3-Year Stats

Here's what 3-year-old Cooper is like these days:

-Completely obsessed with all modes of transportation, especially construction vehicles and big trucks
-Loves Handy Manny and Bob the Builder.  He can name ALL of the tools in Handy Manny and ALL of the trucks in Bob.  Little brains are such sponges.
-Trying his hardest to be independent, yet not able to do some things by himself yet.  For example, he wants to put on his own pants but then gets frustrated when he can't do it.  Trying to teach patience...
-Very strong-willed and opinionated (at home); fairly laid back outside of the home (at school, church, and other people's homes).
-Still eating an extremely limited diet.
-35 lbs. and 39 inches, per the doctor today - right where he needs to be (despite my previous point, thank goodness).
-In major imitation mode.  When he is throwing a tantrum, I'll leave the room and say "tell me when you're ready."  The last few days, he has randomly said that same phrase to me which I think is hilarious.
-Imagination is beginning to take off, as he "reads" books to himself at night or plays with his toys.
-Seems to have inherited his daddy's sleep patterns to some extent.  Doesn't seem to require as much as the average kid and has a hard time falling asleep at night (especially on nap days).  Overall not a bad sleeper though.

THREE!

Last week, we celebrated Cooper's THIRD birthday!  Lots of fun moments celebrating our little man.

We kicked off the week with a fun treat at preschool.  Cooper and another little friend who also had a birthday last week got to wear crowns and have cupcakes with their classmates.

Thursday (his actual birthday), we took off work and took a very chilly trip to the zoo with Aunt Sharon.  What a fun trip - the animals were crazy!  Clearly they haven't had enough visitors recently and were ready to show off.  So February may not be the ideal time to go, but it was fun anyway.  We capped off the day with Cold Stone ice cream with Gigi, Papa, and Grandma (because nothing says ice cream like 40-degree weather).  Yum!

Saturday was the official party, which was pretty low-key and mostly family.  The theme was construction vehicles and I have to say it was just a really nice time.  Cooper adores his family.  He finally "got" the concept of opening presents - and man is he good at it now!  We are thankful for our family being a part of the celebration.

A special visit from Aunt Carrie

Mini Cooper on major clearance at Target? Yes, please!

This will be on awkwardfamilyphotos.com soon

Favorite gift of the day?  A miniature Packer truck from Bob the Builder

Here's to another year!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was almost 2 weeks ago, oops!  Jason and I had a week off of work and spent lots of quality time with Cooper and other family and friends. 

Cooper was in a serious funk for the few days surrounding Christmas.  Not sure if he was still recovering from being sick (strep, ear infection, cold) the week before, or if he was just showing us what the "terrible 3's" are going to be like.  Ha!  Everyone in the family got to witness some of his fits.  That aside, it was a great holiday. 

Cooper's big gift from Santa was a train table.  We gave him some Bob the Builder toys (eBay for the win).  He received MANY cars, trucks, and books - which is exactly what he loves these days.  He has never gotten excited about opening gifts before, but he seemed to get it after awhile on Christmas morning.  Despite being a bit overwhelmed, he really enjoyed being around his family. He got so spoiled by all of the family gatherings that he keeps asking me if he can go "see everybody".

Santa was feeling generous!

Chatting with Grandma

Dancing with Carrie

Checking out the train table with Gigi

Grandpa's train gift

Tractor trailer with Daddy

Cooper finally gets the concept of opening presents

Playing catch with Sam and Amanda

Trucks with Grandpa

Cars with Peter

Our tree

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"