On my way

Caddie is moving around more and more every day. It helps if she has something to go after or if Cooper is around that keeps her busy just trying to stay out of his way. She has found it is very safe under the coffee table, though when I looked back at what Cooper was doing at this age he also enjoyed being under the table! She is trying her hardest to get her feet to work with her brain and get her going. I feel like she is getting close and I would bet by the time we head to Indiana in October she will be all over the place.

Brother and Sister Time

I got this mom!

Open Wide

I told you to leave me alone

Caddie is now more mobile which is a good thing and a bad thing for Cooper. He likes to lay next to her but he pays the price every time. She will roll over or scoot to get over to him and she grabs on to his hair or ear and will not let go. I knew it was only a matter of time before she began to fight back but boy is she tough!

Cooper also likes to help her whenever I will let him. Today he was being so nice and trying to feed Caddie her bottle. He was so proud of himself and she did really well with him shoving it into her face. I was shocked that he got it in her mouth and was not pushing on it to hard. I guess we are beginning to understand gentle a little bit more. His favorite thing to do is to push her in her swing. He will not leave her alone when she is in it and will just push and push her. She seems to like it :)

They get a good kick out of each other and really have not had any issues being around one another. Now I will see if I can still say that once she is taking all of his toys away :)

Playdates

We are part of a really fun playgroup here in Orlando. There are TONS of things that are offered for the kids. Though it has been very hot we do try and get out for a few things. This last week they had a local artist that sings kid songs come over to a local park and put on a private concert for our group. The kids loved it and it was nice to be outside for a while. I will have to say by the end though we were all ready to get back indoors.

Cooper loves all the kids and has a blast playing with all of them. We have a weekly play date at our house. We meet up with them at the library, and then try to do a few more things a month. I can't wait for Caddie to get older so that we can do more! She can only last so long in the heat!

Caddie 5 Months Old

Hanging at the park!

So happy to be 5 months

I can't believe that Caddie is 5 months old. Which also means that we have now been in Orlando for almost 5 months. This time has just flown by. Rob and I are amazed at everything she is doing and how much she changes weekly. She is now rolling and trying her hardest to begin the crawling process. She gets her little butt in the air but her legs just won't do what she wants them to.

I feel like she has hit a growth spur in the last month. She can now put down a 6oz bottle with no problems. She has also began to eat some cereal, bananas, and apples. She hit a phase when she was getting up in the middle of the night so we started to give her a little more at night to get her though the night, and it has helped. We don't do this every night but a few times a week to begin to get her ready for the good stuff :) She doesn't mind the cereal or the apples but the bananas got us a funny little face. So who knows maybe she will be our picky eater...or maybe not!

She is so strong and is not liking pulling her brother's hair. He will lay next to her and she reaches up and grabs a huge chunk of his hair and gives it a good pull. It doesn't seem to bother him too much but she gets a huge kick out of it.

She is "talking" more and more. We get lots of baby babble out of her and plenty of squeals. She laughs at her brother all the time. They are becoming little buddies already.

I have began to give them baths together and they both LOVE this. Cooper just laughs at her and she laughs right back at him. This makes it a much quicker process for me as well :)

Overall she is just growing like crazy. We can't wait to get her home to Indiana so the whole family can see her!

Mommy's Little Helper

Cooper is my little helper all day long. We do laundry together, we dust, and he helps me vaccum. It takes much longer to do anything with his "help" but he loves being there with me. He is also such a help with his sister. When she wakes up and is crying, Cooper is the first one in her room to check on her. He likes to try and feed her a bottle too, along with his sippy cup and cookies :) Maybe soon I can have him cleaning the house on his own!

Caddie at Play

Caddie has been really interacting more and is loving exploring her world. She has this cute little squeal when she is enjoying something, though it can get loud at times. She really likes the bouncer which gives me sometime in the kitchen to get a few things done while she can still see me. She has been all over the place. She is rolling from one end of the living room to the other very quickly. I think we will have a crawler on our hands in no time. She has such a sweet smile and it just melts Rob's heart when she smiles at him.

18 months

Such a happy kid
TROUBLE!

My Feet 18 months

I love when mom lets me have Sun Chips!

