Weekend Adventures

We love our weekends and try to incorporate as much quality family time as we can during those two days.  Karl's work schedule is rough during the week, but that makes us cherish our weekends even more!

A couple weekends ago, we went to the zoo.  It's definitely a family favorite place to visit on a pretty day!  As I've mentioned in the past, my favorite spot is the butterfly garden and Karl's is the lorikeet enclosure (Cooper's is the bobcat-we can't figure that one out).  We went by the butterfly garden first, and I thought it would be closed by now.  Luckily it wasn't, and it had more butterflies than I have ever seen in it.  Both Coop and Karl got one to sit on their fingers.  Cooper walked around for a while trying to get one on his hand, and the whole time he had one sitting on his booty!  

We timed our visit so that we could feed the giraffes.  Last time we went, Karl held Cooper while he fed them, so I got to this time.  The child is fearless and did so good feeding them!  

One of our last stops was to the lorikeet enclosure.  The boys love feeding the birds.  I am not particularly fond of this though.  I know they're pretty and little and harmless, but I don't like things flying at me!

The following weekend we went to a petting zoo.  With the way Cooper loves animals, I knew this would be a hit.  There weren't as many animals as I was expecting, but Little Man didn't mind.

How sweet is that face?!

There were a lot of goats and sheep for him to pet.  He loved it and was very gentle.

 

He was snorting to the pig!

We told him not to pet the goose because she might bite, so he stayed close to his daddy for protection!

My little boy sure is getting big!

Being a Mother to a Son

Being a mother to a son is a special thing.  You get to experience little pieces of life through a boy's eyes.  Sometimes I have to remind myself this is a good thing.  For instance, the other day, Little Man found a worm on the sidewalk.  It was still alive.  As a girl, wiggly worms are not appealing to me.  As the mother to a son, I knew I had to share my son's enthusiasm for his new little pet.  Our neighbor had told me a while back that when he and his brothers were little, they would bring bugs and gross stuff to show their mom all the time.  Instead of freaking out, she would kindly admire their find.  That way the boys weren't scared of things they didn't need to be scared of, and it made them feel kind of special.  I decided that was a good approach with a little boy-I was going to embrace and encourage Cooper's curiosity and sense of adventure as long as it was safe and not too gross.  However, I questioned this decision when Coop started trying to pick up the worm.  It was all I could do to say, "Wow, Buddy, you got a worm!" And not, "EWWWW, gross, put that thing down!"  Boys need to play with bugs and dirt; it's in their DNA.  I know this because then our neighbor's son came out (in his shirt and underwear because that's also what boys do...well, actually it's because he's potty training and had had an accident a few minutes before...but boys do love to walk around in their underwear), and he saw the worm.  Then the boys started fighting over who got to hold the worm.  I never thought I would lecture my child over sharing a worm.

Also, in a boy's DNA is the use of a bathroom as a library.  We got Cooper a potty for his birthday.  He uses it about 3-4 times a day, which is good, but I think he only does it when he wants a piece of candy.  The other day, Karl called for me to hurry and come see what our son was doing.  He had gotten one of Karl's magazines out from the vanity in the bathroom and was reading while pottying.  

And to think I thought I would never get the child to show an interest in literacy!  

One Last Beach Story

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago in our beach vacation recap, the week before our trip was just as rough as our week at the beach.  Coop wasn't feeling well, Karl was working around the clock, and I was losing my mind cleaning, packing, and preparing for the trip.  The day before we left, I was busy cooking some different foods for us to take with us so that I wouldn't have to cook while we were there.  During Cooper's nap, I made a chocolate chip poundcake.  The worst part of baking any cake is letting it cool though.  That freshly-baked-eat-me fragrance is hard for anyone to resist, especially a child apparently.

