Joy Day 28

Thanksgiving. This year, I've felt very blessed. I've thought a lot about the good, and been thankful it has outweighed the bad. We welcomed a new baby to our family and while every day isn't easy, I go to bed with a full heart.

Joy Day 27

We traveled to see family for Thanksgiving and both kids were good on the drive in. I was worried!

Joy Day 26

A happy baby in the morning.

Joy Day 25

A conversation with Cooper.

When we leave swim lessons, we drive by the Harley Davidson dealership. Cooper has been telling me for months that when he gets big, he's going to get a motorcycle. I've disagreed.

C: mom, when I get big I'm going to get a motorcycle.
M: no, you're not.
C: yes I am!
M: ok, we'll talk about it when you're 16.
C: when I'm 16, I'm going to get a motorcycle and I'm going to leave and never come back!
M: what? why? You're never going to see me??
C: Nooooo! I'm going to get my own house. You can come see me.

M: Cooper, when I get old, are you going to take care of me or put me in the nursing home?
C: I'm going to take care of you in the nursing home.
M: oh, ok. What about dad? Where will he be?
C: with me. He's going to be your nurse in the nursing home.
M: gee, thanks.

M: Cooper, what do you want to be when you grow up?
C: a sword fighter.
M: huh. That's a noble profession.
C: and a transformer.
M: ok, that should work out good for you. But where do you want to work?
C: oh, I'm going to be a nurse.
M: how about a doctor?
C: no, a nurse.

At this point, I was trying not to die laughing so I kept asking him questions.

M: Cooper, when you get older, are you going to get married?
C: Can I marry you?
M: no, that's not legal.
C: Ok, I'm going to marry Eileen. When I'm older.
M: how old?
C: When I'm 6.
M: yeah, I'm pretty sure Mr. Kyle won't agree to that. And you have to be 18. But you should wait until after college.

Joy Day 24

We finished putting up the Christmas tree. It's hard to keep Cooper away from it, but I love the glow from the lights.

Joy Day 23

Cooper decorated his own tree. It wasn't easy for me to let him do it on his own, but I did. He was so proud and has shown everyone who came in the house.

Joy Day 22

Cooper wanted to buy me flowers at the grocery store. He picked these out because they grow. :-)

Joy Day 21

We watched our first Christmas movie of the season. If it were up to Cooper & I, we would probably watch nothing else until December 26th.

He kept asking me what would happen next in the movie.

29 Weeks Old

We were a few days late taking pics this week. The week flew by...as did the whole month! Caitlin has decided it is much more fun to not sleep at all. Last weekend I decided we would start to sleep train her. Then daycare called at 4:50 on Thursday to let us know she was running fever. :-/ She never ran fever again, so I have no idea what was wrong.

Then Thursday night this happened. Jason got up with her at 1am to put the paci back in her mouth. I got up at 3am. I went to move her hat out of the crib and realized it was wet. My first thought was that she had chewed on it, but that didn't make sense. Ok, so I thought she peed out of her diaper. Only I realized her swaddle wasn't wet...and the crib felt chunky.

Yep, she tossed her banana-filled cookies in the crib and was covered in it. Guess who got a bath at 3:30am?

I couldn't start sleep training when I thought she might be sick. Instead, we toughed it out over the weekend I started putting a blanket around her on Monday. That seemed to help for 2 days! Since then, either she has decided that isn't going to work or I'm at fault for changing blankets. Either way, we're back to sleep training this weekend. Pray for us, please. My biggest fear is that she will keep Cooper up and 2 tired parents + 1 tired 3 year old does not look good.

Also, it annoys me that she can look this happy and cute, even when she's up at 1, 2 & 3am.

Caitlin tried several times to attack Cooper.

28 Weeks Old

Caitlin & I spent some time the second week of November with my mom in Dallas. I had to attend a training class so they came along to spend some girl time together. The trip there was pretty uneventful and we were lucky enough to stay at the Gaylord Texan. They were putting out their Christmas decor and I immediately got into the Christmas mood. I've been dying to put out my stuff since we came back!

