Toddler Time

I don’t know if a couple steps makes you a toddler or not, but it’s official, Cooper took his first steps yesterday!!! I still remember that first month home, with the postpartum hormones, the lack of sleep, learning to feed him, the worry of blood tests and genetic disorders, and feeling like he would always be that helpless little infant and never grow up. Now, he is walking! The time has absolutely flown by way too fast! He is nothing but joy to have around and I still find it hard to picture him anything but a baby (or now toddler)! But, soon he will be one year old and unstoppable! I’m looking forward to it.
He will be nine months old next Wednesday. We have a well baby check up in Peru and blood work orders for Riley. He seems absolutely healthy so I am praying the test results will show the same.

Congratulations Cooper on the first steps! Way to go!!!

Cooper and I had a little Mother - Son time (and we met Aunt Mandi, too, of course) and went to paint his hand print on his mitten. He did way better than Grace did!

Potty Training 101

I'm not sure this was what my cousin had in mind when she gave me this book. Do you think it will work?

Feed the bird...

And the best part is, he knows he is so cute!

How does that saying go?

Burn me once, shame on you,

Burn me twice, shame on me.

You'll recall last year's tree incident.... This year I took preventative measures! (Hee,hee!)

Here are the kids with their blankies from Grandma Patty. Thanks! We love them!! And I think we may move the play yard for Christmas morning. I don't think Cooper even knows there is a tree in there!

Pottery Painting Play Date

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we met my cousins for some pottery painting time and a play date! It was a good time!

Miss Abigail doing her handprint.

Miss Ava doing her hand print.

Allison and Adrianna painting.

Allison doing her FOOT print.

Anna painting her puppy.

And this is what Grace did:

Ate candy.

Played with Abigail.

And, screamed when I did her hand print!

But it was nothing a good cupcake couldn't fix!

Building Blocks

Here is Cooper showing off his new balance while Grace works on building her funeral pyre.

That's right... when your dad is a history teacher, what else would you expect to build after you have mastered the tower!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's time to make cookies!

And now we decorate them.
Such focus and determination!

Works of art!

And it's time to decorate the house!

Here is Grace decorating her tree.

Cooper "helping" Dad with the tree.

Eventually we had a barricade of pillows to keep him back!

Finishing touch.

I walk past this nativity all day and it finally caught my attention. Tim had told Grace that the people were all coming to see the baby Jesus - hence the circle around him. And when I questioned her about the animals she said they were looking at the picture! I love the way her mind works!

And, here's Mommy having fun dressing the babies...

(Somehow Elmo always ends up in the picture.)

Oh, yea!

Look what I can do!!!!

Thanks to Sesame Street and nap time I get a few precious minutes to blog our adventures!

Hide and Seek

Grace loves to play hide and seek... even though she is better at the seeking than the hiding!! We sometimes play it as a family, but here she was hiding with Cooper in the closet! I guess Tim found her asleep there this morning, as well!