cooper

Dear Cooper,

Last week you turned 29 months old.

Have I mentioned that we’ve been doing a lot of travelling lately? We started off this month in Vail and soon returned home. You did such a great job in the car on the way there and on the way home. When you got tired, I would suggest to you that it was time to take a nap and usually within 20 minutes, you were asleep. It took a little while for us all to recover from the Vail trip, it was exhausting.

Before long, we were back to our normal routine. This is the time of year that we love to keep the windows open. You love playing outside and were able to break out the bubble mower.

Before our trip to Vail, Mommy borrowed some videos from a friend to watch in the car. You are now obsessed with the movie Cars. You also like to watch a Thomas and Friends video, but Cars is by far your favorite. I’m sure I’m going to have to purchase these videos as soon as I return them. One nice thing about this is that I can turn on ‘Mater’ or the ‘trains’ and go take a shower or work in the office and you will totally entertain yourself for hours with your toy cars and trains while watching the videos. I’ll just have to make sure you don’t turn into a couch potato.

It’s Easter time and the bluebonnets are out. They’re not as good as they can be, but I still wanted to try to get a picture of you in the bluebonnets. We had two mini photo shoots and I got lots of cute photos of you in a small field of bluebonnets and at the front entrance to our neighborhood. (Mommy needs a faster lens!)

Along with bluebonnets, Easter time brings Easter Egg Hunts! We had a really fun time at our MOPS Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic out at Berry Creek Park. You’ve participated in several small egg hunts at school, MOPS and Wednesday night Bible study, but I didn’t get to see how you did. When I finally get to see you hunt for eggs, you stood there and watched all the other kids find the eggs. I told you to go grab them before they were gone, but you just pointed at all the other kids finding eggs. I finally had to go grab some eggs for you so you wouldn’t be left out.

The end of travelling is in sight, but not until next month. We went to Houston for Aunt Becky’s baby shower and Easter. You helped win me a door prize at Aunt Becky’s shower. The game was to cut a piece of string the size of Aunt Becky’s belly. I decided to measure you from head to toe and we won! That’s how big around Aunt Becky’s belly is (give or take an inch). You had a fun time playing with Mama and Papa Mery. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to church for Easter because you ran a fever in the middle of the night. How do I know this? You fell out of the bed at about 3:45 in the morning and when I went in to help you, you were burning up. The Easter bunny (AKA Papa Mery) didn’t forget about you and we came home with a rather large basket full of candy, a full sized basketball, football and soccer ball.

The next weekend, you rode with Mommy to visit Aunt Judy and Uncle Paul while they visited G-Mama in Dallas. This is the first time meeting them as they live in St. Louis, MO. We also visited with G-Mama while she was in the hospital. You are such a good kid. You behaved very well in the hospital, especially after driving all the way from Round Rock.

I’m so happy that you handle riding in the car so well seeing as how we can’t seem to stay out of it these days. Thank you for being such a happy, laid back kid.

I love you,

Mommy

Dear Cooper,

On March 20th, you turned 28 months old. We started out the month with more travelling. Daddy had a training class in Dallas, so we all went to visit Mama and Papa Choo-Choo in Arlington for a few days. We were able to go to dinner to celebrate G-Papa’s birthday while we were there, but you had more fun dragging Mommy and Mama to the park every day.

You have been battling a cold off and on for several weeks. You’ve had a runny nose, then a cough, then a stuffy nose, etc. We’ve been alternating Dimetapp and Mucinex and they seem to be controlling your symptoms pretty well, but you just can’t seem to get over it. I finally decided to take you to see Dr. Spencer after several days of you not acting like yourself. You were grumpy and whiny and not sleeping well. Dr. Spencer checked everything out and discovered that you were wheezing. There was something in your lungs that was making you unable to get a full breath. You received a breathing treatment at the doctor’s office and you responded very well to the medicine. We brought home a nebulizer and continued to give you breathing treatments as you needed them.

We then travelled back to Arlington, where we started our journey towards Vail, CO. You and Mommy rode with Mama and Papa Choo-Choo so we could take our time and visit Great Grandma Niswonger in Longmont before heading up the mountain. Daddy, Uncle Todd and Aunt Brittney drove up on Saturday and met us in Vail.

You really enjoyed playing in the snow, although it took a while for you to ‘warm up’ to it. We can’t wait to get you on skis next year. We also took you up the gondola to the top of the mountain. You had so much fun running around looking at everything. You fell in love with the snowcat and had fun sliding down a hill on your bottom.

