Rockababy and the walking Pneumonia

It's been a while since I last posted...we've been busy as usual, and I have been sick. Charlie recovered from his nasty sinus infection rather quickly and returned to his normal self by Tuesday. I started feeling sick the week prior and was sure i had a sinus infection as well while in Florida, so I took the last few days of that week off from running, thinking I just needed rest. I tried running on Tuesday 3/26 and got a half mile and thought I was going to die. I could not breathe, I could not catch my breath, and it was a terrifying feeling. The doctor couldn't see me till April 6th so on Wednesday morning I showed up at the office and didn't leave till they saw me...walking Pneumonia was the diagnosis. I got antibiotics and started feeling better by Friday, although still not 100%. I am terrified that I have now lost all of my training for the marathon. I will try running today for the first time. And I will start out with only a few miles...but it's been 10 days and I am still not feeling 100%, and I still cough when I take a deep breath. We will see! He starts a new daycare in two weeks if I can get the paperwork filled out finally! I am anxious because I know he will take some time to adjust but I am looking forward to a bit more stability with the new daycare as it has been around forever, and has a ton of awesome accreditation from the government. They even have little tiny toilets for the kids to use and little sinks. Speaking of toilets, Charlie pooped on the potty this morning. He's been just a minute or so too late in telling me recently so it's either already in his diaper or mostly there. This morning we took our time upstairs and I watched him for "the signs". He looked at me and said poop, so we ran like heck to the potty (all of 20 feet or so) and ten minutes later we had something to be very proud of! He has had a lot to say lately and at night has been requesting to be rocked (usually he likes to go straight to the crib). He says "Rockababy pease" and we comply because how can you say no to that! Enjoy the pictures to follow:Baby Bode being adorable as usual!


Charlie and "Gampa" playing ball on their deck...

Reading Elmo books...




Charlie in the car on the way to Gampa and Tutu's house with baby right next to him. I asked him what the baby's name is and he said Pat....well alright!
Charlie at our friend's house Saturday night, playing with Quinn's toys.







Edited: I ran the three miles and it was great, no coughing! I feel much better about the whole thing and am much more energized already. It's amazing how much of this training is mental!

Happy Birthday!

This is a big Happy Birthday wish to my baby sister....Hope it's a great one baby!

Planes, Lizards, ER trips...traveling with a toddler

Charlie and I ventured to Florida this weekend. It was great Grandpa Jack's 90th birthday party and we were flying down along with Janice's whole family to celebrate. Alex came down Sat-Sun so I traveled with the little man by myself from Friday to Monday. He was extremely well behaved and slept the whole flight in both directions. We managed to have one beach day, although in hindsight, I shouldn't have brought him out (I'll get to that later). The weather was warm but pretty rainy. Jack's birthday celebration was very nice and he was pleased to have his whole family with him. Charlie and Ethan had fun playing together, and thought the lizards on the playground were very cool, but were both plagued by recurrent fevers. Charlie had his for a while and we made the trip because his pediatrician assured me that it was probably "the viral thing" that everyone had and to call if he was still symptomatic after 7 days. He was, and on Sunday morning, he was still very feverish and not acting himself at all. The Peds told me to take him to an urgent care center but it was Easter morning, so we went to Del Ray Medical Center's ER and they were wonderful. They took us right in and he proceeded to sleep through an entire exam which concerned them and myself alot. They drew blood (twice) and determined that his WBC's were very elevated and his platelets were low (both signs of infection) so they gave him a dose of IV antibiotics to get things started and then sent us home on oral antibiotics. He improved greatly after the IV dose so I was really glad they did that. They said this was a sinus and double ear infection gone terribly bad....poor baby. Here I was bringing him to the beach, on a plane, keeping him up late, asking him to be good. But we are home and he is napping in his own crib. What a trooper! Here are pics from the trip. Enjoy!

The whole family (Charlie is crying and is about 12 hours away from his ER visit)

Playing at the beach with Ethan

Navigating the playground

Looking so handsome but feeling so crappy!



Cousins who love each other

Getting ready to fly home at 5am! Again, what a trooper!

