It's December

Wow, I cannot believe we are in December already. Let the holiday craziness begin.
We had a nice weekend with Mama home. Cooper and Mama went to the Home Depot Kid's Workshop Saturday and made a snowman napkin holder. I volunteered to help at Cooper's preschool for Date Day, which was providing childcare for three hours so parents could go shopping, have breakfast or simply hang without their kids.
Saturday afternoon Sharon finished up the electrical work for the upstairs.
Sunday I took Luke to the dog park for the first time and met Donee and Toby there. The dogs had a blast, pure exhaustion for Luke. Sunday afternoon there was a model steam train event happening and we took Cooper there. It was a free event and benefit for a local charity. Cooper loved it! He was doing the chicken dance while he watched the trains go around. It was cool because the trains went inside and outside.






We had a nice dinner out, then came home and built Cooper's wooden train tracks.
Tomorrow Sharon leaves again for Montana. There was lots of tears and stalling at bedtime tonight by Cooper on hearing this news.

Skype

The beginning of this month is going to be rough. Sharon started her first week away on Tuesday followed by two more weeks. She is gone four of the five days during the week so she's home on the weekends. Cooper was pretty mad at her when he found out she had to leave. He had a hard day that Tuesday, he whimpered a lot, kept saying things like, "I can't go on a walk because it's too cold and Mama isn't hear to keep me warm." As he gets older he is way more vocal about his disapproval in her traveling. He likes to be comforted by me when he is feeling sad and it's hard for all of us.

This week we decided to try Skype. Cooper isn't big on talking to Mama on the phone, we thought seeing her may help him. Skype is awesome!!! Cooper did a complete 180 last night after Skyping with Mama. He did a happy dance, got totally crazy and talked a ton. It was great.

Today we had a long day and we Skyped with Mama again tonight. We could see how relaxed he got after talking with her for awhile. She read him a story, I read a story and we talked. When we hung up, Cooper was asleep within 30 seconds.

This is definitely a tool that we will use on her trips. It means so much to him to see her on the computer and it allows them to be silly and laugh together. He kissed the computer tonight and said "I love you Mama."

Christmas Time

We put our lights up on the outside of the house last weekend. Cooper was very excited about that.

Yesterday we bought our tree and decorated it. For the last three years we have gone to Sherwood, OR to a place called Sleighbells Tree Farm and bought our tree, sat on Santa's lap, had some hot cocoa, bought fudge and an ornament or wreath or two. This year we decided to bypass the gift shop place due to gas prices and we hit the local tree farm in town. Grandma Lindsay came to our house, we had coffee and a friendly game of cribbage before heading out. The tree lot is about 1.2 miles from our house, they bring the trees from their farm in Mollala, OR and they are very reasonable. Cooper gravitated to the 8' tall 8' wide trees. He said we needed a big tree for all his decorations!

Here is our tree and Cooper decorating.

Tower

Cooper and I were making towers with wooden blocks the other morning.

New Toy

I finally bought Larkin a baby doll and accessories to play with. She gravitates to them at other people's houses and I know she has some at home so it was about time I get one. Cooper brought it out for her on Monday and they played together a little bit. She played with the baby in some form all day when we were home.

Happy Thanksgivig

We had a great Thanksgiving today with our family of friends. We had an exquisite feast including deep fried turkey, ham, yams, green bean casserole, rolls, fresh cranberries, delicious salad, sausage stuffing and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Dessert involved homenade apple pie and homemade pumpkin pie with fresh whipping cream. This is the first year since getting pregnant that I ate the turkey (yay for deep frying)!!
I am excited about leftovers tomorrow.
I intended to take lots of
pictures today but didn't. Cooper enjoued a movie marathon with his movie buddy Angie.

Bedroom

We are slowly transitioning from a family bed to Cooper sleeping in his bed in his room. We have had his bed on the floor in our room for the last few months and he has been sleeping in it every night. Typically he will wake up sometime in the middle of the night and climb in our bed for the remainder of the night. We have talked to him about sleeping in his room and he kept saying he would do that when he is 5 years old. Well Sunday we decided to go for it and we put his mattress on the floor in his room. It's a great spot under his loft and it doesn't take up that much space. He's slept in there twice so far. Monday night he told Sharon very seriously, "Mama, I think we should sleep the other night in your bed and the other night in my bed so Mommy won't be lonely." Mondays I have band practice so I wasn't home when he went to sleep. Monday he slept with us and Tuesday he slept in his bed until 3:30 am. Tonight he is in our bed. We are doing this slowly and it is working for us. I have found that I don't sleep if Sharon is home and not in the bed (Sunday night she slept for half the night with Cooper in his bed). I also found that I can't sleep too well when Cooper isn't in our room. I woke up last night at 3:00 because I thought I needed to check on him. I ended up not checking on him and he woke up thirty minutes later to pee. We are having Riley sleep with him because we know she would bark if something happened. Riley is not too happy about this arrangement, her herding instincts and desire for us to be all together are making her anxious. But she is doing it (well she can't leave his room because she won't walk through the hallway with the floor vents, so really we are trapping her in there :)

Funny Sayings

Cooper is hilarious lately. At Erin's the other day she and I were talking and I said, "if I were to ask Sharon today she would say no." Cooper, who was sitting next to me goes, "Then don't ask her Mommy." Oh my gosh we were laughing hard. Today we were watching Handy Manny and Sharon said, "I want Handy Manny to come finish our bathroom." Cooper said, "Mama you are Handy Manny." How cute, right. He constantly tells her she can't work or travel because she has to work on the bathroom. He is very concerned about the progress apparently.
Some other things he is saying. Today he had two separate playdates and Larkin was here. Larkin was coming outside with me and Cooper said (with his pouty look), "but then I won't have anyone to play with me." When Emory left this afternoon Cooper said (with an even poutier look), "Now no one is here to play with me."
He has never been especially sad to not have friends here and it's not like he was really playing great with Emory at the time but it is interesting to see/hear this commentary from him.
In other news, we had our first preschool parent/teacher conference this week. It was cool to hear the teacher's observations and go through the checklist. It is exciting that this is the start to his school life. I love the play-based model, the freedom it allows and the lack of pressure on academics at this age and I love his teacher!
We also had our first preschool playdate today at our house. We asked Cooper who he would like to invite over and he said Graham. So we had Graham and his Mama Kim over this morning and they had a great time together.

