I promise that mom and dad have not pushed Obama on us, but both Cooper and I have developed a fascination with him over the past couple months. Ok… maybe they did teach us about 9 months ago to answer “what does Obama say” with “YES WE CAN!” but other than that, they’ve been pretty low key with us about this historic election. Despite this, we’ve recently noticed all the Obama signs in windows in San Francisco, and have developed quite an obsession with counting them and pointing out each one (!). In fact, Cooper and I were walking with Emma the other day on the panhandle to Golden Gate Park and having a chat with her about all the signs we saw. A nice couple stopped to ask if we were talking about Obama and we both shouted out “YES WE CAN!”

Needless to say, we charmed the socks off of them. :)

Go Obama! (Ok, mom threw that in)
Quinn

Oh my… what a weekend it’s been! It started out at our friends’ house in Burlingame - those people are nuts, man! The decorations in the yards are whacked! But we loved the effort, and loved the candy they gave even more. Mom gave us the tip of the night that usually got us an extra piece of candy. She tipped us off to say “trick or treat PLEASE” (emphasis on the please), and boy did we score.

Mom and dad even let us have THREE pieces of candy on Halloween night (since we are three years old!) - and we got more as the weekend went along. We also packaged up a bunch of candy and took it to “Quinn’s hospital” to share with the kids who were too sick to trick or treat - and the nurses. That was a lot of fun.

Mom also convinced us to share with the baby in her belly, which is a little weird since it doesn’t have teeth yet, but guess she knows what she’s talking about.

We haven’t quite figured out yet that Halloween is over (especially Quinn, who demands daily that he’s a pirate), but mom keeps telling us that’s the case, so maybe soon we’ll be able to grasp that hideous concept.

Boo!
Coop

Even though I’ve been wearing my costume for weeks, today was the first official kickoff of the Halloween celebration. 1 party down, 4 to go. We had the California Pacific Medical Center annual NICU party today and got to see some of our old pals from our youth. Everyone looked awesome and healthy, so we were happy to see that. And even got to see one of our old favorite nurses, Jo! What a treat that was.

Mom dressed up as a fairy (at our request) and the best part: COOPER WORE HIS COSTUME! We didn’t know if it would ever happen, and he decided he was ready! YIPPEE Cooper!

This is just the start though, people. Expect to see many more photos on this blog of me as a pirate and Cooper as Percy.

Ahoy Mateys!
Quinn

If you parents are looking for something that will put you in a 2 hour trance, tell them to take you to the Disney on Ice show. Just remind them that many Disney stories are somewhat violent… yes, our mom is somewhat overprotective when it comes to these stories - and changes the story slightly to take out the bad/sad stuff, but we even found it a bit alarming when one of the men took a sword to an animal in the show! We got over it.

It was extra cool for us since we took the BART train to Oakland to see it. Check Quinn out below with daddy. Fun times!

Seriously, I can’t think of a cooler place on earth. Mom and Dad took us to Half Moon Bay to check out a pumpkin patch. Despite the insane-in-the-membrane traffic on the way there, it ruled! Not only did we get to see pumpkins galore (we joked we were “pooping” while sitting on top of pumpkins the ENTIRE day - go figure), but they had a petting zoo where we fed little goats and rabbits, took horse rides, rode on various trains, slide down a crazy fluffy slide and jumped in enormous jumpies. We’ve heard about a fab place called Disney, but if we’ve got this place around the corner from San Franciscisciscisco, who needs it!?!

Mom thought this picture was particularly funny b/c dad’s head is sticking out the top of the train. Not sure why this strikes her funny, but it does.

Pirate till the end,
Quinn

So… about a month ago, mom decided it probably made sense to tell us about her growing belly. She kept telling us she couldn’t pick us up because she had something in her belly… and when we asked her what, she would chicken out and say, “food.” This wasn’t a lie (mom’s don’t lie), but it wasn’t the whole truth, we’ve come to find out.

So finally, at about 5 months pregnant, she told us the big news. We’re going to be big brothers. We’re still not sure what that means - and ask her to tell us the “story” about the baby over and over, but we’ve realized that she really likes it and thinks it’s cute when we say we want to kiss or rub her belly, so we keep doing it.

