Bye-Bye Poppi

Today was a hard day. Poppi came over for his last visit before heading off to Snowshoe where he will be living now. We got really used to having him really close by and coming over for daily visits. He gave the boys one last "upside down boy" ride and let Bear steal his hat again. Then he headed off as Cooper said, "Bye by Poppi I love youuuuu!"

Naked Cowboy

Ok these pictures just do not do this story justice. This is mom's cowboy hat. Chris has been bringing over things mom left for us and the latest was her cowboy hat. Cooper just loves it. He started picking it up and plopping it on then with one hand waving it over his head and at the top of his lungs yelling, "whooooooo hooooooo." We seriously have no idea where he learned it from. This morning when I got him out of his crib he was wet so I let him run around naked. He ran into our room grabbed the cowboy hat and started doing it again. I told Jim we had our very own Naked Cowboy!

Little Stinker

We've told him a zillion times not to climb on the table but he persisted until he made it!

Puddle Days

We finally got some much needed rain!!! There is this HUGE puddle at the gym now. A few days ago on the way home I let them play in it. I didn't have my camera but it was one of those moments where you know is burned in your memory forever. They jumped up and down, sprayed each other with their hands and then ran and ran and ran in this puddle. The grins on their faces were priceless. After over 30 minutes I guess they were just tired because they were each starting at opposite sides and I would yell, "Go!" and they would race to the other side. This time they just crashed into each other and fell backwards both soaking their heads in the puddle. So we came home soaking wet and got wrapped up in blankets and they both fell asleep totally exhausted as I rocked them in the recliner.

Fast forward to today. It's a bit colder than it was from just a few days ago. I had lots of errands to run so I promised them if they would pass up the gym puddle we would play with the puddles at home. We got home already soaked from all our errands and they had lost some of their excitement for puddles. This rain was much colder and they just couldn't muster up the same excitement. Bear just sort of stood in the puddle flinching when the big rain drops would hit his head. Coop got in the puddle a few times but then just stood on the outskirts of the puddle. You could tell he wanted to be part of it but he wasn't enjoying the cold water. After a few minutes I could just see Bear vibrating he was so cold. I kept calling him in but he wouldn't move he would just vibrate and smile. So I gathered them up and turned the heat on. It was so sweet- we climbed into the recliner all wrapped up in blankets and all three of us took a nap.

I love puddle days.

"Click, Take a Pic"

Coop has officially learned how to operate the camera. I have about 50 pictures of him taking pictures of himself. Every time he takes a picture he says, "Click, take a pic," or, "Cheeeeeese." He loves that part of Go Diego Go.

Lake Lynn

Got the boys ready to go to they gym this morning and by the time we got to the car I changed my mind. It was so gorgeous out I thought it would be a perfect day to go for a walk around Lake Lynn. We hadn't done it in a while. As soon as we got to the first bridge the boys wanted out to run.
Mostly it was Cooper saying, "Come on Bear!" Trying to get him to come look at the ducks with him. Coop became fascinated with the ducks and was only happy if you would hold him on the railing so he could look down on the ducks. Really most of them are geese but he just keeps on calling them duckies. When I put him down on the ground he yells, "Bye bye duckies!!" Then grabs my hand again and begs to get back up.


Bear found watching the ducks ok, but this couple came walking up and I'll be damned if he didn't just grab the Grandpa's hand and start walking with the couple. We all laughed- they have 7 grandkids of their own. They walked with us for quite a ways. Then Bear got fussy and demanded the Grandma pick him up. (I had to take a picture.) The boys stopped on the last bridge and refused to stop yelling at the ducks so the couple moved on.

The walk back didn't have as happy a start as the beginning did. Cooper refused to get back in the stroller and Bear was tired so he began to scream, and scream, and scream. He typically loves to fall asleep in the stroller but not today. It was a little (ok a lot) embarrassing as we passed all these people who kept looking at him with such sympathy. I'm thinking um what about sympathy for me??? But we made it back from another Lake Lynn adventure. Cooper walked over a mile and Bear finally fell asleep. Hopefully we get some rain soon I've never seen it so dry.

Out For a Walk

Can you believe it's October and the boys are still in shorts???

September 2007 Update

We had our Monihan Beach trip the first week of September and then the rest of the month was just to recover :-) Cooper has taken to being my little helper. His favorite thing is to climb up to the top of the stairs and yell, "Come on Bear!!" One day I was in the kitchen and they were out on the patio playing. Cooper came running in and grabbed my hand. I was in the middle of cooking but went with it. Got to the patio and there was Bear laying upside down on this bike/walker. Just hanging out with his feet up in the air enjoying the view. Without Coop poor Bear might have been there for a while before I realized he wasn't running in and out of the apartment!

They are both in a huge train phase right now. They will take the whole ride to the gym going, "Chuga chuga, chuga, choooo choooo!" Both of them doing the hand motions. We have 4 trains but they only want the one that the other has. Makes for some creative distractions when I need to get the trains away from them.

