Our "Backyard"

This was one of our outings in our "backyard". It was one of the first really cold days and I couldn't get Cooper to put on his jacket for anything. This is when he started his hoarding phase. Everything he saw he would collect and take with him. He wouldn't drop the chalk or the soccerball all day. I had to let him eat with the soccer ball on the table! Sully on the other hand was happy to be all bundled up and watch as we ran around.

December 06 Update

Oh where to start….. Life with the boys is never dull that much is for sure. After a lot of traveling to Northern Virginia and then to Charlotte for Thanksgiving we all succumbed to a nasty little bug. Sully started us off with a fever and congestion that was heartbreaking to watch. He doesn’t quite get that you can breathe through your mouth yet so he would try to breathe through his nose and then suddenly his arms would start flapping until he would figure out how to take a breath. That was three nights of torture but he pulled through that to let the rest of us get it. I had a 24 hour bug where I got knocked flat out for a day of fever and misery and a few days of a really sore throat with white lumps. Coop had a fever for a few days and his turned into a nice cough. Jim kept saying he was getting sick but he’s escaped any of the fever or misery. So everyone is on the mend now thankfully.

The boys have turned on me! Not really turned on me but they both decided to hit the phase of-if mommy isn’t holding me I’m going to start crying and screaming and they do it at the same time! I knew I was in for it when I went into the kitchen and Sully would start screaming at the top of his lungs raising his arms up for me to pick him up. Then as soon as you pick him up he is pushing away to get to something else that he wants in his mouth. The frustration is nothing works! He just wants to be everywhere at every moment. Fascinating to watch. I do remember though at 6 months Cooper went through the same thing so that made me feel better to remember it is just normal and will pass. I just got used to being able to go to the bathroom without having to bring the boys with me. Cooper literally chases me in there and Sully I have to bring or risk someone calling child protective services on me J I tell Jim it’s so hard to be so loved…sigh!

I decided to join a little gym right up the street that is run by two sweet women who welcome children. Monday was my first day. I was embarrassed that the boys were so fussy, they usually are happy to play with whoever is playing with them. I attributed it to them being a little tired (wishful thinking!) I packed them up to try it again Tuesday thinking it would be better….. ha ha ha ha ha! Sully was having a ball but Cooper decided that he wanted to have full access to the gym and didn’t want to stay in the kid area. Full tantrum mode. Throwing himself down with horrible sobs. I’m talking full belly hiccups and snot all over his face. At one point he had calmed down and I pulled out my bag of tricks some sweet potato chips and left the bag with him. A few minutes later I hear one of the women yelling, “Cooper!!!” I dropped my weights and went running over and he was literally shoving the potatoes in his mouth so that his cheeks were puffed out and he wasn’t swallowing. I still have no idea what that was about but the poor women were freaked out! So I gave her the bag to give him one at a time and she asked him to say please and he started screaming again. I forgot to tell her that when you try to get him to say please he starts screaming. (I’m choosing to not pick that battle right now but I forgot to mention that to her.) The ladies were angels though and weren’t upset by it at all. Wednesday I went in better prepared. I pulled a full tub of toys I was planning on rotating with the current toys and brought them to the gym. We were able to put up a barrier and I got through almost the entire workout! I swear Cooper is too funny. I give him a full bowl of the sweet potatoes at home or a whole banana and he will eat it regularly. But in front of Diane he shoves the ENTIRE thing in his mouth. Freaked her out again on Wednesday. I think he is being funny- I really do. Thursday I waited till Jim got home and I went alone. I don’t want them to revoke my membership!! Next week they will have a tv so I think that will keep them better occupied. Cooper did get his way though on the way out on Wednesday. He broke loose and ran to the step of the ONLY woman in there working out and tried jumping with her. She laughed and jumped with him thankfully.

Sully is up on his knees and crawling backwards! He gets where he wants by rolling or skootching around and last week he started moving backwards. I think it’s a frustrating time for him right now because he just wants to be where Cooper is and he wants to be there now! I’m going to pull out the video camera so I can get his first real crawl forward!

