Another great adventure at Lake Almanor this year. We were gone for two weeks and had such a great trip. Here are some pictures.
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I played in the One More Time Around Again Marching Band (OMTAAMB) again this year. It was a great time, we played the Starlight Parade and the Grand Floral Parade. We practice April to the end of May, march two parades in June and are done for the season. It is a great group of people and so much fun! This year we played Louie Louie (of course), Back in Black (AC/DC), I Love Rock n' Roll, and Kung-Fu Fighting on the parade route. Here are some pictures.
We leave for our July 4th camping trip on Sunday. We are going to Lake Almanor with Papa and Grandma Barbara. This year we are going for two weeks. I am so excited to relax, play in the lake, see the Chester parade and chill with Sharon. It's a long drive down there but well worth it.
Here are a few pictures from our trip to Anacortes last week. We went up there with Sharon and stayed with our friend Rosey. Sharon and Rosey worked Thursday while Cooper and I toured the town and found a great park. It was a great, super fast trip. Can't wait to visit longer and go to Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island.
We went to the Lake Oswego Farmers Market last Saturday with Grandma Lindsay and Grandpa Don. There is a stand that makes donuts and they are the best! Here is Cooper enjoying his donut.
"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
2nd night without Cooper's buddy. He threw one away and said it was broken. Fairly smooth transition.
Grandma Lindsay, "Riley you are my dog." Cooper mid-tear (bonked head on door) replies, "No. Riley is my dog!" Emphasis on my.
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!
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.
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.
I got a pedi today. When I came home I asked Cooper, "do you like my toes?" He said, "where are your other toes."
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?).
