Daddy and His Boy's

FREEZE! If You Don't Move, She Won't See Us!

From Jim:

Okay, I had to post this before I got sidetracked here at work.

I get up every day and go to work at 5:30AM for Physical Training. I'll usually check to see if Abbie is on AIM around 9AM. Today, I get a call from her at 7:56AM. I never talk to her before 8AM unless there's an emergency.

So when I got her call, my heart sank b/c it could only mean something has happened to Cooper or Bear.

And I was right.

Abbie is quite upset and almost ready to go into a panic attack it sounds like. She starts out with, "Your children..." That's not good to start the conversation that way.

"Your children opened..." Uh oh.

"...and ate..." Oh damn, they ate something under the sink that's not good for them.

"...the chocolate on the table." Huh?

Seriously? They ate the chocolate on the table?

Turns out that while Abbie was in the bedroom changing and getting laundry together, the boys decide to work together and poach the sugar-free chocolate bar that was sitting on the table. She apparently comes out, and they've already eaten half the bar. Imagine this in your minds eye...Bear and Cooper eating this chocolate bar saying to each other, "mmmm, that's damned good. Shhhh. Don't let momma know." Abbie notices its really quiet in the living room and when she walks out, they suddenly stop chewing as if to say, "Stop chewing. Freeze! She may not notice us standing here with chocolate in our mouths." As if Abbie was a T-Rex that only sees movement. They were caught red handed and guilty as all get out. And they knew it! They knew they were doing wrong. I'm sure that if they could talk well enough, they'd deny it 100%.

This chocolate is called "ChocoPerfection". It's a sugar-free, dairy-free, wheat/gluten-free chocolate bar that tastes exactly like chocolate. Its great for diabetics in case you're wondering. Abbie and I have had a few bars lately as a treat and the boys have noticed us eating them wondering what they are. Turns out, they now know.

Abbie was so upset. I laughed my fool ass off. It was bound to happen, and little boys are prone to doing something like that. I can remember being a little boy at Cape Cod and me, John, and Chris went to the local candy shop and spent all of our allowance on candy, which we weren't allowed to do, and as we were coming back to the cottage, we saw Dad and Mom. We ran around a sand dune and dumped all of our candy on the ground. I don't think we got caught, but I remember being really upset that my candy whistle I had been sucking on was covered in sand.

As for the boys, we don't know if they're immune and digestive systems are ready to handle refined foods such as ChocoPerfection, so we're going to monitor their reactions today. Abbie mentioned that one of them may already have been having a reaction. This is one of those reasons we're really picky about the boys eating...they just don't react well to things that others can handle.

Never Bored

Sweet Bliss

You know it's a good meal when.......

Move Over

This was taken last week when Coop wasn't feeling very good. He was all curled up in our bed (aka- air mattress) while watching some tv. I heard a little tussle going on but there was no screaming or fussing. I look over and Bear has just rolled Coop out of the bed and taken his spot. Coop was fine he just kept watching tv but Bear was happy as a clam cheering away. His favorite saying right now is, "Yeahhhhh!" Usually with his arms thrown up in the touchdown sign formation.

Playground Adventure

The weather has been gorgeous so we've been taking a lot of trips to the playground. The boys don't play much on the actual playground but the creek that is right next to it. Coop likes to find big sticks and pretend he is fishing.




Coop decided to have a fit at the top of this hill. A neighbor came over and tried to calm him down so he finally decided instead of holding her hand he literally crawled down the cement sidewalk (it's a pretty steep hill) on all fours. When he got down he smiled and the tantrum was forgotten.
Bear's favorite thing to do is throw rocks in water. So he spends almost the entire time at the creek throwing in bark or rocks from the playground.


Coop has conquered the monkey bars that lead up to the slide. He used to get really scared to take the last step up but he recently took the leap and now I find him zipping over it!

Babies for Groceries?

