Mr. Manners

I never thought I would think twice about Cooper saying "please" so much. He's always been a big time talker but at almost two, he's really started to grasp the meaning of words and manipulate!

It all started with "thank you". His teachers at school were so impressed when at 19 months Cooper would tell them thank you all the time. Only Kyle and I knew that in Cooper speak, thank you meant "give me that" or "take this from me"!  He would yell it at us as he would shove a no longer wanted toy into our hands! But, he says it to everyone who hands him something too, so who are we to complain?

And now with the "please".  This is one word for which he knows the EXACT MEANING!  We taught him to say it and reinforced it by giving him pretty much whatever he asked for when he said the "magic word".  Now, we don't know how to cut it off! How do you teach a 2 year old that you have to say please to get what you want but you can't always get what you want when you say please?!

While "share" is also a seemingly nice word, he now yells it at anyone who has something he wants to have.  Our sweet little neighbor friend got a not so sweet "SHARE" when she apparently took too long on the slide today.

Manners are so complicated.

Pink or blue?

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted a girl this time.  I already have the perfect boy's boy who is a total Mama's boy, too. Why mess with perfection? Plus dance recitals and the mother-daughter bond sounded pretty appealing!

That is, until I saw the Dick's Sporting Goods commercial and balled my eyes out!

After that, how can I not want a little brother for the Cooper boy? One that idolizes him...and pouts at his games when he doesn't win...and gets his hand-me-down glove???

Funny how a commercial can change a pregnant woman's attitude but I've officially gone from "Team Pink" to on the fence! (All prefaced by healthy baby first, of course!)

Stay tuned, baby #2 gender TBD beginning of February!

Big fish and New Years Wishes

Happy New Year!

We spent a wet, cold one down at the coast!  There was still plenty of swimming in the pool (by Kona) and tons of fishing off the dock (by the boys).  My job?  I sat inside waiting and watching for my opportune Kodak moment and boy did I get one...Cooper's first fish!  

I love Kyle's ear to ear grin and Cooper's shocked look realizing what had been tugging at the end of his line!

This might be one of my favorite pics of all time.  Kyle's proud Daddy moment.  Cooper reaching out to grab the fish.  Kona doing her part to make sure we held on to it?  HA!  Didn't see that one until I uploaded these!!!

We keep asking Cooper whether he caught a big fish or a little fish and 99% of the time he says "little fish"!  He hasn't quite gotten the hang of the big fish story yet!

While we couldn't control the weather, we did have great friends and good food in our back pocket.  Everyone was ringing in big 2013s with one couple getting married in March and the other expecting their first baby in June!  

Since I celebrated with food instead of wine I am welcoming the omnipresent "Eat better, exercise more" New Year's resolution.  That one really never goes away, I just make myself feel especially guilty about it in the month of January!

I always try to pick at least one more attainable goal for the year.  Kyle says just set your expectations low and you'll achieve more!  This year: closing cabinet doors and sorting the mail.  Laugh all you want but I drive Kyle crazy with the cabinet door thing.  I don't know if it's my lack of an extra hand these days, the speed in which I have to prepare a snack or my pregnancy brain but for some reason whenever I am done with the kitchen there are about 4 doors still open.  The mail one is for me.  Much better to do every day then every week-ish...right?!

Hope you are all enjoying ringing in your New Year!

A Holly Jolly [white] [unplugged] [Texas-travelin'] Christmas!

Christmas 2012 was one for the record books!  After 6 days, 3 cities, visiting close to 30 family members and dozens of friends, numerous parties and wayyyyyyyy too much dessert I can say that not only did we survive but we had a blast!

Maybe I am getting way too good at setting low expectations for traveling with kids but Cooper slept pretty good and we only had one round of car sickness from him in the 17 hours in the car! Good news is that the police officer that pulled Kyle over 10 miles down the road took one sniff of the car and one look at our naked kid covered in towels in the backseat and let us out of the ticket.  Merry Christmas to us although Kyle says the fine sans puke might have been the easier option!

