What a surprise

So I was changing Coen's dirty diaper on Friday and much to my surprise I found a button in his diaper. It was about the size a penny. We thought we kept a pretty good eye on him... and we never heard him choking on anything, I just couldn't believe that our kid swallowed something that large. It makes me wonder what else might be hanging out in his intestines.

Let it Snow!

Today I took Coen out for his first sledding adventure. At first he was pretty stoic, I couldn't even get a smile for the camera. I think he was just sort of taking it all in. But then, when I went over a snow bank he just started grinning, and kept grinning as I ran pulling his sled all over CSCC. As soon as I would stop to turn around and look at him he would start whining, but once that sled was going full speed again it was all giggles. I think I know how I'll be getting my exercise this winter.

Matt if you thought the bear hat was bad what do you think of the whole monkey snowsuit?

Update

Some pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend spent at the farm for Josh's cousins wedding reception. It was nice to see the whole family and have a picture taken of our family. Unfortunately it was Coen's dinner time and he got kind of crabby towards the end of the pictures.



We got to spend some time at a hotel where Craig was staying, so we hung out in the pool for a few hours, Coen would not let go of Josh but he seemed to be ok in the water otherwise.

We have started celebrating Coen's first Christmas season. I bought a few penguin shirts for him last year when I was pregnant, Josh loves it when he wears them... We got our tree for the year, my first artificial tree ever, it made me kind of sad but I wasn't willing to vacuum every 3 hours if we got a real one. Now that its decorated it really doesn't look that bad. Today we spent the afternoon at my dads union Christmas party, which was Coen's first visit to Santa, we were a little surprised that he didn't cry since he has had some stranger anxiety lately. But I think as long as he can see us he does ok.

Other than that school has been keeping us both pretty busy. Josh has one week left of student teaching and then will be off for a whole month. I am looking forward to that, especially with finals approaching and I'm really feeling pressure in clinic to get as much done with my patients now because next semester I will be busy with rotations, mainly pediatric dentistry. That will be a nice change of pace but will not allow much time to see my other patients and start checking off competencies. Somehow everyone , or just about everyone, manages to graduate on time so even though I worry I am not too concerned about not graduating. But thats about all thats happened in in the last few weeks. So enjoy the pictures.

Coen the traveler

In a few short hours Coen will be adding another state to his list of places he has been. Illinois! I know, Illinois sounds kind of boring but its impossible to make a list of cities that Coen has been to so we have to do states instead and since Chicago is in Illinois he gets the boring sounding state added to his list. Thats right, Coen's first trip to Chicago. Its kind of funny too, since Josh has never been to Chicago, his 7 month old son will beat him there. We're really not going to be there that long, we leave tonight at 10:30 arrive sometime between 6 and 7 am and head back around 1pm tomorrow afternoon, with Maria! We'll be on the mega bus twice as long as we are in Chicago but I am still looking forward to my trip and to seeing Loyola and riding the Mega bus for the first time. Josh and I are thinking of taking it somewhere for spring break. I'm pretty sure it goes to Arizona, and if we can get $1 tickets, well it might just be worth it.

Coen's first Halloween

For Halloween this year we decided to surprise the grandparents by trick or treating to their house with Coen. Well it didn't go so well. First of all, dad wasn't even there yet and second I think we just pissed mom off because we rang the doorbell, they had just sat down to dinner and the candy wasn't out yet...oops.

So once dinner was finished and the kids were all in their costumes my dad and Josh and I went out trick or treating with the little kids. Coen went out mainly so Grandpa could show him off to the neighbors. What ended up happening though is Coen would be the last one to "trick or treat" at each house and as we stood there saying hi, this is the grandson, the neighbors would continue to plop more candy into Coen's trick or treat bucket (which was, courtesy of mom and dad a kemps ice cream pail, I suggested a pillowcase but no one would get me one.) So Josh and I made out pretty well. On top of all the neighbors candy we managed to score a pretty good load from mom and dad, full size boxes of nerds!

Toys

Being first time parents we really didn't have too many baby toys so over the past year or so we have spent a good amount of money plus time and energy picking out the best baby toys for Coen, and any future children that may come along. Well we have recently discovered Coen's favorite toy is not really a toy at all but a cheap name badge holder with a pullable string so that one can swipe or scan their card as needed. His attention span is short, normal for a child of his age, but he can play with his favorite "toy" three times as long as any thing else we may place in front of him. He is so funny when he places one end in his mouth pulls the string as far as his little arms with let him and then opens his mouth to let go.

Watch out World....

Here comes Coen! 6 months old and he is on the go! Last week Monday he was stationary but by Wednesday he was army crawling across the living room floor. He is getting faster and smarter, grabbing things and putting them in his mouth before I can catch him. He is a determined little bugger, if he sees something he will not quit trying to reach it until it is in his mouth! It won't be long before he is crawling and then walking. I'm pretty sure he'll bypass walking and go straight to running.