We survived all the travel. I'll post more later about our visit to North Carolina. We had tons of fun!
Portable DVD players - the BEST invention ever!
It really would be much easier if they came with handles, wheels, and you could safely store them in the overhead bin.
Since I won't be blogging while I'm gone...here's some of the latest.
Ketchup tastes good and makes even better hair gel!
Locking himself in the old tv cabinet 
Pretty girl with her milk belly
Here is some video of the kids dancing (oh so coordinated) and then just completely entranced for the song on Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends (a kids show that regularly talks about adoption...it's about a spider who adopts all different kinds of 'buggies')
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Big travel day tomorrow. We have a 3 hour flight from here to Houston. The shuttle is coming at 4:30 am. Yikes! We have a 1 hour stay in Houston and then a 3.5 hour flight to NC. After we arrive in Raleigh, have to get the rental car and drive about 3 hours. There is a 3 hour time difference between here and NC.
Oh and did I mention we're traveling with 2 toddlers? TWO! And one of them is cranky, cranky, cranky because of teething. It's going to be a long, long day!
We are oh, so excited though! We keep telling the kids we're going to see grandma and grandpa and they keep saying bampa, bampa! So cute. Sounds like we have some fun things planned while we are visiting...pedicures for me, golfing for Chris, dinner out for the adults, beach time, a pig pickin' (don't ask, I don't know). Can't wait for a super fun vacation!
I'm so glad to be on maternity leave for the rest of September. It will be a busy time and fly by, but it will be nice to only think about family.
We went down to San Diego for about 24 hours to see Jason and Erin. It was so beautiful! They both live super close to the beach (a few blocks, if that) so we took a few walks on the boardwalk. The kids really enjoyed exploring new houses, but it made us super exhausted chasing them around. It was also very tiring since we didn't really follow their schedule very well. Everyone is a little screwed up on sleep, which makes for very cranky kids.
Charlotte is getting her 2 yr old molars and so she hasn't been a very happy camper for a couple weeks. I feel so bad for her because besides Motrin, there's not much we can do for her. We are still working on getting her evaluated for her speech. The insurance denied our referral to get an evaluation, because her speech delays are not caused by disease or injury. This makes me SO MAD!!! Completely ridiculous policy.
We're going to go through the state's early intervention program since she will be eligible for an evaluation until age 3, and then allowed to receive treatment at a reduced cost as well. We are getting more worried about her. If there's anything I've learned in parenting, it's to listen to your gut instincts, and my instincts are definitely telling me something is a bit off with her speech.
She has basically hit a plateau with her speech. She really hasn't said any new things since 12/14 months. She stares at us with a blank face when we work on sounds and vocabulary. She doesn't attempt to mimic any new sounds or words (or even old sounds. She isn't able to make an 'O' shape with her mouth for 'kissy lips', blowing on food, or to say 'uh-oh'. She still only says a handful of almost words, and her only clear words are hi and all done, although they sound more like 'haw-ee' and 'ah-dah'. It just seems like she physically can't talk--is that even possible??
Cooper is on go mode. The boy doesn't slow down. He is intensely curious about everything and physically tries to master everything he can. He is showing a particular interest in bicycles lately, so I think we might buy him a tricycle or a bicycle with training wheels. He is so tall that we want to get him something that he won't grow out of too quickly.
Cooper is working saying new words, although no true words yet, except for mama tonight! It was so cute to hear him say it. He says biaper like Charlotte does, but we keep working with them both to say 'duh-duh-duh, diaper'. They say 'duh-duh, biaper'. (We'll have to be careful we don't give them a stuttering problem like Michelle did with Abby!) He walks around saying all different kinds of sounds: th, sh, sss, oh, puh. He also sings now (which Charlotte has been doing for a few months). Talking can't come soon enough!!
The next week I'll probably be quiet with blogging. We're going to North Carolina to see Chris' dad, stepmom, sisters, and niece. We are SO excited!!
We went to the new children's museum, Pretend City. It was a lot of fun and super cute. They did a great job designing it! There is everything a city has, but miniature. The kids go around and 'work', then get paid for their work. When the Charlotte and Cooper get just a little older I think they will appreciate this even more.
We didn't take any pictures of them in the grocery store (it was a madhouse with all the kids and fake food) or at the faux beach. The sand was weird...it was like play-doh, but also like wet sand. Fun to play in!
Every station had dress up gear for the kids and size appropriate tools. There was at ATM where the kids could input their 'time card' (a stamped piece of paper) and get paid with fake money. We didn't go in the restaurant, the theater, the marina, or the art center. It was a bit overwhelming for them as it is, so maybe next time!
Here is a cute picture to give you an idea of what it looked like. 
Cooper was really overwhelmed when we first go there so he just wanted to sit on my lap and listen to story time with the balloon lady.
Charlotte had no issue wandering right in and joining in the fun. Here she is at the firehouse dispatch station.
They had miniature cars all over that they could drive on the 'streets' with. Cooper was a bit obsessed. Here he is at the gas station.
In a fancy Mercedes 
Again at the gas station
Taking his new girlfriend for a ride in his BMW
Calling for backup in his police car
He didn't realize that not all of the items were cars he could get into
Charlotte joined in the fun only a couple times 
She loved the bridge and spent 20 minutes walking across it, over and over
They both LOVED being farmers, I think because of the rakes. 
There are employees at every station who help keep it clean and organized and interact with the kids. They also are the people who pay the kids for their work. Here is Charlotte bringing her basket of vegetables to the Pretendgineer. 
Cooper thought all the fake food was real and kept trying to eat it 
They both loved the play house. It was just the right size and no child proofing!
Over by the 'beach' there was a cut away of the floor so the kids could see the 'sewer' system. Cooper loved it.
We were only there for about an hour and half, but we were all tired by the time we left. I think they really enjoyed themselves (and so did we!)
