Back to School, Back to School

To prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. 
I've got my lunch packed up,
My boots tied tight,
I hope I don't get in a fight!
Ohhhhh!
Back to school, back to school

You know you were singing it!  

[Billy Madison reference for those who weren't. And obviously didn't grow up loving Adam Sandler in the 90's!]

Today was Cooper boy's first day back at school.  New teachers, new classroom and (thankfully) some of the same friends from last year and his summer session.  In typical Cooper fashion, there were some tears at drop off. The puppet master really enjoys letting us know who is pulling the strings! But overall his teachers said he did great, had a blast at music class and ate every morsel of his lunch. Happy Cooper, happy Mama!

The Weenus

Some weeks I think to myself, "I don't really have much going on. I'll probably just stick with one blog post this week." And then I have a conversation with my 2 year old about his weenus. My brother Matt tells me this is actually the skin on your elbow. I'm convinced some 13 year old boy made that up because it sounds like penis. And to Cooper it is just that, thanks to his Dad.

Cooper: "Mom, where is Kona's weenus?"

Me: "Kona doesn't have a weenus. She is a girl. Only boys have weenuses." (Weenuses? Weeni?)

Cooper: "Mom, where's your weenus?"

Me: "I don't have one. I'm a girl."

Cooper: [thinks about this for a minute]

...

Cooper: "I'm sorry Mom. What happened to your weenus?"

Boys!

Cooper takes the plunge, literally

Before you get all "Oh great, here she goes again, posting some mundane thing her kid did.", remember: 1) 99% of what I post is some mundane thing my kid did and you're still reading (hehe) and 2) this is the kid who would panic at the beginning of the summer if so much as an eyelash got wet!

After a whole summer of intrigue over the diving board, the boy finally mustered up the courage to jump off (with some assistance)!  I am so proud of him and proud of myself for being able to give him that little push.

Cooper jumping off the diving board:

And here he is today, singing for the rain to go away so we could go to the pool...no such luck!

Happy back to school week! We start back on Thursday. If it's your little one's first time at school, check out this post from last year and know it gets better!

My shadow.

If you ever find me dead on the floor, it's because I tripped over my dog and cracked my head open.

We got Kona from a friend of a friend who lives in Hawaii. When we first brought her home we considered naming her "Aka" which means shadow in Hawaiian since she was so black.  Now, the name seems more fitting than ever.

Kona is a little bit of a Nervous Nelly.  She thrives on routines and goes so far as to not even let our sweet nanny let her outside during the day.  She sits in her bed patiently all day waiting for her 4:30 dinner to roll around because THAT'S. WHAT. WE. DO.

During my maternity leave, she's gotten more crazy than ever, if that's even possible. She is stuck to my side taking care of "her babies" all day long.  

When Carrington cries, she runs into the nursery because she knows I will either put her down for a nap or feed her. THAT'S. WHAT. WE. DO.

Waiting to feed the baby.

Making sure sister gets fed and put in bed.

When we start Cooper's bath, she runs into his room and jumps at the foot of his bed because she knows bed time is coming. THAT'S. WHAT. WE. DO.

I read the boy a couple of books and as soon as I start sing his lullaby she jumps down and heads to the door and pesters us for the next two hours by going back and forth between our bed and where we usually are in the living room, urging us to come to bed with sad puppy dog eyes. THAT'S. WHAT. WE. DO.

Good thing I have her around during the day or I don't know how anyone in this family would remember to eat or go to sleep! Sweet, neurotic dog.

A Royal Affair

This past weekend, my dear friends threw a Sip and See for Princess Carrington so that everyone could meet her. The thing I love about gatherings like this is that as the guest of honor you get to have all of your "people" in one place.  There were Grandmothers, neighborhood friends, Mom friends, work friends and college friends and some that fit more than one bucket! We felt so loved.

The decor was gorgeous and the food was scrumptious and it was everything a new mum and her royal highness could ask for...and more! Did you catch the Princess theme? It was a high tea for the record books!

Some pics from the big day...

Lyndsey's beautiful house, decked out in CSC!

Princess Carrington!

The hostesses and I, less Whitney who hosted from Colombia!  Man, I have tall friends!

She did this most of the time, precious girl.

Already borrowing shoes from her friend Amelia!

All of the sweets and treats!

How cute are these tea pots!

 "Hi pretty lady."

Meeting all of the Aunties!

Our parting gift!  Yes, she is!

Thank you Abigail, Lyndsey, Taryn and Whitney for such a beautiful party!!!

Newborn 101

(Fist bump.)

Newborns are strange little creatures. It's no wonder I've forgotten certain little intricacies along the way. Carrington is currently schooling me though, not to worry. Here are some I've stumbled upon in my emersion Newborn 101 class:

• When it comes to driving there are two speeds: 1) 100mph or 2) scream your face off.  There is no in between and you better not take that route with all of the stop lights.
• There is nothing better to a newborn than pooping in a fresh diaper. It is even better to wait until your silly parents have snapped that last snap on your 100 snap pajamas.
• If you are a baby that just learned to smile, 3am is the only acceptable time to show off your new talent.
• Sleep is not a conscious effort. One minute awake, the next "oops, passed out again." I once saw similar things happen at frat parties in college.
• Newborns have an innate ability of knowing exactly when your warm dinner is on the table. Or, when an important phone call comes in. Or, really anything you need two hands for and some quiet time. That is precisely the time they choose to cry inconsolably. Every time. Just to keep you on your toes!

