Running, Running

Coop has been singing this song for a few weeks. One he learned at school.

[to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"]
Marching, marching, marching, marching.
Hop, hop, hop.
Hop, hop, hop.
Running, running, running.
Running, running, running.
Now we stop. Now we stop.

Finally caught it on video, except he skips the hopping this time (taken with my phone, so quality is not great).



Also, of note on the subject of running, we had some friends over Sunday afternoon for a get together. They had kids near Cooper's age, and the kids wandered upstairs to play with the toys. Coop had never had friends play in his room before. When I went to check on them a few minutes later, Coop was running around the room with a big grin saying over and over again, "Friends over! Friends over!" What a joy he is.

My Thoughts on Being a Mom

Lately things at work have been going really well. Tonight at dinner, Nate and I were talking about my career and how it seems to be on the verge of a major breakthrough. I'm just steps away from some kind of promotion or something. It's not been without effort, lots of stress, and lots of hours. I've always thrown myself in to my work with full dedication. I've not ever had a job that I've thought of as "just a paycheck." I attribute this work ethic to my parents, and to growing up working for my Dad. It's been a blessing in my career, and always pays off.
I love my job. LOVE it. Sure, there are frustrating, stressful things about it, but I enjoy going to work every day. How many people get to say that, especially about an office job? I sit and analyze reports and numbers every day, telling people when I see a project about to lose money, or where we can make more money, and managing the financials for all kinds of engineering/planning projects. I love that I get to use my mind every day. Most days my work is like number mysteries that I get to research and resolve, both things bring me satisfaction--the research and finding solutions. The only aspect of my current job I don't particularly enjoy is managing people. Employee personal drama is not something I enjoy dealing with. Even the corporate politics, while sometimes annoying, don't really bother me. It's like a game sometimes, and knowing the right players and the right steps makes it fun. The other aspect I enjoy is teaching/training others how to do a job. I enjoy teaching someone a skill, and then seeing them do well. All these things give me a sense of fulfilment, as far as work is concerned.
All this is well and good, but tonight as Nathan and I discussed some things that are going really well with my career, it may seem tempting to some to stick with it and gain a great career out of it. There are many opportunities just around the corner if I continue down this path. BUT...
As I was home with my sick child this last Monday, having to take the full day off work, even though he was sick, I really enjoyed it. While somethings were not as fulfilling as they can be in the office setting, and my child doesn't give me recognition for the things I do in the same way I get recognition at work, I found that day to be one of the best I've had in a long time. So while my career is at the cusp of something great (for me anyway), I can actually say I'm ready to quit and be a full-time mom.
Now I know staying home full-time is not as romantic as it sounds. I know that it's tiring work, without a nice hour-long lunch break to myself every day, and that it's also round the clock. I know that there will be days that I'll wonder to myself, "Why did I choose this?" But feel deep down that there is no greater purpose in life, no greater thing I can accomplish, than to mother and raise my own kids. I find such joy and fulfillment in being a mother.
So soon I'll put my career on the back burner, knowing full well that it means that I'll probably be 45 or 50 before I'm back where I am currently on the career ladder, and may never achieve in my career what I could if I stayed working full-time. But I choose my son. I can't wait to quit. Not something I'll probably ever say about anything else in my life. I've never been a quitter, but this is the one thing I'll quit. A million times I'd choose him. Whole-heartedly.
So future self, remember this on those days when you ask, "Why did I choose this?".

Cooper 23 Months

Today Cooper turned 23 months. It's hard to remember life without this little guy in our lives. Milestones of the last month:

• Talking, talking, and talking! Coop can say just about anything now, and talks in complete 3-5 word sentences. The other day when I took him to the doctor, the doctor asked why we were there, and Coop matter of factly said, "My ear hurts." My favorite, though, is that he calls himself, "Pootah." I gotta get it on video before he outgrows it!!!


