Our Weekend

We started our weekend off by going bowling Friday evening. I had signed the kids up for the "Kids Bowl Free" program a few months ago, so I thought it would be a good idea to try it out for the first time, since it's free and everything. Well, it didn't go as I thought I would. I thought our bowling alley would have the ramps that are used for small kids and they didn't. So David and I ended up pushing the balls down for them but making them think they were doing it. After one and a half games, we left and just went to rent a movie instead.

 

Saturday morning, we got up and went to soccer. I didn't know it was our last session so I wasn't prepared when they decided to hand out trophies! The one time I didn't bring my camera!!

 

After our nap, Connor and Chloe's cousins Walker and Jagger came over to play!

 Our neighbor let us have unlimited use of this water slide because their little girl has outgrown it. Connor and Chloe love it!

 

Sunday, Chloe and I went for our first mommy/daughter pedicure day. She loves having her nails and toes painted so I thought she would think it was fun to sit in a special chair and get special attention. And I was due for a pedicure.

 

After a long nap, we went outside and had a car wash.

Then it was bath time and bedtime. Connor and Chloe had to try out their new goggles in the bathtub...

Chloe loves laying on her back in the bath tub these days.

 

And finally, a picture of my little strong man. He loves being on his belly so he can look around. He's so strong!

Cooper's Newborn Pictures

We had Cooper's newborn pictures taken the week he came home by CC Miller Photography (she's done all of our family pictures). I feel like I look awful, but I'm happy to have some updated pictures with our new addition.

 

Here are a few of my favorites...

Cooper at 6 weeks

Cooper is 6 weeks old today!

This week is so much different from last week. Last week, I was in tears every day because I was so frustrated and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I was trying so hard to get him on a schedule to start sleep training, but he wasn't cooperating and I couldn't figure out why. I had done with 2 babies, why couldn't I do it with one?

 Well, I think I figured it out that he wasn't getting enough to eat at each feeding. So he was waking before the 3 hour mark every single time. I was exhausted. But once I figured out how to fix this, it's gotten so much easier.

He sleeps so good at night. I'm still waking him to feed on his 3 hour schedule, so I'm not really sure how long he would be able to sleep, but I'm going to work on merging 2 feedings next week, so we'll see if all of my hard work is paying off. But he has his days and nights figured out, thank goodness. I feel like he did that on his own. And what I mean by this is that he will go right back to sleep after each feeding during the night without me having to rock him or having him cry it out. He usually grunts a few times after I put him in his crib and he falls asleep.

 

The naps during the day are a little different story, but are starting to get better. He cries for less than 5 minutes when I put him down for a nap now and he's starting to stay asleep for a full nap time. That's huge compared to a few days ago where he was waking about every 20 minutes and I was having to resettle him or I had to just let him cry it out over and over (which is so hard, but I knew he was fine). I know this isn't for everyone, but this worked so well for me with the twins that I knew I was going to do it again with Cooper. The twins were sleeping at least 10 hours at night by the time I went back to work, so that's my goal here. Also, the twins were/are able to nap pretty much everywhere easily because of this training and are good sleepers at night and to this day they sit and play in their beds when they wake up and wait for us to come get them, even Connor who is in a big boy bed and can easily get out if he wants.

 

  His looks are changing so much. When he was first born, he looked exactly like Connor. And having him in all of Connor's old clothes has been like seeing Connor as a baby all over again. But I think he's starting to go in a different direction and look like a completely different child.

  Here's a comparison:

Cooper:

Connor in the same sleeper around the same age:

 

I feel like the hard part of getting adjusted to a newborn is pretty much over and I'm getting to enjoy our time together now. I feel like I've found a good balance between my time and attention with him and with the twins, where in the beginning, I didn't know if this was going to be possible.

 

 I also haven't mentioned how much David has been helping out with the twins. Before the baby, the twins wanted Mommy to do everything and wouldn't let Daddy do anything. This had me really worried. But it quickly worked itself out and David stepped up big time with EVERYTHING. They now love having Daddy do things with them and are strongly attached to both of us instead of just me. I know David is loving this!

