PP in Da Potty

Cooper's New Year's resolution is to be potty trained in 2010!!!!!!! Cooper has decided it's time. After a little setback a couple months ago when Mom thought we'd give it a whirl and let the lid of Coop's little potty slam shut on Coop's bum (Rookie Mom Mistake #7,056), he really wanted nothing to do with the whole pp-in-da-potty thing. But 2 days ago Dad thought he'd bring up the subject and Coop was all for it. Ohhhhhhh do we ever have a long way to go (patience, patience). The best part so far is how extremely excited and proud Coop is when we do the Hip-Hip-Hooray-4-PP-In-Da-potty dance. The look on Coop's proud face is priceless. No poops (just peeps) but I'm sure I'll be blogging all about Coop's first poop-in-da-potty as soon as it happens. And won't he be oh so proud someday that once again Mom has chosen to write all about it on the www?

Here's to a fabulous 2010! Happy New Year to all and to all a good peep!

UPDATE: The eagle has landed! Coopy Poopy'd in da potty for the first time on 12/31/09 at 5:47pm.

Ho Ho Ho!

Coop is having a blast with his Grandpa Toby and Oma Lis. He LOVES having so many playmates around the house to play with and teach him new things. He's even getting to test his baking skills. This is something he really hasn't experienced thanks to his Mom's lack of skills in the kitchen. It looks as though Coop and I can learn the joy of baking together. Oma Lis has taught us how to make linzer cookies and Christmas Stollen. Y.U.M.M.Y!!!!! New Holiday traditions.............

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family. Wishing we could partake in some holiday cheer with you all!!!

Smoky Mountain Christmas

Now that Dad is home and taking time off until NEXT YEAR, the Holidays are officially on! We decided to hit Dollywood. And at nighttime no less! Wow, we were livin'. Especially since we don't get out much at night. It was definitely a big deal. Coop got to stay up late, skipped his evening bath and had his very first hot chocolate. Now if that isn't livin', I don't know what is. Dollywood really does it up right for the Holidays. The park truly is amazing. Mark and I really had no interest in ever checking it out, but we're soooo happy we did this past fall. So much so that we bought a season's pass and have really put it to good use. It's a low-key, family friendly place full of Tennessee traditions and hillbilly happiness. I'm not so sure we'd dig it as much without having a little man to enjoy it with, but we are definitely DW converts.

We took a ride on The Dollywood Express ChooChoooooooo which was incredible. It's a real steam engine that made Cooper go bananas because he really digs trains these days. The train ride took us through the park and the surrounding hills while playing Christmas music. It felt like we were taking a ride on the Polar Express.

After the train ride we walked around the park to check out all the lights, fed the ducks and then Coop drove the mini cars which is his favorite ride. We ended the evening with DW's parade of lights. It was truly a fun night. I think I must have told Mark twenty times on the way home how much fun I had. Either we need to get out more, or it truly was a fun filled evening. Perhaps a combination of both, but a fun evening no matter how you slice it.

Here are some pics to prove it. Camera phone + nighttime + lots of movement = not the greatest pics in the world.........................

Parade of Lights

(Coop's not ashamed to wear Mom's pink scarf)

Dad and Coop

Is that who I think it is?????

Why yes. It is indeed..

The Meaning of Christmas

Dear Cooper,

In the spirit of the Holidays, I thought I’d take this opportunity to teach you one of the true meanings of Christmas. Well, not really because I think you might be a little young to fully understand the TRUE meaning but this is a close second. What I’m talking about here kiddo is ALMOND ROCA aka. Chocolate-Covered-Buttery-Sugary-Nut-Covered-Christmas-Miracle-That-Truly-Signifies-The-Love-Of-The-Birth-Of-Our-Sweet-Baby-Jesus! To simplify things, we’ll refer to it as Almond Roca.

