Bedtime at the Cohen House

Our nighttime routine is pretty much the same every night. Not Alex's routine, but mine and Kevin's. It goes something like this:

Whoever goes to bed first peeks his/her head into Alex's room. We see something like the following:




And just in case you don't understand what I mean, here are a few more:


So, as you can imagine, we have to call the other one over. "Isn't he the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" we coo. And we both agree that he is.

After several minutes of some variation of that conversation over and over again (conducted in stage whispers, of course, so that maybe, just maybe, he'll wake up and we'll get to hold him again), I say, "Did you ever believe we would have such a perfect baby?"

And Kevin, who has never been lacking in the self-esteem department, guffaws and says, "Yep."

No matter how bad our days were, our bedtime routine puts everything in perspective.

Football Sunday

Alex loves wearing the Giants jersey Aunt Kris sent him. But he hates when the Giants play after his bedtime!

My boys in their Sunday best:

Alex Crawling

Alex has been crawling for a few weeks now. We used to put him on the floor in the living room, and he would go straight to the DVD player and try to press the buttons. But just this week he discovered that there's a world outside our living room, and, as you'll see in the following video, that he can crawl to other rooms in the house. So now we always have to be watchful for a baby under our feet.

Two things about this video: 1. Is it surprising to anyone that Kevin's son would stop at the fridge? 2. I have to start cleaning those floors on a regular basis!

Alex's first girlfriend

Since my friend Nikki is so much better at updating her baby blog than me, see the latest Alex news here.

Introducing Kyla Kathleen!

This post is long overdue and I apologize to my loyal blog followers (both of you). July and August were crazy months for us, so there is a lot to catch you up on. But the most exciting thing....

Alex has a cousin! A certified, first cousin! Kyla Kathleen was born to Kevin's sister Kristin and her husband Tom on July 20, 2009! She was just a little peanut at 5 lbs, 14 oz. Here's a picture of her when she was first born:


Isn't she the cutest? So alert right from the start. Alex, Kevin and I were lucky enough to get to go to New York and visit the new bundle of joy. Alex was so excited to meet Kyla -- he thought she was a new toy!


Bet you can't guess which one's which here:



Kyla is now six weeks old and doing great. She's even already rolled over! Of course, I think the milestone of which Kristin is most proud is Kyla's gaining enough weight to fit into all of the cute baby girl clothes she has! Kris and Tom are adjusting nicely to parenthood -- which doesn't surprise any of us that know them! Congratulations to the new family!



P.S. To my beautiful niece Kyla -- I know I have stiff competition in the "Kyla's favorite aunt" category. Please don't hold it against me that it took me so long to update my blog about your birth! I am a first-time aunt, you know, and I'm just trying to find my way...and hey, I think I'm your only aunt that even has a blog, so that's gotta count for something, right? ;)

More Eli

I can't get enough of the little guy! What a beautiful picture this is.

Welcome to the world, Eli!

The East Coast Cohens would like to say congratulations to our friends Lindsay and Brian, who welcomed little Eli Benjamin into the world today! (Lindsay was my freshman year roommate and a bridesmaid in our wedding.) Look at this cute little face:

And the happy family:

Eli tipped the scales at 7 lbs., 9 oz. ("7 lbs., 9 oz. of wonderfulness," Brian said -- isn't he the sweetest?) and was born at 9:25 this morning.

Eli's birth has gotten me thinking back to when Alex was born. Such an overload of emotions, I am sure Brian and Lindsay don't even know what has hit them! I have to admit I am a little jealous of them and what's in store for them. It's such an amazing thing to watch your baby discover the world. (Yes, I know my baby is still discovering the world, but still...)

(Of course, now that I think about it, Lindsay and Brian are probably a little jealous of what we have too -- you know, a baby that smiles and sleeps through the night and doesn't need to eat every two hours...)

Brian and Lindsay, enjoy every moment! You are going to look back in six months and wonder where the time went!

One last game

Auntie Em, Alex and I went to watch Daddy and Uncle Ryan play in a soccer game on Randall's Island a couple weekends ago. It was Kevin's last game as a member of the NY Fury team. I can't say that the refs are upset he is leaving the state!

Lunchtime tango

My two favorite boys walked down to my office one day last week, and we had lunch outside. So I got a noontime dance in with my baby.

Nap time?

Kevin and I put Alex down for a nap on Sunday. It was about that time, and he was showing all of the signs of being tired. So we laid him in the crib, turned on his white noise machine and shut the door.

A few minutes later, we heard him making noise. Not distressed noise per se, but we still decided to go check on him. Here is what we saw:


Needless to say, Alex didn't nap at that time. We picked him up and took him to the park! Does Alex have us wrapped around his little finger? Yes. Do we care? Not one bit!

Now THAT'S love!

