Sick Day...

You know your child is sick when:

*He doesn't want his usual "nina" (banana) as soon as his eyelids open in the morning

*He cries at just the suggestion of you leaving the room or doing anything except sitting next to him on the couch

*He doesn't even care when you turn off Cinderella (for the 8th time!) to watch your recorded American Idol

*He lets the dog gnaw on his favorite truck without complaint (this was the BIG hint!)

You guessed it, my sweet Cooper is sick. I think the flu that has caught more than 125 kids at my school has finally caught us. Despite my sanitizing each infected child's desk/chair and offering hand santizer to well students like it was candy, we were bound to get sick sometime. It has not been an enjoyable experience for anyone, but we are surviving. It's day 2 and I anticipate that this sickness could last us well into the weekend. Lovely.

We Miss You, Colin & Dayna!

My brother, Colin, and his girlfriend Dayna have become treasured people to Cooper and I. We've been blessed to spend much time with them since moving to Houston, as they come home from A&M to visit every once in a while. Dayna obliges Cooper and plays legos, making her a major hero in his eyes. Colin mostly enjoyes tormenting his nephew (in the nicest possible ways) by scaring him to death when he walks around a corner (I must admit, I do that too sometimes...) taking endless pictures of him when he's throwing a fit, and instigating fights over who's "bubba" is whose. They've kept us company, played with Boone, and even baby-sat Cooper while I ran an errand. We always enjoy our time with them! Over Christmas, we were spoiled to have them here for more than 5 weeks (I know, doesn't college sound awesome when I talk about the vacation time?!) and now that they're back at school, I really miss them!

I bring this all up because last night, my sweet Cooper reminded me that he misses his uncle and his Dayna, too. I was laying with him in his bed after reading a bedtime story and we started talking about what we should thank God for when we prayed. The list is pretty standard - he always suggests that we say thank you for Lolli and Pop and for Boone and for Mommy. But tonight, the first words out of his mouth were, "Colin Dayna". I smiled and said, "Oh, we are thankful for them! Who else?" To that he replied, "COLIN DAYNA!". After several minutes to conversation, it became clear that the only people we would be praying for would be our Uncle Colin and Dayna. : )

Sometimes I think he's too young to remember, but Cooper proved that hasn't forgotten 2 of his favorite people, even though they are away at "work" (as he says). We love you guys and can't wait to see you soon!

More Boone Pictures

We love our Booney!

Our Family...

We rarely catch sweet moments of Cooper and I on film, so this occasion was rare. But treasured! : ) Isn't he getting big?

The boys... best friends (on most days!)

Little Squirt

Cooper's new favorite pastime is squirting things with his hot pink squirt bottle. I know, this is an odd fascination, but I noticed that he was always trying to "help" me windex the glass doors and so I thought that maybe his own bottle of water would be fun.... I had no idea just how much fun!

Now, given the chance, Cooper will wash or water anything in sight. He waters Mommy's plants on the porch (each leaf individually!), he mattes down his own hair, and he offers to clean the couch. Here is is cleaning the underside of my outdoor dining table.

Boone is dying to join in on the fun - which causes some natural "sibling rivalry" behaviors in Cooper. Notice that Boone is almost as tall as Coop now and I'm sure he will soon be able to overtake him and snatch that pink squirt bottle without a problem.


This is the precious face that means, 'Watch out, Mommy - I'm squirting YOU next!"

After a long morning of work, Cooper gives Boone a drink. The funny thing is that I originally had the idea of using the squirt bottle to discourage Boone from biting or nipping at our legs (well, Cooper's waist!) But after Cooper has been playing with it for a few days now, Boone loves being squirted with water! His puppy school teacher was NOT happy with me when I told her this... my bad~

Oh, and just in case you want YOUR kids to try this... bear in mind that we do have a few ground rules (that make life with a squirt bottle managable)

1. No squirting Mommy

2. We squirt things OUTSIDE

3. No squirting the camera! ; )

Have you ever had a morning like this?

I really really really don't like to lose things. And I usually don't. Normally, I am very organized or at the very least, I have a memory good enough not to misplace many things. In fact, it has been a long time since I have ever "lost" something forever. I think the last thing I can recall losing into the black hole was a royal blue Abercrombie t-shirt from my freshman year of high school. It went on a missions trip to Mexico and never came back. But I digress...

So this morning when I was racing to get out the door and I realized that I had lost something (and something very important) I was really miffed. The lost item: Cooper's shoe. We are on a very tight time schedule in the mornings, so in order to get out the door in time to take Cooper to school and get me to meet my tutoring group, we have to be on the ball. No time for misplaced things. And there was no way we could just make do without it. To be fair, I actually had in my possession a left shoe and a right shoe, but they just happened to be from two different pairs. I just couldn't bring myself to be "that mom" who sends her kid to school with two different shoes and unkempt hair.

