Things I don't want to forget - part 2

There's so many moments that go by in a flash and I just want to make sure I get some of them down. It's hard to imagine that I would forget any of these things - but my brain already feels so full with images and memories of Cooper that I don't want to risk it. Here's some recent things that are so cute or funny that I don't want to forget about our sweet boy:

Night time routine - whenever I say goodnight to Cooper I also have to say good night to each and every animal in his bed (to which he responds in their voice "good night") so I say "Goodnight Lightening, Goodnight Tad, Goodnight Frosty...Simmy, Kitty, Kitty, Nanook... and then at the end I start to shut the door and Cooper says "you forgot someone" and I say "who?" and he says "me...me...me" and I say "oh no! Good night my little prince" and he says (for some reason unknown) "I'm a princess" and I say "Goodnight my little princess" and then I can shut the door. Every night this happens and If I try to skip it - he just won't allow it.

"Saying God" - Cooper is now interested in saying his prayers and can say his whole nighttime prayer by himself:

"Now I lay me down to sleep...I pray the Lord my soul to keep...Angels watch me through the night...and keep me in their blessed sight...AMEN" Then we always go into "God bless..." and he lists off his loved ones. One night out of the blue he was praying and he slipped in "Beauty and the Beast" as he was blessing people. He thought it was so hilarious and now he does it every night. Even though I always know it's coming I can't help but laugh at our little comedian.

"Love you to the moon and back" - I say this to Cooper a lot and lately he responds "I love you to the Sun and back" - he came up with that on his own and I think it's pretty clever.

"Mommy...Mommy...Mom...Mom..." - If Cooper is just playing he has a habit of saying Mommy over and over again - sporadically he'll just call for me and when I say "yes honey" he doesn't really have anything to say. One day to tease him I started to repeat his name over and over again...he totally got the joke and started to play along. It's pretty cool to already be able to joke around with him!

The most wonderful time of the year!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year - especially when viewing it all through the eyes of the a 2 and a half year old. Magic - pure and simple! We've had a great Christmas - Santa did not disappoint! Here are the highlights:

Santa Claus Parade - checked out the annual Santa Claus parade with Cooper and Peter. We are getting our parade system down to a science with our wagon which doubles as a Cooper/supplies transporter as well as seating for 2. We always get a great front row seat at our spot near KCI and really enjoy the festivities.

The Live Nativity Play - We attended (on Betty's advice) a live Nativity production at Faith Bethany church in Kitchener. They set up "Bethlehem" in the parking lot of the church and there was bleacher seating for approx. 2000 people. There were probably about 200 members of the congregation in the play as well as live animals (camels, donkeys, cows, pigs...) The play only last about 15 minutes but it was AWESOME - a definite new tradition for our family.

Sitting on Santa's knee - Cooper visited Santa again this year at the SJAM Christmas party - it was a lot of fun and fortunately Cooper did not catch on that Santa was actually Peter. Phew! He gets so caught up in the magic of Santa that he doesn't seem to notice that it's his Daddy. Such a great event!

Donating a toy to needy children - we visited the local fire hall this year to drop off a toy for needy kids. We want this to be part of our annual tradition as we think it's important for Cooper to understand the other side of the story where there are a lot of kids who don't have food on their plates let alone shiny new toys...it's a great moment and it's always a special bonus when they tour us around the fire trucks.

Night Walking and the Lights in Waterloo Park - In the earlier part of December the weather was mild so Peter and I got into the habit of taking Cooper out for a night walk to check out all of the Christmas lights. It was really special to see Cooper get so excited about the lights. We also visited Waterloo park to check out the "Wonders of Christmas" lights display. Awesome as always!

Christmas at Nan and Gramps - This year was particularily special because Jill and Rob and the boys (Elliot and Wesley) were finally home with us as well. It was nice to have the whole family together and to hear the squeals of delight as the boys chased eachother around and played with their toys. All the boys are amazing and so damn cute!

Christmas in Waterloo - we had a pretty low-key Christmas and it was SO great. Cooper and Peter and I went to mass at St. Jerome's. It was the 5pm Mass and was PACKED with little ones. It was chaos for sure. Cooper was pretty well-behaved considering he's 2. When Mass started he whispered to me "it's quiet time" - too cute! At one point in the Mass I was holding him and he was playing with my necklace. Next thing you know he's looped it over both of our heads and we are STUCK! Peter had to wedge us free...and one broken necklace later we were out. Brutal!

After Mass we order Chinese food and had a quiet dinner at home. Then we opened our presents (pj's) and all got cosy and watched The Polar Express...a truly perfect evening!

