Laura's Favorites #11 - After run glow

I started running 7 weeks ago.  I am doing a couch to 5K nine week program inspired by lots of my mommy friends.  Never in my life did I think I would be able to run for 25 minutes straight but I have been doing it all week.  So really I can't say running is my favorite thing.  I can say that I love how I feel for the 3-5 hours after running.  My skin feels fresh, warm inside and out, light on my feet, my head is clear and I have some extra energy.   Really I don't think I am describing it very well.  It is much like how I felt after doing hot yoga with out the migraine that followed after every yoga session. 

Picture is from blueberry picking last August.  I think it looks like he is running.

Laura's Favorites #10 - A sweet treat

I have a huge sweet tooth.  Cake, donuts, scones with a ton of raspberry jam, creme brulee, cookie dough and chocolate fondue top the list of my favorite desserts.  Dutch babies, Norwegian pancakes and French toast are my favorite breakfasts.  (is it just me or is it strange they all have nationalities in the name??).  Too bad there is nothing in the house tonight to snack on.

Laura's Favorites #9 - Library

Free books and DVDs delivered to you local library.  Really what could be better than that? Did you know you can have 25 hold requests just sitting there.  I love technology... see favorite #3.  Nathan, Alex and I make a trip there 2-4 times a month for new stories for bed time and I usually have a parenting, novel or DVD to pick up.  I love how excited Nathan gets when I find a book about a train or a bulldozer.  Nathan sometimes has a hard time returning the books but that ends when we get to drop it in the huge book return that is outside.  Alex is just learning the joys of taking many books off the shelf and the power cords by the computers there.  Our library has a camera on a heron nest so we are also take the time to see how the babies are doing.  I also get to read  a few pages of a current cooking magazine while I am there.  I often will photo copy a page to take home for a new dinner idea.  Double bonus Kenmore just had a ground breaking for a new fancy pants library.  No more triple wide trailer for us.  We are moving up in the world.

Pictures was during the December power outage of 2006.  I was pregnant and had morning sickness with Nathan.  We were staying downtown at The Vintage due to our house being a chilly 42 degrees.   We had an amazing view of the Seattle public library.  Best thing about it was IBM paid for 3 nights in the hotel and we got to bring our kittens.

Laura's Favorites #8 - Costco

I know, I know I am sad to admit it I love Costco (but then again I also hate it).  Free samples, cheep gas, good seafood, meat, nuts, cheese and the Kirkland brand. I can fit both kids in the cart and still buy a ton of food.  Want a whole fresh salmon?  yep they have that.  Huge 5lb bag of clams... yep they have that too.  Wine, ok I will have some of that.  Huge block of cheese that you would only get a 1/4 lb at QFC for the same price.  I enjoy the organic spinach and the huge things of sweet peppers.  Summer brings huge baskets of berries.  Need a cute Carters out fit for the kids.. yep you can get one there too.  Vacations where we have a kitchen... Costco is one of the first stops we make.  I haven't made too many bad purchases at Costco... but if you don't like something they will take it back with no questions asked.   Don't forget the huge piece of pizza for lunch.

Laura's Favorites #7 - Seattle Weather

Seattle weather is something I adore.  Rain, sun or rain shine.  I love it all.  If it rains I am happy because that means there are puddles to play in and I won't have to water the garden.  If it is sunny I am happy the playground won't be too wet and the tomatoes that I planted might actually turn red.  Seattle has the perfect balance of seasons. A drive to Snoqualmie in the Fall to see the burnt red and oranges is top on my list to do. In the winter there is good chance that it will snow in town at least once and if there isn't any snow is just a short drive away.  Spring brings on hail storms, green trees and lots of flowers.  Summer well nothing beats a Seattle summer.  Not too hot and long days for playing outside.

Laura's Favorites #6 - Sleep

I think every mom loves sleep. Last night was lacking about 4 hours of sleep that I needed.   3 years ago I had no idea that it would be a never ending cycle of getting up with my children at night.   Just when you think you have a sleeper then they master something new and are up in the night again.  I am thankful that if I really need some extra sleep I can go to bed at 8pm and will get some much needed rest.