When the cake was done baking, I set it on the counter to cool.  About that time, Little Man woke up from his nap, so I went and got him out of his crib.  We came into the kitchen for his juice, and he noticed the cake.  He started reaching for it while saying, "Mmmmmm!"  I told him the cake was hot and he could have some later (i.e. when we got to the beach).  I carried on with my endless chores list while I thought Cooper was eating the snack I gave him in the living room.  That's when I started hearing a very enthusiastic, "MMMMMMM!!!!  MMMMM!!!!  MMMMMM!!!!"  Hmmm, what could he be so excited about? I darted into the kitchen to find this...

A cake thief!

 The damage was actually much worse than this picture looks like.  The side of the cake was missing big chunks.

He couldn't even shut his mouth because he had crammed so much cake into it!

I stood there for a few minutes assessing the situation.  I didn't have any extra ingredients to make another, but did I really want to take a cake that looked like a bear had gotten hold of it to the beach with my cousin's family?  It was in bad shape, and Cooper was enjoying it so much.  I remembered what life's supposed to be about, and it's definitely not about letting the preparations for a trip and a crazy week drive you mad.  It's about enjoying and savoring a wonderful blessing that won't be little for long enough.  So, I took my slaughtered cake, put it on the little table that I redid for Coop this past spring, and let the kid dig in!  We sat at the table together, didn't even bother with forks, and ate cake.  He loved it and laughed and "mmmmm"ed with each bite.  And so did I!

School Days

Karl and I decided that we would start sending Cooper to Mother's Day Out this year.  Let me just say, this came with a lot of stress and tears (because I am neurotic and overprotective)!  I was very picky about where I wanted him to go, and one by one, I kept crossing places off my list.  I really didn't think I would find the "right" place.  My dad pointed out that maybe I was being a little too demanding and picky.  Maybe???  By February, I was down to one place, and I hadn't even seen it yet, but I decided that's where I would register him because I knew I didn't like any other place.  When I walked in the first time, I was amazed!  It was a dream come true!  I loved everything about the place and even sent Karl a text message telling him I was jealous that Cooper was going to get to go and not me!  They were also the only place close by that offered a two and three day choice (I only wanted Coop going two days this year) and the phonics program that I passionately love.  Everything about this place had me so excited!  

Fast forward six months, and it was time for Little Man to set off on this new adventure.  For at least two weeks before his first day, there were tears.  A lot of tears.  By me.  Crazy!!  I even googled his teachers' names when I got his welcome letter, and I almost clicked on the "Order Background Check" option on one website before Karl told me I was going waaaaayyyy overboard!!  Then I had serious thoughts about not sending Coop this year and waiting until next year so that he would be bigger and older.  Karl nixed that too. 

So, with my anxiety building, the first day finally arrived, and Little Man was ready!  When I put his backpack on him and told him he was going to school, he rushed outside to get on the "scoo buh" (school bus).  He was seriously disappointed that he didn't get to ride the bus!  We took our pictures and then loaded up in the car.  Karl went with us that day so he could walk Cooper in too.  I think it was truly so that he could make sure I left Cooper's classroom that day though!  When we walked in, a little boy was crying, and Cooper started getting a little pouty and put his head on my shoulder.  We kissed him, got him distracted by a dump truck, and snuck out before he could start crying.  I immediately teared up and told Karl not to talk to me.  I didn't make eye contact with anyone as we left and started crying as soon as the car door shut.  When we got home, Karl asked me what I was going to do for the next few hours, and I told him I was going to sit in Cooper's room and cry!  I didn't though.  I got my chores done, and before I knew it, it was time to go get him.  

When I went in his classroom to get him, he was content and playing with a little girl.  I walked over and knelt down beside him.  He didn't notice at first, but when he did, he got up, went and stood with his back to the wall, and said, "Daddy?" with his little arms raised up like he was asking a question.  In other words, "Where's my daddy because I'm mad at you right now for leaving me!"  That about broke my heart!  I had picked him up some of his favorite gummy worms and had them in his car seat as a surprise.  He didn't change his attitude towards me though and gave me the cold shoulder until dinner time! The little stinker!  