You will learn over time that your Mother isn’t a very good cook but there is one thing I CAN make and it’s this thing called Roca that I speak of. Now this skill didn’t come about overnight. I learned from the best; your Great Grandmother Ruth. Your Grandma Linda and Grandpa Pat made sure her Roca making skills were appreciated and valued. Great Grandma Ruth was a Master Roca Maker (baker, or whatever you call a candy creator). I have so many fond memories of learning her craft over the holidays. She was my Mr. Miyagi, my Sensei if you will. She would stand over our shoulders as we stirred and instruct us on the proper techniques. ‘Stir, stir, stir, faster, faster, faster, figure eights, you must do figure eights, don’t stop…..are you going to let a little blister of hot molten butter stop you!?!’ She might not have been quite as brutal as I describe, but we knew Roca making was serious business. One mistake and the whole batch could go terribly, terribly wrong. There’s nothing worse than a ruined batch. It could darn near ruin Christmas if you allowed it to.

So Coop, I guarantee that you too will have the opportunity to carry on this family holiday tradition. Whether you chose to carry on the making part of the tradition is up to you, but I’m quite certain you’ll want to carry on the eating part of the tradition. In order to carry on the eating part, you’ll probably want to learn the making part (the two kind of go hand in hand). Someday you might ask: ‘Mom, why do we only make Almond Roca during the holidays? We should celebrate and enjoy the love of buttery-sugary-chocolatey goodness all year long.’ My answer to you will simply be: Yes Coop, my wise little buddy, you are absolutely correct but life is all about making sacrifices.

I hope you learn to love Almond Roca as much as the rest of your family and ancestors before you have. May your love of Almond Roca and the many other holiday traditions that come with it continue to blossom and flourish.

Love,
Mom

Grandpa Pat and I creating another Christmas Miracle

December '08

One of the many stages in the process

Voila! Ahhhh, Christmas can go on.

Skype ya Later

We love Skype! Thank goodness for computers. It has allowed us to stay in touch with Dad while he's in Seattle for what will be 2 weeks. We have a set date every morning before Mark heads off to class. Coop recognizes the catchy little ditty that plays when Skype rings on the computer. He runs right over and knows he gets to "see" Daddy. What a great way to fill Dad in on our day and blow him kisses. Here are some pics of our conversation from this morning. Coop is showing his Dad his new hat and mittens (which by the way, he now refuses to take off). I guess I should be glad that I have to fight him to take them off rather than struggle with him to put them on.

Mark using the cool animation feature to show Coop his 'Birbie'

(I think he's almost as excited to see the birdie as he is to see Dad)

Birbie......I mean DADDY!!!!!

Up close and personal

Hey Mom, could you give us a moment alone Paaaleeeeeassse?!?

Dad laughing at Coop attempting to take a swig of his drink with his mittens on.

Skype ya later Dad!

------------------

See how easy this is Grandma and Grandpa? (hint, hint). I think you'd like this better than windows messenger. Shall we set a date?

Have a Nice Trip

Cooper's 2nd Thanksgiving was mellow and relaxing. It was just the 5 of us (doggies included in the count--of course) and one tasty turkey. We enjoyed the weekend eating, spending time together, decorating the house for Christmas and being thankful for our little man Cooper.

Cooper is quite the traveler these days. He LOVES going on "trips". The travel bug started about the time I went on my trip to Puerto Rico. I get the feeling Dad and Coop must have discussed the fact that Mom was on a trip. Most of his travels consist of a trip around the couch, but he's beginning to branch out a bit. There's no need to apply for a passport or visa just yet as I don't think the couch has any special entry requirements to speak of.

Dad left on a trip of his own yesterday. He'll be in Seattle for the next 2 weeks. This video is for you Dad. We hope this helps fill your day with a little bit of the Coopster. We love you!!

Turkeys

What better time than the day before Thanksgiving to introduce you to Coop's Tu-EEEEs? He is cuckoo over these little guys. I must admit, I'm rather fond of them as well. Those of you who know me well are probably quite surprised that I would speak so fondly of anything pecky with feathers, but how can you not be excited about Turkeys running around in your yard? Coop L.O.V.E, loves birds. Period. That in itself warrants a post of its own because of the irony. Obviously, it skips a generation.

