cooper

During our family play time on the bed this evening, Cooper looks at me, grabs my hand, says ‘ca ca’ and pulls me into the bathroom.  I get his diaper off, set him on the toilet and start singing to him.  Next thing I know, I hear the sweet sound of pee pee falling into the big boy potty.  Yeah, Cooper!

Dear Cooper,

On July 20, you turned 20 months old. Aren’t we a cute family?

We started off with a short visit from Mama and Papa Mery. You love to climb into Mama Mery‘s lap and read.

The next weekend, Mommy and Daddy went camping out at Pace Bend Park and Mama Choo-Choo came to watch you for the weekend.

When Mommy and Daddy came home, Mommy and Mama took you to Arlington to see Papa Choo-Choo and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Kurtz. You started calling your great grandparents G-Mama and G-Papa and they love it. You also love to play in G-Papa’s truck.

While we were in Arlington, you got to play with William. He is the son of Mommy’s good friend, Martha, from high school. He’s about a month younger than you, but you share a love of goldfish! All Papa Choo-Choo needed in this picture was a red suit and a beard!

Mommy was pretty busy the rest of the month working and getting ready for the MOPS Steering retreat. I apologize for the lack of pictures outside of our travels.

You haven’t really made any huge milestones in the last month. You are becoming a shy boy around adults you don’t know very well, which, I guess is a good thing. Your vocabulary keeps growing and you’re starting to use words together, like ‘big truck’. You’ll be starting Mother’s Day Out in September and I’m waiting to see how much more you talk once that starts.

You are such a sweet boy, you give great hugs and Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Love,

Mommy

Dear Cooper,

On Friday, you turned nineteen months old. Mommy did much better this month with the pictures!

Well, it’s starting! Daddy is trying to turn you into a huge nerd and you are more than willing to accommodate him.

We haven’t had any more luck on the big boy potty. I just don’t think you’re ready, yet. It’s probably been three weeks since you have asked to sit on the potty. You do tell us when you are stinky 90% of the time, so that’s a start.

You love to push things, to be outside and to blow bubbles, so for your 18 month birthday, we bought you a bubble mower. I think it’s one of your favorite toys. You constantly ask to go ‘ahtide’ to play with your ‘mow moweh‘. The only problem these days is the heat. We try to go out in the evenings once it cools down some.

Your new favorite past-time is hooking things together. You will stand in front of your high chair for an hour hooking the safety belt. When you can’t get it undone, you beg for me to come undo it so you can hook it again. We do this over and over and over. You’ve even gotten Daddy’s backpack straps hooked together and when he went to put it on, he couldn’t.

You love to play with shoes, especially Mommy and Daddy’s shoes. You will sit and try to re-lace my tennis shoes or you put shoes on and try to walk around in them.

You got your haircut again. You cried when we walked into the salon and you saw Ronny, but eventually you got over it when Ronny let you play with his model car. Here is a before and after.

Have I ever mentioned that you are like the cutest baby ever? And now with the haircut, the cutest little boy ever?

We’ve had some ups and downs with eating. Now that you know how to say ‘no’ properly. You don’t always want to eat what I give you. And I know of no other child your age, other than you, who doesn’t like hot dogs. If I remember correctly, all your Uncle Todd ate at your age was hot dogs.

When Daddy gets home from work and the gym, you pull me into the bedroom while he is showering and make me get up on the bed. When Daddy is done in the shower, you make him get up on the bed. We usually spend an hour or so of family time playing with you on the bed. You love to jump around and fall on us. We tickle and bounce you on our legs. I hope this continues for years to come. Thank you for bringing us together for fun family time.

Love,

Mommy

PS: I’ve taken quite a few more pictures than I have linked to in this letter. You can check them all out here.

Sorry this is late. We’ve been pretty busy since Cooper hit 18 months and a week long internet issue kept me busy working and not able to get this letter going.

Dear Cooper,

On May 20th, you turned eighteen months old!

We started out this month with a trip to see Mama and Papa Mery in Houston. They took you to Lindsey-Lions Park where you slid down most of the slides and swung in every swing on the playground.

After that we went to a crawfish boil with Uncle Robert and Aunt Becky. You played on a (broken) battery powered H3 almost the entire time. You love cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, tractors and airplanes, anything transportation. You point them out every time you see them.

Your Mama Choo-Choo and Great Grandma Kurtz bought you a sand and water play table for Easter. When we first put it together, we didn’t have any sand. That didn’t stop you! You had so much fun playing in the water, you were sopping wet in a matter of seconds.

You loved to ‘drink‘ out of the flower pots, but they had holes in the bottom. I didn’t get your socks off fast enough and you tracked wet footprints all over the patio.

Now that there is sand on the other side, you love to scoop the sand onto the patio and into the water. Every time Daddy or I try to build a sandcastle, you topple it over before we can add to it. We’ve started to call you Coopzilla because you constantly knock things down.

We’ve been keeping pretty busy with our schedule and unfortunately haven’t taken many pictures. I’ll try to pull the camera out more often next month.

We saw Dr. Spencer for your eighteen month checkup on your eighteen month birthday. You weighed in at 28.11 pounds (83%), are 33 inches tall (75%) and your head circumference is 50 cm (93%). He was very impressed that you know almost all of your body parts (elbows included), you have 30-40 words (the typical 18 month old has 6-10), and you were very pleasant while he examined you. You didn’t fuss at all.

Your friend Phoenix has started using the big boy potty, so we have let you start to sit on it when you ask or tell us you need to go. We haven’t had any luck, yet, but it’s still early. It will come in time.

