New Slide

This slide has been the BEST purchase ever. It goes well right outside our apartment and inside! They just love playing on it and that means less attempts at running off to find other adventures. (We have poison ivy in our little jungle and Bear is covered in it!)

Brotherly Love

This has been a recent development. One day on the way back from the playground Coop grabbed Bear's hand and they walked together all the way back. Today on the way up the stairs Coop took Bear's hand and literally helped him up the stairs. On the way to the grocery store Coop asked for Bear's hand and they held hands for about 10 seconds on the way to the store. As Jim and I were looking around the grocery store we look in front of us and the boys are leading the way holding hands. I'm not sure how to describe the feeling of my melting heart but that's what happened- my heart just simply melted.

Nature vs. Nurture

We've still got our experiment going on where Cooper gets socks then shoes and Bear gets sock shoe, sock shoe. A little harder this summer since they are wearing sandals. But I found it oddly fascinating that Coop, who has been a little under the weather, knew to say he wasn't feeling well and then took off for the toilet. Not only that but he seems to instinctually bring a book while sitting on the potty!

Daddy's Bath Time

For some reason Jim doesn't like it when the boys splash in the bath tub but I'm not sure why?!?

Unwelcome Visitor

One day back in May the boys and I were in the living room. As is usual (well was) the boys would go to the patio and play there and come in and go back out. Getting them to keep the door closed was impossible. So we had a show on and I was reading something when out of the corner of my eye I see something crawling across the carpet and under the train table. I thought it was a baby raccoon! I started squealing and pretty much running around the apartment without a clue what to do. All the while the boys just keep watching their show. I grab a broom and try to locate where he's gone. No luck. So I pick up the phone and call Jim. As it's ringing I swear I hear a voice in my head laughing saying to me, "What in the heck is Jim going to do at work?" So I hung up. Both the boys were now planted on the couch and I realized hey I live in a dang apartment complex this is what maintenance is for! I called and a woman Sharon answered. I hysterically told her I needed maintenance to come get a baby raccoon. She starts laughing and says she thinks baby raccoon's are cute and will be right down! No joke she came barreling down the hill in that golf cart with a cigarette dangling from her lips. I thought oh my I'm about to get shown up! She tossed the cigarette down and said, "All right where is he?" I had finally located the bugger hiding behind our toilet and locked him in the bathroom. I let her in and just heard a few tussles and a, "Come here you!" Next thing I know she's coming out with this little head poking out of a towel. That weren't no raccoon it was a baby possum! She put him outside and the little bugger turned on her like he would bite her if she came too close. She laughed and said it was perfect she'd just returned from a funeral and this was exactly what she had needed to cheer her up. Hey whatever I can do to help right?? The moral of the story...... we keep that screen door closed now that's for sure.

Hello.... Maintenance?

It only took two attempts and one successful escape for me to call Maintenance and request a chain on our front door. Coop has figured out how to undo the bolt and take off to the playground when he so chooses! Now he stands with his foot in the door and yells, 'Help me Momma I stuck!"

How I Learned To Open A Coconut

I have to admit when I was younger my sister and I would take hours to open a coconut. It took a hammer, huge nails and lots of newspaper to protect ground. We would bang on that thing for what seemed like forever to get some coconut. Well I seem to be hitting a coconut phase and have a new one every few days. Of course this fell on Jim who could open it much quicker and easier than I could.

I asked Jim to open the next coconut and he said he'd do it. Said coconut remained on the counter for many days. I reminded him and even threw in a few pleases. When we hit the two week mark I asked if he was ever going to get around to opening the dern thing and he said if it was on his honey do list then he'd get to it when he got to it. Bleerrg. So the next day wanting my coconut I went on youtube. Do you have any idea how cool youtube is???? (Yes I know I'm behind the times.) I watched 3 different people crack open a coconut easy peasy. I pulled out the hammer and had that bad boy opened cracked and peeled in under 5 minutes. I was pretty proud of my accomplishment.

Wouldn't you know Jim came home that night and asked me where the coconut was he wanted to open it?

Hawey... I Mean Bebba Visit

Bebba was in town and dropped by for a visit this weekend. It was so much fun!! What was funnier was Coop greeting her at the door. Bebba's daughter and their Aunt Hawey have almost identical curly hair. Coop get saying, "Hi Hawey, I mean Bebba!" We went for a walk and ended up at the playground. Coop decided he didn't want his diaper or pants on (to be fair it was almost 100 degrees) and peed on a bunch of ants. On the way home they got to chase some geese!

What Cooper Sees

No it's not a stick, it's a magic wand that does something to puddles of water. I'm not sure what but he and Bear will each get a stick and furiously splash at it while Coop says, "zippity, zappity zip!"

