black, grey, white

You know you live in London when your stacks of shirts look like this:

black. grey. white. one dark green shirt.

gone are the bright colors.

i type this wearing black leggings and grey turtleneck.

i don't even know when this happened.

Do it to it Lars

Hubby's New Year's Resolution to exercise more.

Rainy day in London.

4 year old with more energy to burn than we've ever seen.

= Father-Son P90X Kenpo workout

Getting Wiley dressed was a bit of the equivalent of dressing up. Get those shorts on. Get that Under armour on. Just like Daddy.

Wiley's favorite are pushups. Nevermind his form is a little off. As you can imagine if you know Wiley, he did not particularly care for being told what to do by Tony. So, Wil stuck to the book, and Wiley did whatever variation of Kenpo he wanted to do.

Listening to them workout was hilarious. Then watching Wiley thrash around, throwing his body around in the name of kickboxing, and toweling off (because he was so sweaty!) made my day. Ah, living with boys.

*Title from Heavyweights

Rub a Dub Dub

Parr got to take a bath with his big brother. He enjoyed it much, much more than his previous baths alone.

I think it had something to do with the faces Wiley was making at him.

(warning: about to do a bit of a baby brain dump to update and remember for myself and family.)

Parr is doing well. He's almost 3 weeks old. He is getting much chubbier, especially in the face and neck area. He is pretty fussy/restless/doesn't want to go to sleep in his moses basket between 6 and midnight. But once he has his last feed, he is pretty good for the night, waking up to eat every 3 hours. Other than that he is really good. The mornings are especially best because he wakes up, eats, then goes back to sleep very easily. We thought we would make it without a swing, but with this restless/sleep strike in the evening, we bit the bullet and ordered a small travel swing (space is at a premium in our flat). I can't wait for it to get here. I also ordered a Moby sling/wrap so that I can "wear" my baby. Also exciting because honestly as much as we would like to be able to hold Parr all the time, we just can't. I hope he likes the sling...Wiley screamed bloody murder when I put him in his Baby Bjorn when he was little. My mom left to go back home this weekend, so that was a bummer. However, we are just so thankful she was able to come for so long. This week it is just the four of us, and it is kind of exciting to be doing it just us and seeing what it is like. We are thankful too that T is coming next week when Wil is back at work. SO thankful for all of our family. Wiley is continuing to be a sweet big brother. He did a little show this morning for Parr singing some worship songs in the microphone. This afternoon, he sang quite a few renditions of "she'll be coming round the mountain." It's hilarious to say the least. I'm amazed at how Parr is growing, and when I see pictures of the two boys together, I still can't really believe that I have two children. Two boys. Wow. And what a huge blessing.

Hopefully soon I'll do a post about Parr's arrival which might be fun to read (or might not be?) to see the difference in having a baby in the US and in the UK (on NHS)...

I certainly did not...

...voluntarily offer my 4 year old a whole donut this morning to enjoy while watching Gullah Gullah Island (holla 1990s kids tv!)

...break a mayonnaise jar (they shatter, while remaining in mayonnaise jar form, so please pick up with a broom and dust pan. not your hand!)

...break one of our 4 bowls (cath kidston. tear.) while trying to reheat some pasta. i was moving the bowl all of 6 inches, and i still can't reconstruct what exactly happened.

...promptly thereafter, as my mom was cleaning up the broken bowl (i think she was worried i might fall to pieces, like the bowl, you know, crazy new baby, post preggo hormones), spilled red wine all down my sweater. first sip. (mom again steps in to avoid possible breakdown of daughter)

...and last night, i went through 3 diapers, rather Parr went through 3 diapers, in about 3 minutes. problem was, in between poo diapers 1 and 2, i somehow got poo on my hand, our duvet, and Parr. again, i can't reconstruct these events, other than i was doing it in the dark and couldn't see well.

i think i gave Parr what was left of my brain. which one might think is a lovely, selfless thing to do, but given the state of my brain, it might not have been so great.

on another, less-poo-ey, note, wil and i went to dinner alone for the first time since pre-parr! I don't think i had actually been without parr since he was born (he's 2 weeks old plus a couple days!) thanks mom for babysitting the boys! we were this close to throwing in the towel but thankfully wil insisted that we go even if we weren't that hungry. it felt so good to get out, and i could tell such a difference in our attitudes when we were doing our usual parr-doesn't-really-want-to-go-to-bed-between-9-and-1230am-routine-and-only-wants-to-eat. another fun fact of our yummy sushi date was that the tables were so close it was like speed dating but interestingly enough, both tables on either side of us were Americans. a reason why i love our little 'hood.

Brothers

Things are lookin' good here.

Um, mom, why is he starting to cry?

Hey, Parr, just pose for the picture and then she'll leave us alone.

Pose is not working. Can you take him already?

Back to Christmas

Here are just a few pictures from a wonderful Christmas in London!

One of the highlights for me was how much Wiley enjoyed playing with his toys. We didn't tear through Santa and on to family gifts at all. He genuinely loved playing with Woody and Buzz and his legos for a long time...at least long enough for us to all have coffee and coffee cake. Having a Christmas morning that was not rushed through and was savored was so special.

Back to Christmas Eve (below) Wiley went to work with Wil! Here Wiley is in Lloyd's of London (Insurance Market). The Titanic, Marilyn Monroe's legs, Brad Paisley's voice, your beach condo...you name it...is insured in this building.

The boys before they leave for work. Wiley insisted on wearing a tie like Wil.

Welcome Home Parr!

Howard "Parr" Cooper was born on December 29th

7lbs 4oz

Proud big brother Wiley. Wiley also made the sign we came home to at the house. The boy is Parr "when he is 4" according to Wiley.

Sweet Little Parr!