Easter Fun

Easter celebrations started Friday night for Cooper, coloring eggs with Chelsey, Ellie, Bryt and Liz while Mom and Dad went on a date. He clearly enjoyed it!

Saturday morning Cooper and Ellie had an egg hunt (it was too wet outside, so the bunny hid them in the house). Cooper was interested a first in finding the eggs....

...until he discovered what was inside. Candy! Then he just wanted to sit and open them, forget about finding more.

He continued to dump his loot.

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny dropped off a few things.

Sunday afternoon Aunt Denise and Uncle Jim came for dinner and a nice visit. Cooper and Aunt Denise tried in vain to catch some bugs in his new net and bug cage. Apparently right now our yard is pretty bug free!

So they went out front to play with Easter eggs and enjoy the beautiful Easter weather.

It was such a fun day! After our guests left, Cooper decided it was time to rock out with his new guitar before bed.

Cooper 19 Months

Cooper turned 19 months old today. His most favorite thing to do is play outside. I think he'd stay outside all day if we let him. He begs to go outside, and verbalizes that word very well.He is in the throes of separation anxiety, normal for toddlers to go through, but still not easy on any of us. He screams and cries for me at night if anyone but me puts him to bed. Leaving for work in the morning is getting harder and harder on both of us. Thank goodness the light is at the end of that tunnel...6 more months or so.
Cooper loves our dog, Brody, and has finally learned how to pet nicely without giving Brody an anxiety attack. Brody is learning that Cooper can now give affection, not just toddler abuse.

The other night I was putting Cooper to bed, and two things happened that were significant to me, so I'd like to get them written down. First, we were having his bedtime prayers, and he started repeating the last word of every phrase. If we tell him it's time for a prayer, he will fold his arms for about 20 seconds. He hasn't yet mastered closing eyes AND folding arms. It's one or the other with him. :o)

The other significant thing that happened was that I felt like I had my first real conversation with him where he brought up a subject, and we discussed it in a back and forth dialogue. We were sitting in the rocking chair, looking out the window at dusk. He was calm and quiet, when suddenly he worriedly shouted, ".... (elipses being severl words I couldn't decipher)...bee!" "Mommy! Bee!" "Mommy, bee sting!" Knowing that earlier that day there had been a bee in the house, and his cousin, Ellie, had been very worried about it, I understood that he had picked up on her concern, which she shared with me as "something very important to tell you" when I got home from work that day.

Understanding where this was coming from, I validated his fear, "Cooper, I know there was a bee in the house today. Were you worried it was going to sting you?"

"Bee sting!"

"Yes, sometimes bees get mad and sting. But not usually. They just buzz around looking for food to take home. All the bees have gone night-night now at their beehive house. There are no more bees to worry about today."

He gave me a look of relief. "Bees all gone?"

"Yes, Cooper, bees all gone."

"Oh. Bees all gone."

That was the end of our first little conversation, after which he fell asleep a few minutes later.

Cooper Potpourri

Here are a few videos of Cooper in the last couple of weeks:

Watering the plants & singing ABCs:

One Saturday I was coming home from running errands. I'd forgotten to pack a lunch for Coop, and so stopped and bought him a turkey sandwich from Subway, giving it to him in the car in the hopes of keeping him awake long enough to eat. I didn't want him falling asleep hungry and not taking a full nap. Oh, that was my first mistake. No sooner had I started driving, I looked in the back seat, and Coop had taken the sandwich apart: turkey was on his lap, one side of bread was mayo side down on his shirt, and he was happily eating the mustard side of bread while clasping it, and squishing the mustard through his fist. Oh mom--big mistake! But it was too late. The damage was done, and at least he was awake, right? :o/

It was raining. As soon as we got home, he wanted to play in the rain. So I let him. Here he is, and from the story above, now you'll understand what all the yellow stuff is on his face as I get close to him at the end. ;o)

Cooper Exploring the Yard

Cooper and I had a chance to enjoy being outside one evening a few weeks ago. You can get a little glimpse of the way he's starting to talk.

Cooper 18 Months

Cooper turned 18 months about 2 weeks ago.

I just love this picture of him.

Stats:

Weight 25.2 lbs. (45th %)

Height 32 inches (45th %)

Head: 20.25 inches (95%)

His head finally came back on the chart!

