn't scratch himself to bleeding anymore. He was fine in the morning, but didn't have milk again until I absentmindedly gave him some baby food at six months with milk and wheat and eggs- the first time he went into anaphylaxis. He has not had ANY cow milk since...no cheese, butter, ice cream or yogurt. Thank goodness for soy! The doctor thinks he will outgrow this one allergy by the end of this year. Update coming in November!

I waited with Cohen until he was seven months old. He had milk based formula five times with no reaction, so I thought he was fine. Sunday night, at our small group social (right after the pictures with Annie below), he had six ounces of formula and everything seemed normal. Three hours later, after we were home, he began throwing up and continued to throw up nine times. When his stomach was empty, he was fine. I dismissed it as some kind of stomach bug. Thursday afternoon, my mom gave Cohen two ounces of formula to fill out a bottle of breast milk. Again, three hours later Cohen started throwing up; this time only eight times. I called the doctor and they said what I thought; it sounded like Cohen was allergic to milk and we should try soy.

Cohen finally took his first full bottle of soy formula yesterday at church, so I don't think he is allergic to soy-thankfully! We'll have to try a few more times before I'm sure. Of course with all my allergy research, Cohen may not have a true allergy to milk. Digestive issues always point to more of an intolerance, which in my opinion is much better- not life threatening! We'll have to wait for the allergy testing in the future. I think I will move forward with my plan of trying wheat cereal next week. You'll have to bear with me; I think I will be nervous every time I try anything with Cohen that Kent is allergic to. I absolutely know how ridiculous it is to think they would have the same allergies. They are completely different people. Just so you know, if you have allergies, your children have a 50% chance of developing allergies. What allergies they will have, however, is unique to their own genetic makeup.

I write all of this to document this journey for myself. God was preparing me even while I was pregnant with Kent. I read so much about peanut allergies; that one allergy seemed like the end of the world. Now, I look back and laugh, not because of how hard it actually is, because it is really not hard at all. I laugh because I know that I am truly, truly blessed! Allergies are nothing compared to the struggles I have seen some of my family, friends and students go through with other various physical, emotional and mental disabilities. I thank the Lord everyday for his blessings and my smiling, perfectly happy boys. I have two very healthy, strong boys who have never been on antibiotics, never had an ear infection, and are rarely sick. I keep reminding myself of what my friend Wendy told me at church, "cow milk is for baby cows".

Who needs ice cream anyway!?!

8 Month Old Friends

My friend Meredith and I think our September 16th babies are the cutest!

Road Trip

Georgia's Ceramic Symposium was down in Newnan this year and I had to go down and pick up my student's work. I was not looking forward to the drive by myself, so we planned a little family trip and had a great time! Newnan turned out to be a pretty fun place. Everything was new and clean. After we picked up the artwork, we had ice cream (well, just Pete and I had ice cream. If you ask Kent, he will tell you "NO ICE CREAM! I'm allergic to ice cream!" Don't feel bad, he could care less.) After ice cream, we found a brand new bowling alley that does cosmic bowling all the time! You should have seen Pete's face after he told the girl that the three of us would be playing two games...$47.00!!!! later we were bowling. Everything was so high tech. The bumpers were electronically programmed to come out only for Kent and then automatically went back when Pete and I were up. Kent loves to bowl! He carries a seven pound ball all on his own and then launches it down the lane like a shot put- hysterical. He waits silently the whole time the ball goes down the lane and then jumps up and down screaming when the pins fall.

We had a fantastic time and even toured the mini golf course that was also part of the complex- it was all glow in the dark too, with some of the best murals I have seen in a long time. Here are some of the photos of our day out in Newnan.

Kent found another purpose for the blower at the end of the ball return.

Me and my big guy!

The boys!

A train from the mini golf course- Kent's favorite.

Pulling Up

This is what I see everytime I go into Cohen's room! I guess it's time to lower the crib AGAIN! The big problem is that he thinks he can walk. He keeps letting go of everything once he stands up and then falls right over, sometimes flipping! Thankfully he never seems to be that hurt; he just gets right back up again. This one will be climbing out of the crib first chance he gets, I'm sure!

Crawling Man

Cohen has been officially crawling since the day after he turned seven months old. I am totally not ready for this and I really wish that he would have learned to sit up first. Yes, he still won't sit up, but he is now pulling up on everything. I'll try and post some photos of what I see when I go into his room when he wakes up in the morning. It is so funny to see him holding onto the rail and his little face peering over the edge of the crib. Kent loved his crib and never once in three years tried to climb out of it. He probably would still be sleeping there if we let him. I just know that the minute Cohen can get his little leg over the rail it will be all over. This kid is a mover and (he thinks) there is nothing stopping him. I'm trying, but failing miserably. He still looks like a little baby to me and I guess I just want him to be small for a little longer...

Kent Sayings

Kent gets into bed with us the other morning and tells me, "Mommy, your hair is way too messy! Go into the bathroom right now and use the blowdryer!"

I'm helping Kent get dressed and yell at him to get his bare hiney off the couch! He jumps up and says in that "silly mommy" voice, "I don't have a BEAR hiney mommy, I have a BIG BOY hiney!"

