Lazy Saturday morning-

Daddy is out golfin' with Bapa this morning... so the boys and I are just hanging around the house. It's going to beautiful day today (and week for that matter) so we decided to fill up the pool and get it warmed up for some swim time.

Cooper is getting so independent! And with that comes willful disobedience :( We're working with him constantly (and when I say we, I mean me!) It seems like the only way to get him to listen is bribes or solitary confinement... which the latter is not specifically a favorite of mine.

Chase is a gigantic baby... he is so so needy. He's become this lil' puppy dog that follows me EVERYWHERE around the house. Once he's discoverd I'm in another room and not 'holding' him, he jacks up onto his knees and holds his hands out squeezing his fists and whining for 'ma-ma'... it's kinda cute... for two seconds :)

Anyway, hope this finds you doing well. Til' next time!

CHEERS-

-AMBER

Tragedy strikes!

In the interest of 'clearing' up what happened with Cooper yesterday (for those who already know and then again for those who have no idea what I'm talking about) I'll recap with a picture. Yesterday I was changing Chase's diaper and came out to the hall to a bloodied Cooper. He had blood dripping from his mouth, down his neck and soaking his shirt. Keep in mind head wounds bleed much worse than they really are, especially mouth cuts- Of course I was caught very much off guard and started to put pressure on the 'owie'. I realized he had cut his thumb as well and all he kept saying was "sharp, owie, it was sharp". I thought he'd hit his head on the counter, because we call that sharp corners. Full expecting to find blood on the countertop, it was clean. I looked and looked all around at what he could have possibly hurt himself on. I examined the garbage in his bathroom where we were tending to the cut-nothing, just tissues and such. I hadn't heard a thump, or clunk- no toys in the way, I was baffled at this point. Just trying to stay calm and get him calm as well.

After about 15 minutes of bleeding- man it felt like FOREVER! I finally got the bleeding to stop, only to then see the exact shape of the cut. A perfect pair of slices across his bottom lip, a razor blade. He had fished out an old razor blade from my bathroom and was "shaving like Daddy". Sadly, he learned the hard way that razors are ONLY for mommies and daddies... not for kids and now has the slices on his lip and a fileted thumb to show for it. He's fine today and I'm sure he won't be messing with razors anytime soon- he spent the whole day last night reminding me, it wasn't for kids. I usually lock our bedroom door so that he can't get into any kind of mischief, but shoot, I WAS RIGHT THERE!

Goes to show you, kids will be kids, they will hurt themselves no matter what, no matter how hard we try to keep them safe, or if we're even standing 10 feet away. I'm sure it won't be the last time. I just felt the need to clarify that he is indeed, just fine. Sadly, during the whole sha-bang, I had put Chase in the bathtub (a sort of make-shift crib) to keep him wrangled while I tended to his brother. All the whooping and whaling by Cooper got him so worked up that he lunged head first out of the tub to get to his brother, only to bonk his head on the bathroom floor. He too is fine, but it was an... interesting... 15 minutes for all of us. Looking back now, it's almost comical... almost.

Anway, hope you're doing well and staying clear of old razor blades :)
Til' next time-

AMBER

Pool time!

We enjoyed our pool today! It was a delightful 89 degrees outside and we soaked it up. Nana & Bapa bought this pool for Cooper for his birthday and it is fabulous; two-tiered and has a bench up top for mama and a slide to the bottom tier built in... again FABULOUS. I'm sure there will be many pictures of it to follow in the coming summer months.

Hope this finds you well!

Industrious efforts-

For any 'non-believers' out there... here is some proof of Cooper's obsession with the garbage. Luckily for us, we got knew recycle bins and we've been very mindful to rinse out all our recyclables so I have to say, we have the cleanest garbage bin ever! As the pictures will depict, I caught Cooper literally swimming in the recycle bin... he can't get enough of it. At first it was weird, but what-ev, it makes him happy and I know exactly what's in that bin... nothing dangerous or sharp or contaminated for that matter! Mostly just empty cardboard boxes and rinsed out milk jugs. It's still funny to see that he'd rather play with garbage than his own toys... had to share.

In other news... I started the potty training efforts again yesterday. We've had more successes than failures, although there has been plenty of both. I'm optimistic for several reasons but mostly because he doesn't seem to be kicking and screaming at the chore of a trip to the potty every 20-30 minutes. I took some good advice from my friend Amber to concentrate more on him being dry when he's off the toilet and that seems to be doing the trick. Anyone who's ever had a toddler knows they are the sharpest pencil in the box, so the rewarding of candy when he peed in the potty only resulted in him running to the bathroom every 2 minutes only to come back and ask for candy. (What a booger eh?) Anyhoo... we'll keep at it over the long weekend with no real plans to intrude our efforts.