There is nothing like doing taxes to give you a new perspective on your finances. We finally got things organized and I re-did our budget. A few months ago I'd had some success selling some stuff on Craig's List that gave us a little extra cash so this week I'm on a mission- sell as much as I can of our baby stuff so that we can pay for our groceries in cash this weekend.

I'm working really hard to let go of the baby phase. (I mean really they are both talking now!) We are so strapped for space in this apartment it actually fees good to get rid of things. So far I've sold both of my breast pumps. (I found the one I thought was in storage after I bought another one.) Our swing is gone and I have a box of clothes and shoes that I'm going to go trade to our consignment store so we will get some clothes for the boys for "free" that they need this summer.

I spent 4 hours yesterday scrubbing down the awesome high chair we have, the front facing double stroller and a few other things outside. I had left this booster seat outside and there were a few things nesting in it so it took a while to clean that. But now everything is spotless and ready for sale. It brought a very interesting question to mind for me though. Here I am spending a huge amount of time cleaning stuff so that someone else will now enjoy it. Why don't we take that good of care of the things we use on a daily basis? When you sell a house you paint, declutter and clean. Why don't we do that for ourselves in our daily life? Just something I got to pondering.

I'm already getting e-mails on the stroller and the booster seat this morning so hopefully by tomorrow those are sold and we can pay for our groceries in cash! Wish us luck!

What's New With Us?

Feels like time just slips away and so many changes have happened without us realizing it. I look up and all of a sudden Bear is really talking! Today Super Reader Wyatt asked what the super letters were and Bear said, "O I." it was a little mangled but I look up and lo and behold there's a big fat O and I on the screen. We've been working on the ABC's with Coop and he's just there absorbing it all.
If you ask Coop to tell you the ABC's or to count he won't do it. But today on our walk he was trying to jump rope and every time he would do it he would count quite nicely. He just abhors me asking him to do it. Forget him telling you his name. He will tell you in his own way but if you ask forget about it! When we practice the ABC's (Which persists of me trying to get him to sing the song with me and him being very bored with it.) I have had to get more creative and visual. We write it out and he will find the letters but he won't sing the song. Coop's favorite game is to say, "Momma where's the R?" He's pointing to it. So I point to it too and he says, "Good job Momma that's an R!" And on and on he goes. I have to get much more creative I think.
Did I mention Coop is a stickler for manners? If he does something I ask him to he reminds me to say thank you. He knows how to close the doors and he knows how to lock the sliding door and front door. That's a little scary for me but he's so helpful always keeping the screen door closed for us to keep out the bugs. Bear's manners are getting there. He says please a lot. Unfortunately he doesn't quite get that just because he says please doesn't mean that he is going to get it. So most of the time he says, "Pweeese.........Yeaaaahhhh!" and he throws his arms up in the air in triumph.
I have to admit though Bear has come a very long way in the last few weeks. He's not been happy with the boundaries we are putting in place but he's pulling through like a champ. Coop is also big on coloring with markers right now. He likes to draw shapes and he makes lots of shapes that he calls leaves. He's very orderly, each page gets its own color. When he's done with that color (code for he's jammed the marker tip and it won't color anymore) then he asks for a new page and gets a new marker. Heaven forbid Bear try to take a marker. Coop will not allow that to happen! So Bear gets all the crayons. (Thankfully Bear's not eating the crayons anymore!)
As for our moving and career plans we are still in our holding pattern for the summer. Jim won't find out anything until June so until then we just keep going as is and I'm working to get some clients to help supplement our income. (We want to send Coop to pre-school in the fall so we need to get ready for that. I had no idea how pricey that got!) We sold our townhouse so that was wonderful!!! The market just wasn't what it was 3 months before we left and we got way way less than we had been anticipating so it's not the windfall we had been hoping but that's a $500 loss a month we don't incur anymore it gets our line of credit and credit card bill paid off so it helps keep the panic at bay for the next few months. I've just started my level two training for my Wellness Consultant Certification and I've also just started a course where I can analyze blood and tell you what's happening in your body. I'm over the moon excited about it. (Now I'm just visualizing the money coming in to pay for the microscope and materials because that will really help my practice take off.) Jim's been very busy with his job. They have him working a lot of weekends and staying out in the rain to learn tactics and other things I know nothing about. He gets excited about it though. He's going to start going to his CrossFit gym twice a day during the summer and he's uber determined to do these road marches with up to 85 pounds. (More power to you baby!) I did lift his last backpack up and get it in the house but I give major kudos to Jim I probably went 15 steps and I was done. He went over 6 miles!!!

