23 Months Old

 

23 Month Facts:

• You've started saying certain words (tiger, bear, lion, "side" (outside), )) in a growly, low voice, it's SO funny!
• You want to be alone when you poop now, you say "away" while your sitting on the potty.
• You talk non-stop, here are some of your most frequently used phrases: "bring" (anytime you want to take something with us where ever we are going) "come" "hurry" when you ask for something before I have even had a chance to answer you say "kaaaay" you love to be "nay nay"(naked) and you let me know. You are always asking "waz that? or who's that" (what's that and who's that) if you don't know. You are still finding places to add extra syllables when you can, "kuhlothes" (for clothes and close) "turtlul" (turtle) "crackruhs" (crackers) "kuhlowee" (our friend's dog's name is Chloe). You call people "honey" or if you hear me say it you will repeat it. You heard me say "crap" the other day and now I catch you saying it, I've really got to watch what I say around you. You're little ingrown toe nails come and go and when they act up you say "toe toe hurt oweee, doctuh" (telling me you need to go to the doctor) it's so cute. You also say "holdjuh" (hold you) anytime you want someone to pick you up, I don't think there are many words you don't say now, I can't believe how much you chatter, I absolutely love it!
• You love "locking" things, you take sticks, bobby pins basically anything you can find and go to doors, toys, cars and say lock as you poke and turn whatever you have in your hand.
• You have been pretend playing (acting like things are things they aren't) for a while and it has been increasing a lot lately, for example, you take your cat puppet and have it turn the page and anything you pick up you pretend is a phone.
• You do your "old man walk" all the time, we can tell you to do your old man walk and you hunch over and take little baby shuffle steps.
• You are the best my little Coop, I love you tons and you get more fun every day!!!

May Madness

May was such an incredibly busy month that I can barely remember what happened, good thing I write everything on my calendar, if I didn't I think I may just have that month erased completely from my memory. Ry was still working down in Utah at their Wasatch shut down and I was trying to fill my day with Cooper and have him have as much fun as he could before I started working for Ry. Our spring was surprisingly pleasant this year, usually we get freak snow storms that makes everything grey and messy, but this spring was gorgeous; we got to enjoy the buds and blossoms a lot longer than normal, we had days that were warm enough to hang out outside in tee shirts and shorts, it was perfect!

Coop got to have a few play dates with his best friends, the Hales, and his favorite was jumping on the tramp with the sprinkler, it took a lot of coaxing to get them to get off even though by the end they were all freezing. Among our other activities we went to McKee's and saw the baby goat and all of the other cute baby animals, Coop was in heaven because he just loves all animals. We had lots of picnics in our backyard followed by lots of time in the sandbox. I let Coop sleep in my bed one night and that was all it lasted, he must've got some of my genes that cause him to take up the entire bed because it was the worst night of sleep I have ever had, he was literally sprawled out either at a diagonal or horizontal angle the whole night.

 

 

 

The top left picture is of an "A" Cooper drew and then told me "momma, "A" he was quite proud of himself. The second picture is a picture of my first flowers Coop picked for me, it was the sweetest thing ever, he brought them to me and gave me a kiss, I have no idea where he learned that, but I loved it. The rest of the pictures are backyard picnics and the pretty blossoms on the apple tree in our neighbors yard.

We went to the park a few times and threw rocks, sticks and flowers in the river. I let him ride the gross rides at the mall, and he got to play in his little pool in the backyard and I let him stay up late with me a couple nights to watch movies and have popcorn, he was in heaven. I was having the hardest time with the thought of leaving him, even though I knew I'd see him in the day it was still physically painful for me to think about leaving my sweet nugget.

 

MOTHER'S DAY

MAY 11, 2013

 

Ry was still out of town on Mother's day but he sent me some beautiful flowers the day before. On Mother's day I went to visit Ry's Mom and then went to church with my family, I'm sad I didn't get a picture of my Mom that day, but I guess maybe it's because we only stayed for an hour of their church and then let Coop go home for a nap.

I could not be more in love with Cooper and having the privilege to be his Momma is more than I could have ever imagined. He is such a sweet boy and I absolutely love the calling of a Mother more than anything in the world, I am so blessed to have Coop be my baby and I hope I can be as good as Mom as my Mom was and is to me.

