ZooBoo

We had a great time at ZooBoo in Houston. The kids got a chance to wear their costumes and were so excited- Cooper was Spiderman and Kara was a Fairy Princess.

How did they choose their costumes you ask? Well, Cooper knew from the beginning that's what he wanted to be and never deviated. We went into one of those huge Halloween Expre$$ stores and showed Kara several different options. She would walk past something, take a slow look and say no. We showed her cute puppies, bears, lions, raggedy Ann, etc.

She walked up to the Fairy Princess, stopped and declaired "MINE" and walked straight to the register! It was too funny - the girl knew!

We met Susan and Artem and Amy (her sister in law) and baby Charlie at the zoo and had a lot of fun! Artem was an adorable little train conductor and is seriously the best behaved little man there.

As always, check out our pics - I'm sure Susan has better ones - my camera bites AND she's a great photog!

Kara, the prairie dog

Cooper the prairie dog

Artem the prairie dog

Kara very gentle with the goat

They actually posed for the pic!

Cooper finally enjoys a ride on the carousel 'horse' that goes up and down! He said, Mom, I not scared, it fun!!

Cooper loves the goats - and actually kissed this one on the head!

Picking out a pumpkin to paint

1 Year Family Day Anniversary

October 15th was our 1 year anniversary as a family!

We celebrated by having Russian Stroganoff and watching the video of our trips.

It's unbelievable that it's been 1 year already~It truly feels like the kids have always been with us.

They are right on target with everything as far as development except Kara's speech is about 6 months delayed but improving daily.

Cooper is still a crazy/smart/funny little boy who makes up stories all the time.

Kara continues to LOVE her baby dolls and treats them so delicately, it's truly precious.

We went to see Thomas the Train in Rusk, TX this weekend and the kids had a ball. It was a great experience - I recommend it! Kara was NOT fond of the loud horns and it was a little chilly so she could have skipped the train ride but loved the jump houses and eating and tatoos, etc. We stayed with my brother who lives about an hour away and it was great seeing him. Here are some pics from our little weekend trip:

Cooper, brother, Kara (yes, he's my brother - 19 years older!)

Kara NOT enjoying riding on Thomas!

Cooper loved it!

The happy family of 3 and Kara

Sweet kids on the way up - holding hands for the pic (UNprompted!)

Keeping up the naps

Ok, you really thought I wasn't serious about keeping up with the blog right? Fooled ya!

Just when we thought nothing else could happen it did.
Kara again.
She awoke at 12:30 last night screaming and writhing (seemingly in pain) and soaking wet with sweat. She continued to scream/cry until 1:15 - STRAIGHT, NON-STOP. Then it continued throughout the night. Nothing would soothe her. She kept screaming, NoNONONONO... slapping her hands, kicking her feet - all over the place.
We put her in the bed with us and tried to comfort her. She would fall asleep for about 1/2 hour to 45 mins then the screams would start again.
I thought she had to go to the bathroom - possibly constipated.
At one point during the night we were convinced she was possessed!! kidding!
She was not responsive at all. We kept asking, Where does it hurt? Where's the booboo?
Nothing. Just screams and kicking. It was like she didn't even know we were there.

She finally went to sleep soundly around 5:00 am - I had to get up for work at 5:30 so needless to say, that didn't happen.
She awoke around 7:00 with a smile on her face and normal as can be.

We spent the day together and she's been very normal. I've been scouring the internet trying to figure out what was wrong with her. After my research and talk with my bud Teri, we have decided that it was night terrors. Of course, we did everything wrong - you're not supposed to bother them at all. She didn't have a nap yesterday and sleep deprivation is one of the causes of night terrors.

I always knew naps were important but here's just another reason.

Here's the link to what I've found: http://www.babycenter.com/404_why-is-my-toddler-suddenly-waking-up-hysterical-at-night_1292621.bc

Hope this helps anyone else with this problem.

The stories just keep on comin'

I've really got the goods on these two when they're older...

Here's another story:

It's 3:15 a.m. Jim hears noises and tells me to go check.

why HE couldn't go check I'll never know since I was sound asleep...

So I tip toe down the hallway and peek ever so quietly into Kara's room and a small voice from below says, "Here, here!" She was in the bathroom on the floor, her face (including her eyes) was covered in De$itin, her diaper was off and she was saying, "boo boo, boo boo".
While I was wiping her off and putting her diaper back on I discovered that she was really hot. Her temp showed 102.8F.
Poor thing just wanted to try to make herself feel better.
We put her in the bed with us and she finally went back to sleep around 4 a.m.

As per the Doc, she has a common virus- not Swine or any other flu - and the fever is gone.
This all happened last night...
See I'm getting better at blogging with my stories on time!

New pics soon!

Time Flies

I've been a very bad blogger lately - there's just not enough hours in the day for this... I'll try to be better, I promise.

So, what's been going on in the last month? Tons.

Cooper
The boy is absolutely thriving. He talks nonstop about the strangest things. I actually had to google a bunch of his behaviour because, well, I've never had a 4 year old before and did not know if this was normal.

For example: His answer to my question of how his day went, would be: I was running, and BAM, went into the light and cut my finger off. It bleeding so I had to go to the hospididdle.

(Me:) What? When? (Cooper:) Yesterday - I had to go on the helicopter. (Me:) Really? Who drove the helicopter? (Cooper:) Me.

This is an everday occurance. Sometimes, there's fire involved, sometimes the police come. But he's dead serious when he's telling these stories and there's a lot of hand motions and expressions. According to everything I've read, he's very normal and has an active imagination. Whew! He's one crazy little boy.

Otherwise, he's playing soccer at school and loves it.

Kara

She's also thriving and doing very well. She's in the midst of potty training and we're discovering that she has tremendous will. She's perfected the phrase "NO, I do it" and will scream if she doesn't get her way. We're working on that, but again, I read that that's normal 2-3 year old behaviour. She plays well at school and per her teacher, she is not aggressive so she's pretty easy to manage. She loves computer time at school the best and now she's in dance (ballet and tap) - yeah, I know, she's not even out of diapers yet. I was guilted into enrolling her by the dance teacher who said, but all the other little girls are in it and she always wants to go... blah, blah, blah. Hmph. I didn't start dance until I was 7.

They're not perfect though.

About 3 weeks ago, they were playing in Cooper's room, right after their bath. Cooper went downstairs and said Look Papa! I could hear Jim say, Oh wow, go show your mom. I was upstairs and feared what was coming. My instinct was right. He came in to our bathroom, his hands and legs completely covered with blue and green markers. Then Kara cam in right behind him laughing away, looking just the same as he did. They both went right into the bath again.

2 weeks ago, I heard a lady downstairs (we were both upstairs). I went running downstairs and saw both kids on the sofa laying on their tummies talking to Jim's cell phone. Someone had climbed up, got Jim's blackberry, somehow dialed 911 and put it on speaker phone (which was at least nice of them). The lady on the phone was saying, Hello?? Hello?? 911 Dispatch, what's your emergency?? Kara was squealing with delight and Cooper was trying to talk to her.

Oh the fun toddlers bring...

Here are some updated photos.

Jim and Cooper on bumper boats

The Coopster posing

Cooper bossing Kara, Look this way - you can see how well she listens to him!

Kara trying on her Halloween costume, a fairy princess - she finally learns to pose! The little beauty in the bath