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!

The stomping one...

I'm writing this post as much for my own documentation along with (hopefully) your entertainment because not even I will believe this down the road!

Again with the vacuum.  If you follow this blog you know how the vacuum plagues our household.  It is one of Cooper boy's greatest joys and absolute greatest frustrations.  We've taken to hiding it from him in ever changing closets because its just not worth it. However, no matter where we hide it, it is never far from his mind!

The other night, Coop woke up screaming having a nightmare about a vacuum.  And, not just any vacuum, a "stomping one".  I know, as if vacuuming wasn't scary enough!  And now we do not hear the end of the STOMPING VACUUM and how its trying to get Cooper.  I have no idea how to remedy this because I have no clue how prove something so vivid to him doesn't exist.  How existential of us, right?! HA!

I just love his little imagination, STOMPING VACUUMS and all!

Meanwhile, in babyland, sister is giving me 4 and sometimes 5 hour stretches of sleep at night...unreal!  We had a doctor's appointment Friday and she is up to 8 lbs so I have no problem letting her try to stretch out that night sleep.  I'm pretty sure Cooper didn't do this until he was four months old!

Sister's umbilical cord fell off today, thank goodness.  Cooper's fell off in the hospital so I have had no idea what to do or how to clean this foreign thing.  It's been a little like a loose tooth to me lately, just dangling by a thread...gag!  What am I gong to do with real loose teeth?!

Have a great week friends and watch out for those STOMPING VACUUMS! Maybe a good excuse to get out of a little housework?!