Photo from a month ago at 2am when Nathan was sick all night.  There really wasn't any sleeping going on here.

Laura's Favorites #5 - Planning a Vacation

Just the word vacation makes me want to start to look at prices for flights and hotels.  Research and read reviews, finding the best deal with good days and times to travel.  I have the longing to get out of Seattle to somewhere sunny in the winter time and have no desire to travel away from Seattle in the summer time, unless it is a quick trip to somewhere within in driving... like the coast or Vancouver.  As soon as I get the go from Paul I am nearly obsessed with finding the perfect trip.  The next part of the high for me is waiting for the trip to happen.  Going back to look at the hotel or condo that I picked over and over.  Looking for fun activities and finding a fun new restaurant to try out.  Don't get me wrong I love the actual vacation too but would never want to leave the planning to someone else.

Speaking of .. Paul where and when are we going on vacation next?

Ioa State Park in Maui , May 2010.

Laura's Favorites #4 - The Cabin

In 1976 my parents decided that they wanted a lake place.  They bought an old shack on Lake Cavanaugh.  Nearly every weekend of every summer from when I was 2 until a teenager was spent at the cabin.  BBQ, water-skiing, riding around the lake on bikes, ice-skating on the frozen lake, the out house, running cold water, baths in the lake, making mud cookies in the sand, rainy 4th of Julys, walking to the store for a candy bar, trips to town to go shopping with my mom and swimming for hours on end in the rain or sun.  Most of my childhood memories were made there.  I went away for University and came back to an amazing summer home.  I still call the place "the cabin"... it is the same view that I loved growing up.

Laura's Favorites #3 - Technology

There was a reason I got my computer science degree. I grew up loving computers that my dad brought home. My first memory was before I was in 4th grade and my dad brought home a acoustic coupler modem where you stuck the handset of the phone in to the modem so it could listen to the computer and talk to computers at my dads office. Wow that was amazing to me as a little kid. I was programing my own Mad Libs application in junior high in basic and drawing CAD drawings of cars in very early versions of CAD. I could print them on my dads massive printer that we had at the house. I have fond memories of the Apple IIes at school and remember begging my dad for one. He put his foot down and said we were not getting that kind of hardware at our house. We got Prodigy soon after it came out,  loved to post on the BBs and I had a email address. The computer commons at UW was amazing to me. We were underground in a dark room with UNIX. Geek heaven. Moving to current day I have no desire to program anymore just use all the amazing things that people are create. I can hardly pick just one thing that I enjoy the most.

Hardware favorites: Laptop, iphone, squeezebox, GPS, digital SLR Camera, DVR computer with MythTV on it.
Software favorites: Photoshop, Firefox, Word, any spell checker, iphone applications.
Websites favorites: Facebook, Google, Goolge reader (for my 100 blogs that I like to read), Gmail, Shutterfly (for perfect photobooks), Hulu, mommy message board, and blogs of all kinds.

That is me in 2002.

Laura's Favorites #2 - Growing Children

Yes of course my children would be second on my list but is so much more than just them. I could talk about them 24 hours a day and probably do. I am excited to watch them learn new things, get frustrated along with them, experience the fear of something new and the joys of getting it done. Alex 9 months and Nathan nearly 3 years old play together. Something I didn't expect to happen so soon. Can't wait to watch them grow and have a family of their own.

Laura's Favorites #1 - Paul

Paul has many meanings to me. Husband and father are the first two that come to mind but he is so much more than that. Canadian, funny, athletic, God loving, geeky, green card holder, easygoing... I am thankful that he enjoys to do things that I enjoy, that he enjoys being a father, that he works hard everyday for our family. I love that he is either with me or just a text message or instant message away from me at any given time. Knowing that he is there to listen or support me 24 hours a day 365 days a year with normally no wait makes me know that we have something special going on. Way better than any 800 support call that I have made. Yep, I love him.