I loved the layout of the hotel, but I really wish we would have had more time to explore it. I cannot wait to take Cooper there - especially when it is decorated for the holiday season.

The negative part of the trip...Caitlin just did not sleep. I'm not sure if she was not happy in the Pack N Play or if she just wasn't feeling it, but the first day there was rough. The second night I mostly let her sleep with me, which helped, but I quickly realized that isn't a long term solution.

She's eating more solid food now. I don't think she liked bananas, which made me really sad since Cooper loves them and they are so easy to prepare. As in, there is nothing to prepare! I also forgot how much work it takes to make baby food. It seems like I'm prepping quite a bit, only I realize after that it really won't last that long!

Suddenly, Cooper has grown 5 inches or something. He's so tall and it is all legs!

And this is what most days are like!

27 Weeks Old

I'll be honest. November is almost over and I'm starting a panic a little. I've fallen behind here and I can't remember what happens each week.

I will say that baby shoes are almost the cutest thing out there. I never really put any on Cooper because we didn't have them. Caitlin has a ton of hand me down shoes and they are so stinking cute. I also love that it keeps her from pulling her socks off or wearing wet socks because she's chewed on them.

Joy Day 20

I love that I can ask Cooper to play with his sister. And most of the time they love each other. For now.

Joy Day 19

A great opportunity at work.

Joy Day 18

Dinner with friends & watching the kids play.

Joy Day 17

Lunch at the Dixie Chicken.

It was Caitlin's first trip.  Eating lunch here always takes me back to being pregnant with Cooper. I craved a burger from the Chicken Oil Co or the Dixie Chicken. I begged people to bring them back to Houston for me. I never got one, but I can't have lunch there without remembering being pregnant.

Joy Day 16

Playing hide & seek with Cooper.

Joy Day 15

Cooper ate a slice of pizza with caramelized onions on it. And didn't complain.

Joy Day 14

Coming home to a clean house.

Joy Day 13

I wrapped and delivered my first Angel Tree gift yesterday. It felt good to give back and reminded me of how fortunate we have been this year.

Joy Day 12

A sleeping baby girl.

Joy Day 11

Cooper's swim instructor, Ms. Jen, said he's ready for the float test next week! Just last week I thought it would be a while - he just wasn't getting it. This week it was like watching a whole new kid in the pool. The first half of the lesson, he was still struggling. But suddenly he got it and started floating like a champ!

Joy Day 10

We finally replaced the straps on the baby swing and put Caitlin in it. She was so stinking happy just sitting in the swing.

Happy Halloween!

I started asking Cooper a while back what he wanted to be for Halloween. He wavered a bit and settled on Spiderman. When I asked what Caitlin could be, his response was simple: Spidergirl.

Unfortunately, I was not happy with that response. I wanted them to coordinate. At least 1 year! Next year, Cooper may not think it is cute to match his sister. Next year he may not like his sister. So this year, I wanted to have a say in the costume. I started talking about Star Wars as a possibility. Cooper wanted to be Darth Maul, but that wouldn't work with my Princess Leia idea. I ended up taking Jason suggestion and bribing asking Cooper to be Darth Vader. He may or may not have gotten a new light saber as a result of the deal.

Halloween came and Cooper was very excited to finally wear his costume. They had a costume parade at school which added to the excitement.

We dressed both kids up & snapped a few photos before heading out.

Cooper had Kool-Ade with dinner, if you can't tell!

I was so happy with how their costumes turned out. I didn't get any good photos of them standing or Cooper's light saber, but I'm sure he'll be wearing the costume again. He took off out of the house running from door to door. After about an hour, we headed back to the house. Cooper was exhausted and asked to sit in Caitlin's stroller! I let him have one piece of candy before bed and he crashed hard.

6 Months Old

We missed taking Caitlin's 6 month photos on her actual birthday, but moving it a day gave us a good chance to share her Halloween costume.