Important Announcement: There will be no more naked baby time in the Monihan house. Cooper jumped up today from getting his diaper changed and went running around the apartment. I tend to think it’s cute because he will go into the Downward Dog yoga position and I’ll start laughing and he starts laughing and it’s our little thing. I start saying, “downward dog downward dog!” and he giggles and I’ll finally get him in his diaper. So today he’s running around and I get Sully changed and then finally get Coop all changed and dressed. I’m making breakfast and I notice Sully on the other side of the room now but his hair is soaking wet. Cooper had peed on Sully’s play mat! Kind of like a dog marking his territory. I couldn’t believe it. Needless to say there will be no more naked baby time until they are potty trained!

Everybody keeps asking how they boys are doing together. I think that depends on the moment. Sully adores Coop. The love in his eyes is so sweet. I wish Cooper understood it. Unfortunately all Cooper sees is Sully wants his toys and there is a lot of frustration there. I now have certain things that are only Sully’s and only Coop’s. Everything else is fair game. Coop will go from pushing Sully away from him to reaching over to give him kisses or pat his head. His latest is to grab his nose and saying nose but Sully isn’t quite keen on that little game. Twice now when Sully has been crying I’ve seen Cooper grab a toy and go give it to him. Then on two other occasions I’ve caught Cooper well pretty much lying on top of Sully in what I’m thinking was meant to be a hug but Sully just didn’t know it. After I got him off of Sully he went to Sully’s face and cupped both his hands on his cheeks and gave him a kiss. Talk about melting my heart.

Cooper’s jibberish is starting to turn into real words. Today he said, “One Two Three!” He is into animal sounds right now. Meow, roaaaar and woof-woof he says in the car over and over. He loves to say “Choo Choo”. Sounds a bit more like, “shooo shooo” but he pumps his arm in the air as he says it. His favorite toy is his cho cho train. This thing goes everywhere with him. He eats with it, sleeps with it and takes a bath with it. One night I watched him wake up just to find it and he cuddled with it and sighed and went back to sleep. We’ll say, “Ok Coop let’s get ready for night-night.” He will literally start running around the apartment looking for the train and then run into his room saying, “night-night.” Now he’s got to have a lego on the back end of it for some reason. He is very particular about it. It’s really a fun stage because you just know he’s soaking it all in and learning so much. Yesterday I was telling a car, “Go, go, go!” Cooper started yelling, “Go, go, go!”

Well that’s the update for now.

Sully Bear Update

Sully is now 5 1/2 months. Two days before he turned 4 months he started to roll back and forth. You can not turn your back on him or he's rolling! Pretty much every direction he just rolls himself over to where he wants to go. Today I watched him do superman's. You know where he is pushing himself up and his toes are up in the air. He was rocking and getting so frustrated because he wanted to be where we were.

His hand eye coordination is remarkable. Especially if he sees your fingers and he's in the mood to chomp on them. I'll sit him up and put a few toys in front of him and he will systematically grab one, chomp on it, then literally throw it to the side.

He has found his voice. In the afternoon he really likes to make high pitch noises just to hear himself. It's actually really cute, I go out of eye sight and he starts squeeling. He'll be in his exersaucer and push up on his tip toes leaning to the side to see me. I come back and his squeel turns into a delightful laugh.

His favorite toy now are his own toes! He sits up and leans over and just chomps away. At the conference last week the child care providers just laughed and laughed they said his toes kept him occupied for most of the day.

But nothing is as funny as him using his muscles to stop the swing. I was changing Cooper's diaper and I heard the hum of the swing just stop. Knowing we had just replaced the batteries I thought something was wrong. I looked over and there was Sully as happy as a clam just holding the swing still in mid swing. He then just let go and once he got his momentum going would reach up and grab hold again. As soon as he has my attention he shoots a look like, what, what I'd do?

