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

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 :).