Grandpa Toby

One of the great things about having babies is that it's a wonderful excuse for family to visit. We were lucky enough to spend time with Grandpa Toby this past weekend. A great time was had by all just hanging out and relaxing. We can't wait for the next visit. Just another reminder of how lucky we are to have such an amazing family.

Kissin' a Boo Boo

All better.
Yo, Grandpa. Whassssup?

Pig pile on Grandpa.

Snuggle time.

Thank-you Grandpa for all the lovin' and a wonderful visit.

Love,

C&C

Rod Run

Several times a year, Pigeon Forge hosts Rod Run. It's basically an excuse for Hot Rod lovers to travel from all over and make the pilgrimage to the area to show off their cars. Non-Hot Rod owners also travel here and make the trip just to view the cars. I don't quite get the fascination of driving to this beautiful area merely to park on a busy strip of road, sit in a lawn chair and watch cars as they cruise by. But I've never been a car lover.

What does Rod Run usually mean to us? Traffic, crowds and being extremely grateful for the back roads so that you can avoid the chaos. But last weekend we decided to embrace Rod Run because we knew Cooper would enjoy checking out all the "race cars". We didn't cruise long because we had Cruz (ha,ha) and baby+car exhaust is not a good mix.

Cooper had fun checking out all the Hot Rods and introducing his brother to all things CAR!!!!

A glimpse into my future: One of many failed attempts to take a picture of Mom with her boys. One where everyone is actually happy to be in the picture.

Fine. Cruz will pose with me. Although he doesn't have much of a choice. (Check out the Dude behind us.)

It's On!

It's go time. Just a friendly competition between a Boy and his Dad that involves a sweet little froggy and a porcelain throne.

Many months ago we started using stickers to entice Cooper to go potty. The stickers work (sort of) but he truly doesn't feel the need to use the potty unless we ask him to. Our best chance of this occurring is right before his bath. And don't get me started on how looooonnnnnggg it takes Cooper to choose which sticker he wants. The boy is very particular about which sticker best suits the moment.

Mark decided that if Cooper saw Daddy diving into his precious stash of stickers that perhaps it would move things along. Can you tell we're anxious to only have 1 kid in diapers?

What have we learned from this little experiment? Cooper is not very competitive and he's happy to share his stickers. In fact, he gets excited when Daddy earns a sticker. So we'll just keep on keepin' on and hope that Cooper isn't still in diapers when Cruz starts earning his stickers.

I'm extremely proud of BOTH of my boys. Their collection is quite impressive don't you think? I wonder if Mark will start a chart at work as a way to raise the stakes?

Cooper's latest chart.

Mark's latest chart.

The innocent little froggy caught in the middle.

NOTE: You may notice that Mom hasn't joined this competition in fear of using up all of our stickers way too quickly. Apparently, the need to pee ALL THE TIME doesn't leave once you're no longer pregnant. I didn't want to have an unfair advantage as there aren't enough stickers in the world to keep up with my bladder. Plus, someone needed to be the referee and Cruz isn't quite ready to ref just yet. Kokanee and Targhee don't understand why the boys just don't do their business outside. That's a whole other type of competition.

I Quit!

There are many, many positive things that Cooper has learned thanks to his tv viewing. But I must not forget some of the negative things too. I just had to capture Cooper's need to "Quit" every once in awhile. It all started the beginning of July and I had no clue what he was saying. The first time I noticed him wanting to "Quit" something was when we attempted to ride Cody, the Pony. Out of nowhere he sat Indian style on the grass in the pony corral, folded his arms and exclaimed "I QUICK". It didn't register at the time that he was trying to say I quit. He has since changed the phrase to "I QUIT!!" This little outburst usually occurs when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do but every once in awhile it surfaces when he's nervous or frustrated about something.

I blame this all on Ni Hao Kai-Lan, a show on Nick Jr. The show touches on expressing your feelings and to keep trying and never give up. The characters also teach him how to say various phrases in Chinese which Cooper is actually picking up on. Although he refers to it as "Chimese". The other day, he said "Xie Xie" to me when I gave him something to drink and it took me a minute to realize he was saying Thank-you in Chinese. Wow, that one kind of threw me for a loop.

Now on to the negative habit he's picked up from the show: Two of the main characters (stinkin' Ho Ho, the monkey and Tolee, the panda bear) usually end up quitting when they get frustrated about something and Kai-Lan encourages them to keep trying and not to give up. Cooper doesn't quite get the keep trying message. He definitely gets the quitting part. Mark and I now try really hard to make a big deal about Cooper quitting and tell him not to give up and to keep trying. We even skip the page in his Kai-Lan book where Tolee quits because he's "no good at rhyming". Cooper is totally on to us though and says I quit as we quickly turn that specific page. The damage has already been done. Damn you, Tolee the panda!!! You little quitter!!!

