Sully's First Bath

Sully took to his first full bath without even a flinch. He just sat back and let us take our obligatory pictures and get him all cleaned up. We thought man this is just way too easy. We got him all wrapped up in his towel and robe and ....
he was still happy until bam who knows what happened maybe he realized he was cold but we got the cry after the first bath picture!

Ok seriously how cute can he be???

July 2006

Cooper's favorite treat is to eat an avocado right out of the skin now. He will lick it clean! Thankfully Cooper is throwing less and less of his temper tantrums. With the birth of Sullivan I think his world was just a little rocked and he had to adjust. Don’t get me wrong he still can throw a tantrum but we’ve learned a few tricks. First we got consistent- I know- imagine that! He must have been sent to the corner in daycare (or seen it happen) we have surmised because one time he was in trouble someone pointed to go a different direction and he went right to the corner and put his nose in it! We have created the “Comfort Corner.” It has a pillow and it’s where he goes when he is having a really horrible tantrum. Granted he is still pretty young for this. (We’ve been recording Super Nanny and taking notes!) So when he threw his water bottle at me for the umpteenth time and bruised my ankle Jim told him he needed to not do that again and apologize to me. Well that didn’t seem acceptable so he proceeded to scream and throw himself around so Jim put him in the CC till he could calm down. He knew what he was doing. He would cry if we were looking in his direction. As soon as we would turn our heads he would try to sneak out. But Jim was on him like white on rice man. It took a few trys but he finally sat there, got calm and then came out ready to play. Although he never apologized he hasn't been throwing his bottles at my feet anymore. No joke he would wait for me with all his empty sippy cups to throw them at me. I never screamed or gave a reaction but for some reason he felt he needed to do it. Anyway now we just tell him he needs to stop (insert behavior) or he will go to the CC and he stops. We’ll get back to everyone in another 6 months on that one.

We now have our trashcan elevated on a stool. We have lost way to many tupperware lids to the trash now. If you've lost it in our house look in the trash!

He is now climbing down the stairs now. Until now it was just up. That has opened a whole new world. He is fanatical about closing all the doors. He says, “Closing” but it sounds like “cloo.” Something new for us is one second he’s there and the next he’s GONE. We had to take the baby gates down for painting and he is taking full advantage of that. Coop used to avoid the top of the stairs like the plague. He made it to the basement one day and all the bills we had put in a crate to be filed were strewn all over the floor! Hard to get mad when he looks like he had a blast doing it.

Cooper must have my stubborn streak. He has learned some baby signs which make our life much easier. He will say eat and put his fingers together. His finger to his mouth is drink. Wipe your hands across the tray for all done. He even will say GiGi!! But the little bugger refuses to say Mamma. Our conversations go a little something like this:

Abbie: Can you say GiGi?
Cooper: GiGi
Abbie:Can you say Mamma?
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: Mamma
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: Mamma
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: MAMMA
Cooper:DADDA
Abbie:MAMMA
Cooper:DADDA
Jim: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!"


We couldn't believe how much stuff we have. This was one day of trash!

His comprehension of words is getting better and better. He used to wave but not know why he was doing it just that he was getting praise for it. Now he knows what goodbye means and will wave without any prompting. One day I left for a bit and as I was pulling out I looked back at the house and there was Cooper at the door waving goodbye to me. I honestly don't know how to explain the lump in my throat when I saw him doing that.

He still says, “baby” but mostly now it sounds like, “pappy” and will pet Sully. He likes to sit next to him and play footsies with him it’s very cute. Sometimes a pained look will still come over him and you know he’s upset that the baby is in my arms. But boy oh boy what a difference a little time makes. He is such a patient little guy. When I'm nursing he's either playing, or sitting next to me. He tries to crawl on top of Sully only when he's really tired but other than that he just waits it out. I've learned to do the poop patrol at the same time which saves a lot of time!