While not the most flattering picture of either kid, I just wanted to show you how the twin progression continues!  These are from about the same age, nuts right?!

Super Why did we decide this was a good idea?

Last Friday, my friend Taryn and I decided to take our kids to the Houston Children's Museum where the Super Why characters would be there to meet the kiddos.  Did I mention that our kids are two and a half years old and there are three of them?!

(For those of you kidless readers, Super Why is a PBS show about the "super readers" led by the main super hero, Super Whyatt. Totally non-nerdy super heroes that solve problems by reading books. Yeah.)

Thinking that it might be a *little* crowded, we decided to get to the Children's Museum about 15 minutes before it opened to ensure that we got to meet Super Why.  This was the line we met with our "early" arrival.  Sheesh.

Cooper got a lollipop usually reserved for haircuts and doctors visits and we waited...

Once we got inside, we were told that it would be another line and an hour wait to meet Super Why and that they were just about to go on break.  Break?  The museum had only been open for 20 minutes at that point! We decided to just tell the kids that the museum employee dressed as a super hero was actually Super Whyatt. Moms. Of. The. Year. We even let them go watch cartoons in the little movie room! See? Told ya, best moms ever!

Afterwards, the kids ran around and did normal Children's Museum stuff. So, basically, we just took three two year olds to the museum on the most crowded day of the year. Neat.

Look at this face! Mine does NOT pose for pictures like this!

She did not want to take off this mask.  A little creepy!

Cooper kept handing me the phone asking me to "take it off". I realized he has never seen a phone with a cord attached to it before.

Cooper keeps telling everyone about how he saw Super Why and gave him a hug. That's a win in the Mom column!

One-Handed Chicken

My Mom has been urging me to try this chicken recipe she found on Pinterest.  It's actually a broken Pinterest link with the recipe in the description and the link to a totally different spot, but I tried it last night and it deserved a blog post and a chance to make its second, improved, Pinterest debut!

We tweaked it a bit to make it our own and it's delicious! Since it's been altered, I decided to rename it something personal, hence "One-Handed Chicken" since it was made while rocking a baby and using only one hand. I could have also gone with "Baby Bjorn Chicken" or "I can't hear you over the sound of your crashing Hot Wheels cars, Chicken" but this had a better flow!

One-Handed Chicken

1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons of chives, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (I used Tony's)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 split chicken breasts

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Mix the first 6 ingredients together.
3. Spread over chicken.
4. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

Some pictures from the week...

The kids had their first bath together. Excuse my terrible crop job. I promise they were in the same tub!

Cooper and I tried pudding art. His hands got dirty. He hated it. Pinterest fail!

Sister slept through my entire postpartum doctor's appointment so 1) I did not have to breastfeed in public and 2) we did not scare all of the pregnant women in the lobby!

Happy (almost) weekend!

From the newborn photo shoot: Real life captured

I walked away from our newborn photo session thinking there was no way we got one usable shot.  As it turns out. we got so many beautiful pictures my head is spinning trying to prevent myself from making it on to Hoarders: Family Photo Edition.

Everyone was so out of sorts that day that we only got one tear free sibling picture. It was unreal how out of sync they were; when Cooper was loosing his schmidt, Carrington would sleep like an angel. When Carrington's cries would wake the dead, Cooper would flash his million dollar smile.  But, such is life and that is exactly what is captured in this picture. It is so real and beautiful I'm sure its the one I will cherish forever, binky and iPad included.

And when you need a good announcement shot, thank goodness for photo editing and the ability to splice two pictures together!

I promise to share the lot of them after I get announcements out the door!

A little sap and a little silly

I know most of you stop by for Cooper antics and my (hopefully) funny lists but this post took a different turn! Don't worry, I have a funny story about Cooper, Nelly and underwear too but I'll throw that at the bottom and force you to read the sap first!

Yesterday I held my baby girl for two hours. And not just held, I studied her. I watched her eat and I watched her drift off to sleep. I watched her smile and I comforted her when she cried out in her sleep. I listened to her sweet baby noises and smelled her sweet baby breath. I inspected her tiny little toes and held her perfect little hand. Maybe I did this with Cooper too, I don't know, but sitting here with a 2.5 year old staring back at me I'm definitely holding on to her newness and trying to appreciate this tiny little being. Everyone says it goes so fast but you can't really understand that until you've lived it!

Any now for my not so "little being"...  On our daily drive to Starbucks since the coffee pot died (grrr), we stumbled upon Nelly's "E.I." on the radio.  Cooper stopped me from changing the station saying "I wike this song" and I was thinking "I wike this song too. It reminds Mommy of when she was hot and young in college. Sigh." The chorus lyrics, for those of you unlucky soles who do not know, are:

"Andele andele mami, E.I. E.I.

Uh-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What's poppin tonight?"

Cooper listens for a bit and then says "Mami? Sounds wike Mommy! Underwear, underwear Mommy! Cooper wikes underwear! Yea underwear Mommy!" Although the boy has zero interest in the potty, just like that he scored himself new Jake and the Neverland pirates under-roos! I'm sure Nelly would approve!