A few days ago we were going to the grocery stores and I forgot our bags. I left the boys in their car seats and ran to get them. When I got back Cooper said, "Momma?" A little winded I said, "Yes Coop?" He paused, smiled and said, "Gigi's better." Talk about taking the wind out of you. "Gigi's better?" I repeated to make sure I heard him right. "Yeah Gigi is better," he annunciated then he went back to picking through the toy bucket. (Bebba just reminded me that the day he told me that was the one year anniversary of her Virginia service.)

So that's our update!!

How the Parents Sleep

I've actually gotten used to having our bed in the living room now (sort of). It has certainly made the place much more cramped but the boys adore playing on the air mattress so I haven't put forth the effort in putting it away. If I put it up against the wall they spend all of their time flopping it back down and making it a slide. It's actually good exercise for them to crawl up and slide down a billion times!

This past weekend I was desperate to get some more sleep so Jim threw on a show to distract the boys but they knew better than to fall for that one. I was besieged with the boys trying hard to cuddle up with me (yes that's me under those covers) and watch their show at the same time while I tried to get some sleep. I have to say I'm getting better at it. I used to never be able to fall back asleep!


Jim took a long road march with 75 pounds in his backpack this weekend. We had to go pick him up on his route (mile 6 or so for him) because he'd gotten some major blisters. As we came up to him I felt so bad. It looked like every step he was taking was pure torture. You could almost see the thought, "Must put one foot in front of the other. Must keep going!" He said he only had about 30 minutes to go at where we were supposed to meet but I think the boys and I would have been waiting for at least another hour to hour and a half!

When we got home the boys were down for a nap while Jim soaked his feet. I swear it wasn't even 5 minutes and I heard the snoring. The funny thing was I watched him startle awake and look at the laptop and furiously start clicking his mouse and then within 5 seconds he was out again. He doesn't even remember doing it :-)

Quotables

The boys woke up at the same time today. Coop woke up yelling out for, "Daddy!" about a million times. I went in and said, "Will Momma do?" Coop says, "Um," slight dramatic pause, "Yeah ok."

I pick Coop up and we go to get Bear. I say, "You want to go get your brother?" Coop responds, "Yeah brodder!"

I pick up Bear and in the dark we come back out into the living room. I hear a little thunk. Coop has hit his head on the thermostat! "Ooooof, owwwww!" says Coop. I ask, "You ok?" Coop says, "Yeah I ok."

Then on the other side Bear literally repeats about 4 times, "Oooooof, owwwww, ok!!!" Tooo cute.

The Reason We Didn't Go To The Gym Today

And how was your day?

What Cooper Sees

Believe it or not this started off as an airplane. He would fly it all over the house. As of yesterday it became a butterfly. (We've been going to the playground a lot and there are these beautiful yellow butterflies,)

Quotables

I'm out in the living room doing some work while Jim is giving the boys a bath. I hear Jim in a very stern voice say, "Bear Monihan! Stop throwing things!"
Bear with all the joy of a toddler replies, "Yeaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Quotables

Cooper hands me the camera, "Take a pic momma."
I take it and as I focus the camera Coop says, "Cheeeeese!"
Then he wants to see the picture.
"Look momma that's a Cooper!"

It's A Long Story

Daddy's Lap

Quotables

This morning Cooper was asking for "lunch" which is code for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.