Exercising

In the mornings I'll pull out my rebounder and exercise balls. As you can see Sully likes to balance his ball on all fours while Cooper just likes to steal my exercise balls. They are five pounds each and Cooper will pick one up take it away then pick up the other one leaving me to well.... take pictures! Who needs to workout anyway??

GiGi's Visit

GiGi and Poppi came down for my birthday and gave me a present like no other! They babysat while Jim and I went out to a restaurant for the first time in oh 5 1/2 months! Not only that when we returned they let us take a nap. Now that is a birthday present!

Aunt Haley Visit

In October Haley came up for a fun visit. We had big plans to go visit a pumpkin patch but the boys fell asleep so we had a mini road trip and kept driving and driving looking for yard sales. We happened upon one that had some great toys for the boys. Once they woke up we decided to find a new playground. After some endless driving we decided to consult a map and found a new playground about a mile away. Who knew!

We also went for a nice walk around Lake Lynn. About halfway around we let Cooper out to walk. He did his usual walking up to strangers and talking to their knee caps. One gentelman offered Cooper some bread to feed the ducks and Cooper would squeel every time he threw the bread. Then he figured out the bread tasted good so that little game was over. After the last bridge a family came walking down and Cooper walked up to the man who crouched down and said, "Give me five little man." Cooper threw his arms around him and I have Haley as a witness he said, "Are you my dada?" We all pretty much started to laugh hysterically. We came home and had to break the news to Jim. He took it pretty well but for the next few weeks he played a lot more with the boys when he got home from work.

Unfortunately Aunt Haley had to leave. We loved having her here and are eagerly awaiting another visit and scrabble re-match!

Let The Updates Begin

So................. It turns out all the issues I thought I was having with blogger was just the fact that I had my pop up blocker on! So that means I have like 3 months of pictures to post. Just giving you a heads up :-)

Abbie

Mama's Little Helper

My little helper. Cooper runs to the dishwasher and will hand me each item one by one as we put dishes away. If I turn my back and leave the utensil drawer open he will throw the utensils in there for me. When we are done we say, "Closing" and he literally tosses the door closed and locks it for me.

If we are doing laundry then he will run to the dryer and pull all the laundry out for me and put it in a basket and he loves to run around with the cover to the lint catcher.

I think I've been giving him a little bit too much positive reinforcement for being my little helper because he now goes to great lengths to dump every basket and bring me all the contents... piece by piece. I left the lid drawer open and after three lids coming to me I realized what was happening and had to nip that little game in the bud.

And my favorite thing ever......... finding the whole toilet paper role in the toilet. Thanks Coop :-)

Great Auntie Susan and Great Auntie Lisa Visit

Back in September Great Auntie's Lisa and Susan drove up from Charlotte for a nice visit. Cooper ran around showing them all his toys and giggling at the Micky Mouse Club.

Brotherly Love

Cooper loves to hug and kiss Sully and sit with him. (Most of the time at least.)Yesterday on a walk I wish I had a video camera. Sully kept sliding over onto Cooper who would whine and try to avoid Sully's hand. Well Cooper would move and Sully would instinctively grasp onto Cooper's shirt holding him in place. Cooper thinking Sully was doing this on purpose was getting really frustrated. I showed him how to take his hand and put it to the side and hoped he wouldn't start throwing his hand around. Instead he took Sully's hand and held it! I hope this brotherly love lasts and lasts and lasts!!

Lobster Fest 2006

Sully and Lauren showing us their
cabbage patch doll impersonations!


Grandpa & Cooper
enjoying some of the
ol' bubbly.



Cooper was obviously smitten
with baby Lauren and wanted
to tell her he loved her.


Gene showing his boys how
to open oysters. With hot
sauce they really weren't
that bad!


