Back in SEPTEMBER I started making a quiet book for Arlo. I looked online for ideas and started putting the pages together. I originally was going to give it to him for Christmas, but after Cohen was born, my project was put on a major hiatus. I finally finished it for his birthday. Here is the final result.
Cover
I will put notebook rings in, instead of curling ribbon. (This is the last thing I forgot to do.)
Page 1:
Velcro Letters and a zipper pouch.
Pages 2-3
Velcro letters, The velcro on the page goes all the way across so we can make words, patterns, etc. There is a bag to put the leftover letters into.
Pages 4-5
A zippered Noah's Ark with finger puppets and a magnetic fishing page.
(I bought the puppets form Ikea!)
Pages 6-7
Velcro numbers and bead abacus.
You can rearrange the numbers and each line has ten beads so you can match the beads to the number.
Pages 8-9
Piggy bank with play money and snap apples with a bucket.
Pages 10-11
Working mailbox and pocket page.
The mailbox has an opening to put the letters into with a velcro flag. And the pockets I use for paper, stickers and markers. (We use color wonder markers so they don't ruin everything!)
Pages 12-13
Snap shapes and colored ribbons.
Pages 14-15
Velcro Road Light and a road.
In the green garage I keep a little car for Arlo to drive around the town.
Pages 16-17
Button bouquet and Tie a shoe page.
I found a cute song to teach kids to tie their shoes and I wrote that on the page.
Page 18
Mirror Page.
Needless to say I am very proud of my creation, and I am even more excited that Arlo loves it!
On April 30th Arlo turned 2. That's right the big T-W-O. We had a quiet family birthday, but it still had all the things a party needs to have.
The PRESENTS...
A woody doll, a play cleaning set (so he does not have to steal grammy's broom anymore), a quiet book (a whole post is coming dedicated to that), a balance bike, and more play food for his kitchen.
(Yes my son was naked for his entire party! What can I say, he likes his birthday suit!)
These are not at the party because I asked Grampy to give him his bike early, because I knew it was going to start to get hot, and I wanted him to learn to ride it while it was cool incase there was a lot of falling.
I Love this picture because you can see Tow in the shadows... so funny!
Here is a picture of one of the hundreds of falls, he flipped over his handle bars. He was pretty upset, but I made him stay on the ground so I could take a picture. (Do I win the great mom award or what?)
FOOD and FAMILY
For dinner we had Arlo's favorite... spaghetti.
CAKE
Arlo is really into Peter Pan and alligators right now. But he would not touch his cake... he kept saying "bite you!"
BIRTHDAY SONG
This is about the 50th time we sang it.
CLEAN UP
Was easy because we had helpers!
It was a perfect day outside (it's been hot ever since) Arlo usually loves having family around. But no matter what we did at his birthday party, he was grumpy most of the time. He threw tantrums, he cried, he would not eat his spaghetti or cake, he was mean and by the end, I was ready to throw him in bed. But I continued to be patient with him because it was his birthday. After his tubby, I was drying him off and he was shivering. He never shivers... UH OH! I took his temperature... 101.7! The next day it actually got up to 103.9. I felt so bad, here I was loosing my cool, ready to kill my kid because of how he was acting and the whole time he was sick... POOR BABY!
Cohen:
Now has two teeth... well he has had them for a few weeks, but they are way cute!
Has started eating solids. We started with banana oatmeal and have now moved up in the world with carrots, bananas and mixtures of them all.
Rolls over both ways (also starting a few weeks ago) and he thinks he is so special because he can... it affects everything. I lay him on his mat for tummy time and after 5 minutes he is 5 feet away from all his toys. I lay him on his back or tummy for nap time and he turns on his side. His diaper changes now take much more time and effort because he is always rolling this way and that.
Is quite the talker. In just the past few days he has found out all the noises he can make and makes them all the time.
Is still all smiles!
Arlo:
Has decided that speaking with just a few words is no longer acceptable. Now, he adds in a WHOLE bunch of mumbling in with those few words to tell you what he wants. It makes it even harder to understand him, but he wants to talk like the grown ups and it is so funny!
Got shape and color cards at the grocery store the other day and has to do them every day and because he loves them he now knows all his shapes and colors. He loves saying triangle as ri-a-gl-gl-gl and rectangle as ec-a-gl-gl-gl-gl and circle as cir-gl-gl-gl-gl.
Saw a little girl do a somersault the other day at Jumpstreet and ever since he has been working on it and I am proud to say... he still cannot do it, but he is working so hard and when he does finally get it, I'll get it on video and share it.
Got his first bunch of big boy underwear. He is still not fully potty trained. He will go when you ask him to go, but if you forget to ask him, he does not yet tell you, or when he does tell you it is a little to late. But he has also learned that if he wears diapers he can get away with going to the bathroom in his pants, so he likes to choose when he will wear his big boy underwear.
Is working on sharing, listening and not saying no to mommy.
Has an earlier bed time to cut down on nighttime tantrums and now wakes up way to early.