I asked him if he was hungry and Coop said, " I dooooo declare I hungry!"

Quotables

On the way from the car to the apartment we have a path where the geese come by every morning and leave lots of treats or "stinkies" as we call them on our sidewalk. We live on the back of the apartment so we have to walk through a breeze way to get to the stairs.

Now every morning Cooper jumps over the "stinkies" and when he gets past them he yells, "Look momma we made it past the stinkies to get to the tunnel!" If you've ever had to watch Dora you'll find that amusing.

The Testosterone Has Kicked In

I have to admit I don't know what to do with this male energy all the time. I'm good with the chasing and tickling and occasional wresting match. I wasn't sure if I should be laughing at this behavior or not but boy they seemed to be having a lot of fun!

More Sleep Saga.........

I just had to share. Last night I was rocking Bear to sleep and we got to the song where he's usually either snoring or on his way out and he was still wide awake. I decide to go with it and put him in the bed. As I stand up he flings himself back and starts giggling. I wrap him up in his blanket (he likes to pull it up to his chin and his feet have to be covered) and wait for the inevitable screaming or clutching at me to not go. Instead I hear him say in the most pleasant tone, "Byeeeeee!" I walked out and we heard not a single fuss out of him!

We had made it 6 nights in a row with Bear not waking up at all during the night. Two nights ago at 3:38 am he woke up screaming. I shot out of bed forgetting I was blind with my eye mask on but my heart was racing. I was sure he'd fallen off the bed or something. I caught myself as I tripped over Jim's side of the air mattress and as I took off my mask was actually standing there wondering what in the world I was doing. It took a few seconds to hear the scream again and then just a few more minutes before he was back asleep. Jim didn't even stir.

So last night at right about the same time Bear wakes up again with a scream. This time I am jostled awake by the feeling of going airborne as Jim jumps off the air mattress and goes running for the bedroom door. I tried several times to whisper to him not to go in there but I'm not sure if it was in my mind or he didn't hear me. I had to shout for him not to go in there. He stopped in his tracks and very irritably said, "but he's crying!" I said, "I know hon he did it last night too he'll be fine." Jim got back in bed and maybe 30 seconds later both he and Bear were back asleep.

I have to say it's been wonderful to get this sleep routine established. I know it was mostly my fault and just not letting go of the baby phase. I feel silly for it to have taken this long but it's always harder when it's your own. If I was babysitting it would be so different. I hate to hear them cry even though sometimes I know it's ok.

Tain Set

Coop and Bear's train set is now a master piece thanks to Jim! On bath nights Jim will end up playing trains with the boys and creating a new set up each time. I can barely make a circle!!

Brotherly Love

The boys banded together last Thursday and refused to get dressed. They let me get diapers on but they wanted to be in Grammy Kathy's blanket. Coop climbed up in the recliner pulling the blanket but he wasn't strong enough to pull the whole thing. So after a few "Help me momma" shouts I got him nestled in the chair. Of course Bear was up soon thereafter. Coop kept saying, "Brrrr momma it's cooooold." Then he would lay down sideways and say, "Ok now I sleep." They watched a whole show cuddled up together under the blanket.

Goodnight Rocket

Cooper: "Momma- rocket is sleepy."
Me: "You have a sleepy rocket?"
Cooper: "Yeah goodnight rocket!"
Me: "Goodnight rocket."
Cooper: "Mwhuw" (big fat kiss for rocket)
Cooper: "Wake up rocket." (about 10 times until I realize I'm supposed to wake rocket up.
Me: "Oh ok here we go 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 waaaaaake uuuuup roooocket!"
Cooper: "Yeah wake up rocket!!!!" Rocket goes flying.

Repeat exact conversation oh about 50 times.

Mr. Adventure

I know- Mr. Adventure??? Bear usually sits in his booster seat to eat. But lately he's taken to climbing up a chair, crawling on the table, backing himself onto his high chair and sliding in. Basically he's saying I'm hungry feed me now!