---------------

On a side note, I just googled "gaggle of turkeys" to find the term for group of turkeys, and the answer is: Rafter. Huh, who knew? There you have it. Now you're in the know.

---------------

Anywhoo, this "rafter of turkeys" roams throughout our neighborhood. I use the term neighborhood loosely because we don't have all that many neighbors close by. Therefore, the Turkeys really do feel like our neighbors and are a part of the 'hood. Truly, we see the turkeys more than most of our neighbors of the human variety.


Best of all, they entertain Cooper. If Coop is whiny and upset, we often pull the Turkey Card. All we have to do is ask, "Coop where are your Turkeys?"...."should we go find your Turkeys?" and he stops in his tracks, quits crying and runs for the front window to find them. As we drive down our driveway and road, Coop is always looking for his 'Tu--EEEs'. He even knows the sections where they like to hang out and calls for them at that time. Yes, it's true.....our kid is AMAZING :).


It's really cool when they grace us with their presence while we're in the front yard. Coop sees them and starts squealing like a giddy school girl. He loves them so. We've watched the little babies grow and now they're in the gangly teenager phase. Before you know it, they'll be graduating, running off to college and then getting married. I just hope their parents don't expect us to buy them a graduation gift :). Awkward.


I love that 'Tu-EEE' is part of Coop's growing vocabulary. It makes me smile. Not many toddlers say turkey on a daily basis (unless they've mastered the lyrics to Old MacDonald). Yet another memory that we will cherish and smile about forever. Here are some pics that really aren't that great. Funny, turkeys don't seem to like to pose for photo ops. And I never seem to have the camera handy when they're around.

From our front porch

Look closely to see turkey under the branches

Front yard

Now onto the lesson of explaining to Cooper about tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully, I don't think we'll have to broach the subject just yet. And for that, I am very THANKFUL.........

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us and our friendly neighbors!!!!

Ready, Set, Skip!

One of the books that Dolly sent Coop is called Ready, Set, Skip! (by Jane O'Oconnor). It really has helped Coop embrace the joy of SKIPPING. It's a work in progress and he manages to get better and better everyday. Here's a video of Coop demonstrating his skipping in its early stage. We'll continue to give updates on his mad skipping skills as they improve. Skipping is fun!!!!!!!! Skip on Coop, skip on......................

Coop's mission~To spread the joy of skipping across the world. He dares you to skip a little bit after you read this to post to brighten your day. I think he's onto something here. Everyone should have a little skip in their get-along.

Time for Swinging

Someone decided that they needed to swing as soon as they woke up this morning. It very quickly became a swinging emergency. Is there ever a bad time for swinging? According to Cooper, the answer would be NO WAY MAN, IT'S ALWAYS TIME FOR SWINGING. Swee, Swee, Swee, Swee, Swee. Everyone Swee. So, at 7am (and 40 degree temps) I bundled him up and made it happen.........

How Swee-t it is!

Wouldn't the world be a much better place if all we needed was a good Swee to make us happy?

New Do

Since I started this blog, I've made several references to the state of poor little Coop's hair. Well, we couldn't hold out any longer. Coop's mop needed SERIOUS attention. The do-it-yourself-snippity-snip-when-you-could-sneak-a-snip haircuts just weren't cuttin' it (ha, ha) any longer. I even debated purchasing a FlowBee after talking to my sister in law. She uses it on Cooper's cousin Pete and his hair is darling. I just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on the actual investment and finding a second hand deal on an As Seen on TV gadget is nearly impossible. I finally gave up on the Flowbee search but managed to keep on stalling on the task at hand; Cooper's poor hair. Here are some images I found that will help describe just how bad it was getting.......

Exhibit 1-The Billy Ray

We skirted around this by occasionally trimming the back when Coop would allow it. We couldn't keep the business on the side though. It was just too dangerous to try and trim the sides. So it was turning into a reverse mullet: business in the back and party on the sides.

