Blink

We were assigned a new adoption worker in Colorado.  Our other worker retired, but we weren't notified.  I don't think this will slow things down, but we plan to make a call on Monday (we've been playing phone tag).  We need to get started on travel plans if it is really going to be on March 16th!

I finished reading Blink.  It was okay.  I think I was expecting something similar to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and instead got something more like Dubner & Levitt's Freakonomics.  Blank wasn't bad, it just didn't have much to say.  There were some interesting points made, but mostly it wasn't anything new.  I'd say skip it.  Now I'm on to The Thirteenth Tale since Danine recommended it on her blog.

I went to the awards banquet on Friday to accept my Young Engineer Award.  We weren't able to find a babysitter (I asked all of my friends!), so Chris stayed home and I went by myself.  To be honest, Chris didn't miss much.  It was $80/person (I didn't have to pay), but the food was awful!!!  I accepted my award and left shortly after.  It was nice to be away from the kids and it was good for Chris to put the kids to bed by himself.

I always put Cooper to bed because I HATE pumping.  I have to do it all week at work and I despise it, plus I love nursing so that means I have to put Cooper to bed.  Chris did it for the first time and things went just fine.  I knew they would...I mean he puts Cooper to bed all week for naps, it's really not that much different.

Our newest frustration though?  Cooper is becoming increasingly more difficult to put to bed.  It had started getting easier and we could feed him, lay him down drowsy but awake and he would zonk out.  Now the kid thinks it's play time right before a nap and won't go to sleep on his own.  It takes 45 minutes sometimes to get him to go down!  Not sure if it's a stage, but we're frustrated.

Since we aren't comfortable with letting him cry and all the crying does is make him more riled up (as opposed to Charlotte who gets more riled up the more soothing we try to do for her).  We expected it to get easier and it just doesn't feel right to spend that much time rocking/soothing/nursing him to sleep.  He's too old for it.  I bought a couple of books (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and The No-Cry Sleep Solution) because I'm not sure what to try next that doesn't include crying.  We'll see how it goes.

Cooper is obsessed with dog toys.  He chews on all of the dog toys.  The latest--a piece of rawhide.

Cooper also carries things in his mouth.  He regularly crawls around the house with a toy in his mouth.  I guess he thinks it's a convenient way to take toys from one room to the other.  It's fine now...but I know it will make me nervous once he starts walking.

This is just a cute one in the morning:

Here is Charlotte standing:

Here's one of them playing with their cookie jar.