And oh my goodness is Sullivan is such a little gem. He is gooooing a lot and sleeping a lot….. during the day. He likes to get all his gas at night and will wake me up every hour and a half usually punching me with his little boxer arms. Once he finally gets the gas out he’s ready to nurse and go back to sleep. I’ve been lucky that Jim has been there to get Cooper at 6:30 to make him breakfast so I can get another hour of sleep still.

Sully loves to push up and stand up on your lap. Nowadays if you jump on the rebounder he is smiling within 5 seconds and 30 seconds later his eyes are rolling up into his head. It’s absolutely a phenomenon. Nothing else works like the rebounder. We can’t even put him in the swing until he’s mostly asleep. We’ve broken him on the swing though. He pretty much has to have it during the day or every time Cooper screams or pokes him when he’s sleeping on the couch he’s awake. I just can't describe how easy Sully makes it. He cries very little and goes to sleep pretty easily. Besides the fact that he continues to poo on me constantly I really can't complain. We were eating out during the big packing phase and he did break out in eczema. That was a huge bummer. But I stopped eating all dairy and wheat and within 2 days it was gone. (phew)

I'm watching him now in his swing making his little chipmunk noises. If you would have told me a few years ago my heart was capable of holding this much love for these two children I wouldn't have been able to imagine it. We may complain about the poo's or the temper tantrums but I wouldn't give it up for the world.

This is Sully's toy that Cooper isn't allowed on. It drives Cooper nuts to not be able to crawl all over it!!

If You Write It Down... You Will Make It Happen

11 months ago when I got pregnant Jim and I talked about it and knew that we really wanted to make a change. I wanted to stay home with the kids and we wanted a bigger home. (We are literally busting at the seams in this townhouse. I'm not kidding our basement just became our storage unit!) We went about life and Jim started a job search. He would scour the job boards and sent out over 200 resumes. He was offered one job here in Alexandria which would have just kept us in the same situation so he declined that. That seemed like hope and that more job opportunities would be coming- but they didn’t. The months went by and Jim kept looking and looking. And looking and looking and looking. And looking.

Maybe Jim was looking for the wrong job we thought? Jim has always had a passion to help people and all of the office jobs weren’t really doing it for him. He really wanted to do something military related or become a police officer. So in June we knew time was running up and we needed to do something. We put up some butcher paper and pulled out the markers. We had read that if you write down your goals you are more likely to make them happen in a short time. So we wrote our mission down.

*Jim find a job with benefits
*Abbie stay at home
*Abbie find work from home opportunity
*Move to a lower cost of living area

Then we wrote down all the ways we could think of to do it. We came up with three options and evaluated which one would work best for us and we went into action. It wasn’t easy- Jim had one obstacle after the other when he was trying to get his applications for different police jobs notarized. But he got it done and we made our plans to hit Charlotte and Raleigh to apply in person. Jim started to ask for help! (Something I've learned he hates to do.) Both of our parents were using all of their networking to help Jim find a job. Next thing we know my Aunt Beverly is calling because she used to date the secretary’s brother at the Gastonia Police Office and got his resume personally handed to HR. Aunt Cheryl had a lead for a Real Estate Advertising Coordinator with the local newspaper. And the Federal Government was asking Jim to complete personality tests. It was amazing.

We just kept saying we will make it happen one way or another. We started packing and put the house on the market. We decided to live off the proceeds of the house if we had to. And then it happened. Out of the blue a job that Jim had applied for a very long time ago came available again. It had a new hiring manager and within two days Jim had an offer! It gets us to Raleigh (an area that meets our health needs, Whole Foods, and housing costs AND not too far from NOVA.) Jim will be working for a government contractor helping them recruit students into the ROTC program at St. Augustine’s College. He gets to wear a uniform ,do PT in the morning, and gets the opportunity to teach but doesn’t have the increased risk of being deployed!! (Abbie side note: whooooooooo hoooooooooooooo!)