Hopefully your weekend is restful and fulfilling! Take care and check back later.

CHEERS-

AMBER

A lil' under the weather-

It seems like Ryan CANNOT catch a break! I swear he has been sick more times in the last 6 months than our entire 11 year relationship! (That's right... 11!) I digress... he has had cold after flu after virus after ache and pain and now he's suffering from some kind of ear ache or whatever... poor guy... that being said- He's very 'vocal' with his ailments... kinda like my 9 month old infant :) Who am I kidding though- I very much like taking care of them. It's my job, I mean really- I'm 'the mama' that's what we mama's do... can I get an AMEN?

I had to snap some cute photos of the kids today. First of Chase getting overly excited over the telephone. (What is it with babies and phones? I swear they like them more than straight sugar!) And then secondly, Cooper had his own game of "chubby bunny" with some grapes after his nap. - I know shocking... he did in fact fall asleep today for the first time in a LONG time! Kinda nice for me I must say. Believe it or not... the pic of him looking 'constipated' he was actually saying "cheese" with a mouth full of grapes. Ah... good times. Made me smile for sure!

Anyway, here are some cute lil' snaps of the boys. Hope this finds you well!

Take care and til' next time-

CHEERS- Amber

Chase's first haircut- & other fine details...

It occured to me today how little I blog these days. Anyone who knows me should know it is not from lack of things to chat about ;) Regardless, I will do my best to be more diligent in keeping up with the 'happenings' of the Beardmores.

Chase got his first haircut this morning. I'll say it wasn't what I wanted to do, but I've been prompted by Bapa, friends and many other peanut gallery commentors. Alas, the spiking in his lil' eyeballs was really bothering him. So in his honor I'm posting before and after shots... Ryan says he can't tell the difference between them. Probably because in the before I swiped his hair to the side and in the after it's not swiped, but much shorter... so i'll give him that, it does look pretty much the same. I can attest that it is indeed shorter and no longer stabbing him in the eyeballs. His pics look a little strange because he's grinding his teeth... I know, terrible terrible terrible... but what can I do? Cooper did it too... it's just a very new realization to the teeth in his mouth I guess. This too shall pass, right? (The top photo is after and the bottom is the before, just in case you too needed prompting as to which is which-)

Chase never really took to full on 'stereotypical' crawling. Still with the army crawl and knee scooting. What-ever! He certainly does get into everything, pulls himself up on the mixer, the tupperware drawer, the coffee table and just about anything he can get leverage on. Next up... the stairs... Aaaaggggghhhh! Baby gate time!

We've been enjoying a few nice days here and there. Cooper is so hypnotized with mowing the lawn, watering the flowers and tools it's unbelievable! You almost have to see his transformation from indoor Cooper to outdoor Cooper; it's like yin and yang I swear it. Chase also likes to get some fresh air. I have to laugh when the sliding glass door is left ajar, it'll take about 2 seconds for him to realize it and we have ourselves an escaped infant... see pictures for details.

Cooper is getting to be such a big boy. He is very ... sharp. In the interest of not getting in trouble, if he knows he's on the verge, he'll just bat his lil' eyes and say "Mommy's a pretty girl..." and then wait for my reaction. Inevitably, he is no longer in trouble, i'm thoroughly worked over and kissing his cute and precious lil' head. Then 5 seconds later, he's back to challenging me, repeating what I say like "don't tell me no" and this pretty mommy is having the upper hand! Regardless, I've enjoyed our power struggles, play time on the carpet and fort building on the couch. Brushing teeth has become interesting since he wants to purse his lips together like he's whistling once the toothbrush is in his mouth- kinda tough to really scrub those teeth like that...again... What-ever!

Some how, I was able to schedule something (unintentionally I might add) almost everyday in the month of April. I have to look back on each week and remind myself that I did in fact complete all my tasks and 'to-do' lists. I feel like Cooper is getting the short end of that stick because we had been working on potty training briefly and had to kind of give up the diligence because I ran out of time to commit to it. Come May, it is full speed ahead for us in that endeavor... wish us luck.

Hope all is well with you and your camp. Enjoy the pics!

Ciao for now-

AMBER

Cooper turned 3!

Yes... let that be the first correction. I made comment last time that Chase was going to be 3 and alas... it is COOPER in fact who is now 3 (well Tuesday he will 'officially' be 3), his party was yesterday. We had a puppet show and friends over. All had a great time with snacks and a show! Here are a coupla pics from the main event!

Hope all is well with you and yours-

'Til next time-

ENJOY!

Amber