Emmy's Visit

Emily (and her mom Katie) came to visit in August for two days. The boys had such a good time taking her to the pool and playing. (Of course I had a blast hanging out with Katie too!)

Favorite Sayings

Coop's favorite sayings right now:
"No momma I can't, I quit." (We no longer watch NiHao Kilan anymore.)
"Super Cooper to the rescuuuuuue!"
"Turn around momma, spin me."
"No Bear, not a toy."
"You dance Momma."
"Look I'm doing the nanna dance."


Bear's favorite sayings right now:
"I'm sad."
"Dat you." i.e. thank- you.
"No."
"It's mine."

Hold On Tight

Super Cooper

Coop loves to don his cape and become "Super Cooper". What's even funnier is that now he has to have his hat and sunglasses to complete the outfit. I think he even went for a whole day with this outfit on telling everyone he saw, "Hey guys, I found a hat, cape & sunglasses!"

"You Got Me"

Notice that just the threat of being tickled brings on more hysteria than the actual tickle! I just adore listening to the pure joy and laughter Coop exudes. The other day at The Castle (aka Whole Foods) one of the employees followed us to our table and said she had heard his laughter around the store and it had made her day. I thanked her but really felt so lucky because I could hear that joy many times each and every day!

I Want You!

Come on throw a flag around him and he's Uncle Sam!!

Little Rituals

Most mornings as I listen to the monitor I hear Bear playfully calling out, “Moooommmma!”

Cooper very forcefully admonishes, “No Bear quiet, time to sleep!”

Bear responds, “Mommaa!” (A little louder!)

Cooper says, “Shhhhhhhh Bear that not a sleep.”

I go in to get them and Bear throws himself down and pulls a pillow over him with a big grin on his face and starts snoring loudly.

So I say, “Shhhh Cooper let’s be very quiet Bear is sleeping.” Snores continue. I get Coop out of the crib and we do our morning dance and say hi to GiGi (her pictures are on the wall) and then we go to Bear’s crib who is now grinning from ear to ear but his eyes are shut. I say, “Hmmmm I guess we need to leave and let Bear keep sleeping.”

Bear pops up with his arms open wide, “Momma!!!” Cooper and I yell, “There’s Bear yeahhhhh!!!” I grab him for him the morning Bear dance and then we can begin the morning!

Now after naps the boys love to eat their banana's. So it seems like the only thing to do is to have a "Nanna Dance." So the boys will both typically dance a jig for their banana's. (Not always though, sometimes they just want the banana and will scream but most of the time I get a dance out of them!)

It's Jamie

Coop picks up the phone at the Marbles Kid's Museum and says, "Hello?" He then listens for a second and then hands me the phone and says, "Hey look Momma it's Jamie!" Now every time he gets a phone he hands it to me and says that it's Jamie... so cute!

Marbles Kid's Museum

There is a local musuem here in Raleigh called Marbles Kid's Museum. They have kid versions of all things "adult" so they can learn about them. The boys learned how to grocery shop, garden, work the post office, use a phone booth, deal with horse stalls, dress up and put on theater shows, listen to sea shells, color, build and race a wooden car, and even steer a pirate ship. We had a blast and plan to go back often.

The Castle Adventure

Today was one of those days I wanted to just bust with joy over these two little guys. We made it to Whole Foods (or The Castle according to Coop) to do a bit of grocery shopping. Bear is in his phase where he has absolutely NO desire to be in the cart and has the glint of mischief in his eyes as he runs just outside of the boundaries he’s given. So we get there and I need to use the restroom.

As soon as I get up Bear tries to take the plunger to the toilet and Coop delights in flushing the toilet for me. All of this is cracking me up until I catch Coop on his hands and knees looking under the stall door saying, “hi guys!” to a woman. EEEEEKK. I grab them and apologize and high tail it out of there. I ask Coop to hold Bear’s hand and lead me to the fruit. No joke the boys knew exactly where to go and led me there holding hands the whole way. Everyone just sort of parted down the middle for them it was so cute. We come up to the fruit and Coop stops and says, “Ohhhhhhh it’s beeeaaaauuuutiful.” He holds Bear’s hand through the whole produce section and everything I need on my list he knows where to go to get it. A Grandma stops me and says, “Whatever you fed them for breakfast today you feed that to them every day!”

We finish up in the produce section and I ask Coop to take us to the Kombucha aisle. He grabs Bear’s hand and they take off for the opposite end of the store again. There is a guy stocking the Kombucha and Coop stops at his knees and cheers, “Bucha bucha bucha!!” The guy is so charmed he gets us a case of the strawberry so we don’t have to bag it.

Get to the line and they see an open table. They make a beeline for it and just sit there waiting patiently for me to pay. I pay and we go to sit outside in the sun and to eat a banana. As soon as I pulled them out the boys BOTH put their hands in the air and cheered for the bananas. I think Bear’s words were something like, “Nana, nana, nana!!!!” They were just so excited and everyone was so tickled at their exuberance.

We head home with a quick stop to the bank and Bear is fast asleep snoring and even some drool coming down. Coop says, “Shhh momma Bear is sleeping.” We get home and Coop helps me carry the bags in and says, “Look momma I can do it!” I respond with how strong and helpful he is and as I put my bags down Coop says, “Good job momma you did it!”