Trike Rally

Kent's preschool held a trike rally for all the three year old classes. I thought he would enjoy it, but he more than enjoyed it. Everyone decorated their bikes and then it was off to the races. Kent was the first one out on the track and the last one to leave. The kids each had a name tag that they were supposed to get punched as they made laps. Kent stopped for a punch 17 times, but then he got impatient and just kept whizzing by the punchers. Dad counted Kent go around at least another 20 times! Pete could hardly get him to stop for a drink. He later took a four hour nap!

Festivals!

The weather has been so nice the past few days, (with the exception of the occasional thunderstorm/tornado scare). We have definitely been outside taking advantage of all the activities around town. Pete was giving bugs away to kids at one festival and we took the boys and had a blast!

Cohen was great; he just sat in his seat and people watched the whole time.

Kent played on the playground, jumped in the inflatables, entered a coloring contest and watched a clown making balloon animals. I just tried to keep up with him--I had to make alot of unsupervised kids go to the end of the line. There was quite a bit of cutting going on! One day my teacherness will really embarrass him, I'm sure!


Of all the balloon animals he could get, Kent only wanted a pink flower! Silly boy!

Here is Pete passing out some bugs after the crowd dissapated.

On the way back to the car. A fun time was had by all!

This is what I found on the couch after I put Cohen to bed after we got home.

Easter Pictures

After church every Easter we always go out to lunch with my family. We always have mexican food and take a picture. Pictures did not go as planned this year. Cohen was asleep and Kent was throwing a fit because he realized that he was going home and not back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. So, we ended up with a lovely picture of just me and the hubby. Happy Easter!

Easter Festivities

We went to an Easter festival at a nearby church with some friends. The weather had turned cool and extremely windy-definitely not spring like, but we enjoyed the day anyway. Kent had a blast on the "Easter Train", I think he would have been satisfied to have ridden the train continuously and done nothing else. Here we are with his good bud Lauren. They are about two weeks apart in age and have been friends since they were born.



The egg hunt was great! The best part was that there was no candy for me to take away from Kent inside the eggs- only fun prizes like pirate eye patches and small animal figures.


Kent wanted to get the eggs, but he wanted to play on the playground just a little bit more.

Kent is eating, yes I repeat, EATING his first snow cone. Kent's diet has always been so restricted that he's never really eaten any sweet foods and trying new things that are safe for him is kind of a struggle. He asked for blue cotton candy, but then wouldn't eat it (I didn't mind too much...more for me!) He then asked for a blue snow cone and to our surprise, he ate about half!

It was a pretty full afternoon. Kent jumped on the infatable carousel, brushed the animals at the petting zoo, made crafts, collected eggs, ate snow cones, and rode the train twice! Oh, Cohen was here too, but he slept the whole time and we had him bundled up in the stroller with the covers pulled closed and I never got a picture of him. Here's Kent on the train again, this time with Daddy.

Girls Nite Out

Overall we had a great spring break. I loved spending all week with the boys and between playing trains and changing diapers, I managed to get the taxes done (HUGE accomplishment). I even got to go out at the end of the week with some of my friends. Here are some photos of us from dinner as we closed down the restaurant...

Azaleas

Our azaleas bloom every year during spring break. I love azaleas and they have grown in pretty nicely in the 7 years we have lived in our house. Believe it or not, when we bought the house we did not even know there were azaleas there as they were cut back to the ground and completely covered with overgrown ivy. Their hardiness makes them a perfect plant for us!

A big storm was coming last night and I was worried the blooms wouldn't survive the rain, so I made Kent pose in front of all the flowers right as it was starting to rain. These are for you Grandma!




I took this one right at the same time as a loud thunderclap startled Kent! Too funny!


I love this huge red one in the backyard.

Pajama Day!

Spring Break was pretty lazy for this mommy and her boys. Here are some photos from our pajama day!


The boys are interacting so much these days. I like to take pictures when they aren't looking so I can remember them playing right from the beginning. Kent calls Cohen "my Cohen" everytime he says his name.

Cohen is a very, very active baby. His antics just amaze Pete and me, sometimes leaving us scratching our heads. Case in point, wardrobe changes during the night and naptime. There doesn't seem to be a pair of pajamas that Cohen can't get out of- even at 6 month old. He kicks out of snap up, footed pajamas every night. Sometimes in the morning I will find him with just the arms of the pajamas on and ALL the snaps undone. So then we tried separates. I'd find him after a nap or in the morning with the pants completely off!!! These are snug fitting pants too! I guess he just kicks and kicks till he breaks out of them or gets them off. We then did a compromise- footless pajamas that only have snaps at the bottom. Here is Cohen before his morning nap:

And here he is after:

Pete has nicknamed him our little "Houdini". I think I will just start putting him in long sleeve onesies- the cold obviously does not bother him!

I have posted before how Kent can fall asleep anywhere. Here he is at 1 in the afternoon (early for his naptime) under Cohen's bouncy seat. Notice the beads in his back hand and his feet on top of a pile of trains. Comfy, I'm sure! Now this is all coming from his mom who is known to frequently fall asleep sitting up with her laptop on her lap. I wonder where he gets this from!?!

Laughing

Kent was playing with his trains today, as always, and Cohen was scooting around on the floor nearby. Cohen became very interested in what Kent was doing; all of the sudden Cohen started laughing and laughing and laughing. I recorded this video so you all could see and hear it. I love the look Cohen gives me in the middle, it's like he's saying, stay out of this mom- Kent and I are playing! Cohen is beginning to interact more and more with Kent. Kent loves making Cohen laugh and Cohen laughs at him all the time.