Latest Cooper-isms:

• Talking is coming along. He says new words nearly every day now.
• He is obsessed with rotary fans, be it the ceiling or free-standing variety. He loves to turn them on and off, on and off, talk into them, and tell you how they go round and round (as he does the hand motions).
• He sings his own version of the ABC's, which he only gets the first 4 letters audibly correct, but you can hear the rest of it are his versions of letters. He recognizes that letters and words exist, but mistakes numbers for letters. When he sees that something is a letter or number, he proudly pronounces, "ABC!" I have been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get the ABC song on video.
• He also sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, " which you can tell by the phrasing, not the words. Same thing with "Baa, Baa Black Sheep," which is distinguished from "Twinkle, Twinkle" by the occasional "Baa, Baa" sound.
• Cooper and Chelsey recently made a cat face out of paper, with the eyes cut out, and pasted on a popsicle stick. When it is held up to his face, him looking through the eye cut-outs, he'll say, "Meow." Gets me every time. Today he made 5 little ducks and was trying to sing me the "Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play" song.
• He is big into singing songs with corresponding hand motions like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Wheels on the Bus," and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree."
• His favorite book to read is "I'm a Little Teapot" and loves to tip the book at the appropriate time.
• His most favorite thing to read at bed time and naps is a magazine I have that shows what games to play with your baby at appropriate ages. Nearly every page has pictures of babies, and he loves to "read" it by looking at the pictures and talking about what each baby is doing. The thing has been read so many times that the cover has come off (with a little help from Cooper ripping it), and it's becoming rather worn.
• His favorite food is either ketchup or ranch dressing. He won't actually eat the food item being dipped, but will rather lick all the ketchup/ranch off the food item and re-dip until said dip runs out, and then screams for more, which word he has no trouble saying repeatedly. He also loves popsicles and yogurt, but insists on feeding himself with no help. Imagine the mess involved with self-feeding of yogurt.

Sometimes he seems so big. He looks like a little kid here rather than a toddler. He was proud of himself for standing on the counter top...

...and ecstatic to dance on it.

A treat for the cleaning crew

I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body. Tonight takes the cake as the epitomy of my absent-mindedness. And it's SO embarrassing!

This last Monday I took leftovers to work for lunch, which is AMAZING for me. I either never have leftovers to take (thank you husband with large appetite), or I don't have time in the morning (or evening) to put something together. I feel frazzled ALL THE TIME!

So I was SO proud of myself for taking leftovers on a Monday morning. I didn't have time to pack small portions of salad dressing for my salad or sour cream for my baked potato, so I just put the whole containers in a bag and took it to work with my tupperware of food.

Monday night...forgot to bring tupperware, salad dressing and sour cream home. Only remembered when I went to eat salad at dinner and had no salad dressing.

Tuesday night remembered it as we had tacos for dinner and I wished I had sour cream.

Wednesday night...didn't even cross my mind.

Enter Thursday. For some reason I suddenly remembered at like 10 in the morning that I had stuff in the fridge that I needed to take home. So I proptly wrote "take lunch stuff home" on a bright sticky note and stuck it to the handle of my laptop bag. Couldn't miss it when getting ready to leave. I was so proud of myself for finally getting it together enough to remember. I carried the post-it with me to the fridge on my way out of the office, grabbed the bag out of the fridge and threw away the post-it note. Apparently that was a little too soon. I should have stuck it to my forehead.

So I'm on my way out the door and thinking of the heavy traffic I'm sure to encounter leaving the office at 5:45 pm, I make a pit stop in the ladies room. Set down laptop bag, purse, keys, cell phone, and lunch leftovers.

I had a crazy night, picking up Coop at 6:30, leaving there at 6:45, and heading straight to Wal-Mart to do my bi-weekly shopping since I'll not be able to do it tomorrow night or Saturday. Get home from Wal-Mart with over-tired toddler at 8:00. Unload groceries. Sit down to grab a quick bite to eat, want some salad, and...suddenly remember lunch leftovers supposedly still in the trunk of the car. But why didn't I see the bag when unloading groceries or getting my laptop bag?

Because I left the bag sitting on the counter in the ladies room. So much for the post-it note. A lot of good that did.

Beep Beep, Bye Bye!

I took this video about a month ago one morning before work. I found Cooper in the kitchen with my keys. What a silly kid!