Coop's Scoop

Dear Cooper,
You are 2 years and four months old.  If I were to describe you in words, I would say you are very loving, active, tough as nails, extremely considerate, sometimes shy, independent, helpful, determined, strong willed, impressively responsible, and silly!

You keep your daddy and me very entertained.  You love our attention and love for us to do things together.  You have recently started talking up a storm.  Every night between dinner and bath time, you get hyper and want to play hard!  You'll come to one of us to pick you up and say, "Mommy (or Daddy), run!"  You want one of us to run through the hallway with you and the other to chase and try to tickle  you.  You laugh so hard that you snort!  I always wonder what people might think as they drive or walk by our house to see us running through the entire house laughing and chasing each other!

You also love to dance.  You'll go in your room, turn on your CD player, turn up the volume, and start boogying!  Of course, you like company in this too.  Once again, I wonder what people think as they pass our house!  You recently started singing.  Your daddy says you got my singing voice.  I tried to pass on good genes!  The other day in the car you started "singing."  I listened closely and finally figured out that you were singing bits of "Jingle Bells."  "Gee bes, gee bes, all way, hey!"  It was music to my ears for sure!

As for singing "Jingle Bells," I must say that you are really enjoying Christmas time this year.  You love Santa Claus and all the lights!  As soon as you get up in the morning, you run to the living room to turn on the tree, which you call a "Crish chee," and garland on the mantle.  You have stood and admired that tree more than I have ever seen you admire anything else!  You love seeing other people's decorations and lights when we drive by their houses too.  When I asked you what you wanted Santa to bring you this year, you said, "Candy."  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised Christmas morning!

You definitely love your toys and actually play with just about everything.  Recently, you've become very interested in firetrucks and love to drive by the fire station.  You love to talk about what noises things make.  You'll say, "Car say voo-voom.  Tactor say voo-voom.  Fie tuck say woo-wee, woo-wee."  It cracks us up!  When you can't find something, you say, "*, go?"  As in, "Where did it go?"  You like to keep tabs on everyone and everything!  You still love your Mickey Mouse firetruck we got you for your first birthday and the bumper car Mrs. Gilligan got you for your first birthday too.  You like to ride your fire truck while I ride the bumper car.  We go up and down the hall having races and bumping into each other.  Your favorite toys right now are your John Deere Gator (tractor power wheel), chainsaw, train stuff (you can build quite a railroad), trucks, and books.  You finally like to be read to!  Your favorite books are Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Pat the Bunny, Bubbles, and Little Quack.  You love any lift-the-flap book too.

Our bedtime routine now consists of bath, getting a bowl of crackers and your sippy cup, reading several books while you eat your little snack, and then rocking.  As we rock, we say our prayers, and you always say, "I yuh (love) you, God!" and blow a kiss to the sky after I say amen.  Then we go through saying night-night to everyone and everything as you try to delay going to sleep.  If I try to put you in your crib, you get upset and say, "Rock me, Mama!"  Because I'm wrapped around your finger, I do.  Although I have started getting frustrated with the amount of time I spend rocking you to get you to sleep for nap, night, and during the night, I have to admit, there's something pretty perfect about watching your son smile as he drifts off to sleep in your arms.  You fight sleep so hard, but as sleep eventually gets the best of you, you always get a little grin right before you're out.

When you wake up from nap or in the morning, you pop right up and yell, "I yuh (love) you, Mommy/Daddy!"  It's the best wake up call ever!  When we come in to get you, you gather your two stuffed animals (Dog and Elephant...we didn't get clever with their names) and your blanket and take it all out of your crib with you!

You definitely like to do things on your own time and in your own way.  Your most popular phrase right now other than, "No, Mama, stop," is "Coo-Coo do it."  You call yourself Coo-Coo, and you want to do everything yourself, so all day I hear, "Coo-Coo do it, Coo-Coo do it!"  Your recent must-do thing is crawling out of your highchair.  You've been able to crawl in for a long time, but now, you insist on crawling out when you're done too!

You love to play with Sadie and take quite an interest in her all the time.  Your first phrases were about her.  "Saee go?"  "Saee come!"  "No bok (bark) Saee!"  "Good girl Saee!"  You love that dog, and she loves you.  She stays close by you all the time and gets very guarded when someone new comes around you.

I love the age you are right now.  Although we have some challenges (i.e. sleeping), you are an absolute joy!