My Little Angel

So, because I always write about the things Cooper does that drive me crazy I thought I should also write about the things he does that are really sweet. The other night I slept like crap. I woke up every couple of hours and was very restless. Cooper is now sleeping on his toddler bed (yea!) so when he wakes up in the morning he just walks out of his room and into mine. The other day, though, he saw that I was still sleeping and so instead of coming into my room like he normally would he just sat outside my bedroom door. He left the door ajar so that he could peek in on me, but he sat right outside the door and played quietly with some toys until I woke up and realized the was there. It was so sweet! He just let me sleep. I have the sweetest kid. He's a handful sure, but he's also sweeter than sugar. He's now started to give me hugs after I change his diaper -- I guess it's his 'thank you'. He's such a good helper, too. He picks up his toys and helps me with the baby I watch during the week. He'll play with the baby to keep him from crying while I'm throwing a load of laundry in the wash or he'll bring me the baby's diaper bag when I forgot to grab the desitin before changing him. It's very nice. Last night our ward had our quarterly enrichment meeting and it was on 'spouse appreciation', although it touched on other relationships as well. One of the speakers said something about how we need to enjoy our children at every age. "Be their friend, love them, teach them, play with them". I thought that was really good advice.

How could you not love a face like this? :)

Summer Treats . . .

Is this not the most delicious thing you have ever seen?

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my dad, my father-in-law and my husband. You guys are such awesome men and I am so grateful for your example to me and my son. I love you! Randy is such a good dad. He went swimming with us today and Cooper had a blast swimming with his dad. (His dad is much more fun to swim with than me. I don't like to get my hair wet and that limits what I will do in the pool). Cooper and Randy were jumping off the side and the waterfall into the pool, having a grand ole' time. I need to get Cooper into swim lessons, but I haven't found anyone who teaches in my neighborhood yet. Cooper absolutely loves the water. He throws the biggest fit every time I get him out of the pool. I bought him a floaty last week and he seems to have figured it out.We've been swimming a few times now and he doesn't have any problem staying afloat in it or even moving around. He stays on the steps and plays with his toys. The best thing about swimming though, is afterwards. It totally wipes Coop out, so he takes a nice long afternoon nap for me. Yea! Randy is currently out golfing with his brother and Cooper is sleeping. Ah, peace and quiet. I forget what it sounds like sometimes. :)

Say It Ain't So . . .

The time has to come to move Cooper from his crib into his 'big boy' bed.

He's now climbed out of his crib a total of 4 times in the last couple of months. The first time he totally wiped out. The second and third time he managed to get out with out me knowing. I didn't have a clue until he all of a sudden appeared in my room! I even had the baby monitor on and I didn't hear a thing! Talk about sneaky! I'm raising some sort of ninja prodigy or something. The fourth time he climbed out of his crib Randy and I watched from the door to see how he does it. He just heaves himself over the side and swings his legs around, dropping to the floor. It's insane. So, I'm afraid we're going to have to put him on the toddler bed. Sigh. I was hoping he'd stay in his crib until his 2ND birthday, but my hope was in vain. Couldn't he figure out the potty training thing first? I'm all aboard that train! So, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the transition from crib to bed easier I'm all ears!

Memorial Day Weekend in Thatcher

What a fun time we had . . .

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Rainy Days

Don't you just love rainy days? They're the absolute best! Today has been wonderfully wet with thunder claps galore, so Cooper and I went out and enjoyed the rain while it's here. He tried to catch the raindrops in his hands and when that didn't work he went and played in the water that was running off the side of our house. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to have those huge monsoon storms in the summer when it would really pour. Our street used to flood up over the sidewalk and so my sisters and I would go out there in our bare feet and raincoats and splash in the water (which came to our knees!) We called it 'surf's up'. Good times.

Me and my shadow

I've been told many times how children's minds are like sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear. Everything. I knew that. I just never realized how closely your children watch you. It's very intimidating. Cooper is literally my little shadow. He follows me around the house while I'm cleaning and doing chores and bring his toys into whatever room I happen to be in at the time. He loves to read and he's always mimicking my hand gestures and sounds. I caught him today sitting in his high chair staring at me and trying to mimic the expression that was on my face. He loves to go into our bathroom and pretend he's shaving like his dad. It's so cute! He even uses q-tips to clean his ears like his father does. It's hilarious. The other day I was putting Cooper's toy golf clubs away and Randy said something that irked me so I started to poke him with one of the golf clubs. Well, Cooper was watching us and he came over with a golf club of his own and started poking Randy, too. Randy wasn't too happy with me after Cooper hit him in the face with his golf club. Sorry, honey! I feel like I'm playing that horribly annoying shadow game from grade school, only instead of it being annoying it's very enlightening. It's made me very aware of my actions to see my little one-year-old imitating them. Hopefully, he'll pick up more good things than bad!