Things We Know About Coco

There are four Cocos.  Coco is a fish who wears five striped shirts.  He’s the stinky one.  Coco is a kid, specifically a boy.  Coco is a horse.  Tic Tac is also a horse; his last name is Coco.

Coco the fish lives in the crack in the front patio of our house.  He eats leaves, sticks, rocks, and ‘candy gum’.  Coco the boy does not have any toys, but he has a job.  He works with Aunt Kelley.  He breaks her apartment.  Last time we went on a car trip, Coco sat with Rush in the car, then he climbed into Rush’s shirt.  He also jumped out of the car and onto a train.

Coco is Tate’s imaginary friend.

Conversation from last week:

Scene:  Tate and Kelly are sitting on the couch.

Tate, quietly:  I can’t believe Coco.

Me:  What did he do?

Tate, breathlessly, appalled:  He hit you.

Watch out for Coco.

Three and Then Some

Tate turned three back in January, back in the blurry days of January when Holly was three weeks old.  Better late than never on documenting the celebration-

Just a month and a half after his birthday, he already looks older!

He wanted a “Lightning McQueen Party.  And a Mater Party.”

For weeks before his birthday I would ask what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  Every time he would answer, “eyeball” in his serious voice he uses when he knows he’s being funny.  But we really couldn’t get him to say what he wanted, until he finally picked “chip tacos.”  Chip tacos, fyi, are crunchy tacos.

Please note the Taco Bell sauce packets.  Keeping it classy at the candlelight birthday dinner.

Tate’s party was at McDonalds, our first away from home birthday party.  We had the full McDonalds birthday experience, including the cake with Ronald McDonald on it.  All in all, it was pretty great.

For as many times as Tate has made a teenager face at me, sometimes I forget how really little he is.  Sweet, sweet three years old- good times Tate, good times.

Mama’s Little Baby Loves Short’nin Bread

I read somewhere that you when your kids are in high school and you look back at pictures from when they were little, you will die a thousand deaths when you think about how big you thought they were at the time.  But really- Rush is five?!

Tate shared in all the birthday excitement.  After laying in bed quietly-ish at naptime, but never actually falling asleep, he was zoned out exhausted at the table.  Holly tricked us by waking up from her pre-bedtime nap only to fall immediately back asleep at the table.

Rush selected red beans and rice and cornbread with honey for his birthday dinner, of course.  Third year in a row-

He may be big compared to Baby Rush of 2009, but he’s still a sweet five year old excited about getting an excavator for his birthday and sneaking downstairs after bedtime to play with it.  Because he’s big now.  He’s five.

Cousins

I was going to post it just like that:  ‘Cousins’ as the title and two pictures, no words.  Sometimes there are so many things to say, so much to condense.  Instead, a summary of my kiddos today-

Holly pushed up her head and shoulders today while laying on her stomach.  It was a surge of strength and growth.  She hasn’t spent too much time on her belly, mainly because she is held almost all the time.  She’s so snuggly and it’s just so easy to hold her. 

Tate is about relationships, not tv watching.  I was getting some meals into the freezer this afternoon, and Tate ignored the tv to stand by me with a pack of stickers, talking and sticking stickers to my hands.  He covers me with stickers at least a few days a week.  It’s very sweet, very giving, very Tate.

Rush and I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon, so our wait in line was somewhere in the 25 minute range.  Instead of going crazy, I recognized it as a chance to spend time with him.  We played ‘I Spy’ –his idea- and talked about what kind of cokes we would get from the cooler if we were getting cokes.  He was also so upbeat and chatty that he accidently spit his gum on the floor two separate times while we were in the store, so we laughed about that.  He’ll be four and a half for a few more days, but already, as he would say, you would think he was five.

I love being with these people.

Shoot For The Moon

Recently my BFF Kate came to visit, which, for many reasons, was wonderful.  A bonus from our time together was Kate asking if I had heard of Astronaut Chris Hadfield and subsequently showing me a video.  As I recall, most of my leisure time in the pregnancy of 2013 was spent on the couch playing Candy Crush, so this was my first introduction. 

Because I love space exploration, I read his book and proceeded to watch more of his videos from the space station.  The greatest part is that Rush and Tate jumped right in.  They are old enough that they were interested; they were into it with me.  Hurray!

We spent a few nights following dinner with a dessert of YouTube, watching videos on how to brush teeth in space or how to sleep in space.  After watching How To Make A Sandwich in Space, we started making Astronaut Sandwiches.  These sandwiches, consisting of a tortilla, peanut butter, and honey, are a superb addition to our lunch routine because not only are they tasty, they are fast, cheap, and space station approved crumb free.

During the week, I found them playing with their shuttle toys.

And last week included Fake Mustache Day at school, so Rush and Tate chose not just any mustaches, but astronaut mustaches. 

It’s just so exciting to have someone, a few someones, to obsess with.  Want to talk about astronauts again?  The shuttle?  Space station?  You do!  Great! 

The following few pics are actually from last April, but they were never posted here.  (Please see above reference to Candy Crush.)  Houston may be unbearably hot in the summer, but that’s balanced out by being able to run by NASA any time to look at the Saturn V.

These are the kind of things that make home schooling sound fun.  (I’m not planning on home schooling.)  We would read A Man on the Moon and visit NASA and finally make it to the observatory at Brazos Bend.  We would do any math, because it is rocket science and all math is relevant.  We would solve physics problems involving keeping the space station in orbit.  (That sounds equally like something I would have seen on a high school physics test and way too complicated.)  We would make one of those scale models of the solar system where the planets all rotate around the sun in their proper orbits.   We would silk screen T-shirts that say, “Pluto, Never Forget.” 

Then our Space unit would end and I would have to send everyone back to regular school.  I just don’t think I could rally for a lesson on cellular mitosis.