September 2011

Bowling!

We went to Triple Play and bowled a few games. It was so cute to see the kids bowling, and they all did great!

David teaching them how to bowl like a pro.

High Five!

Carter:

He is all over the place! Way too quick for me. He has mastered how to crawl for sure. He has his 2 bottom teeth in and his top 2 have just recently broken through. He's a great eater, especially if it is bananas. And he's sleeping really good now too. He's gotten himself on a schedule (finally!) and is taking 2 good naps a day and sleeping 10-12 hours at night. 

He saw the baby on this box and just had to get over to it. 

He was babbling at it and touching it.

Trying to get up to see his big brother.

Playing with his toys up on his knees.

It fell over with him and I waited for the crying to start... but to my surprise, he giggled instead and then played with it on his back like that.  

And now he's standing!

Look, one hand!

All that crawling makes him sleepy!

"Look! Mom forgot to shut the door to the bathroom and I'm so much quicker than her!"

Holding his bottle! YAH! I'm still nursing, so he usually only gets a bottle when I'm in class at night, but I was running late to pick up Cooper from preschool and didn't have time to sit down and feed Carter, so I gave him a bottle on the way and it was so nice! I could really get used to that. 

He fell asleep sitting up! Silly boy.

Now that he's crawling all over, I'm starting to notice that his face is getting a little thinner. 

Cooper:

Pure crazy, all the time! He is doing great at preschool. Some of the things that he has learned since he started going 3 weeks ago are how to hold a marker correctly, how to trace his name (he can almost do it without tracing, too!), and he can tell me how to spell his name. He already had all of the letters of the alphabet down, but now he is recognizing that they have a sound to them. He can also tell me when words rhyme, which is really fun.

We've also been heading to open-gym once a week at a local gymnastics place. They always do songs and dancing the last 15 minutes and Cooper always just wanted to skip out on that and head home, but since he has been going to preschool, he now loves to do the songs and dances. I think it actually might be his favorite part!  

We just signed him up for basketball too! He will start playing at the end of October.  

He asked me to put his crayon behind his ear so he could hold it like his Daddy does.  

"Hey there, I see that you have the camera out..."

"So I'm going to give you my coolest pose and not smile while you take my picture." 

He put on my lettermans jacket and was running around the house, like the crazy man that he is.

He had been waiting for a windy day for so long, so the first wind that we got, we pulled out his kite and got it up in the air. He was so happy flying that thing.  

He is just so funny sometimes!

Picture Time:

I think these two boys are adorable! I'm not biased or anything though. 

Laughing with Grandpa
Since we moved, the boys don't get to see their Grandpa nearly as often, so we had him and Grandma Jere over for dinner. I just loved these pictures!

Random:

Can you see Tucker? Our sod grew like crazy and it was too long for poor little Tucker.

It was windy out so I pulled out our tunnels and tents for the kids to play with. They had a blast, especially Carter, who had never been in them before.

Back to School

School is back in session, which means back to work for David and back to class for me. But someone else is going to school this year too... Cooper! He started preschool a couple weeks ago and he is loving it so far. He goes twice a week for almost 3 hours and is learning a lot.

To get Cooper ready and excited for preschool, I took him shopping for a backpack. Of course he picked out a Lightning McQueen one. He is so cute with it on!  

Here is Cooper on his first day at preschool. He is in the back left corner in the white shirt. 

"Come on Mom! Not another picture, please! I just want to go play with the other kids now." 

I hadn't planned on putting Cooper in preschool this year, especially not 6 months ago when everyone was signing up for classes. We had put him in soccer last winter, and it just didn't go well. He had fun and it was cute and all, but he was just not ready for an organized sport. He was the one that didn't want to do what the other kids were doing and wouldn't listen to anyone. He had one thing on his mind, and that was running around the gym as fast as he could. This was pretty much right before Carter was born. I remember being totally stressed about Cooper's crazy hyperactivity and super difficult behavior in public. I was barely able to handle him on my own in a grocery store, and sometimes even left my cart full of groceries because he was just too much for me and my big ol' belly to physically handle. I worried that there was no way I would be able to go anywhere with him when the new baby arrived, because if I couldn't even handle Cooper, how the heck was I going to handle two kids?!  But shortly after Carter was born, something changed. I'm not saying that he's a perfect angel and is never hard to handle, because every kid has their moments, but he sure is a lot better. I don't worry about how he's going to be in public whenever we go anywhere. In fact, it's the opposite... I know he's going to be really good so I like to take him places. He is polite, helpful, talkative, funny, and just a pleasure to be around most of the time. We don't have to plan around a nap as he rarely takes one anymore. We had avoided restaurants all-together for the past couple years because it was just less stressful to eat at home than to try to deal with him, but we went to Red Robin last week and he was great! People say "terrible 2's" and I always thought that the 2's were fun and that it's the 3's that were tough. He get's a little easier everyday. I am excited to see what the 4's will bring.

