Our Dear Friend, Pablo

It’s been a long time coming but I finally decided it was time to introduce the world to Cooper’s love of The Backyardigans. This relationship started well over a year ago and it continues to blossom and flourish more and more every day. Many people may see The Backyardigans as simply a cute little animated cartoon on Nickelodeon, but to Cooper it is a way of life. The characters on the show (especially Pablo) are his buddies. To say Cooper loves this show would be a HUGE understatement.

It all began when we found a Backyardigans book at a garage sale. The book was colorful, nice and big and had some cute little characters in it. I had NO IDEA what would soon develop because of this book. We were clueless at the time that The Backyardigans was actually a cartoon. The book quickly became Cooper’s favorite. Then one day, after hundreds and hundreds of times reading the beloved book, we stumbled across the TV show. Well, the rest is history. The love affair had officially taken the next step. Let’s just say the book was kind of like a series of innocent little dates and the cartoon consummated the relationship.

Am I worried that Cooper is obsessed with a TV show? Well, no. That would be a little hypocritical of me considering I am and always have been an avid TV viewer. In fact, some would argue (mainly Mark) that I have horrible taste in television viewing. The difference here is that the Backyardigans is actually a really great show. It teaches Cooper about having a vivid imagination, working together and building friendships. Each episode has an amazingly creative story line as the characters head from their backyards into an imaginative adventure. Each adventure is set to a different genre of music and choreographed with cute dance numbers. Singing and dancing to catchy little ditties. What more could one ask for? No wonder I love this show (almost) as much as Cooper.

Last Christmas, I searched and searched for a Pablo doll for Cooper and our neighbors were nice enough to give Cooper one of their son’s Tyrone dolls that he no longer played with. We also have quite a collection of Backyardigans books now. We figured that when we think that Cooper has had enough TV time, we could convince him to read some of his books instead. That doesn’t always work but we do realize that when enough is enough, the TV goes off. I won’t lie though… Pablo, Uniqua, Tyrone, Austin and Tasha have given us plenty of shower time, cleaning time and time to do stuff that Cooper doesn’t always allow us to do. And for that I am eternally grateful. I just know that if I ever were to run into the show’s creator, Janice Burgess, I would give her a big ole slobbery kiss.

Here’s a key that I want to remember as I look back fondly at Cooper’s very first favorite TV show:
Pablo = Pawbo
Tyrone=Rone
Tasha=NaNa (like Sha-Na-Na without the Sha)
Austin=Aaaah’in (kind of in a Utah accent)
Uniqua=Can’t quite make out how he pronounces her name just yet. I can’t really fault him though as I have a hard time pronouncing her name.

“Mo Pablo” Translation: I want to watch more Backyardigans

“Raa Moos” Translation: I specifically want to watch the Surfing Episode with Rad Moves. His favorite.

“Che Meeee......Raa Moos” Translation: Check me, I got the rad moves as he breaks out in a little dance. This can be done anywhere and at anytime he feels the need to dance.

“Mo Cowns” Translation: I want to watch Best Clowns in Town Episode.

Total Episodes that we currently have recorded on our DVR: 27. No, Cooper doesn’t watch all 27 in one sitting. But he probably would if he could :).

Honestly Mom, enough with the camera already. Can't Pablo, Tyrone and I have a little swing time? Alone! Sans Camera.

Click HERE if you have hankering to check out some rad moves. How can you not want to dance after watching this? So cute.

Cuckoo goes to the Zoo

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Yesterday was Cooper's very first visit to the zoo. We were lucky enough to have Dad home for the weekend so we decided to it was the perfect day for a zoo outing. Cooper loved it all but the highlights were the elephants, rhinos, monkeys and WALKING. We brought the stroller but Coop preferred to walk on his own to check things out. We asked him what he saw at the zoo and he keeps reminding us he walked.

Us: Coop, what did you see at the zoo today?
Coop: Walk!!!!!
Us: Yep, you walked.

I guess we could have taken him to the mall for the same result but I think the zoo might have been a little cooler :).

