A Snapshot

So little time…I’m trying to learn more about photography and get out of auto. I need more time, or to be a better steward of my 24 hours, and make room for study and practice. I have been practicing more with the girls and Sophie is a good sport about it. I’m not good at all indoors yet (darn low light!) but am improving with outdoor shots. I am hoping Santa will be kind and bring me a sweet 50mm f/1.8 lens. That would be a nice incentive to get better quickly!

As for our latest news, Audrey is becoming more verbal each week. She attempts several new words and often I recognize it before she gets too upset with me. She loves to chase Cody and have him chase her for a treat. She loves the Bye Bye song from our visits to the Baby Gym (our nickname for My Gym). And she LOVES her milk still. We are in the process of kicking the milk-to-bed habit. Most nights are pretty good, but if she doesn’t eat well at dinnertime, there is a battle ahead!

For Sophie, she was very sad at preschool on Thursday because when they passed around the offering bucket in chapel, she did not have any coins to give. Bad mommy! So I will be more diligent about putting some money in her coin purse each week. During our prayers last night, I asked her what are some ways we can show God’s love to others and she said to sing Twinkle Twinkle because that’s what she sings to Audrey when she is cries. So thoughtful! She is also sleeping through the night now pretty consistently (Halleluiah!) and is not playing with poop. Life just gets better every day!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite photos this month.

After enjoying a PB&J.
Audrey's new hobby.
Sophie strung every card as a gift for Daddy after his big hunting trip.

Posing while Mommy plays with her camera.

Caught a sweet smile.

Back To School

I love fall. I love being outside again. I love a crisp breeze. I love the anticipation of hot chocolate and butternut squash soup and holidays. And I love back to school! Sophie had a great first day and was very excited to meet her new teachers and friends. Only 1 girl from last year is in her class so everyone else is new to her. She came home and talked about playing with trucks and making snakes. Definitely new exposure! Here are a few cute snapshots of my big girl ready for her first day of 2 y/o preschool!

PS - Sophie's sleep saga continues. We are about to move Audrey back in our room and retry the cry-it-out method. I'm just too afraid to do it with Audrey right next door and then have to deal with two wide-awake babes at 3am!

Ready with her lunchbag, "Ellie" the Elephant! And yes, Ellie must wear bows too!
Warming up to Miss Stacy, who actually lives on our stree!
Arms crossed, looking around, getting comfy. But holding her own. Love this girl!

Go in the kitchen

"Go in the kitchen, mommy!" directs Sophie. Not because she's hungry, thirsty, or thinks that's where I belong. But rather because she wants to do something she's not allowed to do and wants me to leave so she can get away with it. She wants to jump on the couch. She loves to pull all the pillows off the couch and jump from the armrest (from a standing position) to her tummy on the couch. Often with Audrey in the way. I just think it's funny, but the responsible mommy part of me has to step in and make sure she doesn't get hurt. Hense, no jumping on the couch.

Bonus, here is a pic of Audrey climbing into her old carseat while I'm typing today's entry. Cute!

Woo Hoo! Sophie's Two!

How do I suddenly have a two year old? It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant for the first time and now here I am with two precious little girls. What a blessing. I thought Sophie would enjoy a Winter Carnival with her friends and so a theme was born. Snowman invitations, blue/white/silver everywhere, and tons of 'carni' games to boot. We had a snowball toss, photo booth, hockey shootout, guess how many gummy bears, go fish, tattoo parlor, penguin pickup, and polar bear knock down. Everyone got tickets and a goodie bag to collect all their hard earned prizes, also winter themed. I think all the kids had a blast and I know Sophie enjoyed the party. She especially enjoyed her cake...we've been hearing about cupcakes all week long! She has definitely formed an association between birthday and cupcakes, I assume from preschool. And she's always pandering for one. But she is the birthday girl, after all, so why not.

~

Though she will not likely remember this party, I hope she remembers that she has friends who care about her and parents who are proud of her and love her endlessly. She's an amazing little girl full of feisty fire, sweet snuggles, and great giggles. How much fun to watch her grow up!

Front door sign...super cute!Sophie's birthday plate!Getting ready for the cake - she seemed to know just what to do.Yum! She really liked her cake.Family picture - it was a great day!Sophie playing at the 'photo booth' with her friend, Levi.Enjoying the 'hockey shoot out' game.

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. :)

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.

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....
  

Preschool Daze

Sophie just finished her third day of preschool and seems to be enjoying it. She has talked about her teachers several times over the weekend, so I'm guessing she's having fun. There are two teachers and seven children, so the ratio is really good. That certainly makes me feel better about sending her off to school two days a week. The first couple of days, she was a little nervous going in the room and cried a bit. But today, Benoit took her to class and said she did not cry, but just looked a little timid. I think she's doing a great job and I'm sure it will help her be more independent and more comfortable with new people.

Her school days include craft time (usually coloring activities), two playground outings, movement (dance) or music (singing songs), chapel once a week, lunch, and naptime. Today, her teachers said she had a great time and was very playful with the other kids. So proud of her! There are a few pictures of her first day below.

Audrey and I have been staying busy with doctor and dentist appointments, gym workouts, and outings to Target or the grocery store. I never realized how easy it was with one child, especially an infant until now. I suppose you never know how good you've got it until you don't have it anymore, right! I've still got it good, but not as easy. :) I'm ready for all these appointments to slow down so I can focus on spending quality personal time with Audrey while Sophie is in school. I am able to play with Audrey more frequently and pay more attention to her already and am certainly enjoying that. I don't want to miss special moments with Audrey because I'm chasing Sophie. It's going to be difficult to balance my time and attention between the two girls, not to mention my sweet hubby and hyper dog! But like the amazing women before me, I'll find a way.

As promised, here are the pics of Sophie's first preschool day!

Cause and effect

I've discovered that sometimes, it's so hard not to laugh at your children. Yesterday, Sophie was pushing the baby swing back and forth and then leaned her head down toward it as it started swinging back towards her and WHAM - right in the face! I nearly lost it but she was upset, so I couldn't laugh (until much later with Benoit). Then today, she was asking for juice, which we mix with water. Apparently I was not quick enough and my impatient child walked to the fridge and hit the water button in the door and SPLAT - right in the face! Again, nearly cracked up but she was upset and I had to hold back my giggles. Is she clumsy or just discovering cause and effect, I'm not sure. But she sure knows how to make her mommy laugh!