I guess it is probably pretty boring hanging out with his Mommy and baby brother all day, so I understand why Cooper wanted to go to school so bad. He started a week late because I had a hard time finding a place that had an opening for him. I hadn't planned on putting him in this year or else I would have been looking way sooner than the first week of school. A friend recommended an in-home preschool in my neighborhood. I didn't quite know what to think about that, but I went and checked it out and it is really cool! And it is really nice being able to walk there (at least while it is still warm outside).

The first day of preschool, I was really nervous about being away from him and about how he would do for 3 hours with complete strangers. It was hard leaving him. I've never left him with a stranger before. I definitely got a little bummed (no tears or anything though), and I couldn't wait to pick him up when his class was over. He came out of the door and lined up with the other kids just like he was supposed to and I was one proud Mama! He was following directions and listening to his teacher! Yah! He loved class and had a great time. I think this will be really good for him. He gets to learn and play with other kids and it'll give Carter and I some alone time together. It will also give me an opportunity to get some errands done, and if Carter naps, I will be able to do homework and/or house chores. 

This is what Carter did a good majority of the time that Cooper was at preschool. I was hoping that he'd keep me entertained and busy so that I wouldn't be sad about Cooper being at preschool... No such luck! Of course the one day that I want him to be awake is the day he sleeps a lot. 

After Cooper was done with his first day at preschool, I took him out for a Mother-Son date at My Fro Yo. We had a lot of fun and it was super nice to get some time with just the two of us. I plan on doing that more often. 

August 2011 - Part 2

 And the yard work continues...

But you can't have all work and no play... 

Whoever said you need grass to run through the sprinklers?  

The yard before we did the sprinklers and the grass.

My Dad and David using the trencher for the sprinklers. 

9 pallets of sod! 

Our sod-laying crew arriving bright and early.

A couple rows down, way too many to go.

You can't tell from any of these pictures, but we had 8 people come over and help David and I lay the sod. It went really quickly and we were so grateful for all the help. A big thanks to my Mom and Dad, Aunt Frances, David and Andrew Rockefeller, Scott LaPlant, Ian Klei, and Matt Ophardt. 

The final product!

It is so NICE having a yard with grass! We all love it, especially the dogs and Cooper.

I love technology! Being able to watch my baby sleep on the video monitor (especially when he's doing crazy things like this) is just priceless. 

Carter was so sick. He just looks miserable. But I thought this picture was funny because it shows how big he is. And by big, I mean look at those rolls! Such a chunky monkey.

6 months and 2 days old. 20 lbs, 8 oz. Healthy as can be. 

At 6 months, his 12 month jammies are fitting pretty darn snug. 

 

Carter can sit in the cart now, which makes shopping a whole lot easier, especially when Cooper wants to sit in there with him. Cooper is going through a "funny faces" phase when it comes to pictures. 

Cooper may be 3 and a half years old, but he's still my baby and I still love to cuddle him when he's sleeping. 

Carter fell asleep on a beach towel at the park while Cooper was playing on the toys. 

So peaceful. 

Cooper playing with the toys at his dentist appointment. They have the coolest waiting room! Cooper still doesn't do well at the dentist though. David was at work so one of the dental assistants held Carter so that I could hold Cooper down as he kicked and screamed while the dentist brushed and checked his teeth. Through all the screaming, the dentist was able to get a good enough look to say the Cooper's teeth look good. No cavities, good spacing, A+. Then Carter spit up on the poor dental assistant and I left all sweaty from fighting with Cooper. As fun as that was, I think I'm going to let David take Cooper to the next dentist appointment.

We have had a ton of these this year. 

Cooper asked me to draw a dragon. That's as good as it gets. Drawing is not  my talent. Like the big, bushy tail that looks like it belongs on a dog? 

Boys... 

I love my video monitor!

Carter got his first 2 teeth right when he turned 6 months. 

Such a happy baby! He is just over 6 months old in this picture and is crawling all over the place. 

The boys taking a bath together

Carter LOVES the bath. He gets really mad when we take him out. 

Welcome home Kaelan Nelson! He is a Marine and just got home from fighting in Afghanistan and it was so good to see him.