Loving Lately

There are so many things that Coop does that makes us smile and giggle and before you know it, he's moved on and starts doing even more new and amazing things. I can't tell you how many cute Coopisms, I wish we would have captured on film/video so that we'll never forget, but there just isn't enough time (or space on our hard drive). Here are a couple of things of late that I had to jot down:

Counting:

Cooper is really into counting these days. Whether it's items he sees on the TV, book or even driving down the road, Coop is a counting fool. Anytime there is more than one of anything, Coop deems it necessary to count. And it's always 1, 2, 3, 9, 10 in the cutest little sing-songy voice with his little pointer finger extended. I'm not quite sure when 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 will come into play. It's always 1, 2, 3, 9, 10 even if there are only 2 items. Just precious.

Colors:

The little man is starting to pick up on the whole color thing too. He can say blue, green, yellow, red, purple and other colors if he repeats what you say. But if you ask him what color something is, it's always PINK!!! Perhaps in his eyes, everything is PINK. And wouldn't the world be a happy jolly place if we were surrounded by pink all the time? As it should be.

Loves:

Cooper is a snugly little guy. And I'm all for it, because I know there will come a time when I'll want to give him a big ole smooch and he's going to push me away and yell "GROSS, ooooooooh, your breath smells like coffee". Until then, I'll take every love and squeeze I can get. Lately, he will all of a sudden stop dead in his tracks with whatever he's doing and give me a big ole bear hug while chanting "Mooooommeeeeee, Moooommmeeeeee, Mommmeeeeeee" while rocking side to side in my arms. Can I just tell you that this melts my heart EVERY TIME. Especially if we're in public and he does it. It's one of those times when you want to look around and shout to everyone "Yep, that's my boy and guess what, I think he likes me, he really really likes me!!". Again, there will come a day when he might not even want to acknowledge me in public and I'll be lucky to get a fist pump or high five. Until then, Hug on Coop. Hug ON!!!!!!!!

Could this bragging Mama be more proud of her cute kid? In case you haven't noticed, the answer would be a big fat NO!!!!!! This Mommy gig is pretty FABULOUS I tell ya. Now I think I'll go see if Cooper wants to count some pink stuff and give me loves.

Bunnies and Chocolate and Walks...Oh My

Today was a quiet, relaxing Easter Sunday in the Smokys. Cooper and I took it easy and tried our best to enjoy the weather and avoid the Easter/Spring Break crowds around town. We went on our own little nature walk outside our front door searching for bunnies. We (I) only saw a couple because they're so stinkin' fast and must have had a town meeting or something. Coop and I were on high alert and were determined to find some. That was our mission: To find the Easter Bunny's bunny buddies. We ended up having to settle for the chocolate variety.

Hey, is that a Bunny-in-Da-box?

M&M's. Thanks Gma Linda for teaching Coop about these tasty treats:). He noticed these in our cart the other day at the grocery store and has been talking about them for days. I guess I'll have to be a little more sneaky about our Easter Bunny shopping as he gets older.

What do you mean "eat the bunny"? Are you crazy woman? First you want me to sit on some strange bunny's lap and now you want me to eat one? I think I'll stick to M&M's thank-you very much.


Easter walk searching for bunnies. We're hunting wabbits.

Guess who nibbled on the bunny? I'll give you a hint: She's pregnant and eating for 2 (full grown football players).

Happy Easter!!!!!

The Hunt

Today I took Coop to his very first Easter Egg Hunt at the local Community Center. It was crowded and full of kids but very well organized. We had a blast and it was so much fun to watch Cooper figure things out. We also got our fair share of fabulous people watching. Cooper is all about seeing kids these days. Where ever we go he has to say hello to any other kid he sees. "Oh, Hi kids". Every once in awhile he'll get a hello back.

We had to find our positions before the official start and Cooper was very anxious. I tried to explain to him that he had to wait and gave him a play-by-play of what he needed to do. See those eggs, you're going to pick them up and put them in your basket. I had no clue if he was going to get it. Duh Mom, it doesn't take rocket scientist to figure it out. When the whistle blew, he went after them and started piling them in his basket. He even put some in another little girl's basket for her (so sweet). He was satisfied after finding 5 or 6 eggs and was ready to check out his stash. It literally took him about 2 minutes and then he was done.

He also got to see the Easter Bunny but made it very clear that he'd rather enjoy him from a far. He didn't feel it necessary to give him a hug or take a glamour shot with him. I guess he knew that the Easter Bunny could already feel all the love from the other kids hamming it up with him. I didn't push it considering I'm not even sure he really got that it was THE EASTER BUNNY. He's a busy Bunny and had places to go and people to see.

