Colored pancakes! (and a syrup triangle!)

Car farts

Happy New Year!

This morning:

Dennis: Happy new year!

Danielle: Happy new year!  ... Dexter, say "Happy new year!"

Dexter: Happy new year!

Danielle: Desmo, say "Happy new year!"

Desmo: NO!

Well, helloooooooo 2012!

Fwd: kid report (Mom is traveling for work)

From: Dennis Cooley
Date: December 7, 2011 11:14:04 PM EST
To: Danielle Cooley
Subject: kid report

Last night at 3am I hear Desmond in the kitchen asking for you quite loudly.  I run in there to quiet him down before Dexter wakes up and carry him to our room.  He was asking for something in his little nice guy voice, although quite loud (he had probably been up and talking for a while and I slept through it, so he got louder).  It sounded like broccoli.  So I asked him if he wanted broccoli, and he said "brok-ee?  umhum."  So whatever he was saying wasn't broccoli, but broccoli was an acceptable substitute.

But I knew the only broccoli we had was still frozen, so I talked him into an apple.  Only thing I could think of that he could eat in bed without crumbs and things.  After his approval, I went to the kitchen and peeled and cubed half an apple, put it in a little bowl, and propped him up on your side of the bed.  He was happy and ate all of it (or hid it somewhere - who knows? I was trying to get him to fall asleep by leading by example).

After his snack, Desmond couldn't really get comfortable, but he was mostly laying still.  Around four Dexter just shows up at the door and walks calmly to my side of the bed. I lift him in, and he lays down and proceeds to fall asleep - neither of us said anything.  He only woke slightly a few times when Desmond tried to say hi.

If I understood Melissa correctly, Dexter and Desmond got to nap together today in the twos room - and both napped very well.  I know both got a good nap in, just not positive they were in the same room.

Right before bath we were watching Elmo movie, and I gave them each some water to drink in a big boy cup (last night before bath they couldn't drink enough water after brushing teeth).  Desmond spilled his, mostly on me but some on him and the couch.  I told him not to worry about it, clock was almost blue.  He sat there for another minute then got up and went to the kitchen.  I heard him moving his stool around and though he might have been going for food, but I let him do his thing because clock was almost blue.  Then he shows up at the couch with a hands/face washcloth and proceeds to wipe my leg and the couch with it.

Since he sacrificed Elmo movie time to clean me, I moved bath time back a little.  :)

Gotta go - need to shower.

Desmond's Panda Party!

Desmond is TWO!

I admit we phoned it in a little when choosing his party theme, but he was such a big fan of Kung Fu Panda that we just decided to go with it.

Here is his fun day in pictures:


First, the invitation. As usual, I spent entirely too much time on this. In all of his recent pictures, he is dirty or has food on his face or has boogers, so we tried to get him to pose for a suitable invite photo. 76 pictures later, this was the best we could do.

As usual, Anita Schmitt made a gorgeous and delicious cake. (Always my favorite part of the party.)

Kung Fu Panda stuff proved surprisingly difficult to find, and 99% of it was for Kung Fu Panda 2, which came out earlier this year. But since I couldn't find much from the original movie, and because I knew I would be the only one who knew (until now), we got Kung Fu Panda 2 stuff. The banner is one. Plates & napkins were also technically from the wrong movie. Oh well.

Happy Birthday banner, which was hung in Desmond's

bedroom (long) after the party.

Bulk Chinese takeout boxes 

+ Kung Fu Panda (the orignal movie!) stickers 

= great party favor holders.

 

Plenty of people came to celebrate with us.

And of course, the movie played a couple of times during the party.

Patronized a local Chinese restaurant for our party fare. It was good, as usual.

Kung Fu Panda (2) plates. 

And more takeout containers for people to bring home leftovers. Which no one did.

The birthday boy ended up eating alone in the corner, but he was cool with that. 

Note the Thomas the Tank Engine pajama top, which he would NOT take off. Grandma had made him a really cute t-shirt with pandas embroidered on it, which he liked very much and wore several times - just not for his panda party. I guess that's being 2 for ya.

He eventually got some company. 

Presents!!

This guitar ended up being perhaps the best present of all. Who knew?

Panda Pillow (from Grandma & Granddad) immediately became Desmond's actual bed pillow.

Cake!

The aftermath.

Hey, look! It's Dexter! In pajamas! 

Note his absence from all previous pictures. He had a high fever for the whole party. He tried to tough it out for a bit, but instead threw up on the couch in the middle of the party. He spent the rest of the time in his room watching a movie on the laptop. Dad and Mom and Tootsie took turns keeping him company. His fever broke right as the party was ending, and he was good as new.

What a mess.

But the birthday boy sure is happy. :)

He looks sick, doesn't he?

Post-party cake? Don't mind if I do!

Finally, a simple thank-you note:

Zoo!

Since, from these posts, it seems like we never do anything fun on a "regular" day, here are some photos from our trip to the ZOO!!! 

It was a gorgeous day, but - thanks, we think, to that night's scheduled "Boo at the Zoo" activity, it wasn't very crowded. Double-win!


We got off to a bit of a slow start, as Desmond insisted on pushing the stroller. We had parked probably 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the zoo.

Eventually, we reached a compromise to help get us there in a timely fashion.

No way did these little people have enough stamina to see everything, but we did pretty well. One of our first stops was the hippopotamus tank. There are some hippopotami just off camera to the right, but the fish were pretty fascinating.

Zebras!

We also saw some of the other usual suspects - lions, giraffes, and primates, among others. We had lunch by the flamingos. The gorilla statue was pretty fun.

The highlight of the day, however, was the train ride. We need to find a place where you can pay a single fee for unlimited train rides. THAT would be an exciting day.

Desmo waved to everyone he could see.