I can’t wait until the pool opens. We’re going to have a blast this summer!

Love,

Mommy

UPDATE: Since Cooper’s 18 month birthday we have successfully pooped and peed on the big-boy potty once (that was about a week ago). We have been to the pool and Cooper is a completely different animal from last year. He’s not liking it. I’m hoping I can change that pretty quick. Wish me luck!

…and the floor won! Last week Coop decided to fall and catch himself with his face on the entryway tile. Click on the photo to see the results of his little physics experiment.

For those of you keeping score at home, he’s up to 1 black eye, 2 fat-lips (at once!), and 1 bloody nose.

Dear Cooper,

Sunday, you turned seventeen months old.  You started off this month in Colorado on our annual ski trip to Vail.  You enjoyed watching all the buses and trucks with Mama (Grandma Niswonger).  You also had fun with Uncle Todd and his shoes.

The week after we got back from Colorado, we drove back to Arlington to surprise Mama for her 60th birthday.  The family got together at Kirby’s Steakhouse, but Mama didn’t know we were coming.  She was very surprised.  She even shared the icing on her cake with you.

From your scraped up knees to jumping on the bed, you are definitely all boy.  You love to climb up on Mommy and Daddy’s bed and jump around and fall flat on your back.  You used to like it when we threw you on the bed, but now you can do it yourself.

You insisted on helping Daddy with the new flower beds in the front yard.  You had to be outside with him.  Every time I tried to take you inside, you would throw a fit.  You carried the shovels and spades around and climbed up on the chairs that were set up for break time.  Your poor face got so red that I think you got a heat rash even though I kept you smothered in sun screen.

You are obsessed with buses.  You point out and scream ‘bus’ every time you see one.  It doesn’t matter if it is a school bus or a charter bus, or what color it is, you know it is a bus and you want the whole world to know.  Trucks are still big with you as well, but not as much as buses.  You still call cars truck, too.  I can’t quite convince you that they are different.

When we were in Colorado, you found Mama’s toothbrush.  You now love to brush your teeth and every time you hear Mommy’s electric toothbrush, you run into the bathroom saying ‘teeth teeth.’  It is sometimes difficult for me to get you to finish brushing your teeth so we can move on to something else.  I guess it’s better than not wanting to brush your teeth, but I’m sure that will come in time.

You are learning words left and right.  You know apples, waffles, outside, feet, socks, shoes, bath, hi, hungry, eat, cookie, cracker, bar (as in cereal bar), snack (which sounds like dack) and much more.  Are you noticing a trend, most of these words have to do with food?  No wonder you are so big.  Your friends are still wearing 12-18 month clothes and you are already wearing 2T (24 month).  You are growing up way too fast.  Stop it!

Love,

Mommy

Dear Cooper,

A week and a half ago, you turned 16 months old.  You and Ashley sit by the window almost every afternoon, especially if there are kids playing out in the street. 

You got your first black eye this month.  I’m sure it won’t be your last.  Just don’t go making a habit of getting them the day before a doctor’s appointment.  Dr. Spencer wasn’t surprised, he said kids your age are their own worst enemy, although this time we can rightfully blame the dog for knocking you into an end table.  Your stats from your 15 month checkup: 27 lbs. (85%), 32.5 inches tall (90%), and 49 cm head circumference (90%).

Cooper got his first ever hair cut yesterday.  I guess this would be the best before shot.  Here is the after at the salon (and the back).  He didn’t want to stand still after being held down during the cut, so it’s not the best picture ever, and yes that is a black eye, healed from this a couple of days before.

Dear Cooper, 

A few days ago, you turned fifteen months old.  You have developed an odd fascination with laundry baskets.  If you had one toy in the world, a laundry basket would suffice.  You climb inside with laundry and bury yourself in it.  You turn them upside down and climb up on top and stand on them.  We keep some of your toys in one basket in our room and you climb into it with the toys and sit there and play.

We watched Daddy run his first half-marathon this month.  We stopped in several places to cheer him on and then met him at the finish line.  All you cared about was his finisher medal. 

We went to San Antonio for your Great-Grandpa Mery’s funeral.  It was a busy few days, but you did great and saw lots of family members that we don’t get to see very often. 

You have become quite the climber.  In other words, you climb all over everything.  I blame Great Grandma and Grandpa Kurtz, because they gave you the slide (hee hee).  You can even manage to get up on to our bed, the top of the mattress is almost three feet off the ground.  You even got out of your crib the other day, with no help from the bumper pads that were removed several weeks ago when you climbed out.

You are adding words to your vocabulary every day.  You now say nana (banana, and you know what they are), up, shoe, choo-choo, Mama and Mommy (you still don’t call me either, but you can at least say them), baby, bye-bye, night-night and several animal sounds: ruff ruff, meow, moo, quack, etc.  For most of your words, we have to prompt you and you’ll copy us, but there are a few that you say on your own.

Dear Cooper, 

Yesterday you turned fourteen months old.  You are now more toddler and less baby.

This month started out with traveling to Grandma and Papa Choo-Choo’s for Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve at Great-Grandma and Grandpa Kurtz’s house where we opened lots of presents.  I think you had more fun sitting on the presents then actually opening them.  Then Santa Claus came and we opened more presents Christmas morning at Grandma and Papa Choo-Choo’s house.  A few days later we went back to Great-Grandma and Grandpa Kurtz’s house for a second Christmas with Great Uncle Joe and Aunt Dar and cousins Bryan and Tonya and their kids: Bryton, Mackenzie and Samantha.