Well everyone told me that Cooper will be so different once he turns 18 months, and boy were they right. It seems like within the last week he is understanding so much more, talking more, and overall communication with him has increased. He will sit for longer periods of time and look at books or color which was unheard of a few months ago. We have begun to do "timeouts" and he is doing really well understanding them. We have a spot on an empty wall in the living room that he has to sit against for a minute. He will sit there and once the minute is up I go over and tell him again why he was put in timeout and then he gives us a hug and kiss and is allowed to play again. It has come in handy to get him to listen. "Don't touch that or you will be in timeout"

Our 18 month Doctor visit was very uneventful. He passed the 18 month assessment with flying colors. The Doctor was very pleased with how he is coming along and says we have nothing to worry about! He was 24lbs and 3 feet tall with a huge head still. His weight is now in the 25% height is in the 50% and his head is still in the 75%. She was not too concerned about the drop for the weight but said she will want to see him not drop below the 25% at his 2 year visit! So guess we will keep letting him eat away :)

Overall he is still doing great and it amazes us daily how much he picks up and understands! We just know the next 6 months will bring even more. We have a little toddler and are enjoying the "terrible two's".

I am picking up so much!

It seems like everyday Cooper is picking up more and more. He will repeat things that I say and does things that Rob does. My favorite is when he gets a hold of Rob's electric razor and pretends he is shaving...so funny.

He is picking up on songs and different games that other kids play. I got this video of him playing with one of his favorite puzzles. I try to spend Caddie's morning nap with him playing with his toys and trying out new things. It is our little hour together each day!

He understands so much. Rob and I will tell him to get his sippy cup or ask him where he put something and he can go and get it. I was told that at 18 months things just start to click and it is so true. He understands what he should and should not be doing and listens so much more. We can reason with him a little and you can give him a choice and he will make one. I will ask do you want grapes or crackers for a snack and he will either go to the pantry or the refrigerator. You can ask him to go and get his shoes and he will while saying "shoes". He is also understanding when it is time to change his diaper and will walk back to his bedroom with you to change him. He talks so much and we are starting to pick up on a few more words and phrases.

Can't wait to see how much more he will be able to do in the next 6 months!

Great In-Door activities

IT IS HOT! Only word for Orlando. Everyday it is the same story...It's going to be another hot one better stay inside if you have little ones! So I am running out of ideas to keep a toddler busy all day. He is beginning to enjoy cleaning the house with me. When he grabbed a towel and began to wipe down the coffee table and got so excited to see the vacuum come out I knew it was time to find a couple new activities.

One that I had already thought about trying was painting with pudding. Just let them go at it and if they eat it no big deal. Well he loved it!! I did two colors, blue and red which made a pretty purple when mixed! I was surprised that he did not eat more of it. He was just having a good time rubbing it on his tray and playing in it. I am sure it is an activity that we will have to do again soon considering we have heard the temps do not drop for another couple of months....GREAT :)

Getting bigger

Just last night Rob went in to check on both kids before we went to bed and he comes into our room shaking his head. "Man she is getting so big" It got me thinking about how fast Cooper went from a little baby to a full blown toddler into everything. Now Caddie is moving across the room and in a few short weeks will be crawling, then walking, and talking. I came across this poem today and it just hit me right. So I got out the paints and took an imprint of each kid's foot and now forever we will have this time froze in a footprint.

My Footprint

Someday I'll run through puddles,

take a stroll or run a race.

Someday I'll walk across the street,

or maybe walk in space.

Someday I'll scale a mountain ,

or I'll join a ballet corps.

Someday I'll walk a tight rope

or explore the ocean floor.

Someday these feet will do some things

that only heave knows,

but for today they're happy

just to wiggle all their toes.

VIP Dinner in Winter Park Magazine

Our family made it into the local Winter Park Magazine for the VIP dinner at Mitchell's. Rob said it perfectly this picture totally shows our true family. Cooper with his tongue out and Miss Caddie oh so serious. We had a blast at the dinner and we were the first to be sat at the new restaurant. Great memory of a great opening for Rob!

http://winterparkmag.com/winterparkmag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=787&Itemid=77

Our little girl

Found a great use for my foot
Cuddled next to my Dad's pile of laundry

Such a big girl holding my own bottle

Caddie is becoming such a fun little girl. She is starting to play with toys and reach for things. Within the last couple of days she has become more mobile by rolling and scooting where she wants to go. I put her down and a few minutes later I look and she is under the coffee table or stuck under her bouncy chair. She is so strong and is always on the look out for her brother.