Quotables

As Coop starts to eat his dinner-
"Momma this is delicious!"
Me- "Did you say delicious?"
Coop- "Yeah deeeeeewicious."

Do You Think...

Do you think Daddy would notice the extra weight?

Sleep Saga Continued..........

So much to tell. The last month we've made significant progress in our goal to get everyone a full night sleep without the drama! It was about two weeks ago that it really started to shift. We'd had a busy morning and Bear was exhausted. He fell asleep in the high chair and I picked him up put him in his crib gave him a kiss and off I went. He cried for a while and then there was silence. It was the first time he'd put himself back to sleep alone. You know that little light bulb that goes off and you realize you've been a sucker? I had a very and I mean very bright light bulb go off.That night I started a new routine for bed. He gets a story then I rock him and then he goes in the crib. He inevitably wakes up and screams bloody murder but it has not lasted longer than 10 minutes. Karen (our babysitter) did the same thing and he fussed about 10 or so minutes and then he's out. I think my exact words to her were something to the effect of, "He goes in the crib for his nap. I don't care how you do it but I'm outta here!" I have to admit that it's been a little bit, okay a lot, freeing. Jamie kept telling me it I would know when it it was time. She was right. (As usual.)

So we are able to get him down to sleep and his naps without being hijacked any more. So then we realized we had to work on his 5:30 am wake-up. He would wake up and crawl out of the crib and sometimes go to sleep until 6:30 or 7 am. We would get two good mornings and then we have the "I want to nurse battle". He has enough stubbornness from me, Jim and GiGi. He's incredible. Just to give you some perspective on his stubborn streak. It's been almost a year now that I've been complaining about his habit of sticking his hand down my shirt and pinching me HARD. I have yet to ever give in and let him do it. I woke up a few times with him pinching me and stopped him. Yet he still continues to reach down all the time. It amazes me, just amazes me.

So last week as I'm debating what to do (put his crib with Cooper or switch them) Jamie says that until he has his own room he will keep waking up and needing us. (Did I mention she's always right?) So much to Jim's chagrin I pull out the air mattress and make up our bed in the living room. The first night he woke up at 12:48. I had on my eye mask and was completely disoriented. Jim had to remind me where I was and what was happening. He cried for a little while and lo and behold he went back to sleep. Jim left for the weekend and I'm thrilled to say Bear has slept through the night both nights!

They both got me this morning though. I woke up and heard Coop talking and giggling. Then a few minutes later I heard Bear starting to fuss. I peeked out my eye mask and saw it was 6:38. I couldn't believe how tired I was though. I got them and they were thrilled. They both crawled into bed with me and I tried to go back to sleep as they played over me. I looked again and it was not even 6 am yet! I guess it was 5:38 and I was too groggy to realize it. I can assure you that won't happen again.

But out of this whole saga here's what has had us in stitches cracking up. Bear just hates being in the crib. Every night we find him in our bed with his blanket or our blanket over him. This took the cake though when we went in and he was in the middle of our bed and under our covers.The next month should be even more fun as we transition him to just his crib and then into Cooper's room. (Not sure if our backs can survive an air mattress for that long.) This way when we get to our new home by the end of summer they will be used to sharing a room and will hopefully transition well. We'll keep you posted.

How We Got Kicked Out of Target

Ok so we didn't get kicked out, but I wanted to kick us out of Target! Jim is gone this weekend so I've been working double duty with the boys to make sure that by bed time they are exhausted and won't give me any fuss with going to bed. We were up at 6:30 this morning and at the gym by 9. We ran errands from 11-12 had lunch and naps until 2:30. They woke up nice and refreshed so we colored, built a castle, played with the alphabet on the fridge, played chase, tickle monster, and watched Max and Ruby too many times and then had dinner. Cooper built his own train track from our memory blocks. Then Bear, well he destroyed it!

