Artsy-fartsy

About two hours before we were supposed to leave for music class, I remember that we were supposed to make an animal mask to take to class.  Luckily, I had just come home with a bag of pipe cleaners, so Coop and I put together a lovely lion mask.

And a mask (of something?) for Bear.

Last night, Cooper insisted that he wanted a crown so he could be king.  Um... ok.

A little notebook paper, scissors, and some scotch tape, and King Cooper was appropriately attired.

And speaking of attire, Cooper when to daycare one day wearing this:

That would be a swim shirt and his swimming trunks -- he's ready for summer.  And he's accessorizing with a necklace that actually is a macrame wall hanging that says EMILY.

Mouse in my House

Not really, but Cooper has written a song about it:







And in case you're missing the lyrics:

[spoken] Except one time there was a mouse that was going to eat me.

[cue guitar music] There's a mouse in my house, a mouse in my house, a mouse in my house.

Wichita

Last weekend, we made a short trip down to Wichita.  Ever since spring break, Cooper has been talking about the museum with the submarine and conveyor belt.  So we planned a quick trip back to Exploration Place.

I talked Cooper into going into the tornado booth with me.

  

Waiting for Grandpa Jerry to come pick us up:

Grandma Carol bought a new bed just for Cooper.  He loved it:

Breakfast conversation

Cooper:  When I was in your tummy, did you eat?

Mama:  Yes.

Cooper:  So then the food went into my mouth, too?

Mama:  Yes.  [I then tried to explain about his belly button and the umbilical cord, but that wasn't really going anywhere.]

Cooper:  When I was in your tummy, did you do my breathing treatments too?

Mama:  No, you didn't need them when you were in my tummy.  You could breathe just fine in there.

Cooper:  What else can you tell me?

Mama:  Well, would you like to see some pictures of you as a baby?

Cooper:  Yes.

Cooper:  Oh, I wasn't white when I was a baby.

Cooper:  Now I'm white again.

Some random pictures

Playing with silly string:

Reading a book to Bear before his nap:

Can you guess what's in Cooper's bowl?

I'll give you a hint -- he's listening to it.

Rice Krispies!

A shower:

We had been playing outside one day and wanted to come rinse off, but we didn't have time/energy for a bath.  So I convinced Cooper to try a shower.  Our shower nozzle comes off the wall, which made it easier (and less scary) to rinse him off.  He loved it!

Green overalls and a hat.

One of Cooper's friends at Miss Brenda's wears overalls fairly regularly.  Cooper announced that he wanted to wear some too. 

Except that he didn't know what they were called.  So he found a puzzle that has a bear wearing overalls and asked if I had a special (pronounced "fecial" -- we still working on s-blend sounds!) shirt with straps that he could wear.

He was in luck.  I sure do:

And then this past weekend, he dug out his cowboy hat to complete the ensemble:

And then he decided to ride on his buckin' bronco:

Whoa there, cowboy!  Hold on to that hat!

I maybe need to lighten up on the "cowboy" talk, though, because he later announced that when he got big, he was going to ride cows.  With his hat on. 

Good luck with that, Coop.

Growing and cutting

Coop helped me plant some little flower seeds (sunflowers and daisies), and we was excited to use his watering can.

We repotted a tomato plant that he got free from a nursery we visited with Grandma Joan:

And then this little guy is Mr. Green.  He's a small green planter shaped like a person.  We planted grass seed in it, and the grass then grew out like Mr. Green's hair.

Coop was scheduled to get his hair cut.  He decided Mr. Green also needed a hair cut and that we should ask Miss Martha to do it.

When she asked how short to cut Mr. Green's hair, Cooper said he wanted it to be as long as his thumb.  So they measured.

And then Miss Martha cut:

Coop and Mr. Green sporting their new hair cuts and Cooper's loot, including a sucker and a flashlight keychain.

No wonder he doesn't mind getting a hair cut from Miss Martha!

Weekend trip to Lyons

Cooper seemed particularly nervous about safety, so he strapped on this helmet for the drive to Lyons:

Bedtime usually goes pretty well at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but I need to make a mental note for next time:  either let him play with toys for 30 minutes before bed, or take them out of his room completely.  I went to check on him after about an hour and found this:

He eventually got settled into the Toy Story sleeping bag, and he seemed quite pleased to actually be using it for the first time!

In the morning, we headed to Hutchinson to walk (Alan ran) a 5K race as part of the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale.

And then on to the Mennonite food:

Cooper loved the cherry moos (pretty much like pudding with cherry pie filling cherries in it) and the zwiebach (rolls).  I don't think he ate his sausage, mostly because he was distracted by the cherries.

The Mennonite sale is a huge deal, held at the state fair grounds.  And they happened to have one of the "rides" open -- a giant slide. You climb three (four?) stories, sit on a piece of burlap, and slide down. 

Coop wanted to go.  (What?  Really?  Wouldn't you rather stand down here at the bottom and pretend that this stick is a trumpet?)  And he didn't flinch climbing up all of the stairs, except to tell me to let go of him because he could climb by himself.

So we went.  (As did Grandma Joan, in the pink.)

Coop fell asleep before we hit the city limits on our way out of Lyons, and he didn't wake up until we pulled into the garage in Baldwin.

And look -- his first kool-aid moustache!

Waiting

Alan ran a 5K race recently.  Coop and I served as the cheering crew.  Our "Go Daddy" sign really helped, I think.

I can't remember what Coop was waiting for here, but I liked the pose (and the reflection in the table).  It has a very "1993 senior picture" feel to it.  (*ahem* not that I would know...)

Cuter, but not in focus:

Cute teeth!

We planted a small pot of sunflowers.  Coop wanted to watch it grow:

Fun with food

We had some green tortillas, so I decided to make a whole meal of green things.  (Too bad I didn't think of this for St. Patrick's Day.  Maybe next year...)

Green quesadilla, green beans, and then food coloring to make green milk and green yogurt.

Yummy corn on the cob:

Our Fred plate:

The best way to attack a cinnamon roll:

We dig chicks.

The boys in matching shirts:

Cooper liked his so much he wore it again the next day.  He when I told him to put on his socks that morning, he put on a pair of Daddy's socks:

Nice look:

And speaking of chicks, here's our brood out and about in the breezeway.  It might look like Cooper is kindly feeding them a cracker, but instead he's stealing one of their crackers and eating it off the floor:

Luckily he doesn't do that with their actual chick food:

And finally, we got their outdoor home ready, which is good because they were starting to stick up the breezeway.  Here it is, in all its glory:

Believe me when I tell you that the only thing that would make it even more ghetto and cobbled together is a strip of duct tape somewhere.  Otherwise, it's chicken wire, cheap plastic netting, fence posts, and wooden stakes.

And here's the inside of the Coop Sweet Coop:

A nesting box (for when they start laying eggs in six months or so) in the lower left corner, hanging food, water up on blocks (hopefully to keep the pine chips and poop out of it), and a perch that Alan made from some logs.  Charmingly rustic, no?