Cooper: "My teacher came over this morning and I was really happy to see her! I am starting to get used to her pushiness and now I just ignore it. I managed to have a great time playing with her toys and at the same time refused to do a single thing she wanted me to do. I think I am really starting to frustrate her, she wants me to sign "more" really badly, but I am just not into signing. I think I am going to wait until my ear tubes are in then just yell "MORE" at her next time she comes over."

Quinn: "I didn't get to see Miss Dorothy today cause I slept until 11:00 AM! I just couldn't get to sleep last night and I was so exhausted this morning. Mommy finally had to come and wake me up, I hate when she does that. I was still tired and then she wouldn't let me take a nap when I fell asleep on the sofa, something about speech camp...not messing up my schedule...blah...blah...blah."

My resolution for July is to take the kids outside every nice day that I have time. Today we went and played in the backyard for a while after Quinn woke up. The boys were so excited to go out, they enjoy the "great outdoors" much more than their mommy does. We played at the water table for a while but Cooper wouldn't let Quinn play with any of the toys and he kept splashing him. Quinn didn't seem to mind at all, it was a little ridiculous though, Cooper had so many toys on his side of the table he couldn't even get to his water! After that we dried off on the swings and Cooper played with the hose (it wasn't turned on though). I have a super cool kids sprinkler on order from Amazon, it should be arriving soon along with Quinn's new booster and Cooper's...gasp...potty!

Some pictures of the boys playing in the water table from Grandma Donna's phone.

Some pictures from today...

The Wiggles strike again! Cooper must have been exhausted to fall asleep on the floor with no blankets like this.

We had a sudden rain storm and Cooper was enthralled by the rain running down the window.

Quinn says "I am trying to watch t.v. and I know my brother is gonna mess with me!"

He was right! See how Cooper had to sit right next to him and threw his leg into Quinn's lap :)

So now that you know what the big kids did in Mexico...how about a little update on what the little kids were doing??

The boys spent Friday through Sunday with Grandma Donna and Grandpop Bill. They got to go to downtown Annapolis, a hike/picnic at Quiet Water's Park,to the beach, and out to dinner. Apparently through all this, Quinn was an angel and Cooper was....well....Cooper. Some comments that came from this set of grandparents..
"I took Cooper to the post office and tried to mail him to Mexico, but they didn't have enough stamps", "Now I understand why people beat their children", and "Now I know why you needed a vacation so bad". Oh Cooper, you were supposed to be good, now Mommy and Daddy will never get to go away alone again!

Then on Sunday my parents dropped the kids off at Grandma Jan and Granpa Don's house. These grandparents watch them every Saturday so they kind of knew what to expect. Still, Cooper drove them nuts too. They took the kids to Dutch Wonderland, very brave of them. The kids really loved it, especially Cooper. Grandma Jan said he was in heaven in the water park area. I think we need to get him a cool sprinkler for the backyard. Then Cooper screamed the whole way home, my guess is that he didn't want to leave the park. Poor Cooper, poor everyone else in the car too! On Tuesday Quinn had his first day of speech camp. He loved it! He always likes going to speech but I think he especially liked having other kids around too. On Tuesday night they brought the kids home and put them to sleep. Grandma Berta came over to sit with them until we got home...around 10:30 PM. Quinn was still awake in his room so I went into see him. He was totally unimpressed that I was back, but happy to have me cuddle with him. I really missed my Quinn! Cooper woke up in the middle of the night with a poopy diaper, he was also unimpressed that I was back and his diaper was nasty! Thanks for the welcome home gift Cooper!

Back from Mexico!

We are back from Mexico! We had a great time but I missed my boys. Here is a link to a slideshow of our trip. We didn't do much, just relaxed. Basically..breakfast, beach, lunch, pool, dinner, beach.....repeat!


http://picasaweb.google.com/anmns1977/Mexico02

Hasta La Vista.....Baby!

