Monday, September 28, 2009




Cooper pauses mid-pancake to ask where Grammy where she got such a lovely shirt.Posted by Picasa

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Muddy, Sticky and Stuck


I should never take my eyes off of them. Not even for 20 seconds...


Bye bye plant. Hello dirty children and first bath of the day.














Second bath of the day came a few hours later, after the boys decided to wear their ice cream bowls. Here, Cooper models mint chocolate chip.











And in between baths, Cooper nearly got eaten by a large basket:



I'm still not quite sure why Cooper decided crawling into the basket was a good idea - but there he was. And very stuck -- head lodged in there between two arms. Charlie answered Cooper's muffled cries (while I grabbed the camera)....


Sunday, September 20, 2009

Celebrities!


The boys, their wagon, and my dad made the Charlotte Observer this week. An Observer photographer was driving by this motley crew and stopped to take some pics...
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In other news, we continue to pack and pack and pack and pack. T-minus 8 days until we close on the "new house new house new house."
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This weekend, my dad was reading a New Yorker magazine with Zach sitting on his lap. Zach kept pointing to the supermodels in the advertisements and saying "ma ma" ... "ma ma!" Did I mention that Zach is now my favorite son?
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Cooper won the most-time-spent-in-timeout-award for the weekend (yes, Cooper). He got sent to his room 5 times. Zach let him out 2 of those times. At first, we tried a time-out chair in the hallway (instead of sending him to his room), but Zach and Charlie kept getting upset that they weren't allowed to sit in that special seat, and we ended up with 3-way fights over who got to sit in time-out. Here are the the rule violations that got the Coopster in trouble: continued to eat a plant (1 offense); continued to eat sand (2 offenses, but apparently I missed some mouthfuls because he pooped sand this afternoon); and touching the cow (2 offenses. Don't ask). Who knew that our little Cooper would be the defiant troublemaker?
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Seemingly overnight, Charlie has started talking nonstop. I love how little kids love to state the obvious and are so very proud to do so. Some examples:
- At the dinner table: "Eww. Poodah messy."
- While Cooper is getting his diaper changed: "Eww. Poodah tinky."
- While the boys are in the bathtub: "Dak sweeming! Poodah sweeming!"
- While sticking his fingers in my eyes: "Ma ma eyes Ma ma eyes."
- When asked how old he is: "Two, ah ah ah." (Thank you Count from Sesames Street)
- While looking at himself in the mirror: "Tah-lie, dat you?"
He's also become quite the crooner - his renditions of Twinkle Twinkle and the Itsy Bitsy Spider are the sweetest things I've ever heard. And speaking of sweet, the boys are really into hugging and kissing each other (especially when Barney sings that line, "with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you...) They go from hugging and kissing to wrestling and laughing hysterically in an instant. Sometimes I wish there were a pill I could give them to keep them this age forever (except for when I'm packing boxes...)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Frog

Cooper stepped in frog today. Recently run-over, squished, gooey frog on the driveway.

He was barefoot.

Is Cooper gonna be that kid?? The one who always steps in the dog poo? I think was that kid. Bird poop and gum also seemed to find their way to me. Not too long ago I stepped (barefoot) in a pile of warm cat puke. Hope Coop takes after his daddy on this one...

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

We're Moving!

Big news here - we're closing on a new house in 3 weeks! So life is about to get even crazier. And I have three extremely willing but not so-able helpers to help me get ready for the move. The faster I pack the boxes, the faster they unpack them. Toys they haven't showed interest in for months are suddenly their most favorite toys ever the second I pack them up. I was successful at packing exactly 4 boxes today. Zach was successful at coloring his face and shirt with my box-labeling-Sharpie.

This afternoon I met with a fencing people for estimates, and I let the boys explore the vacant house. Zach and Charlie stayed pretty much within eyesight, but Cooper kept vanishing. I kept finding him in different bathrooms, playing in the toilets. He hit almost single toilet in the house. And later, at home, I found him submerging an entire toilet paper roll in the guestroom toilet. I'm thinking that Crayola on the walls and clogged plumbing just adds to the "charm" of our soon-to-be-on-the-market house, no?

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We went to the beach this past weekend for a quick vacay visiting grandparents BeeBee and GrandDavid. As we've done on other trips, the boys slept in pack-and-plays. On Friday night we put the boys to bed in their separate pack-and-plays. When I went to get them up on Saturday morning, all three were in Poodah's bed (that's Cooper in Charlie-speak). Cute, yes, but also big trouble. I think it means climbing out of cribs is the next step. I wonder if I'm the only mom out there who would like her kids to sleep in cribs and stay in diapers until they are 8. (Here's what I envision the next phase of my life to be like: the four of us perusing the ground chicken selection at the back of the grocery store, Cooper suddenly having to pee, we make a frenzied rush to the bathroom conveniently located at the opposite side of the Taj Mateeter, I try to get Cooper to go potty without touching the toilet seat and without peeing all over himself and me, while trying to keep Zach from unrolling all the toilet paper and Charlie from rolling on the floor, Cooper realizes he doesn't have to go, so we head back to the meat, and then Zach realizes he has to poop. NOW. Oh boy. )

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I hope I haven't packed up my How to Discipline Your Child books yet. A recurring scene in our kitchen lately:

Charlie: "All done!!" Then proceeds to throw his plate of pancakes on the floor. That I just swept.

Me: As I yank him out of his chair. "NO!! We do NOT throw our food Charlie. Pick it all up now."

Charlie: "NO SIR NO SIR. Ewwww messy, messy."

Then Cooper copies Charlie, and now we've got 2 breakfasts on the floor. The floor I just swept. Unlike Charlie, Cooper doesn't say anything in response. He just laughs.

I'm finding those books tonight...