So thankfully the wheels were already in motion for getting the house on the market. The POD was delivered and poor Jim had to pack it in the heat wave. We now have our temporary housing set up so we can take the time to explore Raleigh before purchasing and it gives us time to sell this place. It’s so exciting and a little sad at the same time. I told my team at work I would be leaving them the end of Sept. and that was really hard to let go of. As much as I want to stay home with my M&M’s (My Monihan Men) I like the paycheck, the appreciation and the adult conversation! Jim told his boss he was leaving so it is official. We move this coming Thursday!!

I think we are both in a little bit of denial that we will be leaving our family and friends. We believe home is where you hang your hat but it will be really hard to not be able to just see our family or friends without having to make big weekend plans.

So for the moment our cell phones will remain the same but our address will be:
3140 Hidden Pond Drive
Apt. # 103
Raleigh, NC 27613

Jim is getting rid of his HomesWithJim email on September 1st, so our emails will be abztha@yahoo.com and jemonihan@yahoo.com.

Who's Chair Is It Anyway??

This has been fun to watch. We have been pulling out all of the infant seats again to which Cooper had zero interest in... until Sullivan sat in them. Take Sullivan out of a seat and within a few minutes and a few grunts Cooper would be up in the seat. The blue chair actually was an infant seat that converts to a toddler seat. Cooper had not one little iota of interest of sitting in that seat... until we put it back to the infant seat and put Sully in it. Now he keeps taking the little toy bar off and poking Sully with it when he's sleeping! He only got into the little swing one time. He climbed in and with his weight of climbing in it started to spontaneously swing!! He hung on for dear life and gosh, now that I'm thinking about it how funny is it that I grabbed a picture instead of stopping the swing!! I watched him slowly climb out with this dazed look and he was done with it after that!

At least Cooper has stopped the horrible screaming that we endured when Sully was first born. We try to be very careful and not make a big deal of him getting in any of Sully's chairs. There is only one toy we say is just for Sully and boy does that frustrate Coop. He will circle it and circle it and the big reason we don't allow it as a Cooper toy is he throws things on it like his drum sticks. Not good when it's at Sully's head! We had two times where Cooper threw his tennis shoes at Sully's head. Cooper got his first time out with that one and hasn't done it since thankfully.

Another Little Einsteins Rant

Soooo, all four of us are in the living room this morning, and Cooper's watching Little Einsteins. Okay, okay, I was watching Little Einsteins, and Cooper was sitting with me.

Well, the episode was called "The Northern Night Light". They used music by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, specifically, "Flight of the Bumblebee", which is an outstanding piece and hard as hell to play (for you musicians out there or those of you that have had a music appreciation course).

Abbie joined us in watching the show, and if you've seen this episode, you know that Quincy, the talented little black boy, makes "Flight of the Bumblebee" into a silly song that goes something like, "Flub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a daaaa...Dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a dub a daaaa". Guess it makes more sense if you can actually hear it.

So Abbie says out of the blue, "So, figures they have the little black boy doing the silly song."

I was like, "huh?"

And she was like, "Because he can rap?"

Thank you to my wife for pointing out the political incorrectness, once again, of the Disney juggernaut!