• Counting: Coop has learned to count. Usually it's "One, two, one, two..." but the other day he totally surprised me when he pulled the big spoons out of the drawer, and counted them back in, one through eight, without any mistakes. I didn't even know he knew how to count past 5! Thank you preschool. Here's a picture of Coop last week, sent to me by Coop's school. He was sick, so he looks a little out of it, but since I have time tonight to blog, and who knows how long it'll be before I can get back on here, this is the picture of him we get to use. :o)


• Coop has also learned to identify letters, not particular letters yet, but when he sees letters he's sure to shout, "ABCs!" He can sometimes identify A and O, but that's about it.


• Coop loves to sing in the car, and sings to himself often. He most often sings "Are You Sleeping, " either the English or French version. Not sure why this is his song of choice, but he loves it. He can also sing several other songs from beginning to end by himself: ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, etc.


• Cooper has developed fears. He's suddenly very afraid of some things, the worst being thunder. We've had so many thunder storms this summer that now when it starts to get dark every night, Cooper thinks a storm is coming and runs to my side shouting, "Thunda! Thunda!" and sticks to my side until it's time to go to bed. He also does this when he hears any kind of rumble, like Dad walking around upstairs. He'll even wake in the middle of the night crying because he thinks he hears thunder. This has been going on for several weeks now. Poor kiddo.


• Coop loves to play with his cars and trucks. They are his favorite toys right now.


• Daddy has taught Cooper to play catch, and kick a ball. He also has a pretty good throw!


• Gone are the chubby baby days; Coop is growing a little taller, and is losing his baby fat. He's a trim and slim, muscular little guy. He's got arm definition I envy, and is getting so slim that many of his pants and shorts fall off. His chest is wide and full, so some shirts are too small while corresponding pants/shorts are too big.


• He can drink well from a cup without spilling. Spills are usually intentional dumps on the floor or spitting of water, which he thinks is great fun, even if Mom gets upset.


• Lastly, he's got a full set of teeth, having all four 2-year molars come in within the last two months.

We love The Coop!

Lazy 5 Ranch

Two weeks ago we went to a petting zoo not far away, called the Lazy 5 Ranch. Cooper LOVED it. First off were the camels, goats and cows. He was fascinated with the camels and just stared at them in silence.You could feed the animals, and the camels put their mouths around the fence holes like this, waiting for people to dump feed in. It was hilarious.
This place was full of spectacular landscaping for different animal habitats. I was amazed with all the exotic plants, and admiring the landscaping. Nate said, "Only a landscape architect's daughter." :o) I couldn't resist one picture of these giant lily pads in the pond. The flowers were as tall as me!

I loved this Weeping Willow tree, but love the two guys underneath it even more!

While Daddy got us lunch, Cooper had fun with these balloons.

And he LOVED the swings!

After lunch we went for a drive through the zoo. At this zoo you get to either drive your own car through, or go on a wagon ride pulled by huge horses. We opted to drive our own car, and for much of the time Coop was more interested in "driving" than the animals coming up to the car for food. Here's a llama, and Cooper looking not at the llama, but at the dashboard and all the BUTTONS.We got to feed and pet llamas, emus, ostriches, deer, elk, and pot bellied pigs from the comfort of our own car. They'd come right up to the windows and wait for the bucket of feed. The emus and ostriches freaked me out. Their beady little eyes make them look a little psycho and unpredictable. Most of the pot bellied pigs were either pregnant or just had babies so there were lots of tiny little piglets running around, some barely bigger than my hand. Coop thought they were "tute."

There were also other animals we got to view close up, but not feed: zebras, water buffalo, bison, yaks, and I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

They had a baby giraffe just born in May. Cooper said, "baby gaff!"

The most fun we had was Cooper and I standing up through the sun roof to see the giraffes, while Daddy reached up to feed one. This place is definitely worth future visits!

[We didn't buy any souvenirs, but Coop brought home a free one--pink eye. Guess the animals shared their germs and mom didn't wash Coop's hands fast/thoroughly enough. The pink eye turned into a sinus infection, which turned into a 102.5 fever a week later, and double ear infections. Thank you petting zoo.] But we still had fun!!!