We are off to Mexico sans kids. Will update with all our adventures and theirs when we get back.

Adios Amigos!

Cooper is scheduled for tubes on July 2! This is good because shortly after that his cousins from out west will be arriving. I want to make sure he can hear them loud and clear. Those kids will be Cooper's "speech camp" they never shut up! :)

Today we just had a boring day at home. We slept in and then Cooper fell asleep in front of the Wiggles, as usual. Quinn was really into chewing today. I caught him chewing on some old pjs that had been left out so I took them away, when I looked at him again he was chewing on his toes! Yuck! So I handed him his chewy tube and told him that would taste better...he looked relieved.

Today was a long and busy day. First I took both kids to see the ENT (with a lot of help from Grandma Jan). The doctor had two things to say...

1) Quinn's tubes look perfect.
2) Cooper needs tubes too.

So very soon both my babies will have tubes in their ears and hopefully be able to hear much better. They retested Quinn's hearing and it had definately improved post tubes. After the appointment Grandma Jan took us all out to a lovely lunch at McDonalds! The boys both love McDonalds and they were really nice to us there, even though when we left there were two chewed up happy meals on the floor. Thanks for lunch, Jan!

Then tonight I went to the parent orientation for Quinn's summer speech camp. It sounds like it is going to be really great. I met both of Quinn's therapists (2 therapists for 4 kids) and they seemed great. I know Quinn will love them, and vice versa. My biggest challenge for the summer will be getting him there on time (9 AM!) and it is a half hour away. We can do it though, yes we can! They asked me if Quinn would let them know when he needed his diaper changed, I just smiled and said.."you'll know". These girls are definately little kid rookies, but they took my warning about spit up very well :) Oh, and we have to take turns bringing snacks for all the kids. The therapists spent lots of time figuring out very cool creative snacks that go along with what they will be learning....Quinn probably won't eat any of it! They are going to be helping make the snack though and I bet he will love that. Juice must be from a cup, not a juice box, this is so they can pour just a little and make them request more, genius! Apparently their motto is that "nothing is free" (I thought they meant the tuition at first:)) but they meant the kids have to work to communicate for everything they want. Quinn is gonna love that...

Birthday Party Pictures!

Cooper is ready to party! This was right before people got here, he was apparently too excited to take his usual nap today.

Cooper and Grandma Jan.

The best part of having a party, balloons!

Cooper just loves balloons.

Where's Cooper?

This puzzle was the first present he opened and his favorite. He played with it non-stop for the remainder of the night.

Fishy Cake.

Here he is handling the singing much better than his brother ever has.

Quinn is a major party pooper. He cried almost the whole time. Daddy took him out for a ride to calm him down.

Daddy is home!!! Yes, the husband /father was away for the whole week in Utah. I took a cue from some of my fellow bloggers and decided to wait until he got back to mention that online. Quinn and Cooper (and especially Portia) were so excited to see him and very glad to have him back. I am just so glad to have someone to help with diaper duty again, it has been one rough week. Things seem to be getting better for Cooper though, thankfully.

No time for a long update tonight, tommorow we are having Cooper's birthday party so I still have lots to do! Hopefully we will have some cute pictures to post tommorow.

I decided it was time to give the kids rooms some more kid friendly decorations. I found some really cute (and removable) stickers on the internet and they came today. I took some time tonight to put them up, hopefully they will all still be there tommorow morning! Here is what the kids thought of their new walls:

Cooper: When it was time for bed I didn't want to go in my room cause I didn't want to go to bed yet. But then I noticed that there were all these fish swimming around on my walls! That was pretty cool cause I love fish and since my walls are already blue it looks like they are swimming in the ocean. It is cool that I have something so neat to look at while I am laying in bed and playing in my room. Mommy said one of the fish was named "Nemo" but I had a hard time finding him :)

Quinn: Tonight when it was time for bed Mommy said she had a big surprise for me. When I went in my room I couldn't believe my eyes! Right there next to my bed was Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Donald! I was so excited to see them that I climbed right up on my bed and started talking to them. When Mommy tried to change my diaper I couldn't stay still, I kept flipping back around to check out my friends. Thanks Mom, I really love the new decorations in my room!