 

The beginnings of a little person is starting to come out in him. I even got my first intentional smiles from him today! I tried to get it on video but of course he stopped as soon as I pulled the camera out!

2 1/2!

Connor and Chloe turned 2 1/2 on Saturday! That means that today they are closer to 3 than 2! That's crazy to me!

 

 

We went to soccer that morning (where they did so good and had fun!) and then we spent the rest of the day outside.

This was taken during a fight. She for some reason wanted to sit on the back of his quad and he didn't want her to.

 

And since we were spending the day outside, I thought it would be the perfect time to try out our new underwear and panties. They were so excited to wear them and I was on auto repeat every 5 minutes saying "Don't forget to tell mommy when you need to pee pee or poo!" And they would yell back "OKAY!"

 

Chloe started telling me "No!" when I was taking pictures of her.

Even though we are knee deep in the terrible twos, it's not always bad. The bad times did seem to spike a little when we first brought the baby home and I would get extremely frustrated and upset every day, thinking I was doing something wrong. But I think we have all finally adjusted pretty well and are in a good place, right now. I still need a little bit more sleep at night, but overall, I think we're figuring it out. I was also getting really upset because I felt like I was missing out on the twins summer. I was stuck inside feeding all the time, or trying to console a crying baby, or it was too hot for the baby to be outside. But not this weekend. The weather was so nice, we were all outside. And Cooper is getting on a more consistent feeding/napping schedule that I'm able to carve out time for the twins too.

 

  Chloe is my funny little firecracker. You never know what's going to come out of her mouth.

  Some funny things she has said lately:

When I asked her what she wants for dinner, she usually always says "Tacos" and then cracks up laughing. This is so funny because she started saying it before she ever even tried a taco. It just seemed to come out of nowhere!

When she was riding in the back of Connor's truck in the first picture of this post, I asked her where they were going and she told me "Mexico!". I have no idea how she knows about Mexico.

I bought her some princess dresses the other day and when I put the Rapunzel dress on her and she ran to look in the mirror, she said "Where's my crown?"

When she talks to Cooper she gets a really high pitched voice, just like adults do when they are baby talking with a baby. And she almost always says "He's awake!" and "He's looking at me". All of that is then followed by "I want to hold him".

She loves anything princess or Hello Kitty. Her favorites right now are Rapunzel, Belle, and of course Frozen.

 She loves bracelets, necklaces, bows, and shoes.

She seems to go back and forth between being a Mommy's girl and Daddy's girl. I guess it just depends on her mood or what activity we are doing. It seems like she's mommy's girl when it comes to getting ready in the mornings or getting ready for bed. She wants me to dress her and brush her teeth. But when it comes to the fun stuff, like playing outside, she's a daddy's girl.

 

Connor is my sharp little man that doesn't miss anything! David and I could be having a conversation across the room, thinking they can't hear us or that they are even paying attention to us because they are watching tv or something and he will turn around and repeat exactly what we were talking about. He doesn't forget ANYTHING. If you tell him we are going to do something, you better not change your mind because he will not forget about it and will go on repeat until you acknowledge it.

He loves airplanes, trucks, tractors, dinosaurs, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and I recently found out Captain America. I have no idea how he knows about all of these characters, but I think all the little boys in their class where them on their shirts. It's funny to see that he wants to fit in with them.

He is very caring when it comes to Chloe. If she falls down, he is immediately right there saying "You ok Chloe?".

 He is also a little bossy when it comes to them playing together. He is always telling her what they should play with and she usually goes along with it. But it for sure has to be on his terms or he freaks out and gets mad at her. It doesn't usually last very long though.

 

  They are definitely best buddies. I love that they have each other, especially since Cooper is taking a little bit of my time away from them. I was so worried for the longest time that they didn't even acknowledge each other. But they will tell us now that each other is their best friend. We even tease them about having a boyfriend/girlfriend at school and Connor will tell us that Chloe is his girlfriend and Chloe will say Connor is her boyfriend.

  When they wake up in the morning, the first thing they do is ask where the other one is. They hug and kiss each other night night and they are working on trading their food that they don't like at dinner.