You Give Me the Creeps

Living in the South is ruining me. I used to love being outdoors, love gardening, love camping. In the South, maybe not so much. It's the creepy-crawly things here that are getting to me; the ones with six legs or more. Just can't stand them.
I am not humane when I find one. I'll kill a spider so fast you can't even blink first. Well, that is if my husband is not around to enlist in the job for me. And I also have a squish limit. If the bug/spider is so big that it's going to feel squishy when smashed, then I have a REALLY hard time being the assassin.
Growing up in Utah in a well-landscaped yard next to a river and a bunch of foresty trees and bushes, I'm not unaccustomed to spiders and bugs. Don't get me wrong, I have encountered some pretty big spiders in my parents' house. The very worst was the occasional black widow, which I either killed with a flathead shovel, or got my dad to do it. Other bugs were there but nothing more than squishable annoyances.
But the spiders and insects in the South are an entirely new experience. Even after living here for 4 years, I still am not used to it. Our first apartment in Atlanta was well treated with pest control at least monthly. I loved living there for that reason. We lived on the 2nd floor, and so didn't have many pests. We did get a lot of ants when the ground water drove them up through the drains. The worst I encountered there were centipedes, or whatever those million-legged things are that move so fast they must be related to the roach family. Gosh, I hate those things, and we did have a lot of them.
By the time we moved to the Atlanta burbs, I was used to the centipedes. But moving to a house with a backyard next to a ravine, my true Southern bug experience had only begun. Enter spiders. Our yard in Smyrna had spiders with bodies as big as my thumb from mid-knuckle to tip. Those things were HUGE. Along with huge spiders come huge webs. We had a few webs 3-4 FEET in diameter in our front yard once. They were so big, I think they put "Charlotte's Web" to shame. The front of our house was covered with cobwebs in the fall and spring. I couldn't keep them cleared. After first seeing those big spiders, it was really hard for me to be outside in our yard without being totally freaked out.
That house in Smyrna also brought my first encounter with cockroaches. Even in the dumps I lived in in Boston, I never had roaches. Maybe it's too cold there. Roaches in Utah are something that only really old or really dirty houses have, as far as my experience goes. But in the South, even the cleanest of houses can have roaches. I HATE a cockroach more than I hate a spider. At least you can usually catch/kill spiders. Roaches are indestructable and run so fast that you're not likely to be able to attempt a kill, nor do they respond to household pesticides. That house in Smyrna was riddled with roaches. We had a few 1-1/2 to 2 inches long. Big suckers. I was so glad to move.
Our town house in Charlotte was much better. For awhile. One night in October when Nate was about to go to bed, he saw something scurrying across the floor. He thought it was a mouse. But NOOOOOOO...
I can hardly look at that picture. He woke me up to show me the spider he'd caught. He admits that he was a little freaked out too. That spider, as you can see, was the size of a quarter. And all those little brown spots near it are teeny tiny baby spiders that ran off the body of the big one when Nate put the glass over it. Nate vacuumed it up. I made him put the vacuum outside, and didn't use it for 2 weeks. I could hardly step foot in the room for days afterward, didn't play on the floor for weeks, and didn't drink out of that glass for nearly six months. That glass was dubbed "the spider glass" by me and my sister.
That house also introduced me fire ants. I don't know the real reason they're called that, but I say it's because they bite the fire out of you. I got caught in some a few weeks ago standing at the ATM. Didn't notice until it was too late. Hate those things.
Also discovered in Charlotte that there is a kind of hornet/bee that digs holes in the ground. Yup. Nate didn't believe me and my sister when we told him the backyard was swarming with bees that lived in the ground. He thought they were eating the ants. Turned out it wasn't ant hills after all, but bee holes all over the lawn. Thank goodness they only lasted about a month in the spring and then were gone.
That bring us to our current house. I should have known that living in the country with a backyard next to a forest would bring bugs with it. Yet again I have a hard time enjoying being outside. A few weeks ago I was watering the flowers in the front yard when Cooper came running, "Mommy! Bug! BIG Bug!!! and ran toward the garage. He was right. This is the bug he'd found.
I'd only ever seen beetles that size before in museums. Ugh. It had started again.
This house is FULL of spiders all day long. I'm so used to killing spiders that I'll even kill the tiny ones with my bare fingers. But nothing prepared me for the suprise invaders I found in my coat closet today. I was happily sweeping the floor in prep for mopping, and decided the walk-in closet in the kitchen/dining area needed to be included in the cleaning. Coop had just eaten raisins, and I'd swept up a few. But I wondered how raisins had gotten in the back of the closet. Then I thought, "Oh, it's dog food." Then...it moved... and moved so fast it could only be one thing....
My only recourse is going to be arming myself with rubber gloves and the vacuum. But where there is one, there are many.
I think it's time to move...
far, far away from the South and these bugs.
And I'm certainly never moving to Texas.
P.S. Thought this blog would help me feel better. It didn't.