It's just so cute when Coop does it that it's hard not to laugh. It's quite contagious too. My Dad started "quitting" things while he was here and every once in awhile I have to refrain from exclaiming "I QUIT" when I'm in the middle of changing the 10th poopy diaper of the day.

This is just another example of the many Cooperism that I hope I never forget. Now if we could just focus on learning our colors in Chinese and Exnay on the IttingQuay.

Of course, I had to take a picture to capture a quitting outburst.

I Quit!

1 Month Stats

Our little meatball is growing! Here are his stats from his 1 Month Well Baby Check Up:

Weight: 10lb 10 oz 70 percentile
Length: 22in 60 percentile
Head: 39cm 70 percentile

The picture above perfectly captures that cute baby-is-gassy-think-he's-really-smiling moment (either that or he was dreaming about MILK). I placed him on our bed to get ready to change him and he was still zonked out. He started doing the gas face and it got me excited for when the real smiles come. Not far now. I can't wait!

Bed

Big Brother is in a Big Boy Bed---finally. And boy is he excited. We made it a long time with Cooper being content in his crib and selfishly, I was hesitant on making the switch. One because it's hard to see your baby boy grow up and have night time freedom and 2) because I was worried about how he'd do with the transition and didn't want to disrupt our precious-sleep-through-the-night-evenings. We decided that since we aren't getting solid sleep now thanks to Little Brother, that now was as good a time as ever. Not to mention I found a SWEET deal on craigslist. The bed/decor isn't exactly what I would choose but it's not really about me now is it.

When Mark brought the bed up to his room to assemble, Cooper said "Hi Race Car, Welcome to my room." When it was time for bed last night, we decided it was a big enough occasion that the entire family needed to tuck Coop in. After we finished with story time, Cooper made sure to introduce his bed to his parents: "Race Car, this is my friend Mommy and this is my friend Daddy". Sadly, he didn't feel the need to introduce Cruz. Maybe he felt no introduction was needed and they had already met???

Mark and I have debated about the best approach to ensure guaranteed sleep (if there is such a thing). I am from the school of hide all the toys and put them in the closet so that he won't be distracted. Mark is from the school of let him have his freedom and his toys and he'll eventually fall asleep. So far, Mark's idea is what we're going with. I think Cooper would agree that this is the best plan. I have to agree too. I guess my approach is a little unrealistic.

Here's to one night down. Cooper pretty much fell right to sleep after we went through a little longer than normal stalling routine. We couldn't really blame the kid for being a little amped up. Once lights finally went off, it was business as usual---Thank Goodness.

We'll see how things go from here. Nap time may be a different story. His first nap in his room went well. He did play for about 45 minutes but eventually climbed into bed on his own and fell asleep. Hopefully nap time stays in the equation for quite awhile. I'm not ready for no nap just yet.

Here's to happy Zzzzzzzzzzz's for all!

Letting Cruz take a spin on the bed.

(look closely, that isn't a stuffed animal)

Happy Boy!

Month #1

Look who's one month old today!!!

Happy Labor Day!

Love,

Coop 'n Cruz

Just Pics. Just Because

Cuteness in Black & White.

Life is a Highway

Life IS a Highway and Coop wants to ride it all night long. Cooper LOVES, Loves. LOOOOVES the movie Cars. He has several of the car characters (mainly as a replacement when we thought we had lost his beloved Race Car) and he likes to reenact some of the scenes as he watches the movie. His favorite character is definitely Mack. He's a BiiiGGG truck so it was love at first sight. Mack is his buddy and was his "big brother" gift from my Mom and Dad while they were here. Cooper sleeps with Mack every night.

Because of this Mack love, he also loves Rascal Flatts. They sing the song that is played in the movie when Mack hits the Highway with Lightning McQueen. Cooper often DEMANDS that we sing Life is a Highway for him. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing at that particular moment. You just better SING it or you have some serious explaining to do.

Today Cooper started singing the song to himself. Phew...maybe his love for singing the song will take some of the heat off of us. We purchased the song on iTunes and now it's often played on a constant shuffle. I've never really been a Rascal Flatts fan, but if they make the kid this happy then consider me a fan. Although you might want to check back with me in a couple of days........

Life is a Highway from A Mendonca on Vimeo.

Singing with Rascal Flatts from A Mendonca on Vimeo.