Rock a bye baby

I HAD to rock both my babies to sleep last night. For me, that's not necessarily a good thing. We have our girls accustomed to going to bed on their own after a book, a prayer, and some one-on-one time with either mom or dad. But we are not the parents who plan to sit and patiently rock their kids to sleep every night. I would much rather them be able to fall asleep alone without my help. Plus, I really want/need my quiet time. Trust me, I'm a better mom because of it.

Anyway, last night Sophie decided to play in her room until 10:30pm, at which time Benoit was already in bed and I was ready to call it a night too. I went to bed and could just hear her quietly playing but was too worried about something happening while I slept to let her just play by herself all night. So I carried her to the couch and we snuggled until she fell asleep. Then 20 minutes after I put her in bed, Audrey starts stirring. She just got her first tooth in and the next one is on its way too, so she's right in the middle of teething, which is disturbing her sleep. This time, I made Benoit get up because I didn't want to feed her and I was worried that she would want me to if I was the one who came in. We ended up feeding her anyway, but she only had a little to drink. So I gave her some Tylenol and drops for her teeth, then rocked her for 20 minutes until she fell asleep. By midnight, I was in bed and ready for some rest...until my 3am nighttime fiesta with Audrey. Yes, we're still feeding in the middle of the night but that's another story.

Although it took a while to get to bed and was certainly frustrating along the way, its rewarding to be able to comfort both my girls and help them get the sleep they need. It's easy to forget to soak in the sweet moments when they are wrapped around rotten ones, but I'm trying to focus on the good parts of parenting. And last night was tough....but I choose to remember holding my sweet babies.

Sweet things

This weekend, we took a familial stroll in Grapevine to look at the Christmas lights and decorations. Sophie was scared of the big, plastic Santa and wouldn't go near him! Here is Benoit posing with Santa...my silly, sweet hubby!

Benoit and Sophie strolling down Main Street in Grapevine.

I went to wake up Sophie from her nap today and couldn't resist a few adorable shots. She looks so sweet and peaceful and I don't want to forget these little moments as she grows up. Sigh.

Where's the soap?

When I was a little girl, our teachers would wash our mouth out with soap if you said anything inappropriate at school. Nowadays, I'm sure you'd be sued for millions. But I digress. Sophie has started saying some peculiar things lately. She somehow adds an 'n' to Santa to make him Satan. And when asking to watch one of her fave tv shows, Max and Rudy, she asks for "Max and Booty!". And best of all, we watched the How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other night and now she's always talking about the "B**ch that Stole Christmas!" She says he 'bumped his head', which sounds a lot like "what the hell?" if you don't speak Sophie. Benoit and I have been cracking up, as I imagine you are too. :)

Christmas Cheer

I'm skipping Thanksgiving on my blog and diving right in to Christmas. I am way too lazy for that. Let's start with Sophie's Christmas party at her preschool. For each holiday, parents volunteer to throw a mini-party. This usually includes cupcakes and a holiday themed craft. Before age 2, Sophie understands that party=cake and she gets so excited because she doesn't eat a lot of sweets at home. For days afterwards, I get repeated requests for 'cake', 'me cake', Sophie cake', etc. Cute until about the 400th time I've heard it. But here is my girl with one of her teachers enjoying her precious cake.

A picture of me and my girls at the Christmas party. I was lucky enough to get at least one of them looking in the general direction of the camera!

Sophie is very proud of her Christmas tree. This is my secret weapon for keeping her out of my Christmas tree as she is allowed to play with her ornaments, not mine.

My handsome Brittany, Cody, for his Christmas photo.On Sunday, we went to Frisco Safety Town to meet Santa and tour the miniature town filled with holiday games, balloons, etc. It was super cold, so the girls are all bundled up. We had a great time and I think Sophie really enjoyed seeing all the Christmas lights and hearing the music. She loves to point out all the reindeer, snowmen, and Santa decorations. For the big moment with Santa, she was pretty brave and sat on his lap willingly. She was stunned into silence, though, and didn't say a word until we left the room. Audrey, on the other hand, was all smiles and was grabbing his beard!

Sophie and Benoit riding in Santa's sleigh.

Audrey keeping warm. Isn't she squeezable!

Sophie was proud of her gingerbread man tattoo and balloon!

Trick or Treat

We had a great Halloween with the girls and here is a quick pictorial rundown. We carved a pumpkin on the patio Halloween Eve with Sophie. It was both Benoit and Sophie's first (at least that Benoit can remember).
Here is the final product, carved by Benoit. We ate pumpkin seeds snuggled on the couch later that night.
On Halloween, Sophie decided to dress up her outfit with a pair of my shoes. This is one reason it takes us so long to get ready to go anywhere.