It is the one year anniversary of the big move for Great Grandma Berta! We are so happy she is here! Doesn't seem like it has been that long but time flys when you are having fun. Where would we be without you Grandma? Thank you so much for moving in with us!

Today I got a call from the infants and toddlers OT, she is going to come over and check out Cooper when we get back from Mexico. See, Cooper just had to chew up a poptart and then spit it out in front of his teacher the other day, and now she thinks he needs help with his eating. I think he is just weird, but we will see. I bet she will say she has never seen anything like it....that's what they always say about my kids.

Quinn's doctor also called today. He wanted to let us know that all the blood work they did from his surgery came back normal. Every year Quinn is supposed to be tested for his thyroid, celiac disease, and other issues common with Down Syndrome...this year it seemed to make sense to take the blood while he was already under for his surgery. Never doing that again! Taking that blood apparently took an extra 15 minutes, so we had to wait longer than they originally told us to find out he was okay. Those 15 minutes took 2 years off my life, no lie!

The kids had the day off today. No school, no appointments, nothing. Mommy had a doctors appointment so Quinn and Cooper got to hang out with Grandma Berta. Well, Quinn got to hang out with Grandma Berta, Cooper was taking a nap. Around noon I put the kids in front of the Wiggles and went to take a quick shower. When I came back downstairs they were both sound asleep! Cooper was sitting in the easychair with his cup of crackers in one hand and a cracker gripped in the other, completely out. Quinn was laying on the sofa also asleep, but he woke up when I tried to move him to his bed. I guess we were all just feeling lazy today.

Cooper is still having problems with his stomach. I am giving him probiotics mixed with ice cream but they don't seem to be helping much. He loves the ice cream though! The little devil managed to stick his hand in the toilet today (it was clean toilet water at least) so he got a very thorough hand washing in the sink after that which he usually hates. Not today, he thought washing his hands was so much fun he climbed back up on his own to do it again.

Surgery, ear infections, and the last day of school.

Quinn had surgery on Wednesday and he handled it really well. They removed his Adenoids and put tubes in his ears. He has been in a great mood since about two hours post op, which is when we got to leave the hospital. I think he is happy because now he can breathe and hear. He has definately been babbling more and he is dancing to his Wiggles with a lot more enthusiasm. Maybe because now he can actually hear the music? Thank god for the Wiggles, those hours at the hospital would have been a nightmare without them!

So now that Quinn is tubed up and good to go, Cooper can't hear either. He has just been diagnosed with double ear infections and is pretty miserable. He has been on antibiotics for a few days now, so his ears feel better....but the medicine has upset his stomach and after five nasty diapers today, his cute little but is red and raw. Poor baby. He is also probably headed for tubes, I doubt he will handle it as well as Quinn did though.

Today was the last day of school!!! Quinn got to go and I know he had a good time. Unfortunately it was so hot out that they closed school 3 hours early so I had to pick him up (no bus in early dismissal days). All he wanted to do when he saw me was get in the car where he knew it would be cool. He drank two sippy cups full of water when he got home. He fell asleep today around 4 PM, he is still asleep and it is almost midnight. I am sure he will wake up at 3 am and want to play. I guess it is okay though, we have nothing to wake up early for tommorow!

Unfortunately Quinn slept through dinner tonight. He missed out on pigs in blankets and french fries! Cooper actually ate some french fries though, I decided to be a nice mommy and give him some ketchup. To my surprise he actually dipped the fries in the ketchup and ate them (instead of just dipping his fingers in the ketchup and licking them like he usually does). He didn't even make a mess and it was the cutest thing ever!