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.