Christmas day was more of the same hanging around. Cooper seeme d a bit overwhelmed by all of the toys etc. but it was still a good morning. Nan and Gramps came up in the afternoon (they were at Jill and Rob's on Christmas eve) and then Peter and Cooper and I headed to Kev and Tari's for the Kalbfleisch Christmas which was pretty nice.

Boxing Day - Primeau Christmas - we let Cooper have a long nap and got on the road at about 3:45 for Glencoe - arrived around 5:30pm - literally just in time to eat. It was a short visit but a great time and I was glad to see everyone - I believe every single cousin was there except for Jill - and for everyone to get to know Cooper a little more. Really a fun time.

Phew!

We are truly blessed and this time of year we are even more aware of our blessings - Cooper being at the very top of the list. Merry Christmas!

An interview with a 2 year old

I recently asked Cooper some questions about himself - here's what I got:

Q: Cooper - what is your favourite colour?
A: Pink

Q: What is your favourite word?
A: Cement

Q: What is your favourite dinosaur?
A: Stegosaurus (not bad for a 2 year old!)

Q: What is your favourite toy?
A: Cars and my Frankenstein mask

Q: Who is your best friend?
A: "Gravedigger" (his monster truck)

Q: Who is your best human friend?
A: Daddy

Too cute!

November was a hectic month and a bit stressful at times. I went to Boston for 5 days for work. Daddy did a great job holding down the fort and caring for Cooper and Winnie. I also had some committee work that has kept me working irregular hours. To top it off Cooper got the stomach flu for the first time - that was THE worst. He was so sick and not himself for days. He was a trooper through the vomiting and learned quickly to puke in a pail - poor kid! I don't know if I've ever been so worried!

Amazingly he bounced back from being sick as quickly as he got sick. I'm still recovering from the worry!

It's December now...we've already seen Santa twice AND attended a live performance of the Nativity...looking forward to some quality time with our little elf!

Catching up

Time is flying by as usual. Cooper is over 2 and a half now and it's so hard to believe! He's pretty much traded in his baby status for full blown little boy. He's an absolute joy to be around and so funny. There's so many little things that happen in a day that I think I'll remember forever and then "poof" they're gone in a flash...replaced by new stories. Here's a few that I really want to remember:

Big boy bed - so we finally found a race car bed for Cooper and the transition from crib to bed was effortless. As a matter of fact Cooper was so in love with his new bed that he didn't want to leave it. During the day he'd sneak away and we'd find him upstairs hanging out in his room. After work when we'd get home from Betty's he'd immediately take off his coat and announce "I want to go check on my big boy bed!" and off he'd go. So cute.

Now the transition was effortless but as time has gone on there have been a few bumps in the road. Cooper now realizes that he can get out of bed whenever he wants and so bedtime becomes a montage of humorous stories and excuses for him to be out of bed. On average there's typically 3 "call backs" before we can call it a night. Tonight as I was writing this blog I was interrupted twice. The first is the classic excuse that he busts out every night. He comes out of his room holding his head saying "ow..ow..OW...I bumped my head" and basically the story goes that he bumped his head on the side of the bed. The second time he came out was because his duck "Simmie" had caught "Kitty" by the tail and he wanted to show me. I'm sure before the night is over he'll be back to ask me to fix his blankets. Although at times it's annoying after a long day for the most part I think both Peter and I crack a smile every time we hear that door open.

Potty Training - smooth...smooth...SMOOTH - I can hardly believe it. We started at the end of August and it's November and I would say within the first few weeks we were 95% trained and since there we are 100% trained during the day and we just need to figure out the naps and nigh time. I swear most days he wakes up completely dry. As far as potty training is concerned I would have to say our experience was no big deal!

Now the funny part is that Cooper is beginning to demand "privacy" when he goes (something he hears from me) so now he goes into the bathroom on his own...shuts the door and does his thing...or so we think!

So much spirit - Cooper really likes to get behind and idea. Whether is Halloween, Christmas, or cheering Daddy on at a basketball game (Go Highlanders) he's really energetic and excited about life and it's such a joy to see. Halloween was so much fun this year. He love seeing all the decorations in the neighborhood and was so amped up about trick-or-treating. We borrowed a Dragon costume from my friend Kate and I swear he would have worn that thing everyday he loved it so much. It was so sweet to watch.

