Rainy Days

We've had a string of rainy, humid summer days here in south Texas. We've exhausted all of our indoor activities and had to head outside yesterday regardless of the weather! Cooper was excited to stomp in the puddles and twirl his favorite big red umbrella. I love the motion of the umbrella in this photo - it reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry claims that he invented "the twirl" move to sell umbrellas on the streets of New York. Ha!

Isn't he getting big? Gosh - I look at these photos and marvel at how quickly he is growing up. What a handsome boy. I'm a proud momma!

Popsicles = Summer

This is a snapshot of our every summer afternoon: popsicles. One for me and one for Coop.

Lots of drips. Lots of licks. Lots of smiles.

Ahhh... summer!

A Deep Thought

As I was helping my parents clean out their attic (and rescuing my belongings from long ago!) I ran across a box of old photos, letters, and this poem, scribbled on a scrap of notebook paper. I remember copying it from the refrigerator at a home where I babysat as a teenager, thinking that I'd like to keep the words for when I was a mom someday. I think it'll now a permanent fixture on my own fridge.

The Little One Who Follows Me

Author unknown

A careful man I ought to be

A little fellow follows me

I dare not to go astray

For fear he'll go the self-same way

Not once can I escape his eyes

Whatever he sees me do he tries

Like me he says he's going to be

That little one who follows me

I must remember as I go

Through summer's sun and winter's snow

I'm molding for the years to be

That little one who follows me

Mem'ries Sweet

This is one of my favorite places - Texas Christian University! However, this is not what campus looked like when I attended just a few short years ago. The campus has been beautifully expanded and renovated. While on a quick trip to Fort Worth this week for some doctor's appointments, Cooper and I had to stop and walk the lawns of my beloved TCU. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Cooper recalls just enough about our homecoming visit from last fall to know that there's a SuperFrog (the football mascot) at TCU. He fervently searched for that frog all over campus before determining that he must be sleeping. : )

Frog Fountain was mesmerizing for Cooper and brought back many fond memories of college for me. The fountain is one of the few familiar landmarks left on campus after the updates and it made me smile!

Here we are!

We love you TCU - we'll be back in the fall for football season, no doubt!

Just Because...

Backyard Baseball

Pop's the hero for introducing Coop to the grand sport of T-BALL!

I don't know if we're ready to take the field quite yet, but we sure had fun!

Swim Lessons

After months of playing in the pool with a life jacket, Cooper was ready to start learning to swim on his own. We're lucky to have friends with a backyard pool, so this summer my mission was to teach Cooper to swim. He didn't need much more than encouragement to get going. I was shocked at how quickly he started swimming!

He can jump off the edge in the deep end and swim to the other side of the pool! That's what I call a swimmer!! We're working on using "big arms" (he swims a little like an otter!) but he is improving every day.

I'm so proud of his confidence! He tells everybody (guys in Home Depot, cashiers at the grocery store, people walking in front of our house) that HE CAN SWIM!