Our cute little hare ready to go trick or treating after practicing all week.
Benoit dressed up as a 'hard workin' man' and escorting Sophie door to door.
Our first house was a hit...Sophie was a little nervous at first and did not say trick or treat but she did say thank you!
Stopping at the Kim's for candy. Sophie said trick or treat and thank you! Made her mama proud!

My little tortoise and hare! Audrey did great, she was so curious about all the kids on the street and was very patient as we kept her up past her bedtime a bit. She made a very cute little turtle!Sampling the goods after we got home. Sophie was constantly asking 'tricktreat' because she thought that meant candy. She got upset when people started coming to our door and we gave them candy. She soon understood that we shared with our friends and would occasionally put candy in their bags. Mostly, she just asked for 'my tricktreat' as soon as the door closed! Blue hands and face after multiple M&M's. She ate her candy really slowly like it was some precious treat. So sweet!

Fall Festival Fun

I was way to busy (ahem, lazy) to upload pictures the other day from our trip to the local Fall Festival, so here they are. As you can see, we had a pretty good time even though it was raining and it took forever. The line eventually wound it's way inside the fire department, which is where most of these pictures were taken.

In other news, Audrey has started rolling over from tummy to back. She was only rolling from back to tummy (both directions), which is the more difficult way I hear. Maybe she just likes a challenge. :) She's also starting making tons of little noises, which is exactly what Sophie calls it: 'Audrey noise!'. She grunts a lot and is starting to roll her r's. She sounds like a little pirate: 'Arrrrgh!'. I love it!

Sophie as a little bunny at the Frisco Fall Festival.
A quick shot as we were leaving the car...no rain and daylight.

An hour and a half later, after the rain we made it to the front of the line to see the old firetrucks. Here I am with my little turtle.The turtle and the hare!Sophie figured out quickly that people were putting candy in her pumpkin and she held it all night!

Trick or Treat Training

In preparation for Halloween, we've been in Trick or Treat training at the Cotnoir house. We take Sophie outside and have her knock on the door, say the magic words, and reap her reward. She doesn't get much candy, so she's loving this new game. The drawback is that all day she walks around with her pumpkin saying 'TrickTreat, TrickTreat' and wanting to play over and over and over. But she's so cute, who cares! Video of this adorable training session below.

This past weekend we, along with nearly every other family in Frisco, attended the Firefighter's Safety Town Fall Festival. Turned out to not be my best idea ever. We stood in line with probably 2000 other people for 1.5 hours waiting to enter the miniature town to trick or treat. Did I mention it was raining? And that Audrey pooped on me in her sling? Despite all of that, Sophie did great in the line and was so entertained by the utter chaos that she just chilled out and watched everyone. Audrey did great until she pooped but who could blame her. So we quickly left when we realized her leg wasn't wet from the rain, changed her in the car, and headed home with a pretty small amount of loot. Better luck next weekend on the actual Halloween. We'll be taking the girls around the neighborhood to show off Sophie's new skills!

A Story In Pictures

If you've been following along, you'll notice we only have one day of potty training on record. That's because halfway through day 2, we realized Sophie wasn't quite ready yet. She was not interested at all to sit on the potty and was quite content to continue going in her pants even without a diaper. So we'll wait and try again another day. In the words of Kenny Rogers, "you've got to know when to fold 'em."

Here are a few snapshots of late to catch you up on our little world. It changes every day!

Little Miss Cool enjoying her carrot sticks and hummus on the patio.

My four month old beauty!

Must have a pic with the big bow...and just look at the perfect little lips! Cutie patootie!

Hammin' it up for the camera. 1
My first attempt to pull Sophie's hair back.
Sophie's first pigtails!

PTD1

PTD1...that's code for Potty Training Day 1. Today is the big day and so far, not so good. It's noon and she's already peed through 8 undies plus one poop, which was the end of the first pair this morning. We went to the park nearby and she peed once before we got there, so I changed her undies and then she peed again before we left. So my little girl went bareback all the way home! lol Then she peed about 3 more times in the house, after which I sat her on the potty chair in front of the TV for 30 minutes. She only peed a tiny drop in the potty then, but we had a 'pee pee' party and an M&M to celebrate! She's napping in a diaper now - we'll use diapers for naps and bedtime for a while, I'm sure. But hopefully she will start to be more aware of when she needs to pee in the next day or two. We thought this was a good time to start potty training because she's settled into school and we don't have any big plans or big changes coming up for a couple of months. But if by Sunday Sophie isn't getting the hang of it, we'll take a break and try again in a couple of weeks....

