And Now It's Time For.......

.........Fun Phrases with Cooper!

Cooper's vocabulary is growing everyday. It's incredible (and scary) how he can already repeat so many of the things we say. I may need to take a second look at my vocabulary. In general, it's pretty tame. Although there is the rare, occasional, all too frequent utterance of "fart" or "crap". Yup, gonna have to work on that! Here's a few of his new developments.

1.  I've mentioned before that Cooper knows what a monster says. Now he knows what a train says - Coo Coo. The "ch" sound is one he hasn't quite mastered yet. He has no idea what a dog, cat or cow says.....but monster and train......that he knows!

2.  His new favorite word is Elmo. He has one Elmo DVD and has watched a few YouTube videos.  He loves  this YouTube video. After watching this, he started saying "abc." So CUTE!

3.  Cooper loves to sing. Anytime we listen to music or sing a simple song, he loves to repeat the sounds. If there is an "Oh, oh, oh" or "Ooooooo" he loves to sing it back to you.

4. This one might be more sad than cute. When I walked in this evening with Little Caesar's for dinner, he pointed at the box and said, "Pizza!" Mom fail.

5. He is working hard at mastering please and thank you. Babies with manners are even cuter than regular babies.

6. Daddy worked very hard to get him to say, "Love you" for Mother's Day. Didn't quite get there, but it was cute watch Daddy try.

7. After watching a few minutes of a DVR'd episode of Sesame Street about bubbles, he pointed to the TV and said bubbles, plain as day!

8. Cooper is observant like his daddy. When we are outside (which we are a lot - the boy LOVES to be outside) he points out and names the birds.

9. Go, up, down......the boy is always on the move!

10. Night, night. Love that one, especially when it comes with a slobbery kiss!

Pulmicort, Augmentin, and Dimetapp, OH MY!!!

Cooper went to the doctor today. After several days of green snot and a worsening cough, he woke up this morning with his left eye draining green goo of its own. He has an ear infection, allergies are awful and he was wheezing even after an albuterol breathing treatment. So we started on Augmentin, Dimetapp and Pulmicort.  The Pulmicort has turned my sweet little boy into a crazy wild animal. So I am blogging tonight to remind myself of reasons why I shouldn't just turn him loose in the backyard.

1. He is walking everywhere at ever-increasing rates of speed. CUTE!

2. He is saying so many new words! Truck, raisin, eat - he is already starting to repeat us. YIKES! He sometimes repeats us in a whisper like Brick on The Middle. Teeheehee!

3. When you ask, "Cooper, where's your nose?" he points to his nose (or sticks his finger IN his nose) and says "Nose."

4. He sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating. Just like his daddy.

5. He has learned to wink. Ok, not really, but when you wink at him he closes both eyes REALLY tightly! It's awesome! Hopefully I'll get a picture of that to share soon.

6. He's utterly adorable, just like his daddy. Daddy is patiently trying to convince Cooper that sleep is not in fact pure evil. Bless that man!

7. His chubby cheeks - they are the best! I love the way the squish when I kiss 'em!

8. We have been praticing the names of kids in his class at school. Of course the girls' names he got immediately. We're still working on the boys.

9. Cooper loves his dump trucks. He has several, most of which I have no idea where they came from. We find them all over the house, usually with something in the back ready for dumping.

10. I just love him. Even when he is crazy and wild and that temper is grating on my very. last. nerve. I love him. He is the most amazing thing, ever.

14 Months!!!

Cooper is 14 months old today! Can't believe how fast he's growing. Apparently making lists is the hottest thing in blogging. Click here or here for evidence.  I'm not lazy, just.....trendy. So here goes!

1. Cooper is walking! Still prefers to crawl because it is much faster, but he can do it. Yeah!!!

2. He is a genius. Tonight we had to run a few errands. We got home from Target and sat down in the living room. Cooper looked at his daddy and signed "bath". He knew it was time even with all the craziness of the evening. Genius!

3. He also loves lining up his bath buddies.......and then pushing them over the edge.

4. He is so funny. Last night he wore new monster PJs (he recognized immediately that they were different and had to look them over carefully). He starting pointing at the monsters on his pants and saying, "Rawr." How funny is he? So he doesn't know what a dog says, but monsters he good with. Haha!

5.Cooper now has 6 teeth. He has been a pretty easy teether - fingers crossed, knock on wood, pray to Jesus that continues. He is still getting used to all the chompers in his mouth which causes him to make super cute faces!

6. He has learned how to say "light" and enjoys pointing them out everywhere we go.

7. He LOVES playing outside. He cried and cried yesterday while we were trying to get him to eat dinner because he wanted to go "ah id."

8. Tanner has a basketball that he keeps on a shelf in the garage when not in use. Every morning when we are getting loaded up to go to school. He MUST see the ball. He will lean as far as small-humanly possible to see around me so he can get a glimpse of the ball.

9. Cooper is developing quite a temper. I would love to blame this on his daddy, but if you know us at all, you know Tanner is one of the most even-tempered people on Earth.

10. The boy loves bananas. Seriously - he would eat six a day.

11. He got stacking cups for Christmas and has played with them almost everyday since. We know it's time for bed when he starts getting angry and throwing the cups over his head because the orange one just...will...not fit inside the purple one. Told you he has a temper.

12.  He loves his blue blankets and his puppy. They are soft, silky lovies. His eyes light up and his thumb instantly goes in his mouth when he sees one of them.

  

13.  He thinks his Cooper Bear is pretty fun.  It's the bear that goes with the book about a cute little bear who goes on all sorts of adventures. When you say certain lines of the story, Cooper Bear pipes in with little something. My favorite is when you say, "Coooper, I love you," Cooper Bear says, "I love you, too."

  

14. Cooper loves his mommy! And I love him more than I ever knew I could love anyone.



Easter Egg Hunt!

Cooper went to his very first Easter Egg Hunt today. We had lots of fun finding eggs and meeting the Easter Bunny and his friends.   We finally got pictures of him standing up by himself (woohoo)!  He loved putting his Easter eggs in his bag, but I think he liked taking them back out and throwing them on the ground even more!

Cooper's Birthday Video

Be warned, parts of this are a little tough to watch, but it's all just part of our journey.

Playing in the Dirt

Not much to report today. Cooper helped his daddy out in the yard today. 

He had lots of fun; he's such a BOY!  He only ate a little dirt. 

Breakfast and Weeds

Since the move to the Big Kid class at school, I've been feeding Cooper breakfast at home in the morning. While he chows down on oatmeal, yogurt, Cheerios, steak......ok maybe not steak, but about anything else within arms reach......we look out the window of the dining room.  From there, we can see into the backyard. Usually the dog is outside running around so we get to practice saying "dog".  He loves watching the trees blow in the wind and looking at the sky/clouds/rain. This past weekend, Tanner mowed our backyard in anticipation of having our yard sprayed for weeds. Since it has done pretty much nothing but rain since then, the weeds are going crazy again.

This morning, I couldn't help but notice that the weeds are growing like, well, weeds. But the grass is taking it's sweet time greening up and growing. It got me thinking about the my own personal growth. It's amazing how the bad habits in my life spring up and grow, with no attention or care whatsoever.  They can easily weave their way into every area of life choking out all the little sprouts around it. The good habits (few though they may be) have taken time, and tending. I have had to prune things from my list that were less important. While this may seem painful in the moment, I can see how cutting the unnecessary has left opportunity for the essential. 

What in your life needs to be pruned away in order to let light reach the shadowed soil below?  What amazing things does God want to grow in your life? What is being choked out by the weeds?

Hope you are enjoying all that spring has to offer!