Jim showing off his dinner.
Yummmmmmmmmmy


This years Lobsterfest was a blast as usual. The lobster, scallops, clams and oysters were delectable and no splashing butter to burn everyone so we were all very happy. (Already making room for next year!) My camera battery died after only a few pictures but you would have seen Cooper jumping in everyone's lap and still refusing to call me mom but Abbie to show off. Sully and Lauren were pretty quiet just biding their time and giving Cooper his last chance to hog all the attention. You would not have seen a picture of Shannon or Bob holding the babies. I think they both ran as soon as it looked like Sully might be coming in their direction. Seriously I think I saw skid marks from their car when they left. :-) Grandpa and Grandma sure can throw a party!!!

Spontaneous Naptime

Nothing beats a day when you just lay Sully down and if is tired he just sort of drifts off to sleep. He opens one eye to make sure I'm there every once in a while and then bam he's out! This is picture of him over a month ago, but he's been taking these spontaneous naps lately so it reminded me to put up a picture!

Magic Blue Chair

These pictures were taken over a month ago, but too cute not to post. I found them both in this chair fast asleep knocking out some z's.

The Job Continues

Sorry its been so long since we posted. We've been around taking care of things.

I wanted to let everyone know that we'll be down here in Raleigh for a little while longer, it appears. I got word that my job was reinstated at the school. When I took this job with COMTek, it was a temporary position, and Cadet Command had originally deleted it, effective on 1 October. The Lieutenant Colonel in charge had been fighting to keep the position since she took over back in the summer. Without a body in the recruiting slot, it would be lost. And without recruiting, there wouldn't be any cadets enrolled to save the program.

I'd actually applied to this position back in May, but was passed over for it by the previous commander. The guy he chose was in the position for about two months, and then moved to a ROTC position in South Carolina...so it was open again. This time, I got it (probably helped that I was the only person willing to take the job and for only two months at that).

Two weeks ago, we got to meet with the Region Commander. I got to tell him my concern about the position. My boss echoed my sentiment. The Region Commander took what we said to heart, and got the position reinstated...we took the slot from Duke University, but that's not a big deal...they're the only NC school commissioning less than us on a regular basis.

To pat myself on the back, LTC Haynes, my boss, told me last week that we had effectively doubled the enrollment to the program over last year. The next step is to retain these students. Hey, my job is to recruit them, its the instructor's jobs to retain them.

We haven't finalized if Raleigh is our new home of choice, and we're exploring all options. We'll post here once we have something more concrete. Just know that as of now, this job will last through October 2007 at least.

Cheers.

It Starts

Soooo, we have a comfort corner (same thing as a naughty corner or naughty mat for you Super Nanny fans) that we use for Cooper when he's in trouble or needs a time out. We always give him a warning and then when he does it again (because he ALWAYS does), he goes and sits on the pillow in his corner.

Back in NoVA, his comfort corner was next to the basement door on the main level. Here in Raleigh, his corner is between the couch and the balcony sliding glass door.

Until yesterday, his M.O. was to cry cry cry when he got put into the comfort corner. Yesterday, he exhibited something new...Manipulation Through Charm (MTC).

I put him in his comfort corner because he kept spitting water all over the carpet (we now have wet spots all over the apartment thanks to him). Abbie warned him once, and then I put him in his corner. He cried for all of about five seconds, and watched to see what I was going to do. I told him "two minutes in your corner" and explained why he was there. I walked away.

Abbie was sitting on the opposite side of the room on the futon mattress we use as Cooper's couch. He tested us with standing up and with getting off his pillow, each time causing me to come over and reset his butt on it. Then he did it...MTC.

He leaned slightly out beyond the edge of the couch so that he and Abbie could make eye to eye contact...and he gives her a sly smile like, "Hi Momma, I love you!" "Hi Momma, why don't you let me out of this corner?" "Hi Momma, don't you love my cute smile?"

It almost worked, but Abbie hung strong. Cooper got his two (turned into five) minutes in his corner, then came out with a simple reiteration of why he was there and how to avoid going back to it.

MTC. New parents, remember it. Especially you new dads that have daughters....ahem, John. I don't think your watch will save you when she gets MTC down.