We'd already had puddle time so I thought they would love a bath (and it would take at least an hour if I did it right.) For the first time on record they refused a bath. Typically you ask if they want a bath and they are running for the tub and undressing themselves. So with two hours to kill I suggest maybe we go outside or go to a store. They bring me their shoes and off we go with them being very excited.

We walk into Target and Bear lets go of my hand and starts to run. (I let him know several times on the way in that if he ran away from me he would be in the shopping cart.) I got ready to chase him and he stopped about 20 feet ahead of us and waited. So through Target we go. Bear tried to take down a jewelry display so we had to leave that section. Bear and Coop decide all the brightly colored bras are really fun to play with and they start grabbing at them. Bear got his warning to stop throwing them on the ground but he was having too much fun so in the cart he went. I got what I needed and we were off to explore.

There was a long path with nobody in it. Bear got out and they were off. They just kept running and running and laughing with delight. Coop would fall right in front of someone and say, "Okay? Yeah I'm ok!" Then get up and do it to the next person.

Coop found the bikes and lo and behold they had a little tricycle there and Coop got a lesson in how to ride a bike. He got the steering part and then he got the pedaling part but he did not get them together. (Didn't help that he wouldn't let go of Rocket.) Bear found some soccer balls and I would kick one several isles down and he would take off. Grab it and bring it back for me to kick again. He was crazy over these soccer balls. I was loving it because they were laughing and running. I was working up a sweat with the bike lesson and chasing the soccer balls. Anybody looking at us would have thought we were at the playground!

The problem was trying to get Bear to move on. I brought a soccer ball with us but then he kept wanting to run back to get another one. So he began fussing. And fussing. And fussing. Until he found a Thomas the Train phone. He was overjoyed with this phone but so frustrated because it was in the packaging. So I try to compromise and we get a part of the phone out but it's not enough. Cooper has found a real rocket (from Little Einsteins) that's also a submarine so he's thrilled. Bear is in the cart again but he wants to throw the soccer ball out and try to take out picture frames so that section was out. I decided to call it a night and go check out.

I picked the slowest cash register and the couple in front of me had about 20 coupons. The boys begin begging for their toys even though I kept saying please wait until we pay for it. Coop is trying very hard to climb on the shopping cart to reach the conveyor belt and keeps telling me, "I can't reach! Help me momma." So the next cashier over decides to be helpful and start saying that the toys were his. Well Coop didn't go for that and started to get very upset. The cashier got the message and stopped trying to be helpful. Our cashier thought it would be nice to give Bear his soccer ball so he grabbed it and threw it at a customer in the photo lab. Cooper went and got it and we started to make our way out. I now have the cart so I can't hold Coop's hand and push the cart with Bear in it. I ask Coop if he would please be helpful and get in the cart. He throws himself down on the floor and covers his face saying, "Momma I'm crying!' and screaming at the top of his lungs. So in the cart he goes crying the whole way. We get to the car and then he's fine. Both of them were fine. They just were trying to get a reaction from me I know it.

So while we didn't actually get kicked out of Target my ploy to tucker them out worked wonders. We got home opened the toys (so anticlimactic as the Thomas phone was discarded within 10 minutes) and got ready for bed. They are now both sound asleep (Coop is clutching his new rocket) and I'm not far behind them!!

Puddle Days

We've been getting a lot of rain around here lately. (Thank goodness because we need it!) It has of course spawned many puddle days. If there is the puddle the boys are in it. I can keep them out of the one at the gym but I give up when we get home. I love it because it gives me a few minutes to get their lunch ready and they just play happily in the puddle till I tell them it's time to eat.

Well today we got home from the gym and Bear has beelined for the puddle. Coop likes to play in the puddles as long as it's not raining. Since it was raining he came inside with me. After a few minutes I hear a huge splash and blood curdling scream. I threw down the pan and went running outside to find Bear with mud all over his face and hands and he was NOT happy about it. Not so unhappy that he was willing to get out of the puddle but he waited for me to rub the mud off and then he went back to splashing away.