This post is a little late, Cohen’s 6th birthday. Since his birthday is so close to Christmas we don’t usually make a big fuss. Just some family, a cake and a few gifts. But I really wanted this year to be special. I saw a friend on Instagram do balloons hanging from he ceiling for when they woke up and I wanted to do something similar.

I learned that I could buy a small helium tank from Walmart, balloons and cover his ceiling him for under $25! They say they begin falling and losing that floating power after 3-4 hours. So that meant we couldn’t fill them up the night before.

So Lou and I got up early and snuck down to the basement and filled up balloons. I aired them up and tied them and he made many trips up and down the stairs taking them up. At first he was taking them in an upside down laundry basket, but that would only hold so many. So he ended up bagging them, which worked much better! We ended up with 70 balloons all together in 2 different sizes. Here’s his face when he saw it:

Sorry for the quality of the pics. They were taken with my iPhone.

The rest of the day was filled with cake and gifts, so much fun when turning 6!

This is his “cheese” smile. If I want a good one I have to sneak up on him!

Finally! School is back in session! I love when school starts. Don’t you? I love the smell of new school supplies, the new plastic smell of the parts of a backpack, sharpened pencils, notebooks, the unused box of crayons, the whole mess of it all. I’m reminded of years ago (I won’t say how many) when I was in school. I vividly remember Kindergarten. Being so nervous the first day of school. Walking in to the classroom to see an empty room full of tables with chairs turned upside down on top. It was so quiet in there. So full of potential. I imagine that’s just how Cohen felt today. Isn’t he handsome!

Let me tell you about these shoes! He BEGGED me for these WWE shoes from Walmart. I bought them, brought them home, and there they have sat. In the closet, waiting to be worn. Since they matched his new outfit from Nanu I convinced him to wear them. Therein begin the battle. The socks were too tight, the shoes were too tight, they didn’t feel right. He has worn nothing but Crocs all summer and I think that’s ruined him for real shoes. Anyone else have this problem? So I made him wear the shoes for the pictures so I could try and convince him that they weren’t that bad. I kept saying “Just wear them for 5 minutes”. 5 minutes came and went, and so did the shoes. He went to school wearing his dirtied up Crocs and came home with filthy feet. Just like I knew he would.

He says he had a GREAT first day! His best friend from last year ended up being in his class again! Love that! It made him so happy! I hope the rest of his pre-k days are as full of promise as today was.

Let me begin this post with a little back story. OK, so yesterday Cohen’s preschool had a field trip to the mall for a parade to show off their spring art. I was able to get a friend of mine (thanks Amy!!!) to cover for me at work for the hour or so I would be away. Here’s Cohen marching in the parade. Doesn’t he look cute in the shirt he made in class?

The parade ended at 10:45. Cohen would typically still have a little over an hour left at school, but all that was left was lunch, so I decided to take him with me. So we went back to work to finish the last 30 minutes of my shift. Now we’ve noticed lately that Cohen seems to unconsciously put things in his mouth, not really in his mouth, but touches things to his lips. I notice he does it more when he’s bored. We’ve been telling him over and over again that that is exactly how you get germs and viruses that make you sick. He doesn’t seem to listen.

So while I was talking to Amy about her new cloth diapers Cohen was again, putting stuff in his mouth. Then I heard the scream! Cohen was screaming at the top of his lungs with a plastic chicken leg hanging off of his bottom lip! OMG! I was mad at first, because I had told him over and over and over again, not to put things in his mouth. I took him to the bathroom so we could look together in the mirror to get a better idea of what was going on. I could not see how it was stuck. At first I thought it must have had a hole in it and it was attached by suction. I gave a little tug and he screamed out and his lip began bleeding. O.M.G.! Now I was really freaking out! My boss came back to see what all the screaming and crying was all about. She tried to pull too and it only made him more hysterical.

There was no ice in the freezer to numb it, man, things were just getting worse by the second. I thought for a minute that I was going to have to attempt to cut the plastic chicken leg apart to see how it was stuck. I got him calmed down enough to close his eyes and let me try something. I squeezedthe chicken leg. I guess the pressure of me squeezing pushed air, and his lip gently out of the slit that was holding his lip hostage. Apparently the seam where the chicken leg was closed up had opened up again, creating a small sharp slit. This is where he got stuck. He must have squeezed it just right to open it up a bit and it closed down on his lip.

It looked a LOT worse right after it happened. Here it looks much better. He said that ice cream would make him feel better, so off we went to get some. He picked Mango but was still hurting too much to eat it. We packed it up, took it home and put it in the microwave so he could eat it with a straw. Poor baby. I felt so bad for him. It was a traumatic experience for both of us. I’m glad everything turned out OK though.