I'm pretty sure 6 months came faster with her than it did with Cooper. I can't prove that, but it sure felt that way!

She is generally a very happy baby. We still experience the "witching hour" around 6pm. I honestly thought that went away after a few months. We finally pulled out the high chair and will set her in that for a while. It's helped me cook dinner while being in her view and it keeps her from freaking out. Win win. We're also on our fifth food - we've done carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, butternut squash and pears. So far, she seems to like most of it, though it took some getting used to! As I did with Cooper, I plan to make most of her food. It's very easy and turns out to be a big cost saver.

She's very vocal these days. Especially when she sees Cooper. He can almost always make her laugh and squeal. If he's not around, she's constantly looking for him.

We're solidly in the 6 month size clothes and moved to the size 3 diapers. I think I found and used all of the size 2's last week. She is quite a bit behind Cooper in size! I think he was wearing 9 month clothes at this age.

I took both kids to the pediatrician last Monday. Cooper needed his flu shot, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Taking 1 kid alone is pretty rough, but two...I was scared. We managed & Cooper was a big help. He was pretty shaken when Caitlin screamed after her 5 shots, but got his without a single tear shed! I was so proud of him.

6 Month Stats:
Height: 26 1/4" (61st percentile - the doctor questioned that, but we stretched her out pretty good!)
Weight: 17lbs 5.4oz (68th percentile)
Head: 16.57" (45 percentile)

She seems a bit more average than Cooper did!

Pumpkin Carving Time - 2013

Cooper was very excited about carving pumpkins this year. We bought our first one a few weeks early from Eileen's school pumpkin patch and I picked up the second one at the grocery store. A few days before Halloween, Jason printed off some template and we got to work.

It was a mad dash to get them both carved before bedtime, but we managed to finish it up and take a few photos.

Cooper picked out the first one - Iron Man and I chose one from Horton Hears a Who. I thought it looked more like a regular Jack O'Lantern face.

26 Weeks Old

This week was crazy. We had a lot going on and Halloween was thrown in there. We spent one night carving pumpkins and getting costumes ready, then another night out to Trick or Treat and boom, it was Friday. I finally took Caitlin's 26 week photo 3 days late before school Friday.

Caitlin is moving all over the place these days. She's not crawling, but she will scoot and roll around quite a bit to get to something. She also seems to think that if she does the Superman pose (legs and arms off the ground, on her belly) and grunts really loud something will happen. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked yet.

I had heck getting her to stay on her back this week. As soon as I'd roll her over and grab the camera, she was back on her belly.

My little Star Wars nerds!

Joy Day 9

I called Jason while feeding Caitlin and happened to talk to Cooper. She stopped eating when she heard his voice over the phone. Guess I wasn't the only one to miss him.

Joy Day 8

Cooper dressed up to watch Star Wars.

I laughed so hard I could hardly read the text.

Joy Day 7

Staying at the Gaylord Texan and seeing Christmas decorations go up. I'm officially in the Christmas spirit.

Joy Day 6

Family. My mom came with me to a work conference so that I could bring Catlin & Pops picked Cooper up from school so that they could go buy new boots.

Joy Day 5

Sword fights on the bed. Cooper is all about being a ninja these days. We all piled on the bed and I protected him and his sister. I think the laughing may have been the most dangerous thing.

Joy Day 4

Really good Pinot Noir from our last trip to California. At the end of a trying, long, rainy day the wine tasted great three years after we bought it.

Joy Day 3

Baby shoes. Seriously, is there anything cuter than baby shoes?

Joy Day 2

Cooper & his pony. Hearing his giggles would make anyone smile.

40 Days of Joy - Day 1

I did this a few years ago and enjoyed it. It wasn't easy. Some days, it was really hard. Not just to take the time & sit down at the computer, but to find something that made me happy that day. Yes, my kids make me happy every day - but I tried to focus on the small things. The not-everyday things. So, we'll see how this goes.

Day 1: This outfit.

Also, I'm going to laugh each time I put that hat on Caitlin this winter.