Father's Day Recap

We had a nice, relaxing weekend doing not a whole lot of anything, which is exactly the way we wanted it ;-)

Yesterday morning, after letting Dada sleep in a little bit, Hayes and I whipped him up some brekkie in bed (a light continental spread of cinnamon toast and blueberries) before we headed downtown for our annual Father's Day dim sum. But lo and behold, when we arrived at our usual spot, it was - gasp!- closed! Turns out, business wasn't going so well for 'ole Empress Pavilion so they shut their doors permanently last week.

Luckily, we'd just been to Chinatown for dim sum for a friend's birthday brunch a few weeks ago, so we took a quick walk up the street to Ocean Seafood and managed to get seated right before a long brunch line formed outside (I think the trick to dim sum is to get there pre-11am). We feasted on asian delights (Hayes even opted for some creamy shrimp in lieu of the pb&j I brought along just in case!) until we didn't think we could possibly fit another morsel in our mouths.

Calm and composed...

Do you think these two are having fun?

Kisses for Dada...

Afterwards, we walked down to proper Chinatown and father & son had some fun with pop pops (dada's favorite) and Hayes rode some rides and threw some coins into the wishing well. 

Last night, Grant's folks came up for a homemade BBQ spread al fresco at our house. I know it wasn't my day, but I think it was pretty perfect (minus the whole my dad not being there part) ;-)

Immersed in the US Open...

I meant to post this last week in honor of Father's Day. I've watched it a couple of times and it makes my heart swell. 

We're truly lucky to have all of the amazing dads in our lives. We love you!

TGIF & Happy Father's Day!

This week seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace so I'm thrilled that the weekend is finally here! Hayes and I just got back from a lunch date with our friends, Lizzie and Ollie and when he wakes up from his afternoon siesta, we plan on enjoying some homemade watermelon popsicles before we venture off to Toys R Us so the boy can pick out a special treat.

Monkeys...

I don't want to go into too many specifics as I'm terrified I'm going to jinx it but Hayzey has made great strides in the sleeping department as of late and a full sticker chart warrants a well-deserved reward!

We're keeping it low-key this weekend, heading to a movie and dinner tonight and a possible art show and casual bite to eat tomorrow night.

Sunday is Father's Day so you'll find us partaking in our annual Father's Day dim sum at Empress Pavillion. Hayes (and Peanut!) are so lucky to have such an amazing dad - and I'm one grateful gal to have such an incredible husband. We love you bigou!

Oh and if you haven't already, please help make his dreams come true by voting for his Cane-Cave in the All Sports Man-Cave for Man-Day competition he's currently in. Every vote helps and he's hoping to at least make it to the finals ;-)

Hayesisms

...he is fiercely independent and has to do everything himself, including climbing in and out of the car, buckling his seatbelt, holding and turning the pages of his books, putting on chapstick... You name it, "HAYES!" has to do it solo. This requires a great deal of patience (and an extra few minutes of time to do everything), but trust me, it's the better alternative!

...he loves to go on his dad's shoulders and knows that his poor 'ole mom isn't strong enough to hoist him on hers. This results in commentary every time I pick him up, "Hayes Dada shoulders. Hayes no Mama shoulders."

...his manners are pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. Every time he wants to be picked up, he'll say "Up peeese!". When he knows he can't be picked up, he'll say, "No up peeese! Mama hand." He's quickly learning that the fastest way to get something he wants is to slap a "peeese" at the end of the sentence. Unfortunately, this makes it all the more harder to turn him down when he's asking to do something he can't do (ex/ "Hayes knife peeeese?")...

...he knows how to count from 1 to 10, scattered parts of the alphabet and will sing you the quickest rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes you've ever heard.

...every day when we open his blinds, he says "Morning sunshine!". When it's cloudy outside, he says, "sunshine hiding". When it's nighttime, he says, "No sunshine. Moon!". The kid provides commentary for everything.

...we've gone from spartan sleeping with a small pillow, no blanket and 2 binkies to requiring a small army of accoutrements to accompany him to sleep. He now insists on a full duvet, two binkies, pillow, Harry the giraffe, George the monkey, a truck and book. You can hardly see Hayes amongst all of the madness by the time he's settled in for the night.

...we're making headway with the sleep re-training so he learns how to fall asleep on his own again. It takes awhile, but I'm happy to report that he's gone to bed sans having his back rubbed to sleep every night for the last 10 days (big time progress for us). This has also taught him how to be an expert in the stall-tactic department. Last night, excuses included the following: he hurt his back, "blanket on!", he bumped his head, he needed some water, he needed another book, his bum hurt, "more beebee", he needed to poo, he needed the light on. Exhausting but hilarious at the same time.

...good deeds are rewarded with M&Ms. Somewhere along the way, having a bath every night resulted in having a post-soak M&M... I'm picking my battles. 

...he's mastered the art of jumping and practices often. Here's a clip of him and his best bud, Ollie jumping at gym class last week:

Some Solid Advice...

Since becoming pregnant with the Peanut, I have to admit, there have been moments where I find myself absolutely terrified about what's to come. I know millions of parents have more babies and handle two, three, four (and anything beyond that, you're certifiably insane IMHO) kids at a time but in those trying moments where Hayes isn't being his usual angelic self (ha!), I panic about what it's going to be like when there are two little monsters running around.