Exhibit #2-The Donald

This one has been a tough one to avoid. Coop still has baby fine hair and it appears to be straight like his Mom's. As his hair grows on top, the temple region still hasn't quit filled in. Therefore, the girth on the top and center started to infiltrate the rest of his head giving him a serious comb over look. On a windy day, whoooooo watch out. It was bad news.

Exhibit #3-The Dumb and Dumber

This was another one that was getting almost impossible to avoid. Most of the attempts to fix Coop's hair were to avoid Exhibit #1 (#2 was pretty much getting unavoidable) but we were also getting into safety issues. Coop's poor bangs were becoming a hazard and unless we wanted to start investing in cute little hair clips, we had to start trimming the bangs. That left everything else pretty much all one length. The good old bowl cut was starting to form.

Exhibit #4-Really?

It was brought to my attention by my brother that my Dad actually compared sweet little Coop's hairdo to this guy's!!! If you haven't seen the movie No Country for Old Men, then I'll just tell you that this guy is a very, VERY mean man.

Apparently the conversation broke down a little something like this:

Dad - Have you seen Cooper's hair these days?

Ryan - Kind of I guess...just pictures though. Why, what's up?

Dad - They need to give that poor kid a haircut. He's kind of starting to look like a serial killer.

Of course, once Ryan spilled the beans, I immediately called my Dad and asked him if it was true. I love giving my Dad a hard time. I consider it pay back for all the years of putting up with his corniness. When asked, my dad said he didn't exactly say 'serial killer'....'I just said he kind of looks like that guy from NCFOM'. 'He did win the academy award didn't he?' 'That was a really good movie'....'Wasn't it a Coen brothers flick?' Nice try Dad. Way to back peddle.

That' s when I figured it was definitely time. So we took him to a "professional". He did great. We were anticipating tears, screaming and possibly having to quit mid cut. But none of that happened. He strutted right in with us, had a seat on my lap and let the nice lady make him look spiffy. She wasn't exactly Mrs. Personality but she seemed to know what she was doing and she got the job done. Yippee for a successful 1st REAL haircut.

Before Shot. Most resembling Exhibit #2-The Donald

After Shot. Looking spiffy.

This one's for you Grandpa Pat.
After Shot #2. Cat Walk
Work it. Work it.

Coop, you are just so darn cute and perfect no matter how your hair looks! Jeez, what's with all the drama about my hair? Can we just move on already?

Point taken. Moving on................

Pot Roast Anyone?....Anyone?

Ahhhhhh. Imagine the smell of savory pot roast slowly cooking in the oven while the family enjoys the beautiful fall day. Even better, an easy no watch recipe! Perhaps I shouldn't have taken the no watch part so literally? Poor, poor Cooper. There's nothing better than Mom's cooking. Right? Thank God Dad can cook and Mom can improvise and come up with last minute meals in a hurry. Your Dad obviously didn't marry me for my cooking. It must have been my sweet disposition. So much for having yummy leftovers...................

All about Dad...Mom who?

Mama is home! I’m happy to report that Coop survived a week without his Mommy. Actually, that should be reversed. Mom survived a week without her Coopy. I knew Coop would be just fine and enjoy his one on one time with his Dad, but I was worried how I would do. Luckily I was able to talk to Mark and Coop every day and get an update on their daily adventures. As much as I enjoyed spending a week working in paradise with great friends, it’s good to be home working my real job.

I went to San Juan Puerto Rico to help escort a group of 190 people. Translation: took care of 190 adults on a daily basis instead of 1 toddler. It was fun to laugh and giggle with my good friends and co-workers but I missed laughing and giggling with Cooper too. I think my friends were getting tired of hearing stories about Cooper. I've become that Mom that relates everything to her kid. 'Bacon, oh how I love bacon...that reminds me of a story about the first time Cooper tried bacon'. Or 'pen, you need me to pass you a pen? Did I mention how much Cooper loves pens'..'Those iguanas are sooo cool...Cooper would love them'. Sorry Brent and Jan. Thanks for listening to my Cooper ramblings :).