Funny stories:

• When I was upset with Cooper for not listening and had to put him in time-out, when the ordeal was over he said "are you happy now mom?" to which I said "are you going to listen to me?" to which he said "uh huh" and then he grabbed my face and kissed me and said "I love you mom"
• When we went to Walmart to do some shopping, Cooper spotted a Lightening McQueen pillow and he asked to hold it. In a moment of weakness I said yes. All through the store he kept talking to Lightening saying things like "you want to come home with me Lightening?" - he's now a permanant part of our stuffed animal collection!
• At bed time Cooper started asking to "say God" which means he wants to pray. He says grace which is the prayer he learned at Betty's - "God is great...God is good...thank you for this lovely food" and then I say "God bless..." and he names all of the people he wants to pray for - "Mommy...Daddy...Nan & Gramps etc." and the other night "Santa Claus" - now that's smart thinking!

I could go on...bottom line - I love him so much! I'm the luckiest Mommy to have such a great little boy!

Summer vacation part 2

So after a couple of days of rest we hit the road again to go visit Nan and Gramps at their place in Port Lambton. The new addition to the house makes visiting even better because Cooper has his own space and he loves it.

It was great to be home - we hung out, went for a ride on the sea-doo, and had a great visit. Cooper loves visiting his Nan and Gramp's place! Unfortunately Cooper ended up getting sick when we were there. He had a pretty high fever and he was really out of sorts. We kept him medicated for a couple of days and eventually his fever subsided. I worry so much about fevers! When his fever passed he became congested and basically suffered (not really ) with a head cold for a couple of days.

Luckily he wasn't too sickto head out on our next part of vacation. After a party at Mom and Dad's with all of our Primeau relatives, we hit the road and spent the night in our own beds before heading to the cottage in Wiarton. This is our 4th visit to the Denomme's cottage and it's really a special place for us now. I really reflect on how much Cooper has grown in a year when we visit the cottage because I always remember what he was like the year before. Each visit with Cooper has been fun but I have to say this year was the best yet!

We spent our days at the beach - Peter found a wonderful beach about 30 minutes from the cottage. It was sandy and shallow and not too crowded and we loved being there. The rest of our time we spent hanging out around the cottage. Peter and Cooper went on several frog hunts (I wasn't so keen for this activity!) and overall we had a really awesome and relaxing time!

It was a busy but awesome vacation. Cooper is so much fun and such a great traveller. We're really lucky that he goes with the flow on our adventures!

Where has the summer gone???

The mornings are definitely more fall-like than summery. I had to put Cooper in jeans this morning and have begun to sort through his fall clothing and even put away some of his summer stuff. This is always a bit of a sad task because I know that he's not likely to fit into most of these things next summer and each year the shirts get less itsy and the shorts get less bitsy...sad!

What a summer we had though! I had almost 3 weeks of holidays and we made the most of them. I think we also lucked out with the weather and had maybe the warmest days of the summer for our vacation.

Our first stop was Grand Bend to the Oakwood in to hang out with Nan and Gramps and get in some beach-time. We were booked into one of the cabins at the resort and it was interesting sharing a room with Cooper. I was so worried about how this would work logistically that I totally flaked out on packing the most essential item for a good night's sleep - Kitty! Yes our fears became a reality when we unpacked (we had everything else including the kitchen sink!) only to find that Kitty was not amongst our stuff. Luckily we did have "fat kitty" which is the back-up kitty...as well as some other key nighttime buddies. I decided to be upfront with Coop and tell him that we made a mistake and that Kitty was a home having "her own vacation" each night before bed we called her to say good night. It was super cute. He also called her during the day - I just let him call whenever he missed her and overall we made it through ok. Our time in Grand Bend was awesome and a great way to kick off the vacation!

Next stop - Burlington. Peter was invited to his 10-year reunion for teacher's college. We all headed to his friend Shelley's place (after a kick pit-stop in Waterloo to unpack, re-pack and grab Kitty!) The party was nice but Cooper was tired so we headed to our hotel early and he and I kicked back and enjoyed hotel life for the evening. We rode the elevator, scoped out the lobby, bought supplies in the gift shop, and then spent the better part of the night running up and down our hallway playing hide and seek. Fun! In the morning we hit the pool while daddy slept and then we all piled in the van for our next destination - The Twin Valley Zoo in Brantford.

I had scoped out the Zoo online and had talked to a co-worker about it. I think we were the first in the parking lot and we ended up having a great time. It's a super little zoo - the perfect size for a toddler. We saw lemurs, lions, tigers, bears, camels, reptiles...admission included a pony ride for Cooper. The critter show at noon was also a hit and overall we had such a great time there.

Phew - after all that driving it was nice to get home to Waterloo for a couple of days of rest and laundry. Then we re-packed for the next part of our 2009 summer holidays.

