Thanksgiving 2012

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  As always, we ate a feast for lunch (Brownings) and dinner (Huffmans) and enjoyed visiting with lots of family.  Had a great long weekend, which included shopping, visits to Grandma Yogi, a kiddo birthday party, Christmas tree hunting/chopping, Christmas decorating, and a long-overdue date night to The Hard Shell.

Playing with Mr. Red/Uncle Red (the name is morphing)

Yummy pie and milk with Grandpa

Running from Aunt Amanda

Chillin' at the tree farm

"Helping" daddy cut down the tree

Something's funny

Loving the lizard thingy at Juniper's birthday party  (photo courtesy of Becky Brownlee)

Eating breakthrough

This will not seem like a big deal to most people, but it is.  Picky eating has been a struggle since Coop was 9 months old and he has an extremely limited diet.  No meats, veggies, pasta, bread...at all.

LAST NIGHT HE ATE A GREEN PEA!!!

Yes, it took bribery to be successful - but even that in itself is progress.  Attempts at bribery (a new matchbox car was the ticket last night) used to make him mad.  But last night, he put that pea in his mouth and CHEWED.  Woohoo!

Another Installment of Funny Talk

Some of the stuff coming out of Cooper's mouth has cracked us up recently:

- My personal favorite is "double drats" when something doesn't go right (thanks, Super Why)
-"Oh my goodness!"
-He instructs us to tell each other something.  "Tell Mommy to pick out book."  "Tell Daddy night night."
-Riding the in car - the ENTIRE trip - he says "big truck" over and over.  Any sized truck or SUV qualifies. Sometimes we are lucky enough to see a "dump truck" or "bulldozer", just to mix it up a little.

Fireman Coop

Halloween was a blast this year!  Fireman Coop got to wear his costume twice.

First was the Fall Festival at church on the Saturday before Halloween.  Cooper actually wanted nothing to do with his costume at first.  Luckily, we were able to bribe him with the real fire truck sitting in the parking lot when we arrived.  Once the costume was on, he was good to go and had a great time - checking out the truck, jumping in the bounce house, playing the games, and of course - scoring lots and lots of candy pretzels. (Yep, he picked pretzels over chocolate at nearly every opportunity.  Crazy child!)

On Halloween night, we finally got in some good trick-or-treating.  (This was his first time thanks to rain last year.)  Gigi and Papa joined the entourage, and we went to about 15 houses or so, exclaiming "ker treat" at the door of each one.  Back home, he got to choose 2 treats to eat (Goldfish...and a Reese's cup, naturally).  It was fun to see Cooper actually "get" the idea of Halloween for the first time.

So that sums up our Halloween 2012 adventures.  Here are some of our pics:

No fireman costume is complete without soot

Swinging with Gigi

Watching "The Great Pumpkin" - making his daddy proud

What happens if you say "smile"

Bedtime Chronicles

This is what transitioning to a toddler bed looks like in our house:

Family Mountain Trip

Jason and I have gone to the mountains nearly every fall since we got married.  It doesn't matter where we go or stay, we just love being in the mountains and always find it to be good for the soul.

This year, we decided to take Cooper along with us.  While it certainly wasn't the most peaceful of all vacations, it was fun to introduce Coop to our little tradition.  He loved the cabin and playing in the leaves.  We went to the Luray Zoo, where the monkeys were a definite favorite.  Always fun to see the animals through the eyes of a child.  On Sunday, we visited Luray Caverns.  Somehow we made it through the 1.5 hour tour without any meltdowns.  For some reason, - we really don't know why - he was convinced we'd see dinosaurs in the cavern.  Thankfully, he wasn't too disappointed when the tour ended without any dinosaur sightings.  The rough part of the weekend was sleep and relaxation.  Thanks to a recent bedtime strike (hello, toddlerhood), we had our hands full getting him to bed. So while we didn't come home rested, we did enjoy our family time.

Mmmm...s'mores...

First Field Trip: Pumpkin Farm

Cooper's preschool took a trip to the Chesterfield Berry Farm to pick pumpkins, and we got to tag along.  He loves that place - the hayride, moon bounce, animals, everything about it.  Can't say he was really into picking out a pumpkin, though.  Maybe next year :)

Just for fun, let's compare to past years' pumpkin adventures:

2010 (8 Months Old):

2011 (20 Months Old):

2012 (2.5 Years Old):

(This sequence clearly demonstrates that the older they get, the harder it is to get a good picture!)

Anyway, onto some pics from the field trip:

Hooray for fall fun!

School Days

Preschool started yesterday, and we're so excited! (Well, Jason and I are - I think Cooper's pretty indifferent.)  He'll go 2 mornings a week at our church, which feels like the right balance for him to start.  Day 1 was very low-key - a shortened day for the parents to visit the classroom and check everything out. There are 6 girls and 3 boys in his class, ranging from 2-3 years old, so it will be an interesting dynamic.  Cooper took it all in, and seemed to like the classroom.  He even made a little buddy.  We thought it was so cute that the boys were playing together in the "kitchen".  Also funny that the girls are all potty trained, and none of the boys are!  His teachers are awesome and we're so excited Coop will get the chance to learn, socialize, and have some fun at school. 

ABC's

A few letters missing and still working on the closing, but the core is there!

OBX Vacation - 2012

Just returned from a week at the beach.  A great week with lots of time to relax.  Cooper adored pretty much everything about it - spending time with family, playing in the ocean, riding the skim disk, climbing the sand dunes, seeing the turtles near our house, swinging in the hammock, watching the fishing boats, going to the aquarium, etc.  He was so amazed by the simplest things and kept saying "oh wow!" to everything.  He also became quite the chatterbox from the moment he woke up till he went to sleep.  Our family was usually the LAST up in the morning - quite the change from last year when we would take 6am walks on the beach to let everyone else sleep in!

Goofing off with Aunt Carrie and Uncle Joe

The whole family

Grandma and Paw

Biggest hit of the week - a skim disk on clearance at Kmart!

Check out those fish behind us

You should see the tricks we have to pull to get Cooper to smile for a family photo :)