ABCs

Cooper singing the ABCs on the way to Reno.

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Fun day with Ruthie and the Kids

I have a great friend that lives in Henderson and I met up with her and her kids today. Ruthie and I used to work together and I last saw her when Cooper was six months old and her oldest daughter, Gali, was three. Cooper waited all day to see Gali and he liked her right away. The feeling was mutual, they had blast together.



I failed at getting some good pictures of them playing together. We went to a water park/playground and then went to dinner. Gali ended up calling Cooper, "my buddy".

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Great Things

Cooper is changing so fast right now. He can put on his underpants by himself 75% of the time, he is singing a lot, and coming up with his own ideas or ways to play.


The other day we were listening to the wheels on the bus song and he asked for his school bus toy and to play the song again. He was singing to the song and doing the actions with his toy. It's amazing the change; we used to listen and I would sing these songs to him at library story time when he was weeks old to one year. Now he can sing them so well. He is just starting to sing and I love it. I am trying to get it on video as much as I can.


This afternoon after quiet time he put a frisbee under the rug in his bedroom and we played monster trucks. We zoomed the trucks over the bump to each other. He came up with the idea. He made a sun out of rocks the other night while hanging with Mama and is doing really well with solo play.


Here is a picture shooting the fire hose at the neighborhood block party last weekend.





I took a picture of Cooper's birthday gift jams from Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Chikako.








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Then and Now

We compiled all the firetruck pictures we could find with Cooper driving.

May 2009




July 2009




September 2010





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Singing

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Good Day

We had a good day today. Sharon took Cooper this morning to get the truck window fixed so I took Larkin on some errands. Then we met Sharon and Cooper at the windshield repair shop and Larkin was super excited to see Cooper. We spent awhile there fixing the Lancer windshield so we can sell it, and then came home for lunch.
This afternoon I heard the neighbor boy outside so I called my neighbor to see if we could come over and play. We had a fun time there for about an hour or so. It was great, they have a nice play structure with a fast slide that all the kids enjoyed. They also have a fun swing that the kids tried out. Cooper loves Colby's house, especially his playroom, he was happy we played inside before we had to leave.
I am looking forward to a great weekend! Our neighborhood block party is tomorrow night and lots of family time.

Labor Day Weekend

We went camping at Panther Creek Campground in the Gifford Pinchot Forest this weekend.  It's just outside of Carson, WA and our friends Susan and Kerry joined us Sat-Mon. We unfortunately didn't take many pictures.  Here is the morning routine:

Our days consisted of throwing rocks in the creek, exploring the forest, sitting by the fire, riding our bikes, playing catch, cribbage and Sequence.
When we came home, Oma and Grandpa came into town for the night.  Cooper attached himself to Oma immediately and they read many stories together.

 We were sad to see them leave this morning, but they will be back in town on Saturday.

Fun with Larkin

Here are a few pictures of Cooper and Larkin at the park past week.










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World Forestry Center

I took Cooper to the World Foresty Center today, it was only $2 admission the first Wednesday of the month. It was fun to check out but we only lasted an hour. Cooper loved sitting in the tractor.



Upstairs they had a train, boat, jeep and crane basket that take you to different parts of the world. I wanted to watch the videos of each country but Cooper only wanted to drive the jeep. He picked up his friends Susan and Kerry in make believe land and we went to South Africa.
I am excited to come back to the museum when he is older, there is a lot of cool stuff there.
After that museum Cooper played on the train with some other kids before walking to the Children's Museum. It was packed there so we didn't stay very long. Cooper played with the train table, the ambulance and the water area.
Fun morning on this rainy Wednesday.

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Happenings

We had a hectic week last week with the wake and several dinners with the Atherly/Shirey clan. Cooper had a nap strike all last week and I think it caught up to him because he ended Saturday night and Sunday with a low grade fever. He is a pretty good sick kid, he was lethargic and mainly just wanted to be snuggled by his mommy and mama. By Monday he was 90% and Tuesday back to normal completely.
We visited our friends new baby boy. Cooper wasn't too sure of him at the hospital.






This was the closest he got. I think he was freaked out seeing E in the hospital bed and not able to move around much. He was also freaked because their older son, Cooper's friend, wasn't there.
He seems to be warming up to the baby, he doesn't like it when he cries but he does like to see his funny faces.
We signed Cooper up for swim classes this summer and they were supposed to start this week, m-f for 1/2 hour for 10 days. Monday I decided to reschedule them for the fall schedule. They start in mid October and are two nights a week for 10 days. It's more manageable for us and we both will be able to watch him swim. I'm also looking at a tumbling class for this fall. He loves climbing and trying the monkey bars so I think it will be fun for him.
We have one more camping trip planned for Labor Day at Panther Creek in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

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Garden

This year is the first time I started plants from seed. I didn't know what I was doing and planted the entire packet of zucchini, crooked neck, cucumber, eggplant, tomato and basil seeds. This spring my counters were overflowing with starts. I gave many away and cultivated the rest. I now have 11 tomato plants, 5 zucchini plats, two crooked neck plants, 2 eggplant and a lot of basil. Only 1 cucumber plant made it through the wet spring.
Cooper and I also planted sunflowers, string beans, and sugar snap peas from seed in the garden.
Our work paid off we are getting lots of zucchinis now, eggplant is flowering and there are many a green tomato. Cooper eats the peas daily and we just picked some green beans.








