Thanksgiving trip to Lyons

Kelly, Sly, and Zoey were in Lyons for Thanksgiving, so we drove down to see them for a day or so.

Grandma Joan had a fun list of things to do.

First up, play-dough barber shop. It was actually "Fun Dough" from Dollar General, which was a little sticky. But Cooper liked using scissors to cut hair.

Then, a jack-in-the-box. About a half-second after we took this picture (right when jack popped up), Cooper broke into a huge grin. It was sweet.

Next up: sugar cookies decorated to look like turkeys. This was the one and only candy corn Cooper actually put on a cookie. The rest he shoveled into his mouth faster than he's ever eaten anything in his life.

Finally, a real life train caboose! A local Lyons realtor owns this little red caboose; it's actually on the corner where we turn to get to Grandma Joan's house, so we see it a lot! And he let us climb on it and walk inside. Very cool.

Thanksgiving in Baldwin

Some of Alan's family joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. Cooper spent a large portion of the time in this box:

He explained that he was a baby bird and this was his nest:

After the meal, Cooper got a hankering for some music, so he dug through his box of instruments and distributed various bells and shakers to everyone.

His face lit up with sheer joy when he said "Go" and everyone actually started playing!

And then Aunt Julie started singing while we were playing, and I swear Cooper almost fell down with excitement! Oh, the control of being the band director!!

Grandma Margaret left a chocolate-marshmallow Santa for Cooper. He devoured it in about 3 seconds.

He didn't get a nap that afternoon, and after all the excitement of the day (and despite all the sugar!), he fell asleep in between the time I kissed him goodnight and the time when I actually left his room.

We're festive! (Finally.)

It appears that we've decorated for Christmas, though it's a bit by accident.

One year for Cooper's birthday (maybe even his first?), my mom asked me what she should get him. He would have been happy with a paper bag, so I suggested something I wanted him to have -- a Fisher Price nativity scene. It's fun to have out for him to play with (or knock onto the floor).
But that's a toy. It's not really decoration.

And then last year, Alan's mom brought us a couple of wreaths. Fake wreaths, which is good, or I would have killed them within days. And I couldn't very well throw away perfectly good wreaths, so I bought a Wreath Storage Bag. When I was downstairs finding the Fisher Price nativity scene, I grabbed the wreaths, too.

And then, after last Christmas, I came home from Lyons with this nativity scene:

My Mom made it (how long ago?) for her mom. It was always on top of Grandma Farm's television at Christmas. And as long as I'm putting up Cooper's nativity, I might as well get out the one that has sentimental value to me.

So now, it's starting to look a bit like we've decorated on purpose.

And then, the final straw -- our friends Michael and Kristen had an extra (fake) Christmas tree they no longer wanted. Yes, we'll take it off your hands, just in case in a few years we might decide we wanted to put up a tree.

BUT the box the tree was in wouldn't fit in our car. So we left the box at Michael and Kristen's house, and just loaded the tree branches into our front seat. Which we then had to unload when we got home.

Since we didn't have a container to store the tree, we figured we might as well just stand it up in the living room.

The tree would look funny just standing in the corner naked, so we dug out our box of ornaments -- "Our First Christmas," "Baby's First Christmas," a yellow digger for Cooper 2008 Christmas, ornaments with pictures of our cats.

And *poof* before we knew it, we had decorated for Christmas!

Sweet Coopie

With Daddy, watching the fire:

I love this picture because the designs on Cooper's diaper make it look like he's got plumber's butt. Heh.
Fun with stickers:


Posing outside. I had intended to use a picture from this afternoon photo shoot for our Christmas card, but Coop had a runny nose. And Alan's camera is fancy enough to pick up snot bubbles and crusties. Fabulous. Even so, pretty darn adorable.

So, maybe we have some sleeping issues. Coop has a Big Boy Bed. But for a couple of months, he's been sleeping on the floor. Ok. Whatever.

And then several weeks ago, he wanted to sleep in the recliner:

And then, as if slowly migrating away from the Big Boy Bed, Cooper decided he wanted to sleep in the hallway:
It doesn't seem like something I need to be fighting. He's going to sleep. And (for the most part), staying asleep all night. But it does feel just a bit odd.


Oh, and if you're wondering how I managed to take all the pictures of him sleeping without the flash waking him up -- it's because he also insists on sleeping with the light on.

Chocolate cake

A couple of weekends ago, I flew to Portland, OR to hold my sweet new niece Vada:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Grandma Carol came over to help Alan entertain Cooper. They baked a cake one afternoon.

I'm not sure why the birthday candles, other than Cooper has a baggie of them that he likes to carry around:

Note: not Grandma Carol's birthday. Not anyone's birthday that I know of. But candles make any cake fun!

Leftover Halloween stuff

Cooper, dressed half as a monkey, stopped to play piano, which is particularly adorable with the banana sticking out of his pocket:

While Cooper was watching the trick-or-treaters walking around Lawrence, he seemed particularly enchanted with the skeletons. So I picked him up a skeleton costume for 75% off at Walmart the next day.

Dinner in a Pumpkin -- the perfect Halloween meal.

Step 1. Clean out pumpkin.

Step 2. Brown ground turkey and onion. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, cream of mushroom soup, and cooked brown rice.

Step 3. Fill pumpkin. Replace lid. Pop in oven.

Step 4. Scoop out meat and rice mixture, along with the pumpkin. And enjoy:

Family and pets we love

A couple of weekends ago, Cooper and I headed to Lyons to meet up with my Aunt Mary from Texas. Cooper had never met her, but we had a great time talking (and eating pizza):

Prince, Grandpa Cecil, Cooper:

Our new kitty Addie is settling into the family nicely. She spends several nights sleeping on the recliner in Cooper's room:

She enjoyed Alan's Empire State Building costume:

And she joins us for story time before bed, just like our Mikey used to!

Shots, books, and cats.

Showing off his flu shot bandaid:

More importantly, showing off the candy he got after he got his flu shot:

Driving back home from Lyons ("Look, Mama! I'm under a big stack of books!")

About 20 minutes later:

Addie's favorite way to taunt Sydney is to go sit on top of the chair Sydney is under.

Sydney does let Addie come around if she's distracted with food though:

Some random pictures

Ready for a ride:

Eating applesauce with mittens:

Reading:

Playing with a clock puzzle -- he takes out the pieces and sets them down as far from him as he can reach. And then he puts them all back in.

Playing in a Corn Box -- a big tank of corn kernels that we saw at a local pumpkin patch.