Sylvester and Kelly Brandon

(Yes, that's Sly's ring Kelly's dropping!)

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Fun times this week

Mr. Green Jeans Overalls

Socks on hands -- much funner than socks on feet:

Waiting for Mommy to finish getting ready:

It's amazing how quickly he can pull all 80 kleenexes out of the box:

Last weekend, we went to a fabulous parade in Lawrence. I believe the only rule for parade entries was that they had to be on wheels. (My friend Karen has great pictures of several of the entries, if you're interested.)

Sorting through his parade loot:

Water water everywhere

Combing his hair:

Playing in a fountain in Lawrence:

As you'll notice from the video below, we bought a camcorder. A fancy one with sound and everything! Also, just to explain what's off-camera, Kristen is sitting to Cooper's right making raspberries at him, and Parker is over there with a toy that plays music (Yankee Doodle and Hickory Dickory Dock, I believe).

Did you catch this face from the video?

Ha!

At play

Watching the cows, although Cooper's "moo" has turned into "mee" lately.

Coop's been trying to learn how to pour or dump things out of a container. So far, he's managed an over-the-shoulder pitch. It works, but can get a little dicey with golf balls raining down on his head.

I've learned to pick my "No mouth" battles. Dimes, small rocks, sharp things: No mouth! Dirt, carpet fuzz, cat hair, kleenex: Meh. It's yucky, but eat it if you want.

This made me cry:

Let me explain. First, ignore the empty Diet Coke bottle. It's one of Cooper's fancy toys. Second, the aluminum can lid isn't sharp. We used one of those magic can openers that doesn't leave any sharp edges.

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Anyway, there's a sticker of a dump truck on the back of the can lid. The other day, he picked that one up (out of the 25 different pictures) and rolled it across the floor making a car engine sound. Where do they learn these things?! Seriously, most of the time I am just in awe of Cooper.

Mother's Day at the Nelson

We spent Sunday afternoon at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. It has a very nice grassy sculpture park area where we crawled around and ate grass and played with sticks.

And we strolled around inside admiring the contemporary art:

In case you're wondering what Cooper's shirt says, it's in honor of Patrick Swayze's famous Dirty Dancing line:

I love it!

Picnic with Parker

Here, have a Cheerio.

No really. I insist.

Would you like some milk too?

Oh no thank you. I couldn't possibly.

One more Cheerio for you:

If we can get this open, I think there are more Cheerios in here.

Dandelions and Cows

Moo.

Ladies and Gentlemen, right before your very eyes...

Monday, 10:13 am:

Monday, 10:31 am:

Tuesday, 10:25 am:

Tuesday, 3:37 pm:

Think of all the great opportunities now open to Cooper. He can honor the playing of the national anthem. He can listen to Handel's Messiah and the Hallelujah Chorus. He can watch a bride come down the aisle (good thing too because it's Aunt Kelly's turn soon!). He can have a Mexican stand-off. He can stand and deliver. He can stand in the place where he lives.

How about a standing ovation for my baby boy!

Last time we were in Lyons, Coop and I got to ride on Grandpa's gator, with Prince chasing us all around the pasture.

Coop was sick a few weeks ago -- roseola (annoyingly high fever followed by a benign rash). So we spent the day snuggled up on the bed watching Baby Bach -- a dvd set to Bach's music with animation designed to interest kids.

At the KU Relays:

One of Coop's favorite pasttimes: looking at the cows out the window and saying "moo."

In no particular order

Dancing:

Since Daylight Saving time, it's still light out when Cooper goes to bed, so I needed to find curtains I could pull shut. I picked these cute denim ones:

But check out the top tabs -- little overall straps! How perfect is that for a kid's room?!


This is Parker's dog Coltrane. He likes Cooper. The feeling is mutual.

And finally, a shortened version of a long-ish story. I read several blogs on a regular basis. Most belong to friends of mine from school or work. Some are written by people I have never met, but they're funny and uplifting and entertaining. The writer of one of those blogs, BooMama, went to Uganda recently with Compassion (one of those organizations where you can sponsor kids in other parts of the world). She has some amazing stories about the trip.

If you click on this fancy picture:

you'll end up at BooMama's latest post which explains Compassion's Bite-Back campaign, just in case you have a spare $10 and were looking for a way to celebrate World Malaria Day (Friday the 25th).

Highchair high jinx

Cooper can do the "So big" arm movement. Alan thinks it's hilarious now to make him do that and then quickly point a finger-gun at him and say "Stick 'em up."

I've been wondering lately how long exactly I'll be cutting Cooper's food into small pieces. No need to rush big chunks, I know, but I surely won't still be doing this when he's 12 right?

Anyway, he did pretty good with a piece of toast:

But not so great with a banana:

And finally, this is Cooper making the sign for "more" (usually concerning Cheerios).

Celebrate good times.

Baker University students hosted an Easter egg hunt on campus. I had to fend off big kids running around, but Cooper crawled around and "found" his first Easter egg:

He lost interested after that and I had to move the green egg right next to him so he'd pick it up.

During a quick trip to Mom and Dad's, we visited the baby chicks at the Orscheln store. (Link included so all you non-farm people know what the heck I'm talking about!)

And this past weekend, in a celebration of a different sort, Cooper and I met up with Parker and his parents to go to the KU Jayhawk NCAA National Championship team parade! It was the perfect opportunity to try out Parker's new double jogging stroller.

We decided that the kids kind of looked like little old men that we were wheeling around town.