Is a SPONGE and soaks up everything, it is so fun to watch his little mind always working!
And to end... a few pictures of my boys. It is funny how much Cohen already LOVES Arlo and vise versa.
This is a LONG OVERDUE post but still so worth it!
On April 9th we had a day worth posting about. And before I begin a big thanks to my friend Tallona for making it all happen!
The day started early, about 5 AM. We woke up and hopped in the car. We dropped Cohen off at Tallona's house at 6:15 and headed over to Tempe for the Pat Tillman run. It was my first year running it, but it was Tim's 3rd. Tim had a goal to beat his last two times. His 1st year he ran 4.2 miles in 42 minutes and then the next year he ran it in 43 minutes and this year he ran it in 38 minutes. I ran with Arlo in the stroller and finished in 1 hour and 28 seconds. Now before you think that is horrible just know that for the 1st 2 miles I ran when ever I had the chance (it was way too crowded since I started with the very last group because I had a stroller) and I let Arlo get out and run at mile 3 and again at the finish line on the football field. So I was pretty excited that I did as well as I did. After the race we walked around and got free samples and coupons.
When we got back to Tallona's house we cleaned up and put Arlo down for a nap, and left both boys with Tallona while we went to the Temple. I won't say how long it has been since we had last gone, but it had been a while and we needed a big spiritual uplifter. I love going to the temple... it is a heaven on earth!
Our perfect day ended with date night. This time Tallona got a babysitter for the kids and we went on a double date to AH-SO. It is a delicious teppanyaki place where they cook the food right in front of you. But the night did not end there. We finished it off with ice cream.
The day was filled with adventure, outdoors, exercise, spiritual uplifting, time with friends, and time with my hubby, good food, and ice cream. Really... what could be better than that?
That's right... Two thousand eight hundred and eighty hours is equal to 17 weeks and one day or in Cohen's life... 4 months!
Cohen is 16 lbs 11 oz, 26 1/2 in, with a head circumference of 16.85 in. He has the most beautiful, big, blue eyes you have ever seen. He wears a size 3 diaper and 6-9 month clothes.
His bottom left tooth has been 'right there' for literally 2 weeks but just popped out on March 30th.
He stands/sits in his exersaucer, plays with his hands and feet, laughs and smiles at everything, and has been able to control his head since he was 2 months. (Strong boy!) He is also rolling over from his stomach to his back, although it looks more like he rolls onto his side and then falls on his back... it is pretty funny to watch.
He has never slept more than 6 hours at a time at night in fact he usually wakes up AT LEAST 4 times a night. He is starting to get on a day schedule of a morning, middle of the day and an afternoon nap and he always goes to bed around 8:30. After his 4 month Dr. appointment and telling his pediatrician about his horrible sleeping habits, she said it was about time that I sleep train him. She suggested the Ferber method but altering it to fit our needs. So, on the night of March 29th I put my baby to bed (he falls asleep just fine, I never have to rock him he has always been able to fall asleep by himself.) and after only 1 hour he decided to wake up. So, I went to his crib and I patted his back and told him I loved him until he fell back asleep... about 7 minutes. Each time he woke up I would do the same routine of patting his back and telling him I loved him. He woke again at 11:00 for 10 minutes, at 2:00 he woke up and I was able to feed him and then at 4:00 AM he decided to wake up but by this time he was MAD that I was not holding him or feeding him. After 1 hour of "my routine" and both of us crying, I decided I have had enough and so I scooped him up in my arms, he fell right back asleep and we slept together until morning. I thought for sure I had ruined my night of sleep training, but I am proud to say that since that night we have finally gotten on a schedle I can work with. The next night and every night since he wakes up at 2:00AM for a feeding and then not again until 6-6:30 when he wakes up for the day. Yes, with one night of sleep training we went from 4-6 night awakenings to only 1. If I would have known it was that easy (kinda) I would have done it a month ago.
Cohen is my Sweet boy. When he was brand new, he started out kind of needy (yes I know that all newborns are needy) but he wanted to be held and bounced all the time, or he cried. I think he was a colic baby. But that has worn off, he still spits up all the time but he is always so happy and smily. I just LOVE watching him.
I had to add in this next picture because we all laughed about it... Whenever we go visit Grampy, Cohen always spits up all over him. It has become a joke with Cohen and his grampy because no matter if Grampy is prepared with a cloth or if Cohen hasn't fed in over 3 hours he will always manage to spit up on him. On this day, grampy finally managed to doge the bullet, and just happened to catch the spit up in a rag before it got all over him. He laughed and told Cohen that he had finally beaten him. Well a few minutes later Cohen got him back by..... well take a close look and you will see how Cohen had final say!
Sorry grampy, but now you know for sure who's the boss!
I am a wife to a great, hard working man. I am a mother to two handsome, happy boys and a beautiful, perfect girl. I am proud to be a homemaker. I am a daughter of God. I am happy to have the life I was given. And this is my journal of it all!
A good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection. -Dalin Oaks