While we were in the hotel in Dumas, you told Mama you had to go potty. She sat you on the potty and you went pee pee like a big boy. 10 minutes later, you did it again. It looks like potty training is in our near future.

Love,

Mommy

Sorry it took so long to get this posted.  I had to go through quite a few pictures and get them cropped and uploaded.  And just in time to write his 29 month letter, which I probably won’t have ready on Monday (the 20th) 

Gotta love Mr. Bubble!  I got some cute pics of Cooper during bath time tonight. 

FYI…I know I’m late getting his 28 month letter done.  I’m hoping to get that and the rest of the Vail pics posted this weekend.

Dear Cooper,

On Friday, you turned twenty seven months old. This month has been all about Mommy and Daddy running. Mommy ran the 3M Half Marathon on January 25th and Daddy ran the Austin Marathon on February 15th. You enjoyed watching us run until you realized that we weren’t going to stop when we saw you. You cried when we kept going. Daddy was so excited to finish his marathon that he carried you across the finish line!

You are such a smart boy. You can already sing your ABCs, as well as a variety of songs. Some of your favorites are The Wheels on the Bus, Pop Goes the Weasel, Five Little Monkeys, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Jesus Loves Me. You know most, if not all, of the words and sing them to yourself while you play and in the car. You get nervous when I ask you to sing them to other people, though.

You are starting to assert your opinion about food. You tell me when you like something or when you don’t. I try to give you options for meals and let you choose what you want. If you decide you don’t like it, you throw a fit and want me to give you something else. You have gone to bed hungry on several occasions. I know that if you are hungry enough, you’ll eat what’s on your plate. I have also cut out most snacks, so that you will be hungry at meal time. I’m sure we’ll be working on this one for quite a while.

The weather has been pretty nice, lately, so you’ve been playing outside a lot. I went out to check on you the other day and you had gotten the lid off of your play table and there was sand all over the patio. I’m sure that if there was water in it, you would have been sopping wet, but it’s still a little too cool for that.

The Terrible Two’s are in full swing. We’ve had a couple of rough days. You are very independent and don’t always want to listen. I know you are just trying to figure out what you can and can’t get away with. The other day I had to take all of your stuffed animals away because you were more interested in playing with them than taking a nap. The look on your face when I put them all, one by one, into a trash bag was pitiful. You thought I was really going to throw them all away. Don’t worry, they are safe in the guest room and you will eventually earn them all back. So far, two have found their way back to their home on your bed.

We are learning together as we go. I love those sweet hugs and kisses and when you ask to ‘cuddle with Mommy’ or ‘give Mommy some love.’ Your love far outweighs the frustrations of discipline. Keep it coming!

Love,

Mommy

More pics here.

Earlier today, I decided I would check my email on the laptop while I waited for a load of laundry to finish up in the dryer.  Cooper was playing contentedly with his many cars and trucks on the coffee table, talking to himself when all of a sudden out comes the entire alphabet song.  That’s right, my baby is a genius!  I’ve heard him make it from A to G, but never all the way to Z.  I looked up at him and asked him what he was doing and he said ‘sing ABC’.  Sounded more like a ‘duh mom, what does it sound like I’m doing’ type of reply.  It’s not like he doesn’t hear the song every now and then.  It’s on his new Go Fish CD: Party Like a Preschooler (which I highly recommend to all the mothers of preschoolers out there) and he has this on the fridge.  I think I made such a big deal out of it that he’s been singing it all day.  Except when we got home from the park, he busted out with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which I haven’t sung to him in months because he’s too interested in the School Bus song (The Wheels on the Bus).  I will be talking to Ms. Faith (Cooper’s teacher) tomorrow just to see how much they work with the kids at singing songs.

While we were in Arlington, just after Christmas, my mom showed Cooper how to stack some old frosting tubs.  I was blow drying my hair when I heard the cutest little voice excitedly saying ‘look Mommy!’  My mom had told Cooper to say it and he repeats just about everything you say anyways.  I now hear that cute little phrase many times a day, thanks Mom! 

I know my kiddo is smart and I know I’m biased, but he has now put together two different seven word sentences: 1) Cooper go see Christmas lights last night (this was said the day after visiting the trail of lights) and 2) Mommy got go get more at store.

Oh, he has also put his shoes (yes, they are velcro) on all by himself.  It doesn’t matter that it takes him about 15 minutes to do it and he needs a  little guidance from daddy, but he just turned two!  Do you know any other twenty five month olds that can put on their shoes?  Just another ‘look Mommy’ moment.