Thanks Mom

I remember my mother saying to me, “You’ll appreciate me for this one day. Just remember this when you have the choice to send me to a retirement home or take me in.” I of course always told her I would be sending her to a retirement home! Oh how now I wish I could eat most of my words I said as an annoying teenager. The last few days have been rough for me. We are packing the house and getting it ready to go on the market. That is stressful enough but add an infant and a toddler and we’ve been burning the candle at both ends. This morning I woke up and I actually felt drunk and dizzy because I was so tired. It took us over an hour just to cook Cooper’s food for the day and we barely had a moment to get the diaper bags ready or any food for us for our trip to Annapolis, MD. (Cooper is seeing an allergy specialist there.) We were running late speeding down the road when I realized that I had forgotten to put on a bra!! Yes my dear friends and family for the first time I can remember since I started wearing a bra I went without in public! Jim offered to turn around but I didn’t want to be late. As we are driving, mercifully Sullivan goes to sleep without the screaming fit he usually does in the car. What kid do you know that hates the car? (Every other car trip up until today has been a crying fit where Sullivan would cry hard and be so scared he would be bright red and have tears! An hour trip to the store turns into 3 because I have to keep stopping to soothe him.) I am trying to keep Cooper entertained with this purple caterpillar called Alphabet Pal. He’s screaming at me so I decide to use the mode where is makes the sounds of the letters of the alphabet to make dirty words. If I can hit all the legs in the right way it’s quite funny. This bores Cooper and he falls asleep and I breathe a sigh of relief I can finally take a nap myself. I close my eyes and start to relax. Just as I can feel sleep starting to take over I realize I have to pee. I have to pee so bad that I can’t sleep through it and I can’t ask Jim to stop because we are running late. So I sit up and will cars to get out of our way.

The doctor appointment was odd. Last week we loved the whole entire experience. This time the room was boiling hot, Cooper refused to sit down and take the treatment, we were asked to keep it down for the other sleeping patients. Cooper’s answer was to scream louder whereas before at least it was just loud laughter. We leave all sweaty, irritable, hungry and wouldn’t you know we get stuck in traffic. I feed Cooper and then finally make something for Jim and I. Unfortunately I spill most of it all over myself and the car. Who knows when I’ll have the chance to clean that up! At this point I’m starting to feel pretty sorry for myself. This past week I’ve been peed and pooped on more than I can count. I think it was just yesterday that Sullivan peed on me not once but twice and so badly that he soaked the couch, my pant leg, and yes my underwear. Jim came running as he heard me screaming, “nooooooooooo” and trying to deflect the pee with the wrong side of the diaper. I cried, I swear I couldn’t help it. Here I am again half dressed and covered in pee. I am so tired of being peed and pooped on. Cooper has thrown out all of our Tupperware lids so we have lots of dishes but no lids. Very annoying when you are in a hurry and all you need is one damn lid. If you can’t find something in our house it means Cooper has found it and either put it in a box or it’s in the trash can. I had that dreaded thought. I even said it out loud, “I hope these boys appreciate what we’ve gone through for them.” I say that and I know all the parents with older kids are probably shaking their heads knowing that I haven’t experienced anything yet. More than anything I find myself wanting to call my mom and apologize for not being more appreciative of all she went through to raise me. Thanks Mom I do appreciate all you’ve done for me!

Play Dates

One of the things I regretted about my maternity leave with Cooper was that I didn't get out of the house enough. Granted it was winter time but I failed to realized those first few months were the months that he would sleep through anything! So this maternity leave with Sully I was determined to get out more and give Cooper lots of play date time since he was done with daycare. We got to spend lots of time with Katie and Emily and Cooper got to have a jam session with Stacy and her son Zach.

Aunt Jamie's Visit

My Sleeping Beauties

June Update

I really did write this post right at the end of June I just haven't had the chance to get the pictures together so it's a tad outdated.

...It is unbelievable that Sullivan is now over a month old and Cooper is now 18 months old! June has been the most amazing yet one of the most challenging months. It feels as if a lifetime has passed.

Most of Sully’s time has been spent doing what babies do- sleeping. I keep telling everyone what an easy baby Sullivan is but the midwives told me that I’m just a different mom. It’s so true. We don’t freak out over every little noise he makes. I don't make everyone whisper if he's sleeping and I'll actually put him down if he's sleeping. He can sleep through Cooper screaming and that is saying something. He makes adorable baby kisses and has this deep gaze. Several people have told us that he just looks at you and you can tell he has an old soul. When he graces you with a little smile it’s so precious. He’s holding his neck up pretty steadily now. He doesn’t feel like the completely little helpless baby anymore.


