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."