Santa was good to us and we made a last minute decision to stay a day later in Dallas for a chance at a white Christmas. Cooper loved the "little ices"! Not bad for a TX boy to see snow before his 2nd birthday!

It think I checked my phone/email once a day (if that) and the work blackberry was even more neglected.  Seeing as I'm currently in bed on my iPad mini with my phone and blackberry on the nightstand, it is clear to me that unplugged is a good place to be...sometimes!

Here are some pics from the trip!

Playing with cousins, Robin and Russell!

Kyle posing at the exact spot at the Dallas Arboretum where we were married! Such a good sport!

The Chihuly exhibit...glad they extended this one!

With Cita and Uncle Nat!

Christmas day SNOW!

Hope you had a very merry!

The Big Brother Post!

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah for my boys.  Cooper wanted to share with you our family's biggest gift of all this year...

Cooper is going to be a big brother!

He's sporting his very trendy mustache big brother shirt if you can't read the whole thing. We are all so thrilled and can't wait to meet our new little guy or girl come July!

Happy Happy Holidays!

The Hanukkah presents under the Christmas tree!

Not only did Cooper get to meet Santa yesterday, he got to light the Menorah for the first night of Hanukkah!  Holidays around our house are a little...different.  But good different!  Hanukkah presents are under the Christmas tree and Kyle hikes it up to the roof every year to hang Christmas lights for me, despite never having done so before in his life.  He always jokes that's going to be his 15 minutes of [ironic] fame: "Jewish man breaks both legs hanging Christmas lights for his wife!"

To put it very simply (because it's not always so simple), Kyle is Jewish, I am Christian, Cooper is being raised Jewish but obviously has exposure to both Mommy and Daddy's way of doing things.  It means lots of celebrating, lots of traditions learned and hopefully a little boy that is firm in his roots but appreciative of the ways other people do things.  

Christmukkah, as we like to call it, it the best month of the year.  It feels like "little kid Christmas" for 9+ days of the month.  Here are some pics from yesterday's events:

The day started out like any other, with a little shirtless vacuuming. I swear, I do not endorse child labor but the vacuum and the broom are just about Cooper's favorite toys.  You're welcome future daughter-in-law!

Then, we went to see Santa.  I guess every kid ends up with a picture like this at some point!  I promise he's a [pretty] good boy, Santa.

Later in the evening, on to the first night of Hanukkah!

The toy vacuum was a HUGE hit!

And where should it be stored?  The vacuum closet, of course!

Happy Hanukkah!  Merry Christmas!  Here's hoping whatever you are celebrating makes you as happy as vacuums make my son!

These are a few of my favorite things!

80 degree weather be damned, this weekend I finally marched my butt up to the attic to get the ornament box and I decorated the poor tree that had been sitting naked in my dining room for a week!

What did I find when I opened the box?  Last year's Christmas cards, of course!  I love Christmas cards so much that I can't bear to part with them when the season is over. Too much post-holiday depression to add that one to the mix!  So, every year I pack them on the top of my ornament box and the next year I get to gush over them one more time.  I could't believe all of Cooper's fat little baby friends who aren't fat little babies anymore!  I'm counting on you 2012 Mamas to fill the void!

In the past, I have driven Kyle C.R.A.Z.Y. with the amount of Christmas card displaying that goes on at the house.  He can't stand "clutter" and I go to town filling every nook, cranny, shelf and window sill  with Christmas cards.  This year, I have I new plan.  Thank you Pinterest and you're welcome Kyle!  All you need is a hole punch, an O ring and some Christmas ribbon to make an "add as you get them" Christmas card coffee table book!   I've already started mine:

And finally, the tree!  Having a Jewish husband means two things in terms of my "getting in the spirit-ness": 1) who wouldn't be excited to spend not one but nine days celebrating the holidays in December and 2) I get to decorate my entire tree with no input from the peanut gallery.  There are a few random A&M ornaments and Santas scattered around but for the most part...SHOES!

I'm officially in full holiday mode!