(Peer pressure again.... I am coping two other moms that are doing favorite things on their blog, thanks Laurie and Dagny).

Alex is 8 months.. WHAT?!

This last month was a huge month for Alex. Lets just say the family wasn't ready but he was. Month 6 Alex spend rocking and rolling back and forth letting us know he was ready to go. Month 7 Alex took off full speed and there is no looking back. He mastered crawling, sitting and getting to sitting in his first week of month 7. Mom was happy, Nathan has not been impressed with his destructive brother. Nathan does like that Alex will follow him around the house.... including up the stairs. I was in the kitchen chopping veggies for a stir fry and the power went out. I decided I was going to tell Nathan, so I walk out of the kitchen and find both of the boys up 2 stairs and working on the third. Baby gate will be going up soon. Alex has mastered eating in month 7. He loves all orange veggies and any fruit (prunes and apples) so far. Cereal was his favorite to start with but has moved on to Mum Mums and Cheerios. Lastly Alex got his first 2 teeth this past month. He is growing so fast and I am enjoying every minute of it.

A few random things about Alex: He loves to watch his brother do anything, he will follow him to any room. Laughs if Nathan makes any strange sound. Alex is the happiest baby. He loves any attention, loves everyone. He is fast. One second he is under feet the next I can find him under a table or climbing up something. Alex has finds everything, crumbs, paper, plastic. It of course goes in his mouth. I have pulled dirt, soft plastic, small toys from his mouth. Alex seems to have gotten the laid back personality that I saw in his brother at this age. Don't get me wrong he gets mad when I take something he wants. Alex loves to be held. He will lay with me for 10-15 mins in the morning while we wake up together. This is my favorite alone time with him. Alex is independent. He will play for 30 mins by himself. Alex smiles... everyone always tells me how much they love his smiles.

Nathan is 32 months now. Nathan is amazing me. His imagination has taken off. He sees images in clouds and animals in his scribbles. He is full of questions and will ask the same one over and over until I ask him the same question. He has a love for trains and firetrucks.. well any truck really. He can remember names of all the new babies in his life and there a a ton these days. Nathan loves to "go get" Alex when he wakes from a nap. When he hears Alex on the monitor he says "Mommy Alex is a wake, I will go get him" and the takes off for his room.

Nathan Says

♫"Rock and Roll ain't noises" ♫ - 1/15/2010

"It is a typing board daddy, not a keyboard" 1/20/2010

After I took a sip of his hot chocolate "Cough it back out mommy", I cough.. he says "no in there" pointing to cup. 2/3/2010

Looking at page about Norway in a book "If that is Norway what is this way?" 5/23/2010

Time is passing

Alex is now 3.5 months old and doing great. He has found his hands and they are normally in his mouth. He is great at assisted standing and sitting. He has all kinds of sounds. Goo, hoo, oooh and ahhh. Bouncing in the bath is his favorite activity. His friends Elliott (Zoe's brother) and Maude (Max's sister) were born at the end of November. So they are only a couple of months be hind him. Max had his second birthday right after Christmas. We got to see him open on present. Nathan helped with the rest. Alex loves to be held when awake. As soon as he is sleeping he wants to be put down in a quiet place. As far as sleep he does ok. Currently he is sleeping from 9pm-1am and then up again at 4 and 6 or 7. This would be fine with me but Nathan has been getting up at 3. Make for a long morning.

Nathan at 2 years and 5 months is doing well also. He speaks to us in full sentences that are usually understood. He can tell us his favorite knock knock jokes. (knock, knock, who's there, impatient cow, moo and butter nut, butter nut tell you) He tells me that I have great ideas. This week when I went to pick him up at Gramies he told me that he lives there now and didn't want to go home with me. I have started to let him wear his Cars and Thomas underwear when we are home. More often than not that leads to an accident. No rush at this point. Nathan is still napping in the afternoon. In the past 3 months they have gone from 2-3 hour naps to 1-2 hour naps.

