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

Look Dad, Play-Doh

While Mark is in Seattle, I thought I'd post a rundown so he could see Coop's 1st experience with Play-doh. He was VERY weirded out by it touching and sticking to his hands. I showed him how to smash it, roll balls, even made a little guy and pulled it apart and he just watched. Of course when I handed him a ball shape he had to huck it. He seems to like it best in the can all smashed up but safe in its place. I figured that meant he was finished "playing" with it. Apparently not......HE DOES NOT WANT ME TO MESS WITH THE PLAY-DOH. Leave it in its can, with the lid off so I can admire it and carry it around. And of course give it an airplane ride.

But don't mess with the Playdoh Mom. Geez............

Ewwwwww, sticky

(Kokanee's nose is the brown blob to the right)

Now stay.

Aren't kids supposed to dig getting their hands all oohey and gooey? Have I made my kid weird by always being Howard Hughes'ish and constantly wanting to wipe his hands when they're messy? What's the deal Coop? You definitely keep things interesting.

How do you like them apples?

Coop got his first taste of a WHOLE APPLE today. He's had plenty of apples in his lifetime (ha, all 18 months of it) but normally he gets them cut up into slices or even small pieces of Mom's bite. We've given him whole peaches and plums, but for some reason or another we've never given him the whole shabang of an apple. Most of the pictures are a bit blurry because it was hard to get him to slow down and pose while prancing around and strutting his apple goodness. Apparently apples are very exciting. Who knew?

Digging for seeds
Apples. Good. Nom.Nom.Nom.Nom.Nom.Shhlurppp.
Apple High

Apple Delight

Ooops. Looks like someone is about to swallow a seed.

Side Note from Cooper: Mom was too busy capturing my cuteness and didn't notice the Kid About to Swallow a Seed Moment. Capturing the perfect shot can be extremely dangerous. Oh well, I'm sure Mom will finally notice the seed when it reappears in a couple of days :).

Just Like Daddy

Coop’s mimicking has been going on for some time now but it’s starting to take on a whole new level. On occasion, Coop’s Dad has been known to use a Koozie to keep his beverage of choice nice and frosty cold. We have a drawer full of them and quite an extensive collection. Over the years, we have given each other Beer Koozies as gag gifts (sorry Mark if you didn’t think it was a gag) and the collection seems to be rubbing off on Cooper. Coop now insists that we put a Koozie on his sippy cup. He prefers his Dad’s favorite John Deere one (apparently it has some history behind it). I would prefer he use the cute one in the shape of a black bear, or trout or alligator but he MUST use the one his Dadda uses. As soon as the sippy cup comes out and before we’re finished pouring, Coop goes straight to the drawer, grabs his Koozie and says ‘cu’ (that means cup in case you needed a translation). This should be a hit at the playground. At least he hasn’t taken a fancy to the Master Bait and Tackle Shop Koozie. That would be far more embarrassing. And you got to give the kid props for knowing how important it is to keep your beverage cold.

Another Milestone

Last night was officially Coop's last taste of his Mother's Milk. Yes, I’m emotional but also ready. Let’s just hope Coop is ready too. My goal for breastfeeding was non-committal. From the very beginning, I thought I’d see how things went. Well, Coop took to breastfeeding like a champ. After we made the 1year mark, I figured I’d wait for signs that he might be ready to quit. That never seemed to happen. He started asking for ‘mook’ and even started lifting my shirt. That’s when I realized that he might never be ready to quit and I wasn’t prepared to stop by his kindergarten class daily for “milk and cookies” so that we could keep with our feeding schedule.

I did quite a bit of research on different weaning methods and decided to try the gradual method. Honestly, I don’t think there really is a “proper” method or "right way" (as I’m beginning to learn is the case with everything when it comes to parenting). Slowly, I started omitting a feeding a couple of weeks at a time until we were down to 2 a day.

After we finished last night, I kissed Coop on the cheek , thanked him for the wonderful ride and told him he could now no longer think about breasts (mine or anyone else’s) for at least 20 more years. That’s realistic don’t you think? Mark has a long weekend so we decided this was the perfect time to get things rolling. For the next couple of days, he is now in charge of putting Coop to bed and rescuing him from his crib when he cries. We figured it would be best if I was completely out of sight, out of mind. (Thanks Kristin and AJ for the tip).

Did I ever think I’d be talking about this on the wonderful World Wide Web????? That would be a big fat NO. But this is a big deal and this is now my life. Once again, here I am blogging about it. Do I think Coop is going to want to hear about this down the road or perhaps ever? Probably, not…but for me, it was a precious ride, a beautiful gift and bonding experience that I never imagined would be so amazing. Just another example of why I love being Coop’s Mom.

Here I am wanting to take a picture right before I feed our little baby for the last time:

Notice I seem to have time to pose for a shot and Coop just wants to get the show on the road.

Wish us luck for the rest of the weekend.

a boy and his backpack

It appears that Coop has a new favorite accessory. His 'ba pa' (pronounced just like backpack but without both ck's). This may just be a phase, but the boy can't get enough of his backpack. He's obsessed. His Grandma Linda gave him a darling little "my first backpack"over a year ago and Coop rediscovered it yesterday. We were going through his mountain of soft toys trying to coax him out of a borderline afternoon melt down. I was getting desperate so I grabbed the first thing I could reach and you would have thought I handed him a bunch of bananas. Bananas you ask? Is that a good thing? Yes!!! Coop is crazy about 'nanas'. He would eat 10 a day if I (and his bowels) would allow it. So I use bananas to describe this love as chocolate or baby porn just wouldn't be as fitting.

I showed it to him and asked if he wanted to wear his backpack and you could just see the light bulb go off. He knows all about the backpack he rides in and gets very excited anytime we use it. He had this look like he understood that he was going to wear the backpack and he was all for it. And that's all it took. He has pretty much worn it ever since. He wouldn't take it off to sit in his highchair for dinner last night and wanted to put it on first thing this morning.

Why would I dedicate a whole post to this? Well, it's pretty darn cute (right now) and I thought I better document this now before it gets annoying. Only time will tell if this little fetish will last. Until then, here are way more than necessary some pics to show it off............

Side note: It's purely decorative. He doesn't want to put ANYTHING in it and for the LoveofSweetBabyJesus don't even think about trying to adjust it. Right now, Coop is all about acessorizing and wants nothing to do with function. I just hope that he doesn't start worrying about matching his shoes with it anytime soon.

Watching his birdies

Have caboodle will travel

Summiting
Modeling
Riding

Here are some shots of Coop displaying the backpack's actual purpose. Cute AND educational. What more could a kid want? Coop isn't quite embracing the educational part just yet.

nursery rhymes

abc's too?!?

numbers even!?!

pretty cool 'ba pa'

I'd say....pretty cool indeed

Happy Fall Y'all

Fall is here and I have pics to prove it.

Leaves

Pumpkin Patch

Sizing 'em up
So many choices

Oh ya.....

Do we have a winner?

Scarecrow Art (Coop isn't all that impressed)

It's important to pick Mums that match your pants.