He was looking for the school bus!

My big boy's first day of school

The Tool Man Turns Two

Cooper made deciding a theme for his birthday party this year very easy!  By February (a full six months ahead of time), we knew we were going to be having a tool party, and piece-by-piece we built an awesome birthday for our Little Tool Man!  In keeping with the theme, we made this quite a do-it-yourself party, as in I was going to put on my work gloves and get busy being crafty and keep this a low-cost affair!  It was fun to see our house turn into a construction site and workshop for Cooper and some of his sweet little friends.  Cooper's birthday is by far and away my favorite day of the year.  The specialness of the day seems to grow each year as he does! 

Birthday Pre-Party

We had Cooper's birthday present from us in the hallway for him to find when he got up that  morning.  It was not a present that could be wrapped, so we just threw a sheet over it! :)

What is it???

A tool bench for the Tool Man of course!

We also got him a backpack with a book and stuffed animal inside.  The backpack was so he would get excited about starting Mother's Day Out.  I thought he would love carrying it around.  He could have cared less!

I found him sitting on his tool bench watching his cartoons a little bit later!

The Birthday Party Details

Here is an overload of pictures and information about our Tool Party!

The Invitation

I found some fun construction stickers on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  I bought the last two packs they had!  Everyone's invitation had the same wording but had different stickers, paper, and ribbon.  This was my favorite one, and it's actually much cuter than this picture shows, but I wanted to keep our last name and address off the blog!  We had a morning party this year so that we could take good naps afterwards!

The Favors

These turned out to be my favorite birthday craft.  I used brown paper bags, black and white polka dotted and orange tissue paper, black, orange, and yellow ribbon, and stickers I made on the computer to cutesy them up.  They had blow up hammers, bubbles, bath toys that looked like tools and construction worker rubber duckies, and a toy truck inside (all from Oriental Trading and Wal-Mart).  They also stuffed the candy from the pinata in their bags after we finally got it busted (more on that in later pics).

The Decorations

1. You can see our mantle and fireplace when you walk in, so I wanted it to be festively decorated too.  I found yellow caution tape online that said "Birthday Zone" on it, so I wrapped a spare piece of plywood from our garage with a yellow plastic tablecloth and then did the yellow tape on top.  I also framed some pictures of Cooper playing with Karl's tools to go with it.

2. We set up Karl's sawhorses with another piece of plywood on the deck for drinks.  We called this the "Fueling Station."  We had juice boxes for the kids and root beer and orange cream soda (to go with the colors of the party) for the adults.

3. We wrapped our powder room door with a blue tablecloth and put up a sign that said "Porta Potty" so people would know where the bathroom was.  Every construction site needs a porta potty!

The Games

We cleared off the screened-in deck and set up the birthday games and drinks on it.  We set up several different games/stations (my teacher-side came out...I even made signs labeling the games!) to entertain the little ones.  There were "Blueprints"-coloring on yet another piece of plywood I found in the garage and painted with chalkboard paint, "Hammer Away"-hammering extra long golf tees into floral styrofoam blocks that I spraypainted to look like wood, "Dump Truck and Diggers"-mini-construction trucks in a box of sand, "Build with Blocks"-well, that one's kind of self-explanatory, and "Model Homes"-I put out some of our homemade play dough and a variety of cookie cutters and toys to go with it.  Karl's mom saved Karl's Tonka trucks from when he was little, and we put those out too.