Bus Adventure

Libby and I took Cooper, Emory and Larkin to the airport on an adventure a couple weeks ago. We haven't had a bus adventure since this summer so Cooper and Larkin were super excited! Waiting for the bus.





We took the bus to the Max and the Max to the airport. We stopped at Target after the airport too. Cooper is getting excited about Christmas so he is checking out toys for his list. Libby and I took the boys on another adventure Thursday because there was no preschool. We went on a short adventure to a different toy store at the Clackamas Mall. The boys played for awhile and then we left to play at Emory's before swim class. In both toy store adventures, I didn't buy anything! This is huge for me because I am a consumer. Cooper is also doing really well and isn't ask me to buy him anything. We are continuing to add to his Christmas/birthday list.

Pics from the week

iPhone pics from the week.

I parent helped on Tuesday and saw Cooper in numerous dress up outfits. Some of the girls were being cats so Cooper joined in too.



Picture of the tail.


Mama came home from Montana late Friday, where she was sick the whole time. We all had a snuggle day today.

Cubby

The upstairs is perking up. We started work on it again and I now have a finished cubby for storage! I started moving things in there today and we also set things aside to sell or donate. Cooper loves being upstairs, he has toys up there " in roatation" and he enjoys rediscovering them while Mama works. He also loves the new storage space. He spent a lot of time in there with Mama while she was finishing it.
We have two more attic areas that Sharon is going to finish for storage and I am super excited!
The only downside to all this work is the debris floating around the house and the excess garbage/recycling.

Yay productive weekend!

Fire Station Field Trip

Cooper's preschool went to the fire station near our house this morning for a field trip. We all arrived and the ambulance got a call so they left. Within a couple minutes the firefighters got a call and they had to leave too. Teacher Anette did a brief tour, we looked at the kitchen, living room and the sleeping areas.
We took pictures of the class by the fire truck that was still at the station then carvanned back to school.




While the kids were back at school I went back to the fire station to pick up fire hats, stickers and activity books the firefighters had for the class. They called another fire station and had a rig drive to the preschool so the kids could see the truck, hoses and gear. The kids got to climb in the truck too.

Cooper climbing through the rig.

Pumpkin Patch

We had our first field trip with Cooper's preschool this morning. We went to Farmer Anne's, Gales Creek Meadow Farm to pick pumpkins. The preschool goes to Farmer Anne's every May and plants pumpkin seeds and then in the fall they come to pick the pumpkins. It's pretty awesome, we had a great time tooling around the farm and then had a potluck with the preschool families from both the two-day and three-day class.

We found lots of snakes in the compost piles, three gardener snakes and one rubber boa snake. There were grasshoppers, woolly caterpillars, a rescued goose and roosters. Cooper loved the snakes, he and another girl took turns holding them and she actually caught one and was so proud. Sharon was also catching them for the kids.

It was great fun and the weather was awesome, sunny skies.

More Pictures

Alexander and Adam loved the sandbox in the backyard. Alexander asked to "go outside and play in sandbox" at least three times a day. He loved it!

 Kristen and Sonya

 Adam playing in the house.

Visit Recap

Here are some more pictures of our visit with Auntie Sonya, Auntie (CuzAunt) Kristen, Cousin Alexander and Adam. Sonya, Kristen and I love to shop, especially together so we went to the Outlet Mall and Sharon watched the two older boys. We did all of the kids shopping and were exhausted by the time we could do adult shopping. Next time we are going to get babysitters.

We went to the Zoo on Saturday and had an excellent time. It was pretty crowded because it was a nice, sunny day. We took the zoo train first and then looked at the animals.

We saw the baby caracals, so cute!

Adam walking with Grandma

Cooper and Alexander on the tractor.

Mountain lion hanging out.

Cooper and Alexander running around mall chasing each other.

 Sharon with the two boys.

Sharon with all three.

The end of the shopping trip, everyone is exhausted!

Those boys ran us ragged, we were all wiped out by the end of the visit.

Wrestling

The cousins also enjoy wrestling with each other.

Dancing Cousins

We had early movie night tonight and Cooper and Alexander did some dancing. It is hard to get them to stand still.

Full House

We have Auntie Sonya, Auntie Kristen, Cousins Alexander (2.5) and Adam (1) visiting this week. They have been here two days and we are having a blast. Yesterday, Cooper had preschool and then we hit one of Portland's many play cafes. Today we went to the Children's Museum. It was fun and exhausting to keep track of everybody! Tomorrow is supposed to be nice so we are going to the Zoo and Sunday we are hitting the outlet mall. Cooper and Alexander are playing well together with a few physical altercations here and there.
Here are some pictures of the last two days.

Drawing

The picture on the left is what Cooper drew recently. This is Cooper, the bottom circle is his belly button and the top is his special spot. The picture on the right Cooper also drew and Sharon helped finish with the eye and other effects.

One year photos

I finally finished Cooper's photo frame of his first year.