Happy Birthday, Scout!

Scout turns 2 today, December 9!  We got her on Valentines day in 2007.  She has been the best dog ever and I can't imagine our lives without her!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Getting into stuff

Oh, boy! Oh, boy!  These two are such a handful sometimes...but oh so cute!  Look what they are getting into...

Yes, Cooper crawled under the island...then he got stuck and it was tough getting him out.  (That's Charlotte in the corner going after the camera.)

Cooper wedged himself into the corner behind the Christmas tree and end table to play with the wreath (that I haven't hung yet).  Everything has to be an adventure for him.

Helping with the dishes:

Our place is too small for a dining table, so we eat at tv trays (yet another reason I am so over this apartment living).  They both stand and beg for food, even more than the dog does!

Getting into drawers...that's their newest feat.  The bottom drawer of the kitchen doesn't have anything special in it but they think so.  They also get into the desk drawer...they broke the model car that Chris worked so hard on.  They are great at opening the drawer, closing it on their fingers and crying about it, and then re-opening it to take things out.

And this is what happens when those drawers have clothes in them...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Birthday Parties

Today we went to our first birthday party for a friend.  Jenna turned 3 so we enjoyed ourselves at Chuck E. Cheese!  I have't been there since I was a little girl...maybe 6 or 7?  Besides celebrating Jenna's birthday we also finally got to meet her little sister, Katie (she was born in August)!

Chuck E. Cheese was actually a lot of fun.  The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves.  We let them have pizza and some cake and both were a hit!

We didn't pay any games, but we put them in one of the rides (we didn't put a token in, they seemed content just sitting there).

(Cooper looks so big in this...it's hard to believe he's only 8 months!)

We were only there for an hour and half, but we were so tired when we got home...they were both a little wired.  It took them about 30 min to calm down and then we did bath and bedtime.

We have decided to keep Charlotte's birthday small because we don't have the space to let it get bigger.  We could rent out the clubhouse, but it's a huge space for a small party.  I also think December is a busy month for most people, so not many of my friends with children are going to be around.  It's times like these where I really wish we were in Denver, with a big, beautiful house with all of our friends and family to celebrate Charlotte's big day!

Cooper is learning to sit back down from standing.  Up until now he would get stuck standing and would fall back and hit his head.  He did that a couple of times and decided it was better if he just cried until one of us came to help him.  Now he is learning to gently sit down...he practices over and over.  Stand up, slowly inch down to sitting, stand up, slowly inch down to sitting.  The amazing part is that he is so tall he can practically hold on to the piece of furniture with one hand, while bending over and touching the floor at the same time.

I went shopping with both Cooper and Charlotte yesterday.  It takes about an hour to get out of the house when I try to feed and dress them, plus get everything ready.  So much work!  Anyhow,  I needed to buy shoes for my dress for the holiday party (which I found!).  While I was at DSW one of the sales assistants started asking questions about the kids.

Him:  Are they twins?

Me:  No, but they are close in age.

Him:  How old are they?

Me:  She's 12 months and he's 8 months.

Him:  [Looking puzzled.]  I assume they're not both yours?

Me:  No, they're both mine.

Him: [Looking even more puzzled.]  But, wait, she's 12 months and he's...

Me:  I gave birth to him and she came to our family through adoption.

Him:  Oh, I'm sorry.

Me:  I'm not!!

Can you actually believe he said that?!!?  Unreal what strangers will say!  Why can't people just say congratulations and move on?!!?

Wedding #2

We've had to collect numerous documents for the adoption paperwork.  One of these items was our marriage certificate.  I recently pulled it out of the file cabinet  and looked it over.  The top of it has our marriage license and the lower portion includes the certificate with our signatures and the best man's (Mikael) and the maid of honor's (Raeann) signatures.

I take a closer look and at the very bottom it says that the license is null and void if the entire document is not returned to the registrar's office within 30 days of the marriage.  I immediately get a terrible feeling...what if I didn't ever send this in???  There aren't any markings on it showing that it's official and I honestly can't remember if I did or not.  I suddenly realized that I might be 5 years and 2 months late for returning our marriage certificate!!  I think, what if we're not married!!  Crap.  Just crap.

I look up online what I need to do.  I contact the Vital Records office and request an official copy of our marriage certificate.  It costs $20 and takes 3 weeks or longer.

During the wait Chris and I talked about what we would do if we weren't actually married...probably just go down the courthouse.  I was excited that I might get to wear my wedding dress again!  My mind went from excitement to feeling like a complete space cadet...how could I let something so important slip?!?

We finally got the letter from the Vital Records office.  We won't need to plan wedding #2.  I really am Mrs. Christopher Derichsweiler.  We are indeed married, as of August 9, 2003.  It sure was a long 3 weeks!

Mimics

It was a tough week at work.  I had to work several days with longer hours.  As a result both kids fought going to bed at their normal time and Cooper woke up in the middle of the night...they seemed to want more time with me.  It made me a little sad, but the midnight waking and the lack of down time in the evening made the week even more exhausting.

We sort of went on a shopping spree online this last week.  We decided to get a new camera for Christmas.  I've been wanting one that allows for more control than just the point and click.  We bought a Pentax K200D...it was over half off on Amazon, so we couldn't pass it up.  We also have realized that now that the kids can sit up on their own, the twin stroller we have is a bit cumbersome for running errands.  We decided to buy a Maclaren Twin Triumph and found a new one for a really good deal. 

Last, the kids are right on the cusp of outgrowing their infant carriers.  Although we plan to keep them rear-facing until they are at least 18 months (for safety reasons), we need to upgrade to their 'big-kid' carseats.  We need 4 carseats, two for each car, which is a big expenditure all at one time (carseats run $150-$250 a piece).  We have been lucky enough to inherit two Britax Roundabouts from friends, but Cooper will likely outgrow the Roundabout quickly, so we bought two Britax Marathon carseats.  I can't wait for everything to get here!  I also can't believe how excited I get about buying new baby stuff.

In the last week the kids have really started mimicking everything, even each other.  I mean they mimic every sound, every motion and do it constantly.  It's the funniest at meal times because Cooper will growl, then Charlotte will.  Then one coughs and the other pretends to cough.  I will say, 'eh-eh-eh, get back Scout', and shoo her away with my hand.  Charlotte says 'eh-eh-eh, tout' and waves her hand.  I think the funniest are the fake sneezes.  Charlotte can fake sneeze for at least 20 minutes after hearing someone else sneeze.  Of course the fake laughing is really funny too.

I'm making Christmas cards this weekend.  I'm almost done, so I hope I can send them out on Monday.  Here are some out-takes of the pictures we took of the kids for the Christmas card.  I'm really happy with the final pictures, considering I didn't use our new SLR camera (it had not arrived yet) and just used the Sony Cybershot.   (I'll post all of the pictures to the Shutterfly site in a week or so).