So the afternoon was better, but only by a hair. After her nap, Sophie didn't pee until almost 2 hours later, but then it was a good one. At least she was on the patio that time! lol She had several more accidents and never seemed to really be aware that she was either about to pee or had already peed unless it was a big one. Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow. I'm not 100% sure she's ready for this after today. But we said we would give it until Sunday and we'll stick with that for now. Whew! Glad this day is done.

Baby blankets

I've been planning to make Audrey new baby blankets for a few months now and just haven't found the time. Mostly, it's difficult to get out to buy supplies. I avoid taking both kids out like the plague and that only leaves me with Tues/Thurs while Sophie is in school. But that 5 hour window flies by after feeding Audrey, letting her nap, trying to go to the gym or grocery, and then feeding Audrey again. But I won't complain about having some time to run a couple of errands with a little peace!

So back to the baby blankets.... I bought some swirly pink minky fabric and two coordinating fabrics. I wanted a brown/pink and black/pink blanket and found some cute prints. I just pinned it out and sewed it up with my new machine (thanks mom!). Here are a few pics of the final product.

My adorable model with both blankets. Now for her close up.My other adorable model giving me the evil eye because I was interrupting Dora. Like momma like daughter! And a couple of pics of my sweet four month old just because!

She's rolling over every time I put her on her back. I'll upload a video soon!

Funny Stuff

Recent funny stuff Sophie has done:

• Benoit called himself 'Superdaddy' this week and Sophie has adopted the saying. She now happily calls us Superdaddy and Supermommy!
• When I picked Sophie up from preschool today, she was pointing out all the cars to me on our way to ours. When we got to the car, she noticed her reflection in the bumper and proceeded to lean over and kiss the car.
• Tonight we were playing on the floor before bedtime and she noticed a piece of string on the carpet. She picked it up and tried to hide it under the couch. I promise she is not miming me!
• Sophie enjoys sharing her toys with Audrey and we often find Audrey surrounded by blocks, stuffed animals, etc. But a few days ago, here is what we found....
  

Audrey's Baptism Video

I have finally had the time to edit and upload Audrey's baptism video for our families to view. It was a sweet ceremony and we are so thankful Tim and Caroline could be here with us. I hope you all enjoy seeing our little girl being baptized!

Feelin Crafty

I've been getting crafty lately and having fun with it. Below are a few new crafts I've tried my hand at. Let me know what you think!

Babylegs leg warmers for Sophie and Audrey. I got this idea from http://littlebirdiesnest.blogspot.com/2009/03/easter-legs-another-baby-legs-tutorial.html. Sophie is modeling a pair here, which don't match her outfit. Around the house, we wear all sorts of weird things.
An offering bag for Sophie to take to school for chapel days. I had an old drawstring bag and I just added some cute beads to dress it up!

My kitchen menu board which keeps me organized each week. I got the idea from http://www.makeandtakes.com/wipe-off-weekly-menu-board. It's just a pretty frame with scrapbooking stickers on the glass. I use a dry erase marker to write in my weekly menu and added a pretty paper to dress it up. Also, notice the beautiful 'abstract' by Sophie.

That's it for my crafty side this week!

Audrey's Naming Day

Today was Audrey's baptism and we are so blessed to share the day with her godparents, Caroline and Tim. Audrey wore the christening gown that her great-grandmother had made for Sophie, which is a sweet sisterly connection. She wore a pair of white, knit booties that were Benoit's when he was a little boy. Her godparents gave her a beautiful bracelet to celebrate the day, which she wore around her ankle since it was too big for her arm today. And of course, she wore a fabulous bow made by yours truly.

During the church service, Sophie quietly sat with us and studiously watched the activity around her. She was intrigued by the service, especially the organ music and the choir. When we went to the front for the baptism, the preacher invited us and the godparents to lay our hands on Audrey during the sprinkling of water and a baptismal prayer. When he sprinkled water on Audrey's head, she started to cry a little and then so did Sophie. I'm not sure she liked the idea of someone she didn't know well making her little sister cry. So sweet! Then afterwards, the congregation sang Jesus Loves Me as we took our seats. It was a simple and tender ceremony. We are blessed to have a healthy, happy daughter to christen today!

Benoit and me with Audrey after the baptism.

Godparents Tim and Caroline Brooks (Benoit's sister and her husband) with Audrey.
The whole gang (minus Sophie, who was in the nursery at this point). A sweet Mommy/daughter picture. And yes, I made this adorable hairbow.


I'll add the video next time, but too tired to edit/upload it tonight.

Interception

On Saturday, Benoit and I were tossing the ball around outside. Cody was ridiculously excited and wanted to play so bad! He intercepted at some point and was so proud he ran round and round the yard. I think he should have gotten a celebration call, but that's just me.

Here you can see how he grips the ball by the laces.