The Pinata

Karl and I went back and forth on whether or not to get a pinata.  However, I found this one online for a ridiculously good price.  It had pull-strings so the kids could pull strings of ribbon rather than beat it.  Well, we ended up having quite a time with this thing.  Karl had hung it up with fishing line above an archway in our foyer.  I got all the little ones gathered around and holding onto the strings, and then we all pulled together... And the darn thing comes crashing down!  So, for round 2, Karl held the fishing line, and we got all the kids gathered around again, holding onto the strings...And we rip the pinata away off the fishing line!  During round 3, the children were understandably getting a little hesitant towards the decorated box that so far did nothing to interest them.  Karl held it by the handle, we gathered, we pulled... And all the strings ripped away from the bottom, but the bottom didn't rip away too.  I couldn't believe this thing!  It was supposed to be for toddlers!  So, round 4-Karl takes out his pocket knife (as you can see in the third picture) and cuts a big hole in the bottom.  As the 6 big bags of candy that I had stuffed in this thing come pouring out, the kids didn't really know what to think!  Overall, the pinata didn't really work out in terms of entertaining the children, but once they dove into the pile of candy, all was forgiven and forgotten!

The Food

We had tons of food, and it all went along with our theme!  We had junkyard dogs (Karl grilled hotdogs before the party, and we wrapped them in aluminum foil to keep them warm.  We had ketchup, mustard, relish, and chopped onions to go with them), wrecking balls (cheeseballs), loose gravel (popcorn), 2x4s (cheesesticks), spare tires (chocolate covered donuts), tools (Karl's mom made sugar cookies and cut them out to look like hammers and screwdrivers), Reese's Pieces, and then an awesome cake.

The Cake

This was my one splurge for the party, but overall, it wasn't a big splurge.  A local lady makes fantastic cakes out of her house.  I have several friends who have used her and highly recommended her.  She actually made the cupcakes for my baby shower at school, so I knew firsthand that her cakes taste great!  I told her what I wanted, and she did it exactly like I described.  The best part of all was that it tasted as good as it looked!  How cute are the tools and "saw dust" on top of the cake?!

One of my favorite moments from this birthday and his first birthday was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to my little boy.  There is something about that that gets me teary-eyed!

He blew out his own candle!!!  We hadn't practiced that,  but he did it like a champ!

After the cake, we opened presents.  Uncle Wade got Cooper his first pair of cowboy boots.  Uncle Wade knows I'm not a fan of cowboy boots.  When he apologized to me before Coop had even opened his present, I asked the obvious questions first, "Is it loud?" "Is it big?"  And then it dawned on me... Wade moved to Texas earlier this year.  Texans love their boots.  I didn't even have to ask.  I said, "You got him cowboy boots??!!?!"  He laughed.  Just between us though, they are really, really, really cute, and Cooper loves them.  All children need cowboy/cowgirl boots eventually, so at least Uncle Wade footed the bill for these!  After opening only a couple more presents, Cooper opened his Aunt Elmo's gift.  She got him a chainsaw that also came with goggles!  This child loves chainsaws passionately.  I can't remember if I've mentioned on here or not that for relaxing fun in this house, we watch videos of Stihl chainsaws on You Tube.  Coop brings us the I-Pad and says, "Chay-suh" until we load the videos for him.  After he opened her gift, he didn't care about opening anything else (and he got some really great presents too).  He was so excited about that chainsaw!  

He immediately wanted the goggles on, as well as Karl's work goggles around his neck.

The "chay-suh!!!"

He spent the rest of his party (and the entire weekend) playing nonstop with his new chainsaw.

He loves trying to cut up the couch!  He's such a patient lumberjack and never gets upset that he doesn't make any progress (thankfully)!

It was a wonderful day made even more special by our sweet family and friends who came to celebrate our Little Tool Man.  We really did build some fun memories that day!

Two Years Old

My little boy is two.  While the past two years have gone by incredibly too fast, it's hard to believe Cooper has only been in our lives for two years.  Was there life before Cooper?!

At two, my little man is quite the little man.  He picks up on everything and loves to copy Karl and me. His most recent fascination is keys.  He sneaks my keys out of my purse when he can.  He hits everyone's pocket to see if he hears a jingle.  If he does, he quickly confiscates their keys.  He loves to sit in the car, put the keys in the ignition, and pretend to drive.  He turns on the blinkers and windshield wipers, honks the horn, fiddles with the radio, puts on his seatbelt, and now can even open and close the garage door.  (My dad's jeep is his favorite.  I think it's because he keeps snacks in there.)

