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Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Memorial Day weekend really snuck up on us this year. Things have been pretty crazy in our house the last few weeks. We finally finished most of the major projects on the house and it is now for sale. Hopefully we can sell our house by July 5th so we don't lose the great house we found in Peters Township, Coopy will be so happy with that new yard! I also started back to work on Wednesday so now I have to settle back into my full time working mom status which means even more planning than I did before. On Friday and Saturday we were in Confluence/Ohiopyle. The last time we were there Cooper was only a few months old, what a difference a year makes. He was totally content with playing with all the wonderful toys Granny had on the screened in porch and we didn't have to worry about him falling off the porch since it was screened in. The best of both worlds! We spent a good portion of Saturday at the beach there with Coop loving the water, the sand, and the rocks of course. Coop's personality/sense of humor has really come out in the last few days. Before he always did funny stuff but it was just always stuff we thought was funny and nothing he did intentionally. Now, it's quite apparent that we have a funny little man on our hands. The faces he makes are absolutely hilarious and he's just really such a little boy now its just great to watch. He also cut another tooth so we are up to 7 now and I'm almost positive his first year molars are trying to make their debut because he keeps jamming his fingers in the back of his mouth and yelping. The molar/tooth pain definitely made for an interesting car ride down to Confluence on Friday. Here is a slide show of the many faces of Coop when he is teething and desperate NOT to be in the car (I ran out of ways to distract him so I just start snapping pictures of him)........Here are some cute pictures of him swimming at Confluence and at the local pool...

Happy Birthday Coopy!

Cooper celebrated his 1st Birthday with what I think is a major milestone. He fed himself with a grown up fork! After he fed himself he then promptly picked up a pen, found a piece of paper and proceeded to act like he knew exactly what he wanted to do. It was quite a celebratory day. And just as an fyi, he used his left hand. So wht are the chances of the son of two lefties being a lefty himself? I guess we'll see.

His birthday party was just as lovely as his actual birthday. The weather was beautiful, a bit windy, but at least no rain. I think Coop was a little overwhelmed by so many people at Nana and Pappy's because he as a little clingy and quiet but he was certainly wound up by the end of the night since he pushed his bedtime back by an hour and a half even with only 1 short nap the entire day. Here are some pics of our wonderful 1 year old and a classic 1st birthday video....enjoy.

Uh oh na nas

I've been on a little hiatus from the blog lately. But thanks to Steve for keeping us updated with great pics. Coop has been growing and changing by leaps and bounds in the last couple of weeks. The other day he was desperately screaming for na na. I thought maybe he was looking for Nana since he can't seem to get enough of her. But along with the screaming he was lunging toward the kitchen table where I keep a bowl of fruit. And magically Coop has identified his favorite fruit by name finally....na nas are bananas of course!!! Then yesterday he all of a sudden started saying uh oh...he drops something...uh oh! He falls down, uh oh! Toys that he had grown tired of he has taken a new interest in. The walkers he used to learn to walk he now likes to play with because he's learned how to walk backwards. Cooper turns 1 next Thursday and it's gone so fast. I was recently going through some pictures of the last year and here are a few that you may not have seen. I'm also posting a video of Coop form today that I think is my favorite video ever of him.

Friday at the bike trail.

When we had Cooper, one of the first things I did was run out and buy a bike trailer to tow the little guy around. Although we did use the trailer a couple times, it really wasn't the greatest for an infant. He was too small to use the trailer seat, so I just put him in his carseat and strapped the seat down in the trailer. It was ok, but he really was too young to enjoy it, plus I quickly noticed that the crushed limestone on the trail was kicking up and hitting Cooper. So we haven't yet really enjoyed the trailer.

This past Friday it was 70ish and sunny. I was off work so we decided to hit the Arrowhead Trail in Peters Twp. Steph and I decided to pick up a bike seat, thinking Coop would enjoy that more. I go to Walmart and they had 2 types of kid's seats....the traditional seat that goes behind you and they had this neat one that goes infront of you. I had seen them online and thought it was neat, but never seen anyone use one. I was skepitcal, but I thought what the heck..it was 50 bucks and if it didn't work, I could return it.

The non-traditional seat is AWESOME! I highly recommend it. Coop gets to sit infront and see what is going on instead of looking at my back and missing everything. He laughed, pointed at every dog we past yelling "duug". I was able to keep an eye on him, point out different things to him, and enjoy him much more. Not only did Coop and I enjoy it...I'm pretty sure everyone on the trail commented on it and how cute Coop was being. He seriously had a blast. He even tried to bounce up and down when the trail was to smooth....so sometimes I would ride in the grass to give Coop the bumpy ride he was looking for.

A few pictures from the farm this weekend

Here are a couple pictures from this weekend that were on my phone. I'm sure Steph will put more pictures up of Coop's 1st Easter.

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Pap, Cooper, and Buddy playing in the barn.

Dad, Coop, and the Donkey.

Coop and I went for a walk...but we had to stop to play with some rocks.

What's Black, Blue and Red All Over??

That would be Cooper Jay and the red all over part is a bit of an exaggeration. Cooper is a smidge of a mess this week. I failed to mention that on Sunday I was a horrible parent and I didn't put sunblock on his precious little face while we were in the park and by Monday morning he looked a little like a lobster. But it was only his face, not all over. Now for the black and blue. On top of the lobster look he was walking around daycare on Monday with a toy crate/block-type object and he fell face first into it. Initially it looked like just a scraped up nose and bruise on his forehead but by this afternoon it spread to another bruise on his cheek and a black eye. I cringed when I had to take him to the doctor today b/c he still has a really bad ear infection. Thank goodness the sunburn is gone but I still had to explain to the doctor what happened to his face (sigh). Mommy's nerves are pretty much shot these days. Despite all the bruises, scrapes, burns and ear infections Coop is in a pretty good mood. He is a little extra whiney but wouldn't we all be if we had an ear infection for almost a month and starting a 3rd round of antibiotics. I had to take a picture just so you all could see why my nerves are shot. He just looks mad b/c the flash hurt his eyes (yes, I know that's something else).