Tutus and Christmas Trees

One day, Caitlin will hate me for these photos. However, I should probably order prints and put them in a safety deposit box so that I can properly harass her when she's 16 and brings a guy home or when she's 18 and I put them out at her graduation party.

I really do love her baby chunk. I tried to capture a good photo of her in this tutu, but I was home alone and she was on the move.

I am certain I've seen this look on my face in the mirror...

I ended up moving her to the living room to try something different in front of the Christmas tree. I thought maybe the lighting would be better. In the end, I called Cooper down from his nap to get her to smile.

Cooper can't ever be left out of a photo! I'm glad, because without his insistence I would most likely end up forgetting to take photos of him.

33 Weeks Old

We should win parenting awards this week. I realized now, after looking at these pictures, that Caitlin has sweet potatoes on her cheeks. The real question is - did we wash that off after the photo taking concluded? These days, I'd lean more toward no than yes.

The good news...she is still one happy baby! Except at 1, 2 and 3 a.m.

32 Weeks Old

This whole month has been a blur! Caitlin spent this week on the mend from an ear infection the week before.

Generally speaking, Caitlin is pretty happy. But she's also a talker. So she's either talking or grinning, but most of the time her mouth is wide open.

Odds are, she was laughing at her brother!

Christmas Jammies

The one Sunday night we had home this month, I wanted to spend looking at Christmas lights. I promised Cooper that we would make hot chocolate & put on our PJs before heading out. He insisted on having hot chocolate, even though I know he doesn't really like chocolate milk.

Since we'd been gifted a pair of Christmas pajamas, I put those on and snapped a few photos before we left.

I loved that they had matching PJs - even if this might be the only year I can make that happen! We made our way over to a local subdivision that does themes for each street. Cooper really enjoyed it this year and we saw almost everything before Caitlin woke up from her nap. The neighborhood has been doing this for ages - I can remember some of the same themes from when I was younger. Of course, they've added in the inflatable yard people as well since I was a kid.

The funniest part, which really isn't funny, was that night Cooper came downstairs to our room saying he'd had a bad dream. I asked him the next day what he dreamed about.

"I dreamed that someone knocked on the door and when I went out it was a big, giant, blow up Santa and he grabbed me."

Seriously, it was all I could do not to die laughing.

Cooper's 4th Birthday Party

For the first time, we decided to have Cooper's party away from the house. I won't lie - I had a hard time letting go! But I was convinced we needed to go with something simple, but fun for the kids. I also knew in my gut this would be the year we'd have actual December cold weather. Every year so far, it has been beautiful mid-80's weather.

In the end, we made the right decision. I ended up taking a quick overnight trip for work the week before his party, leaving me with very little time at home to prep. And sure enough, the high that day was somewhere below 50 degrees. Which is cold for Texas!

We hosted Cooper's party at a local bounce place and chose a Star Wars theme. I purchased some Star Wars cookie cutters and happened upon the cupcake liners & picks at Williams-Sonoma. This was also the first year we invited Cooper's classmates. He had so much fun playing with them outside of school, along with his other non-school friends.

Once the party was over, we came back to the house for lunch &blet Cooper open his gifts.

I love this age when kids open gifts. They truly are excited to get things and I managed to capture a few looks. We even got a "Holy Snaps" when he opened one gift!!

We had a great day spending time with friends and family. Cooper is loving being 4!

4 Years Old

Somehow, we have survived 4 years as parents. I'm not entirely sure how we make it through some days, but I do know that more often than not we are left laughing at the end of the day. Cooper's 4th birthday came and went a few weeks ago, and like most weeks I've been way too busy to type this out.

We celebrated his birthday at his favorite restaurant - the Backyard Grill. Cooper's most favorite thing to eat is their mac & cheese and fruit cup. He also usually eats more than half of my french fries.

