Mortimer and Happy Ruby

It must be so frustrating to be two and a half and have people not understand what you're saying.

Even though Cohen's vocabulary is great and his comprehension is exceptional...according to our social worker's 6 month post-placement assessment : ) ... we often find ourselves struggling to understand him as he works on his pronunciation.  Before he started daycare and he was home with me, I knew all his activities of the day so I could almost always figure out what he was trying to say.  Cory had to ask me to translate sometimes, but we got the jist of his message by knowing the context.

Now that he is in daycare, we really know very little about the specifics of his day.  It seems that quite often we are asking him to repeat himself over and over while we try to grab onto a few words to figure out the whole story he's trying to tell us.  Luckily, we can resort to "I'm sorry honey I don't know what you're saying.... can you show me" with a lot of success.  Cohen has even latched onto this strategy.  After repeating himself once or twice, he will shake his little head no and say "saying.... show you!!".

The most common way this guessing game plays out is with Cohen singing a few snippets of a new song he has learned in daycare.  Sometimes it's easy to catch on, like "little lamb, little lamb".  Then there was a song about a rabbit, a beaver, and a crazy elephant.  That took weeks of asking his teachers and searching Google before Daddy finally figured it out.

Last night we had another game of Name That Tune.  We were all sitting around after supper and he took me by the hand and led me over to Cory.  He patted Cory's lap and told me "sit".  Then he climbed up on our laps, facing us and started to sing.  He was swaying his head back and forth, and really getting into this song... but we just couldn't figure out what he was singing.  He'd sing a line then say "Mommy sing, Daddy sing".  My best guess at the lyrics he was trying to get out... "Mortimer and Happy Ruby".  Then, a breakthrough!  I finally recognized the melody - "the more we get together, the happier we'll be".  His smile was just huge when I broke into the right song.  Daddy joined in and then Cohen followed, and we had just a wonderful little family sing-song.

Aside from initially not being able to understand him, that was a family memory to treasure!

Happy Muh-yer's Day

First things first - to my friends who are still in The Wait:  I truly, truly thought of you yesterday and I don't forget for a second how hard Mother's Day can be when your dreams have yet to come true.  I hope you got through the day whatever way you could, and I really hope it turns out to be your last Mother's Day without your children to help you celebrate.

Second things second - I also spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about Cohen's birthmother.  As our mother-son bond grows every day, I realize that another such beautiful bond was broken when she made that most difficult but brave choice.  What an amazing woman she must be.  I'm sure we see bits of her every day in Cohen's beautiful smile, his joyful personality and his sense of humour.

Now on to happier things.  What a fantastic first Mother's Day I was treated to!  First thing yesterday morning, I woke up to hear "Mommy!  Surprise!  Surprise!  Happy Muh-yer's Day!".  My sweet little boy climbed excitedly into bed beside me, presented me with a cute hand-made card and proudly declared "Made it!".  The card also had a darling little butterfly pin attached to it and Cory gave me a beautiful porcelain mother's guardian angel.  Both will be treasured keepsakes from this great day.

The next "gift" of the day was a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs.  Cory mentioned later in the day that his plan was to ensure that I didn't have to lift a finger all day long, and he did a fantastic job on that front!  Later in the morning, Cory packed up a lovely picnic lunch and we headed out to a park near our house.  We had a great time playing on the slide.   It's really all about the slide for Cohen - whatever park we go to, it's the first thing he seeks out.

 

  

And now for the blooper reel.  It's ok to laugh because he didn't get hurt.  And because it's funny.

Unfortunately, about 10 minutes after these videos were shot, Cohen started getting sick and lost his picnic lunch in the playground :(  Too much "belly first" down the slide too soon after eating, maybe.  So we packed up and headed home for naptime.  He had a great 2.5 hour nap and we thought he was feeling better, but the poor little guy threw up again right after he woke up.  And then again all over Mommy while we were snuggling with a glass of gingerale.  Happy Mother's Day to me!  While this was all unfolding, Cory was trying to prepare a special supper with some of my favourite foods.  So, he had to take a break from that to give Cohen a bath while I took a shower... poor Daddy!