Warning: Adorable pictures ahead!

Baby Bode (or Baby Koa as Charlie calls him...Koa is Christy and Mike's dog...!)

Now, that's cute!

Charlie and his "Gampa"

Running like crazy...

Well folks, I did it! My longest long run yet. It's the longest I should run before the marathon and I have one more of the same length in two weeks and the rest is easy maintenance until race day (49 days away, but who's counting). So I woke up this morning to a dreary drizzly kind of day. Started the pot roast that we would have for dinner, and made vanilla waffles for my husband and boy. Then, I went running. I ran 20 miles! Yes, you read it right, 20 miles...voluntarily! It was actually a nice run and what a relief to be done with it! My last longest run was 16 so this was quite a leap. Some suggest going 17, 18, then 20, but I didn't want to drag it out like that. I didn't feel as fantastic as I did with the 16 miler, but I was running at the end and able to drive home. I cleaned the shower, did laundry and had dinner with the in-laws. I feel good! I did it in slightly less than 3 1/2 hours which was my goal. Bonus there! There was a regatta going on along Kelly Drive which kept me occupied, and I realized while running that I am truly a mom. Here's why. During the whole run, my mind was mostly blank...occasionally pep talking myself, occasionally dreaming of being pregnant again (I can't wait!) but mostly singing a song that is on the Backyardigans Racing Day show. It's a show that's on-demand and is one that Charlie has been particularly fond of the past two weeks. He calls it Pablo TV (pablo is the penguin on the show) and the song, or at least the part that I can remember and kept singing, goes like this: Gotta go go go go go, you can't move fast if you move too slow, gotta go go go go go.... No really, that's what I sang in my head almost the entire time I ran. Although very annoying it made me happy to realize that I am really a mom...

This is me after my shower...I don't look too worse for the wear!

Pictures are worth a thousand words!

I love taking pictures! I especially love taking pictures of my beautiful boy! We've been having alot of fun lately...it stays light out longer and it's slightly warmer so he can play out on the deck while I make dinner. Friday we went to the please touch museum with his friend Henry who used to be in swim classes with us. He's a few months younger than Charlie but had never been there before and they had a ton of fun. We even got to walk because of the nice weather!
Here's my Hawaiian/Italian baby boy who hates Poi but loves spaghetti! Great Grandma would be so proud...

Here's a particularly cute bath picture...

Poor boy thinks his inhaler goes in his ear! This was the first night of coughing which warranted the albuterol use and has turned into him missing his cousin Ethan's third birthday party today...he has a high fever that wouldn't break all day and he's sleeping now but has coughing fits hourly...poor guy was shivering from the fever all day...

Henry and Charlie at the museum...Charlie's coaxing him down the slide...

Here he is today, in a onesie to try and keep him cool, although he insisted on his slippers and was also wearing his famous hat almost all day...go figure! In his back pack is Thomas the train (Timmy as Charlie calls it), his hat, and his Elmo doll. That's all a boy really needs! Be sure to check out the Keiki cloth blog to see the latest fun options for all of your burp cloth needs!

Favorite things about being a mom

This is inspired by, and written for a blog I read daily "Confessions of a CF husband". Below are the things, so far, that I love about being a mom and hope that Tricia and Nate can experience with Gwyneth. They are out of order but it's a random thought process type of thing!

~Having Charlie reach his arms out to be picked up by me for the first time (7 months old?!)
~Bringing him into bed in the mornings while we drink coffee and watch the Today Show
~Seeing him in big boy underwear for the first time!
~Watching his eyes light up when I pick him up from school and he runs and gives me the best hug ever
~Having him eat baby food that I made and have him smack his lips for more
~Kissing his first skinned knee that he got on the playground (15 months old)
~Having him call me mama over and over until I say, "Yes Charlie?" and then he giggles and runs away
~His first belly laugh
~His first time at the beach when he could run around and play in the sand and being so relieved that he LOVED it (17 months old)!
~Staring at him with Alex and realizing that we made the most perfect little boy ever imaginable
~Having my parents, and every other family member gush over how incredible he is
~Having people refer to us as "Charlie's parents" not Sara and Alex

There are so many more, and there's new things weekly that pop up, but those are some of my most favorite!