Anywhere we go in public, he insists on carrying the keys.  Not for the obvious reason though.  Did you know that keys make awesome pretend chainsaws?!  You can pretend to chainsaw the grocery cart making really loud, "ZZZZZZZZZZZZ" noises and everyone will look!

That's another thing about this little boy--he has got an imagination!  I love watching him use popsicle sticks, broom handles, and rulers as chainsaws.  I also love when he uses flat rectangular objects as pretend phones.  He loves to play, and he can turn any object into whatever he needs it to be, including play dough as a band aid.  His little shins are always bruised and scabbed, but that's part of being a boy.  He is happiest outside running free.  If he's inside, he still runs free, usually chasing poor Sadie through the house trying to get her to chase him.  Coop loves to be chased, and he loves that dog.  His first sentence (other than, "I pooped") was, "Saaaee, cuh!" (Sadie come!)

While he is still a man of few words, his speech is starting to pick up some.  He can name tools without a problem, but he also frequently says family members' names ("Mommy"-not Mama anymore, "Daddy," "Saaee," "Papa," "Pappy," "NeeNee," "Nana," "Nih-Nih"), please, thank you, more, all done, ball, hat, car, truck, animal noises (our favorites are when he does a rooster and a turkey), potty, candy, juice, cracker, no, and the list goes on!  He used to say "no" by pushing his tongue out instead of pushing the tip to the roof of his mouth for the /n/ sound.  We loved that, but now he says it like a pro and shakes his head to give it its full effect.  I guess practice does make perfect!  He uses two and three word sentences like, "Daddy work." (that's his answer when I ask him where Daddy is) and "Mommy got it."  Even though he doesn't say much, we can normally figure out what he wants by his hand gestures and how animated he gets.  My favorite is when he hears something unusual or something happens that excites him, he puts his hand over his mouth and usually says, "Wooh!"  I love that!  

He loves to share and makes sure you have something similar to him at all times.  If he plays with his weedeater, he gives you the chainsaw.  If he has a hammer, you have a hammer.  If he is using his potty, he wants you sitting on the toilet too.  If he gets candy, you have to have some too before he'll take a bite of his.  This is how our daily popsicle date came to be.  At some point every afternoon, Cooper wants a popsicle.  He gets so excited about his popsicles that he'll start dancing while he waits for you to get it open.  It is truly hilarious, and we have named this the "Popsicle Dance" (not the most creative, but if you say, "Do the popsicle dance," he'll immediately start doing it!).  However, he won't touch that popsicle until I have one too.  Then we take our popsicles to the screened in porch and sit there and eat them.  We normally trade a few bites into them and then trade again a few more times before they're all gone.  This is my favorite time each day.  I love how important it is to him that things are fair and that everyone enjoys what he's enjoying.  I love the heart of this little boy.

He's also very responsible and tidy.  If he spills something, he wants to clean it up.  If his toys are all out, he'll pick them up and put them where they go.  He takes care of his stuff, and it amazes me that at two years old, he already shows such appreciation and respect.  

That doesn't mean we don't have our moments.  This kid can be majorly strong willed and stubborn (I don't know where he gets that from!).  He is very selective with his hearing and does a great job tuning me out sometimes.  We're becoming familiar with time out, and Karl's mom passed on her spanking spoon, which I have proudly and conveniently displayed on the kitchen counter.  It only took one time for Cooper to learn about the spanking spoon.  The other day when he was acting up, I picked it up, and he shaped up in record time!  Every now and then he experiments with the terrible twos, but thankfully he ops for the terrific twos for the most part (for now at least).

He is a very happy boy.  He is my best little buddy, and I am constantly overwhelmed by how much I love him.  He amazes me daily, and I am so proud of him.  He is so kind and loving.  He is helpful and independent.  He is full of energy and laughter.  I know he will make people's lives better throughout his life.  He certainly has made mine better.