Basil









Eggplant









Squash heaven









Crooked neck









Zucchini









String beans









Green tomatos







Sunflowers (8 ft tall)

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Wake

We had Grandpa Don's wake yesterday to celebrate his life. We have been telling Cooper that Grandpa is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa (my dad). When we pulled into the funeral home Cooper spotted Grandpa's car and said "Grandpa's here." I said yes that is Grandpa's car but he won't be here. He gave Grandma a big hug and was really good during the one hour service. When we sat down he looked around and said, "I don't see Grandpa anywhere." I again explained that he is in heaven and not here in person, even going so far to say he doesn't have a body. I am not sure what he is comprehending of all this. I expect him to keep asking about Grandpa when we visit Grandma and I will keep saying he is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa.
It's hard to believe that Don won't be at the table for Sunday dinner anymore or whip us in a game of Hearts.


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In Loving Memory

Grandpa Don passed away in his sleep this morning. He has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months with a bad heart. We spent a long day with him and Grandma Lindsay on Thursday. Cooper played cars with Grandpa a lot. We are thankful he went peacefully in his sleep.
We love you Grandpa.






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Fun day!

After a rather hard week with Cooper and his behavior, today he is stellar. We are having a great day with Larkin, went to a park and took them to the library. I am getting more brave with taking them on errands.
Yesterday Grandma Lindsay and I finished Coopersville, his town mat with roads, businesses, etc. We've been working on this project for months. Here are some pictures of our work.







Cooper was being a crazy boy in the pool today and I took some video.

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Progress

I finally took some pictures of the sandbox. You can also see the 3 yards of rock we hauled around it.








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Rocks

Here's our progress.



It actually looks like it is dwindling now. Maybe just a yard left??
Here is my helper. My other helper, Larkin, is napping. She helped pick up some rock this morning and directed the wheelbarrow for me.







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Weekend Wrap-Up

Great weekend, but it flew by. We bought a new utility trailer on Saturday! The old trailer is 15 years old and needs some minor work, like a new floor. Our new trailer is great. It is heavy duty, has bigger wheels two things we wanted to upgrade. Here's a picture.




We sold the extra sand we had
and delivered it to Beaverton. We also gave the plastic green turtle sandbox to our neighbors. I hauled at least a yard and a half of the rock Saturday. I still have more to move before Friday.

Sunday I had a band concert at a local festival. It went well but we were sweltering in the heat. I headed to Grandma Lindsay's afterwards to work on Cooper's matchbox city. We built the commecial buildings, railroad tracks and planned out the rest of the spaces. He already loves playing on it!


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Park

I took the kids to a nearby park this morning to get some energy out. They had a great time running around, sliding,
playing on the sand, climbing and swinging. Larkin really likes to swing.
I watched from afar while Cooper was playing with a little boy that was probably 1 1/2 or 2. They were riding in a car that has a steering wheel and taking turns driving. The little boy's caregiver was with him and communicating via sign language. Cooper was doing imaginary play with the two of them and it was so cool to watch. He drove them home the most, but also stopped at the ice cream store and bought all of us chocolate ice cream. He is growing everyday and it blows me away. I don't have to be spotting him at most parks, he climbs up play structures with ease and is so proud of himself. I love watching him play with other kids.
The other great success for us is he mastered potty learning. He has no issues with the toilet. Although he does like to go poo in the bark chips like Riley, when he is in the backyard.
Yesterday he helped me haul some of our rock to the backyard in his dump truck, wearing only his a shirt and underwear.


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August Fun

This summer is flying by.  July was a whirlwind of visitors, birthday, camping.  August started with Sharon's birthday and a planned camping trip.  We are having fun, Cooper and I went to Oaks Park for the first time a last week.  He didn't like the roller coaster or the Tilt-A-Whirl.  He liked the train and the motorcycle ride the best.  He also went on the cars and rockets.  It was a lot of fun.

Today we went to a Vancouver library for the Reptile Man.  I thought it was great.  Cooper lasted about 1/2 hour then had to go potty.  He saw the train table inside the library and threw a fit trying to go back out to see the rest of the show. He really wanted to hold the white snake.

Back to Work

Happy Birthday to my awesome, beautiful wife. I love you.

I am back to work watching Larkin three days a week, Monday, Tuesday and Friday. I am enjoying the two days off in the middle of the week. Monday and Tuesday we stuck around the house and took a walk in the morning. Larkin is a good napper so she slept after lunch until her Dad came.

This weekend we bought beach sand and built Cooper's new sandbox. We were using a plastic turtle but wanted to build a box to make it bigger and have it under the deck. It's great, Cooper loves it too. He helped shovel the sand out of the trailer and was jumping and laying down in the sand as we dumped it in the box. We ended up buying way too much sand and are now trying to sell it on Craigslist.

The garage sale I had last weekend was a great success. Cooper helped me out on Saturday throughout the day. He played with the toys we were selling and said "hello" to all the kids that came by. It was probably good that he was sleeping when the blue race car was sold.

This weekend we have to move 3 yards of rock to the backyard, it is currently in the driveway. We are going camping the 13th so we need to move it to get the trailer out.