Bloomsday and the Joys of Being a Mommy

The many faces of Cooper:

This last weekend, David and I left Cooper with his Grammy and Bumpa and headed over to Spokane to run in the Bloomsday Run. We loved getting to spend some time with my sister and her family. The girls are so sweet and we don't get to see them nearly enough.

The Red Robin staff in the background of that picture makes me laugh!

Bloomsday is a 12K run (7.46 miles) with over 55,000 people registered (49,674 finishers). With that many people, you could imagine how bad the parking situation was. We ended up parking about a mile away from the starting line, so by the time we walked from our car to the start, then ran in the actual run, walked to get our shirts, and then walked (uphill) back to our car, it was probably a good 10 miles total. No wonder we were exhausted! I will not being doing a marathon anytime in the forseeable future.

In the past years that I've done Bloomsday, I've been in way better shape and run the majority of it. This year I was very content walking a lot more than usual. I ran the first 2 miles and the last 2 miles, and then did a lot of walking in the middle, with some jogging every now and then. And it's not even that I was too tired to run, but my blatter control is not what it used to be after having a baby, and I was very concerned that I might pee my pants while jogging! Ahhh, the joys of being a Mommy! And lucky me, I hear that never goes away. Someone please tell me why I want another baby so bad! haha. Poor David would have liked to have run the whole thing, but he also really wanted to stay with me. I was finally able to convince him to run on his own at mile 6. We had a great time and will hopefully be doing it again next year.

Last night was the last night for David's bowling league. Cooper has really started to love going to watch his Daddy bowl. He used to cry when we'd go to the bowling alley because the noise of the balls hitting the pins scared him, but now he loves it. He spends most of his time there playing with Aubrey (our babysitter's daughter). He was so used to spending 5 days a week with her for the past 2 years, so he misses her now that he's staying at home with David. A little kid asked if they were brother/sister last night and Aubrey said, "No. We're cousins." It made me laugh.

Our friends, Ian and Jaime, just had a new baby boy last week. While Jaimee was in labor, their 2 year old daughter, Hailey, came to play with Cooper. They are so funny together! They played in a big box, had sword fights, and then we had a dance party in the living room.

I do a Zumba class (salsa-based dance aerobics) every Thursday and we do a belly dancing routine that we use a hip scarf for. So I was getting ready to go to my class and when I grabbed the hip scarf, it sparked Hailey and Cooper's attention. I showed them what it was and then they both wanted to try it. They were super cute dancing around with the hip scarf on.

Wine Tasting and Laundry

Last weekend was the big "Spring Barrel" wine tasting event for our area wineries. We left Cooper with Grammy and Bumpa and spent the day tasting wine with friends.

So having David home all day has been wonderful! I come home to a clean house, a happy toddler, and delicious dinners and lunches. I haven't had to go grocery shopping in quite some time and my clothes are clean... kinda. This is what happened when David did the laundry:

Those pillow cases used to be WHITE!

Other than that, he's a great stay-at-home Daddy!

Cooper is enjoying this time to bond with his Daddy, and David is loving their new buddy-buddy relationship. They are so cute together!

Cooper has always been a serious Momma's Boy, so it's nice that Cooper is letting his Daddy do some stuff for him, instead of it always being Mommy. Just a few weeks ago, Cooper would freak out if David tried to give him some juice or take off his shoes or try to help him do anything else for that matter. It had to be Mommy helping him and he was very vocal about that. Now he tells me that he wants Daddy to help him do things like put his jammies on and change his diaper. This change is totally okay with me! haha.

This weekend we are running in the 12K Bloomsday run. We've both done it a couple times in the past, so we know exactly what to expect, but we are pretty out of shape this year. Maybe being super sore on Monday will encourage us to use our gym memberships more often!

And next weekend is David's graduation!!! YAH! I'm so proud of him! A Masters Degree is a great accomplishment. Way to go babe!

We are still here!

Wow it's been a long time since my last blog update!

Easter:

My sister and her family came into town. The girls looked so pretty in their Easter dresses and Cooper was as handsome as can be in his Easter outfit. He didn't really have an interest in searching for the eggs, even though they were awesome footballs, basketballs, baseballs, and soccer balls instead of just regular eggs. He would grab one, open it up right away and then run over to play in the toy house. Both girls had found all their eggs before Cooper even had half of his. Thanks Grammy for buying and filling all the eggs!

After doing the egg hunt, Grammy and Bumpa gave them their own kites and we went to the park to fly them.

Cooper is saying the funniest and cutest things lately. He loves to brush my hair and he's so gentle. So he was brushing my hair the other night and when he was done he said, "Mommy hair all better." I said, "Thanks buddy! Do I look pretty now?" His response, "Nope." It wasn't exactly the response I was hoping for but it made me smile anyway. haha. 

Last Friday was David's first day with no school. Yep he's completely done with everything! So he thought he would sleep in that morning, but he thought wrong because I had to be at work at 7:30. Cooper was trying to get me to play with him and was frustrated that I wasn't paying attention to him while I was putting on my makeup. Finally I said, "Cooper, Mommy is mad that Daddy is still sleeping" and Cooper said, "No, Copper mad!" and then he ran into our bedroom and said, "Daddy wake up! Copper mad!" Such a cutie!

Grammy said, "Cooper, I love you!" and Cooper said, "No Thanks!"

I'd been thinking about cutting my hair since the beginning of the year, but I kept chickening out. Finally I decided to go for it!

Before:

After:

It was super warm this weekend. In the low 80's! We took advantage of the nice weather and did lots of yard work (Yeah I was shocked, too! Me doing yard work!?). We took out a section of grass and created a flower bed, complete with edging, bark, shrubs, an arbovitae tree, and lilies. It looks so nice! We are going to do another one next weekend. Cooper had so much fun playing with his wheelbarrow and a shovel.

After all the yard work, we decided to head to the park and let Rocky swim in the river. He was such a happy pup! That's probably his favorite thing to do.

We also played 2 softball games. It was a busy weekend! While we were at softball, Cooper went to Grammy and Bumpa's and had such a good time watching the airplanes go "Up, up and away!" Cooper is completely and totally fascinated by planes and I hope he stays that impressed by them because he gets to ride on one this summer. I'm crossing my fingers that he doesn't freak out. I know he'll probably feed off my vibe, and taking off is not my favorite part of riding on an airplane. Hopefully I can keep a smile on my face for him. We got a super sweet deal on airfare to go down to southern CA and visit my Grandparents, my Uncle Doug and his family, and my BFF, Marge, in July. The tickets were only $40 round trip! After all the extra fees they dump on, it was closer to $75, but that's still a great deal and we are so excited! I haven't been down there in like 5 years and I can hardly wait! 

Gum Drops and Kisses from Grammy!

Looking at airplanes with Bumpa!

He still LOVES his wagon. He put his pillows and blankets in it and laid in it while he watched a movie.