Here’s one of the first shots. Looks more like an alien than a baby if you ask me, but we are obsessed with planets right now, so I guess that’s ok.

Oh - and for the record, we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but when Quinn is asked what he wants, he says, “a BABY,” (nice and diplomatic) and when Cooper is asked, he says, “a boy AND a girl.” Yeah, no thanks! Not again. Only one this time around. :)

I am now, after much time fantasizing, a real pirate. Captain Quinn, thank you very much. People keep saying this is a great Halloween costume and that this is a “sneak peak” of Halloween in September, but I’m just being me. The sooner people can come to terms with that, the better off we’ll all be.

Aye Aye, Mateys.
Capt’n Quinn

So… we’re officially putting our house on the market and we’re showing our flexibility like nobody’s business. Not only have mom and dad up and pulled our bed out from under us and made us sleep in a hotel for 5 nights while floors and walls were being redone, but they’ve got us sleeping on a new make-shift bed each night. But we’re being total troopers and rolling with the punches. Wherever they lay us, we sleep (well, for the most part) - this particular shot is us sleeping on nothing but our duvet! Kinda like camping on carpet. For two people who slept in the same crib nearly every night for 3.25 years, I think that is pretty impressive!

Here’s to hoping we can sell this house relatively soon (open house this weekend!) so we can get on with our lives in our new house (wherever that may be!).

Side note: While it appears we are rolling with the punches at home, my buddy Quinn is having quite a hard time at school. We have had a LOT going on, so I’m sure there are many contributing factors, but we just keep cheering him on each day and hoping for a great, fun day. Please send the same vibes his way!

Later days!
Cooper Looper

Ok… so as I write this post, I realized - TO MY HORROR - that we’ve not introduced Emma yet! So, please allow me…

Emma (AKA Suga-lump) is our incredible aupair that arrived from South Africa in July. It’s amazing - given how incredibly important she has been in our lives the past few months - that a proper introduction has not been made to BloggingBoys. I blame my mother.

Emma is a total rock star. We love her so much. And while I gave her a run for her money the first few weeks (and still do from time to time), she hung in there with me and Cooper and has been one of the most patient, kind force in our lives.

To celebrate her birthday, we got some AMAZING cupcakes from That Takes the Cake in San Francisco, and had cupcakes and tea on Sunday morning. I know the celebration was for Emma, but what a TREAT this was for us!

Happy birthday, Emma. We love you so much.
Quinn

What a beauty, eh? We love her so much already that we were willing to “allow” mom a trip for 5 days to visit her and help Uncle Dustin and Aunt Kim. Mom said it was such a treat to get to know her. She is such an easy-peasy baby… and we can’t wait to meet her ourselves!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Uncle Dustin. :)

So we did it! Not only did we FIND a school in San Francisco that would take our children (and a ridiculous amount of money), but they - and we - survived the first day!

Cooper definitely shed some tears when Chris and I were leaving, and Quinn surprisingly was a-ok with it. I’m not sure he fully realized that we were leaving, despite my telling him and asking for a “hug-kiss.” He was a little preoccupied with sorting beads into the proper containers.

I think I let a full hour pass before calling school to see how they were acclimating. “Just fine” was the first report. And while I wanted to call every hour thereafter, I resisted until about 2:00 when I got a bit of a different report… It went a little something like this:

“Well… things went pretty well for the first day. Cooper had a couple rough patches, but was easily distracted and convinced to join the group. Quinn, on the other hand, had a bit harder of a time than usual. He was not compliant for a good part of the day.” Ugh. My response: “Yep, that sounds about right.” Oh boy. No surprise about Cooper. But not compliant? I can’t think of a better, more diplomatic way of saying “he didn’t want to do was he was supposed to do and threw an insane fit for 90% of the day.”

But honestly, if “not compliant” is as bad as it gets for the first week for Mr. Quinn, I think we’re in good shape. I mean, he was away from home for the FIRST time and separated from Cooper for the FIRST time (except for hospitalizations), so I suppose this behavior should not be too surprising.