This funny little person

We seem to have this funny little person in our lives. He's not just a poop machine anymore - as a matter of fact I have found myself in many conversations with my little man. Today we talked about eating apples "you take big bites and little bites" and at dinner he told me that he had too much cheese in his mouth and he might choke.

When Peter came home from helping his parents move, he was understandably sweaty. When Cooper was giving him a hug he pulled back and said "Daddy you're stinky...need a shower" - That's my boy!

I don't know when it happened but somewhere in the past few months Cooper has transformed from our baby boy to a little boy - and he's becoming great company. He's sweet, silly, and a lot of fun - I can't believe how lucky we are!

The amazing Cooper...

There's a couple of things that have happened recently that I don't want to forget. Cooper is getting so great with his talking - he speaks in full sentences and is really a great little communicators. Here's a couple of cute things he's said recently:

1) I got my haircut the other day and when Cooper noticed it he said "Mommy has beautiful hair" - how awesome is that?

2) Tonight we had pizza for dinner and he said "I LOVE Pizza!!!" followed by "It makes me happy!"

He also loves to sing and is constantly singing songs. Reading is also a favourite pastime of his and he can often recite full sentences from memory. He also really loves to "skype" with Nan and Gramps. The other night I said "Cooper do you want to go call Nan and Gramps on the computer?" to which he replied "You push the green button" which is exactly what you do when you make a skype call.

He's amazing!

Pooping on the potty

It was an exciting day today. Cooper was in the bathtub and said that he had to go pee. He was pretty insistent so I got him out of the tub and dried him off so he could sit on the potty. Now we aren't officially potty training so sometimes he'll go pee on the potty and sometimes he won't but pooping on the potty is a territory that we haven't even crossed into yet.

The little trooper (or should I say "pooper") sat on that potty shivering away. I kept wrapping him in his towel but it obstructed his view of the action so he shrugged it off. After several minutes of waiting, grunting, and singing B-I-N-G-O I heard a noise and although Cooper announced "I'm peeing" it just didn't sound like peeing to me and it definitely didn't smell like pee to me.

So I said to Cooper "honey - I think you just went poop" and encouraged him to stand up and have a look. The expression of shock mixed with confusion on his face was priceless. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he had just made that.

So we celebrated in a large way with lots of praise and stickers. Cooper seemed to be quite proud of himself. We did a ceremonial flush as well which I think he liked most of all.

Tomorrow will be a new day - and we still have many diapers in our future but we do seem to be heading in the right direction. It's just amazing how quickly he is growing up and a good reminder to pay attention and really embrace these precious little moments. How often does one get to celebrate a poop? These are special days!

Blessings

I've started night time prayers with Cooper. He has a stuffed animal that's a bunny and when you squeeze its tummy it says a prayer. At first we'd have the bunny say the prayer and now I'm trying to get him to say it with me. The prayer that we use is:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Angels watch me through the night, and keep me in their blessed sight. Amen"

Once we finish the prayer I say "God bless..." and Cooper will say "Mommy, and Daddy" and then with some coaxing he usually prays for Nan and Gramps, Grandma and Papa, Kitty, Soo Soo, and occasionally Auntie Julie. The other night he went to bed without saying his prayers - likely because he was "being 2" and didn't want to say them and I didn't push it. Anyway about 30 minutes after I had put him down he started crying for me. I went in and he wanted to say his prayers.

There's a lot going on in that little head!

Anyways - saying prayers really makes me think about what I'm thankful for and especially how grateful I am to have Cooper - he's a joy and an amazement to me every day. He brings a light into our lives that I didn't know existed. He makes it all worth while every day!

Easter

OK...so I know it's May but I'm getting caught up if it kills me. It's crazy because I feel like every moment with Cooper is so important and wonderful and I can't imagine how I'll forget things like the cute things he says...and then poof...I forget. Easter was another great event so I'm going to get some memories down here in cyberspace so I don't have to worry about losing them.

Like most experiences with Coop - Easter was a blast this year. We invited Nan and Gramps up to celebrate and had a really wonderful time. Cooper and I made special hats for everyone that we wore during Easter dinner. On Easter morning Cooper was delighted that the Easter Bunny had visited and loved his presents - bubbles, a kite, some sandbox tools, and of course some CANDY!!!

We decided to do an Easter Egg Hunt with Cooper - we weren't sure how it would go but he got SO into it. He loved finding each egg and had so much fun that we hid them again so he could do it all over. He was running around with his little basket and every time he found one he'd yell "I found one!"