 

WORKING WORLD

I had a few day shifts before I actually started my month of nights, that would be the top picture where I actually look like a normal functioning human instead of a suicidal zombie, is that even possible? My Dad took off a month of his work to work for Ry, he worked days and I worked nights, but it was nice to be able to see him every day. My work was boring and long, sitting and safety watching can never be anyone's dream job, I tried entertaining myself with weird and random things and then eventually brought ear buds and listened to Pandora. The first week was the hardest, I would nap during our "lunch" break, which was at midnight, but by the end of the month I was completely adjusted to being awake all night with no naps. In the beginning when I would get home I tried staying awake until Coop went down for his nap at noon, but after about five days of this I couldn't function so I had Mareesa watch him so I could sleep a few hours, hang out with him for an hour before his nap and then I went back to sleep. Coop also got sick that first week I was working and I was totally convinced it was because he missed me and his body was making himself sick, I almost quit but Ry and my family reminded me that I could do anything for a month, and that he was in good hands with my sister and mom watching him. You can see that I look progressively worse as I worked, the happy chipper self faded pretty fast, my dad got burned by a welder, Mckaid got acid in his eyes, and two other dumb dumbs got hurt while I was there, things were crazy sometimes. I made some great friends while I was out at Simplot and got to know my way around, it wasn't really that horrible, but I'm not sad that it's over.

 

MAREESA'S GRADUATION

MAY 28TH 2013

I cannot believe that my baby sister has graduated high school, it seems like just yesterday that I graduated and here I am planning our ten year reunion. I had to work the night before graduation and had planned on sleeping before the barbecue at my parents but got called back out for a few hours so this day I was literally running on maybe an hour of sleep, thank goodness for concealer. Mareesa announced favorite teacher and graduated with highest honors, she looked beautiful. We had a fun BBQ and graduation party before Mareesa's graduation which was at 6:00PM she left early to take pictures with friends so I didn't get a picture with her because Coop and I left her graduation early so we could both go to bed, thank goodness Ry gave me the night off, I was dead.

Baby Sister's Senior Prom

Last Saturday was Mareesa's Senior Prom, where did that time go?! Coop and I went over to do her makeup and hair, well not really Coop, he just played with Kaid and Mae Mee while I did Ween's hair and makeup. My mom and I had quite the time getting her into her dress, it was lace up and the back panel was teeny tiny so we had to corset her in to get it closed, but she looked gorgeous and had a blast with her friend Nick.

My Mom definitely cried after she left; her last baby going to her last high school dance. Crazy how fast time flies!

 

Getting ready...

Mom are you ready to go yet?

On their way!



Randoms From Our Week

Since Ry is gone, I was planning on visiting him every weekend before I start work and our Sunday School class is a lot to handle on my own we have a sub until the middle of June, so I have been going to church with my parents. Here is Coop post sacrament having a little snack, it's nice because my parents' church starts at 11:00AM and they have sacrament first so I can just go home and lay Cooper down for his nap, our 1:00PM church kills me.

Coop has been thoroughly enjoying his new sandbox!

He will spend lots of time digging and he absolutely loves the feel on his toes, if he has shoes on when we go out he always says "toes" so I take his shoes off for him. Lately I have had to keep reminding him that the sand needs to stay in the sandbox, why is it so fun to throw sand? I will never understand.

My girlfriend's husband works a lot of nights so we get together as much as we can when our schedules jive. The boys played hard outside, had a bath and got their jammies on for popcorn and a movie, they even shared a bowl and the recliner!

Every time we drive by Farr's Coop yells "iiiysh" so I decided to invite my family to see if they wanted to meet us for family night last Monday. My mom, Mareesa and Kaid did and as you can see Cooper loved having his own ice cream.

Earlier this week we took a walk to the park that took us fifty three minutes because we had to stop and look at every rock, all the fire trucks and ambulances that were at the practice station, every bug, blade of grass, flowers, basically anything he saw he had to stop. We tied Nana to the picnic table and had the whole play structure to ourselves, Coop loved it, but started getting tired pretty fast, could it be that he walked his little legs off? He only lasted about twenty minutes before he was ready to walk home, he broke into the bread that we brought for the ducks and ate almost the whole piece on the way home.