Cooper and her just love each other. She gets so happy (most of the time) to see him and will let out a huge squeal. He loves to lay next to her and he is always giving her kisses. He is such a good brother and lets me know when she is up from her nap or when she is upset.

She loves her Daddy. She will curl up to him in the morning to get that last 30 minutes of sleep. She loves to watch him and will smile and coo at him. She gets a huge grin when she sees him and has that sparkle in her eyes when she looks at him. I was folding laundry with her the other day and I looked down to find her cuddled next to her Daddy's pile sleeping. It was very cute.

She is so sweet and so mellow, which is great considering her brother is so crazy. She is so determined and gets mad when she can't do what she wants. She has a cry that melts your heart and she knows how to use it very well. She will hold on to toys and just look at them trying to figure them out. She is also becoming a pro at holding her bottle, which makes me very excited! She is such a joy!

The Duck Gang

We have a "gang" of ducks that hangs out around our house. In fact they are a pretty funny group. They are all different and they stick together and follow each other around. Some of the families in the neighborhood feed them so they are very friendly and don't bite. But it is a little unnerving when you get out of your car and this group of ducks come running towards you. Cooper loves them and anytime we get out of the car or are out in the yard and he sees them he starts to "quack" and they just come running.

Rob is a little more brave then I am so one day he decided to allow Cooper to stay down and see what these ducks would do. Luckily they are super friendly and did not bite at him at all. Rob fed them some bread and Cooper chased them around the yard. It is just another animal to add to our diverse collection of wildlife we have living around our home.

Rain Rain Rain

Not only is this the hottest time of the year but it is also considered the wet season here in central Florida. It rains almost daily and some days we get a pretty good down pour. I can't believe it but we are still in a rain shortage for the season of about 6 inches. I guess it is because we really have not had a tropical storm or hurricane yet. (knock on wood)

We got a pretty good rain last week and caught us all off guard. So we decided to stick Cooper in his rain gear. He had a blast and did not want to take off his boots. In fact he had to wear them out to lunch that day. He even was able to put them on himself!

DJ Hero Party

My friend Stacy turned me on to this great website http://www.houseparty.com/ You sign up for various product "parties". If chosen you are sent a box with everything you need to host that party and all you have to do is have people over to try out the product. I had been signing up for various parties and finally got one. We were able to host a DJ Hero party. They sent us two DJ Hero games and numerous other things to have our party with. We invited some friends over and had a blast playing the game and watching Coop dance. It was a great time and I can't wait to see what my next party will be from them.

Trying new things

We got the green light from the doctor to try a little rice cereal with Caddie. She has been so consistent with sleeping and the last week she picked up a 2am feeding. So we are trying a little cereal before bed to see if that will help get her through the night. She loved it and had a blast holding her spoon.

Cooper got to try pudding for the first time this week. It is one of the foods that I don't mind him having but it ends up being more work for me when he is done then I feel like it is worth. But I said what the heck and let him go to town on some the other night. He loved it and would still be sitting in his chair eating if we would have let him. It is fun to see how far he has come with his spoon (trust me we still have a ways to go) he loves to eat off of it and tries his hardest to scoop food up on it and get it to his mouth.

Aunt Kimmie comes to visit

It has been a while since we have seen each other so it was so wonderful to have my sister in town for a few days. Not the vacation that I would have picked but she was able to hang out with us for a few days and enjoy the wonderful life of having 2 babies under 2. We were having a great visit till Cooper came down with a bug on Monday night. It was terrible and we spent the night cleaning up vomit and doing laundry. Well 2 days later Rob, Kim, and I all had the bug. So my poor sister went home with a terrible sickness. But besides that we had a great time hanging out and catching up on things.

Photo Shoot

With my sister in town I thought it would be a perfect chance to get some pictures taken of the kids. Well an hour later and both of us soaked in sweat we learned it is not an easy process to get a 17 month old and a 4 month old to take good pictures. As you can see Caddie wanted nothing to do with her brother. Well if you could have seen the seconds before the shot when he was pushing her face, or head or pulling her arm you would understand why. Plus the fact that we were chasing Cooper all over the studio made for a fun afternoon. I was quickly reminded why I don't attempt to do this on my own!

