"Mommy I am having so much fun!" said playing soccer at park. Soon after he fell and got his first road rash boo boo.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, June 21, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
2nd night without Cooper's buddy.
2nd night without Cooper's buddy. He threw one away and said it was broken. Fairly smooth transition.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Grandma Lindsay, "Riley you are
Grandma Lindsay, "Riley you are my dog." Cooper mid-tear (bonked head on door) replies, "No. Riley is my dog!" Emphasis on my.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Visitors
Sonya, Kristen and Alexander visited last weekend. We went to the beach with the trailer for two nights, then came home for the long weekend. Cooper and his cousin, Alexander, had fun playing with the water table. We also took them to the Children's Museum, we hit the German Bakery of course and went to two different parks. It was a fast and non-stop visit. We managed to watch 11 of the 13 movies we rented too!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Recent Pictures
This is a funny picture. We went to Becki's wedding last weekend and just as the ceremony was starting Cooper announced, "No, I am pooping." Fortunately only the people around us could hear him. Sharon picked him up and took him to the back of the chairs to do his business and snapped this photo.
Here is Cooper on a slide at the park. He found a spot to rest.
Here we are at the wedding, pretty great picture by Paul. Becki met Billy (husband) when she lived with us and Billy lived across the street. This was about 3-4 years ago. Paul was Billy's roommate so we three feel responsible for their union! It was a great wedding, they had a bouncy house for the kids and Cooper jumped for about 2 hours. There were two kid bouncers in the bouncer to monitor the transitions from big kids to little kids time and they were awesome (we gave them a tip).
Cooper was upset because we told him we were going to the beach but we didn't actually go down to the beach. After the wedding we drove to Cannon Beach and met Elliot, Anna and Jason for dinner. Cooper got about 30 minutes or less at the beach because it was freezing and we were not dressed appropriately.
The Dragon
We are entering a new development stage and I think it is correlated to Cooper turning 3 soon. We call him the dragon and my friend uses the word "beasty" which I also really like. He's started biting (again). It used to be that he would bite me when he was 18 months or so. Now, he is biting his friends as a way to control the situation. We checked out the book, "Teeth are Not for Biting" and it helps to read that to him. He also reads the book aloud to me and says "no biting, teeth are for chewing." This week he has only bit one child and I am taking that as progress.
In play with kids he is getting more physical and vocalizing what he does or doesn't want to do. He likes to be in charge of objects, like the stairs to a slide or the end of a slide and that kind of thing. He lays his body across the slide or refuses to get off the slide or let another child get past him. When he does this I ask him "Who are you in charge of?" and he usually stops doing it, otherwise I have to physically remove him. Some more dragon type behavior, telling his aunties "no", throwing toys when asked to pick them up or put them away. His behavior is definetely linked to not getting enough sleep or not getting a nap for the day.
The cool thing with Cooper right now is how much he is talking and how much we understand him. Our friends and other kids can understand what he is saying 90% of the time and it is great! He gets really frustrated when I don't know the word he is using but he also keeps saying it so that we can figure it out together. He says some pretty funny things and he has a great sense of humor.
One of my favorite things he still says is, "The freeway makes Cooper crazy." He said it again today and I wondered how much longer he will say that. I often find alternative ways to get home if I am not pressed for time and he appreciates it. He also requests that we go over or find railroad tracks. Today was the first time he said railroad tracks, it used to be choo choo train tracks. He knows where they all are in the city and near his friends' houses. He also knows and labels all the fire truck stations in the area. There is my (Cooper's) fire truck station, Holly's fire truck station, Teo's fire truck station, and Grandma Lindsay's fire truck station.
I am challenged with this new dragon behavior he is having but I know we will get it figured out soon. These milestones come up every few months and it's always a reminder to Sharon and I to alter what we are doing in discipline and find new strategies to keep us all sane.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
I got a pedi today.
I got a pedi today. When I came home I asked Cooper, "do you like my toes?" He said, "where are your other toes."
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
Holiday Express Train
We took the Holiday Express Train yesterday with Aunt Janet. The train ride was 45 minutes and Santa was on it.
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.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were crazy days full of eating and preparing for the wedding party. Jeff's friends, Andy and Tracy, from Wisconsin arrived Friday afternoon. It was nice to have people to speak English with. We spent Saturday together for lunch and then did a little shopping.
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Sunday night was the party and it was elegant and awesome. Chikako looked stunning and Jeffrey as handsome as ever. The party turned out perfectly and great blend of English and Japanese. There was an after party at a local bar with a Karaoke machine. A small crowd gathered there and we all took turns singing (Mom and I partied it up)!
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.
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