Lions, Elephants, and Toucans

These are just a few of the things seen today at the circus. We also saw Acrobats, Magicians, Miniature Horses (One full sized Horse), and as always Clowns. It was a new adventure for Christopher and Mommy too!

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey are in town this weekend. When we saw the billboards a few weeks ago we decided it might be worth a try to take Christopher to see it. In normal circumstances I would NEVER consider taking a one year old to the circus, however Chris LOVES animals. Not to mention the clowns visited Jacob at school, and that’s all he talked about from then on.

We opted for an earlier show today, because Christopher and Savannah would be needing naps at some point in time. Savannah happened to take hers during the show (she wasn’t feeling well today). Even with choosing the 11 o’clock showing, we wanted to be there at 10 for the all access pre-show. This was something I had never heard of before, granted this was my first real “Circus” experience. They allowed anyone who bought a ticket to come in an hour early and meet all of the actors and animals. This was probably my favorite part. We got to see the elephant, Susie, up close, (By the way, they are a LOT bigger up close that what they seem at the zoo), we danced with the Clowns (watch the videos below), and saw some fun magic tricks.


The show started exactly at 11, this was a surprise because I would never imagine that something so complicated could ever be on time (take my Aunts and Christmas for example… NEVER on time). It lasted about an hour and a half, with an intermission, and kept us entertained the ENTIRE time (great job Ringling Brothers!!). Christopher did fall asleep right after the acrobats preformed, and slept for about 10 minutes. He missed part of the Lion act, but was wide awake for the elephants. I have never heard him laugh and squeal so hard.

All in all it was an amazing experience for us, and we will definitely do it again.

Circus 1 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Circus 2 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Circus 3 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Circus 4 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

A Goodnight Routine for My 15 Month Old!

It's official we have passed the 15 month marker. Every day my beautiful little baby grows and learns something new. He is constantly showing us that being new to our world doesn't mean you stay down for long. I don't believe how quickly he is grasping how "life" works. Lately he hasn't slown down for much, not even a hug for Mommy.

Instead of doing the usual "This is what we did today" blog, I thought I would let you in on his bedtime routine. His routine is as follows:

• 6:30 Dinner
  


• 7:00 Head upstairs to get his room ready for bed. Most of the time this means we take out all of the toys and ready them for after bath play time.
  


• 7:30 BATHTIME!! This might possibly be his favorite time of the day. If there are bubbles in the bathtub he enjoys it that much more.



• 8:00 Get pj's on and play with said toys that were previously mentioned. He also used this time to learn how to climb onto my rocking chair. This has led to many bumps and bruises during the day, because he now believes himself invincable



• 8:30 Call daddy, if he didn't stop by, to tell him goodnight. Get Lamby and binky (Yes, he still has his binky at bedtime), and go to sleep.

So there you have it, my little boy and his goodnight routine. Most of the time it NEVER goes this smoothly. He always finds a way to throw a wrench in somewhere. I hope that everyone else has a nightly routine as fun filled as what ours is.

Goodnight 1 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Goodnight 2 from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Goodnight All!!!!

My Officer In Training

Christopher loves his new Cozy Coup Police car that Mimi got him for Christmas. He has become an "inside police officer" with hopes of moving out into the world come spring.

Everyone knows that a good policeofficer gets messy and needs a relaxing bubble bath at the end of the day....

Christmas Time Has Come....

....And Gone!!! All the presents unwrapped. Both families have been visited. Hectic air travel accomplished (NO KIDDING!). Now Mommy and Daddy are back to work.


This Christmas things were a little different than last year. I have a job, which limited me to less than one week of vacation. Christopher is older now and is more able to travel (willingly or not). We asked Mimi and Pawpaw to come down a week before we went to Ohio to spend a little more time with them. Christopher loved having the extra entertainment, even if it was met with just as much supervision. The first two days were spent relaxing and enjoying the company. We went at some point to see Santa, and to my surprise Christopher did an AMAZING job. He went right up to Santa and started to play with his beard and Glasses. We did more running around while they were here, but for the most part of the time it rained leaving us with minimal choices.


EARLY Saturday morning we flew up to Ohio for our short visit with the rest of our family. Christopher did very well on the flights (considering we had no windows on the row that we were in). I think that I enjoyed the subway in the Atlanta airport the most :). I have never been on a subway so that was a new experience for me. We were very lucky that we made it in to Ohio when we did. Shortly after arriving we started hearing about flights being canceled or delayed do to weather.