So the decision was made to be late and search for the shoe. I thought, As long as I am going to be late, I may as well try to find some humor in this situation. So I whipped out the camera to take a few photos for the blog. Might as well, right?

After hunting literally in every place known to man -the toilets (we've got the dog now, so anything is possible!) the backyard, the laundry baskets, the fireplace... I found the missing shoes (both of them!) on a kitchen chair that was pushed in under the table. Hallelujah!

Off we went to school as fast as those shoes could velcro on Cooper's feet. Only 17 minutes behind schedule!

Building a House

For Christmas, Cooper's big gift from my parents was a playhouse for the backyard. Because of its size, the house really couldn't be a Christmas morning surprise, but check out Cooper's face when he realized it would be a kid-sized house just for him...

It looked like an enormous building project (judging from the size of the box and the photo of te completed project with all the working shutters and doors) but we hoped for the best and started building. After all, the outside of the box said "2 people, 2 hours" - couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong! Inside the box, the 68 page direction handbook did not carry the same "2 people, 2 hours" logo. In fact, the cover clearly stated that it would take 2 "moderately skilled people" between 6 and 8 hours to build. Yikes. After much debate about what classified one as a moderately skiller worker, my dad and I decided that one wanna-be handy man, one good for nothing assistant (me) and one mess-every-thing-up toddler would have to do.

Cooper loved every minute of the building experience. He diligently worked with his own screwdriver and followed my dad around, trying to help in any way possible.

It was so much fun to watch Cooper in his element. He is interested in how things work and is quite dedicated to tasks that most toddlers would avoid. The idea of screwing and unscrewing a bolt was thrilling to him. By the end of the day, he knew the name of every tool we used and could hand my dad each tiny screw or nail that he needed. I learned a lot while watching Cooper build. I think he is wired to work with his hands and use tools - it has helped me to understand what kinds of things to help him pursue as he grows up. He is a worker-man!

Here is the house without the roof, almost done. I'll have to take a picture of it all finished and in its place in the yard. It has been Cooper's hidaway and the place that he retreats to when he wants to work or play alone. It's also his own little fort for playing with his dog, driving trucks, and making mud pies. I'm sure many more adventures are to come in this little house.

We've got to give a little shout out to my dad, who did (literally) every ounce of the work on this house. I did nothing more than hand him stuff and crowd-control the Coop... Thanks Dad! Cooper loved spending the day with his Pop and he loves his little house. : )

Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful holiday with our family this year. Cooper is getting so big and he can understand more than every before about why we celebrate Christmas. It brings me such joy to watch him learn about Jesus and help us rejoice in His birth!

Our family tradition is to open one present on Christmas Eve (usually/always pajamas for me!). Cooper was thrilled to have a present to open (I don't think he realized that gifts were coming...) He got this adorable little ambulance with mini EMTS and a stretcher - - it occupied him until he could barely keep his eyes open. We spent the night over at my parents' house so we could have the full "Christmas morning" effect and wake up to presents!

Our sweet Boone was our family's "big" gift this year. He is precious and such a blessing to us!

I regret that I wasn't really in the "photo taking mood" at 5am on Christmas morning, so I apologize for the lack of pictures. Cooper got a 3 -story "play house" from Santa (my dad refuses to call it a doll house, although that's what the package says...) He has one at school and the teachers say that he can sit and play forever with it. I was sold and they were right - Cooper loves his house! It came complete with little wooden people and a house full of furniture, which I spent awhile setting up and Cooper spent a longer while rearranging!

As Cooper gets older, I am trying hard to start Christmas traditions that are meaningful and reflect our motivation for celebration - Jesus! In this spirit, this year I gave Cooper just 3 gifts. Honestly, I still felt compelled to buy more or do more or be more creative, but I was constantly reminded my the Holy Spirit that my biggest gift to my son would be the realization that the gift we received on Christmas morning was our Lord and Savior in the form of a baby. I really thought that there would be disappointment and the special day would feel anti-climactic without the mound of gifts to open. But to my surprise, after Cooper came down the stairs and saw his house, he didn't even care about opening any more presents! I let him play while Colin and my parents and I took turns opening our gifts to each other. Intermittently I would ask Cooper if he wanted to open another present and he said "I don't want it, Mommy." or "No more!" What a gift to my heart!

We look forward to another year of God's blessings as He draws us closer to Himself and transforms us to the likeness of Christ our Savior.