Family Update

Had to post this picture...Rob is smiling :)

I feel like all I do is post about the kids, ok well I do. But anyway there are other things that are going on in our life...really...ok not too much more :)

Life has been crazy these last 4 months. And when I say crazy I mean Rob and I sit and talk about it and just have to laugh at how fast this time has gone by. When we first discussed our move down to Florida little over a year ago we knew the day would come where he would have the opening to do and what went into that. Talk is cheap :) Living through these last 4 months has been a whirlwind of emotions. Take away the fact that I was an emotional wreck from just having a baby a week before we moved, it was hard. He was so tired and giving so much of himself to his staff that when he came home it was a blessing to have him change a diaper. I have to say though it was wonderful to have him come home every night. No matter what happened in our day there was that hour when we could just sit and catch up. He would tell me about the construction, hiring of a new staff, budget issues, staff issues, and everything else that goes into opening a new restaurant and I would sit and tell him about poop, eating, baths, reading books, and all the funny new things our kids were doing.

All the emotional things aside I have NEVER been more proud of him then I have been these last 4 months. Not only did he do the job of a General Manager but he also took on the role of the District Manager and Construction Manager most days. Now that the restaurant is open he has blown the previous record of turning a profit in 12 weeks down to 5 weeks. And each week that passes he is putting more and more money into the bank. I have talked to many of the higher ups and they are beaming about the job he is doing. (I am not proud at all). I think the best comment I got was one of his bosses asked me what I thought about the job he was doing. I told him I could not be more proud! He told me I should be and that Rob was way to good to stay in this position for long.

The store is beautiful and the staff is wonderful a true testament to what he is doing there!

Ok so now past the 2 big things in our life...Kids and Rob's job! I have been looking to go back to work a few days a week just to get out and have some sort of a social life that doesn't involve a play date. My luck we move to Orlando in the "slow" season and everyone is staffed. I have been following up with this place called the Ravenous Pig and it would be by far the PERFECT job for me right now. It is only opened Tuesday thru Saturday and they are booked for a week and a half out. Which means $$$ for those of you not in the service industry! :) They say there should be some positions opening up in August when all the students start school again. So only time will tell there. I have been meeting a ton of people and could not be happier to live in Orlando. Though we miss the beaches of Destin...there is nothing like a 5 minute ride to Target :) I am a workout fool right now and have started to establish some friends there. (Regressing to the kids for a minute) The staff knows us all by name and welcome Coop and Caddie when we walk in...so cute. Our playgroup has been great and I can't wait to do a few more things with them. We are finally getting past the infant stage with Caddie and she is easier to take out...now if the heat would give us a break that would be AWESOME!

We have a family day on Sunday that has really caught on with our friends in the area. We always have lunch at the same Mexican restaurant and now we have 5 other people that join us. We love eating there! The food is so good and the staff is so friendly and love our kids. In fact it is one of the only times in my week when I get to eat hot food because they hold the kids while we eat...SO nice. We always have a great time and it is wonderful to be able to hang out with our friends and share a meal.

I think we have finally found a church that we like. They also have a great children's program that includes preschool, which will start for Cooper in about a year. They also have a great woman's group that meets about twice a month and that would be awesome for me. (It offers childcare too!!!) It has been such a challenge finding a church and after the Mother's day "event" I almost gave up. But thankfully we found one that will be great for all of us. With Rob being able to take 2 days off a week (I know such a luxury) it will be easier to get motivated to go.

We have great landlords and they just put down sod and repainted the house. We are planning on being here for the next 2-3 years till Rob knows for sure where he is going to end up, so we were happy to hear they are not planning on doing anything with the house for 15 years when they retire.

On a side note I am hosting my first houseparty on Sunday for the DJ Hero game. If you have not checked out this site you need to. My friend Stacy turned me on to this and it is really cool and you can get some really neat things. http://www.houseparty.com/ You sign up to "host" parties with various products and if chosen they send you a huge gift box filled with things for your party and you get to keep it all. Very cool! So we are having a group of friends over on Sunday to play some DJ Hero!

Overall we are all thankful that we are almost past the opening phase of the restaurant and our life has begun to get back to a more normal pace. In the moments that we are the most stressed and tired from our long days Rob and I just go back to the fact that we are extremely thankful for his job and our little family, we are truly blessed. There are so many people in Florida that are out of work and cannot find jobs and are having to place their children in foster homes just to feed them. I thank God daily that he is allowing us to live the life we do and has given us the greatest gift ever our healthy and happy children.