This past weekend we took the boys Skating with the Zoe family. Nathan wasn't in the mood but did great walking on the skates and seemed to have a little fun going around the ice with dad.

Paul is working hard at his job. They have made some changes at work and he is now in charge of operations and development. They are still working on a title.

I am still at home with the boys. Currently I am working on photo books for 2007-2009. I am also working on finding a preschool for next year. Not a fun task at all.

We are all looking forward to a trip to Vancouver (sans Nathan) for the Olympics in Feb and a trip to Maui in mid April with the Zoe/Elliott family.

The Cooley's make it into November

In the spirit of newborns arrivals life has been a little less planned and a little more hectic. One might say we have currently it all under control, but that changes day-to-day or night-to-night. However, on the average we all are currently above water.

Alex has been doing well though; gaining weight, growing, eating, and sleeping.

Nathan is a sponge. He is learning everything and anything. The explosion of words, sentences and thoughts has really begun in full force. His imagination really has kicked in and he trains, planes, and cars have places to go.

As a parent, the little things are really the highlights: a middle of the night kiss on the forehead from Nathan while snuggling him back to sleep, a toothless grin from Alex while singing to him, measuring tape races with Nathan on the kitchen floor, Alex sleeping on your chest.

We had a professional take several (70ish) photos of us when Alex was 17 days old, here are some of the highlights:

Alex 9 days old, Nathan 25th Month

Nathan is adjusting to being a big brother. He seems to love Alex but does not understand how fragile a baby is. At this point I don't feel like I can leave them in a room together alone. Nathan has explored Alex's eye with his finger and tries to pick him up when I am not looking. Nathan has also been getting his 2 year molars for the past month. So it doesn't help that he isn't feeling that great these days. Nathan has also taken to fake crying to get my attention. I am trying to ignore it with the hopes it will go away with extra attention. Nathan is expressing himself more and more with words. He picks up everything we say. His new phrase when Paul leaves the house is "see you tomorrow" He got that from me when he stayed with my parents for 2 nights. Pretty sure he doesn't get what tomorrow is yet. Nathan can nearly count to 10. He knows most of his colors. Can identify most letters and numbers by name. And knows the names for most of the basic shapes. Nathan is sleeping well in his new room. He loves his trains and tractors. He is getting pretty good at golf too.

Alex has been a joy to have at home. I think part he is an "easy" baby and part that Paul and I are experienced parents with less worry this time around. Alex right now only seems to cry during diaper changes or if he has been waiting a bit to long for a feeding. For the first 3 nights at home he was doing two 4 hour sleeps at night. This was not true for the last 2 nights were we were up every 2 or 3 hours. Despite this I am feeling rested during the day. Alex is lifting his head, is awake for a few hours a day,and sleeps though the noise of Nathan with ease. Alex left the hospital at weight of 7lbs 10oz. On day 5 he had gained 4 oz. He goes in early next week for another checkup.

Family and friends have been great with helping me out. Paul went back to work on Wednesday. I have had lots great dinners and free babysitting. The hardest part of the week is resting. Being on pain pills makes me think I can resume normal activities, when I really can't. Today I did venture out of the house with both the kids. Nathan went to Willow's house and I went to the doctor for a quick check up. Only took me 3 hours to prep and be out the door. I forgot my pain pills and was hurting pretty bad by the time I got home. Alex did great in the car ride. Slept the whole time.

Baby and the two year old.

Baby number two is growing right along and doing great. I am getting lots of kicks these days and that just makes me smile... unless I am sleeping. Baby #2 is 30 weeks tomorrow. That means that I have about 7 or 8 weeks until induction day or sooner if baby wants to be early. This pregnancy is flying by. We have a list of names but nothing solid yet. I wish we could decide on something early but I am sure we will be scrambling at the hospital for a good name.