Lots of fun stuff happening in the Cohen household! Charlie pooped on the potty for the first time yesterday (Sunday) which was super exciting. He told me he had to go and he did! He's getting more vocal about having to go during the day and having less wet pull-ups. Today he refused the pull-ups so I put Elmo underwear on him and after I stopped gushing over how cute his tushie was, he spent the better part of the day dry in big boy underwear! I need him to stop growing up quite so fast! It's making me very sad! He's also going through some kind of growth spurt that has him eating everything in sight and asking for seconds! We saw baby Bode on Friday and Charlie wasn't too thrilled with him. He didn't want to hold him and really didn't want me to hold him! We are currently looking for a new daycare for him as I am fed-up with his current one. We will keep him there until something opens up elsewhere. We had Alex's younger cousin Marina stay with us Friday night. Charlie fell in love with her and called her Mina and is still asking for her! He's had a few rough sleeping nights but is actively telling me that his ears hurt and saying owe when I touch his ears. We dosed him with Motrin tonight and we'll see how that works! Alex is busy at work. The condos open in two weeks and his employees all start next week so he is in a bit of a scramble! Hopefully it will die down once his employees get settled in! My long run scheduled for this Sunday past was cancelled by myself due to 30-40 MPH sustained winds with gusts up to 60 MPH. This Saturday will be the next long run...18 miles! 55 days till the marathon! We had a Foundation Fighting Blindness chapter meeting on Thursday last week (thanks for coming dad!) and we found out that the Visionwalk will be held on October 11th this year. Mark your calenders! I need to head to bed now so goodnight all!

Pictures of my nephew, stolen from Christy's blog!

Is he not the cutest baby (next to Charlie of course!)?!?!?!

Spring is coming/!?!?!

Here are some cute shots of Charlie and his girlfriend Alex (he calls her Leelee) running around Rittenhouse Square the other day. It was so nice out and the kiddos had a great time not wearing heavy winter gear. Charlie is carrying Alex's sidewalk chalk that he just had to carry! We are having a great week. He wakes up every morning lately asking for tutu(my mom) and Gampa (my dad) and gets sad if we don't go see them. We see them alot but I think it's so cute that he thinks about them on his own! Baby Bode is doing well. He is such a little cutie! Christy is doing well, even with Mike being in Pittsburgh for the week! We will get to see him again on Friday!

My little burp cloth (Keiki Cloth) business venture is starting to blossom! Nathan Lawrenson (http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/) posted a blurb about me on his web page which receives thousands of hits a day because he and his wife Tricia are "all about everything Hawaiian". I am sending him several of my Hawaiian print burp cloths to use for their preemie daughter Gwyneth. SO far I have received so many inquiries about them, people wanting to order them, etc...I am really excited.

Work has been really stressful for both Alex and I the past two weeks. His condos are opening in three weeks and he's under the gun to get everything done. He's working alot and having alot of stress. At my work, we have been really busy and the acuity is so high right now that there are REALLY sick babies everywhere you turn! In both of our cases, I hope things calm down soon and we can relax a bit! Boy are we looking forward to our vacation in May! On Sunday I am scheduled to run my 18 mile run. I hope it goes well. I'm fighting off a bit of a stuffy nose and sore throat so I am hoping that I feel at least %90 for Sunday! Hope everyone is well!

Fun weekend with tutus and baby Bode

We had a lot of fun this weekend! We stayed at Tutu's house Friday night. I went through all of Charlie's old clothes which are stored there, organized them by size and washed the 0-6 month stuff so Christy could use it for Bode. We had yummy banana waffles for breakfast on Saturday and then drove to Lancaster to see baby Bode at home. I clipped his nails for Christy and fed him while he loaded his diaper! Charlie was a little jealous but was mostly just tired! He spilled Koa's water at the end of the visit so we drove home with no pants (see picture!). He was pooped from such a long weekend. Christy and Mike and Bode are doing fine and he was a good baby last night for the first night home!