Old House, New House

We are moved! Kind of......at least we will have to be totally moved by Friday. It's been a really exhausting two weeks of moving and transitioning. We definitely love the new house, it has so much space for Cooper to play and its so much fun to see him be able to run and run and run (ok so its a little more exhausting too). When setting up his new room we switched his bed over to the toddler bed which is definitely an interesting situation since he can now get out of bed on his own. He can also open just about every door in the house which is really scary. One afternoon Steve looked out the window in kitchen to see Cooper running through the front yard! A little scary considering we have a small waterfall/pond in the front yard and a pool in the back yard now. So doors stay locked at our house and we will likely be replacing some of the door handles to make them a little less child friendly. Cooper has also realized that the new house is a great space to chase the kitties. I'm thinking that when we were in the old house, because it was small, he thought he should make friends with the kitties since they shared so much space. Now, the kitties are there for his entertainment and not so much companionship. I think we have a few angry kitties on our hands! Cooper also seems to be getting a mouthful of teeth. We temporarily stalled at 8 teeth but now his mouth is full of bumps and he keeps pressing his hand to his mouth and kind of shrieking. I give him as much motrin as I can but I don't think it does too much at this point. We close on the new house on Friday afternoon and Friday evening we leave for vacation! I've had several moments where I'm certain a nervous breakdown is about to occur but I think I somehow decided that there is no time for that and I have to unpack another box. Yay for vacation.....we all need one!!!!

Cooper showing Nana how much fun the backyard is going to be.....

His new play room....An ode to Aunt Jo....nothing like being wrapped up in your bumpies!

Dear Hannah

Thank you for writing to me. We love to know that you like to read the blog! How is your summer? Tell Robyn and Tami we all say hi.

Love,

Cooper

Summer Exhaustion

It's safe to say that exhaustion has thoroughly set in for me this summer. We kicked off the summer with me going back to work (which I mentioned before). It's the same company but I'm working on a much better team so I'm much happier now and my exhaustion is less from the strains of being a working mom. I set my goals high this summer in an attempt to get my body back to pre baby shape. I had lost the baby weight but I'm sure that most people reading this who have had babies realize that nothing seems to go back to the way that it was. So I've scooped my boobs up off the floor, strapped on my running shoes and I've begun full speed ahead workouts. So in addition to working full time and now working out full time (I try to do it 6 days a week) I have no time to update our adventures on here. I do apologize.

This week has been particularly draining. On Sunday night/Monday morning Coop woke up in the middle of the night and it was quite apparent he was struggling to get a good breath. I panicked, Steve didn't, and we called the doctor. We spend that night (1am-5am) in Children's Hospital getting Coop treated for Croup. Yay for steroid shots and breathing treatments. Yep, Coop's got croup. Sounds funny now, but it wasn't funny then. Croup is one of those things that I feel someone should have warned me about when I became a Mom. One of those ridiculously scary moments when you can't figure out how in the world your kid went from having a runny nose to labored breathing. Someone should have told me about croup. He is now recovering well. He spent most of his week napping with his Nana and being fickle, but today he wildly blew me kisses on my way out the door.

I also think it's possible that Cooper has skipped straight to his terrible two's. Why have I come to this conclusion? Here is a short list:

1. When I/We say no, he throws himself down on the floor in the most dramatic fashion possible and literally kicks and screams.

2. When something doesn't work the way he thinks it should, he throws himself down on the floor in the most dramatic fashion possible and literally kicks and screams.

3. When we try to help him when he doesn't want help he throws himself down on the floor in the most dramatic fashion possible and literally kicks and screams. Btw - this now includes us trying to feed him. All meals must be implemented by Cooper Jay himself.

He's also super chatty but this has really been the case all along. A list of some of the words Coop can say now:

1. Bottle (he sometimes will say bottle and squeeze my boob, how does he remember this when he only nursed for 6 months, perhaps he remembers the last 6 months of me pumping constantly???)

2. Doggy/donkey....i think to him they could be the same especially after his visit with two great danes last weekend.

3. Daddy....Cooper apparently has two Daddy's we've realized....me and Steve....hopefully he'll figure this out before he starts confusing kids at daycare with his "two daddy's"

4. Woof woof.....also translates to doggy and helps differentiate between donkey and doggy

5. Tractor......this word has only been witnessed by Nana

6. Kitty

7. Ball

We've also been teaching him to point out his ears, nose, belly and feet. He's got the belly part down pat, literally. Ask Cooper where his belly his and he will drop everything, lift up his shirt and pat his belly. Then he will walk over to you lift your shirt, point out your belly and then blow on it...it's hilarious.

Walking is old news now since he can run and he will stop at the top of a step now instead of just running right off of it.....we are making progress.

I would love to say that you will see more updates soon but that's really hard to say. We are closing out our summer with a move. We've found a house that we absolutely love, has tons of space, a great big yard, a pool and lots of room to grow! And no, this does NOT in any way mean that we will be having another baby any time soon. We are perfectly content with Cooper being our only child.

I will leave you with some pictures......

The big 30 isn't that bad after all....

So the big 30 came and went. It's just a number right? Wrong...I'm offically OLD (er). As much as I was dreading it, it really doesn't matter. I had the best birthday ever.

I told Steph that I wanted to get away and spend the weekend with my family at Confluence/Ohiopyle. Sooo, we did just that.........

Thanks for a great weekend!

Cousin Jeffery's Bday Party

A couple weeks ago, we all went down to Aunt Laurie's for Jeffery's Bday Party. There was tons of swimming, playing in the sandbox, jumping on the trampoline, and playing with Uncle Scott's new dog. Much fun was had!

Here are a few pictures pictures from the party.

Day at the Zoo

The weather was perfect today for our first zoo outing. We started our morning with a super yummy breakfast at the Original Pancake House where Coop thoroughly enjoyed fresh strawberries and probably the best orange juice I've ever tasted. We told him we were going to the zoo and he seemed really excited but it's hard to tell if he actually understood what we were saying. Either way, he was in a great mood and that made me happy enough considering he had some vaccinations yesterday and we've had nothing but problems with vaccinations up until this point.

Cooper is really into pointing at things. He likes to point and say "see" which sounds a little more like "zee"....so he spent most of the afternoon pointing at the animals and saying "zee"....I captured some of the zee pointing moments on camera. He also managed to last the entire afternoon with only a 30 minute nap and not a single meltdown which was quite impressive. He even seemed to want to sit in his stroller sometimes which was remarkable in itself. All in all it was a really nice afternoon and was definitely worth the trip.

Quick pic