Turning 4 has been a little harder for me than turning 3 was. Suddenly, 4 is grown up. He's a very helpful big brother. He loves his sister more than almost anything in the world. I'm pretty sure he will be smarter than us one day, although he probably already thinks he is. I don't know how much he's grown, but I can say he shot up by a few inches this fall. Scary!

He's a smart & silly boy. We moved him up to the 4 year old class this summer and he's done pretty well adjusting. We've had some hiccups, but he loves to learn. He gets frustrated when he knows the answer and the teacher calls on someone else. He will skip nap to do extra worksheets. (this drives me nuts, but I now know how my mom must have felt when I was young)

Cooper loves to read and be read to. Reading is my favorite pastime and I am so pleased that, for now, he enjoys it as well. We spend most nights reading a quick story and then leaving him in bed with a flashlight & book.

Thankfully, he's mostly outgrown his thunder fear that escalated earlier this year. He's still not crazy about loud noises and I think New Years Eve will be a big test, but I have hope.

Cooper loves to color & paint. He is a big fan of Planes, anything super hero and still loves to watch Mickey Mouse. He enjoys putting puzzles together, playing football or baseball and riding his bike. And, like a good boy, he's a huge Star Wars nut.

Happy 4 years to my little boy!

31 Weeks Old

The first week of December was crazy for us. I left early Tuesday morning for an overnight trip to California for work. I walked back into the house at 12:30am Thursday morning. Thursday night, I attended dinner with clients and got home after both kids were in bed...again.

By the time Friday rolled around, we were exhausted. And Cooper's party was the next day. I finally stopped for a few minutes to snap Caitlin's weekly photo that morning before school.

It pretty well went like this.

This was the only picture I got...and my camera strap was in half of it. As soon as I rolled her to her back, she was flipping over. And Cooper wasn't much help.

Caitlin didn't sleep well that night and was pretty fussy that morning. I knew she had a cold, but I wasn't sure if that was just it. When we finally got into the car for school, she was a screaming, crying mess. I called Jason and let him know that I was going with my gut and taking her to the pediatrician. We were expecting company for Cooper's party and had a full weekend ahead. I wanted to knock this out before it got bad. Sure enough, she had an ear infection. I grabbed her medicine and dropped her back off at school for the rest of the day.

The funny/not so funny part: I'd been talking to my friend Cindy earlier that week about our housekeeper not being able to come. She very graciously said that she would have given us her day, knowing we had a busy weekend ahead. I wrote back "nah, I love a good challenge." As I sat at the pediatrician's office I'm pretty sure I heard the Universe say "Challenge, accepted."

7 Months Old

Caitlin's personality has started to really show. Sometimes it isn't the best, but man...that girl will a firecracker one day. I can already tell.

She's started really sitting up and I feel comfortable leaving her sitting as long as we're on a blanket or carpet. I still get nervous putting her on the hard tile at this point. She's also scooting around like crazy. I'll put her on one side of the living room and come back to find her all the way across the room. Scary. She'll get there with a combination of rolling and scooting. She still does the Superman pose - stretching out as much as possible and grunting in hopes that she'll magically move. It hasn't worked yet. We've also finally reached the sitting in the grocery cart phase! I'm not going to lie, this is one of my favorite milestones. It makes shopping SO much easier when there is room for the items.

Funny enough, I looked at Cooper's post for 7 months and he hit the same milestones.

Happy Thanksgiving! 2013

This year we headed up to Jason's parents for the holiday. We left Wednesday after work, stopping halfway to eat dinner. Thursday was spent cooking lunch, eating, and watching football.

Unlike Cooper's first Thanksgiving, Caitlin wasn't able to sample my turkey. But she is eating more solid food and I feel that she might be able to sample things at Christmas.

We have the most adorable dress from Eileen that I was so excited for Caitlin to wear.

I somehow managed to beg Cooper to take a few photos with Caitlin. I had to convince him to pull his eyes off of the tv, but I think we grabbed 1 good pic.

Well, maybe not!