Nathan is a joy. He is nearly 2 years old now. Where did the time go? He is saying lots and lots of words these days. His sentences are made up of 2 or 3 words too. He likes to tell me about everything he sees, does or wants. "see it", "mommies phone", "more tractors", "help me", "me turn", "playground", "hot mama" are common phrases this past week. He is an expert on his trike and will be getting a balance bike for his birthday. I am excited for him to try it out. He eats nearly everything but crunchy veggies and he is starting to get better at it. Last night he tried shrimp and squid for the first time. He was loving the squid. Tonight his big boy bed will show up and tomorrow I hope to try his first nap in it. Not sure I am ready for him to move from the crib as he is so good at going to bed these days. Yesterday we went to our Monday playgroup at Idlewood Beach in Redmond. 4 pregnant moms, 2 moms that were not, 6 two year olds and 1 five month old. Nathan loved the baby and was checking on her in her car seat. It really was a wonderful way to spend a hot morning. We got a great place in the shade, Nathan saw Zoe for the first time in a couple weeks, the kids played with the buckets and I got to hold the baby.

Baby number two. Week 22.

Baby number two, the youngest is already being left out. Here I had this great diary of my first pregnancy and I have no record of this one.

Lets start back in January. We found out the day before we were going to Hawaii that I was pregnant. Pretty exciting for us as we just started to try. I never thought it would happen that fast. I made my first doctors appointment while we were in Hawaii and they scheduled me an ultrasound for 9 weeks. So I saw the heartbeat really early and was excited to know that things were going well. About a month later I became tired and sick. Very hard when you have a little one to watch after. That lasted for about a month and a half. Then one day I woke up and had all kinds of energy to get the back yard done. During the height of the sickness I went in for another ultrasound (14 weeks) for genetic testing. Things came back great with even better results than we had with Nathan. It also came back that baby number 2 is probably a boy. I had another ultrasound at 20 weeks and yes it was a boy and he was growing right on target with Nathan. At 21 weeks (last week) I had another monthly doctors visit and everything is great but I might need a c-section due to complications with Nathan's birth. His shoulder got stuck, this happen is less than 1% of vaginal births. So we are waiting until 36 week ultrasound to make the call on if we are going to do a c-section. I don't want one. The recovery for me sound really bad but on the flip side it is more risky for baby to deliver normal.

As far as cravings... anything sweet. Pastry has been my number one go to food and the weight is packing on with this one. I am up 15lbs already. Where with Nathan I probably was only up 7 lbs at this point.

Well that is baby #2 in a nut shell. We are very excited to meet him and have lots to do to get ready. We need to clean the office so the spare bed can be moved, then we need to sell lots of junk that is in the spare room and we need to move most of books to under the house. Lets hope for a sleeper!

Nearly 2 years or 22 months

If yesterday is the gauge on how my days will be for the next while I am in for a ride. We had 3 or 4 major melt downs during the day. One of which last 45 minutes on the kitchen floor that involved him screaming "down" while I held him and then followed by him trying to climb me. Dad came home during the ordeal and he wanted nothing to do with him. Another one was while we were getting dressed at the pool, looking back I think he wanted to take a longer shower. At the time I was set on getting him feed and home for nap, a combo that probably didn't help any. So I think part of the language explosion that we have had over the past 2 weeks is his understanding that he has free will and is going to make sure I know about it.

Morning break is over. Got to go grab him out of the crib and hope for a better day today.

Toddler Translation at 21 Months

A friend of Paul's that is a writer by trade did a list of his toddler words translated. http://papaharry.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/day-306-simone-english-dictionary-in-progress/

I am going to take a stab at it.

bup = up
dow = down or up
how (while wildly raising hand) = help
dat way = that way
tank u = thank you
plee = please
wi oh - Willow
we-al = wheel
outsigh or just sigh = outside
wowid = window
chew = shoes
turt-tle(whispered) = turtle
see we = Sea Weed (the name of the turtle)
daritis = there it is
wha tha = what is that
bar or tar = car
no = nose
cear = star
blahe = balloon
diba diba dib= dip

Words that sound more or less correct.
ball
more
tail (on cat or airplane)
no
Zoe
bye
hi
daddy
mama
nana