Can I go yet Mom? Huh, huh can I, can I?

Checking out his loot.

Candy!!!!!

Orange Candy Lips.

The Truck:

There were lots of toys and activities to check out. Kids were waiting to hop on the truck and parents were waiting for photo ops. I had to tell Coop to get out so that someone else could have a try. He was fine with climbing out of the driver's seat and kept proceeding to the back of the truck to let the next kid give him a ride. I'm sure the parents loved getting a photo with their kid AND COOPER. I can just see the caption; Darling So-and-So and some random kid that wouldn't get out of the truck.

Trains.

Ultimately, this is where Coop wanted to be. And where he stayed and stayed and STAYED. I finally had to coax him to leave by telling him the Easter Bunny was coming (kidding). Actually, I bribed him by asking him if he wanted to go to the park and see more kids. He was then willing to move on.

All in all, a pretty fun day. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if Dad could have been there with us.

Cuckoo goes to the Doctor

I've been trying my best to communicate to Cooper what our plans for the day/next day will be. I truly think he gets most of the stuff I tell him these days and he actually seems interested in some of our conversations.

The other night as I was putting him down for bed I told him to sleep tight and that we would be getting up early to go to Mommy's doctor. He replied 'uh-humm, kaaaaaaay'. Which sounds just like the teacher from South Park but that's another post.

The next morning I reminded him of our plans and he starting chanting 'Cuckoo docto, Cuckoo docto, Cuckoo docto over and over. As I've mentioned before, Cuckoo is what he calls himself. He wasn't making any presumptions about our doctor's competence. He was merely stating the fact that Cooper was going to the doctor. Apparently a pretty big deal to him. My hope was that he wouldn't start chanting that in front of the doc. Luckily, he did not.

Later in the day, when we called Mark to tell him how the appointment went, Coop heard me tell his Dad how awesome he did. He got what we were talking about and immediately chanted 'Cuckoo docto' again and again while doing a little Cooper-Went-To-The-Doctor-With-Mommy jig.

I might have some explaining to do if God forbid he ever slips in front of any of the docs. Honestly Doc, I haven't told my child that you're kind of nutso, really I haven't.

Brother

This is the book that Dolly sent Cooper last month. It’s quite appropriate since Cooper is going to be a BIG BROTHER to a little brother. Yep, we’re pregnant and already 20 weeks along. Est. due date is August 17th.

Why have we waited so long to share this wonderful news? Well, that wasn’t the original plan. We decided to wait until we were through the 1st trimester before making the big announcement. During our 13 week doctor visit, the ultrasound indicated some areas of concern. Not the news you want to hear when you're ready to shout from the roof tops that you're expecting. Quick version of what the ultrasound revealed: thickened nuchal translucency/cystic hygroma/extra fluid behind the head & neck region. The measurement was a mere .1 mm above what is considered a “normal” range but my age (36) gave me increased risk as well. Cystic hygromas “can” be indicators of chromosomal abnormalities, heart defects and many babies who show signs of CH’s are born “completely normal”.

After the diagnosis, our days of worry, sleepless nights, avoiding Internet research at all costs and trying our very best to stay positive officially began. Google is not your friend when you get a scary bit of medical information. I finally had to refrain from researching online in order to stay positive.

We have since visited a high risk OB, opted to have an amniocentesis (all screening results came back normal) and today was our visit with the pediatric cardiologist for a prenatal echo cardiogram to test the little guy’s ticker. Apparently the cystic hygroma/extra fluid can also be an indicator of a heart defect. According to the doc, our little guy's ticker appears to be A-OK.

What have I learned through all of this? A lot. This pregnancy has definitely been different than our pregnancy with Coop. But thanks to the results from the amnio/echo cardiogram, we can now put ourselves at ease a little bit and enjoy the moment. We’re so happy that Cooper is going to have a sibling and can’t to wait to meet our newest little man.

Special thanks to Cooper for doing his best to keep our mind off of things. It’s amazing what the power of cuteness can conquer. It also puts into perspective as to what we have to look forward to with baby #2. Thanks for being there Coop. And thanks for being such a trooper during all the extra doctor visits.

So there you have it. It's official now. (Imagine me announcing this with a giant heavy-duty megaphone): WE ARE PREGNANT AND COOPER IS GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!!! Man, that felt really good to say.