Welcome to My Mornings

Cohen wakes me with joyful noises and greets me with a smile, and often a giggle, when I get him out of bed. Once he's eaten (as he'll now only nurse in quiet and distraction-less places) we have breakfast with Jesse and Mallory. At the table. I love that. I love our breakfasts together and I'm grateful that our schedules (and my husbands stellar omeletes) allow us to sit and enjoy some time together before we all run off into our busy days.

Once breakfast is cleared and Jess and Mal are out the door, I sit with a cup of coffee (or two, but I promise I'll cut back when Cohen starts to sleep through the night) and we play until his first nap.

A rough life, it is not.

I married well. Jesse loves to be with us, works like a dog to pay our bills and still encourages me to go to yoga while he baths our baby.

Judging from the sweat pants, this is a Saturday. Generally our day to chill out and enjoy the company of our family. Sometimes Jesse has to work, but when we get to have him home we're never in a real hurry to go anywhere. Perhaps a bike ride, maybe some time at the park...but all in our own time.
And now, the first in this post's series of "look how cute my baby is" pictures.

Seriously...look how cute.

Cohen making a Cohen face. He's not just happy, he's happiness. I know that I'm blessed to have an easy baby...believe me, I say many grateful prayers. He is warm and affectionate. He is eager to share his smiles and is even working on his laugh. We hope that Cohen's hearty, albeit forced, laughter is is an indication and refelction of the what he hears in our home.

His "I can reach that is I try hard enough" face. Although he also uses it as his "please give that to me" face.

Speaking of joyful children...here's Mallory. She loves to get out for a bike ride and the chariot has been awesome as we can now take Cohen. If Jesse's bikes would stop getting stolen, losing peddles and/or brakes, we could take Jesse too.

Maybe next year honey.

I love, love, love my bike and it's been great to get out this summer. Good exercise too! My bike is built for leisure and the chariot essentially acts like a parachute behind me. I rarely get out of first gear.

We stopped to play in the leaves and Mallory got to work gathering leaves to make a nest for Cohen.

He didn't seem to mind.

Super cute, but I could have chosen a more picturesque location.

Nice bus stop though...get out and vote!

At my parent's in Innisfail.

If we could photo-shop Mallory into this it would be a perfect photo.

For such a rough-and-tumble little dude, my nephew Dillon is a little mush when it comes to Cohen. As we were out on a walk I heard him say, "I love you baby Cohen, you are the best baby Cohen in the whole world". He, Cohen and Jesse are a pretty sweet trio. I see many fishing trips in their future.

Back at home, Cohen discovers smoothies! He's been starting to eat what we eat...which is lovely and exhausting at the same time. Sharing my food with him means I am even slower than usual (and I tend to be the last to finish any meal anyway). Cohen and I often find ourselves alone at the table after Jesse and Mallory have gotten bored and moved onto something else.

Sharing a room is going pretty well. Mallory is very patient with Cohen. On Saturday mornings I often go in to find her softly playing the guitar and singing to him. He watches from his crib and is completely spellbound.

Mallory tried teaching Cohen to play the keyboard but he was quite interested in the on/off switch...so that got a bit annoying and I soon heard, "Mom! Can you come get Cohen?"

We all went to Grandma and Grandpa Fisher's. Jesse and I love the abundance of toast, the many Tim's trips, the extra sleep that they make possible and the kind of conversation that only happens with people who love you unconditionally.

Mal and Cohen, they love the new toys and the ability that Grandpa has to produce treats out of nowhere.

What do they always say? Give a kid a toy and they'll just want to play with the box it came in? Mallory made a car for Cohen and plunked him in.

Cohen was surprisingly content in his little box...er, car.

Mallory and her Grandpa like to take the motorbike and go out for breakfast.

They even found a grand-kid sized leather jacket.

Mallory loves her time with Grandpa. Motorbike, breakfast muffins, timbits, toys from the Dollar Store. They have a special relationship and I love to watch them together.

Best Grandpa ever.

Cohen's back in the box...but this time he gets a ride out of the deal.
As soon as she finishes her toast.

Maternity leave is amazing. I stayed with my mom and dad for a week, getting some Grandma time in for Cohen and getting some sleep for mom! I felt like I could have stayed for a year. I never tire of my parent's company.

Cohen was learning to stand up...kind of...he's not a big fan of holding on.

Home again. We've been trying to entertain more as family life and finances keep us at home more these days. We had a BBQ the other day and, given that we provided less than a day's notice, were amazed that several of our friends were actually able to come. Brooklyn, Todd and Atlas were among those in attendance. Life has definitely changed, gatherings now involve setting up an extra playpen and listening in at the door to make sure our babies are sleeping.

They were! So we happily returned to the livingroom for a glass of wine and many more hours of conversation.

Brooklyn's baby Atlas is a bit of a show-off. Even though he's a month younger he started crawling before Cohen. The night had him over he sat on our immobile little man. I think this might have spurred Cohen on because he started to army crawl the next day.

Now whenever I leave his sight I hear "Mum mum mum!" and the sound of his little hands paddling him in my direction.

I love turning around to see him wiggling towards me. I'm such a sucker, I always pick him up.

So he's a momma's boy. There are worse things.