We also decided to take Cooper to church for Easter service. He was really good but it was funny because he doesn't really know how to whisper very well and most things he says these days are at top volume so during mass even though he was being really good it's in his nature to talk and it would be a quiet moment or prayer and all of a sudden Cooper would remark at full volume "lots of people Mommy" - it was really cute but half way through I took him to the kids room so we didn't disturb others.

Best of intentions!

I always have the best of intentions to write something and then life just sweeps us away. I want to write about Cooper's birthday and the March Break and Easter...and then we'll be almost caught up.

We had his 2nd birthday party on March 7th (his real b-day is March 8th) which was a Saturday. We had a lot of guests including:

• Mommy and Daddy and Cooper
• Nan and Gramps
• Grandma and Papa
• Uncle Dave, Auntie Danielle, and Owen
• Uncle Kevin, Tari, Lindsay, Caitlin, and Austin
• Aunt Jill, Uncle Rob, Elliot and Wesley
• Auntie Julie, Uncle Tony, Hayley and Jack

Such a great day. We did a "Cars" themed party and it was a hit. Cooper got all sorts of great gifts and a lot of Cars stuff. He was thrilled.

The March Break was also a lot of fun. Daddy and Cooper had the whole week together and went on lots of adventures and also got in some trips to the pool and some runs for Daddy. I took off the Thursday and Friday (which was my 36th birthday) and we went to the Butterfly Conservatory with the Humes. It was a really nice time and a great way to celebrate my birthday.

Easter was also fun - Nan and Gramps came up for a visit and we had a wonderful Easter dinner at our place - prepared by Peter. Cooper and I made silly Easter hats that we all wore for dinner. Cooper LOVED the Easter Egg Hunt so much that we had to re-hide the eggs so that he could do it again. He's such a joy for us all!

Life is whipping by us at light-speed and I keep thinking that I need to sit down and write some of this stuff down before I forget. Life gets busy I guess...not a great excuse. Chalk it up to another reason to feel "mother's guilt" - not recording every precious second of Cooper's life!

Let me start back in December...Christmas and talk about some of the great things that happened over the holidays.

We bought an artificial tree at X-S Cargo and put it up on December 1st. Outdoor lights went up around the same time. We also bought a giant inflatable snowman for Cooper to enjoy. He could see the snowman out his window and every night we'd say "good night" to the snowman before we went to sleep. So cute. Cooper says "no man" instead of snow man.

We started playing Christmas music at the beginning of December and pretty much had some form of Christmas music on throughout the month of December. Cooper took a real liking to Frank Sinatra's "Jingle Bells" and we would have to play it over and over and over for him. He really loves music and within a few times of hearing a song he can recognize it "reindeer song" or "frosty" but overall Jingle Bells was his favourite.

Cooper met Santa at the SJAM Christmas party. Santa was played by Peter (because the real Santa was a the North Pole making Christmas toys) but Cooper bought into the excitement and had no idea that he was sitting on Daddy's knee - too cute. He really enjoyed all things Christmas and was fascinated by the lights, decorations, and presents. He was SO good around the Christmas tree and we had no real mishaps with him.

Christmas was great - Nan and Gramps stayed with us which was a lot of fun. Santa brought a lot of great toys and Cooper was so excited. He skipped around all morning doing a little "elf dance" whenever a new present was brought out. It didn't matter who's present it was...he was excited.

Christmas day was jam-packed - morning with Nan and Gramps - Brunch with the Kalbfleisch's at Kevin and Tari's and then off to Toronto for Christmas dinner with Elliot, Wesley, Jill, and Rob. A tiring but overall great day.

Boxing day was spent celebrating with the Primeau's at Aunt Elaine and Uncle Neil's place in St. Mary's.

Some of the gifts Cooper received:

• Talking Elmo from Nan and Gramps
• Ride-on excavator from Grandma and Papa
• Remote control Garbage truck
• Mini Tonka toys and an activity mat from Mommy and Daddy
• the list goes on and on and on...

Cooper got a cold over the holidays but overall he was ok. New Year's was spent at the Humes. There were as many kids as grown ups. Cooper and I left around 8:00pm to get home for bed. We drove around the neighborhood and looked at some Christmas lights before going home...a really nice moment for Cooper and Mommy. I was in bed before midnight and asleep - Peter had to wake me up to wish me a Happy New Year. Times have changed!

So that's December in a nut shell - I write more and hopefully get caught up to March before Cooper's big birthday this weekend! I can't believe he'll be 2 soon. Time is flying by. Our little boy is SO amazing!