Meet Fred

I saw this cute plate in a parenting magazine, and decided we could have fun with it. 

Internets, meet our plate Fred:

And yes, I posted this just so I could feel a bit better about semi-healthy meals that I have in fact served Cooper (at one point in time) -- you know, with vegetables and protein and fruit.  Instead of the Amish Friendship Bread and fritos we've eaten lately...

Misc.

We've been experimenting with Big Boy Underpants.  Seriously, there's nothing cuter:

Finally!  It's Baker basketball pep band season!

Do you think it would be too disruptive if we took our own drums to help out the Baker pep band?

Helping clean the kitchen.  Wearing Daddy's shoes.  And no pants.

Addie:

And continuing the photo stream of Cooper's odd sleeping habits, here's how I found him one morning.  Can you find him?

We ended up taking the bed railing off his bed, and he's been sleeping there a bit more (like maybe twice a week).  And he's only fallen twice once since then.

Apparently, the boy does not have enough toys.

Styrofoam packing:

Packing tape on the kitchen table:

In the kitchen cabinet:

Playing with scissors:

Poor deprived child...

Trucks

Cooper loves anything with wheels.  Miss Brenda, his daycare provider, knows this and picked out this great truck for Cooper for Christmas:

And we have a nice little circle around the house to drive (or race) vehicles.  So naturally Cooper wants Alan to also drive something, usually a firetruck, around the circle.

We'll be tapping into Coop's college fund for Alan's chiropractic bills.

We found a great book of Tonka puzzles that Cooper's really been enjoying working on:

And one of my recent favorite pictures.  (And yes, he's pants-less again.  And no, I have no idea why.)

Back in July, Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Joan took us to their pond for a fishing trip.  Grandpa Cecil loaded up the gator on the trailer behind his truck, and drove it to the pasture.  And then we rode to the pond to fish and boat.

Above, Coop has re-enacted that adventure.  His green gator is loaded up on his semi-truck's trailer.  He asked for a bowl of water to be the pond.  And the yellow boat (in his right hand) is ready to start fishing!

Thumbs Up

Before I started reading parenting books, I had no idea that being able to wiggle your thumbs (as in the "thumbs up" gesture) was a developmental milestone.  Turns out, that's hard to do when you're two.

And when someone gives you the "thumbs up" sign and you try to return it, you do this:

(Note:  I took these pictures at breakfast, so there's chocolate chips (from waffles) in and around Coop's mouth.  Just fyi.)

But lately, I've seen Cooper counting to two using his thumb and index finger.  And counting to three with his thumb, index finger, and tall man.  So I figured he might be able to wiggle his thumbs separately.

One morning, he figured out that (a) he could do it and (b) we were impressed.

And there was much rejoicing:

But when I asked him to show me his thumbs so I could take a picture, I got this:

"My thumbs are in time out, Mama."

Finally, I caught them:

Next step:  a leather jacket and a motorcycle.

Remember When

My friend Andi from law school is now a high-powered attorney in Houston.  She also has taught herself to quilt over the past several years.  She's got six nieces and nephews, so she's kept herself busy making sweet baby quilts for them. 

And she agreed to make me a quilt of some of my favorite Coopie clothes from his first year (and a little beyond)!  So I packed up a box of some of the sweetest outfits and blankets and washclothes and whatnots, and shipped them to Houston.

Giraffe romper suit

Flannel jacket

The pillow case we got form the hospital during his two-day stay there (asthma problems)

And poof!  Look what Andi made:

My very own Remember When quilt!

One of my favorite size Newborn onesies for Cooper.

The back pocket from his little pair of jeans.

And stars on the back.

When it arrived in the mail, Alan asked if I thought Cooper would leave it on him at night instead of kicking it off.  I actually haven't decided if Cooper gets to touch Mama's quilt just yet.  Right now, I mostly just hold it and smell it and remember when....

Some Christmas photos

This is perhaps my favorite photo from this Christmas season:

It's the annual Grandkid Picture with my folks.  This year, with two new grandkids, I though it would be fun to buy them matching pajamas for the photo.  My sisters and I managed to get all the kids dressed and happy at the same time.  But Cooper would absolutely not have anything to do with the photo.  So he's sitting on my knee and I'm leaning backwards to avoid the photo and give the pretense that he's actually in the grandkid line-up.

Another good one -- my niece Vada, my grandma Marlene, and my sister Carmen:

Next, Cooper's guitar-playing friend Woody.  Cooper first met him at Carmen and Toban's house in Portland.  Alan hunted one down on eBay for Coop.

He loved it.  And, true to form, couldn't care less about Woody.  Just wants to play the guitar.

We also had a Christmas celebration on New Year's Eve with Michael, Kristen, and Parker.  Coop got this great fishing game, which we've played at least 12 times since then.

And he got this chocolate penguin.

Which was gone in an impressive 45 minutes.

My sister Kelly gave me Amish Friendship Bread starter for Christmas -- a ziploc bag of goop that you feed and massage for ten days, and then you bake two loaves of bread and give the rest of the starter to four friends so they can enjoy the bread.

I only have one friend who was interested in the starter, so Cooper and I baked bread with ALL of the rest of the mixture.

I looked on-line for variations of the basic cinnamon-sugar-bread recipe, so I have chocolate-chocolate chip bread, pumpkin bread, and blueberry bread, in addition to the cinnamon sugar kind.

It's fantastically delicious, and although in theory only Amish people know the recipe for the starter, you can find it on-line if you're interested in making some yourself!

More tumbling class

The rope swing:

The rings:

Fun with the parachute:

And a fun log for back flips: