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!