The Shack - July 2011 - Fun with Mom & Dad

Last but not least, Nathan and I also got to have some fun at Cape Cod this year. Although, this first picture is not the one to show it. Notice Nate is not smiling, and my smile is a bit forced. That'd be because we'd been wrestling the little guy in the middle for about 90 minutes at our favorite restaurant. We loved being out with family, but on the way home we had that, "Why do we bother trying to eat out?" conversation. I recall some comment like, "Never again until he's at least 4!" Not like that lasted more than a couple of days. Guess we had enough fun to try, try again.At least the rest of the family was able to enjoy their meal.I had fun watching Cooper color his picture for the coloring contest.

One night the twins had some kind of face paint, and painted the faces of all those who were good enough sports. Mine was a curly, red moustache.

Cooper and I were on the deck looking out at the water, enjoying the breeze and the view.Nate had fun socializing with his uncles and cousins (Coop took this picture).

We had a couple nights of Texas Hold 'Em. So fun!!!! 14-yr old Robert won the first night, and Uncle Tom won the second night.

Although I was out early on the first night due to some not soon to be forgotten bad advice from my dear husband, I did manage to take 3rd place the second night. I love playing games!

A trip to the Cape would not be complete without a trip to the Zooquarium! I mean, where else do you get to combine farm animals and sea life in one admittance? We HAD to take Cooper for his Zooquarium initiation.

The peacock put on a good show for us.

Coop was a little underwhelmed by the animals, and instead would have spent the entire time on this train playground, ringing the bell.

Ignore the really annoying kid prominent in this picture, and instead look for Coop's little head in the navy blue baseball cap, barely peeking over the top of the side of the train.

(Please don't let my kid ever be that annoying--he was telling us his whole life story!)

Coop loved going for a ride on the dolphin.

One day we attempted to take Coop mini-golfing. It was a miserably HUMID day, and Coop spent all his time running all over tarnation, wanting to play in all the water...yeah. Not ideal. We played nine holes and called it quits. But at least we got this cute picture out of it.

Lastly, we took a trip to the local park to blow off some steam while we at our ice cream from Smuggler's Ice Cream. This was Coop's favorite playground ride.

But this fun tri-cycle merry-go-round was a close second.

All in all, we enjoyed our week at the Cape. It was a little different this year not being able to do some of the things we usually love to do, since we have a 2-yr old in tow, but we still had a great time seeing family and doing lots of kid things for the first time. Hopefully to be repeated for many years to come...

The Shack - July 2011 - Beach Fun

Besides our trip to the beach at Isle of Palms, SC in May, this was Cooper's first time playing at the beach. He LOVES the water, and is such a little fish.

He also loved playing in the sand and carrying water to/from the ocean/bucket.

Cooper had lots of fun with family at the beach, including Aunt Denise. He loved pulling water into this water gun, and then shooting it onto the sand (or at unsuspecting family members). Thank goodness he didn't aim for any strangers.

