Our pumpkin

Digging out the guts, which Cooper decided looked like grass:
Carving the face:

Putting the light in:

Replacing the lid:

Ta-daaaa!

How Halloween went down at our house

Since we've been a family of three, I've been excited to come up with a family theme for our Halloween costumes, at least as long as I can still convince Cooper to wear what I want him to wear. Two years ago, we were a pirate family complete with parrot, and last year we were the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.

This year started with a hand-me-down monkey costume. I decided that Coop could be King Kong, Alan could dress up like the Empire State Building, which would leave me as the damsel in distress. No problem.

I picked up a big U-Haul box for Alan's building, and Cooper liked playing with the smaller one I bought:

But then *gasp* I couldn't talk him into wearing the monkey costume. Here is the one and only time he had the whole thing on:

I finally bribed him with Smarties to put the top on so we could at least take a picture of him next to the Empire State Building. But he would only stand by the building if I was in it, which left Alan to be the damsel in distress, and he didn't much care for that role. So he took the picture instead:

It's too bad he wouldn't wear the costume out and about. He makes a super-cute monkey:

Instead, he insisted on wearing the little box I had cut for him. So he went trick-or-treating as Small Box from U-Haul.

( Parker's a bear.)

I'm sure people thought I was the laziest mom ever -- I didn't even try to make the box look like something. Oh, well...


As it turns out, Cooper didn't care that much about trick-or-treating anyway. We headed to downtown Lawrence to visit all the businesses, but Cooper much preferred watching all of the costumes go by.

Fine by me. No sense fighting him to go trick-or-treating when I would just spend the rest of the week fighting him to not eat candy!

Check out, by the way, some of Cooper's super-cute friends, all agreeably wearing their costumes:

Gus

Zooey

Christopher

Another cousin for Cooper!!

Vada Mae Zolman
was born yesterday, October 28:

Everyone's doing well, albeit a little tired. Carmen and Toban say she has fuzzy red hair!

Possible professions

After a visit to Dr. Chris, our family dentist:

After an afternoon watching the high school marching band competition:

(Snare drum above, bass drum below. And again with no pants.)

Washing the windows:(If he pays us an extra $5, we let him whitewash our fence, too.)

A nanny?

Either these photos mean our kid has many talents and can be any number of things. Or it means he's easily influenced by whatever he saw last. Let's try to keep him away from watching America's Most Wanted, ok?

A new kitty!

Since Mikey died back in June, we've been contemplating getting a new kitty. We finally bit the bullet when the perfect opportunity presented itself (or herself, I guess I should say!) this weekend.

This is Adelaide, but we call her Addie.

A friend rescued her on a county rode a month or so ago. We think she's about 10 weeks old.

Cooper playing string.
(Note: I realize that an ever-increasing number of my posts involve me saying something like "I don't know why Cooper's not wearing a shirt" or "I have no idea why Cooper's naked." That probably doesn't bode well, does it?)

Getting a treat:

Meeting Sydney:

The relationship between the two cats isn't exactly friendly, but it's not violent either, which I count as a success for now.

(Also note the Australian-cities name theme we've got going -- Sydney and Adelaide! At least we didn't choose Perth!)

A new fun kitty toy:

Cooper's attempt to fit into the cat carrier:

Fairs and festivals

Coop and I joined Kristen and Parker for a couple of chilly hours at the Renaissance Festival.

Last year, we tried to ride the elephant, but cried giant tears before we ever got moving. This year, we loved it!

Parker rode a camel:

Playing hide and seek:

The following weekend, we went to the Maple Leaf Festival. Also chilly.

Although the blanket was keeping the boys warm, it was primarily placed there to stop them from shoving and kicking each other.


Ready for the parade:

Violin virtuoso

We picked up this little guitar/violin at a garage sale for $3. Mostly Coop has used it as a guitar (you can lengthen the neck to make it a guitar), and it plays ABC from the Jackson 5, which is kind of fun.

But you can also shorten the neck, get out the little purple bow, and play violin. It took a while to figure out the position:

But he can finally hold it in place by himself:

And here's a duet he and Daddy played. (I don't know, by the way, why Cooper's not wearing any clothes. We built a fire in our fireplace this morning, and maybe he was not used to the warmth, so he had to strip down? I'm not entirely sure...)

Sleeping and playing

I'm not sure precisely which synapses were firing in Cooper's head, but he decided he needed to grab Alan's bathroom towel and go lay down in the kitty bed for a while.

How adorable is this:

Despite having a Big Boy Bed, Cooper's been sleeping on the floor lately. With his crocodile as a pillow. And with a giant t-shirt quilt. And with two bears, three puzzles, two cars, one plastic pig, a stack of books, and his workbench (with tools). So far, it seems to be working, though I can't imagine he's terribly comfortable on the floor.

Riding a stick horse. With no pants.

One of the Dr. Suess books we read mentions pink underpants. It just so happens that someone in this house (not Alan) owns pink underpants. Which Cooper thought was hysterical last time we folded laundry.

Trust me, kiddo. I'm dragging those pictures back at for your 16th birthday.

Just fair warning -- Cooper's getting to the point where he says the funniest things. I've started a notebook to keep track. But chances are good, many will make it to the blog.

For example, last week, we had dinner at the Chinese restaurant in town. Cooper ate like we hadn't fed him for days; it was truly impressive. And then, out of the blue, in the middle of dinner, he says "Somebody farted. Who farted?" And although I contemplated teaching him "He who smelt it, dealt it," I instead just asked if he wanted more mandarin oranges. Thankfully, he did.

(And to answer what's bound to be the first question posted in the comments, I don't think anyone farted. At least not that I noticed.)

But the following picture goes with another cute Cooper-ism: Just after finishing a frozen yogurt smoothie, Cooper said that his tummy was cold, and then he proceeded to look it at to figure out why.


This is bound to bite me in the butt some day, but here is Cooper pretending to cut my hair with fake plastic scissors.

Playing with leaves:

Reading:

Now with wheels:

The State Fair

Riding the train around the grounds

Grandpa Cecil teaching Coop how to milk a cow.

Driving in a combine:

Sunflowers: