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 :)

First stitches

Cooper got his first stitches in mid-July after tripping and cutting his lip on the window sill at church.  He got one stitch at KidMed and took it like a champ.  They couldn't use the anesthetic cream due to the proximity to his mouth.  And they strapped him down so he wouldn't interfere with the process.  Not a great combo.  Definitely just as hard on us, and not something we hope to repeat any time soon!

Weekend Up North

We had a super weekend visiting our family up north.  We explored the Philly zoo, walked the neighborhood, played on a nearby playground, and just relaxed.

Some highlights were hearing Cooper ask to see his aunts and uncles.  He made requests like "See Peter" or "Go to Sam's house".  Our favorite was how "Auntie Emily" came out as "Tauntie Fanny".  Love!!  He gave Uncle Peter a workout at the playground, going up the stairs and down the slide over and over. 

Potty talk

This post will be TMI for most of you.  Remember, this blog is how we keep track of milestones in Cooper's life, and we have just surpassed a big one - his first poop in the potty!!!

It actually happened last week (July 16th).  Jason got the honors of witnessing it - I was at my ladies Bible Study.  Of course they had to call me to tell me what had happened.  I thought something was terribly wrong, and was relieved once I heard why they were calling!

Cooper is really interested in the potty and has started to request to use it. We weren't planning to officially potty train till much later, but now feels like the right time to try.  So we're going hard core this weekend -  underwear, timer, sticker charts, etc..  If it fails miserably after a couple of weeks, we'll put it on hold and try again later.

 Potty training here we come!!

Funny talk

Cooper's been cracking us up with his mispronunciations and funny phrases lately.  Here are my favorites:

-Us/Any random adult: "Hi, Cooper!"
Cooper: "Hi. Good." (answering "how are you?" before being asked)

-He calls Jason's Aunt Chris "Piss" - oops

-At one time, counting from 1 to 10 sounded like this: "Wam, two, bee, pour, pive, sic, seh-zen, eight, nine, ten!" (for the record, he pronounces most of them correctly now)

-To request a bite of someone else's food, he says "some?" (I guess we have asked him "do you want some?" a lot)


-He randomly says "be back" and walks away.

-Toothpaste = Pooth-paste

-He has a bulldozer shirt, so Jason got him to say "bull" and "shirt".  Unfortunately, he doesn't say the "r" in "shirt".  Didn't think that one through beforehand...

Update: He will say something we can't understand.  After our 3rd or 4th "what are you saying?" or "what was that?", he says very clearly and deliberately: "show me" (which is what we used to say to him at that point in the conversation).

Gotta love the language learning process!

Cruise to Bahamas

Jason and I enjoyed a fabulous vacation - just the 2 of us! - this month.  We are lucky to have parents eager to keep Cooper as much as we'll let them, so we were able to go on a 6-night cruise to the Bahamas.  We had been planning a big trip for about 5 years but kept pushing it back for major life events - buying a house, having a baby, etc.  So we were excited to finally make it happen!  It wasn't even the most wonderful vacation by my usual standards (iffy weather, etc.), but that didn't matter - we just kicked back, relaxed, and enjoyed a week with no responsibilities!  Who knows when we'll be able to pull that off again (probably another 5-10 years!!)...

Our ship - the Carnival Glory

Blue Lagoon Beach - my favorite spot of the trip

Nassau at Night

Our snorkel adventure

The husband and I

2 Years + 4 Months

At nearly 4 months past his 2nd birthday, here's what life with Cooper is like these days:

-Talking much more...mostly 2-4 word phrases such as "need help", "no thank you", "go outside", "go get it", "yes please", and "I got it"
-More rough and tumble - going down the slide, swinging, jumping and hopping, climbing, crawling all over everything
-Identifies all of the letters and knows several colors (red, blue, orange, green, pink, yellow, purple, black, white).  Working on singing the ABCs.  Still loves to count.
-He still adores animals - especially dogs, cats, and monkeys.
-Obsessed with one of his train toys ("choo choo train") that plays music.  Getting more interested in cars and trucks, too.
-He has peed in the potty quite a few times now (his request), though we still aren't pushing potty training.  Not sure that he's completely ready developmentally but he is VERY interested.
-He LOVED the pool today.  Pretty much loves anything to do with water.

-Here are some words that come to mind to describe his personality: strong-willed, social around familiar faces, cautious around unfamiliar faces, observant, playful, stubborn, independent, active, joyful, goofy.

Wishing Well Park

Monkey Joe's

How we left the house one morning because he refused to wear his sandals

On Gigi and Papa's boat, wearing his "boat coat"