Revolving Door

We have had the great pleasure of hosting a revolving door of guests lately. It seems everyone got the memo that March is fantastic weather down here and a great time to get away from the winter dreeries elsewhere. We started out with my childhood best friend Erin. We had the absolute best time catching up, enjoying great girl time shopping, hiking, grabbing a drink, and mostly just spending quality time that had
been greatly missed over the last 2 years. The same day she left grandma and grandpa Swanson showed up. Cohen was so excited that the performance mode got to continue. We enjoyed time spent, a fun round of golf shared by all 4 of us, an eye opening experience I am quite sure for them of "enjoying" dinner out with an almost 2 year old, some trampoline time shared by Cohen and g-ma Charlene and what seemed like an hour of grandpa pushing Cohen on a swing at the park. After saying goodbye to them we once again whisked the sheets into the washer, I managed to sneek a couple nights of work in, and then 2 days later Ya ya (Kathy) flew in for the weekend. We had the pleasure of adding uncle Larry and aunt Renee to the dinner table,whom we always enjoy sharing time with. We had the best experience yet at the fabulous Phoenix zoo, went to church, and again watched Cohen in full company form where he doesn't let any guest out of his site, even to use the bathroom. His famous tag line of "I see what ya ya's doing" and promptly follows her into the bathroom. As always we were sad to see our company go, never knowing for sure when we will get to see them next. But we always feel blessed to have any visitors. This experience of living away from family and dear friends has given us a whole new appreciation for the special people in our life and the time spent with them. So for one week we were back to just the 4 of us, until 2 more of my dear college friends flew into town the next weekend. Lisa, Megan, and I had such a blessed time catching up, sharing everything, and soaking up sun any way possible including hiking, running, and just laying on a blanket at Tempe Town Lake. I introduced them to my favorite store (Sister's Closet), my favorite frozen yogurt place, and just enjoyed every moment spent together.

We continue to be thoroughly amazed by Cohen's ever expanding vocabulary and verbal skills. He speaks in more and more sentences every day, like one week after me working 4 straight days he said, "mommy I missed you when you were gone on the weekend." Perhaps not perfectly but I know exactly what he was saying. He shocked us all by reciting his first memorized book when ya ya was here. None of us even knew he knew it, but as soon as I said the first line of clap hands...he proceeded to reel off the rest of the book as both yaya and daddy whipped out the flip videos to capture the moment. This is such a fun stage. We see hints of 2 lurking but are loving watching him learn every day.

This last weekend we enjoyed a whirlwind roadtrip to California where we got to spend a day in S. Pasadena with Aunt Sue, and cousin Christen and her 2 boys, attend Ben and TJ's beautiful wedding overlooking Laguna Beach, and spend one night with g-ma and g-pa in Palm Springs and see some cousins and their 2 little boys on Charlene's side. It was a lot of driving, but Cohen was a champ and it was well worth every minute. As we were driving we heard him making drinking sounds, to which we assumed he was sipping on his water cup and then heard his little high pitched voice exclaim, "I'm drinking my feet!" To which we turned around to see him sucking about 8 of his 10 toes. The boy cracks us up daily!

This weekend we will be traveling home to celebrate Easter and Cohen's 2nd birthday, which happen to land on the same day this year. We are so inexplicably excited to spend time with family and a few friends. Cohen has been counting down the days to this trip for weeks.