Santa's Little Helper

Cooper took quite a liking to Santa this year, and this was before he even really understood Santa would be brining him presents!  As soon as we mentioned Santa this year, he decided he loved him!  He was constantly talking about him and how Santa says, "Ho, ho, ho!"  I have several Santa ornaments, and naturally, those were Little Man's favorite.  One morning while Coop was watching his cartoons, I noticed he had taken an ornament off the tree...

From that point on, that was "Coop-Coop's Sanna Coz," and he hung it on the tree and took it off the tree as much as he wanted!
Speaking of ornaments, here are my two favorites this year...

 This sweet handprint from Mother's Day Out

 An idea I found on Pinterest-I printed a picture from each of Cooper's Christmas's on transparent paper, cut them out in a circle, wiggled them in a clear ornament, and situated them with tweezers.  They look really pretty when the lights on the tree shine through them!

Back to the Big Guy...

Cooper has never had any hesitations about Santa Claus, and this year was no different; however, he wasn't sure about sitting on his lap!  We went to Bass Pro Shop, and Cooper played for awhile in their Winter Wonderland.  His favorite though was climbing on each and every four wheeler!  We were having a really hard time getting him off and away from them, so finally Karl told him to go tell Santa that's what he wanted for Christmas.  Although most people don't understand what Cooper's saying when he talks, he does for sure!  Well, he took off down the red carpet, went and stood in front of Santa, and started babbling!  Then when he was done, he crossed his little hands like he always does and started to walk off.  We quickly plopped him on Santa's lap before he could get away, and then he froze!  

After a little coaxing with a candy cane, Little Man was happy to snuggle with the man in red!  From that day on, he has talked about Santa and candy each and every day!

NOLA

Karl and I went on a weekend trip at the beginning of December.  It was our first getaway since Little Man joined our family over two years ago!  We've tried other getaways, but something's always come up.  We decided to go to New Orleans, and we had a blast!  We had excellent tour guides who definitely made the trip a lot more fun for us.  Karl's brother lived in New Orleans for two years and his girlfriend is from there and still lives there.  We spent the weekend eating a lot of great food, sightseeing, relaxing, and getting into the Christmas spirit...cajun style!

Saturday night we had dinner at Drago's (best chargrilled oysters in the whole wide world), checking out the casino, having drinks at the Carousel Bar, watching a Dirty Santa parade (absolutely hilarious!), and visiting Christmas at the Oaks.

Sunday morning we had our beignets at Cafe du Monde, piddled through the French Quarter, and played at the aquarium.  After a good lunch, Karl and I went back to the hotel for a nap!  Once we got up, we headed back out for some more sightseeing.  We went to the Roosevelt Hotel to see their decorations-truly one of the most beautiful Christmas displays I have EVER seen!  We ate another delicious meal and revisited Drago's for some more chargrilled oysters!

We headed home Monday after another beignet breakfast and some more shopping.  Although it was a quick trip, it was worth the two year wait!

Christmas with the Cranks

There is so much to catch up on!  December has been full of lots of craziness and fun with a more than hefty dose of sick thrown in too!  Coop caught another cold which resulted in another almost-ear-infection and a refusal to go to sleep without being rocked or stay asleep without being held, and my sweet little sharer made sure his mama got plenty of his germs to ensure she too caught the nasty cold.  Oh what fun!  The pediatrician assured me this is a normal part of childhood and how we build immune systems and that I should not pull him out of Mother's Day Out because we've made it halfway through at this point.  Despite the sniffles, coughs, and crankiness, we have had a wonderful Christmas season.  We might not have been as holly and jolly as we normally would have been, but there is something about seeing Christmas through a child's eyes that makes it deeply special.  I have tons of pictures to share (Santa brought me a new fancy camera!) and fun stories to add, so I'm going to divide it all up into many posts so it's not too overwhelming!

Let's start here with a fun afternoon at the beginning of the month.  My children (Cooper and Sadie) love popcorn, so after nap one day, we popped a bag and enjoyed it by the handful with a Christmas movie.  This was an unplanned event, but when this little cutie brought me a bag and started dancing around, I happily agreed!

I got so tickled watching him and Sadie eagerly anticipate the pops coming from the microwave!  Sadie reached a point where she couldn't handle it and started whining/crying!  I heard lots of "mmmm"'s from Cooper those 2 minutes!

Cooper is an exceptionally good sharer (thankfully) and is always willing to keep things fair.

With all the hustle and bustle that comes with preparing for Christmas, it's nice to have a relaxing and fun afternoon enjoying the comfort of your own home!  Just ask Sadie...

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!

We wish you a Merry Christmas

I feel like any time I have a long lapse in blogging it's because Cooper got sick or Cooper's not sleeping or Cooper's in a stage that I'm enjoying so much that I end up spending all my extra time soaking up his cuteness.  I can blame all three of those things on this recent lapse!  Little Man got a virus the week of Thanksgiving that involved blisters in his throat, and he had a borderline ear infection as well.  It was a long week that involved calls to the after-hours nurse three nights in a row and two doctor's visits.  We did very little sleeping and lots of crying!  The Sunday after Thanksgiving, all was well again, and Little Man gave up his "sassy" (paci).  That's a story for another day, but I'll just go ahead and say that surprisingly ended up being the easiest thing we have ever done involving Cooper.  Then he was in a stage that I once again determined was my very favorite.  His vocabulary suddenly exploded, and I was loving all the precious things he was saying.  From there, for whatever reason, he stopped sleeping.  I have been rocking him to sleep for nap, nighttime, and during the night.  We're still not sleeping, and it is very frustrating!  More on that later too!  

Within all that excitement/craziness/exhaustion, Donielle came and took our picture one Saturday for our Christmas card.  I could not believe how perfectly she captured Cooper's personality.  This was during the cute phase in between the sickness and not sleeping.  Her pictures definitely added to our Christmas cheer, and on our recent tough days, I have really loved looking at this sweet face and remembering that this is just a phase...not just the bedtime battles, but all of it.  He will be my rambunctious, silly, sweet, two year old cuddler for a very short time before he truly becomes my little man.  During the days and nights that involve hours of rocking and the days that demand extra patience as we test out our growing independence and strong will, I remind myself of the preciousness of this blessing in my life.  I get to rock him.  I get to soothe him.  I get to teach him.  I get to take care of him.  And what a gift that is.  

We wish you a Merry Christmas this year and many blessings in the new year!