That's Not A Train Track

The good ol train track. We bought the dern thing because the boys love trains and have to carry one with them at all times. Nobody told us though we'd spend most of our time picking up trains all over the apartment or that we'd have to build a new track every 30 minutes because it's so much fun for them to pick the pieces off and throw them across the room. This is especially baffling because they've literally begged us for 20 minutes to build it so it is always surprising when they then destroy it!

Jim builds these nice elaborate tracks whereas I couldn't even do a circle for the longest time. Seriously I just didn't use any logic at first to think hey if you do this on one side use the same style on the other side. I just kept throwing the tracks down hoping they'd meet up. Well when I finally started using my brain about it I build a nice little track. I was pretty proud of myself. (See above example.) Jim said it was "cute" and while I took a client call he expanded it a bit so the boys could have some options. (See said expansion below.)
He just likes the oooohhhhhs and ahhhhhs I give with his cool train track creations. But all of this is just to tell the story of the next little train track I built. After them demolishing the big one that I'd put together I decided to go for a small tight circle and see what would become of it. When I finished and declared, "Taaaa Daaaa your new train track!" Cooper shook his head and said, "No Momma that's not a train track." (See below sniff...sniff.)

Cuddle Bugs

NFL Baby

Cooper's foray into Little Tacklers. I don't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. He would take the ball and RUN. From one end of the gym to the other. He'd stop by me to get a sip of water then go back to running. Forget listening to the coach or the other kids he just wanted to run. We figure if football doesn't work out there's always track!

No Words to Describe

Sometimes it's better not to ask.

How To Eat A Banana

This is a long video (2:46) but I couldn't resist posting it.

What Bear Sees

I found a stack of Jim's card's and showed one to Bear. He immediately started yelling, "Dada! Dada!" Sort of like the time we were in Whole Foods and a man in uniform came by and both the boys yelled, "Daddy!" and went running to him!

Emily Playdate

With our quick trip up to Northern Virginia for Crabfest we were lucky enough to slip a visit in with Katie and Emily. Katie had the daunting task of finding a playground for us to meet at since she now lives out in Alexandria and we were out in Haymarket. (Sorry Katie!) She found Bull Run Park which touted a really cool tot playground. We showed up and it was taped off with caution tape and a sign saying closed because of high standing water. We weren't scared though. (Mostly because we didn't know where any other playgrounds might be!)

There was sliding, climbing monkey bars and the rings but nothing held a candle to throwing rocks into the puddle. Nothing could compare to Cooper throwing a rock in the water then looking to Emily to cheer him on and give him a high five!

CrabFest 2008

The boys got excited when we pulled the suitcase out. I was in the bedroom getting stuff together and came out to them both inside the suitcase ready for a trip to the Monihan's for CrabFest 2008!
We had absolutely gorgeous weather so we spent it outside hanging with family and friends. Oh and many many crab legs!!


Everyone stuffed and enjoying the cool air.
While Coop didn't partake in the crab legs he took all the little lobster and crab table cloth weights and wore them proudly for almost all of the evening. We changed him for night time and he put them all on his pajama's!

Snipits

Cashew Drama
It's been a very long time since we introduced new foods to the boys in terms of allergens. I had a wild hair to make them a combination of cashew and almond butter. Turns out they are STILL allergic! Poor Cooper especially. Even though he can now do almonds, pecans and brazil nuts I thought for sure he could do cashews now. I'll have to do some research on the difference in the nuts or the allergens. I gave him 2 cashews and within a few minutes he complained about his lips. I had a sense of dread but he just went over to his little potty and yakked his little guts up. It was interesting he knew to use the potty. Still scratching my head on that one. Does that mean throwing up in the toilet is innately learned? All the while Bear was screaming at us because it had derailed him getting his banana. Bear only got a super runny nose and red cheeks. So suffice it to say we won't be doing cashews again any time soon!

Favorite Phrases
Bear's is, "Help Momma." (Mostly when I'm putting him down to sleep it's soo cute!)
Cooper's is, "Stop Momma, No WAY!" You have to imagine the hand out with total emphasis on the STOP.

Summer Camp Debate
I got an e-mail this morning detailing this super fun summer camp that both of the boys could go to twice a week from 9 am - 12. I got a little excited UNTIL I saw that it was $60 a day for both of them. Granted I'm all for paying child care providers good money but we just don't have that extra right now. Except this morning was yet another drama of getting the boys into the daycare at the gym. They literally go in kicking and screaming. Whereas before they would play on the play set or color or do things with other kids now they just get dumped in the movie room and never come out. They could watch plenty of tv at home you know? Cooper has started hitting and saying stop it and I know it's something he learned there. I even saw him push Bear down!! I really have to figure out how to appropriately respond to that because it literally just shocked me. So I've sent out the request to the Universe and I'm visualizing $600 extra showing up so the boys can start summer camp! I think it would help Coop get ready for pre-school in the fall too. Mostly I am really wanting to give them a different experience.

