Swimming lessons

Tonight was Cooper's last night of swimming lessons and he passed his class! While the season didn't start out very smoothly, by the end he was a pro! This was the first class where I didn't have to go in the water with him so the first class was kind of a disaster, including me getting into the water when I wasn't supposed to because we were running late. By the second class he was much better and I only had to give him a couple of the "I mean business" looks. Towards the end of his class while he was waiting for his turn to swim with the instructor he would catch my eye, wave and say "Hi mommy!" it was so cute!

Even though he passed this class we are going to take a break from swimming lessons and switch to sports. He starts his first tiny tot sports class on the 9th and it should be interesting, they will play basketball, soccer, t-ball and floor hockey. He loves playing basketball and soccer and even asks me to be the coach when he is playing with Rob but the thought of a group of 3-4 year olds running around with floor hockey sticks makes me nervous. I am sure I will have some interesting posts in the next couple weeks from his class.

Cooper's costume

This year for Cooper's costume I did something different than my normal run to a store and pick up a costume. When ever we asked Cooper what he wanted to be for Halloween we would get various answers, everything from astronaut to police officer to Buzz Lightyear. Finally he stuck on being a football player and would tell us to stop asking him. Since we are huge Vikings fans Rob and I were pretty excited, until I started looking into buying a costume.. They were incredibly expensive so I decided to try put one together. Thankfully I have an amazing shopper of a sister who was able to find a Vikings helmet for $7.00! Since Cooper already has an Adrian Peterson jersey all we needed was some football pants, which didn't sound to hard to find - wrong! Finally I decided to get a little creative. I bought a pair of baseball pants and decided to add some purple and gold to them. So off Cooper and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to get some supplies. If you have never been in one of these stores they can be pretty overwhelming especially with a three year old in tow. I found the purple fabric and while discussing my plan with the amazingly helpful employee decided to change my plan a little bit. Once I gathered all the remaining materials and some additional fun art project stuff we headed home. I grabbed the ironing board and iron and started working. I didn't get too far before realizing it would be much easier with my sewing machine. I dusted off my sewing machine that hasn't seen the light of day since right after I graduated high school and was amazed at how quickly it all came back to me! Thank goodness for those home economics classes I took all those years ago. For my first attempt at putting together a costume from scratch I think I did a pretty good job, what do you think?

Week of sporting events

This has definitely been the week of sporting events for us. Rob and I went to the Vikings game on Sunday and were finally at a football game where the team won! It's been a long Gopher football season, especially when we have season tickets.


Tuesday we took Cooper to his first Timberwolves game. He has been very interested in mascots at other sporting events we have taken him to, so in preparation before the game we told him about Crunch and he was so excited. When we were standing in line to get into the Target center there were some cheerleaders talking with people as they were standing in line. When we got up to her Cooper turned really shy and kept hiding behind one of us. He wouldn't even give her five - which is his normal ice breaker. We found our way to our seats and for the first half all we heard about was the cheerleaders. "Where are they?" "Why are they hiding?" "I want to go talk to them!" and so on. As we were talking about leaving I glanced over and saw Crunch two sections away from our seats. We grabbed our stuff and quickly headed over there. Cooper got to give Crunch a high five (with Rob's help), get a Crunch tattoo and get his picture taken with him.


After meeting Crunch I thought he had forgotten about the cheerleaders but as we were leaving he wanted to go see if he could find the cheerleaders.


Last night we went to Rob's alma matter Wayzata High school with Andy and Harrison Watt to watch a conference championship game between Wayzata and Eden Prairie. Once again we left around half time but Wayzata won by one point in overtime!

Viroqua

We went to Viroqua this weekend to visit Di, Roger and Grandma Charlene and had an amazing time as always. Cooper was so excited when we told him that we were going he decided he wanted to get some treats for the horses. First thing Saturday morning when he got up he wanted to feed the horses his treats and he was so proud that he picked them out himself. After giving the horses half the bag of treats it was time to ride moon. He had the biggest smile on his face and he was so excited to show Great Grandma what a big boy he was.

Then Di and Rog surprised us with a pumpkin hunt! They had some pumpkins growing in one of their fields that they didn't plant. It was fun walking through their pastures and enjoying all the beautiful scenery.

We convinced Cooper to climb on one of the hay bales in the field and he had a blast jumping off into Rob's arms. The kid is seriously fearless!

For lunch Di and Rog took us to this little pizza place called the Blue Goose. If you are ever in Vernon County Wisconsin I highly recommend taking the drive, the pizza was amazing! Plus as an added bonus they had miniature horses and goats to feed.

Sunday we were treated to Grandma's cooking, which we all enjoyed. Then sadly it was time to go home. We took the "scenic" way home and drove along the river and through Red Wing. The fall colors had some what peaked already but it made a long ride home a little more enjoyable.

3 year check up

Today I took Cooper to his three year well child visit and I was so proud of my little man! I had no idea what to expect from this appointment besides the normal things they have done in the past. This appointment was different. They took his blood pressure and did a vision test before the doctor came in. We have worked on matching items at home a little bit but I was so impressed that he could point out the different letters on the sheet he was holding to the one the nurse pointed to on the wall. Then when his doctor came in she asked him questions that she hadn't asked before. Here are some examples of the questions she asked and his responses:

D: What do you do when you are cold?
C: Put on a jacket
D: What do you do when you are tired?
C: I have a big bear in my room (okay this wasn't answered correctly but it was sure cute!)
D: What do you use a pen for:
C: drawing
D: What do you use a cup for:
C: Chocolate Milk

Then it was time for the physical exam and he climbed up on to the exam table and listened to her and did exactly what she wanted, I was so proud!

On a more negative note we did talk about his potential asthma issues again and thankfully she is a reluctant as I am to call it asthma. Cooper has had a cough and runny nose since his birthday party so we discussed that and she did hear some wheezing in his lungs. We are now on our second round of antibiotics and doing the nebulizer treatments twice a day again. I let Cooper pick the flavor of his medicine and he choose bubble gum. The first time I gave it to him he looked at me and said "Yum this is good!" Now we have to fight or bride him to get him to take it, I hope we don't need the refill.

Duluth

We decided to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and take a day trip to Duluth. We started at the Lake Superior zoo and had a great time. They have a small stream and waterfall and we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and captured some family pictures. Since I am the one who normally has the camera I don't have many pictures of Cooper and I. So starting out I told Rob that was his goal was to get some good pictures of Cooper and I and he did a great job! I think he is starting to enjoy my new camera as much as I am. Here are some of my favorite pictures Rob took:

Now some that I took:

If we were having a contest I think he would have won. After the zoo we went to Canal park to have lunch at Grandma's and then walk around. We were lucky enough to be there when a large ship was coming through so Cooper could see that. He didn't seem as impressed as I thought he would be but he loved throwing rocks into Lake Superior.