I read this article a couple of weeks ago and loved it. Every point was spot on - I tried to pick out my favorites and I can't; that's how much I agree with what this woman says. And I'm feeling this way after only 2 years of parenting. I can only imagine how true this advice rings when you're a seasoned parent who has gone through all of the more difficult times.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Parenting is the hardest, but best job you'll ever have. There is no time off. There's no financial reward for a job well done. There are a million things that will get on your nerves on a daily basis - routine chores and tasks that are essential to keeping another human being well fed, rested and, well... alive. There are moments where you'll ask yourself, "Is this what I really want? And I want to go through this again?!" and wish you were your carefree friends who were out day drinking, or leisurely shopping at the mall, or able to run to the grocery store to pick up some milk without it being a 30 minute ordeal.

But then there are those times that you're reminded of the special club you've been granted access to. When your kid falls down and the only thing that'll make him stop crying is a "magic" kiss from mama. When they do something so seemingly small like going to bed on their own, that makes you beam with pride at the huge accomplishment that just occurred. When they grab your hand in a parking lot and you realize that the constant nagging and repeating is actually going somewhere. I could go on and on but the jist is that even through all of those trying moments, the joy of being a parent can't be matched by anything else. It truly is the.best.

So I remind myself of that when I feel like I'm starting to panic about #2. I'll continue to remind myself of that when we're in the throes of life with a newborn and a toddler, repeating my favorite advice over and over again, "This too shall pass" and trying to enjoy every crazy, hectic, sleep-deprived moment. Wish me luck!

I've finally uploaded the last three months of photos onto our shutterfly gallery, which can be found through the link below:

Enjoy!

Memorial Day Recap

We had a great Memorial Day weekend in Scottsdale with my parents and our good friends, the Carvers. Grant and I have been going to Scottsdale for Memorial Day ever since we moved to LA 10 years ago - it's an easy and relaxing trip and happens to be one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Weather was perfect and actually on the cooler side (native Arizonians consider anything not in the triple digits "cool"). We decided to have our friends from Chicago, Dan, Cassie and Hayzey's future wifey, Collins fly out to meet us since we hadn't seen them since October and it was the last time Cassie could travel before having their #2 in early July. We spent lots of time relaxing poolside, laughing at the littles who were just too cute together and making a pit stop at Chase Stadium for just enough time to catch a couple innings of baseball and take down some stadium dogs (I pretended they were nitrate free and didn't ask to be told differently!).

Here are some pics from the weekend. Hayes has been talking about "Colly" nonstop since we've been back. Let the love connection grow stronger!

Papa supervising Hayes poolside...

Hayzey's first slam dunk!

Learning how to drive Papa's boat...

Stealing a smooch on the golf course...

Little people, big world...

Enjoying an American past time, baseball cap ice cream sundae...

Hayzey's two for two for baseball games at Chase Stadium...

In other news, we peaked in on the peanut yesterday and all looks good. It wasn't the most exciting ultrasound ever as the babe was head down, slightly hidden and I'm pretty sure napping, but we were able to snap a quick shot of it looking all cozy. 

Note: peanut is on the right hand side, shot is taken from the top so you're looking at the top of it's head and can see it's nose and tiny arm...

 Heartbeat was a solid 142 BPM and I was getting really strong boy vibes (I didn't see anything to confirm but I'm about 90% sure it's a boy now - call it mother's intuition but I just have a feeling). Anyways, I guess we shall see at the gender reveal in July ;-)

Ahem...

Attention everyone, for Hayes has something very important to announce:

Yep, that's right. Our little man is going to be a big brother to this little peanut, arriving in mid-November (11/12/13, to be exact - the same birthday as his or her Daddy!)...

Peanut - 12 weeks

We are incredibly excited (and terrified!), but not in any rush to welcome the new addition. We have some things to take care of in the next 6 months (for instance, getting our two year old back to some solid sleeping habits before being thrown to the newborn wolves) so while the past three months of nausea, headaches, sciatic pain and insomnia haven't made it easy, I'm trying to enjoy this pregnancy as much as possible while the little one is still quietly tucked away inside my belly!

I started my second trimester (or honeymoon trimester as I like to affectionately call it) last week so I'm hoping it's smooth sailing from here on out. Hayes is very excited to become a "beeeg brawda" and knows that a "beebee" is coming in November (or at least has been trained to say so when asked!). 

We're told that the real fun begins when you go from one to two so we're bracing for a wild ride. Happy to finally be able to officially share the news with all of you ;-)

Cousin Love

We had a great visit with Aunt Jess and cousin Hank this past weekend - it was short and sweet, but being around two rambunctious little guys 24/7 was EXHAUSTING! The good news is, I think they had a blast - which is nice foreshadowing for our 9 days planned with the fam in Montreal this summer.

As typical toddlers, they either loved each other or fought relentlessly over the same toy that they both had to have in that exact moment! But for the most part, they were good little sharers (especially Hank with his various trains and planes that came in handy at restaurants) and it was so cute to see them together. 

We had an action packed weekend that included a trip to the Beverly Hills Fire Station, a delicious Mother's Day brunch, time spent at the beach in Laguna and a family dinner with Grant's parents and grandmother. 

Here are some snaps from the weekend. Counting down the days until we get to see "Ham" and "Aunt Jesh" again ;-)

Uncle Grant's got his hands full...

Why do boys like being naked so much? And look at that tiny tush on Hank!

Hayzey (and Grant's!) dream - spraying the fire hose...

Mother's Day breakfast made with love (and with the help of Daddy - the.best.)

Hayes helping me eat my breakfast...

Adorable 'mamma' bracelet for Mother's Day...

Mother's Day brunch at The Lobster...

Some late afternoon beach time...

3 generations of Cohen moms with their sons...

Party of 3, Mother's Day 2013

Sissies and cousins ;-)

Hope y'all had a good one, spent with the mothers in your life who deserve their own special day!