Did I mention that Cooper is 18 months old now and he’s throwing these wonderful temper tantrums? It’s not been easy, I mean I feel like we finally figured out how to handle the infant phase. I kinda thought we had this parenting thing down. I started to lose it last week, it just seemed like Cooper was figuring out how to throw these tantrums and he was getting what he wanted from us. I can’t tell you how awful it is to feel like we could now be a candidate for Supernanny! I called my dear friend Jamie and sobbing begged for advice. (She’s our child development specialist!) Thankfully Jamie talked me down from the ledge and reminded us that it’s Cooper’s job to test us right now. Very good to remember as he’s kicking us and throwing his head back without a care that we have hardwood floors with a nice resounding thunk! Just yesterday he decided to throw his food on the floor and when I told him that we didn’t throw our food on the floor please pick it up and put it back on the plate- he started to scream as if this was the most horrible thing in the world and thunked his head in the food and start throwing it at me! Needless to say I bought the Supernanny and Dr. Sears Discipline book. Should be a fun phase!



It’s not all been temper tantrums. Cooper has almost totally adjusted to Sullivan now. By adjusted I mean he no longer starts crying at the sight of Sully and will in fact sit next to Sully and pet his feet or head quite lovingly. As Jim has posted he will say “Baby” and point to Sully. We are careful not to say to him that he is now a big boy and take the fact that he is still very much a baby away. If I’m nursing Sully then Cooper will either sit next to me or pull my legs down and flop down on them and go for a ride. Great workout for my legs!


We’ve now taken to a morning walk. GiGi and Poppy gave us this awesome Chariot that allows the boys to ride side by side. The first couple of trips they both fussed a lot but now they even seem to look forward to it and Cooper yells “yaaaaaaaa” whenever we run across the street. This week the big ordeal has been Sullivan’s wayward arm. It flops over and whacks Cooper upside the head at every little bump. Cooper gets mad and screams which causes Sully’s to startle and whack Cooper again! So when the screaming didn’t work Cooper tried kicking the bottom of the sling causing Sullivan to get yet another whack! So now he just takes his forehead and pushes Sully’s arm away from him. Is it mean to laugh as it’s happening?


The wonderful rebounder!! Sullivan and Cooper couldn’t be more different. Cooper took the pacifier right away- Sully spit it out and looked at me almost as if I was insulting him. Cooper loved to be swaddled; Sully will fight until he can get his arms out to have his little fists on his chin. Stick Cooper in the sling and he was happy as a bug in a rug. Sully will scream during his fussy time (typically when Cooper is getting his bath) unless he’s really tired. You could put Cooper in the swing and within minutes he was knocked out for hours! Put Sully in the swing and you may get 30 minutes tops before he wants out of there. But the best thing ever is this little rebounder. We are so tight on space as it is, but I wanted one to start working out. I promised to keep it tucked away, but it has become the staple of our living room! I get my workouts, Cooper will use it to put all his toys on or play on, but best of all when the swaddling or nursing don’t calm Sullivan down we jump on the rebounder and within a few minutes he is gone! The best is when you are bouncing Sully and Cooper climbs on and sits between your legs as you bounce.


One of our favorite things to eat is homemade sauerkraut. This time Cooper decided to help out with the mashing part.

Favorite toy of the month a $1.50 ball from CVS. Cooper will chase this ball all over the house. Even funnier he loves for you to bounce it so it will bounce off his belly or his forehead! Cackles galore with that fun game.

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be Mediocre...

Sooo, Cooper and I are watching Playhouse Disney this morning, and we're watching Higglytown Heroes. Nothing spectualar about this show. The characters are all based on Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls and there are four main characters Eubie, Wayne, Twinkle, and Kip and their red squirrel friend Fran (who, incidentally, is voiced by the secretary from Ferris Bueller's Day Off..."quite a little bit", "you pinhead").