Coop loves to tell you he is stuck. If you put him in the car seat and he doesn't want to go he starts saying, "stuck" over and over and trying to wiggle out. As soon as we get home he stops at the door and sticks his foot out saying, "Shoe, shoe, shoe." I take the shoes off he starts in on the, "Toes, toes, toes." Which means socks in Cooper world. Everything is in threes! Actuallyhe just keeps saying it until he gets what he wants. Coop is doing all of his puzzles like a champ. Every time I buy one he puts all the pieces in looks at me as if I'm insulting him by not making it more challenging and then he takes the pieces to bed to play with. I have a bug bucket of puzzle pieces that he loves to play pretend with.

One day the three of us were on the recliner. Bear was nursing and Coop likes to sit on the arm and watch a show. We were watching Go Diego Go. They told the kids to get up and wiggle wiggle wiggle with them. Cooper got up on the recliner over a sleeping Sully and stuck his butt out and started to wiggle. He turned and shot me this grin I just thought it was the funniest thing. He is starting to interact now with the tv instead of just staring at it blankly. The other fun thing was getting some Backyardigan stickers from Miss Emily. We had stickers everywhere they just had a ball. I think I finally have found them all but there are still a few in the bathtub.

Bear is starting to teethe again and he loves to teethe on sticks. I have a thing full of theething type toys but he just throws them down when I try to get him to use them. He runs out the door and starts yelling, "Stick!" in case you weren't sure what he was playing with. He can point out birds and he likes to point at things and say, "What's that?" On the 19th I saw him start dancing for the first time.

Sleep continues to be a challenge. I'm learning to let go of what I think it should be and to work with what I have. There seems to be a routine of taking naps on the couch emerging but they last for 2-3 hours so I'm thinking I may just go with it.

Remember When

Remember when you were this flexible?

Corolla/Nags Head Vacation 2007

Our first Monihan beach trip to Corolla NC! (Maybe our last??) It was a gorgeous house with lots of room and right on the beach. The weather was gorgeous and we saw lots of dolphins and Shannon and Bob got to fly their kite. We also had our LobsterFest which was absolutely scrumptious!

On the flip side I got sick the day we got there with a fever and stomach issue. The boys then got sick and decided they would scream and scream and scream. Did I mention the screaming? Jim got sick, then Grandpa Gene got sick and then baby Lauren got sick. We're talking fevers, diarrhea and vomiting sick. Not so much fun for everyone. Did I mention the weather was great? We did get to spend a lot of time on the beach with the boys. Coop refused to touch the sand with his feet for the first few days. Once he got over that he was off and being Mr. Destructor. He just wanted to trample on other children's sand castles! Bear on the other hand felt like the ocean was his bath tub and if you turned your back he was running towards the water. Jim and I spent a lot of time in the water with them and they took lots of long naps on the beach. I don't think there is anything more peaceful than watching your children and husband sleeping on the beach while listening to the waves and enjoying the sun. It may not have been the perfect trip but man I will cherish the time we had on the beach forever.

Kitty Hawk 2007

After our trip to NOVA we got back to an e-mail from my Aunt/Cousin Sheryl inviting us for a few days to the beach. After our trip I was pretty exhausted and we had a Monihan beach trip coming up in a few more weeks so I wasn't sure if I could handle another trip. But I kept hearing this voice saying we needed to go on the trip. So on the 19th of August we made the trek to Nags Head.

It ended up being a total blast. As is typical we sort of exploded in Sheryl and Bill's condo. The place looks nice and clean and then we arrive. We got in late and Coop refused to sleep in the pack-n-play because he could see me and Bear in the sofa bed. He hadn't napped the entire trip so I thought he had to be exhausted but he was gearing up and ready to wake all the neighbors up. So I brought him into the bed with us and the two of them slept like angels. Me on the other hand not so good. The second night Cooper still wasn't used to having no crib and literally fell off the bed right on his head. Poor guy.

The trip was amazing. Sheryl and I headed to the beach the first day not knowing what to expect. Coop REFUSED to touch the sand with his feet. He spent the whole day in the chair it was comical. Bear on the other hand took off for the water and had a blast playing in the surf. The second day Coop started off in the chair and by the end of the day he suddenly realized he had a lot of beach to explore and he took off down the beach with Sheryl in tow. We also got to spend time in the water with both the boys which was a lot of fun.

I bought a tent on sale at CVS that poor Bill got suckered into putting up. I'm talking he had to go to the hardware store buy special pipe to hold the string and borrow hammers and neighbors even came over to help us out. I felt so bad. But we had an awesome tent that the boys could play under.

A large family came down to the beach obviously having had a few drinks. Sully just walked right into their circle and just made himself at home. Coop not wanting to be left out joined them and we got to laugh as they went from lap to lap. Sheryl and Bill went for a walk and Coop was having some sort of allergic reaction to a dog he had been petting. I needed to wash him off but couldn't do it with both Coop and Sully. You know I was desperate as I turn to these two drunk men and ask them to babysit Bear for me. I got Coop taken care of but will never in a million years forget watching these two grown men trying to balance their beers while chasing Bear around the beach. They were trying to stop him from going into the water and he just kept running in circles around them. I saw the moment they just looked at each other and gave up. They each grabbed one of his hands and let him play in the surf.