"This kid is awesome. I wouldn't trade him for all the Super Bowls in the world!"

This was Kevin's declaration to us this weekend. Ryan, Emily and I really weren't sure what that meant, and I don't know if Kevin has been approached by Roger Goodell or some other NFL hotshot about an exchange of some sorts. But for those of you that remember how Kevin reacted when the Giants won the Super Bowl last year, we can only assume it's a good thing he feels this way! I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it!

Stanley Cups, though, that's another story!

Business in the front, party in the back...

Back when he was a baby (oh, it was so long ago, wasn't it?), Kevin always teased Alex about his mullet. I, of course, denied he had a mullet! But looking back...um yeah, he did have a mullet! But he rocked it!




Now, as most of you know, we are preparing for our move to North Carolina -- but Alex doesn't have a mullet anymore! I hope the other babies don't make fun of him! As you can see, Alex is really excited to be a future Dukie (or maybe he looks scared?):



Seriously, though, we are very excited about the move. We had a great time in Durham when we went in April to the admitted students weekend. It was a whole new world for Alex. We taught him all about the color green (he hadn't really ever seen grass or trees at that point -- Daddy's been trying to fix that by taking him to the park every day now), and he learned that cars come in colors other than yellow!

The Hangover

I can't wait to see this movie. It has been a while since I've been this excited about a new movie. (Not like I am going to see it anytime soon.)

The baby in it cracks me up. But I totally think Alex could have starred in it:



What do you think?

Mom, when can I get a facebook account?

Kids these days sure do learn about technology quickly. Alex LOVES the computer. Here he is -- fascinated by Auntie Mel's facebook page -- hmmm, I wonder if her profile picture of the two of them had anything to do with that...?

Forgot one...

When I posted about Alex catching up on his "zzzz"s in Barcelona (see here), how could I have missed this one?

Happy Mothers' Day!

So this is what I wake up to on Mothers' Day...

Am I the luckiest girl in the world or what?

Daddy and Alex had lots of surprises planned. First, we went to a Mets game at the new Citi Field. Here we are in front of the stadium:

It's still windier in Flushing than any other part of NYC -- that hasn't changed!

Alex and I in our Mr. Mets t-shirts (we saw Mr. Met and tried to get a picture with him, but he was too busy).

Daddy and Alex

And one more, just for fun


Citi Field was awesome! Apparently all of the mean staff went away with Shea. Everyone was so nice. I got wished a happy mother's day by every single staff member we passed. We had a great day -- and the Mets won!

But that's not all. Kevin and Alex had gone to a pottery studio and made me a picture frame! Here is Alex showing off his handiwork:



Thanks, Kevin and Alex, for making me feel so special on my first Mother's Day! Thanks too to all of you that called, texted or wrote on my FB wall to send me Mother's Day wishes! And hope the rest of you mommies had a fabulous day too!

Our little gambler

The financial windfall that is Alex continues. We went to a friend's house to watch the Kentucky Derby last Saturday. We did a pool, and everyone including Alex picked a horse out of a hat. Alex picked some horse named Mine That Bird, a 50-1 longshot. Well, lo and behold, Mine That Bird ran a great race and WON! And with that, Alex won $36! Here he is, exhausted after cheering during that race, holding the winning ticket:


We also had a losers' pool, and my horse lost! So I won $18. The Spain-Cohens cleaned house!

Alex's latest trick

Holy cow! I have feet!

Barcelona -- what a snoozefest!

Kevin and I enjoyed Barcelona very much -- we understand why everyone seems to love it so much! As for Alex, though, he seemed kind of bored.

At the castle at the top of Montjuic

At the slides in the park at Montjuic
At a soccer game
At the seaside village of Sidges
At a park in the city
He seemed especially unimpressed at the works of famous architect Gaudi. I don't think he had his eyes open once!

At Parc Guell
Still at Parc Guell
At La Sagrada Familia
At La Pedrera

Jess' giant

Those of you that know my cousing Jess will be very pleased to hear that she hasn't changed much in her time in Barcelona. Meaning, she is just as weird as she ever was.

Jess is very enthralled with the life of a baby. She loves the idea of someone carrying her around and snuggling with her. In fact, she loves the thought of it so much, she wants to have her own personal giant.

This became a theme of our trip to Barcelona. Jess would point out a stroller and say, "I think I would like my giant to carry me in a stroller like that." She thought tummy time looked like torture and likened it to "my giant hanging me upside down and saying 'Time for upside down time!'"

I pointed out the flaws in her plan -- you wouldn't make any decisions for yourself like what to wear or when to eat (well, okay, if you cried enough you would probably be able to). And you don't get many options for food. And, if your giant was anything like Kevin, he would make you take pictures like this:





She didn't seem deterred though, and we are still on the lookout for a gentle 15-foot man or woman willing to take care of a sweet college student.