Loving the play structure and if you look at the top right picture there is a little Cooper dot that is waving and saying "bye momma" as I'm walking away.

Once we got to the fire station Coop wanted to walk again so I let him, and there were two more fire trucks there so he had to go "touch" each one. One of the firemen were out and asked if he wanted to sit in it, you would have thought Coop was in heaven. He was nervous at first and then I climbed in with him, the fireman turned on the horn for us and let us honk it, and then when it was time to get out Coop had a death grip on the steering wheel and was saying "no no no" over and over. I finally got him out and he took a very long nap that afternoon.

When he woke up we decided to go visit my parents and all Coop wanted to do was throw rocks in their creek. I bet I let him throw over a hundred before I could talk him in to coming to play inside. Nana loved the creek as much or more than Cooper, she laid down in it and would drink it and chase the rocks Coop threw. Kaid jumped on the tramp with him while I helped Mareesa prep herself for prom which was the next day.

It was quite an eventful uneventful kind of week, we have to stay busy or we (or I really,) miss Ry. I don't know how single moms do it, but I am more tired than I ever have been being a Mom, with Ry gone day and night I really don't get any breaks at all, so i'm definitely looking forward to the end of this month when we can hang out as a family again!

Quick Visit

Ry left for his Wasatch shut down in Layton on the 25th of April and will be gone almost an entire month. He's staying in a hotel in Layton so Coop and I went down for a quick visit on Thursday. I had everything ready Wednesday night and set my alarm early so I could be ready before Cooper woke up.

When Coop woke up he started calling me "momma! momma" "moooommmm!" in his tough little voice. I went in and his sheets were wet, he had soaked through his diaper in the night and had pooped in his diaper, something he hasn't done in about four months. So I stripped his bed and threw his wet bedding in the wash and then got his breakfast for him before he got dressed. He then had to go potty so I ran him in, trying to hustle him along. He has had a bit of a cough and been a bit phlegmy; while he was sitting on the potty he started coughing and then stuck his hand down his throat to try to get the phlegm out, and surprise, puked ALL over. I then had to throw him in the bath and try to hold my breakfast down while I cleaned up his two cups of cocoa, oatmeal and cheese vomit, SO so gross! Finally he was dressed and ready to go, we grabbed gas, I started Brave for him and we hit the road, and miraculously only about half an hour later than I had planned.

Coop did great on the way down, had some snacks and watched his movie and we didn't even have to stop once for a potty break! Ry called when we were only about twenty minutes out of town and asked how close we were, oops. He's working nights so his plan was to stay up and hang out with us for a bit and then sleep after we left, so he wasn't too thrilled that we weren't further than we were when he called. We made it down only about forty minutes later than we had planned, not bad considering all the morning events.

When we got there we changed Coop into his bathing suit, I put my top on and unzipped the bag that I thought had another top and bottom that would match the top I brought, and all it had was a top, so I couldn't swim with the boys, so I just took pictures. Coop was a bit apprehensive at first and then once he had been in the water for a bit he was in love. After swimming, (it was not easy to get Coop out of the pool) we gave him a bath and went to wander the mall for a bit. The mall was pretty small and didn't have too much for us to see but Cooper had fun running around and hanging out with his Daddy.

After the mall we headed to Olive Garden for an early lunch so Ry could get back to his hotel and get some sleep before his long night shift. We had so much fun together and it was great to see him, even if it was only for a few hours. We went back to the hotel, let Coop have a potty break and change into sweats and we headed back home. Coop fell asleep about five minutes into our drive, I have been listening to Wicked on cd for a long time now, so I listened to that. Coop woke up about an hour later and we got home about half an hour after that.

The weather was super nice when we got home so we went to the park to stretch our legs and then we came home and played in the sandbox and chalkboard. Took his third bath of the day and then we snuggled up and read some books before bed. Hopefully we will be able to squeak in one more visit before I start working my night shifts here.

 

My little travel buddy...

My boys playing in the pool...

Sleeping beauty on the way home.

Playing at the park.