Sunny San Diego

We took a vacation with Alan's family (minus Grandpa Jerry, who stayed home to look after critters, and one niece, who stayed home to be with her boyfriend *I'm loooking at you Bailey*) to San Diego.

We stayed at the famous Hotel Del Coronado:

It's right on the beach (hence all the sand in the above picture), so we spent a lot of time playing near the water.

Cooper wasn't too sure about it, though.  He would wade in a few inches and then run away because the waves were "chasing" him.

(The rock formation in the distance is Point Loma, home to lots of US Navy people and boats and planes.)

First official trip to the dentist

Time for Coop to go to the dentist.  For real, not just tagging along with us to see the office.

This is Nurse Michelle (ok, so she's not really a nurse, but that's an easier title to give her than Hygienist Michelle).  She's introducing Cooper to Ms. Squirty, the water shooter thing.

And here he's meeting Mr. Thirtsy, the suction thing.

The light is so bright!

Checking his teeth (after he found some sunglasses, of course).

Nurse Michelle uses Mr. Tickles to polish Coop's teeth with cotton candy flavored paste.

And then Dr. Chris, the dentist comes in for a check.

No cavities!  Which is fantastic news, given how many cavities I have.  When Alan goes to see Dr. Chris, he always says something like "You make my job so easy!"  The joke around our house is that I must make his job profitable then. 

Here's hoping Coop gets Daddy's cavity-resistent teeth, but my don't-need-braces alignment.

Toy Story 3

Alan decided he wanted to take Cooper and I to see Toy Story 3 in the theater.  Cooper has seen the first two Toy Story movies at home, but this was his very first movie in a theater!  And it was in 3-D even!!

Alan's a good date -- he sprung for the GIANT bucket of popcorn for the three of us to share and the REALLY BIG Diet Coke for me. 

The boys in their cool 3-D glasses -- they've come a long way since the cardboard blue/red glasses, don't you think?

Cooper did a great job in the theater.  We practiced whispering in the car on the way to the movie.  And we sat in a row with a walkway in front of us, so he could stand up and jig when he needed to.

I had heard that parts of the movie were a little scary.  Buzz, Woody, and the gang end up at a daycare where some of the daycare toys turn out to be thugs, and there's a prison-break-ish scene as Andy's toys try to escape.  Cooper didn't particularly care, I guess. Partly because I'm not sure he has enough background knowledge to be scared by the prison-like environment of the daycare.

But the one scene he has talked about since the movie is a scene at a landfill that involves, in Cooper's words, a "big booming fire."  We spent a lot of time on the drive home talking about why there was a fire at the landfill and who set the fire and whether our trash also goes to a fire.  Though nothing related to the plot of the movie and what might or might not have happened to toys.

There's also a scene where Andy has packed up his room to go to college, and his mom walks in and gets sad.  You may not be surprised to learn that I cried.  Shoulder-shaking sobs in the theater.  So we also had to talk with Coop about why Mama was so sad in the movie.

Man, I'm going to be a mess when he starts preschool this fall...

Anatomy of a Bruise

So remember Cooper's goose egg from the Fourth of July? 

Here it is 24 hours later:

And 24 hours after that:

And 24 hours after that:

It never really did anything dramatic, but even a week later, it was still dark enough (and big enough!) that people would ask about it.

Seems all better now, thankfully.

Some random pictures...

Self-portraits:

Cooper and I enjoying Toy Story 2:

I love, love, love how Cooper lines things up.  Here are some of his cars and trucks parked in his room:

Coop and Vada:

If you squint a bit, it looks like Vada is having a good time.  But she was a half-second away from losing it.

Taking Vada for her first gator ride:

Avast, ye mateys!

Cooper likes pirates.  So I made us some eye patches.

Arrggh!

Perfect for playing with the pirate ship:

Alan taught him a "pirate cheer" (from Treasure Island):

Clifford in KC

We read a lot of books about Clifford, the big red dog.  A lot.  So when I heard that Clifford was going to be at Crown Center in Kansas City, I figured Coop and I should go.

There was a play area, where we spent about 45 minutes, until it got way too crowded.

Walking around Crown Center, Cooper quickly spotted the candy store and asked for a lollipop.  53 cents well spent.

Crown Center also has fountains that kids play in.  I got Coop slathered up with sunscreen, put on his water shoes, and let him go:

No so sure about running around in the fountain sprays apparently.

We ate lunch at Fritz's restaurant -- an electric-train themed burger place where your food comes to you on a train track running along the ceiling.  Coop loved it!

We then promptly found the toy store, where Cooper picked out a small (yet crazy-expensive) Clifford dog:

And then we waited in line so we could talk to Clifford ourselves!

Coop didn't have any interest in sitting on his lap for the photo-op, but he wanted to show the real Clifford his pretend Clifford dog.

A great day:

Fourth of July

The Lynch family joined us for some Fourth of July celebrations, including a trip to our town pool (free on the 4th and serving free hotdogs) and a few fireworks back at our place.

Cooper was not sure about the fireworks:

And he soon found my side:

But that wasn't good enough, so we went into the breezeway when the guys were shooting loud screeching or booming fireworks:

"Cover my ears harder, Mama."

Parker thought the same thing:

(Isn't Kristen's pregnant belly cute?!  She's due July 27 with another boy!)

I finally talked Coop into holding sparklers, which he liked because they're silent.

And then our holiday ended in tears.

Warning:  Photo ahead is not for the faint of heart.

Coop was running around the yard and slipped and fell on the concrete.  I saw his little head bounce and a goose egg appeared instanteously.  Yikes. 

I got a little spoiled since Coop was such a late walker and then was always a pretty cautious walker.  We haven't had any forehead goose eggs until now.  And man, does it freak a Mama out.

So we spent another 30 minutes watching tv in my bed like this:

Coop with an ice pack on his forehead, me furiously reading Toddler 411 to find out what the heck to do with a giant goose egg, Parker sucking on his fingers and playing with Kristen's ear lobe (both of which he does when he's tired).

Whew.  Time for bed.