After all, doesn’t “non-compliance” turn to “independence” down the road?

Hopeful,
Terra

So… we were at the Zoo this weekend with mom and dad and, to our surprise, we were told we were about to get ice cream! But there was one catch: we needed to take a “nice picture” together. We weren’t totally sure what this meant, but found ourselves in this position (yes, I’m wearing pink and proud of it):

It was a big hit. Mom calls it our prom pose. Needless to say, we like it too (see below)…

So… after 5 days in the hospital, I’m breaking free! I’ve still got to be on oxygen at night (good luck keeping oxygen on a 3-year old!), but other than that - and the steroids that are still running through my system - I’m in good shape! A couple things mom wanted to share as “memories” from this hospital stay:

–my nightly wakings in the middle of the night asking “where’s cooper?”
–”mama bear” also kicked in quite regularly when she would feel the need (very regularly) to explain to the onlookers wondering why the nut job running the halls was in the hospital that “yes, he’s high energy, but it’s exaggerated by steroids!”
–cooper’s nightly visits to the playroom. mom said it’s CRAZY how easy it is to have each of us alone… confirming the twin effect of us egging each other on and getting into more trouble when we are together!
–sleeping with mom is a huge treat since we NEVER sleep in mom/dad’s bed at home… mom was laying down with me one night (pretending to sleep so I would) when I took her face gently into both of my hands and kissed her lips, nose, then forehead. She never opened her eyes so I didn’t know she was awake, but it is one of her favorite Quinn moments of all time.

I’m putting this all behind me and just want to get ready to start school next week!

Later Skater!
Quinn

Here’s my theory: Why wait for school to start to begin the year of sickness! I mean, we’ve known this time was going to come (of Cooper and I catching and spreading every germ known to man), but I figured why should I wait until next week when preschool starts?! I may as well start the drama now.

Mom took me into the hospital Friday night with 104 temperature and labored breathing. An x-ray initially showed some early stage pneumonia, but doctors have since changed the diagnosis to “severe respiratory distress.” Sounds better to me. I’ll take that over pneumonia any day of the week.

The coolest part is I got to take an ambulance ride from one hospital to another… while I didn’t think it was cool at the time, I sure do now.

My days have been spent in the hospital playroom hyped up in a HUGE way on liquid steroids (much stronger than the inhaled ‘roids I took daily for almost 3 years) - so basically I start running like a maniac around the pediatric unit the second I wake up and literally don’t stop until I crash at 10 pm. That’s when the problems start (though mom and dad would say me going on one steroid binge after another during the day is quite problematic!): at night, my saturation levels (oxygen in my blood) drops to unsafe levels, requiring me to have oxygen through a nasal cannula. I thought my days of this lung stuff was over, but am told that even though I am a total stud and continue to grow strong lung every day, I still do have “compromised lungs” from my premature delivery.

So, back on the juice I go. Coop and I thought we were drug free forever back in June when the doc took us off the daily steroid inhaler, but given this little stint, and given our upcoming germ-filled school days, they’re taking no risks! While other kids will be carrying lunch boxes with the Hulk on them, I’ll just look like him. Rock on.

Q-doggy-dogg

So… the pressure was on. Before August 6, we were sporting diapers all day with no diaper training interest whatsoever. That’s until mom and dad realized we needed to be potty trained for preschool on Sept 2. Let’s just say, they got down to business!

Mom went out and bought calendars with star stickers and an enormous jug of animal crackers (which we call alphabet cookies) ready to take on the world.

As you may recall, we’ve been down this road before back in February where we teased mom and dad by being potty trained for a month, just before regressing to diapers after the novelty wore off. Well… that’s not an option this time. Or at least that’s what mom says.

In hindsight, the calendars were genius. We get to show mom and dad at the end of each work day how great we were (or not) on the potty and it’s quite a production! We love looking back at our calendars full of stars. Quinn’s is full of blue stars and mine full of red (naturally, our favorite colors).

We still have accidents every now and then, but are at about 90% success rate, so that’s pretty solid!

Peeing machine,
Cooper

We’re charming enough without the temptation that swimsuits bring… just think of the game we’ve got when we’re at swim class!

Pier and Piper are the best swim partners ever… just wish it could last. :( School schedules are getting in the way of our pool fun, but we’ll just have to hitch a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to see our ladies at THEIR pool. Yeah, we know how to pick ‘em!

Quinn & Coop

(So, this calls for a post from mom… and please PLEASE PLEASE don’t say, “well, at least it’s just a baby tooth.” I know there are MANY worse things in the world, but mom will snap if she hears one more person say that.)

Ok, so I’m the first to admit that I cringe when a see a poor child with a rotten or discolored tooth. Being a tooth/teeth nut, I just hate it. So, it only seems appropriate that one of my lovelies has one MISSING… at least for another 3-4 years until a new one grows in.

Here’s the scoop on my little Quinn: as posted before, he shipped his tooth while on vacation in South Carolina last week… we go to the dentist today (5 days later)… Quinn has been expressing very mild discomfort when I brush his teeth, but nothing major. We show up at the dentist, and I start: “so… do you think we can bind it? fill it in? what will be the least painful? will it turn colors?” The dentist takes one look at the tooth, and to my horror, says “hon, this tooth needs to be pulled.” WHAT? I don’t even get to stare at a dead tooth for 3 years before it falls out? You are going to PULL my babies tooth? Wahhh….

An x-ray confirmed that not only did the tooth need to be pulled, but that the fall had severed his nerve and he should have been in severe pain. Bad ass Quinn strikes again.

So, she gave me the option of putting him to sleep in a few days to have it pulled or to just numb him and pull it now (no doubt with pain involved). Given my travel schedule and wanting to keep from putting him to sleep for such a procedure, we (well, I) elected to pull it. So, I spent 5 minutes (while they were prepping the HUGE shot for his front gums) telling him that while it was going to hurt, we needed to pull his tooth and that he needed to be a brave boy, and that the tooth fairy was going to come, and that we’d have ice cream, and that he’d look so tough, and that we’d buy a special “brave boy toy” and that, and that…

It was 10 minutes later that Quinn confirmed for me once and for all, that he is more courageous than any adult I know. I swear, I don’t know if it’s because of all the injections, medication, procedures, etc. that they were exposed to early in life, or not, but that boy is made of steel. The dentist was even amazed at how brave and strong he was through the process (she said the shot in the front tooth is the hardest part, and while we had one dentist, two hygienists and one mom to hold him down, all he did was squirm oh-so-slightly and say, “dat hurts.”). Muffin.

Bravery at its finest. After we picked up a toy and a tub of ice cream, we headed home to prepare for the tooth fairy. Then, my favorite part of all… as I gave him one final hug (of many that day) before going back to work, it occurred to me exactly what he looked like. I said, “you are just my little pirate.” The look on his face was nothing short of elation. Upon realizing that what I said was true, he threw his arms in the air, let out a squeal and ran over to hug me. Who knew someone would be so excited to look like a pirate?

I guess Halloween is right around the corner and mama’s gonna save on a costume!

Mom says this is like tourists in San Francisco who eat McDonalds, but we don’t care. Our favorite part of our trip to South Carolina was visiting the Discovery Museum! Sure, we have a membership to the one in the Bay Area, but they had all different toys and stuff. The little market was the biz-omb and Quinn loved the pirate ship (which I don’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole!). I also enjoyed the water area where I played with trains and boats. Can you think of anything better in life?!

Yup… it was inevitable, I suppose. When are a rascal who runs, jumps, tramples, throws and swings like I do, it was bound to happen. I fell while playing with a hose (yes, under dad’s watch!) and chipped my tooth. We made a quick run to the dentist in Charleston who basically filed my tooth down and gave me a toy… said we should see my dentist when we get home. More later, but here’s a good shot of the small-but-cracked-up-the-center tooth.

So… South Carolina this year was a slight improvement over last year. We liked being around the people more, but NOT the beach. Mom swears next year is our year. Despite our beach/sand/ocean/wind issues, we sucked it up for a little fun… South Carolina 2009 or bust!

Nothing like entertaining the staff of the beach club like a couple of goofballs with shovel guitars. We are goooood.

