I got a pedi today. When I came home I asked Cooper, "do you like my toes?" He said, "where are your other toes."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mother's Day 2010.
Mother's Day for us is all about home projects. This weekend Sharon worked on building an under deck storage area by creating a dry deck system. She was able to get the gutter up and some panels to test it out, it works and is awesome! We are looking forward to having storage under the deck this winter. While she was busy with that project I was busy weeding the yard, planting seeds in the garden and groundcover by Sharon's office. Yesterday I had more energy, today I was zapped. I set up the hammock for all of us to take a break. It was such a beautiful day to be outside today and yesterday.
This morning we bought some donuts and then started working. Cooper enjoys being outside and helping his Mama with projects. He also enjoys helping Mommy in the garden, including watering plants and finding wormies. He doesn't like weeding! He also played with his many trucks and bikes and Riley.
Happy Mother's Day to us!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tractor Riding
Here is a video of Cooper and his friend Teo riding the tractor and the truck on the driveway. I will work on getting some Skuut video soon, I just realized I don't have any. Cooper is getting really good at balancing and he loves going down big hills.
Cooper's Sayings
Today we were doing errands and Cooper really wanted to go to the "choo choo train store". It's a toy store called the Learning Palace next to one of the libraries we go to often. I was telling him we were going to the bike store first, REI and he kept asking me where we were going. So finally I said in a harsh tone, "we are going to REI first." Cooper's response was, "I don't want to fight with you, Mommy." I couldn't believe he said that, so I immediately apologized to him for being short and told him I didn't want to fight either.
He was extra chatty and very good today during our errands and we did go to the train store finally. I bought him a cool race car that he's been talking about since Sunday when his friend Teo came over with them. They are wooden cars and you can take them apart and put them together by Automoblox. We came upon a construction site in the car and Cooper had the window down (his preferred way of driving now). There was a flagger guy standing on the sidewalk eating a sandwich and Cooper waved hello. The guy started talking to Cooper about his yellow car, Cooper showed him the wheel coming off before we had to move on. It was very cute.
Cooper enjoys saying hi to all people he comes across while on a walk and especially in the car. He says, "hi guy" or "hi people", it is hilarious.
Pizza Time
We had our friends Maria and Erin and their son Teo over for dinner Sunday night and we made pizzas. The boys were big helpers and made their own cheese pizza. Cooper likes eating the raw dough and cheese the most. Neither one of them ate the pizza when it was cooked. Teo ate a salad and Cooper had a few cucumbers and carrots.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Favorite Activity
Cooper's favorite activity right now is to ride either his tractor or Skuut bike down the sidewalk at our house. He is getting really good and because we are on a hill it's a lot of fun. Here is a video from earlier today.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Bella Beach
We had a great time at the beach last week. We spent 3 nights at Bella Beach near Depoe Bay with another couple Maria and Erin and their son Mateo. Cooper and Mateo play great together and we all had a fantastic time. We hit the Newport Aquarium and made it to the beach for about an hour. Cooper did a lot of bike riding on his Skuut and we picked up some coffee beans at Pirate's Coffee (Mom remember that place?).
Easter
We had a great Easter at Grandma Lindsay's and Grandpa Don's house. The day started with Cooper eating an entire chocolate bunny at home during his easter egg hunt. We went to Grandma's in the afternoon to color easter eggs. After the egg coloring, Cooper took a nap and I hid all the eggs. He found all sixteen eggs, had a little more chocolate (no dinner really) and was pooped from the day.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The happenings this winter
Portland is having a very mild spring and it is nice to not have to be indoors everyday. Cooper and I are enjoying taking hikes with Riley, going to parks, playing with friends, and visiting the zoo. Our indoor activities include swimming, indoor playgyms, and bouncy house play areas. I joined a parenting group through www.meetup.com and it has been great to check out new places and meet new parents with kids Cooper's age. We do activities with them once a week or so. We also have set playdates on Tuesday with Talia and Thursday with Teo. It is nice to have a routine and Cooper looks forward to seeing his friends.