We've Graduated
My standard errands consist of grocery shopping, Wal-Mart, Total Mail and Kangaroo for gas. I am proud to report that Bear is now allowed out of the shopping cart and we have a 90% success rate with him sticking close and not tearing the store apart. Today at Wal-Mart they ran up to the greeter and just had a little conversation with the guy and got stickers. They then proceeded to tell every other employee they could find about their stickers it was so cute. The kicker was yesterday we took them to Toys-R-Us. Wowie we were not prepared. The boys had a blast. We went in for shoes and a slide that folds up. I'd seen it last year and really want something that I can throw over the patio so we can play close to the apartment. Well my memory was a bit off because the slide was for 1-2 year olds and Coop kept trying to slide down but he would slide and jam his feet and go flying forward. He was smiling though and laughing but we decided to get the bigger slide. So up to this point they were wide eyed but nothing compares to the pure and sheer shock that overtook them as we rounded the corner and they saw bikes, trains and every other toy invented. They ran that store up and down. Touched EVERYTHING. They spent the most time with the Thomas trains and longingly eyed them when we had them put the boxes of stuff they pulled down back. They bounced every ball and tried to get us to buy one of just about everything. We had to backtrack to find the shoes and Coop demanded he put on his new shoes now and then Bear had to have his new shoes on so the lady was shocked when she opened the box to old torn apart tennis shoes but we laughed. Last year they hated sandals and this year they LOVE them. On the way out they saw the bikes again. Coop had to get on one (so yes Bear had to get on one.) But Coop wouldn't move until he got a helmet on. So Bear had to have a helmet. So here we are in Toys-R-Us laughing our tails off with the boys perched on bikes (with training wheels) and helmets with huge plastic tags on pretending they know what they are doing. Did I mention the helmets where for 5 and up so they were HUGE on them?

When we told them it was time to go Coop said, "Bye bye bike, see you soon."

May 2008 Update

June is here!! I can’t believe how quick May zoomed in and out. We were busy in May so I didn’t get to post all the Monihan happenings. Jim had a lot of work events and I was pretty slammed with classes a mid-term and clients. I tried to keep the boys on schedule with going to the gym but they are not wanting to go lately. Coop will say no to going to the gym and say bye to it all the time if we pass it. But they go in screaming every day. It’s on the edge of embarrassing me and it takes a lot to embarrass me these days. Not sure what it’s about. It’s like they just don’t have as good as a time. They do have new staff so it could be that or maybe its new kids. Makes it harder for me to want to stay longer but that could just be my excuse!!

No big news on Jim’s career change. The big ol board met and he’s trying to get a physical done. He sat there watching ESPN for 8 hours today waiting to get a physical and then they sent him away for some glitch. (I have to admit I’m not looking forward to the bureaucracy.) HOWEVER Jim did say he would be fine if he never watched ESPN again so as far as I’m concerned it was a good day lol! We expect to hear in 2-4 weeks what the deal is so as we’ve been saying for what seems like forever we’ll let you know as soon as we know.

Bear turned 2 on May 27th! Where has the time gone??? Other than that life is pretty much potty training for Coop and weaning for Bear. The stubborn gene is alive and kicking in our house that’s for sure. But I guess it keeps things interesting. I was talking to Jamie the other day and said I wish I knew a psychic that would tell me if we were going to ever have a girl. A few hours later a client came over and asked me if I was going to have another kid. I vehemently shook my head no and said we were done. She said and I quote, “Oh I am sorry Abbie but I’m a little psychic and I see you with a girl.” GULP. I had an interesting conversation today with our grounds keeper and was reminded just how grateful I am for my children and their “health” issues. He was telling me that the only way I could help my children eat well in school was if they were in private school so we needed to start saving now. Am I naïve to think just because our children go to public school it means they will start eating everything but what we pack for them? I was hunting through pictures and was shocked to see some older pictures of Coop and all the tape he endured so he couldn’t get to his skin. It feels like that phase was just yesterday but in the same breath at times I forget what we endured. It reminded me of the many people who still think he just outgrew his allergies and eczema. Sometimes that frustrates me because it takes away from all the hard work we’ve done and from the hard work that is still to come. It’s hard to be so different sometimes. But that’s typically when I’m feeling sorry for myself and wanting a pat on the back.

Yesterday Cooper and Bear greeted every single person we came across. They literally stopped a group of kids from their trek to the playground to say hi to each one. Then as they left they said bye over and over until each one said goodbye back. Today Cooper helped an older gentleman down a flight of stairs it was simply delightful. Tonight is bath night and Jim has figured it out!! He’s made a clean up song and making the sudsing part fun instead of them freaking out over water going over the heads. Now Coop is running around the apartment with his frog towel saying, “where’s momma?” Looks like my blogging time is up!

What Cooper Sees

Believe it or not this is a "Red Cookie." He likes to eat tomatoes as you would an apple or as a cookie.