Puerto Rico is beautiful and we stayed at a fabulous resort. Over the years as I’ve traveled to far away places without Mark, I always imagine how wonderful it would be to share the experience together. Now I have another guy that I think about when I’m traveling.

I arrived home late in the evening and refrained from waking Coop up to smother him with kisses. The next morning I woke up to the sound of Coop calling for ‘Dad-EEE, Dad-EEE, Dad-EEE’ through the baby monitor. It’s funny how he knew that Dad was the one home to rescue him from his crib every morning. Then last night when I went to take Coop to his room for story and bedtime, he wanted Dad-EEE to do it, NOT Mom (and he was very adamant about it). It was bitter sweet but all in a good way. I won’t lie, it did pull at my heart strings a little bit, but it’s good to know that Coop loves his Dad-EEE and I don’t have to worry about leaving him again in January. Lesson learned~apparently Cooper needs a vacation away from Mom every once in awhile.

Miss You Already

Coop, your Mom is off to Puerto Rico tomorrow. I'm leaving you for 6 whole days! Yikes. This isn't the first time I've flown the Coop (sorry for the horrible pun) but this time is going to be much harder than the last. Don't get me wrong, I know you are going to be in excellent hands but I'm going to miss you thiiiiissss muuuuuucccchhh (stretching my arms out as far as I can) and then some. Have fun with Daddy and take good care of him. You two are going to have a blast hanging out together doing whatever it is you boys do when there aren't any girls around to cramp your style. I just know your Dad has tons of adventures planned for you this week.

I'll miss you little buddy and ditto to your Dad.

Love you more than ice cream,

Mom

Happy Halloween

Today was Halloweenerrific day. Although it rained most of the day, we had fun pumpkin carving while watching football and capped the day off with a Halloween Party. Most of the kids were teenagers and a couple of 6-8 years olds but despite the age difference, everyone was soooo nice to Cooper and he had fun mingling and hanging out. Cooper is normally shy and bashful with strangers but we walked in and it only took about 30 seconds before he was ready to partaaay. It was fun to watch him in action. I guess all it takes for Cooper to feel comfortable in a room full of strangers is to make certain everyone is dressed up as witches, monsters and goblins and for the room to be decorated with black lights, cobwebs, skeletons and spiders. He was particularly fond of two darling twin 8yr old girls dressed as witches. They were so sweet and wanted to stay right by his side. What guy wouldn't love to hang out with hot twin girls ?!! A very successful party as far as Coop was concerned.

Farmer Coop and his 'mum-kin'

Riding with his Farm-themed stuffed animals

There were tons of treats to be had and all Coop wanted were the "bobbing" apples

He's giving the 'don't even think about taking my apples' look

We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!!!!

Busy at (Dad's) Work

Yesterday was yet another beautiful Smoky Mountain fall day. So we decided to take a drive to the Park and visit Mark at work. The leaves were almost at their peak and the weather was perfect. It's days like this when you want to curl up under a tree, listen to the leaves fall and take a nap. That part didn't happen, but we had a nice visit none the less. Much like a visit ANYWHERE these days, we spent most of our time chasing Cooper and trying to keep him out of mischief. IE: breaking expensive map printers (I'm not sure what the technical term is), closets, old rickety stairs, Mark's boss' office, electrical outlets, radio chargers, drip torches and tons of other fire gear laying around. Oh, and baseball bats (because every office has a baseball bats laying around right?) Perfect for little boys to swing around and try to smash office equipment with. Before any destruction of government property took place, we decided to spend most of our visit outside. Coop was able to run wild (somewhat), splash around in puddles, play in the mud and do laps around the building. Mark and I did more chasing while enjoying the beautiful fall colors.

A view of Mark's office

Reflections

Standing on big boulders is cool

Attempting to pose for a Mom & Son Shot

(Coop's not buying it. No time for photos, time for chasing)

Chasing

Abiding all signage

Huh? Fire? What? Where?.....transferring