Cooper with Hailey and Quinn with Boogie Board. How appropriate.

Keep in mind that the photos not on the beach were taken in a matter of minutes. I don’t mess around, people! I’m taking it all in!

So, we decided before our trip to South Carolina this year, we would visit with mommy’s good friend from college, Mindy, and her family. Oh my - what FUN it was! We got to hang with them at their house with their AWESOME toys (I barely left the train set), go to their community pool and to their beach club. It was incredible! Jake, Colin and Hailey were so nice to share everything with us - it’s clear that they are used to having company! We can’t wait to go back.

Cooper

We’re on vacation this week and think mom might be going a big overboard! What do you think?

Tia and Uncle Chancey got married! What a fantastic weekend it was. And despite mom’s attempt to bribe us with a Reese’s Cup, we didn’t quite make a bee line for them while fulfilling our ONE ROLE at the wedding (besides being quiet during the ceremony). Instead, we decided to walk in circles and try to open our Reese’s Cup while attempting our task. Oh well, we were still cute (what can we say?).

Our favorite part of the wedding (besides the Reese’s Cup and their dance down the aisle after the wedding) was the kite flying afterwards! We were at our peak of rascalhood about an hour into the wedding (wedding - 2:00; normal naptime - 1:00-4:00. Need we say more?), so we didn’t last long with bocce ball and kites, but it was fun while it lasted!

Yeah, Tia and Uncle Chancey!

Pier and Piper are the bomb!

So, “Mr. and Mrs. Slope” (correction: Sloan) came to visit us today. Mr. Slope was mom’s professor in journalism school… and boy does he have a mad magic game. He pulled all kinds of smooth moves, from stuffing a hankie in one ear and pulling it out another to the old egg cracking on head joke. The only bummer about the visit was that they didn’t use the restroom, where dad had placed a sign on our toddler toilet saying, “Mr. and Mrs. Sloan, please use the adult toilet, as this is for little guys only.” Oh well… made us chuckle.

While mom was trying her best to serve a decent breakfast (yes, mom cooked!), I managed to get ahold of her Rebel. Here were some of the great shots I took. Please note my impressive professional form.

Q-dog

So… we are officially BIG BOYS! Mom and dad put our bunk beds together while we were napping in the other room… so as of this weekend, we changed rooms AND upgraded to a big boy bed! Mom and dad are holding off on placing a mattress on the top bunk for a bit (knowing that we’ll be up to no good up there!), so for now, we are big time snugglers… and love sleeping in the same bed. Sometimes we end up on opposite ends of the bed, and sometimes we are like this (see below) all night long.

Brotherly love is a great thing.

Coop-de-loop

Note from mom: These guys are champs. I worried for ages about how they were going to deal with all the transitions (crib to bed on floor, bed on floor to big boy bed, change of room) and it didn’t even phase them… Shows me!

So… we JUST NOW got our birthday presents from mom and dad. No, it’s not because they didn’t get them in time, it’s because in an effort to try to keep from spoiling us with a TON of presents on and around our birthday, they decided to spread them out and give us one every couple days. This proved to be difficult in keeping gifts straight for thank you cards, but it sure was fun. The scooters from mom and dad were the last (but not least fabulous) gifts! I’m sure I’ll enter into some sort of withdrawal period in the next two days if I don’t get a present, but I suppose it needs to happen at some point. Until then, I’m gonna keep on a’scootin!

P.S. As you can see, I still like to do way too much at once - and EVERYTHING is “by self!” And yes, that’s mom’s mac keyboard that I’m putting in harm’s way.

yes, ANOTHER sleeping shot, but it’s the new deal around here! And besides, it’s pretty darn cute.

So, we’re told there is life BC (before cribs) and AC (after cribs). We can now say we’ve experienced both. When we went to Los Angeles (Los Angels to Quinn), we gave our first try at big boy beds and we were CHAMPS on the first night (partly due to threats of removing our pacifiers if we got out of bed!)!!! We really showed mom and dad what we’re made of, so our first night back home we slept in our cribs for the last time. Here’s our BC and AC shots. (note: bunk beds have been ordered, but mom and dad have not put them together yet.