There were quite a few people who had still never met Christopher, and we were excited for that experience. Sunday was the "Cotter Family Pictures" that had never been taken before because of the distance. The pictures were amazing, and the boys did great! Christopher loved the photographer with her stuffed kitty, and Aiden just like to laugh at Christopher laughing. That night was the extended Lynch family Christmas (Jeff's mom's side of the family). Mimi counted 29 people and 9 of those were kids under 10.

Monday brought with it a day to shop for last minute gifts for the Jividen Family Christmas (my side) on Tuesday. It also was a day to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep. Jeff and I also took Christopher out to the Columbus Zoo for their Winter Wonderland. The entire zoo was covered in lights. It is honestly the most beautiful part of Christmas I have ever seen. We got Christopher in to bed that night and then headed out to meet up with our friend Tyler for a night out.

Tuesday was all about packing, the Jividen Family Christmas, and mentally preparing for the trip home on Wednesday. My favorite part of the Jividen Family Christmas is the "Grandma Pettet Gift" (also know as the White Elephant Gift). These are gag gifts that people bring to give out for laughter. It could be anything from a stuffed fish or a ceramic butt (which happened to be the gift Jeff received this year). It makes Christmas much more enjoyable not worrying about the price of gifts or whether the receiving person will even like what you have given them.

Wednesday was our flight home, again VERY early. This flight was more stressful because we only had 25 minutes between our connecting flights. We literally ran through the Atlanta airport, and successfully made it to our flight.

We are now home and have very much enjoyed our Christmas adventure. Below are pictures from our trip, Christmas day pictures will be on the next post ;)

It Has Been A LONG TIME!!!

Indeed it has been longer than I would want it to be. There have been a few changes in the Cotter house in the past month. We are very excited for the holidays, and can't wait to share our photos of our little man throughout the next few weeks.

Our biggest change was another move. There were some unforeseen circumstances that came up and in a matter of a week we have moved just down the road into one of our fire chief’s condos. We are hoping in the next few months Jeff can start some college classes for Criminal Justice. Another change has been with our little one himself, HE IS WALKING. He started on in 13 month "birthday" and has been cruising along since.

We have already passed by Thanksgiving, and Christmas will be here soon. It difficult to believe that at this time last year we were still without sleep most nights. Christopher has, for the most part, conquered his sleeping schedule. He is even generous when he wakes up early, letting mommy and daddy continue to sleep while he plays in his crib. Decorations are still in their boxes, at least until Wednesday. I'm very proud of myself for waiting, considering last year they were up before Thanksgiving.

I also can't wait to visit with my family in Ohio in a few weeks. There are still a few of them who have not met Christopher; we are hoping that we can change this. We are also anxious to see snow!!! Even if it only snows for 30 minutes while we are home, that would be enough.

Below are two videos, one of Christopher walking for the first time, and the other of us playing peek-a-boo the other night while unpacking.

HE IS WALKING!!!! from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Curtain Fun from Sara Cotter on Vimeo.

Mashed Potato

Dinner tonight was full of funny moments and messy baby photos!!!!

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Sunday was a day to remember for our big guy, as he went on his first pumpkin hunt. We drove for almost an hour to reach a run down farm, that was advertised as "spectacular". We found nothing that we were looking for, but managed some adorable photos and yummy apple cider! We decided that the little pumpkin stand down the road from the house was a much better idea (and it was), as we found so many awesome pumpkins. There were so many there I was almost afraid Christopher would never choose just one.

After going through the ENTIRE pumpkin patch (some 200 pumpkins), Christopher started for what seemed to be another walk-through. This time around however, he stopped halfway through and did a dance of sorts. He had found his pumpkin, which by the way is HALF his size (and he's no small pumpkin himself)! We took a few more pictures with his fabulous choice in pumpkins, and headed home for a much needed nap. Rescue even got his picture taken with a wee little "pupkin"!

Chucky Cheese's

It really is a great place to be a kid. Christopher got to go for the first time today, and he had a lot of fun. There weren't very naby things for him to do, but he enjoyed the hundreds of other kids running arround. Jacob and Savannah went as well and had just as much fun, if not more. These are a few pictures that were taken while we were there.