James was kind to share his cool beach toys with Coop. Even Robert got in on the fun. Catherine and James had big turtle floatie for the water, which Cooper really enjoyed riding on as all of us adults stood out in the waist-deep water trying to cool off. It was a heat wave that week at the Cape, and the only respite was the cool water.

Coop even got to try boogie boarding for the first time!

I do have to say that this being the first time we've had Coop at the beach, and we got to be there for more than an hour, this is close to the most fun I've ever had at the beach. We had fun wading in the water, jumping and splashing. We showed Cooper the big crabs that were in the water, and then we helped him catch a whole bucket full of hermit crabs, some other kind of "bigger" crab, little tiny shrimp, snails, and such. I look forward to many, many more trips to the beach with this little guy!

The Shack - July 2011 - Nana & Grandpa

Nana and Grandpa Gunning were so nice to let us stay at their house all week when we were at the Cape. It was such a blessing to get so much one-on-one time with them. Cooper and Grandpa exploring the backyard.

Cooper LOVED their backyard, watching all the birds in their bird feeder, and playing with all the fun toys they had for him.

Cooper and Nana at The Shack

Uncle Jack Hayes, Uncle "Jack Mack," and Nana relaxing at The Shack
Cooper and Grandpa chillin' at The Shack

Every morning we'd sit out in Nana & Grandpa's screened porch to eat breakfast, visit, and read the paper. Cooper decided to help Grandpa read his morning paper.

There were a couple random shots on the camera from times when Cooper played with the camera. Most I deleted, but I loved this shot. Coop took a picture of his feet (and his beloved stuffed puppy) sitting on the couch at Nana's house.

The Shack - July 2011 - Cousins

The first day at The Shack Cooper was a little overwhelmed with all the cousins. He was so excited though to try to play with the big kids, and they were so good to include him.

Cooper meets James for the first time.

Watching Samantha...I want to do that!Ryan and Cooper just chillin'.Didn't get any pictures of Cooper and Stephen, so here's a picture of Ryan and Stephen together. Thanks, Denise, for the picture!

The kids had a coloring contest. Cooper won "The Most Beautiful Chaos Award" in the 0-2 yrs category. His is the top left.And here he is with his winnings--squirt guns!!!He had lots of fun playing squirt guns with James. They soaked each other by the end of the night!
Days later here's Coop again with a squirt gun.Have to tell a story about the Hawaiian shirt Cooper is wearing in the above picture. When I was about 16, my Aunt Kaylene was cleaning out some of her boys' old clothes. They used to take trips to Hawaii every year, and so she had lots of these little shirts for all ages. This was the smallest of the bunch, and I couldn't allow such a cute little shirt to be donated to charity. So I stowed it away with my other baby keepsakes from my Mom, hoping someday that I'd have a little boy who could wear it. Here it is 15 years later. How fun for Cooper to wear a shirt my cousins used to wear, said cousins being in their 20s now!

Just before this shot was taken, Cooper was leaning with his elbow on the doorway, hand up behind his head. It was the cutest little pose and I totally missed it. This one was still cute. He's watching those big kids again...
Cooper and the twins, Samantha and Elizabeth. The girls were so great, and Cooper LOVED hanging out with them. He especially loved the way Samantha doted on him.

Boys will always be boys...Cooper and James enjoyed running up and down the metal cellar doors, and jumping off the end onto the grass. They also enjoyed quite a bit of wrestling, laughing, and climbing on the couches.
Elizabeth, Catherine, Samantha ("The OMG Club") and Cooper. The girls all had bracelets that said "OMG," so they formed the OMG club. The OMG club had their secret hand shake, which they let Cooper in on.

Allison spent so much time with Cooper while we were at the Cape that he became quite attached to her. He loves his "Addy!"

At one of our favorite restaurants, Chapins, Cooper and Samantha were being goofy with noodles.

Cooper loves his cousins!