It was an amazingly fun trip and I had a really nice time with hanging out with Sheryl. Thanks Bee's for inviting us!!

Spontaneous Naptime

Poppi has found his way to get Bear down for a nap. He puts on soccer and Bear will climb into the recliner and sit in between his legs. As the game goes on he will sink lower, and lower, and lower and then Poppi will kick out the bottom and a new nap place has been born!

Round 1 Goes To Bear

Okay. The score at this point is Bear 1 Parents 0.

Not worried, though. We're the parents...we're going to have many many wins when Bear's a teenager and wants to do things. I'm practicing it now..."Because I'm the parent and because I said so!"

We've been trying for the past two months to ween Bear off nursing at night as his method to go to sleep. We put a crib in the room next to the bed and adjusted it so that his mattress was level with our's. After the first three weeks like that, we lowered the mattresses and I had the pleasure of putting him to sleep since he couldn't nurse off of me. It worked great that way for some time. He'd wake up and fuss, I'd rub his back and talk to him, and he'd go back to sleep. He would, of course, still nurse throughout the night at selected times b/c he still did need to eat, but not the point where he would have to be in bed with us.

In the past two weeks, he's resisted our efforts to the point where he wouldn't go back to sleep and would really have a fit if I didn't pull him out of the crib and hand him to Abbie in order to nurse or at least to let him lie on my stomach and chest to go to sleep.

The little bugger has both mine and Abbie's stubborn streaks, I'm afraid.

Abbie's friend, Jamie, told her that he's going to be more stubborn than us and to keep trying, although most children should be weened between 18 months and 2 years. Bear's only 15 months...not quite in the range where we can let the little bird leave the nest. So last night, I raised his bed back up and went back to the original method we had where his crib was his bed, but Abbie could nurse him as needed just by rolling over onto his mattress.

We'll ween him eventually. But he's not eating his solid foods as well as we'd like, and its a fight we've decided we would rather fight later on.

The Aftermath of Our August Adventure

After our August Adventure we returned to Raleigh and the boys literally crashed. Coop got the sickest I have ever seen him. He had an extremely high fever and he had such horrible chest congestion I wasn't sure if he was having an asthma attack or not. Three times I had the keys out and we were going to the emergency room but then he would suddenly be up and walking around and not in distress. It was an extremely trying and scary day. I can't even count the tears all three of us shed. I ended up putting both the boys on the futon in the living room and that's where we stayed all day.

The following Monday Bear got sick . He woke up vomiting on me and was out of it for two days. I joke because when Cooper is sick he just wants to lay there with you but he is pretty quiet and sleeps it off. Bear is a whole new ball game. He wiggles, he worms and he does this pitiful little whine just to let you know how miserable he is. He is such a light sleeper as it is when he's sick it's even worse!

Thankfully they both made it through that ordeal. Just wait till I tell you about our beach trip!

August 2007 Adventure

Our dear family friend Al Santiago had just had his surgery for prostate cancer and took me up on an offer to cook him some food. So I packed up the boys and off to Grandma and Grandpa's we went! We had some nice weather and played out on the patio with Grandma and Grandpa.

Coop thought it was the funniest thing to try on Grandma's glasses. Good thing Grandpa was there to hold him up :-) On Saturday the day of furious cooking and running around began. I got a late start to Whole Foods and had to frantically call Katie to come over later. Katie, Bruce, and Emily came over to keep Coop and Bear occupied while I cooked. Of course I forgot chicken for the um chicken soup and spices so Bruce made two trips to the grocery store for me. I'm so thankful for Grandma Kathy's kitchen because it had everything I could need but I still had to figure out the oven and temperatures and it just all took so much longer than I could have imagined. Next thing I know Al is calling because he's going to be heading out soon and I need to get over there soon. Food is still cooking and Coop is now napping and my helpers have left. What to do? I pack everyone up sleeping and head over to Al's! About halfway there Bear will just not stop screaming so I pull over and he has exploded in his diaper. It's all over his outfit and I have no change of clothes and only one yes one baby wipe!! So we showed up at Al's with Bear in his diaper and Cooper still grumpy from being woken up by all of Bear's screaming. They take over his townhouse and make Al climb up and down his stairs (he's not supposed to be doing that!) so they can explore. Amazing how you take baby proofing for granted. I felt horrible because I really wanted to be there helping him and instead I felt like the food was probably going to taste horrible and the boys just weren't cooperating with our visit so we packed it up again. As we were packing up the most amazing thing happened. A butterfly just softly floated around Al then around me and then around a wind chime that my mom had given Al. I literally drove away in tears because as hard as the trip had been I knew mom had been there helping.
Sunday we packed up again and headed for a trip to visit with Chris. She had just had a surgery for cervical cancer and we wanted to check in on her and her family. The boys were great and I got to spend a little time with my friend. Just what the doctor ordered (for me at least). Then we headed home and believe it or not I think the boys have gotten used to traveling they do it so well now.