Supper turned out awesome (albeit a little late) in spite of the bumps in the road.  Bacon-wrapped scallops, quiche with Hollandaise sauce, spring rolls and black forest cake for dessert.  Cohen was even feeling well enough to eat when it was ready and he enjoyed the meal, too.  I wish I had taken pictures of the beautiful food, but by that time Cohen and I were in our jammies and Daddy was looking a little tired!  You'll have to take my word for it.... the food was delicious and beautiful.

So, it was a great day even with being thrown up on!  Cohen was back to himself by yesterday evening and so far Cory and I haven't gotten sick.  Thank you to my sweet little boy for making my dreams of being a Mom come true (and for not giving me his germs for Mother's Day) and to my wonderful husband for putting together a beautiful, memorable day.

One year referral-versary

One year ago today, we saw Cohen's picture for the first time.   I've been looking back on those wonderful, happy first days and reading the old blog posts helped to put me right back in the moment.  Which made me realize that I miss blogging!  I"m not sure what happened to make me stop, but I will try to get back into the groove.  I've got a lot of catching up to do....

Birthday reflections

T'was the night before Cohen's birthday and the house is quiet.  I need to take a moment to reflect on what's been in my heart and on my mind this past week.  Although there has been so much excitement and joy preparing for his birthday celebrations, there has also been a lot of sad moments for me, thinking about Cohen's birthparents.  I wonder if they're thinking about him now and remembering the day he was born.  As we celebrate, are they missing him?

My hope is that they know somehow that he is healthy, happy, and absolutely adored by his family and friends.  I hope they know that we honour their courage and the decision they made for him.  I know in my heart that Cohen's beautiful personality and disposition are in part a reflection of his birthparents  - they have given him many gifts and gave us the most wondrous gift of all.

Imagination

This conversation occurred this morning while Cohen was eating a piece of cheese.  He was taking bites out of the cheese to make new shapes.


Cohen - "Toys"
Me - "Are you making toys with your cheese?"
Cohen - "Uh huh.  Neigh!"
Me - "You made a horse.  Cool!" 
[Cohen bites the head off the horse.]
 Cohen - "Boat"
Me - "I like your boat."
 [Cohen takes a bite out of the top of the boat.]
 Cohen - "Kitty.  Meow!"
Me - "Wow, pretty kitty"
 [Cohen bites off kitty's ears.]
Me - "What does your cheese look like now?"
Cohen - "Cheese!" and pops the last bite into his mouth with a big grin.
Me.... well I couldn't help but giggle.

First snow

Belated Halloween post

The treats are almost all gone (thank goodness) so it's past time for me to share our Halloween fun with you!  Cohen absolutely loved his first Halloween.  He's quite good at doing all kinds of animal sounds, so we wanted to pick an animal costume so he could provide the sound effects too :)  He was one cute little sheep - "BAAA!"

We didn't want to overwhelm him this first year, so we just took him trick-or-treating to 3 houses in our little neighbourhood.  That was obviously enough if we're not quite finished of the treats now in mid November!  He was really into the whole experience, carrying his little treat bucket and walking the entire way himself.  He baa-ed at each house and got more and more excited about the treats piling up in his bucket.  When we got home, he spread out all his treats on the coffee table and said "Wow!".  The chocolate bars were the first goodies to disappear, followed by the chips and candies.  The last remaining stuff is all rocket candy - which Mommy doesn't like either!

After we put him to bed on Halloween night, I heard him saying "BAAA!" through the baby monitor.  Maybe he didn't want the fun to end!  I can hardly wait until next year, when he'll have even more understanding of the excitement and fun of Halloween.

Helping Daddy carve the pumpkin

Our neighbour Paula had a beautiful display

Checking out the treats

Yum!  Chocolate :)