I started playing in an orchestra, we meet Tuesday nights. I am still in the concert band and marching band starts up in April. Sharon started a Karate class two nights a week and she is enjoying the challenge. She is showing us her moves and Cooper is copying her which is very cute (I am trying to get him on video doing it but he's not cooperating). The other day I was dropping off Cooper at Sharon's class and switching cars and as I was putting my stuff into the truck Cooper said, "bye bye Mommy." As though he were going to go find Mama by himself. I had a flash forward to when he is 10 and it freaked me out.
Cooper does not like to take the freeway and is becoming quite the backseat driver. The other day we all were in the car and he saw we were headed to the freeway. He said, "No take freeway Mama." When asked why he said, "Freeway makes Cooper crazy." We all cracked up and then he kept saying it because we found it so funny.
His third person talking is dwindling down which is great and also sad, he is growing up so fast. I am trying to post a video or two of his tractor riding but I am having technical difficulties so I will post a few pics in the meantime.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Cooper Updates
Here are some recent pictures of Cooper. We went to Fresno the week before Thanksgiving. We had a great trip, it was fun to see Cooper's cousins, Noah, Chloe and Alexander. We hope to go back to Fresno in the beginning of the year. We had a nice Thanksgiving at Holly's house and are enjoying the holidays.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Japan
I am back from Japan. I had a fantastic trip. Had so much fun with Jeff, Chikako and Mom. The first weekend we went to Hongu (Southern Wakayama). We had excellent weather, visited a Shrine and World Heritage Center, spent the evening in a hotel at Kawayu Onsen and went hiking the next day. This particular Onsen is a river that is a natural hotspring. It was a full moon the evening we went to the Onsen and we saw it crest over the mountains. Beautiful!
Mom, Jeff and I went to Kyoto for two days. Kyoto has many temples to see and we did a blend of temple visits and power shopping. I liked the history of Kyoto and the temples, I did not like the loads of people that were there.
On Thursday, Jeff drove us up to Koyasan and Mom and I spent the night in a Buddhist Temple. We ate the traditional Monk food (vegetarian) for dinner and breakfast. We also attended the Monk service in the morning. Koyasan is a magical place, we had a tour of the cemetary where the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kobo Daishi is said to be in eternal meditation. I would have liked about a half day more of Koyasan but we had a Taiko drum show to attend in Kudoyama.
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Saturday, September 19, 2009
Walk to the park
Sharon is out of town this weekend so Cooper and I walked to the park this afternoon. We had a nice walk, it did not rain on us. Cooper found several puddles and rocks to throw in them. He had clean jeans on the way there and by the end had muddy knees.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Then and Now
Here is Xander 4 months, Elliot 5 months and Cooper 6 months in January 2008.
Here they are one year ago, all walking.
And here they are now: running, jumping, exploring and talking!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Cooper's Adventures
A lot has been going on since Cooper turned 2. Cooper is constantly trying new words these days. He will say almost every word we say now. When asked a question he will answer with a word now, example, A: "do you want to go inside or outside" C: "outside". It is great to be able to communicate with him more and more. He loves to jump and run. He loves to take Riley on walks and ride bikes (which means he likes to ride behind Mommy on her bike).
We went peach picking on Sunday, we picked 73 pounds of peaches. I proceeded to can them and now have 15 jars of peaches for the winter! Cooper had a great time helping pick the peaches, he also helped me can them this morning.
He continues to scrape his knees this summer. Here's a picture of him with two boo boos.
TWO is so much fun! Mommy and Mama are having a blast watching him grow and explore his world.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Cooper's 2nd Birthday!
Cooper celebrated his 2nd birthday on Saturday, July 18th with friends and family. It was a beautiful day in Portland and Aunt Janet hosted the party. We had a pool for the kids to play in and that kept them occupied for most of the time. The theme was Cars (his favorite movie).