Our little nesting dolls explore their city and the people in it. Along the way, they meet "Higglytown heroes", the people in their community who make it a better place. These heroes have ranged from firefighters to dentists to police officers.

Nobly, the show "encourages involvement in the community, and means to inspire children to consider the importance of individuals who contribute to the world and make it better place." What a great idea...use a kids' show to espouse the importance of contributing to society.

Today, though, I was actually...how can I put it...flabbergasted by who the Higglytown hero was. Today, it was...

...the window washer!

That's right, this Disney show was promoting to our chillins out there that the noble career path to take is to be a window washer! Next thing you know, they're going to be promoting being a tent catcher. The writers must've been struggling for material.

Guess Who

When Sullivan was born I would have sworn that he and Cooper were twins. They have the same red birthmark on the back of their necks, for a while Sully had the same red mark over his left eye that Cooper does. Their hair was the same and they had the exact same lips and chin and for sure the same Monihan nose!

Superman

We were basically ignoring the weather warnings on the tv today getting ready to head out and run a few errands. I saw the clouds getting darker so decided to nurse Sully and leave after the storm came through. The wind started to kick in and then it was pouring. I saw our neighbor running in with his umbrella blown inside out. I thought man I feel sorry for anyone who has to go out in this! Jim was watching out the front door with Cooper and out of the corner of my eye I saw our new tent in the backyard lift off the ground and disappear! I screamed for Jim telling him our tent was blowing away.

I’m not exaggerating- he tore off his shirt, kicked off his shoes and threw his glasses on the couch and started down to the basement. I asked if he needed my help and he sheepishly came back up the stairs saying, “I don’t need your help- but I can’t see without my glasses.” Sully and I watched as Jim stood in the pouring rain pulling off the tent so the wind wouldn’t have anything to grab onto. Then as the lightning was striking right over head he finally came in and then the hail started. He came up the stairs soaked from head to toe and suddenly I just started giggling. He was my Superman- just with the glasses! As we were laughing about it afterwards Jim says, “I felt like a Higgley Town Hero!” Guess it’s all a matter of perspective!

Babee

Mr. Cooper...how he's coming along.

Tonight, as Abbie and I were sitting on the couch with the boys, Cooper decided he wanted to sit on Abbie ...while she was holding Sullivan. He's done it before, but usually retreats after seeing the baby. Tonight, he didn't retreat. Instead, he moved closer, and gently touched Sully's head and nose. He patted Sully's head three times and said, "Babee"...three times. The first time could've been luck, the second a fluke, but the third tells us he can associate words with the appropriate object, person, or action.

Oh Cooper, its on now.

By the way, I didn't see Cooper do this, Abbie did. And she wants me to put this disclaimer here that she heard it and got excited about it and that I did jack shit about it.

GONE BANANAS!!!

Yesterday, I went shopping at Wegman's...our first real foray into shopping there since we almost always shop at Whole Foods. As is usually the case, I went with a list from Abbie. On this list was an assortment of fruits and veggies and the amount in parentheses after them. As I went through the list, I got avocados (2), mangoes (2), cauliflower (2), and bananas (5) among other items.

I got home, and hauled all of it into the house. Now, if you know me, you know I'm pretty lazy during the day, and when I have to haul in groceries, I try to do it in one trip. This trip was pretty heavy. Lots of groceries. But I did it.

We started to unload it - in the kitchen of course - and I started pulling out the bananas. Abbie looks at me, then the bananas, and asks me how many bananas I bought. I said I bought 5.

"Five bananas, not five bunches" she says.

Yup, I bought five bunches of bananas when all Abbie wanted was five freaking bananas. Looks like we're eating bananas, banana chips, banana shakes, banana ice cream, banana bread, peanut butter and banana, and anything else with bananas, because I bought enough to feed the National Zoo's monkey house.

Five bananas, indeed. Hmph.