Cohen at 9 Months

At 9 months I can...

- Crawl!!

- Pull to a standing position

- Explore

- Make big messes while exploring

- Wave

- Babble...loudly!

- Weigh in at 20 lbs!

Likes

- Mirrors

- Baths

- Kids

-Pretzel sticks

Dislikes

- Car seat

- Changing clothes

- Slippery floors (makes crawling difficult)

Happy 9 Months to my little Valentine!

Feb 12

One year ago today I met a beautiful little girl named Isabella. It was her two month birthday, and it had been nearly two months since we lost Julia. Isabella, like Julia, had trisomy 18. They looked very alike. They brought with them similar joys and similar struggles. Seeing Isabella made my heart full, and I loved her immediately. She was so expressive, so spirited, and so lovely. I also met Isabella's amazing parents, Patricia and Randy. Since that day, we have shared happy days and sad days, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Our little beautiful girls now play together, happy and whole, in a place where all is good. This is a hard and often lonely road that we walk. I am very thankful that if we must walk this road, we can at least do it together.

Little and Lovely

I took this photo two years ago today. She was 10 weeks old. My journal entry from that day talked about how Julia was awake and alert more that day and how Isaac and I decided to take photos of her all in pink on the pink bean bag. She really liked the bean bag and how she could snuggle down into it and still look all around...
I miss my precious girl...so little and so lovely.

January Tree

February is already here, but I wanted to post pictures of Julia's angel tree for the month of January. Some of the ornaments were Christmas ornaments and some were after Christmas ornaments and some were special gifts. I really love how this tree came together!

This "noodle" angel ornament was made by our neighbor G when Julia was born. Her first ornament! It will always be special. Thank you, G!

This angel ornament was made by my friend and fellow trisomy mom, C. She decorated a Christmas tree with lots of these angel ornaments dedicated to our trisomy angels. Thanks so much, C!

This sweet ornament is also from a fellow trisomy mom (Little Firecracker) and friend, L. It has a feather inside that represents a feather from an angel's wing. Love it! Thank you, L!

And here is another lovely angel feather ornament I received from trisomy mom and friend, S. It includes Julia's name inside and also sweet charms and sweet words. Thank you very much, S!

Snow Day

Recently we had a few snowflakes fall and stick for a couple of days. After the blizzards we had in the winter of 2010, snow has been scarce here. This was actually our first snowfall since we lost Julia as well as our first dunce Cohen was born.
I thought Cohen should experience his first snowfall and Sydney and Isaac couldn't wait to play outside. Cohen was not too sure about the cold air and the cold, wet stuff we kept sitting him in and putting on his fingers. Oh well! Hopefully we will have lots more snow for him to enjoy.

26 months

Thinking of Julia today on her 26 month birthday. It occurred to me yesterday that this is close to the age Isaac was when we moved to Virginia. I like to imagine Julia like Isaac or Sydney at that age...so cute and newly "independent" with their growing vocabulary and unending curiosity. Miss you, sweet girl.

Cohen at 8 Months

At 8 months I can...
- Push myself into a sitting position from tummy time position
- Reach, grab, throw, and drop things. Over and over again! :)
- Pull to a stand from sitting
- Crawl backwards! I can move forward, too, but it is less than graceful!

Likes:
- baths
- the kids! (Sydney and Isaac)
- whipped cream
- playing with the Little People Zoo

Dislikes:
- not too sure about avocado. Maybe if we combined it with whipped cream!
- the car seat!
- long naps